Ok...I'm happy to report that we are officially running low on copies of Universalis. That means Mike and I are actually pretty close (haven't crunched the numbers yet) to break even...Yeah!

PART 1
It also means that we have to decide the form we want to sell Universalis in going forward. For that, I'm soliciting the opinion of our fan base. The options we are considering are as follows:

1) Do another print run, same format as currently.
2) Sell Uni going forward as a PDF only(for probably $10)
3) Sell Uni going forward as a PDF, but (sales permitting) do a Revised Printing for next year's GenCon where we take alot of the Add-ons and essays that are currently on the site, clean them up and include them in an expanded game book.

Obviously the least expensive way for us is to go the PDF route, but what I'd like to hear from you is how much of a benefit that cool little perfect bound book is to your enjoyment of the game and how much of an enticement was it when you made your purchase to have an actual book.

Also, do you see any value added in an expanded Revised Printing as suggested in option 3? If so, what would you want included to make it worthwhile?

PART II.
Either way, I'm going to take the opportunity to do some additional editing. Meaning we'll be making changes to the master pdf file. Ace identified a place where the text was somewhat contradictory regarding Interruption immunity, and I'm going to see about rewording that to make it consistant. The glossary was the last thing to get added to the master document and it looks like I sent Matt the draft file rather than the edited file, so that gets redone.

I'm not asking you all to do a full proof read (although if you want, I'd be real happy), but if something has stood out for you when reading through the rules...whether its a missed comma (or extraneous comma) that made a sentence confusing, or a sudden tense change, or whatever...send it in (to this thread or by PM or email). I'm in the process of going through the text now with a red pen but I want to catch as many things as possible...so if you've caught a gaff, let me know.

Thanks.

My thoughts: I love PDF's. I'm waiting for this to come out on PDF before I buy it.

Thanks Q. I'm a big PDF fan as well. :-)

Anyone else? We are really kinda agonizing over this one. We're talking here about the future of this game. We'd really like to know what people think is the best way to proceed.

Mike

Hi there,

I have no recommendation at all, but I do think you should consider the following points.

1) $6.10 production cost per copy is insanely high. If you're going to print new books, go for a much higher copy count.

2) If you do print lots and lots of copies (say 1000), the likelihood of selling through within a year (or two) through direct-website sales alone is ... low. Barring some kind of CNN news item that brings Universalis into the realm of the hula-hoop.

3) Breakpoint/return: if you do print lots and lots of copies, then figure out how many you have to sell to break even, and decide "when" that would be still successful in your eyes (a year from now? six months?).

4) Store distribution ...? Hey, you could move 300-500 copies into distribution, with representation. But here you hit some issues surrounding retailer expectations. They hate slim, digest-sized paperbacks that are hard to explain. Uh-oh ...

5) If you go with PDF-only, with the book being a one-time GenCon thing, then what about the next GenCon? The next Origins? And ...? PDF's are very difficult to play and promote in person, as such; they're even harder to sell that way. If you print up a bushel "for conventions," then people who order on-line will probably want those, if they know they exist, rather than a PDF.

Oh well. As you see, I have no recommendation.

Best,
Ron

A full printing with distribution is actually an option that Ralph didn't mention. But we should at least consider it. We could work on the size issue, and probably release a decent-sized book that would have less issues that way. And it would be a revised product of even better quality, with any luck.

Probably no way around the inexlpicability issue, however. Hmmm. We may have to work on our marketing if we were to go that way.

Mike

Thanks Ron for nicely summarizing the exact chain of thought I had on the issue.

Couple of addendums I'd point out though.

Regarding the $6.10 per copy. Its not REALLY insanely high. Given that we're selling direct currently and don't have the big discount to distributors. I suspect that $6.10 out of a purchase price of $15 is probably in the same ball park ratio wise as you're much lower $4.10 cost after paying the steep discount.

If we do another print run it would probably be for 300-500 copies which might lower the per unit slightly. But given that the art is already paid for, we'd be looking at a break even of about 30-40% of units, which isn't terrible.

But yeah...those are the issues we're struggling with.

From a strictly selfish viewpoint, I like PDF format. Takes up much less space, and with as simple a system (although with wonderful play complexity built in), I don't even need to refer to the book in play. I only keep your "cheat sheet" of possible player actions from your website out to play.

However, what do you need to feel successful? All the problems mentioned for publishing just as PDF could detract from success as a publisher.

Umm...
Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious, but why would any of the three options listed be mutually exclusive?

My advice, for what it's worth, is as follows:

1.) Offer the PDF for download for 10 bucks
2.) Do another print run, and sell those too
3.) Print a smaller batch of "Convention Editions" to sell at conventions

Again for what it's worth, if you release the PDF, I will buy it, like, as soon as I hear about it. My curiosity about Universalis has a threshold of ten bucks. :)

Ethan

I'd highly recommend both doing print and PDF. I realized that every PDF game that I intend to play, I make a print copy anyway. For games that offer a print copy, I pay the extra cash for it.

As far as a marketing device, nothing works as well as letting folks skim through a copy in a store, and decide if they want it. I always get a far better feel for the game by skimming it than any quick play rules have ever done for me.

Chris

Hi all - I'm giving this thread a bump because I'm curious as to the status of Universalis. Ralph, Mike - any news for us yet? What are your plans for the next edition? PDF? (I hope I hope)...
Ethan

Currently the text with all of the corrections to clarify phrases and correct some typos is in the hands of our layout guru Matt Snyder. I've asked him to both update the current master print pdf copy and do a new optimized for home printing pdf file that we could use for pdf download.

