REIGN's release model: A ransom/hard copy hybrid

[GregStolze]

It's interesting that the quarterly sales of UA continue to chip in a hundred copies of the core book every time.  It seems to support the theory that "the MRB generates profit while each supplement pays for the next supplement while working as advertising for the MRB."

The problem with that model is, it sucks.

My experience is that the Ransom Model works just fine for small stuff, but I know for a damn fact that no one's going to put up the money for something as big as REIGN.  However, Ransom would be a fine way to supplement REIGN.  So the plan I'm considering is something like this.

1) Release REIGN as a Lulu book.

2) Put up small additions to the rules and setting -- stuff like a couple thousand words on a particular topic -- for Ransom.  Specifically, I'd use Fundable so that there's no risk on the part of the fans.  The more stuff gets ransomed, of course, the more attractive it becomes to buy in to REIGN because there's free support on the web.  This also has the advantage of letting me really responsive to my public: I can ask people for suggestions, run polls on www.gregstolze.com about what they want to see, and then only ransom out stuff that I know is wanted.  Compare and contrast the risk in this with writing a 60,000 word supplement, getting it printed, and hoping it doesn't languish in your warehouse.

3) Once enough stuff's been ransomed, I'll probably compile them into another lulu book with a low profit margin, just for people who don't like .pdf.

What do you think?

-G.

[Judd]

I wondered why REIGN wasn't a lulu book from the moment I heard about it and that it wasn't out because of money issues.

Ransomed supplements are an interesting addition.

Good luck.

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi Greg,

My knowledge is poor here so bear with me if I'm missing something obvious. Doesn't each sale generate more sales as it brings more potential eyes to your project? What happens if your ransom goals aren't met? You're stuck with a bunch of work that no one can see because it didn't reach it's ransom? Why would I as a customer want to pay for something if I have no idea whether it's a quality product? Will you release sneak previews to the public, or completed work under somewhat loose NDA's to reviewers?

[GregStolze]

>Doesn't each sale generate more sales as it brings more potential eyes to your project?

I'm not sure what you mean by this: Each sale of the hardcopy MRB or each sale of an internet .pdf file?

>What happens if your ransom goals aren't met?

Then there clearly wasn't enough interest in that product to warrant its release.

>You're stuck with a bunch of work that no one can see because it didn't reach it's ransom?

Define "a bunch."  The glory of the Ransom Method is that it makes it very reasonable to release 5,000 word microsupplements.  Is it a risk that I'll write up some wacky little country ripe with internal conflicts and not enough people will care to ransom it?  Sure.  Is it a risk to write anything, for anybody?  Sure.  But while the risk of tossing 20,000 words down the toilet with White Wolf is lower than the risk of flushing 5,000 for the fans, it's also a smaller loss.  More to the point, the fans -- unlike many, many gaming companies -- have never let me down.  Everything I've tried to ransom has hit its goal.

>Why would I as a customer want to pay for something if I have no idea whether it's a quality product? 

You wouldn't.  Unless, of course, its topic sounded so germane to your gaming experience that you decided to take a risk.  Or unless the buy-in was the price of a big mocha latte instead of the... I don't know, how much do mainstream RPG supplements cost these days? 

But really, I think that's largely beside the point, because the people who've ransomed stuff from me DO have an idea.  They can go to my website and download a number of free games, or they can read Unknown Armies or one of my novels or any of the Vampire material I've released, or City of Lies or the old Usagi Yojimo or Spherewalker or Scary Face.  I wouldn't recommend ransoming for someone who doesn't have a track record.  But ten years of steady effort has paid off: Fans trust me.

>Will you release sneak previews to the public, or completed work under somewhat loose NDA's to reviewers?

I might, if I thought I might not otherwise hit the ransom.  But I suspect that most of the ransoms would be so small that it wouldn't be necessary.

-G.

[Dav]

Shit-hell easy.  I'd do it.  With a low-to-no upfront cost, and many of the ideas you are so lovingly ransoming being ideas that likely you would pen forth anyway, I say go for it.  You have a solid name behind you, reams of work, and a clear-head... and you don't berate, belittle, and bemoan your fans (that's my favorite part of things!).

I see this as low risk, at worst.  Go for it.

