Guest Blog Post - Becoming a Venture Captain for Pathfinder Society by JP Chapleau

Today's Guest post comes from JP Chapleau.  I met JP when he can to help me create understand what the Pathfinder Society was and how I could incorporate what they were doing into our upcoming Pathfinder setting, NeoExodus: A House Divided. And just as he started getting onto the good stuff, Paizo snatched him away to become a Venture Captain in the Pathfinder Socity (Curse to you Paizo, you foiled my plans again!).  So I though it would be nice for him to tell everyone how he did it.  So here we go...

The making of a Venture Captain 

In October, I was chosen by Hyrum Savage to become one of the Venture Captains for Paizo’s Pathfinder Society Campaign. I now bask in the glory and adoration of everyone who bow down as I pass, who listen intently to every word I utter seeking to drink from the cup of wisdom that is my mind, who gasp as enter a room, who burn incense to effigies of me and who venerate any Snickers-bar wrapper I discard. Okay, okay, I may have an inflated sense of self…

Starting in September of 2009, my gaming interest shifted from 4e to the Pathfinder RPG. Pathfinder is an awesome descendant of the 3.5 rule set. It is filled with little gems, gems I keep finding to this day. Well done Paizo!

What are Organized Play Campaigns?

Organized Play (OP) campaigns - sometimes called “Living” Campaigns - allows you to take your character from one table to the next, anywhere in the world. Thus your character can adventure at Gencon, your local game store, a friend’s house, that “weird local DM”’s place, and a nearby convention gaining experience, gold and rewards, going up in levels and meeting many new people.

Every tabletop role-player has experienced the following scenario. You found a table you enjoy, good players, a fun GM and a schedule that works for everyone. After a few sessions, someone is missing, so the party trudges on OR plays something else.  Pretty soon, the campaign grinds to a halt and sputters out.

In organized play, the GM is not always the same, the party members change one or two missing players do not prevent game play. The adventures are all pre-published so preparation time is less than for a full campaign. This also allows the DM to really add his personal touch and style to the adventures. You can share GM-duties, meaning that everyone gets to play and GM. Okay, okay, I know not everyone has it in them to be a GM. But the opportunity is there for someone willing to try their hand at it.

Another perk of the OP campaigns is that if you miss an adventure with your usual group, you can find another group playing the same adventure and play the adventure with them. The net result is that it creates a community of players instead of a number of splinter groups each playing apart with limited contact with each other.

Do you have to mingle with other players? Only if you want to! I was wary when I started but I quickly met new friends around the gaming table. Through them, I learned new character building techniques, playing styles and gaming tips. If you want to play the adventures of an OP Campaign at home with your friends and never meet others, you sure can.

Most OP campaigns today allow for on-line play. I irregularly play with some friends in the Montreal/Quebec City region. They are a great way to meet with old friends!

What is the Pathfinder Society Campaign?

Now before going further, that this is written by a huge fan of Paizo and PFS.

Paizo’s Pathfinder Society (PFS) is an Organized Play campaign where the characters belong to a society of archeologist, scholars and adventurers (sometimes known as tomb robbers, thieves and thugs). Presented in the very affordable PDFs, players experience the world of Golarion through the many adventures published for PFS.

The biggest “kicker” or unique toy of PFS is the faction system. Although every character works for the society, their loyalties rest with one of the major nations of Golarion. Every adventure, your faction gives you small tasks to perform during the adventure. They rarely go against the grain of the adventure but often lead to unique role-play opportunities. “Dude! Why did you push that guy into the sewer water? We just rescued him!” or “You’re an embalmer, why are you taking that mummy’s body?” Thus Fighter Joe and Fighter Fred could vow allegiance to different nations. Players are encouraged to keep their factions secret, and it often adds to the tension in the part.

Each faction has a lot of flavor to it. From the mercantile Qadira to the devious Cheliax to the freedom-obsessed Andoran, each has an alignment (of the five, only one is good and one is evil) and that comes into play during the game. In other words, if you are a paladin who wishes to keep his status, do not work for Cheliax…

PFS players bring a wide variety of backgrounds, spell selections and character builds to the table. But what I have seen thus far in different areas of play (I was lucky enough to play PFS in Denver, Las Vegas and Montreal) is that the players bring to the table interesting *characters*, and I’m not just talking about builds and stats. I’m talking about accents, funny quirks, unique backgrounds, and intra-party interaction I haven’t seen in a while.

All this creates a unique atmosphere where role-play can flourish, even in the course of a 4h session.

