drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

Today I want to talk about PDF pricing, after seeing my friend Matt react poorly to the pricing of the recently released Dr. Who RPG PDF. (Don’t take this post as an attempt to jump on Cubicle 7’s case. As I’ve said before, I like the guys at Cubicle 7, and there are things I like about another game of theirs – Starblazer Adventures — that I’ve talked about before on Deadly Fredly. Heck, I was almost a part of the Dr. Who RPG project, and helped with their initial pitch to the BBC, but ducked out early on due to other time demands. This is a convenient and recent example, is all.)

PDF pricing with this product in particular is an interestingly sticky one. The physical product is going to manifest as a boxed set, so the PDF can’t bring along any physical components for the ride (though the only hint as to what those comprise is listed as “tokens” on the PDF listing). So things are already a little off the usual track here. Based on the markdown indicated on DriveThru, I’d surmise that the boxed set comes in at $60, and the PDF is showing as $35. That’s about 58% of the physical price for the PDF. Looking at Cubicle 7’s other “straight up gaming book” products, since DWRPG is their only boxed set so far, it looks like they trend towards pricing their PDFs as 70% of the cover price, so one could surmise that the math here is $60 = $50 of books (there are three in the box looks like) + $10 components (the box itself, the tokens), and thus 70% of $50 = $35.

For Matt, $35 is an abnormally high price to pay for a PDF, at least in this case. It’s a price he is deciding not to pay, at least at this time. I think Matt’s perceptions here match my own as a consumer, so I want to dig into that, and then talk about how my perceptions as a consumer affect the pricing decisions I make as a publisher.

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aigantighe

A most excellent animation borrowed from Mark Chen’s blog

Fourth walls crashing down left, right and center, with a kick-arse soundtrack. It gets particularly excellent when the worlds start to merge.

drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I just finished reading Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold, a sort-of sequel to his The First Law trilogy (The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged, and The Last Argument of Kings), in that it’s set in the same world.

I like grim fantasy (at least in some varieties).  The horrible things that happen to characters in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire are right up my alley (though I’ve stopped reading that series until the author finishes).  Glen Cook’s work ala The Black Company also sits right in my sweet spot.  It’s not that I hate heroes — I don’t — but I really relish the explosion of chaos when a plan goes pear-shaped, and the sudden, bracing losses that happen to the people in these books.  I suppose it feels real, or at least not-Hollywood.  I like my Hollywood stories, but I also love it when those conventions get torpedoed merrily.

That said, Abercrombie has pushed me with the books in The First Law.  My little inner Hollywood got hit with a mega-quake and slid right off into the ocean.  Things end so poorly for several characters in the books, and things are so brutal along the way, that I had to put a little effort into shaking it off.  But on the balance, after I while I found myself thinking that was pretty frickin’ cool.

Naturally, my thoughts then turned to gaming.

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drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

This is an alternative version (though not much changed) of a recipe I found by “Mudflower” over on Recipezaar. I change a few methods here and there to make the preparation easier, and often make a one and a half times sized recipe, which just fills our ten quart pot (so you’ll want a reasonably large one even when making the regular amount).  The soup that results is really damn good — spicy, for sure, but with a lot of flavor surrounding that heat, lots of nicely developed corn flavor.

You can look at the original recipe if you like at the link above, but I’m going to supply my take on it here, embellished by the experience of making it several times.  Takes between 1 and 2 hours to get to the result, depending on how slow you are (I tend to be a bit slow). Enjoy!

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demonground

• Call of Cthulhu - While the majority of this game is nothing more than the Basic Role Playing system, the inclusion of the Sanity mechanics is definitely a nod towards System Matters.
• Deadlands (Original edition) - Sure it was clunky in places, but the way the system incorporated cards, poker chips and the Poker Hand really reinforced the feel of the 'western' feel of the game.
• Spirit of the Century - Definitely a game where the mechanics are designed to reflect the style intended in play. This could be held up as a shining light for SM, but while I appreciate every concept it presents, it does mean that the type of game play is focused only on the pulp stylings.

drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I tend to leave my Tuesdays and Thursdays blank on Deadly Fredly; it doesn’t look like I have it in me to post daily, at least not yet. Need to get those creaky-tired muscles operational again, and need to leave time for stuff that isn’t blogging. You know, the stuff that gets me paid.  As such you’ll see me occasionally fill these days with really short posts-of-the-moment, while the Monday/Wednesday/Friday stuff gets some greater length and forethought.

Today I push two things at you that deserve your money, and which may well work as excellent, cheap, last minute gifts.

I’ll likely return to these subjects again in later posts, but for now, I’m focusing solely on putting them out there and getting your eyeballs on ‘em.

Jennifer Rodgers’ Etsy Store: Jennifer is one of my favorite people and a very talented artist. When it turned out that we wanted to go for color in the Dresden Files RPG instead of our original notions of a black and white book, Jennifer’s the first artist I thought of, and with good reason: she has an incredible eye for color, and her art trends towards the twisted, supernatural, and dark. All good things in my book, and she did not disappoint with the DF work.  Her Etsy store features gift cards and the occasional print or other art object. Anyway: Give her your dollars, stat, via her store!

