Comments on: Seeds of Trust

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:33:09 +0000

I don’t really know authoritative answers to your questions, qasabah.

I have no idea about the Canada/USA thing. Both, maybe?

The White Wolf thing — that’s all about the “fair use” principle of law, but that’s as much as I can tell you.

Margins-wise, are you talking about physical on the page margins or the idea of pricing margins? With Lulu, I tended to give a 1″ internal margin, and at least a .5″-.75″ outer/top/bottom margin. You need to give a fatter inner margin in order to account for the part of the page that will fold and curve into the binding.

By: Franck

Franck — Mon, 03 May 2010 18:42:58 +0000

I’ve preordered the books last Friday from one of the 40-something companies listed on that post and I’ve provided the information to some shops in France in case they would be interested. Hope you get some orders from there, I know a few fans of the adventures of Harry down there.

I really want to congratulate you for this operation, this is just awesome. Even if I’m sure that some people WILL take advantage of the system, I’m happy that so far things are doing great. And I must say that the PDF are gorgeaous, I can’t wait to have the final books!!!!

A french fan in Charlotte, NC

By: qasabah

qasabah — Mon, 03 May 2010 17:13:40 +0000

Thanks again for the tip re: OGL’s. I have a couple of other questions I can’t find a yes/no to.

I live in Canada but would probably have my game published by Lulu which seems to be in America. Which countries laws (relating to publishing) do I need to observe?

White Wolf used to begin each section with a movie/music quote which I am not planning to recreate however there may be a situation where it is appropriate. I am quite familiar with scientific writing and understand the citing rules for that, however, in fiction is simply attributing the source of a line in the text all that is required?

I have read about people having trouble with the final product they recieve from Lulu in terms of margins. Do you have any advice about setting margins.

By: Mike Lafferty

Mike Lafferty — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:08:54 +0000

I’ve heard guys talking about this for years now.
It’s nice/refreshing to finally see someone actually finding a way to try it.

By: qasabah

qasabah — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 19:35:50 +0000

Thanks. I shall refine my search and my question; hopefully to nothing.

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:41:41 +0000

I think what you’re asking for really is “how do I tell what the product identity is”? The neat thing is that any product that uses an OGL has to make a declaration, right at the end of their instance of the license, what the product identity (i.e., closed-off content) *is*. So go find the materials you’re basing your game off of, and read that. That’s your starting point.

By: qasabah

qasabah — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:12:08 +0000

I’ve just finished listening to your interview on Fear the Boot and was inspired to to dust off my own attempt at publishing an RPG.
I’ve done some research but from your work your strength (amongst others) is explaining a mechanic. I don’t full understand how the OGL applies to Fudge(FUDGE) and FATE (have you dropped the acronym too?).
I intend to use a +/- dice system for conflict resolution which I understand I can do as they are just dice, however, what other pieces are “open”?
This would obviously require a massive answer so perhaps you could manage a yes/no to the simpler question: when something is open is the only protected material the specific setting related material?

By: Jason Pitre

Jason Pitre — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 01:01:04 +0000

First things first, thank you very much for the details and list provided. I had been wondering how a broad distribution tool like Dropbox could be used so effectively, not realizing you would be using the FLGS’s as intermediaries. That is quite logical and a positive move for the health of the ecosystem.

I wish that I could offer you a Canadian connection myself, but unfortunately the FLGS in Ottawa is somewhat…. behind in a few ways. Think grizzled greybeard as opposed to modern new-school gamer.

Thanks, if only for providing a handy shortlist.

By: Carl Rigney

Carl Rigney — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:11:35 +0000

Thanks for going into so much detail on the process; that was really fascinating. (And the instant availability of the PDF on CD convinced me to pre-order one of the 12 sets Endgame sold at their April 3 minicon, its first day of availability.)

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:41:10 +0000

Yeah. The trick in all of this is to do it as simply as possible and giving the retailer the feeling they’re both valued by the publisher and in control of the relationship with their customer.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:38:33 +0000

“I’d rather have 47 motivated retailers giving me modest but worldwide coverage than 2500 unmotivated retailers wondering why this isn’t as easy to do as selling Magic: The Gathering cards back in the 1990s.”

Amen to that.

OK, I get what you’re saying — and I admit that the process is much less involved than I was assuming. (I was expecting that you were setting up dedicated delivery sites, etc. Dropbox is an elegant solution.)

By: wraith808

wraith808 — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:15:35 +0000

Another option you might want to look into is SugarSync. I too used DropBox extensively, and for a while. Then I heard about SugarSync on the AppSlappy podcast. It lets you share and sync arbitrary folders instead of just your My Dropbox folder. It also has quite a few other features over DropBox, and a lower price across the board. You might wonder why look into it if DropBox works- I thought the same for a while (they plugged the service almost a year ago). But now using SugarSync, I wonder why I didn’t try it earlier.

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:00:26 +0000

I provide the referral code some of the time, yes. I maxed out really quick — and then upgraded to the lowest-level paid account. I use the service so much, not just for this program, that it’s really proven to be worth it, particularly with my art direction and layout work.

By: Lugh

Lugh — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:55:26 +0000

Out of curiosity, do you send a Dropbox invite along with the instructions? Do the rewards for the invites help defray the cost of maintaining your account to any significant amount?

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:34:58 +0000

Endgame’s often something of a high-water mark, but consider: to date, same timeframe, they’ve taken in around 20 or so pre-orders for sets of the two books. And last I checked in with Roland from Sphaerenmeisters — which admittedly also has an online-order component — they’d presold around 50 sets over there in Germany. Motivation moves books.

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:24:27 +0000

Yes, please try to convince some stores north of the border! I’ve really wanted to get some Canadian stores on the program, but the traction hasn’t been found.

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:23:52 +0000

It’s about baby steps and it’s about motivation. It’s also taken all of three weeks, as I noted.

Many retailers aren’t “plugged in”, and aren’t motivated to be plugged in. That’s a problem when it comes to staying on top of what’s out there. Many simply select a very narrow window on the business and treat it like the whole view: what can I get from the two distributors I’ve already got a deal with?

Contrast this with a highly motivated retailer like Endgame or any of a number of other examples from the above list. They’re giving their customers the best kind of customer service and they’re building strong communities of play around their support of those customers.

Those are the ones I’d want to partner with anyway, and I suspect they’re also the ones most likely to survive economic turmoil. When it comes down to it, I’d rather have 47 motivated retailers giving me modest but worldwide coverage than 2500 unmotivated retailers wondering why this isn’t as easy to do as selling Magic: The Gathering cards back in the 1990s.

By: walkerp

walkerp — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:21:49 +0000

Nobody from Canada, eh? Not too surprising. I’ll give it a try at our LGS (Valet de Coeur; who are on board with IPR), but they always seem a bit disconnected from the RPG side of things.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:16:20 +0000

Do you find that the reach of the program (40-odd retailers out of an estimated 2500+ existing at last check) is worth the effort? Or are you viewing it more as a “baby steps” thing, hopefully paying off later?

By: Fred Hicks

Fred Hicks — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:07:35 +0000

That’s hard to gauge. There is a handful of stores which have gotten the instructions from me but haven’t proceeded. Is that due to limitations on how technical they are, or due to being busy, or due to a lack of interest? I can imagine all three as explanations for the silence, but since it’s silence, it’s just speculation. I haven’t had anyone who has responded to the instructions saying “this is too hard!”

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:05:31 +0000

Have you found that some store are more technically savvy than others. Has that impacted your ability to implement this benefit?