Report To The Stakeholders

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I believe that other insiders' posts in other places have made it clear that Discworld 2e is fully laid out, the cover design is complete, and the whole lot has been approved by Terry's estate. Any hold up now is entirely at the print buying and marketing end of the chain.

It's a numbers game. The process of preparing the book for print -- editing, layout, prepress, management -- drove costs to a point that to proceed as normal means bad things financially for the project. We're exploring our options here.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by RogerBW

Though I suspect this mostly means "isn't growing as fast as the Empire of Munchkin" rather than "is disappearing". When I MIB at conventions I meet fewer people than in previous years who say "oh, GURPS, you need pages of calculations to build a boat, har har har" and more who say "hey, sure, I'd like to try it".

I've had this same reaction in my area. I've been going to the two biggest hobby stores in Tidewater for a while now and my "GURPS Demo" is no longer met with "What is GURPS" *googles* "Oh, it's that game", but rather "Hey, dude's demoing GURPS again! Dude, you have to try it. It does AD&D better than AD&D!" I've gone from my group (only) using the system to three different new groups using it as well. I'm even considering holding a GM "seminar" to help the newbie GMs (who are constantly emailing or texting me - which I don't mind).

And if I may be honest, it's the new edition of D&D that are pulling people to GURPS. It's not that's bad - in fact it's the reverse! - it's that it's actually much easier to customize characters and people are looking for other system engines to do non-DnD games.

Seriously, 5 years ago I don't know if I could have convinced anyone to try GURPS that wasn't in my gaming group, but now it's pretty easy. Word of mouth is spreading and people are getting interested slow, but sure.

[Ronnke]

Originally Posted by philreed

It's a numbers game. The process of preparing the book for print -- editing, layout, prepress, management -- drove costs to a point that to proceed as normal means bad things financially for the project. We're exploring our options here.

Is there anything we fans can do to makes these books reality sooner? Preorders? Kickstarter? Selling our grandmothers?

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

Is there anything we fans can do to makes these books reality sooner? Preorders? Kickstarter? Selling our grandmothers?

I hope for a soft PDF launch at least.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Ronnke

Is there anything we fans can do to makes these books reality sooner? Preorders? Kickstarter? Selling our grandmothers?

This is just my memory of the conversations I've read, so take with a grain of salt.

The Kickstarter they did for Ogre (and, I presume, Car Wars?) only was for improvements on the product, not to fund the product itself. It added bells and whistles, but SJ Games doesn't (again, my memory) want to have a project be required to proceed, even if the project turns out to be unprofitable.

Once the book is complete, THEN maybe a Kickstarter could be done to improve it.

Originally Posted by lachimba

I hope for a soft PDF launch at least.

If I recall correction (read the disclaimer I put, above), the license sadly doesn't include digital releases. It's going to be strictly a "dead trees" release...

*************

I'm already planning on buying two copies. One for myself and my wife, and one for my Pratchett-loving geeky female cousin. :-)

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

T


If I recall correction (read the disclaimer I put, above), the license sadly doesn't include digital releases. It's going to be strictly a "dead trees" release...

**********-)

It was changed the deal now includes a PDF That said I don't know if there are restrictions on end date

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Once the book is complete, THEN maybe a Kickstarter could be done to improve it.

Oh, Discworld 2e is complete, believe me. Some lucky person out there even has the final-except-for-a-couple-of-pictures-and-some-checking print-out that I put in the charity auction (with full permission from the company) at the UK Discworld convention over a year ago now.

To be blunt, I think that the Ogre Kickstarter had an unfortunate effect on the company's view of the subject. Every other small-to-medium-sized RPG publisher seems to be jumping into Kickstarter feet first at every opportunity, frequently producing some beautiful books as a result. (The Dracula Dossier is certainly gorgeous, and I'm waiting eagerly on my print copies of Planet Mercenary and Mage 20. And I have a very weak collector gene.) From SJGames, not a sausage. It's sad.

Originally Posted by lachimba

It was changed the deal now includes a PDF That said I don't know if there are restrictions on end date

You would not believe how unhappy I'd be if this project was killed by contractual end date problems. Not having had an advance in the contract for this one would of course be part of it.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

You would not believe how unhappy I'd be if this project was killed by contractual end date problems.

That will not happen.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by philreed

That will not happen.

I'm glad. It's a well-done book and I'd love to see it ... well, done. :)

[Þorkell]

Why is there financial trouble in getting the book out? Didn't the company budget for the entire process?