Teasers and Web Site Promotion

[Dregg]

In about a month my web site will have it's Domain attached and it will be ready to rock, but I have a couple of thoughts.
I'm planing to use fiction from my RPG in a serial like fashion to try and use it as a hook. Of course adding art work as I go along and finaly up to the final product.
Is Fiction the way to go? I have seen other site that just have a blurb up until the product is ready. Heresy games did a nice bit with Victoriana and the PDF's of fiction.

How have other Indie RPG designers handled thier web promotion?
Examples of Good sites to me
Burning Wheel
& Memento Mori

Desent Sites
Deep 7
&
Heresy


Bad sites
Well I will be silent as not to wanting to bash other people sites

[Mike Holmes]

I think Fiction is potentially problematic. First, who's your writer? I mean, if you've got, say, a Kurt Vonnegut writing for you, then by all means, go ahead. But if the author is previously untested, then I'd reconsider. Somehow it seems that all RPG players a designers think that they can write good fiction. And they're almost all wrong. Even the ones that can write good prose for games, aren't always any good at fiction.

And nothing's as unprofessional as badly written game fiction.

Further, even when it is good, often it doesn't portray anything like what play is like. That is, it promises more than the game can deliver. While this might be good for sales in the short run, it means dissapointed players, potentially. Which hurts sales in the long run.

So, I guess I'm saying be very careful with that idea. Much better, IMO, is to provide actual material that enables play of the game. Character sheets, aides, source material, adventures, sample characters, and examples of play all seem to me to be better for promoting lots of play and spreading the game that way. It's amazing how easy it is to put stuff like this together, and how much players appreciate even the smallest ammount of it. One good free adventure, IMO, can completely make an RPG in terms of sales.

And then be there for the buyers. That'll get you devotion, which is more valuable than gold.

Mike

[Luke]

Thanks for the props, Dregg. But the BW site was not always as nice as it is now. (And even now it could use some work).

Back when it was bad, I got a lot of hatemail and probably lost a lot of potential players. But, let me pass on their eternal wisdom:
Keep it clean and simple. Better to have a spartan design that people can navigate, than have something complicated that puts folks off. I also found my definition of clear and simple was quite different than other folks. So make sure you get some feedback before you go "live."

Art of Fiction
While Mike is correct in all his points, a little fiction won't hurt. Art definitely helps, as it fires the imagination even more yet keeps expectations open.

Free Stuff
IIRC, the friendly folks at RPG.net repeatedly demanded that I post my entire system as a free download so they could try it out before they bought it. Um, obviously this didn't work for me. But I did post pdfs of sample pages from the game (the first one from each chapter). Other must haves PDFs:
• Character sheets
• GM screen panels (this was a huge success for me)
• Demo adventure. I can't stress this one enough.

• And my recent experiences and Ron's recommendations: ACTUAL PLAY posts on your site, on the Forge and on RPG.net. This really does sell the game.

Seeing is believing
Personally, I feel that a beauty shot of the game sitting on the table goes a long way, too. There are tons of intangible games and shoddily printed books, showing your wares with a "real" picture grounds it for would-be purchasers.

happy to help with any of the above,
-L

[Paul Czege]

Hey James,

Yeah, I completely agree with Mike. What it seems you're talking about is pre-purposing your color text to create anticipatory buzz for your game.

Well, personally I'm not a huge fan of pre-release buzz creation. I suppose if I were funding the game by incurring debt that I'd need to cover quickly after it was released, then maybe I'd put effort into inflating a bubble of initial sales. Or if I were interested in having the game picked up by a distributor, and I thought buzz might help me close that deal.

But thinking about those situations makes my hands shake real bad...

The truth is that unless your fiction is ridiculously good, like Mike said, you're going to need to put more effort into whipping up buzz than just pre-releasing it in chunks. And since there's no correlation between buzz-derived initial sales and strong ongoing sales (and actual play), I can't, for instance, see my own self putting the kind of effort into buzzmaking that Sean Jaffe did for The Last Exodus with his game design journal.