Since adventures are designed for 4h timeslots, you can play them in an evening. Because there are many authors with different styles what you do changes from one adventure to the next. Some adventures are dungeon crawls, some adventures are more investigative, some deal with exploration, others are more complex. Over the course of a few adventures, you play very different adventures, in style and content.

Why becoming a Venture Captain?

Before applying to a leadership position with PFS, I thought long and hard about a number of things about the position. What would I get out of it? Could I do a good job? How much time would I have to invest into the campaign? Would my wife kill me? I have always been a fan of working within the system to make it better, so one of the biggest questions was: would my appointment help the local community or hinder it?

After all that thinking, I believed I could do a good job of it and help the local community grow and thrive. I had previous experience in two of the RPGA’s biggest campaigns, Living Greyhawk and Living Forgotten Realms. I worked for the RPGA for seven years (2003-10) and I held mostly editorial and story-related positions. This position with PFS would be quite different, being a Point-of-Contact or facilitator type position, allowing the campaign leadership to let go of some of the day-to-day operations, and delegate to Venture-Captains.

I will say that we are very blessed in the Denver region to have a lot of quality volunteers, people who coordinate events at their favorite/ local store, guys who volunteer to GM adventures to make sure the campaign runs smoothly. And I really thank and support these guys.

To those of you out there who think it’s easy; it’s just like any position of leadership. There is a lot of crap/grind to go through to reap the rewards. Seeing events form and happen regularly, offering special content to the local community, serving as facilitator and generally be the face of the campaign. I do not expect adulation or any of the fantastic worship I mentioned in my intro. Though it would be fun…

About my fellow Venture-Captains (many who of whom I met at Neoncon in Las Vegas), their selection was no random affair. They are tied to the pulse of their local community and champion ideas of all sorts, some I agree with others not, but the discussion is extremely dynamic and open-ended (and –minded). The leadership of the campaign is very responsive, dynamic and engaged in the campaign.

The Future of PFS?

I cannot give you a lot of specifics, but I can say the following. I have never been part of a campaign as dynamic as PFS. There are so many good things that are just about to be announced or released that keeping silent about it is SO hard. Those announcements will enhance the play experience and role-play opportunities at the game table.

Important Web sites to know: Paizo, Pathfinder Society, and my blog JP’s Blog.

Finally

I could sit here and keep writing on and on (I cut about 2 pages of text from my first draft!) about Pathfinder Society: why it is so great, why I love it, why the role-play experience is of high quality, why the players and GMs really shine in the system, why the quality and challenge of the adventures is really without par, why and how the writing and quality has been improving over the last year.

But all that is just talk. Talk is cheap.

The only way is to get you to a Pathfinder Society table. Join us and play. Then you will understand everything in this article. Chances are, you will meet some new players and have a good time. At the time I write this, MANY good things should be announced shortly. It is a good time to be involved – or start – with Pathfinder Society. New adventures are released monthly and play opportunities grow all the time. If you haven’t checked us out, you are missing out. Seriously. Come and join us.  If you are in the Denver area, do not be afraid to drop me a line!

Thanks to JP for this great over view of how he did it.  If you are interested in the Pathfinder Society why do you get in contact with him and I am sure he will be helpful to you.  Talk to you later...

Guest Blog Post - A Product A Week, Are You Crazy?!? by Hyrum Savage

This one is a little special to me.  I have known Hyrum for years and would consider him a GREAT guy and someone you should meet in the RPG industry.  So here was nice enough to do this guest blog post for me.  Just incase you don't know Hyrum here is his bio and background:

Hyrum Savage is the Marketing and Organized Play manager for Paizo Publishing, a leading publisher of fantasy roleplaying games, accessories, board games, and novels. Paizo's Pathfinder® Roleplaying Game, the result of the largest open playtest in the history of tabletop gaming, is one of the best-selling tabletop RPGs in today's market. Pathfinder Adventure Path is the most popular and best-selling monthly product in the tabletop RPG industry. Paizo.com is the leading online hobby retail store, offering tens of thousands of products from a variety of publishers to customers all over the world. In the eight years since its founding, Paizo Publishing has received more than forty major awards and has grown to become one of the most influential companies in the hobby games industry.

Now on to the good stuff...



A Product A Week, Are You Crazy?!?


Those were the thoughts running through my head last year when Stan! and I were talking about ways to move Super Genius Games forward. Pathfinder had just been released a couple of months earlier at Gen Con 2009 and while we had been releasing books for Call of Cthulhu, we were both excited about Pathfinder and wanted to find a way to support it. The question was how to do it. We talked about various strategies, looked around to see what other publishers were doing, and ultimately we decided that short, focused PDF’s, priced appropriately was the way to go. And that’s where Owen came in. Stan! and I knew that we would need help if we were going to be able to pull this after, and since it was going to be Pathfinder, we knew Owen would be the perfect choice to help us pull this crazy idea off. Stan gave Owen a call, deals were made, contracts were signed, and the ride began.

