Purchasing a license for an rpg

[Simon W]

I have approached a company to purchase the rights to produce an rpg based upon one of their authors works and they have come back with a positive response so far. The trouble is, I have no idea of what is a good offer.

I realise that say, the Star Wars or Lord of the Rings rights would be prohibitively expensive to anyone other than a big company. I also realize that it would depend on what the rights you buy extend to - for example how long you can keep the rights and what they actually allow you to do. This would no doubt all be a part of the contract.

Does anyone have any experience of this at all, that they would be able to share with me? Thank you guys.

SimonW

[rpghost]

There is some good amount of information on licensing in our e-Publisher Guide that can help you. But without any information and shooting from the hip, around 5-10% is reasonable and they'll probably ask for an advance (front money to be counted against that and probably not returnable) to get started.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=1668

Best of luck
James