Ennie award voting is now open. Please consider voting for Trail of Cthulhu for Best rules and Best Writing, and Unremitting Horror in Best Monster/Adversary book. Vote here.
Edit: Due to some technical glitch, enworld lost all votes cast on Monday.
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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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Jerome found this peculiar image while looking for fodder for the Stunning Eldritch Tales adventure set in Shanghai. Click on the image for the scarily detailed full sized version. Think of a caption. Best one wins a prize...a leather-bound version of Trail of Cthulhu! Ends 1st March.
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As I am now listed on IPR, I thought it might be nice to get all share-y with the data, as my fellow IPR publishers often do.
From its release to the end of 2007, The Esoterrorists has sold just over 1000 copies. I'm really pleased with this - it's our best selling game (just) since The Dying Earth RPG. Nearly 20% of the sales are PDFs, and thirty-five in GUMSHOE bundles. 70% of print sales are through traditional distribution to retail channels via Impressions Advertising. 66% of the PDF sales are through One Book Shelf, that is DTRPG and rpgnow.com.
I make about three times as much on a print mail order sale as a retail sale, and there is a good chance I'd make more money if I didn't sell this book through distribution at all. So why do I do it? First, I could be wrong; I might not sell enough to make up for the shortfall. I also want to do my little bit to help retailers, which I do think helps the industry. But, it's mainly because I'd rather risk making a little less money and have more people playing the game. This is partly non-commercial, but also, the more people playing GUMSHOE games, the more they are likely to buy new ones. For example, through GUMSHOE brand recognition, it might help Trail of Cthulhu sell the much greater volume it needs to pay for my first offset litho print run for five years. Trail has had good pre-order levels in the main thanks to IPR, and these has really helped make the print run possible. I'm printing 2000 off, which I hope I can sell through in a year, although with 4e round the corner, who knows what will happen?
It's interesting that some indie designers I've spoken to (Paul Czege for example) would rather maximize their return per book, and not sell so many copies. Some (not sure about Paul) think the whole three/four tier structure is broken altogether, or there is even a whiff that it is somehow morally dubious. To be honest, unless you are selling thousands of copies and using offset litho, the economics of selling through distribution are marginal, but it's only through distribution that you can sell huge numbers. Perhaps I'm just nostalgically hoping for an enormous 5000-book hit with ToC.
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Robin Laws has looked over Ken Hites's Trail of Cthulhu manuscript, and has gone doolally*. I called in our resident alienist to look him over, and I had no choice but to commit him to the Pelgrane Asylum. There is no chance of course that it will affect Jérome or I, of course, for we are stalwart Europeans.
I'm going to be all out of freelancers at this rate.
*I believe that's the medical term
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The tagline competition to win an early copy of the Compendium had a clear winner, a Mr Kenneth Hite of Chicago, with 43% of the vote. Lucky Mr Hite. I hope he benefits from "reliable information on everything that has ever existed." Let us hope it does not distract him from Trail of Cthulhu.
This neatly segues into my request for feedback on the two pictures of Trail of Cthulhu. I preferred the dreaming-eyed figured on the left, the artist Jérome preferred the more insightful gaze of the one on the right. 58% of people agreed with his choice, and we will go with the majority.
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Character archetype images for Trail of Cthulhu from Jerome using the photomontage technique - explorer and detective.
Note the town name on the police car. I've torn him away from the seductive Trail to work on GUMSHOE Unremitting Horror.
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I'm doing research for Trail of Cthulhu, and I came across this peculiar document. Unfortunately, instead of sympathetic understanding, I reacted with glee.
Here is a list of probable causes of insanity in the State Asylum in Missouri in 1854. Miasmatic fever was thought to be caused by breathing the foul air. Disappointed love, loss of relatives and domestic unhappiness are melancholy, while sudden cessation of bleeding from the nose is just peculiar. I particularly like fear of being killed by a mob.
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