I'm at the point of deciding what the final, presented form of City of Birds will be (that is, how to "publish" it). Print? PDF? Creative Commons license...? First, though, the background:

City of Birds is a small, experimental RPG. My goal is to have as many people read it, then play it, as possible. The reading is, by itself, valuable, even if not every read-through leads to play--though by read-through, I mean really reading and contemplating it seriously. In other words, the game has a message and I want it transmitted. Not losing money is a high priority but making profit is a low one.

So far, City of Birds has been available for free from my website in HTML. It could remain available like this, but I suspect this won't accomplish my goals, and I think the game deserves somewhat better presentation. I was reminded recently by Vincent that people don't tend to play games they haven't paid money for. Thus, I may end up charging money largely in order to appear respectable and be more widely seen.

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Currently I have a layout almost complete, with a cover piece. I also have the raw text stored in XML. I've decided that there won't be any art, except maybe decorative page borders, rules, etc. The document is not long: at letter size, 17 pages plus cover. It seems to me that I have several options for moving forward.

1. Make the full pdf available on my website for free, in a format suited for home printing, perhaps under a creative commons license. I might require people e-mail me and request the file, rather than making it an open download.
2. Sell the pdf version, perhaps through RPGNow or other sites, at a fairly low price.
3. Make the raw text available under a CC-license and still sell the print-ready pdf.
4. Print the game as a small booklet (either 6x9 or Crown Quarto).

Physical printing could be done along with the other options, but seems uneconomical. Because the book is so small, home printing should be adequate, and shipping a booklet would cost more than actually making it. POD doesn't look like an option since the base costs are so high, so I'd have to do a print run and handle orders myself; however, since I'm moving soon and won't have much time (or money) that's a bit less appealing.

I know people around here have tried all these methods. Particularly if you've used more than one method for the same game (say at different times), I want to hear from you. Which one resulted in more feedback, play-reports, or other evidence that people were actualling reading/playing the game? I'd be especially itnerested if you've paired for-pay PDFs with creative-commons/free raw text. I know Clinton did CC-text with for-pay print, but has anyone done PDFs?