We need your advice please :)

[Najo]

For the last Four and a half years, myself and a small team of co-workers have been designing a fantasy setting as an intellectual property. Originally, our intentions were to develop the property as a d20 third-party publication with a high art budget, then move out into other tie-in products. We wanted to offer a product with valuable game material, intriguing stories, characters and a well-developed world. Currently the property is heavily developed, and most of the work on the setting finished, with it just really needing some polish here and there. Likewise, a large portion of the game material is finished, though still needs a good round of going through.

We are about a year and half to two years from publishing, and recently we had a radical idea to finish our development in public on a website. We figure this could help us build our name, get an extensive amount of feedback and playtesting, and bring us into contact with other talented individuals whom we could collaborate with.

We want to legally protect our intellectual property, and we want to build something of value and entertainment that can be liscensed into other products, without hurting the future of this property or any surprises within it. But the possibilities of getting input and talent from the online D&D community is very intriguing.


What I want to know, what would be the pros and cons if we opened our beta design work to the D&D public as a whole?

 

[Mark CMG]

Edit your post and put the words "Paging dannyalcatraz" in the subject line of the thread. He might be willing to steer you in the right direction (as an IP/entertainment attorney).

Good luck!

 

[jaerdaph]

You might want to contact the creators of the Nyambe and Northern Crown, both settings now published by Atlas Games (http://www.atlas-games.com) about their experiences. They both published to the Web first and were later picked up by Atlas. (Northern Crown was originally called Septentrionalis).

http://www.catspawcomics.com/sept/sept.html

http://www.nyambe.com

 

[Jdvn1]

I just wanted to say good luck.

Good luck!

 

[Land Outcast]

same as Jdvn1... good luck!

 

[Nyaricus]

Sounds cool man Hope you can get a foot in the door

 

[Najo]

Thank you for all the encourging words so far, so what do you guys think are the pros and cons to us going public with beta?

 

[Fat Daddy]

Pros:
Wide variety of playtesters
Great chance to contact talent for collaboration

Cons:
How to protect your IP?

Personally I think a good route to go would be to post in public that you are looking for playtesters (hey you already did that) and to have them contact you via email. Then you could email an intellectual property agreement for them to sign and get back to you. Once you receive that, email them the beta copy. And give them guidelines for specifics that you are looking for in the playtesting.

I did some playtesting for Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds and this is how they did it.

Alternatively post the beta on a password secured website and email the access password once you receive the IPA.

However it goes, I wish you the best of luck and look forward to seeing the product (or helping with the playtesting.)

 

[Najo]

One of the primary concerns would be if we made everything public and then grouped the final product with good graphic design and artwork, would customers still purchase a hardbound book?

On one hand, most or all of the game materials would be available on-line. This would give us great playtesting and feedback, but offers very little incentive(other than owning a physical book) to purchase the book for game materials.

On the other hand, the product and game materials being revealed this way and involving the public in the last stages of its development could be really good for it, bringing in a grassroots fan base. Also, IP is protected by being copyrighted and published on the website, and OGL materials handled under the OGL/ D20 liscense.

I just want to make sure there are no other pros or cons that I am missing.

 

[Land Outcast]

Pros:
well, playstating (remember that this also includes critiques, which is quite good.... errata bfore publishing!), advertising (duh! Highly important if you don't have publishing history), buy-ready customers.

Cons:
IP... that's all?...