Publishing it, what's the use anyway?

[Christoffer Lernö]

Nope, not talking about Ygg. I'm thinking about my 5-6 page horror RPG called Evil Tales.
If I nicely set it up as a PDF, will people download it? Will they play it? I mean just posting the rules didn't really have any people excited. If that's the case, is there any use PDFing it?

Beyond shown interest though, I do think it's useful. It has really simple basic rules and a big GM section which basically tells the GM to play it unabashedly illusionist.

It's heavily GM dependent since the GM has to keep up the pace, but the system is so easy that it doesn't get in the way. It's basically a horror story told by the GM where the players pretend they are in it.

I know you can play any movie horror story with the game but it's very very simple.

But enough of description. If I PDF it, will it get more interest? I guess that's what I'm asking.

[Demonspahn]

Hi again, Chris,

Since we're talking free here, at this point I think it should really come down to effort involved vs. what you want out of it.  How hard is it really to PDF what you have and embed a few (clipart?) images?  It seems like minimal effort, but keep in mind this is coming from someone who has never done it.  I say make the PDF _and_ post the game on a web page so people can look before downloading.  

Keep in mind that making it a PDF will not automatically generate interest, just like bringing it to print won't necessarily generate interest (as I know all too well).   Marketing is what generates interest (and by marketing I mean posting it for critique, review, finding people who like that sort of game, getting feedback what have you).  

Also, you said that posting the rules didn't seem to get anyone excited but unless you posted in another forum you might want to keep in mind that as I understand it, the people who frequent The Forge are just a small portion of online gamers.  You might get more of a response on other RPG sites or those like http://www.bitterreign.com.    

Anyway, I liked what you had written.  

Pete

[Adam]

Remember the law of internet feedback: You only ever hear from 1% of people who actually look at something, whether they like it or not.

If you think it's useful, then put it online; since it's small, it won't take /that/ much work. Don't bother creating a huge support site for it, just the necessary material, and see what happens.

[Christoffer Lernö]

Ok, I did a free pdf conversion. The game might be found here if you're interested.

[J. Backman]

I like it. It's quick, easy, and probably a lot of fun. Just the kind of game I play from time to time when I get tired of the more serious rpg's.

[Paganini]

Chris, really, the best way to get people to download your game is to play it with them. To be honest, the reason I hadn't seen the game when you brought it up over on Indie-netgaming was that I'd read the first few paragraphs and decided "Mostly SQUEAM with some uneccesary additions." I stopped reading.

But if you come along sometime and say "Heads up everyone, I'm running Evil Tales on IRC this Monday, be there or be square," then I don't have much choice... I read the rules or I miss out on the game. And if it turns out your game is good, happy converts are the best sales-people. :)

If I'd been in "designer mode" rather than "player mode" when I saw your game, I'd likely have kept reading to see if you had a new approach, how it was different, how I thought it could be improved, etc. But at the time, my train of thought was probably something like "I've got SQUEAM, I like SQUEAM, I don't really need something with the same goals but more complex mechanics."

Don't take this the wrong way, I don't mean to diss your game. The point I'm making is that, if you want people to play this game, you need to show them up front why they'll like it better than the horror game they already have. Otherwise it's a Horror Heartbreaker... good game for you and your group, but unlikely to be played by anyone else.

That said, PDF is a nice release format, especially if you do some nice layout and put a bit of art in it. I suggest taking a photo of page spread from the PDF and using it as a header for the promo page. If it looks cool, people will see it and be impressed. ("Yeehaw, that's cool looking, I'll download it and see what it's all about.")

[Christoffer Lernö]

Thanks for the suggestions Pag. Still, it's not a breakthrough of a game and it doesn't really strive to be. It's a game stripped of all things you don't need to play horror + a gm guide.

(Incidentally I'm gonna rip out one more rule in the game... the narrative stuff is kinda meaningless and ad hoc. I suggest you ignore it if you read the game. See it as a simple fortune in the end although you can do creative stuff with your traits, but it's fortune at the end and there is no fortune in the middle style possible narrative control)