What is your view of EN Publishing?

[DM Howard]

This comes from someone who hasn't yet subscribed to En World (I most assuredly will in the future when I'm done being a poor college student.)

That being said I feel like En Publishing keeps the community in the dark a little bit too much. I don't often see many updates on material that is in production and don't feel a lot of community involvement from the EN side of the table. Now take that and understand that I'd rather you be working on your outstanding APs than lurking the site but its just how it seems to me.

I have friends who have run the WotBS AP for my group and I'll say that it was fantastic. If you continue to put forth quality products you'll continue to have my vote, and subscription when the chance presents itself.

 

[Connorsrpg]

Well, this thread had me clicking on the 'Shop' for the very first time. I hadn't noticed it before or at least thought to look there.

Nice page. I have simply gone to Subscriber Content. Probably wouldn't have checked this stuff out if I wasn't a subscriber? I downloaded some of the APs, but have only read the Zeitgeist Player's guide. Love it. I also like that you are doing it in 2 systems. I play either.

I did find the homepage for Zeitgeist a little hard to navigate - I assume all the names on the page are the actual adventures?

 

[RangerWickett]

Good suggestion, Dice 4 Hire. Here's an update.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/en-publishing/315790-status-adventure-3-digging-lies.html#post5761761

 

[Dark Mistress]

I will echo what many of the others have said. Lack of information, lack of news to let me know more about the products and why I should buy them.

To be fair I only buy Pathfinder stuff, I play 4e now and again but not enough for me to buy stuff for it. So I really didn't pay attention at all to what you guys was doing until you announced Zeitgeist would be done for PFRPG as well. Since the free preview thingy, there really hasn't been any more information. Least anywhere that I have seen, beyond the product blurbs.

So as it stands now for me, i look at Zeitgeist and go. Yeah that might be cool but I would like to know more about it. Give me reasons to want it. While I have other publishers hyping their products and making me want them but dropping tidbits about them. So my focus tends to look that way.

Now to be fair dropping tidbits can backfire as it might make people decided it doesn't sound like what they want. I know sometimes the more i hear about a product the less I am interested in it. Most of the time though it is the other way around.

I would also say you need to spread the word. Post in more places and post actively, even if it is just to say sorry no more news yet. Just engage the fans and keep them interested. A pet peeve of mine is companies that run silent. It annoys me to be left in the dark, eventually I stop checking on such products. Then eventually forget about them as something else of interest catches my eye.

I would also say if you guys are running behind schedule that maybe in the future you should have more of it written before you start selling it. I am sure it would be annoying to start a AP only to get stalled cause the AP is slow in coming out. That is why with Paizo AP's or anyones I personally won't run them now until they are all out. But some people like to jump on them when they first come out.

Anyways it is late and I am tired and likely rambling. So that's my feedback for now.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Apologies, but it seems there was more out there than I was aware of.

Dice4hire.

 

[GreyLord]

My thoughts would be a more transparent transaction system. Which CC's do you accept, what forms of payment, and how secure is the entire thing. Is there a way to get Hardcopy beyond the user printing it out, which credit companies do you use, how long is information stored, contact information for troubleshooting problems...and such.

I think the information that is given is fine, and in some instances fun and interesting. More of it would be nice.

I like the branching for Pathfinder and 4e.

 

[RangerWickett]

I definitely agree that we would be well served if the E.N. Pub home page had the three links for the different adventure paths along the side of the page, and a main column that explains stuff like, "We sell {products}. You can get them in PDF form via subscription (link to details), or buy individually in PDF (link) or hardcopy (link)."

The print-on-demand versions of the ZEITGEIST books out so far look gorgeous, in my opinion.

And we should definitely have at least weekly news updates. Which gives me impetus to come up with at least small teasers to share each week.

On the topic of scheduling, from the beginning we said that our plan was to release one ZEITGEIST adventure every 3 months. We knew that shooting for monthly with WotBS burnt us out, and we figured surely with 3 months we'll never fall behind schedule. Then two separate artists for adventure 2 just stopped responding to emails, so we decided to push back the release a few weeks so we could actually have enough illustrations. We're getting back to the original schedule with #3.

(By the way, Claudio Pozas has been amazingly helpful and reliable. As has our other primary artist ShenFei, though he doesn't post here.)

I suppose I should pay more attention to the Paizo blog. They of course have way more products coming out than we do, so we wouldn't post as often as they do. But they manage to tease their adventures without spoiling the plots.

And apparently we should do a Spanish language version: http://www.derol.com.ar/foro/viewtopic.php?t=20535


Thanks for all the feedback so far.

 

[jonesy]

Generally I consider ENpublishing in the niche above Goodman, but not quite up to Necromancer/Green Ronin/Open Design.

I consider EN around the level of Monkeygod (back in the day)

Monkeygod. I remember them fondly. Also high praise quality-wise. But they had very few products and I think they only lasted two years in the business.

All the King's Men was the funniest murder mystery adventure I ever ran. Pure quality. If you get a chance to get your hands on it, get it.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

It was meant to be high praise.

Some of my favorite adventures are from Monkeygod.



I compared EN to green ronin/necromancer/open design because I buy their adventures sight unseen. "Oh an OD adventure I don't have?" *Plops down money*. ENpublishing and Monkeygod are of the level that everything I've bought I've loved, but I'm a bit more careful about what I buy.

In the end, I want it to be easy to find and purchase print copies of ENworld's stuff. I'd like a nice simple store similar to what some other small publishers have (FrogGod, Open Design, Green Ronin, etc etc). When I click on "shop" here, I'm directed to a bunch of pdf downloads for sale.

Like with Monkeygod, I feel as though I often have to do research in order to figure out what the product catalog even is. It's usually rewarding when I do, but it's work. You don't want customers to have to work to find your products.

Plus, to again be somewhat brutally honest, the "shop" page is less than stellar (format, cutoff words, etc.).

 

[IronWolf]

EN Publishing seemed to have much more of a presence back in the 3.x days. I know the APs are available and I am glad to see support for the Pathfinder system. Definitely more publicity would help though. I think the key is you want *other* people talking about EN Publishing. Granted that can be tricky, but product reviews, encouraging players of the campaign to post to their blogs and such are all good ways. More folks on twitter mentioning it can help, but again, getting folks to do that is the hard part.

Delays in Zetigeist probably doesn't help keep the momentum that one needs to keep a active social media type presence.

I also wouldn't mind seeing some supplements released to support Pathfinder like was done in the 3.x days. Even possibly updating a few of the old best sellers to Pathfinder would be cool.

Overall though, I have positive thoughts about EN Publishing.