Josh Roby’s Rooksbridge: Josh has designed some great games that bang around in the “indie” scene — Full Light, Full Steam and Sons of Liberty to name two.  But so what? He has clearly missed, and now hopefully found, his calling as a fiction writer. Rooksbridge is his venture into this, publishing a series of interlinked but free-standing short stories set in a fantasy world that’s a lot of dirt and politics and a little bit of magic. Sort of like an episodic fantasy TV show in text form. Really solid stuff. I’m still reading through the stories, but I was taken with the free-in-PDF story Dirty Work and I think you will be, too. (I’m less taken with the audio versions of the fiction so far but there’s a lot that goes into whether or not that presentation will click for an individual. For my taset I’d rather Josh focus on the text alone.) The rest of the Rooksbridge stories can be bought cheaply, which makes them perfect stocking stuffers in an age when stockings can be virtual and your friends and family are scattered all over creation. Take a few minutes to become part of the Rooksbridge audience — if not as a holiday present to you or family and friends, then as a present to Josh for the work he’s doing here. It’s worth noting (and perhaps legally mandated) that I mention that I got my hands on the Rooksbridge stories for free via Josh, but there’s no way in hell I’d be talking about them if they hadn’t punched my buttons.

aigantighe

So, I really need this book: Mad Science – Experiments you can do at home, but probably shouldn’t.

I feel that it would be of great relevance to my ongoing research into unnecessarily hazardous fun.

demonground

• A school English project - Yep, a creative writing project in which the teacher presented us with a bit of drift wood and asked us to write a story influenced by it. For me it wasn't the drift wood itself, but rather the holes that grabbed my attention. I though what would it be like if the wood was actually a shape rotating in space and that hollow was a valley in which people lived. Sound silly now I know, but the concept of these huge walls enclosing every part of the world you lived in (regardless of how relatively big this 'valley' was) has stuck with me ever since (BTW , I didn't do that well on the assignment, then again the English teacher was anything but - she once marked me down for a word she didn't think existed - I had to bring the Oxford dictionary in to prove her wrong - and she even accused me of stealing a poem I once wrote (thankfully another teacher saw me writing it ) - and it was later published in a poetry journal. You know, think back, that teacher is probably one of the reasons I never took my writing seriously (sorry enough of the shrink stuff!)
• Aaron Peter Bailey - Apart from being my bestest mate of all time (and my best man at my wedding) Aaron and I used to roleplay all the time. The first real instance of me thinking about this setting was during a holiday when he came and visited me (my family had moved on at that point). I don't know if he did anything to help me form the setting into what I imagine it to be, but he was definitely part of the process.
• Chronopia - This wargame was created by Target games (now Paradox, the owners of much of the Robert E Howard material and the Mutant Chronicles IP) . While the game itself was a bit clunky (and totally overwhelmed - here in NZ at least) by GW, the setting and fluff was fantastically dark and apocalyptic. It reminds me somewhat of Tribe 8 as well (although I've only skimmed the core book of that game). One of the coolest aspects of the setting are the Prophets that foretell the return of the human races great OneKing, only to become outcasts (and eventually demonic creatures) when the prophecy is fulfilled.
• Elric!/Stormbringer - How can you go past this great game of fate and the balance. I love the mechanics, setting and play style, and it something I want to replicate in this game.
• Myth - The computer game series. I had to look this one up (my goodness its a Bungie game!) as I couldn't actually recall what this game series was called. The Myth series has a number of elements that reflected my initial idea, undead running around, pressed forces of good, a strong Celtic feel (although my idea is more Feudal England), etc. I should probably revisit this game in the future - one this game is done!
• Summerland - This RPG encompasses everything I like about post apoc games, from the isolationism through to the growing paranoia of the survivors. I have only recently had a chance to read the game in depth, and might even run it at some point (if Luke does beat me to it - he did raise the idea initially!)
• The Road - The novel by Cormac McCarthy. Just read it... if you have you will know why.

drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

[1h 2m 5s] Fred and Chris catch up on the last three months, including the impending release of the Dresden Files RPG at Origins 2010 and Chris’s impotent rage about not getting to order Jeni’s Ice Creams for delivery. Then on to talk about how they won’t be picking up on last episode’s cliffhanger and instead focusing talking about VSCA’s approach to publishing with Diaspora (the good and the bad) and Games Workshop’s surprising attitude towards its fans.

MP3 download: http://media.libsyn.com/media/thatshowweroll/Thats_How_We_Roll_S2E6_-_Catchin.mp3

Episode Post: http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=560092

drivingblind

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I’m a loud guy. This is mostly true in person, but completely true online.  I talk about what I like a lot, and at volume.  This blog is a part of that, but so’s Twitter and elsewhere.  I do my best not to push my way into faces that aren’t looking to hear me run my yap, but those who do will find themselves hit with a big wall of text.

Looking at this from a completely mercenary perspective, being loud in this fashion is very much about establishing a presence and a “brand of me”.  In the Internet Age, silence is equivalent to invisibility.  You might be out there producing great things and doing interesting stuff, but if you aren’t talking about it, and if other people aren’t talking about it, it may as well not be happening. Audience is king.

But beyond the whole “I’m loud so I’m seen” thing, I’m also loud in service of the things I like and love.  I’m loud so those things are seen, too.

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