But assuming you're motivated, have you seen http://www.pepysdiary.com">The Diary of Samuel Pepys? I think it does a fantastic job of creating community by bringing readers into an analysis role relative to the material being presented. We're talking about Bad Muthas, right? If you have the kind of dense 70s era-referential color text that I'm guessing you do, something like the Pepys Diary might just do the trick.

Paul

[Dregg]

Mike, Paul, and Luke
Thank you for some really sound advice, after reading your posts I may think differently about how to set up my site. I liked the Diary Idea, it seems a bit involved, but then again it does not have to get that way.
I'm thinking of doing a Police log.... sort of a "Adam 12" sort of thing, I could even do it as a Wiki or a Blog to have others add to it.
I'm really excited about the whole thing, I have not done any promo for games since my "Pulp Era" days 5 years ago.
Trial and error looks like the best way to go.... Luke did you really get Hate Mail on the BW site? Jeesh some people are just plain Mean!
Anyway back to the drawing board, hopeing to have full demos ready by Uber-Con in Feb.

[Gold Rush Games]

How have other Indie RPG designers handled thier web promotion?

  Generally we try to make available a fee PDF preview of our books, so that customers can see just what it is they are buying. We've had almost 3,800 downloads of our Dragon's Gate preview PDF and 2,500 downloads of our War of the Worlds sourcebook preview PDF so far, which seems to indicate a pretty darned good interest in those products, IMO.

  Contests, interviews with authors and "designer notes" features seem to be a good idea.

  Advertising is important, too, but in most cases display ads are simply not cost effective, though banner ads are certainly affordable.

  Cross promotions can be a good idea, too, if done properly. We've done cross-advertising with other publishers in the past and will probably do so again in the future, though that's straying from the topic of this thread, I suppose.

  Someone in another thread mentioned RPG "trailers" (like movie trailers) done as .mpegs or Flash animations, which I think are a great idea, too!

[Dregg]

How have other Indie RPG designers handled thier web promotion?

  Generally we try to make available a fee PDF preview of our books, so that customers can see just what it is they are buying. We've had almost 3,800 downloads of our Dragon's Gate preview PDF and 2,500 downloads of our War of the Worlds sourcebook preview PDF so far, which seems to indicate a pretty darned good interest in those products, IMO.

  Contests, interviews with authors and "designer notes" features seem to be a good idea.
Advertising is important, too, but in most cases display ads are simply not cost effective, though banner ads are certainly affordable.
Cross promotions can be a good idea, too, if done properly. We've done cross-advertising with other publishers in the past and will probably do so again in the future, though that's straying from the topic of this thread, I suppose.

Thank you for all the excellent advice Mark, the whole PDF thing is something I am toying with, but not too sure If it is the way I want to go. I see GRG has done well with PDF sales, so at least your proof that It is a good way to go.
I have to someday pick up the Yusagi Yojimbo RPG, I love the comic, and of course it was done in Fuzion.

[Gold Rush Games]

I see GRG has done well with PDF sales, so at least your proof that It is a good way to go.

I wouldn't call downloads of free preview PDFs "sales," though. ;)

I have to someday pick up the Yusagi Yojimbo RPG, I love the comic, and of course it was done in Fuzion.

They're going to be gone soon, so if you want one now's the time.

[Dregg]

I see GRG has done well with PDF sales, so at least your proof that It is a good way to go.

I wouldn't call downloads of free preview PDFs "sales," though. ;)

I have to someday pick up the Yusagi Yojimbo RPG, I love the comic, and of course it was done in Fuzion.

They're going to be gone soon, so if you want one now's the time.

You do have some products in PDF on RPGnow.com? I could be mistaken tho...
I guess I should snatch up a copy of Yusagi before they are no more, I rather get them from the designer than ebay... just a wierd moral code.
I cannot wait to see what Action has to offer in the future, I have not read the rules, but it's always nice to have alternitive game engines to work with.