Author Topic: Director's Briefing - May 2019  (Read 2326 times)

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Offline NicholasHMCaldwell

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Director's Briefing - May 2019
« on: May 11, 2019, 04:25:24 PM »
Welcome

To the ninety-sixth Briefing and fifth scheduled Briefing of 2019. Apologies for its lateness – the semester workload went supernova in the last few weeks – and for the extreme brevity – I have just entered the gap between the end of semester teaching and the arrival of marking/June teaching, so I am sure you would rather I focused on getting projects complete than a lengthy Briefing!

Licenses

I still have a specific license to write for a science-fiction setting, so that we can publish it for HARP and its creator can use it for fiction.

RMU

Aaron remains sane with RMU Creature Law. Graham Bottley is rolling up his sleeves to resume work on a RMU Lite version.
 
HARP Fantasy and HARP SF

The editorial list of requests for change on HARP Beyond the Veil is with Jon Cassie.

I am shuttling between HARP SF Poseidon Gambit and HARP Subterfuge wearing editing and commissioning hats.

Shadow World

The RMSS stats for the Haunted Village mini-adventure have been commissioned. Terry is back to work on Haalkitaine and Emer IV.

Until next time

The next scheduled Briefing will be in June 2019.

Best wishes,
Nicholas

Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd

Dr Nicholas HM Caldwell
Director, Iron Crown Enterprises Ltd
Publisher of Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Shadow World, Cyradon, HARP & HARP SF, and Cyberspace, with products available from www.drivethrurpg.com
Author: Mentalism Companion, GURPS Age of Napoleon, Construct Companion, College of Magics, HARP SF/HARP SF Xtreme

Offline Peter R

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2019, 03:32:18 AM »
There was a lot of discussion about a Lite version a few years ago for RMU but the industry has moved on since then. I still think a single volume 250 page edition would be amazing and I would buy if as a gift for at least one other gamer I know right now I would suggest that a Quick Start booklet should be a slightly higher priority.

A quick start would contain a dozen pre-gen NPCs (six male and 6 female) but no char gen rules. Just the spell lists needed for those characters. just the weapon tables/crit tables needed for the PCs, NPCs and foes listed weapons plus a few so people can fall of rocks and throw chairs. The final component would then be an adventure playable in one or two sessions.

The limited scope of a QS means that it is relatively quick to produce and you can reuse existing art or reuse art commissioned for the quickstart in the Lite or full version.

A 30 page QS is a much smaller task than a 300 page lite edition. You also get a nice progression Free QS> $20 single volume > $100 full game.
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Offline flumin

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #2 on: May 12, 2019, 02:17:29 PM »

I find that of a QS a good business idea. Especially if RMU wants to target non-RM people. Are there precedents for (well done) QS within rpg’s?

Offline Peter R

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #3 on: May 12, 2019, 02:30:49 PM »
Right now there are 496 available on DTRPG.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?filters=0_2144_0_0_0&term=Quicks

When I search the first listed quickstart/most popular is Against the Darkmaster which is of course a direct threat to RMu as it is derived from MERP. It has all the same USPs as RMu,
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Offline flumin

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2019, 12:38:55 PM »

One more reason to have one, if you ask me (note AtD has character gen rules though).

Do we get a sense of how much people actually download and use QS’s?

Offline Peter R

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2019, 03:51:10 PM »
I released a combined playtest document and quick start for a rather niche wild west rpg. So niche product, unknown author and minority setting and I have had about 400 downloads and 50 sign ups to the games forums.
RMu should have a massively bigger impact by comparison.
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Offline flumin

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2019, 10:03:41 PM »
I released a combined playtest document and quick start for a rather niche wild west rpg. So niche product, unknown author and minority setting and I have had about 400 downloads and 50 sign ups to the games forums.
RMu should have a massively bigger impact by comparison.

Then, I can't think of a reason not to do it. I hope that Nicholas seriously considers what you suggest here. It does not take a PhD in Management to see that this is a great way to put things out there, let people taste a bite and see if they want more.


Offline khunkwai

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Re: Director's Briefing - May 2019
« Reply #7 on: September 06, 2019, 09:20:00 AM »
As a store owner we often download and have players try out Quick Starters or buy in the low cost "Starter Sets" to test the market.  And as a GM trying to get new players into a game, a QS with pre generated characters and a nice show case adventure is always a big help!