[Glorantha] Kickstarter for the Guide is up

[Kaiu Keiichi]

Hey, their support is our gain.

The $35 for a PDF level is the same as that for Onyx Path's Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th PDF option.  So, it seems to match what the market will bear, at least for the PDF option.

[pandesmos]

Hey, their support is our gain.

The $35 for a PDF level is the same as that for Onyx Path's Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th PDF option.  So, it seems to match what the market will bear, at least for the PDF option.

$35 for a PDF. That just seems obscene. That seems more like a "I am going to support you project and company" type pledge than an actual price for content.

[Bilharzia]

OMG, I always hated this fuckin' world!   Can't they do something new?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and speculate that possibly you're not the target audience.

oh that's just Kyger Litor complaining about being published again. She loves to troll.

[Kaiu Keiichi]

OMG, I always hated this fuckin' world!   Can't they do something new?

So, you come into the thread just to crap on other people's fun?

Hint - they did not create the product for you.

[Kaiu Keiichi]

$35 for a PDF. That just seems obscene. That seems more like a "I am going to support you project and company" type pledge than an actual price for content.

As a writer, with what writer's get paid for content, I can tell you that's actually dirt cheap.  Considering that at 1 cent per word for say a 400 page book at 500 words a page, that's some sheckels. And 1 cent a word is chicken scratch. I'm not sure of how many words are in that product, but if it is say 400 words, that's 400 pages X 500 words = 20,000 man hours,not counting editing, layout or distribution costs (whatever cut that drivethru takes off of the top for digital distribution). 1 cent a word is the average for RPG writing from my understanding.

I agree with Harlan Ellison - pay the writers!

[econobus]

oh that's just Kyger Litor complaining about being published again. She loves to troll.

Mama do love to troll but somehow they avoided writing her up here again.

On the other hand, if you've got the old Glorantha box plus Missing Lands plus Elder Secrets plus bits of Gods of Glorantha, you've basically got this book. It's been reedited and nuggets have been sifted in, but the biggest "must have" aspect of it is making sure you're in line with current canon.

On the Maidstone Archer's third hand, a new fan will have to spend at least $100 to pick up Glorantha and Elder Secrets nowadays and I can't even find a Missing Lands on the open market, so even as a reprint with better production values it's a cost-effective choice.

[econobus]

As a writer, with what writer's get paid for content, I can tell you that's actually dirt cheap.  Considering that at 1 cent per word for say a 400 page book at 500 words a page, that's some sheckels. And 1 cent a word is chicken scratch. I'm not sure of how many words are in that product, but if it is say 400 words, that's 400 pages X 500 words = 20,000 man hours,not counting editing, layout or distribution costs (whatever cut that drivethru takes off of the top for digital distribution). 1 cent a word is the average for RPG writing from my understanding.

I love you, but it doesn't take a man hour to write one word of an rpg supplement. When people get into the groove and are free to submit stream-of-consciousness filler, 500 to 600 words an hour is more normal.

Granted that's still not federal minimum wage at 1 cent a word, but omg the beer money!

A better question might be that IF a freelancer takes home $200 for filling that 400-page PDF and IF it sells say 300 downloads at $35 a pop, where does the extra $10,300 go?

Got to pay the writers...2% of the gross?

[The Traveller]

Any bets its going to wrap up around the quarter million mark?

Who says there isn't any money in RPGs?

[Iron Simulacrum]

I love you, but it doesn't take a man hour to write one word of an rpg supplement. When people get into the groove and are free to submit stream-of-consciousness filler, 500 to 600 words an hour is more normal.

Granted that's still not federal minimum wage at 1 cent a word, but omg the beer money!

A better question might be that IF a freelancer takes home $200 for filling that 400-page PDF and IF it sells say 300 downloads at $35 a pop, where does the extra $10,300 go?

Got to pay the writers...2% of the gross?

I think there is some stream of consciousness math going on here....

400 pages of 500 words a piece is 200k words (I know my own first RPG book was 150k words for 200 and something pages). Anyhow, that's $2k for the writing if at 1C per word. Which is ludicrously cheap for what is probably about 40 days' full time work with zero writer's block and zero thinking time, so if you can keep it up without going mad or blind maybe $12k per annum. I believe rates are usually a bit more than that, but they are crappy. In any event, it's important in life to earn money at a faster rate than you can spend it on cooking lager.

[econobus]

I think there is some stream of consciousness math going on here....

Affirmative there. I should've run the 400 x 500 myself rather than leap off the 20k number. If 20% of the gross goes to the writer of the hypothetical small-press PDF-only product, it's nowhere near so egregious as a 2% "royalty."

Which is ludicrously cheap for what is probably about 40 days' full time work with zero writer's block and zero thinking time, so if you can keep it up without going mad or blind maybe $12k per annum. I believe rates are usually a bit more than that, but they are crappy. In any event, it's important in life to earn money at a faster rate than you can spend it on cooking lager.

Quoted for truth! If the freelancer can rant for 550 two-cent words an hour but consumes three beers an hour to maintain...

[Sigmund]

I think there is some stream of consciousness math going on here....

400 pages of 500 words a piece is 200k words (I know my own first RPG book was 150k words for 200 and something pages). Anyhow, that's $2k for the writing if at 1C per word. Which is ludicrously cheap for what is probably about 40 days' full time work with zero writer's block and zero thinking time, so if you can keep it up without going mad or blind maybe $12k per annum. I believe rates are usually a bit more than that, but they are crappy. In any event, it's important in life to earn money at a faster rate than you can spend it on cooking lager.

Damn it man, I still need to buy your stuff! Why the hell did you have to write such a cool-ass setting? You know how much shit my wife is going to give me for buying yet another set of gaming shit? She just got over the sticker-shock of buying me a print RQ6 for my birthday. Gah, damn writers and their awesome settings...  Ok, rant over. Sorry for the off-topic post. Maybe for Christmas....

[rmeints]

Hello all,

If you want just the full color Hardcover 10x12 Guide to Glorantha you can get it for $80, which includes US shipping. Every other pledge/backer level is for optional additional things. If we reach the 160K stretch goal (we are currently at 137K) the Guide will become a Two Volume set, with the second "Companion" volume being a free book.

While the original Guide on offer was approximately 400 pages in length, the extra material, art, and maps added as various stretch goals have been met has pushed the page count far higher. That's a lot of extra content we're adding for free.

We've also been making various add-ons available to customize your purchase to get just the items you want.

This being our first Kickstarter, we've already learned quite a bit about what to improve if we do another Kickstarter in the future for another product. Thank you to all who have provided us with feedback, be it positive or negative. We didn't expect to reach our funding goal on the first day, nor did we expect to be on target to reach 160K, with over 700 backers thus far.