When to start publishing?

[Morrus]

Although I don't fear that "not being D&D" is something that will cause any problems.

Not at all! There are many thousands of TTRPGs out there which are not D&D. You'll be in excellent company!

 

[Andrew Gronosky]

Get this in front of an audience sooner rather than later.

Since you are already planning to publish it under Creative Commons, there is no reason you cannot post the work-in-progress and start collecting feedback.

I have a small point: run the name of your system through a search of the US trademark database. You don't want to get a takedown notice. Naming things is hard.

Once you have a manuscript to share, you can start building a player base and your game can start to grow.

 

[Morrus]

I’d also add—nobody wants to steal your system or your ideas. Ideas are cheap and common; work is hard. Marketing is a billion times more valuable to you than secrecy. Successful ventures have good marketing, not unique ideas.

 

[Deset Gled]

Should I focus on bringing this game to an alpha version that can be published, or does it still sound too vague, making it better to spend a few more years in development before offering it to a wider community?

If you want to start publishing games, the only way to do it is to actually publish a game.

The community will always be wider. Even WotC faces this problem. The only way to get to a wider community it to broaden your publishing, which can't happen until you have a game to start with.

Also, as a little bit of a harsh reality, the odds that your first edition is "the big one" that you are known for is astronomically low. You're going to revise, expand, and improve over time. But none of that process can start until you start publishing.

In conclusion: just go for it.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, I’ve been at it for 25 years. I make a living from it, it’s a good career, but there’s no expectation of explosive success.

 

[Meahuys]

First of all, I would like to thank all of you for your input. Since there are a lot of valuable pointers, I would like to reply to some of your comments.

I have a small point: run the name of your system through a search of the US trademark database. You don't want to get a takedown notice. Naming things is hard.

This is very important! I've already run the name through Google and found nothing similar, and even the US trademark database has no entry for my inquiry. This is very good, as the name is already set in stone for me.

I’d also add—nobody wants to steal your system or your ideas. Ideas are cheap and common; work is hard. Marketing is a billion times more valuable to you than secrecy. Successful ventures have good marketing, not unique ideas.

I would love to have strong marketing and unique ideas that drive this project, but I stay realistic. I just don't have the means to afford all the marketing necessary to make this successful. Therefore, I need to take advantage of any kind of marketing that comes for free. Publishing an alpha version is the first necessary step. Luckily for me, I don't intend to make money from this project, so I can focus on quality.

Also, as a little bit of a harsh reality, the odds that your first edition is "the big one" that you are known for is astronomically low. You're going to revise, expand, and improve over time. But none of that process can start until you start publishing.

Yeah, I’ve been at it for 25 years. I make a living from it, it’s a good career, but there’s no expectation of explosive success.

I don't have any expectations at this point. All I want to do is drive this project towards the vision that already exists in my mind, and I have a lifetime to get there. The only question is: 'How far can I take it?' and not 'How much profit is in it?'

 

[dragoner]

I don't have any expectations at this point. All I want to do is drive this project towards the vision that already exists in my mind, and I have a lifetime to get there. The only question is: 'How far can I take it?' and not 'How much profit is in it?'

Someone was showing me something they were writing today on discord. It was cool, helped a few others, you'll find that we are pretty friendly helpful bunch. I would say to go buy the affinity package if you haven't already, and make a publishers account on drive thru, there you will find templates for creating documents. There is not a lot of profit, I deposited a check today, it will pay a couple of bills. The real payment is when people say your work is fantastic, or has phenomenal world building like I have been told recently. Plus they send pictures:

That feels good.

 

[Morrus]

I would love to have strong marketing and unique ideas that drive this project, but I stay realistic. I just don't have the means to afford all the marketing necessary to make this successful. Therefore, I need to take advantage of any kind of marketing that comes for free. Publishing an alpha version is the first necessary step. Luckily for me, I don't intend to make money from this project, so I can focus on quality.

To be clear, my point wasn't that marketing is good; it was that ideas have no value. I promise you that nobody wants to steal your ideas--they have many of their own. The difficult bit isn't the idea, its the bit that comes after it, and the bit that comes after that.

So... to be even more clear... don't feel you need to be so vague in your posts to the point where nobody understands what you're saying. That's counterproductive--(a) nobody will steal it as they have their own ideas and (b) nobody will like it because they can't understand it.

As a 25-year publisher and TTRPG reporter let me offer one piece of advice: just put it out there, in plain day*. And then offer people a 'pretty' version on Kickstarter. That's it. That's the advice.




*You can do a free quickstart version, or a plain-text-the real-thing-will-be-laid -out-with pics version, or just a series of blog posts which delve into it... but secrecy is your enemy, not your friend. I promise you.

 

[dragoner]

Robert Schwalb said he's put out 30-35 titles this year, that's pretty amazing.

 

[Morrus]

Robert Schwalb said he's put out 30-35 titles this year, that's pretty amazing.

Yeah. The lesson here is: just do it.