Re: Call for Playtesters: GURPS Realm Management
 

It was an exciting day when it dawned on me that Steve Jackson Games Nikola Vrtis and Steven Marsh were related to the West End Games people of the same names

Re: Call for Playtesters: GURPS Realm Management
 

The real people we need to clone are, of course, people who buy GURPS products. There are other people out there who can do Marsh's, Vrtis's and Sean's job... but the trouble is that they want to be paid. And unless GURPS suddenly increases its sale by a couple of 100 percent, SJG can't afford them. That's the sad truth.

Re: Call for Playtesters: GURPS Realm Management
 

I note that there are a huge list of things I could do, including focus entirely on Gaming Ballistic as my real job (a goal of mine for 2021) if I could get exactly this: about 2-3× my usual backer count.

At 2×, that would be (on the low end) 840 and on the high end 1200 backers instead of my usual. That turns things around, and enables me to pay not just my own bills, but I can pay my collaborators more.

At 3x the typical sales count (so 1260 to 1800 backers), publishing large hardbacks (300-400 pages if that's what the subject matter requires) becomes not just affordable but profitable, and one project very much subsidizes the production of the next in a virtuous circle.

Re: Call for Playtesters: GURPS Realm Management
 

I think it is a kind of Catch-22. GURPS needs better exposure to get more people interested but it needs the sales numbers to get the better exposure.

It doesn't help that GUPRS is viewed as overly complex when in reality it is, at least IMHO, saner then better known games like Champions/Heroes.