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| 2008-07-04 09:33 |
| 4e |
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| 4e |
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4e combat isn't slow. It's time consuming. There's a difference.
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As of 1st July 2008 ProFantasy Software is no longer selling through rpgnow.com and dtrpg.com. Since the increase in percentage that One Book Shelf* took from publishers, I've been carefully monitoring sales and comparing them like for like with our direct sales. I've also compared customer data to see whether there is much cross-over, and whether they are bringing in new customers. Taking into account our own trends and the release dates of products, it's clear that ProFantasy isn't gaining any value from them; there's a downward trend in sales. The final straw was the removal of our Platinum Vendor status - we weren't in the top seven vendors in the quarter. The OBS brand is not strong enough compared with ProFantasy's to warrant what is effect direct competition, when combined with the margin they are taking. They had no suggestions for how matters might be improved, or we might have stuck around another month or so.
Pelgrane Press Ltd will continue to stay with OBS, as their brand brings many more customers than we could acquire directly, and we get lots of impulse buys. I doubt we'll ever make Platinum, but we still do respectably well, with the release of the Trail PDF being our best month.
*One Book Shelf is the merger of both rpgnow.com and dtrpg.com. The merger also introduced a bunch of micromanagement on internal site marketing which inflicted additional work, and promised lots of new features for vendors, some of which have appeared.
PS. One other thing I've noted is that UK and other European ProFantasy customers have been buying from OBS to straightforwardly avoid tax. I can't imagine many UK customers letting Customs and Excise know that they've bought software sans VAT from abroad. I know OBS intended to introduce non-US stores and register properly for VAT, but I haven't seen any progress in that so far. This may be a problem for all online download providers in the RPG and other sectors in future. This put us at a strong competitive disadvantage when we are charging VAT.
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| 2008-06-26 13:51 |
| GSL CharGen |
| Public |
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4e is a pain in the ass without a character generator. The GSL prevents anyone developing a character generator. I suppose there is a slight chance that fan-created versions will be permitted, but it's unlikely. Expecting players to subscribe to the DDI to get character generator is optimistic - it's crying out for a single-payment or free app.
So, what's going to happen? It's not hard to predict. There is a huge demand and it's not that hard to write a char gen for 4e. I suspect that some brave soul might create a character generator which relies on a human-readable data file. A generic version will be included with the character generator, but an SRD version, probably in violation of IP statues will no doubt make an appearance, and will be permanently available. I expect there will also be free spreadsheets and PDFs which do something similar. The PHB and other Wizards books were available even before the launch, so I have no doubt that such software will become available, and people will download and use it without any qualms.
The sensible reaction by Hasbro (I think) would be to release such a char gen as an app, make it a free part of the DDI with the subscription adding bonus features, or simply open it up in the GSL. But, I don't think they'll even consider this until the DDI has been going a good six months.
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Excerpt 1 from the Ordo Veritatis Operations Manual. Expect this post to be removed by the pluggers at any time. Copy and paste, my friends.
Issued by the ECSC.
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The new See Page XX is up. It includes:
- The Trouble With Tasers by Robin D Laws
- The Trail of Cthulhu Theme (Audio) by James Semple
- Cosmic Ordering with Mystic Moo with Paula Dempsey
- See Page XX Interview Series, Number 2 - Luke Crane vs Jason Morningstar
- The Murderer of Thomas Fell a Trail of Cthulhu adventure by William Hindmarch
Edit: People were reporting link problems which should be fixed now.
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| 2008-06-20 19:20 |
| Free RPG Day |
| Public |
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It's Free RPG Day tomorrow. Get a bunch of free rpg adventures, including one from Pelgrane Press. An Trail of Cthulhu adventure called The Murder of Thomas Fell is available from Pelgrane Press. Supplies are limited, so grab it while you can.
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One caption in the Trail of Cthulhu caption competition is a clear winner, with 52% of the vote. The other three share the rest of the vote evenly.
And the winning caption is:
"Too distracted by the theatrics on stage, the audience failed to see the thing rising out of what they thought was a painted lake."
The winner has been notified.
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For Shadows Over Filmland, a new Trail of Cthulhu adventure series, Jee is working on a silver screen style with spooky lighting and dry ice. Here's an example from his blog:
Edit: As Robin points out in the comments, I mis-titled this. I'll save the "GSL Goodness" for another day.
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Now for the second stage of the caption competition to win the leather bound Trail of Cthulhu. Vote for the caption you think is best. Voting closes Friday 20th June when I arrive at work.
Caption 1:
The Live Action edition of Mousetrap had one or two early teething problems.
Caption 2:
Linling sighed, as she sat thinking to herself;
"Always the bridesmaid, never the executioner".
Caption 3:
Too distracted by the theatrics on stage, the audience failed to see the thing rising out of what they thought was a painted lake.
Caption 4:
Nyarlathotep's marriage guidance service gets its first clients.
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Advanced copies of the second print run of Trail of Cthulhu arrived today. There are a couple of very minor typos corrected (three pages was all we could get away with and still have the book out in time), and Leonard Balsera is now in the credits for some excellent suggestions he made outside the normal channels. He wept so much when he saw we'd neglected him in the first print run you'd have thought I'd stolen his Barbie.
In addition, I have some of these:
I'll do the second stage of the leather bound competition tomorrow. There'll be a couple of others available through various channels between now and GenCon. We'll sell some there, sell some more online, and then the last few at Dragonmeet in December.
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Here is a long interview with Robin about Mutant City Blues and GUMSHOE in general on Master Plan.
Robin also discusses how he uses CC3 to create and edit the Quade diagram.
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Here is the second batch of original playtest feedback for our first in-house Mutant City Blues session. Please bear in mind It was never intended for publication, and was written to the designer ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) robin_d_laws. Comments which offer explanation to you, gentle commenter, are like this [comment]
( Playtest report with spoilers and mild invective )
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Here is the first batch of original playtest feedback for our first in-house MCB session. It may contain spoilers for a forthcoming adventure, if I ever get round to writing it up.
( Playtest report with possible spoilers )
If you want to read part two, let me know!
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We've got a new Trail of Cthulhu supplement - Shadows over Filmland - to playtest. Think Gothic films and monster movies meet HPL. We got seven short scenarios to test, as well as an intro and roleplaying guide for the setting. If you are interested, please send an email to simon@dyingearth.com, subject "Shadows Over Filmland."
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Banana Monks have nearly finished the Cosmographer 3 artwork. Here is another peak:
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The Trail of Cthulhu reprint is due to be completed mid-June, so I've put in a cautious street date of 1st July. I've gone for 2000 copies. The 50 leather-bounds are being printed, too, and I'll complete the long-awaited caption competition when they arrive.
We still have copies of Trail of Cthulhu left at the Pelgrane store for customers not from the US or Canada. At Indie Press Revolution, we are offering Trail of Cthulhu on pre-order - get the PDF now at no extra charge.
I'm pleased with the PDF sales for the Trail of Cthulhu - it gave us our best month on rpgnow.com. The take up of the Game Group Bundle and Player's Guide I mentioned here was higher than I expected. 23% of our Trail sales were Player's Guides, and 10% were bundles. So, there are a lot of honest people out there.
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Interior art for Mutant City Blues. Someone bearing an peculiar resemblance to serpentstar apprehends a suspect.
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GM Skarka is writing the first Adamant Entertainment Trail of Cthulhu adventure, entitled The Empty Men, to be released in July. It will support both Pulp and Purist styles of play.
Based on the title, what do you think it might be about?
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