Dav

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for answering my questions. I'll clarify the question you didn't understand, and continue playing devil's advocate for a bit since I'm assuming from your post you wanted to discuss the merits and flaws of the ransom idea. If this isn't the case, you'll probably want to tell me to shut up. Since it sounds like you are already using the ransom method, I may have misunderstood what you were wanting to achieve in this thread. Perhaps you meant this to be an advocation thread?

So for the question I didn't state well. When I was asking about each sale being a potential chance to create new sales I was specifically asking about the ransom products, not the source book. I'll try to improve.... If you ransom a product does that cut into the amount of people who could potentially find out about that idea/product if you had made it? Could this cut down on the possibilities that product might have had if it had been released into the wild full-born? Could this conceivably kill something that may have been a good idea?

You state that you have a good customer relationship (and so does Dav), and they are unlikely to question the quality of something you do. You also state that the amount to ransom the product will be set low. Why would the ransom model be helpful then? It sounds like customers are likely to want your product, and if the bar is set low it's not really an effective test for broad desire for a product. I guess it could be a way to generate hype, or if you are putting out ideas all the time to see what gets bites. The second could have you end up over-committed, which may not be a bad problem to have.

I agree with the other folks that this sounds like a low risk method. I'm just not understanding the "why", as it sounds like from your description that you are already in a low risk place. People have already shown that they like what you find interesting.

[Thunder_God]

It seems REIGN would not go via Ransom, but through Lulu, the Ransom would be for little pieces(2-10 page?) which don't merit a supplement of their own.

It's not as a risk reduce-mode, but as a spread-the-content model.

Do I make sense?

[GregStolze]

Thunder's got it.  The main rule book is hard copy with no material on the web.  All supplements, however, would be ransomed.

Selling them as .pdfs doesn't really strike my fancy.  The reasons I had for not doing it back with Meatbot Massacre still apply.  Specifically.

1) Tracking orders is a hassle and I'm lazy.
2) I fear the spectre of piracy.

I also hope that people will find the idea of loads of free content appealing, which is how this can certainly appear.  Granted, you have to contribute to keep the free content coming -- it's like NPR that way.  But I hope that the more rolls out, the more people will be willing to continue to ransom new stuff.

Here's what I picture: Someone tells you about how kewl REIGN is and you log on to my website.  Holy smokes, there's five free mini supplements -- maybe some new combat crunch, setting stuff, a regular smorgasbord.  Looking at those, they're well written and interesting so you order the book from Lulu.  When it arrives, you start playing it, it's fun, and you swing by the website to check for new stuff.  Neat!  A new country writeup!  Going to the forums, you find a thread that basically says, "I'm your word bitch, what should I write next?"  You weign in.  You're invested.  There's a thing up for ransom and it's not exactly your bag, so you wait, but when it comes out the next thing is something you really desire, so you kick in ten bucks.  At this point, you have bought one book, then gotten EVERY SUPPLEMENT for the cost of a movie and popcorn.

Is this superior to the traditional marketplace?  I think so.  Writing for White Wolf, my rate was X.  I think I can easily ransom supplements at 1.3X, simply because I won't be hiring cover artists, renting warehouse space, and paying printing and shipping costs.  Will I lose a few sales because it's not in the FLGS catching eyes?  Sure, but I doubt it'll be that many, and I doubt those sales would offset the tracking hassles and discount cuts of getting into traditional distribution.

From the consumer's perspective, there's one more BIG advantage: I have less incentive to pad out my word count.  I'm getting my 1.3X regardless of how long or short it is, and if people think I'm fluffing they're less likely to ransom the next one.  I have a strong motivation to produce stuff that is lean, mean, and targeted right on what the consumer wants.  When was the last time you spent $30 on a book and only used half of it?  Not here, baby.  Not here.

-G.

[MikeSands]

Greg,

The more you say about your plans, the more I want to be able to buy REIGN immediately and have you doing this stuff.

[Ben Lehman]

Hey, Greg, here's an idea.

If someone buys a copy of REIGN, they can put that money towards ransoming a supplement.  The idea is that if someone comes along and goes: "Wow, this supplement idea really makes me want to buy the game" then the model says to them "yes... yes... it's worth it."

yrs--
--Ben

[GregStolze]

If someone buys a copy of REIGN, they can put that money towards ransoming a supplement.  The idea is that if someone comes along and goes: "Wow, this supplement idea really makes me want to buy the game" then the model says to them "yes... yes... it's worth it."