Right now Mike and I are going through some printing prices and will be making a decision soon. We recovered our costs (i.e. with zero actual reimbursement for our time) from the first print run. We're trying to figure out how long it would take to recover costs from another larger run right now, and whether having a simultaneous PDF option would capture more sales (like you) or would mostly cannablize book sales.

Too late. My patience is limited and I have just ordered a print copy. I'm just too curious to wait. However, I still strongly support releasing a PDF version. I may even buy a PDF copy anyway, depending on how well I like the game...

Excellent...then my delaying tactic was successful. Everything is proceeding as I have forseen. Even now your friends on the forest moon are all ordering print copies too ;-)

Aren't you guys making a better profit from PDF than books anyway?(on a per unit basis)? Or are you concerned that folks might copy it amongst a group as opposed to the group buying 2 or 3 books?

Chris

On a per unit basis...yeah...IF we had sold 100 copies of PDFs at $10 we'd have made $5.60 a copy. Instead of $4.50 a copy. Not a tremendous difference on that volume. But I'm not convinced we'd have sold 100 copies of PDF at $10.

There's a sizeable chunk of potential customers who still won't buy PDFs. And theres a sizeable chunk who do buy PDFs but only in the $5 range.

I think a big reason why it sold as well as it did is because it was hard copy...and a rather nice one at that for an indie effort.

Its a tough decision.

True, PDF's are still a hard sell. From a few polls I've done on rpg.net, I figure that folks basically break down into 3 types regarding PDFs
-People who will buy it if the concept sounds good
-People who will buy it only if they've seen it before/know what's in it(D&D reprints)
-People who will never buy a PDF

Price is fairly irrelevant in changing these folks from one category to the next.

I just figured that it makes more sense to cover both ends, and not worry about PDF's eating your sales. At whatever point in the future Universalis reaches the point of being worth the effort to pirate, you can drop a "brand new 2nd Edition!" with the tons of art, etc, and charge $40 hardcover :)

As a minor aside, if I had just seen Universalis sitting on the shelf somewhere, and new nothing about it, the cover art would not have caught my eye. You might want to consider something with a little more pop! to it to catch folks eyes.

Chris

My feeling is that conventions are going to be the way to push Universalis. Actual play is really the only way to understand how special the game really is. Reviews, web adds, etc. are all great, but descriptions of the game just aren't going to convey what its really about. I'm in favor of a "convention edition" print run... fixed typos, appendices with addons, etc. You take these to conventions and run demo games. Word of mouth is the best sales method, so I suggest encouraging it by offering a modest discount to word of mouth purchases. IOW, keep a list of all your demo participants. Tell your demo participants that their friends will get 10% (or soemthing) off cover price if they mention the demo participant's name when they buy the game. ("Yeah, my buddy Joe was in one of your demos and said it was really cool!")

These convention copies would have a relatively small print run, because of costs, I understand. Suppliment them with a PDF edition. Make the PDF really cheap (No more than $10, $5 would be better). If you do, people will be more likely to buy it *as well* as the printed version.

"These convention copies would have a relatively small print run, because of costs, I understand. Suppliment them with a PDF edition. Make the PDF really cheap (No more than $10, $5 would be better). If you do, people will be more likely to buy it *as well* as the printed version."

This echoes something I posted to Ralph in private messages -- I think that offering PDFs for a small price would allow people to check out the game for cheap, and if they're really strapped for cash, they could live with the PDF -- but I think that people really value a physical object, and if there were an "upgrade path" where a purchaser of a PDF could get a bound copy a bit cheaper, people would be likely to take it.

Hi Ralph,

I've been thinking, and here's the short version of my conclusions.

1) Print 1000 copies (or whatever number gives you a nice break-point on costs).

2) Alter the format slightly, specifically, include an ISBN, a bar code, a price listing, and anything else that makes it bookstore-order-friendly.

3) Come up with a Quick-Start PDF for the website.

4) Sell the book direct from the website and let the bookstore-sales model bake for a while.

5) Promote like a bastard through conventions, using volunteers such as myself. (I have every intention of toting Universalis, along with The Pool, to every public gaming event I ever attend.) Sell copies there too.

All of this presupposes that you are willing to take a loss on the printing in the short term. However, *if* you get the game into stores (say eight months to a year from now), then you'll be working from a profit base from the interim sales, and you'll probably recoup all costs (and possibly then some) from the first store-order. You'd almost certainly need to be working with someone like Woody or Liz by that point, to ensure a meaty 300-to-500 copy initial order.

Some things to do as well: establish Sole Proprietorship status for Ramshead Publishing, get a business license, and get yourself an accountant.

Best,
Ron

Valamir wrote: 3) Sell Uni going forward as a PDF, but (sales permitting) do a Revised Printing for next year's GenCon where we take alot of the Add-ons and essays that are currently on the site, clean them up and include them in an expanded game book.

Obviously the least expensive way for us is to go the PDF route, but what I'd like to hear from you is how much of a benefit that cool little perfect bound book is to your enjoyment of the game and how much of an enticement was it when you made your purchase to have an actual book.

Also, do you see any value added in an expanded Revised Printing as suggested in option 3? If so, what would you want included to make it worthwhile?Thanks.