To help the OSR gain market share and put more of a dent into WotC, go for the Gygax tactic.  Negative press is good press.  During the 80s, the US was under right wing religious authoritarianism.  With the kid who went missing at MSU, Gygax capitalized on the press to sell books.  Well, I doubt there will ever be that type of idiocy again, but what about advertising for OSR books that they are specifically edgy and should only be played by 16 year+?  They are so edgy, that the company in fact uses Insensitivity Readers to up the action, pump up the TNA and fights to 11, because 11 is larger than 10. 

I swear you'd sell more books that way and get free advertising, preferably from blue haired leftist women clutching their microdicks on Twitter.  Make the game edgy and get the youth.  At the rate WotC is going down in flames on MTG and D&D, there is going to be an opening for something fun and challenging.  Remember how easy Nintendo got with the Wii (they literally had a mode where Marios Brothers played for you to solve maps).  Well D&D under Winninger and now Brink is that bad.  Its written for 8 year olds.  Its impossible for anyone to take offense from anything they write, its bland and has no salt.

Quote from: honeydipperdavid on March 15, 2023, 10:02:26 PM
To help the OSR gain market share and put more of a dent into WotC, go for the Gygax tactic.  Negative press is good press.  During the 80s, the US was under right wing religious authoritarianism.  With the kid who went missing at MSU, Gygax capitalized on the press to sell books.  Well, I doubt there will ever be that type of idiocy again, but what about advertising for OSR books that they are specifically edgy and should only be played by 16 year+?  They are so edgy, that the company in fact uses Insensitivity Readers to up the action, pump up the TNA and fights to 11, because 11 is larger than 10. 

I swear you'd sell more books that way and get free advertising, preferably from blue haired leftist women clutching their microdicks on Twitter.  Make the game edgy and get the youth.  At the rate WotC is going down in flames on MTG and D&D, there is going to be an opening for something fun and challenging.  Remember how easy Nintendo got with the Wii (they literally had a mode where Marios Brothers played for you to solve maps).  Well D&D under Winninger and now Brink is that bad.  Its written for 8 year olds.  Its impossible for anyone to take offense from anything they write, its bland and has no salt.

IME "The Youth" are the "blue haired leftist women clutching their microdicks on Twitter".

That said, you don't really need to court controversy that hard, just put on your game's character sheet sex instead of gender with two options to choose from, male or female.

Add a sexy cover with strong masculine men and sexy beautiful women.

You're set, the blue haired landwhales will Reeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Naw, you want to advertise that the writer is specifically pissing in the leftist eye and putting out good content, well written, with good art and good looking women with tits and ass and men with bulging muscles fighting the evil orcs.  Full on stereotypical gender rolls, bodies and good ole dragon slaying with swords and magic.  Think about what happened when we got that dried up bag Tipper Gore's PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) that put labels on albums and how the worse the rating, the better the records sold.  Do the exact same thing for RPG's. 

I mean my god, a module with drow slavers using orc slave masters who kidnap a village and you have to hunt them down and kill them all, with your light complected party hunting them down on the cover art.  As long as it was well written with good quality art, it will sell and the Twitter a-holes will help you and become the villains for the children.  Look at what happened with the Harry Potter game.  We are at the point in the culture revolution where you can use it to sell books and help turn the public against them.  The economy is tanking hard, inflation is at record high, we have a grossly incompetent Democrat as President, and we have a war going on against the Russians but this time we are the ones bleeding money.  This is the early 1980's all over again. 

My two cents, is use this to punch a hole through D&D's crap writing and sensitivity writers for content.  Hell create a label to put on the plastic wrap "insensitivity Writer Enhanced".

It's all fun and games until the Woke-controlled distribution channels ban your content!

I think there's a gap in the market for something that looks like the Savage Sword of Conan comic covers from the '80s:







But if you make a big point of being 'anti-Woke' you'll just get banned. It needs to be primarily a good game/campaign setting/adventure set, with an attractive aesthetic. I think when the Blue Hairs start Ree-ing it's best to maintain a dignified silence. At most "This setting/game of course is not for everyone". Gygax did not advertise AD&D as "This game will teach you to learn the Real Magic from Satan himself!" - be like Gary.

I realize this is a tongue-in-cheek thread, but I will say that I was very interested in the City of Brass by Frog God Games until I saw some essay entitled "A Note on Words" by Elizabeth Murphy, sensitivity editor and gamer. I didn't continue, just stopped reading, and haven't looked at it since. Any company that feels the need to get "sensitivity editors" to make sure some fictional fucking setting doesn't offend "those people" is in no need of my money. What's really stupid is I've met Bill Webb and 90% of the FGG crew and they're not hypersensitive dumbasses from what I can tell, so I am actually perplexed at this stupidity. I guess getting those morons to redo S&W and have it look like the Vagina Monologues wasn't proof enough that you're going to alienate your core audience when you pander to people who literally hate you.

