[Steampunk Crescendo] Out on a limb

[Eero Tuovinen]

That's an interesting structure. For a system-junkie like me it'd be a good idea to just describe what you're doing and how it's different from the norm. I could see that it's a "roleplaying game product" in the sense that it's game design and not as an exercise in game material writing alone.

"Otherkind dice" is actually a marketing term with some traction, strange as that may sound. It's only going to be us Forge-heads who recognize it, but we know that there is a rich undergrowth of minor indie games that use that dice allocation idea, ranging from Mechaton to Wyrd is Bond. It's maybe not something to put on the product itself unless this is somehow your dream audience, but in conventions and forums and such it's good to remember that it's a good way to communicate the nature of your game very quickly.

As for how to describe this in an exciting manner, I'd go with something like this:

"The GM is going to have an Antagonist prepped just for you, and he's gonna be there when your character finally has a chance to grab at his goals. Dice are rolled, and you assign them according to your priorities: do you care about your own safety, about stopping the Antagonist, or achieving your goal. Only rarely will you be able to get them all!"

Also, maybe something about the scene pick thing if that has interesting procedural ramifications. It's one of the trendy mechanical ideas lately, the notion that there's a set of different scene types and the player has partial or total control over the "type" of scene we're gonna play. Kingdom of Nothing and Mars Colony both have variations of this structural idea, for example. Definitely something to name-drop, I find it an interesting way to distribute authority myself, and will lean towards checking out a game that does it.

[dindenver]

I use Scene Type more like a flag than a rules structure. It is just a way for players to communicate with each other what is going on. It is kind of like how a player sets the scene in PTA, but less direct (not asking what the scene is about).
I like what you put. I will probably boil it down to less sentences, but it is a good launching point.

  I have seen lots of references to Otherkind Dice, but when I mentioned it on other forums (SG), no one knew what I was talking about, lol

[David Berg]

Dice are rolled, and you assign them according to your priorities: do you care about [X, Y or Z]? Only rarely will you be able to get them all!

I like that type of pitch text too.  But Eero and I may both be atypical.

Dave, I suspect it'd help at this point if you could try to formulate and share a vision of your target audience.  Who do you most want to reach?  Is it neophile forum-dwelling indie one-shot lovers?  Campaign-hungry folks who saw World of Darkness games on hobby store shelves, loved the premise, but wound up disliking the execution?  RPGnet regulars who like Cyberpunk?  Denver goths?  Rich people?  Steve Jackson?

[dindenver]

Basically, I want to entice three  kinds of players:
1) players that are vampire fans and are looking for something new(whether or not they are happy with the current offerings). Steampunk crescendo hits the vampire notes well.
2) players that are fans of Victorian era settings. To me this setting is rife with conflict and dystopic notes.
3) players that are looking for a good punk setting. This one is important to me because many people have expressed sentiments similar to Eero's, that more genuine punk is hard to find...
  I think that players who are swayed by system will instantly embrace or reject Steampunk Crescendo based on their preferences, but setting will drive play and sales. I may be completely wrong, but I don't think I could sell a different game by merely saying, this is d20 vampires.
  I hope I can generate interest in my game and not scare away people who would be otherwise interested with terms associated with identity politics or any trad/Indie/story game bull being implied. Its not so much that I don't want to pick a side as much as I genuinely feel that it doesn't matter to most players...

[David Berg]

Cool.  What types of work are you willing to do to reach those people?  Will you spend time and money, and travel, or are you exclusively looking for cheap and easy ways to market the game online?

[dindenver]

David,
  Good question. I am not expecting this to make a lot of money. So, in order to keep the costs at an acceptable level, it is necessary to keep the cost of marketing and promotion as low as possible.
  I am willing to promote things at Conventions I am already going to, but will not travel or sign up for conventions just to promote my game. I wanted to treat Gaming stores in a similar fashion.
  I am willing to spend effort if the idea has a chance to get my game in front of prospective buyers, just don't want to spend a lot of money.
  Did you have any ideas?

[David Berg]

Various cheap ways I can think of to reach fans of vampires, victoriana, and punk:
- Make a cool website with those aesthetics.
- Make free sample game content available on said website, with said content speaking to those aesthetics.  Art, stories, play reports, play aids, simplified rules documents, etc.  Give cool free stuff and collect email addresses.  Then if you have anything worth telling folks directly, you can.
- Join online communities for fans of Vampire, Buffy, True Blood, Dracula, Twilight, steampunk, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hellboy, Brazil, The Clash, Radiohead, Fallout, Misspent Youth, and any other appropriate cultural entities (TV, movies, music, novels, comics, video games) you can think of.  Look for appropriate places therein to mention your game.  Start quizzes or contests and offer your game as a prize for the winners.
- Mention your game on RPG sites, hopefully with some engaging stories to read or art to look at so it isn't just a pitch and nothing else.
- In any place where you mention your game, offer deals or events or limited free stuff or any other reason for someone to check it out now, before they forget.
- Make posters and put them up wherever you can find a space for posters on college campuses, punk clubs, or near a retailer that carries the game.
- Offer to make posters for retailers if they'll carry your game, hyping their store as well as your game.
- Make small cool things to give out free at cons, like pins, postcards, posters, or dice.

Just brainstorming here.  I'm sure you can cross some of those off and come up with better ones.

Without a website, you'll be limited to those people who'll buy the game just based off of whatever pitch you give, plus the product details on Lulu.  I do not know this for a fact, but I think your odds of turning first contacts into sales are way better if you use a website as a stepping stone.  If you want to save money on domain registration and webhosting, I could stash a page for you somewhere in one of my domains, but I think you'd be better off shelling out the $70 or so per year.

[David Berg]

Oh, another one:
- contact con organizers, see what kind of exposure you can get, offer to help out in exchange for featuring your game in some fashion