Once we had the team in place we needed to decide on just how often we’d release a product. Looking around for inspiration, we saw comic books and “Comic Book Wednesday”, and we looked to Mr. LPJ, the fine owner of this blog. See, Louis has been doing something similar to what we were planning: short, focused PDF’s that were priced below $5. We took those two ideas and the Super Genius release schedule was born. That first month we earned enough to throw a Super Genius pizza party, not large amounts of money, but money. And while I can’t get into specific sales numbers here, let’s just say that at the end of my last month with Super Genius sales were beyond good. And here’s where some simple business truth comes into play. When you give customers a good product, at a good price, week after week, they’ll support you. Don’t let me fool you though, it hasn’t been easy. In fact, it’s been incredibly difficult to not miss a deadline, and there were a few weeks we thought we might. It meant late nights, early mornings, and a lot of Skype calls to iron out problems. But we did it. And now that I’m at Paizo, the Geniuses are still doing it, week after week, releasing one great product after another. In fact, to celebrate this the Geniuses are having a 52 Books in 52 Weeks sale, with everything Super Genius 52% off. Head on over to Paizo.com to check it out, the sale runs through the end of November.

I’m no longer with the Geniuses, but I’ll fondly remember those days forever. What started as a one off comment during a planning meeting turned into a roller coaster ride that ended with me working at Paizo, and the Geniuses dominating the sales charts. So the next time you have that crazy idea, give it some serious thought, it might not be so crazy after all.

Once again thanks Hyrum for do this guest post of In the Mind of a Mad Man.  Talk to you later...

Guest Blog Post - Becoming a Freelance Writer by Matt Forbeck

Matt Forbeck has been a freelance writer and RPG publishing legend of such products from companies like AEG, Atari, BOOM! Studios, Decipher, DK Publishing, Games Workshop, Green Ronin, Image Comics, Mattel, Penguin, Pinnacle, Playmates Toys, Random House, Reaper Miniatures, TSR, Ubisoft, White Wolf, WildStorm Productions, Wizards of the Coast, and many, MANY more. So if you want to know about becoming a freelance here is the person you should listen to. Matt was kind enough to do a guest post for us here at In the Mind of a Mad Man, about becoming a freelance writer.  Hope you enjoy…

I’ve been a freelance writer for the vast majority of my adult life, and even in the times I’ve had a day job, I still worked as a writer/game designer. Becoming a freelancer may seem like a huge leap, and it is, but all it really takes is determination and patience.

First, you need to figure out what sorts of things you want to write: stories, rules, RPGs, essays, poems, news articles, interviews, or whatever. Then you need to research the market for those sorts of bits — to find out who might be willing to pay you for your work.

If you already read those sorts of things — and you should if you want to get published in that field — it’s simple. Find out who published the articles and then hit their website. Most publishers have submissions guidelines listed right there.

Read the guidelines and follow them to the letter. Some guidelines feature “idiot tests,” simple things you must do so that the publisher can tell that you can read and follow directions. Do just that, and you’ll pass.

Once you know who to contact and how, do so. Usually you should send a simple query note first, nothing longer than one page. If the editor wants to see more, he or she will ask you for it. Once that happens, read and follow the direction again. Rinse and repeat until you’re published.

There’s a lot more to it than that, of course. You need to have both some talent and some skill. And you need to be able to hit your deadlines. If you can manage those three things, you can go far.

There’s no licensing involved in becoming a freelance writer. You can’t take a class to get certified. You just need to keep improving your writing and putting yourself out there until someone manages to recognize your brilliance. This usually happens slowly.

Most editors have been burnt before, and they’re shy enough about it now that they like to start out any new relationship by taking it slow. Unless you have a list of published credits already, smart editors will only give you small projects, things that they can let go of if they never show up — or that they can re-commission from someone else in a heartbeat. That gives each side a chance to make sure that they can trust each other before you move on to bigger things.

Some writers think that quality of the work is the only thing that matters, and to a certain extent that’s true. No one wants to publish crap, and no one else wants his or her name attached to it. However, if the publisher doesn’t have anything to publish when a piece is scheduled, it doesn’t matter how good it might be when it shows up. The lack of that piece means no sales (or ads or patrons or whatever) until it arrives, and the publisher’s landlord, phone company, internet provider, and printer don’t care about anything other than when they can expect their not-quite-here-yet money.

