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Being part of the development of how business online will look is pretty interesting to me, so far atleast. We are tossing around a bunch of ideas for how we can develop and evolve as a company and part of the online design movement.
1. Patronage - originally done in gaming by Open Design & Wolfgang Baur. The idea that Baur uses is that he sets a "limit" on how much donations he requires to write a book/adventure. He then offers people to become patrons of that project, paying inbetween 30 to 100+ dollars. In exchange for this donation you get insight and greater and greater degrees of creative control and say-so. If we would do something like this, we would likely follow his lead and put out a number of projects that we could work on, set limits for each one and open up for people to donate. Whatever enough people donate for, we write and release - patrons get it for free and the possibility to buy print for print-costs only. Others get to buy the PDF and possible Print version at normal price. Unlike Piecemeal Publishing, patronage is transferable to different projects or refundable.
2. Design-by-Demand - This idea is based around that we'll do what people ASK us to do. Putting out a pricelist for individual items (feat, power, item, prestige class, feat chain, base class) we open up for people putting in orders with us. They might want a new psionic race for their campaign, or an NPC, a new power or perhaps a couple of feats that fits an idea they have. They pay us a small amount (say 5 dollars for a feat), we make it, test it and they get it, spiffied up in an official PDF. In return, we get to use that material in whatever e-book we put out. Some of it might end up in race books, power compilations or whatever fits.
3. Piecemeal Publishing - A middle road between Patronage and DbD, piecemeal publishing is based on providing a free sample of a product and offer a "tipping jar". If people tip to a pre-set level, we do another installment, if not, or just to a smaller amount, we take it as a thank you for the freebie. We continue writing until we hit a pre-determined "final post" (which will be announced) or people stop tipping. This way, we create our own material and offer it to the public, but the people decide what gets written. Difference between patronage is that with PP, everything that has been tipped for, gets released for free under a CC-license - we might compile the information, tidy it up, make it look nice and add a bunch of art and release it as a "for buy" option.
4. Ransom Model - an extreme variant of Piecemeal Publishing. Here, we write the entire conceptual idea completely, offer a few previews and put out a Ransom. If the ransom is met within X months, we release the entire project, for free, for everyone. This might or might not include art, depending on what goals we set. This is the model I like the least, part because it requires us to put up ALL the effort at the start with the very real possibility of not getting squat for it. If we're doing it like this, we might just as well release it as a "for buy" PDF and see the money trickle in (if it does).
So, do people have any OTHER ideas for alternative business models?
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Real life has conspired to really keep me from working on RPGs - but I'm not letting it! Despite a bevy of issues, work still progresses here at Dreamscarred Press - slower than I might like, true, but progress nonetheless.
I had hoped to have The Mind Unveiled: Prestige Classes in for final proofing last week, but that didn't happen. However, I've put a couple final tweaks on the layout and hope to have it sent in tomorrow. I know people who bought the full subscription are eager for the last few products, and I'm working to get them out!
And that brings me to the Third Dawn Campaign Setting. I knew how much work it was going to be. The workload has honestly not surprised me. It's about what I expected. Unfortunately, my time to invest on it was something I overestimated. Thankfully, Andreas and I have hammered out a lot of things in the past two weeks, and far more than half is "done" from a writing perspective. 50 pages of cultural write-ups, 15 pages of cosmology & godminds, 10 pages of races, 30 pages on classes (Base and prestige), 12 pages of organizations... a lot is written. I'd say there's less than 10 pages of actual writing left to do, then just a lot of clean-up / tweaking.
With artwork completed months ago, and with me keeping the drafts in a reasonable format for layout, layout should be pretty fast.
So, real life may be trying to keep me from working, but I'm not letting it!
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I've been a bit absent from Dreamscarred Press over the last month or so. Unfortunately, I don't know how long this absence is going to last. I've been dealing with car trouble, housing repairs, an increased work load, and domestic responsibilities, resulting in much, much less free time than I'm used to. Thankfully, I've still managed to chip away at the Third Dawn Campaign Setting (including writing up a Background feat today), so hopefully that will enter into editing and layout soon. It's getting very close to being done from a writing perspective, and graphics have been done for quite some time, so hopefully, the layout won't be too difficult.
