#127: What You Give For Free
More like No-GL, amirite
I. Dear Reader
On his newsletter, Sean McCoy talks about why he thinks “adventures beat systems”. What he means is that if you’re trying to be a successful publishing business, systems are “loss leaders”. You publish them so you can attract players. You make your money through adventures. He doesn’t mention it but it’s 100% advice directed at a certain tradition of games, mostly the OSR.
This isn’t particularly new advice. (Most popular trad games follow their core book with a dwindling trail of splatbooks …like a trail of crumbs left behind by your dog as they run away with a piece of christmas cake.) But it is good advice. It slots into a larger category of business strategy that goes something like, “Give something for free. Charge for everything else.” And this more general maxim might be more useful to non-OSR designers.
Kevin Crawford of Stars Without Number fame is a great example of someone who consistently publishes a free digital version of all his games, charging only for the “deluxe version”. Shawn Tomkin also did this with Ironsworn, where the digital version of the game is free, you only paid if you wanted it in print. Evil Hat also does this for the entire Fate line. Of course, those are just the big names. A tonne of indie designers give away digital copies of their games.
This question of “what you give for free and what you charge for” is on my mind also because of the 5e-sized elephant of the room. It seems nobody can talk about anything else this week (which sucks). As someone far away from the world of D&D, I have no great insight into these events. But here are the facts as I have understood them:
A new version of the Open Game License was leaked last week. It seemed to suggest that WOTC were going to revoke the old OGL and slowly start sticking their fingers in the pies of third-party developers.
The biggest change was that everyone had to register their third-party content with WOTC, start paying royalties if they earned more than 750,000$, and WOTC could potentially have some claims over any published OGL content.
If you don’t know what the OGL is, that’s fine. If you do want to know, you can read about it from the the Alexandrian, Electronic Freedom Foundation, or Cory Doctorow.
After the leak, people started cancelling their D&D Beyond subscriptions. WOTC cancelled a stream where they were purportedly about to announce the new OGL.
Kobold Press and MCDM, two large third-party D&D developers, announced that they would make their own house systems. Kobold Press’ game is tentatively titled Black Flag. MCDM also cancelled their 5e magazine, Arcadia, as they rejigged their patreon.
Every publisher who already had a house system took the opportunity to remind people of that fact.
Paizo announced that they would fund the creation of an alternate open license, the Open RPG Creative License or ORC. Other developers like Kobold Press and Green Ronin were apparently onboard.
Why draft a new open license when the Creative Commons licenses have become an internet standard? Not really sure. Maybe because its acronym isn’t a pun.
Finally, WOTC responded, mostly with annoying PR speak. “We rolled a 1”, etc. No clear sense of what is going to happen.
While I’m not happy about WOTC elbowing their way into my newsletter, it’s good that everyone was reminded that corporations do not want to give anything away for free. Even if they’re the ones that can actually afford to. Even if it’s “good business”.
Support indie designers.
Yours openly,
Thomas
II. City23: Immoria
Lots of fun additions last week! We have a bakery that changes its name with the seasons, a mushroom market, and some very hearty meals. They're all on the site here.
One of them is The Gong from reader Scott made me chuckle:
The inventors of Brasspool are notorious for neglecting good habits in pursuit of their clockwork dreams. So, a health conscious inventor created the gong, a brass obelisk that when struck would send out ultrasonic waves reminding all it was time to eat. Unfortunately this works no matter how recently you have eaten, so it quickly became open to abuse by nefarious restauranteurs and muffin-wives. The watch have had to post a guard to keep troublemakers at bay and the vomitoria from over-use.
We'll stick with the theme of FOOD for one more week! Now that we have landmarks, you can also submit people attached to those landmarks. For a person, we need the landmark they're attached to, a name, description and a true name. Maybe we can meet Sally Forth, the proprietor of the inn with the same name.
III. Media of the Week
Shadow of the Demon Lord is what the cool kids are playing, according to Dave Thaumavore.
On Plus One Exp, a chat answering some basic questions of what to do after you're finished designing a game.
If you're looking for a Kickstarter alternative, Crowdfundr is looking good and is actually accessible for folks in the Global South. Here is a short video about it and here is a much longer video about it.
IV. Links of the Week
A review of Lichoma, a stunning-looking card-based RPG by Bogfolk co-op that features heavy doses of body horror and fighting fascists.
Plus, an interview with the lead designer, Strega Wolf van der Berg.
The Indie Zine is giving out microgrants to folks doing stuff for Zine Month / Zine Quest.
Prismatic Wasteland runs a vote for the best OSR-ish blogposts of 2022 and all the winning posts are great and well-worth checking out.
Whatever happened to Gorkamorka?
V. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
Cloud Empress is an expansive, Nausicaa-inspired setting for the Mothership RPG. Cloud Empress imagines a far-off future ruled by giant psychic cicadas. Back on Kickstarter
This newsletter is currently sponsored by the Bundle of Holding.
There’s a bundle of Non-OGL Fantasy games featuring Mythras, The Dark Eye, Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E, Worlds Without Number Deluxe, and more.
Also, a bundle of the QAGS and a Dungeons on Demand adventures for 5e
Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. If you’d like to support this newsletter, share it with a friend or buy one of my games from my itch store. If you’d like to say something to me, you can reply to this email or click below!
Person: Adair ("The Oak Tree" - nickname only spoken in private by the citizens of Tangent)
Landmark: Filthy Lilt
Description: The owner and operator of the Filthy Lilt is a bear of a man, but always has a smile on his face - unless you get on his bad side - and tries to greet every new patron that enters the Filthy Lilt. There are rumors that he has giant blood coursing through his veins and given his enormous size, you would likely agree. He can be occasionally seen lifting and moving an entire barrel of ale by himself, and stacking several full bags of grain on his shoulder to carry down to the mill room.
He prides himself on running a safe business and doesn't tolerate any fighting or other shenanigans from the patrons. He's been known to step in himself and toss a belligerent individual out the front door or even into the river if they are particularly violent.
For those that are simply there to enjoy themselves and eat a delicious meal, he is nothing but cordial and will happily partake in a conversation if he isn't too busy.
His family lives in the rooms at the back of the building above the kitchen--Elowen, his wife; Willow, his oldest daughter; Olive, the second oldest; and Juniper, the youngest; Aspen, his oldest son; and Cullen, his youngest. The girls share one room and the boys another. Everyone in the family are quite tall even for their individual ages, and are already getting their father's stout build.
The entire family works throughout the Filthy Lilt often changing roles from cook, to server, to butcher, to working in the mill downstairs. And, because they have no idea when a patron may show up, they work various shifts to ensure there is always someone awake and ready to attend to a patron or performer that stops by.
True name: Adair Calamaster
Location: Cauldronshrine
Address: The raft behind Old Man Tilenas's shack
Nobody in Bargetown knows who first abandoned the old iron cauldron. Nobody knows whether it had food in it to begin, or whether that food was placed inside as an afterthought. What the people of Bargetown do know is that one night, someone took some preserved fish from the cauldron, and the next week, they dropped into the cauldron a tin of jam. Someone else took that jam, and returned a loaf of bread; someone else took that bread, and returned a sack of peppers. Over time, people continued to take from the cauldron, and gave what they could.
Now, Cauldronshrine is a thriving guerrilla food pantry, a place where people share what food they can offer. Smaller cauldrons are a frequent sight in Bargetown. They have begun popping up in other neighborhoods, to varying degrees of success.
True name: The first of many open hands