Kickstarter - GURPS Pyramid Scheme

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by Anders

I guess the last would be at $20,000 or $25,000 then?

If it keeps going up at the same rate it has been, $38,000 by my math to unlock all 8 additional articles for each issue.

[Juan]

Already in.
It has reached more than 12000 $ so far, so the 40 pages goal is next. 😁

Glad It is doing that well.

[ravenfish]

The bit where, having written all the material beforehand, they pretend it won't all be released unless they get enough funding, strikes me as rather manipulative. I realize that businesses have to make money, and I will back in any case because I want the product, but I do so in a decidedly miffed sort of mood.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

The bit where, having written all the material beforehand, they pretend it won't all be released unless they get enough funding

No pretense. It won't be. If the Kickstarter doesn't hit the required funding levels, there are going to be articles which won't be released as part of this project. Now, anything that doesn't show up here will probably get used somehow at some time, but they'll have to get paid for separately and they won't come out as part of these Pyramid issues.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

The bit where, having written all the material beforehand, they pretend it won't all be released unless they get enough funding, strikes me as rather manipulative. I realize that businesses have to make money, and I will back in any case because I want the product, but I do so in a decidedly miffed sort of mood.

Its like paying for anything really. Strikes as we purchased material and ready to distribute it at n price based on projected sales volume. If we dont make it we dont hand it all out under cost.

[William]

It's not like the project, once the core verbiage is written, is done and waiting to be sold. Stretch goals pay for the additional work needed to add more material to a well-published product.

[ravenfish]

I don't doubt there's good and sufficient reasons for the way things are done- and I'm sure I'm prone to underappreciate the work that goes into turning a written text into an actual presentable product, which fault I wish I knew how to cure. Still, the idea of reams of perfectly good writing sitting unused is an unsettling one- not that it is likely to come to that in this case, given the progress we seem to be making.

[Say, it isn't that bad!]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

I don't doubt there's good and sufficient reasons for the way things are done- and I'm sure I'm prone to underappreciate the work that goes into turning a written text into an actual presentable product, which fault I wish I knew how to cure. Still, the idea of reams of perfectly good writing sitting unused is an unsettling one- not that it is likely to come to that in this case, given the progress we seem to be making.

With the intent to give explanation by means of example (and with apologies in advance for those whose eyes are about to be pained):

Well, typesetting is important because otherwise the text looks weird. The proper font can give text the right impact. Perhaps something Gothic, for the title of a 19th-century horror setting?

Editing is imprtant because otherise spelling ang grammer mistakes get mad. Layout is important because it helps people keep track of which concepts, paragraph, text, art, and dialogue go together, and how the general concepts flow.

Art is important because otherwise you're just staring at text that goes on and on and on with nothing to break the text nothing to look at other than text no break for your eyes.

Rewrites are good as they can catch awkward phrases and make them polished text. The initial draft is prob. pretty short, but that's hard to understand, so re-writes generally expand the text.

Additional re-writes add brevity and conciseness; the soul of wit.

For the purpose of tabletop games, an editor who knows that game well, can spot and help fix inconsistenceis, mathematical errors, ways that something might be better expressed in the system, and help pin down final prices and numbers. Most important is to be shore that the text says what you think it does; it is easier to fix numbers after the rules have been written, than to fix rules after the numbers have been written.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Still, the idea of reams of perfectly good writing sitting unused is an unsettling one- not that it is likely to come to that in this case, given the progress we seem to be making.

I direct your attention to . . .

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ered-by-gurps/

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by philreed

I direct your attention to . . .

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ered-by-gurps/

To amplify:

The linked product, Dungeon Fantasy Companion 2, delivered all the monsters that Monsters 2 wasn't funded to be big enough for and all the artifacts that Magic Items 2 wasn't funded to be big enough for. No content was lost. It's just that some of it got a different home than originally planned: one that could pay for it.

The moral? We don't waste good stuff – everything gets used. We do reserve the right to release content in ways that pay us, though, because we're taking a risk by creating material ahead of time, so we're incredibly motivated to release it in ways that pay for its creation and then some. "And then some" is extra-important for material written by freelancers (like most of the Pyramid Scheme articles) rather than staff (like my work on the above three products) . . . just ask the freelancers.