But, I thought I'd post about why I've been absent.
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This is more of an essay than a normal blog entry, but here goes anyway.
Throughout my history of gaming in 3.5, I've seen a division somewhat like what Wizards used for 4E (and I'm stealing their definitions for this essay) but at different levels than what they suggest.
At levels 1-7, you are playing "mortal" heroes, people who are extraordinary individuals who can do awesome stuff, but this is still within the "grasp" of the normal individual. A farmer can imagine being able to train enough to make two deadly attacks almost at once (iterative attacks) or tame magic powerful enough to let people fly. The concepts for the E6 style of play is based somewhat around these concepts. This is essentially the time when heroes are still Heroic.
At levels 8-14, you go beyond mortal. This is the area where the characters being doing stuff that is the basis for myths and legends, the true heroes whose stories will be told for ages to come. They take on powerful enemies, raise the dead and shake of blows that kill a farmer as if they were mosquitobites. This is the time when they are welcome everywhere, given respect by kings and queens, wield powerful magics and have access to mighty magical items. The more magically inclined individuals craft items and weapons that will one day become legendary. This is the time when heroes are Paragons to the world around them.
At levels 15-20 you open up the world to the godlike epic events. At these levels, the characters rewrite the rules of the universe, wield magic powerful enough to summon angels or demon lords to do their bidding, travel instantly all across the MULTIVERSE and take on Demon Lords, Ancient Dragons and other adventures that become myths. At the end of this career, these individuals are powerful enough to be demigods, above the mortal baseline to such a degree that the farmer must use the divine as inspiration for describing these individuals. This is the time when heroes become demigods who rise to become Gods as their stories become myths.
To me, level 20 is the END of gaming. The "Epic Level Handbook" was a huge mistake in my eyes (both conceptually and how it was implemented) because the only thing that SHOULD come after 20th level is a finishing story of immortality.
Comments are welcome in the forums!
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Today marks the release of the first in the second series of High Psionics supplements. Considering the success of our first series, I have high hopes for this second run, but we'll see how it goes. This first supplement is all about the phrenic scourge monster - it's physiology, society, anatomy, and all the different variants of it. I think Andreas did a bang-up job with it and if you haven't checked it out, go see it here.
Next on the plate for High Psionics is Power Sources, a 14 page supplement from Robert van der Meer (who wrote Tome of Channeling). This rules-light supplement gives a variety of ways to customize your character. I think it's pretty cool, and it's probably going to be ready next week.
That will pretty strongly kick off the second series of High Psionics. My hope is to have the whole compilation ready by early 2009 - but we'll see how that goes.
All in all, it's nice to see the series going again after a brief hiatus.
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So, I've put the final words into the Orlamu Crystalcarver, which should be the 2nd preview entry for Third Dawn - I'm reserving myself for whether or not Jeremy wants me to change anything, but we should be good to go!
I'm looking forward to seeing both Serene Mind and Phrenic Scourges hit the stands, and lets not forget about Mind Unveiled: Feats. That one is a crunch-heavy release if anything! Should be a lot of interesting stuff for most people and campaigns, although it was somewhat stripped by the Halo Knight, Morphean and Enlightened Monk releases requiring their feats.
By the last count, Jeremy said we were up to 115 pages worth of material for Third Dawn, and we've finished the Psionic Ranger variant class that will go into the major release. At this point I am already thinking about what should go into the Players Guide.
We've got one adventure in the writing for Third Dawn and there might be more coming, but we haven't had confirmation about that yet. I'm just leaking a few scraps of news about Third Dawn to you guys.
In other news I'm about 75% finished with Fleshcrafting and about 40% done with Symbiotes. We've split them into two releases so that I can concentrate on Fleshcrafting to put that out first. I'm also working hard on "Mind over Matter: A True20 Psionics Handbook" - but that is low on the priority list which is shock full with Third Dawn, Fleshcrafting, Symbiotes, Psicrystals Expanded 2 and some other stuff.