Yup I get that part of the issue.  It would have to be established writers with their own web site to sell content.  That being said, the idiots will sell your content for you by going onto Twitter and complaining about how sexist it is.  Normies will inevitably be fed to see the leftard shit because the algo tries to turn people into leftard, normies see it and go 'Wow, they have real women with boobs and the men, my god they are beating a dragon to death, man I want that", and you sold your product on your own site.  You can use the leftards methods against them.

There is already "Parallel Economy" that exists as a pun and payment provider to deal with crap like this.  Ask Eric July about things went and what payment provider he ended up using to sell his graphic novels.  It can be done and done well getting around drivethrurpg and using leftards against themselves.

I know if I saw a book with "cruelty enhanced" or "now with 10% more demonic overlords" I'd buy it.

I get the whole theory behind "bad press is good press," but if you're actively using outrage tactics to market your product I think you've lost the plot. If I see something with "cruelty enhanced" or "now with more demons" on the cover, I'm going to assume it isn't a serious product. I might still buy it, if it looks fun to play, but I will instinctively run it with the ham cranked up to 11.

Insentivity readers and toxic masculinity, sounds like an awesome combo! 

I´d buy products like that just to support the movement if not for play purposes!

Quote from: Effete on March 16, 2023, 10:09:17 AM
I get the whole theory behind "bad press is good press," but if you're actively using outrage tactics to market your product I think you've lost the plot. If I see something with "cruelty enhanced" or "now with more demons" on the cover, I'm going to assume it isn't a serious product. I might still buy it, if it looks fun to play, but I will instinctively run it with the ham cranked up to 11.

This thread feels like the RPG equivalent of a mid-life crisis, only instead of buying a sports car to recapture their youth, they're going for Internet Edgelord.

Just envision that fat slob in his 60's who thinks he's cool as he's hitting on college-age girls in a bar and you'll have about the same level of mass market appeal as this plan.

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 15, 2023, 10:10:13 PM
You're set, the blue haired landwhales will Reeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Re-envision hags from being wiry to horrendously fat, and instead of doing green, annis and night, order them according to hair colour. And then place them on the cover as monsters for the heroes to fight.

Quote from: migo on March 16, 2023, 10:24:41 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 15, 2023, 10:10:13 PM
You're set, the blue haired landwhales will Reeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Re-envision hags from being wiry to horrendously fat, and instead of doing green, annis and night, order them according to hair colour. And then place them on the cover as monsters for the heroes to fight.

Or embrace the classic elements of monsters so as to create a timeless product that will remain relevant after the landwhales have clotshotted themselves into oblivion.

Quote from: Chris24601 on March 16, 2023, 10:52:54 AM

Quote from: migo on March 16, 2023, 10:24:41 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle on March 15, 2023, 10:10:13 PM
You're set, the blue haired landwhales will Reeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Re-envision hags from being wiry to horrendously fat, and instead of doing green, annis and night, order them according to hair colour. And then place them on the cover as monsters for the heroes to fight.

Or embrace the classic elements of monsters so as to create a timeless product that will remain relevant after the landwhales have clotshotted themselves into oblivion.

It is timeless, it has just been made more relatable.

I rarely talk about politics online and I definitely do not want my RPGs to be about this.

(also, I'm not in the US and I think the whole thing is a scam anyway, so there is not point in taking sides)

I do believe courting controversy sells, and we have plenty of examples; I just don't have the stomach or the willingness to do that.

Curiously enough, people tried to drag me into a couple of politics discussions - maybe because they objected to one of my reviews (i.e., because they dislike the author, not the product) or covers.

I can honestly say I didn't intend to be controversial or offend anyone, but maybe this is not enough nowadays, so one would think embracing it would be more lucrative.

Overall, however, I think it is better to be true to yourself; adopting an aggravating personality is just not my thing, no matter the sales.

Re "Toxic Masculinity": Like S'mon said, just use a cover that looks like it could have been used by the 1980s Conan comics, bonus points because it also panders to "The Male Gaze".

"Insensitivity Readers": No need to say anything, just include always evil monsters, slaves for the PCs to free and you're covered. Alternatively make a game set in Earth somewhere around the 18th-first 3/4 of the 20th century and do not say shit about slavery, sexism, racism, etc. during those times. Write proper English (using HE as the gender neutral pronoun it is).

When approached/attacked by the landwhales and their soyboys just ignore them.

The less you do to provoke them the better you look in the eyes of the normies, in contrast they look more unhinged for getting offended over nothing.

Or go and court controversy, it's your God given right, just make sure your product is a damn good one.

I don't read products written from spite. Countering SJW subversive spite with your own spite just makes 2 shit products.

Creativity defined by opposition tends to be shit. Write for what you stand for, not what you don't stand for.