Well, my biggest problem with letting every customer apply their money to two things is that then I make half as much money.

-G.

[Thunder_God]

I thought about it earlier today, and forgot to put it in.

First, I think you need to have 2-4 projects up, and people can decide which ones to contribute to. Suppose the current issue is of little interest to people, paying just to get it removed sounds very "Meh" to me.
Now, if you have more than one topic up and say the book costs $30-40, you can have someone who buys the book contribute, say $5, towards one topic.

[Jason Morningstar]

Greg,

I like this idea and support your exploration of the ransom concept.

What's the theoretical price point of, say, a 5K word microsupplement?  I think (even via Fundable) there may be a psychological reticence to getting on board, but a price point that allows individuals to make an obvious, substantial dent would go a long way toward addressing this.

Also, an active fan community where individuals help guide your development efforts is also a rabid sea of paying customers.  That's pretty cool.  Sort of tangential, but to what degree are you their bitch?  What if they want you to write things that take the game and setting in a direction you dislike or disagree with?  Is it just a job at that point, or will you refuse to write supplements your fans want?

[GregStolze]

>Now, if you have more than one topic up and say the book costs $30-40, you can have
>someone who buys the book contribute, say $5, towards one topic.

Ah, but I'm lazy.  Or, maybe a better explanation is that my time is under fairly severe constraints: I have typically about an hour a day to do my 1000 word quota.  To construct and administrate a feedback system whereby I track who buys the book from Lulu and find out which supplement they support would really tax my capabilities even if I had time and a full night's rest.  I think I'm far better off spending my time writing, because I do that well -- or, at the very very least, better than I do stuff with web page design.

>What's the theoretical price point of, say, a 5K word microsupplement? 

$500, I'm thinking.  The median ransom contribution is $15.00, but there's usually a high roller towards the end.  So if 30-40 people want it fairly bad (or 100 people are Grande Latte interested) it rolls.

>Sort of tangential, but to what degree are you their bitch? 

I'd certainly prefer for everything to be consensual. 

>What if they want you to write things that take the game and setting in a direction you dislike
>or disagree with?  Is it just a job at that point, or will you refuse to write supplements your
>fans want?

I think there's probably a broad continuum between "It's so offensive I'd never do it" and "That's a great idea, why didn't I think of that?"  I'm trying to imagine a concept that would (1) be repulsive to me but (2) garner really serious fan support.  If there was high demand for something that I was just tepid about, I'd probably go along and do my best: Money's money.  In fact, I've had experiences with contracted work where I started out thinking I'd do the work, cash the check, close my eyes and think of England... but then I really got into it and was enthusiastic.  So I think I'd be pretty open. 

One thing my experiences with UA taught me is that it's wisest to hold on loosely to "developer's ideas for theme and direction."  The game's going to do what it wants once it hits its natural habitat, and I'm probably better off trying to see where REIGN wants to go than try to steer it.  (I have my suspicions that, as much as I might push people towards cooperative and collaborative character generation, once they get a taste of generating a character's skills, stats and life history with one toss of 11d10 they're going to go apeshit with it.) 

I write games to have fun and make money, and sometimes it's more one or the other.  It would take a HELL of a lot of money to induce me to write 80,000 words on a subject that bored me or that I felt I couldn't do well.  But again, the beauty of the ransom system is that supplements will be short.  If a hundred and fifty fans are clamoring for detailed simulationist rules for Opetkan puppet theater, I can grit my teeth and power through for a week.

-G.

[andrew_kenrick]

By happy coincidence, I happen to have received in the post this morning my copy of the Godlike GM screen. Nothing unusual there, except for the fact that I bought it via the ransom model, paying $20 about 6 months ago and receiving a hardcopy of the screen once the ransom has been met. This is the first hardcopy ransom I've partaken in, and the only one I've seen to date.

You thought about releasing the hardcopy of the MRB for REIGN like this? Ransom it for a set price, give everybody who paid the ransom a copy (as though it were a preorder), and then use the profits to go to print to sell it to a wider audience? Then continue your aforementioned ransom model for the micro supps?

As an aside, I'm curious to try the ransom model out myself, but I'm guessing one of the reasons it works for you and Dennis is that you're well known names. Anyone tried it who hasn't got a name for themselves?