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Old 10-17-2018, 07:17 PM   #11
evileeyore
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

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Originally Posted by edk926 View Post
I kind of feel hardcovers in general aren't going to sell well anymore. More and more people use things like tablets for their reading now.
Yup. I own exactly 2 hardcovers for 4e, Basic Characters and Basic Campaigns. Everything else is pdf.

The only reason I still have my 3e in non-pdf format is nostalgia.

I don't even buy reading books in non-ebook format anymore.
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Old 10-17-2018, 07:23 PM   #12
DouglasCole
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

On the flip side, fully 2/3 of the pledges for the Hall of Judgment book were hardcopy (128-page softcover); the other 1/3 were PDF-only. My prior RPG, Dragon Heresy, was available in hardcover as well, and 42% of backers ordered hardbacks (many ordered two).
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Old 10-17-2018, 07:53 PM   #13
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Yup. I own exactly 2 hardcovers for 4e, Basic Characters and Basic Campaigns. Everything else is pdf.

The only reason I still have my 3e in non-pdf format is nostalgia.

I don't even buy reading books in non-ebook format anymore.
I certainly do. It makes reading in the bathtub feel safer.
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:19 PM   #14
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

I have almost all of the GURPS hardcovers, and I would love new versions of the old 3e setting books.
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Old 10-17-2018, 08:25 PM   #15
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

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Yup. I own exactly 2 hardcovers for 4e, Basic Characters and Basic Campaigns. Everything else is pdf.
I hear this. And I believe it represents a truth out there. The marketing numbers don't lie.

But, I have a devilishly hard time introducing GURPS (or DFRPG) to people without physical books. Over the past seven months, I've introduced, between adults and students, about 50 people to DFRPG. Of those people, six have purchased the boxed set. None that I know of have bought the PDFs. A number of people have become interested in GURPS and have borrowed hardcover copies of the Basic Set, GURPS Fantasy, GURPS Magic, and GURPS Horror, among others. When they see the books out—I always have some near the gaming table(s)—they pick them up, flip through them, and ask questions or ask to borrow them. The pictures capture people's imagination. Flipping through the books allows people to land on interesting tidbits, random sidebars, etc. They can get a feel for it before they buy it.

The GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line has been harder to interest people in because nobody can see it. It lives on my computer. They've heard me mention it, and I've added some bits to our DFRPG game, but I can't share the PDFs. Printouts just don't look as intriguing as the books.

If anybody has tips for how they've used the PDFs to sell the game to new players, I'm all ears. Most of these folks are relatively new to RPGs. (Some have played D&D... but it is pretty well defined by its glittering hardcovers.) Our adult group has gotten so large that we're likely splitting into multiple groups soon. I'd love to keep the SJG momentum going.
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Old 10-17-2018, 09:33 PM   #16
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

It is a problem that I have with the majority of new games. If no one believes in the game enough to create a physical book that I can pick up in a store and flip through, why should I buy it? I think that I have spent $10,000 in the last decade on gaming books, and most of them have been physical books, and most of them were impulse buys in gaming stores or used book stores.

The problem with switching to PDFs is that you lose the impulse purchases that gamers are particularly likely to do. There is just something special about purchasing a physical book and being able to enjoy it immediately. PDFs are useful, but they do not the same as physical books.
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Old 10-17-2018, 10:40 PM   #17
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

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It is a problem that I have with the majority of new games. If no one believes in the game enough to create a physical book that I can pick up in a store and flip through, why should I buy it? I think that I have spent $10,000 in the last decade on gaming books, and most of them have been physical books, and most of them were impulse buys in gaming stores or used book stores.
That's been less and less an option for me. One of my current players used to own a store where she sold mass quantities of used game books; I believe I bought my original copy of Mage: The Ascension from her, for example. But far fewer are available in used bookstores now, and used bookstores themselves are rare (there are two in Riverside). And game stores have become less and less sources of a wide variety of books; I gave up on the most easily accessed one after they took an order from me and, when I called to ask, said they had never heard of me, and the other one, a few doors down from San Diego's best science fiction/mystery bookstore, had no GURPS books at all the last time I visited.

On the other hand, impulse buys are increasingly possible online, either through Amazon, or via Bundle of Holding. I carry around three Mage books and close to a dozen GURPS books in my iPad, Palantir. I used to take as many GURPS books as I could physically lift to games; now I take about as many, but only the Basic Set is in print, the rest are e-books.
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Old 10-17-2018, 11:13 PM   #18
Alden Loveshade
 
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

I've been buying physical books long before I ever heard of "pdf." I have hundreds--many of them packed away in boxes that I haven't opened in years.

My pdf books I can find in a matter of seconds, and they take up essentially no physical space. I'd convert virtually all of my physical books to pdf if I could do so easily.
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Old 10-17-2018, 11:22 PM   #19
Andrew Hackard
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

In addition to the other things mentioned in this thread, there is a larger issue: the pool of writers who are both
(a) demonstrably capable of putting together a full-length GURPS hardcover, either on their own or in collaboration with a small team, and
(b) willing to put in that much time on a large-scale project, rather than bashing out Pyramid articles (requiescat in pace) or smaller PDF supplements
probably contains fewer than 10 people; I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's fewer than five.

Writing for GURPS, only slightly more than any RPG, requires a certain set of technical writing skills that only come with diligent effort and a whole lot of practice. And the writer really needs to be engaged with the subject of the book, because writing tens of thousands of words on something you don't enjoy is a recipe for a dull, plodding manuscript, assuming you don't just throw in the towel halfway through.

It is very easy to say "publish more hardcovers!" And yes, in an ideal world with infinite resources of time, money, and talent, that would be a great solution. We have starkly limited supplies of all three. IMO, it's better to apply them where we can see smaller results more quickly and more often than to try to force out one or maybe two big books a year at the cost of not having any other GURPS to sell.
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Old 10-17-2018, 11:35 PM   #20
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Default Re: Why no new GURPS hardcovers?

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....(b) willing to put in that much time on a large-scale project, rather than bashing out Pyramid articles (requiescat in pace) or smaller PDF supplements
[/INDENT]....
That brings up another question. Now that Pyramid is being discontinued, how can new writers to GURPS break in?
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