Warehouse 23 Summer Sale - Bonus PDF - How to Be a GURPS GM: Combat Encounters

[Taneli]

So, just to confirm, this How to Be a GURPS GM book is not going to be a part of the 2021 GURPS Kickstarter, and that will have a different issue of How to Be a GURPS GM?

[philreed]

Originally Posted by Taneli

So, just to confirm, this How to Be a GURPS GM book is not going to be a part of the 2021 GURPS Kickstarter, and that will have a different issue of How to Be a GURPS GM?

The two titles are unrelated and different. There are two different new How to Be a GURPS GM titles, one offered in this summer sales event and one created for the PDF Challenge.

As to the availability of this bonus PDF after the summer sale event: It will be available for a price. If someone misses this opportunity to get the PDF as a bonus, there will be chances to pay for it after the summer sales event ends.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Taneli

So, just to confirm, this How to Be a GURPS GM book is not going to be a part of the 2021 GURPS Kickstarter, and that will have a different issue of How to Be a GURPS GM?

Correct.

—

The current and upcoming How to Be a GURPS GM series looks like this:

• How to Be a GURPS GM – The one, the only, the truly original, by Warren "Mook" Wilson. You can buy it on Warehouse 23.
  
• How to Be a GURPS GM: Ritual Path Magic – Written for the GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge, by Christopher R. Rice. If you missed it last year, you'll just have to wait.
  
• How to Be a GURPS GM: Managing Expectations – A regular-season release, written by me. You can buy it on Warehouse 23.
  
• How to Be a GURPS GM: Combat Encounters – A special Summer Sale promo item, written by me. It's available only via the sale, not via the GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge. If you miss it, you'll just have to wait.
  
• How to Be a GURPS GM: ??? – An as-yet-unrevealed GURPS 2021 PDF Challenge item, by Christopher R. Rice. It'll be available only via the Kickstarter, not via the Summer Sale. If you miss it, you'll just have to wait.

[Michael Thayne]

Woohoo! After buying three more volumes of Creatures of the Night, I now own every single GURPS 4e book with the exception of the Vorkosigan Saga one (along with an increasingly long list of 3e books, to which I just added Classic Fantasy and Time Travel. Perhaps I'll buy the Vorkosigan book the next time a deal like this is on offer.

Edit: Wait, I have the Vorkosigan sourcebook already, it's just that the "You Already Own This File" banner isn't displaying correctly. That's odd. Glad I didn't buy it a second time.

[Kromm]

Oh, and since there's no official preview, here's a low-res snapshot of what's in the PDF.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by philreed

If someone misses this opportunity to get the PDF as a bonus, there will be chances to pay for it after the summer sales event ends.

Is that "after" as in "soon after", or "after" in the sense of "some indeterminate but long period of time after, a la the 2020 GURPS PDFs we still can't buy"?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Is that "after" as in "soon after", or "after" in the sense of "some indeterminate but long period of time after, a la the 2020 GURPS PDFs we still can't buy"?

I'm not Phil, but if you really want this now, I suggest getting it via the sale.

—

We're trying to make "collecting all of GURPS" more of an active process – one of participation in events (like Kickstarters and sales) – than it has been up to this point. It's a good way for us to judge the number of active players and, more important, dispel the perennial, harmful "GURPS is dead" rumors. And since the price of this PDF is "free if you buy stuff you'd get anyway," and that of the PDF Challenge items is "as low as $3 for 12 products," we believe that customers benefit at least as much as we do. Seems like a fair trade.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Kromm

We're trying to make "collecting all of GURPS" more of an active process – one of participation in events (like Kickstarters and sales) – than it has been up to this point.

Frankly, the "McRibs model" annoys me as a way to sell food, and I find it no less annoying as a way of selling books. When a company starts demanding I jump through hoops if I want to buy their products, I eventually begin to wonder if I want to bother, and I doubt I am the only one who feels this way.

Add to that the people who would be perfectly willing to jump through the hoops but only check on things (or only have ready money) less than once a month, and so miss out on the chance. You are businessmen, and I am not, so I trust and hope that the extra sales you get from all this are more than the sales you lose from it.

[Willy]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Frankly, the "McRibs model" annoys me as a way to sell food, and I find it no less annoying as a way of selling books. When a company starts demanding I jump through hoops if I want to buy their products, I eventually begin to wonder if I want to bother, and I doubt I am the only one who feels this way.

Add to that the people who would be perfectly willing to jump through the hoops but only check on things (or only have ready money) less than once a month, and so miss out on the chance. You are businessmen, and I am not, so I trust and hope that the extra sales you get from all this are more than the sales you lose from it.

I think it may generate more sales for SJG, at least I hope so. But I see trouble otherwise, annoying gamers who don´t like this way to make sales is one of them.
Even more actually you have a special sales ( with a otherwise very tasty goody ) directly before the next GURPS Kickstarter, this may not be the wisest way to handle it. Some people, including me by the way, may have to choose between one of them. So you either hamper your Kickstarter Campaign or your extra sales. A little more distance in the time between the sales and kickstarter and even better a visible planning ahead, so players can plan too, and lay money aside for it. At least some of your customers are students or pupils who have to think about what to buy for there money.

Also I think while not knowing the sales numbers, going to much in the way of events and Kickstarter may get the folks to buy less in the meantime. Because why should I spend my money in the gaps, while I know some new stuff will arrive in bulk soon.

Not to mention most gamers are long term players of GURPS and will have nearly everything that is of interest for them. The long delay after each Kickstarter and now the one chance extra goodies until further notice may generate extra sales, but they buy products they otherwise wouldn´t buy or even want, not the best way to consumer satisfaction.

Of course I clearly want you to sell more, but even if you have a reasonable success with Kickstarter, I think a, take it all at once and in bulk, is the wrong way.

One last word in this things, you needn´t fear that the GURPS is dead meme is ignited if you don´t go the event way. It´s still ( sadly ) running like a wildfire, last time time I searched at Facebook or Reddit for GURPS I got a couple of suggestions for membership - in dead game gamers groups.

Anyway I marked the Kickstarter and will take part ones it has started. I still have and want to buy a lot of GURPS stuff, my library isn´t half filled with all the stuff I want.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by ravenfish

Is that "after" as in "soon after", or "after" in the sense of "some indeterminate but long period of time after, a la the 2020 GURPS PDFs we still can't buy"?

No details at this time. In the future.