Make your editor’s job as easy as you can, and you’ll get the chance to show off your talent and skill as often as you like. Editors love writers that do that, and they’ll come back to you time and again, often with better projects every time.

Once again thanks to Matt for taking time out of his BUSY schedule to give us some great info about being a freelance writer.  Talk to you later...

Guest Blog Post - Show “that guy” the door … by Doug Daulton from Neoncon

Doug Daulton of Neoncon in Las Vegas, NV was kind enough to write a guest blog post for us here at In The Mind of a Mad Man, about an issue that anyone who has gone to a convention can relate. Hope you enjoy!

In 2009, NEONCON invited our first wave of industry guests.  By all accounts, they had a great time and our audience enjoyed having them there, both as fans and as their students at GamesU (now named CreativeU). Of all of the comments I received from the pros and the fans, one really stands out. It goes something like this:

“Thank you for telling people to take a shower and act like grown ups.”

Specifically, they were referring to the following sections of the “Guidelines for Fun” printed in our show book.

Personal Hygiene

We recognize cons are an opportunity to play long into the night. But please, maintain your personal hygiene. Nobody likes to sit next to someone who hasn’t showered in a couple of days.

Ethics and Conduct

Stealing, cheating, lawbreaking, rowdiness, harassment, or failure to conduct yourself in a mature manner will be grounds for removal from the convention without refund.

Four years ago, before launching NEONCON, I might have thought such statements unnecessary and found it strange to receive those comments (and high fives) from pros and fan alike. Sadly, I was mistaken.

You see, conventions can bring out the worst people as well as the worst in otherwise good people. Before I go on, I must be clear that 99.99% of our attendees were perfectly nice, well groomed and well mannered. However, there is always “that guy”.

You know him. He does not sleep the entire show. Instead, he games 24/7.  If he does sleep, it is generally at the table, forcing other players to wake him up to take his turn. In his mind, because he does not think he needs sleep, he likewise thinks he doesn’t need a room with a bed, either. As a result, he usually doesn’t even bother to get a hotel at the show.

In most cases, no hotel means no shower and no toothbrush. By Day Three, you can see the Cheeto crumbs in his five o’clock shadow and smell the onions from the hoagie he ate on Day One. And, he seems to feel Mountain Dew is a suitable replacement for mouthwash. 

Then, you have the bad behavior. Folks who make the choices described above generally don’t make the best choices about how to interact with other people.  When rulings don’t go their way, they often react like angry, petulant children. Tantrums … fueled by sleep deprivation, malnutrition and years of having this behavior indulged … are more common than any one would like to admit.

At NEONCON, these shenanigans are easily handled. I run the show like a house party for 1,000 of my closest friends.  If you interrupt the party with bad hygiene or bad behavior, you are politely shown the door. And, even though our guest policy says I don’t have to give you a refund, I generally do any way.  Why?  Because, some one has to show these knuckleheads how grown ups behave.

Bigger shows and those run by committee cannot always be as blunt or decisive about this sort of policy. I understand. And, I also know that, when they read this, some of my team will scold me for being too honest, especially three weeks in front of our show.  The problem is, this sort of behavior is tantamount to bullying and I never could tolerate a bully.

More to the point, our policy reflects a sound business decision.  We believe that, by building a reputation for ensuring a good experience for the majority of our patrons, we ensure that our patronage grows over time. “That guy” and his friends may be unwashed, but they are the minority, not the masses.

Still, though in the minority, “that guy” has a profound impact on the hobby games industry and the fans that support it.  Unfortunately, he is, more often than not, the face of the “gamer”.  As such, he shapes public opinion about the rest of us. In short, “that guy” gives us all, professionals and fans alike, a bad reputation. Instead of being seen as creative, clever and quirky, we gamers are labeled as weird, odd or misanthropic.

In 2010, hobby games have enough trouble fending off console/computer games, cable TV and the Internet for the attention of the market and fan base.  Can we really afford to be forced to fight misperceptions of the community based on the poor behavior of a minority of its members?

No. We cannot. Everyone, professionals and fans alike, needs to show these sort of disruptive malcontents that this sort of behavior is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. 

So, I will try to gently correct “that guy,” but if he fails to take the hint, I’ll show him the door. And, if you are “that guy”, try to take the criticism in the way it was intended (to help EVERYONE have a good time) and then try to change your behavior. And if you can’t handle that, then just grow up. If you do, I’ll let you back into the party next year.

Once again thanks to Doug for his great post and if you are near Las Vegas go check out Neoncon!  Talk to you later...