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Late last week, Wizards announced that the d20 STL (System Trademark License) will be revoked in June of this year.
What does this mean? After June, 3rd Party Publisher books cannot use the d20 system logo and any books that have the d20 logo on them must have the d20 logo removed by the end of the year. Additionally, the other things allowed by the d20 STL (referencing the Player's Handbook by name, the MM & DMG, etc) have to be corrected by the end of the year.
What does this mean for Dreamscarred Press?
Well, thankfully, we've been planning for this already, but Untapped Potential: New Horizons in Psionics, The Mind Divine, and High Psionics Compilation: Volume I all have to be updated to not use the d20 logo. I'll have to check our other products to see them, as well.
So, anything you want to see corrected / updated in any of our books with the d20 logo, now is the time to say something! We have 8 months to change it.
Most of our newer products don't use the d20 logo anyway, because Andreas and I both knew this was coming. Another third party publisher has put out a new 3.5 system logo. I'm not entirely sure of the legality of it, although I think it's safe to use, so we may adopt that.
It is definitely an interesting time to be in the d20 / OGL market.
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It feels almost like we're in a slump here. We haven't put anything out in a month, we haven't put out any web enhancements yet, and we haven't put out the new preview for Third Dawn. Yikes!
But, stuff is coming! The first web enhancement will hopefully be ready this week.
I'm expecting the second Third Dawn preview will likely be next week, given the revisions we realized needed to be made.
And... quite a few projects are starting to get through the final stages to release-read: Untapped Classes: Life Leech, Untapped Classes: Complete Society Mind, High Psionics: Phrenic Scourges, and The Mind Unveiled: Feats are all in the last stages of proofreading / layout.
I'm hoping to have Life Leech out this week, The Mind Unveiled: Feats and Complete Society Mind out next week, and Phrenic Scourges out the week after that.
We'll see how things go.
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It's been a while since my last entry, mostly because it's just been busy. Between trying to spend time with the family, my day job, and also working on Third Dawn when possible, there just aren't enough hours in the day.
The good news is that Third Dawn is progressing nicely. The campaign setting is at around 90 pages or so of material right now, with another 30ish yet to write. Graphics are starting to filter in, as well, which helps spur things along.
Today I started to tackle some of the history of Third Dawn, going back to the founding of some of the nations that exist in the world for the campaign setting. It's fun to literally write the history of the world.
What's next out of the hopper for releases? Honestly, I'm not sure. Serene Mind is still in editing, as is Phrenic Scourges. Races of the Mind: Xeph might be coming sooner, rather than later. We'll see how that goes. I've been slacking on working on Rajrin material... It's one of those things where inspiration just hasn't hit and I don't want to force it, because that usually leads to a not-so-good release.
But, April will be the month of web enhancements! I think we have at least three planned so far!
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I can hardly believe it. Andreas and I have over 80 raw pages of material for Third Dawn. This includes several prestige classes which have been entered into playtesting, a new race, several new countries and cultures, a high-level overview of the world's history, some new equipment (including new weapons), a variety of new feats, and more.
I did a test to see how much we had moving from our "raw" material into layout, and it dropped from 82 pages to around 70. Add in graphics (especially the map) and tables, and that's easily over 70, if not back to around 80.
So, it's the second week of March and we have about 65% of the material written. Not bad for about 5 weeks of work. If we keep on this course, by the end of April, we should be moving from writing into full editing / layout. And, the crunch we're writing is already getting edited by our crack squad of playtesters!
This is going a lot faster than I expected - the cover is already underway, as are the graphics. The map should be underway in a few weeks once we have enough geographical information to actually have a cartographer do work.
And... our first preview was well received and opened our eyes to some other things we missed, which is the whole point of previews and reviews.
I'd say I'm excited about this project, but I've already said that... but, we have some very good news about support for OTHER game systems, although not 4E, because who knows what's going on with that at this point... but, I can't go into more details until some other information is public. Let's just say, our hope of having Third Dawn usable in other game systems will work.
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