The Forge Archives

Long ago, I wrote an essay on how to publish your own RPG. You can find the old version of it in the Forge Articles section or in the back of Donjon.

I've finished a new version in time to take it to Dreamation, a convention this weekend, and present it at the indie publishing seminar we're doing there. I've also put it online for your perusal. Feel free to make any comments here, and I hope it presents some technical ideas to you.

http://www.anvilwerks.com/SelfPublish

Hi Clinton,

A good essay full of sound advice.

A note:

Scribus is also available for OS X. I have it on my box but I haven't taken it for an extensive test drive.  

best

Trevis

Clinton,

I read your article. It made me full of emotions.

First I wanted to fight you, then I wanted to hug you, then fight you again, and finally I wanted to collaborate.

You're woefully deficient in the "getting your game in print" department (while excellently knowledgeable in the "getting your game out into the world without printing it" dept)

Should I write my own piece and pick up where you left off? Should we talk? Should we fight?

This reminds me of something else (something BIG) I need to talk to you and Ron about before GenCon.

Rock on.
-Luke

Very cool, Clinton. The angle to a cheap buy into the Big Three and the true POD internal details were particularly enlightening to me.

Luke, please post highlights of the brawl:) I'm sure I'll learn something.

Very good read, thankyou for posting the article.

Yep, thanks also Clinton.

Question: In the final section about 'Print-On-Demand', you say "They have some neat tools on their site for you to specify how the store looks ..."

Did you mean 'store' or 'product' or something else? I wasn't quite sure from the context.

That was quite helpful and encouraging.

In fact, it put me in high spirits to start writing again. Thanks!

-Poppet-

Quote from: Clinton R. NixonLong ago, I wrote an essay on how to publish your own RPG. You can find the old version of it in the Forge Articles section or in the back of Donjon.

I've finished a new version in time to take it to Dreamation, a convention this weekend, and present it at the indie publishing seminar we're doing there. I've also put it online for your perusal. Feel free to make any comments here, and I hope it presents some technical ideas to you.

http://www.anvilwerks.com/SelfPublish

Hey Clinton,

How's it going?  Thanks for posting the link.  I think your essay does a good  job of covering the bases.  Given the internet age, the only thing I'd add to it are a few more lines about the importance of a website as a pure marketing/infomation tool, as opposed to a point of online distribution.  

For example, Wild Sphere, my own RPG, is still in development, but we still have a website with increasing amounts of content and monthly updates so interested folks can see what's going on.  For those of you who are curious, you can check it out at

http://www.wildsphere.com/

Other than that little quibble, I think it's well done.

Cheers

Looks good to me boss for an essay on how to do it on the cheap.  However, in the art section you forgot to mention those few badasses that can do the art on their own.  Though I do not endorse folks doing their own art unless they got some skill in the area...

Keith

Hi, was on vacation last week, finally returning to life this week, sorry about the belated response:

Luke:

Quote from: abzu
I read your article. It made me full of emotions.

First I wanted to fight you, then I wanted to hug you, then fight you again, and finally I wanted to collaborate.

Could you explain these emotions, specifically which on which issues?  I read the piece and found it extremely concise and straightforward, though as you mention it doesn't attempt at all to tackle printing.  But then again, the agenda was to pretty much break industry stereotypes.

-Andy

Quote from: Clinton R. Nixon...

http://www.anvilwerks.com/SelfPublish

This link is dead... is it posted elsewhere?