Guest Blog Post - What can third party publishers do to help improve their presence in the friendly local game store by Gary Ray

Gary Ray, owner of Black Diamond Games in Concord, CA was kind enough to write a a guest blog post for us here at In the Mind of a Mad Man about third party publisher (of which LPJ Design is one) and retail stores (which Black Diamond Games is).  Hope you enjoy.

What can third party publishers do to help improve their presence in the friendly local game store by Gary Ray

So what can third party publishers do to help improve their presence in the friendly local game store? The answer involves understanding your audience. I'm not talking about your customers, you intimately understand them, of course. It's the local game store that you may not fully grasp. First, lets get some perspective.


We are not in the '80's and game stores are no longer fantasy shops, as much as I wish they were. Hobby gaming has diversified greatly. My store is divided into five departments, including board games, miniature games, collectible card games, classic games and puzzles, and finally role-playing games. This means that role-playing games occupy about 20% of my consciousness, assuming they have an equal role to play (they probably don't, but I like them, so it's not far off). Of that 20%, about half my sales are Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. I think this is fairly typical. In fact, many store nowadays don't go much beyond D&D and perhaps the next two or three top games. You have your work cut out for you.

So all non-D&D role-playing games are now occupying about 10% of my consciousness when it comes to purchasing. Of course, purchasing is probably about 20% of my job as a store owner, so in reality, all things RPG that aren't D&D are more in the range of 2%. I bring this up because there seems to be this misperception of the role of RPGs in game stores. They are far from a primary concern. From a sales perspective, they are relevant, but not overly so. I think I'm fairly typical in this regard and perhaps atypical in that I spend any time whatsoever with non D&D RPGs. At last count we carried over 30 different game systems, but most of the 3,000 or so stores out there that carry games probably have far fewer. I put myself in the top 10% of stores in this respect. I'm not bragging, just providing some perspective. Maybe 200-300 stores will have that 2% on their radar.

So how do you get on my radar? How do you capture the 2% of a store owners attention in about 10% of the stores? Here is where marketing to your customers comes in. The best way for your game to get on my radar is through our customers. A good game store listens very carefully to their customers. If a customer wants a product, we carefully gauge their true interest and may bring in one.

The best way to make this happen is to ask them to ask your customers to buy from us. This may seem against your own interests if you sell direct. It may seem futile if my numbers are correct and 90% of store owners won't care, but 10% of stores is 300 sales. I'm not saying you give up direct sales. Just tell your customers that if they've got a good store to support it by asking for your product and buying it there if the store owner brings it in.

Why give up half or more of your margin? The FLGS is yet another sales channel and can be a big source of marketing for you. Once we buy your product, we have some level of interest in generating further demand. That one guy might have bought it, but a hundred more people might see it on the shelf. You've also created a sales partner. We post your product info on Facebook, talk up your product with potential customers, and possibly hold events if it's a big enough deal. This all begins with getting that alpha gamer on board with your product with a commitment to buy from us. Without this, you're occupying 2% of my consciousness. With it, you're on my to-do list.

What else?

Do your own marketing, especially using social media like Twitter and Facebook. Adjust your web page with meta tags that work with Facebook so I can easily post your link on my wall. Foster your sales channels equally. If I visit your page and I see you encouraging direct sales over store sales, such as with discounts, early release or telling your customers to please buy direct and not from the grubby game store (this has happened), we're done. I am not afraid of the PDF product, but if I see you're already selling your print product before the release, I'll generally believe the demand is soft and probably pass.

Produce quality books in the format we can sell. Digest size books are popular, especially with the D&D Essentials line moving to them. However, many stores hate them. Think about how your book will be displayed. We use magazine racks, so your digest sized book is invisible unless it's in front. This means it's likely to be shelved on a book shelf instead, spine out. That's bad. Also make sure your book will hold up to wear. A successful RPG book will sell three times a year or more. How will your book look on the shelf after four months? If it's looking ratty, if the cover bows, or if it in any way looks like it's sliding into home and about to fall apart when it's bought in month four, it won't get ordered again.

Create hope in the future. If it's not a one shot RPG product, already begin marketing book two on the release of book one. Maybe you don't have the money for it yet. So what? Bang the drum. If you take a wait and see attitude, so will your customers and many won't buy your book. They have this crazy perception of what is alive and what is dead. They want "support" for the product line, reprints with errata, additional supplements to spur their imagination. If that's not forthcoming, they have deep suspicions. They've been burned too many times.

This might sound harsh, but the bottom line is we want to work with you. You're fighting an uphill battle. You're at best Dr. Pepper in a world dominated by Coke and Pepsi. That's alright. We run game stores. We're used to the long odds and making something from nothing.

Once again this to Gary for this great post and if you are in Concord, CA make sure you check out his store.  Talk to you later...