PDF Legitimacy

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Much talk has been made about indie RPGs being easier to create and distribute on the web, especially in the .PDF format.

Anyway, Monte Cook, author of the 3rd Edition D&D Dungeon Masters Guide has announced his own company, Malhavoc Press http://www.montecook.com/mpress.html">here. What does this have to do with indie RPGs? Besides the fact that Monte is now basically publishing indie work (we should have a talk about that here, though--is indie d20 stuff really indie?), he says something significant on his page. Go to the bottom and you'll see: "The Book of Eldritch Might, at a mere $5, gives you all the coolest gaming stuff at half the price of the other guys. Go PDF! It's the future of RPGs."

While his PDF is no more "legitimate" than one of ours, the fact remains that he is well known, and well respected in the community of gamers that we really don't reach out to here. When he says something like this, it's going to strength legitimacy.

(As a side note, Monte resigned from WotC a while back. I really don't know under what circumstances, but this is an ingenious way to make money. There's no need to put up money for a printer, and then wait for distribution, and whatnot. At $5/pop, he's going to make some real money, I'd project: the D&D fanbase at his site is huge. His forums are among some of the most active RPG forums I've seen.)

[joshua neff]

we should have a talk about that here, though--is indie d20 stuff really indie?

sure, why not? if a band plays generic pop-rock but put there music out independently, aren't they indie?
also, this ties into damocles' comment about piggybacking--put out d20 stuff, but subvert the whole d20 concept (basically, use the ogl to yr advantage, rather than to wotc's advantage)...

huh...the idea of monte cook working for wotc & making a bunch of money, then quitting & independently putting out his own stuff seems really cool to me...

[ This Message was edited by: joshua neff on 2001-06-01 10:46 ]

[ This Message was edited by: joshua neff on 2001-06-01 10:52 ]

[greyorm]

You beat me to it, Clinton.  I saw this earlier today and had typed up something about it already, but hey, why repeat you?

I see it as a 'good sign' as well!