Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - The Future of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game?

robertsconley · 02-15-2018, 08:54 AM

The option I don't see is opening a third party publishing program. It obvious from the 2017 Stakeholder report and previous report that manpower constraints are a serious concern for anything but the top sellers like Munchkin.

The result is a series of "silver" bullet projects being published for the GURPS lines in the hopes that it will the thing to ignite interest in the RPG.

It will not Discworld/Mars Attack, nope OK it will be a DF Boxed Set nope. well it will be.....

One thing that the Stakeholder report clarified for me are the comments about the "State of the Industry". My experience with publishing with the OSR is that while there still a long tail (I still sell several copies of Majestic Wilderlands a month despite it being released back in 2009). The bucks go to those who produce regularly (with good quality).

The continual appearance of a given publisher's product in the new and hot category is the "killer app" of keeping sales up for the entire line. At least down at the level where the OSR operates at. It doesn't have to be every week but at least once a month or at a minimum once a quarter.

By having a Third party publishing program either at Warehouse 23 or OBS stores (RPGNow/DriveThruRPG) SJ Games sidestep the manpower crunch and let the fans of GURPS propel it forward with multiple releases in multiple formats with SJ Games getting a cut. This directly addresses the condition of the market with multiple releases over time.

02-15-2018, 08:54 AM	#24
robertsconley Join Date: Jul 2006	Re: The Future of the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game? The option I don't see is opening a third party publishing program. It obvious from the 2017 Stakeholder report and previous report that manpower constraints are a serious concern for anything but the top sellers like Munchkin. The result is a series of "silver" bullet projects being published for the GURPS lines in the hopes that it will the thing to ignite interest in the RPG. It will not Discworld/Mars Attack, nope OK it will be a DF Boxed Set nope. well it will be..... One thing that the Stakeholder report clarified for me are the comments about the "State of the Industry". My experience with publishing with the OSR is that while there still a long tail (I still sell several copies of Majestic Wilderlands a month despite it being released back in 2009). The bucks go to those who produce regularly (with good quality). The continual appearance of a given publisher's product in the new and hot category is the "killer app" of keeping sales up for the entire line. At least down at the level where the OSR operates at. It doesn't have to be every week but at least once a month or at a minimum once a quarter. By having a Third party publishing program either at Warehouse 23 or OBS stores (RPGNow/DriveThruRPG) SJ Games sidestep the manpower crunch and let the fans of GURPS propel it forward with multiple releases in multiple formats with SJ Games getting a cut. This directly addresses the condition of the market with multiple releases over time.