Transparency Agenda Daily July 28th 2016 - One week until Gen Con

Transparency Agenda Daily May 16th 2016 - Talking about Pathfinder

Ultimate Spell Decks for Pathfinder in retail stores?

Here is an idea I got from the guys over at Paradigm Concepts when they tried it roughly 10 tears ago: What do fans think about making our Ultimate Spell Decks for Pathfinder Roleplaying Game available in retail location like Black Diamond Games? How much would you pay for a 300+ deck of Wizards / Sorcerer spell cards? Let us know.  Talk to you later...

Better marketing of Living Arcanis / Pathfinder Society /Massive Multiplayer RPGs to RPG Fans...

Sometime things don’t make sense to me. One of the greatest ideas that really does not make sense to me is the Living Campaign concept for RPGs that have developed into MMO. I mean I understand what they are, but I do not understand why they are so popular. The best way it was describe to me was “Kill monster, get treasure.” Simple and to the point. And when I played in them they were, kill monster, get treasure. Simple right? But if it was so simple, why don’t more people play in Living Campaigns? From a business sense it is an example of Seth Godin book, Tribes. OK I get that but why is it not marketed better to get more people involved?

The guys at Paradigm Concepts are friends of mine and I have had the pleasure to ask a lot of behind the scene questions about Living Arcanis. The one thing that always kind of got me “confused” (This really isn’t the right word, but it is the only one I can think of at the time) is how things are broken up game-wise. Paradigm Concepts has two big events at Gen Con and Origins which they run called a “Battle Interactive”. The Battle Interactive events have done very well for them. During the year they have adventure that people can download and play at their home games and have a great time. The guys at Paradigm Concepts are following the same game plan that every other company has been using when creating their own Living Campaign, including Paizo with the Pathfinder Society. The system works well and people are happy with the status quo.

But what if you tried something slightly different? What if you changed it up a little? What if you shook up the status quo? What if:

• You had a one year long adventure storyline that ran from August through July. The year-long adventure / storyline would start at Gen Con with a big event and have its climatic end in Origins with a big event. The reason for doing this is it gives you roughly six weeks between Origins and Gen Con where you can build interest in the new year’s campaign by using what happened in the year ending event as the “spring board”. This basic market strategy has worked well for comic book companies for years (The Darkness Night and the Secret Invasion are prime examples of this.)
• Instead of giving away the adventures for free like many Living Campaign game companies do, sell your adventures and a low and reasonable price. When you place a value on a product they are considered to be valuable. Paizo has done this with its Pathfinder Society materials.
• During the six week period between Origins and Gen Con you release a free adventure / sourcebook that connects the previous year’s adventures and this upcoming year’s adventures. An even better to joint , you can connect the two conventions by the ending event being the lynchpin that starts the new year’s campaign at Gen Con. Paizo has done very well with this with their Pathfinder Companion and Player’s Guides lines.
• You create a mid-point event that is held at a very special convention. This event is the “Empire Strike Back Moment” in the year long event. You would like to create a convention like Winter Fantasy or the D&D Experience where all the hard core support and fans of your adventure games series and company come out to play, then go back home to talk up it up to more people. If you want to take this one step farther and cause some business disruption and attack the position of the leader in this field (WOTC), I would have my event in the same hotel/location on the same day that the Winter Fantasy/D&D Experience is having their event. This is guerilla marketing and Business Judo at its finest.
• When the previous year is over complete, you collect all the adventure into a HUGE book that you do as a Print-On-Demand Book and sell. Why POD instead of traditional printing? Because you save on having to put down upfront money for the printing cost. Lulu.com is a great choice for this.
• In addition to the year long story line at Gen Con and Origins, at both conventions I would have “Contest of Champions” event. At this event, groups of four PCs/Players are put up against other groups of four PCs/Players in dangerous location (a la Tomb of Horrors) where they fight it out to gain points and the people with the highest point value go into the “Elite Grand Round” where they face off with some kind of super thingamabob for cash and game product reward. Everyone who plays gets a cool copy of an exclusive product that you can only get from playing in the con. Douglas Atkin’s The Culting of Brands was great for understanding this.

Simple tactics that can have a powerful effect on your sales by making your fans even more connected to what you do. Hope it works for you. Talk to you later…

3 days left, $6,000 to go...

My buddies over at Paradigm Concepts announced their patron project a while back for Crusade. I liked the idea and knew with their Living Arcanis campaign they would get a lot of support. But whne I hear they were asking for $10,500 with this patron project, AND they want to raise it in 30 days, I have to admit I became a little skeptical. Over the last 27 days, I have seen the interst in the project grow and grow. But with 3 days left, and needing $6,000 it is going to take a miracle. So this is a little heads up, if you are a Paradigm Concepts fan and you like Living Arcanis take a second out to support them on this project.

(Personal note: I am not sure that the boys over at Paradigm Concepts know that that Fundable.com, they service they are using to collect the money, only gives you the money WHEN and IF you meet your goal. If you don't meet it, Fundable.com refunds all the money back to the people, so people can not take the precentage of it and run. So you have to start from the beginning again to raise the funds.)

Paradigm Concepts says "NO!" to 4.0e ... and 3.5?!?!?!?

Since these guys are friends of mine I thought I might put this up, Paradigm Concepts has said NO to 4.0 and 3.5. Read about it here!!!

What do you mean Xao isn't Wuxia?

Since I started working on Xao: Island of Iron and Silk a lot of people have been like, " I can't believe you are doing a wuxia setting game. There are already so many of those types of games on the market already." At this point, my response is somehting that shocks and surprises them. Because Xao: Island of Iron and Silk ISN'T a wuxia setting RPG game. It is a political thriller RPG setting with Kung-Fu Theatre movie elements and a "dash" of wuxia into it. Xao: Island of Iron and Silk is all about the political and government intrigue, mysteries and conspiracies that exist in the island of Xao and the world of Exodus. If you examine the history of China, the politics of the region has GREATLY effected the development of the county and Xao takes that same angle.

The two things that I think are going to make Xao: Island of Iron and Silk very unique to the majority of D20 and OGL RPGs on the market it is:
1) We are looking to have as much as and even more political intrigue as you could find in Paradigm Concepts' Arcanis: World of Shattered Empires and Living Arcanis. The Paradigm Concepts guys (being great friends of mine) have proved it is possible to do a interesting political based RPG and setting.
2) With exception of me, I plan for the enitre campaign setting to be writen by women writers. You heard me right, the ENTIRE campaign setting will be written by women writers. Now I am sure you are asking why is that. Simple answer. The majority of male gamers I know are a mix of 50 - 75 % hack -n-slash / 25 -50% "role players. Most of the women gamers I know are 50 - 75% role players / 25 - 50% hack-n-slash. Since this setting is about 75% role playing / 25 % hack-n-slash it only seemed logical to get people who are ready were interested in the role playing side of it. The other reason I wanted women writers only on this project is that (In my own personal feelings) I feel that women understand the whole political "backstabbing" and "assassinating someone's character" aspect I am looking to build better then men. Don't believe me, watch what happens when men fight versus when women fight. Men phyically attack each other; women get other women to turn on the person they are fighting and virtually ostracize them at any opportunity they can. Chris Rock said it best, "There is nothing more danger than a woman with a plan." Talk to you later.

Psionics in NeoExodus

Sometimes it is funny what you miss. Just recently my good friends over at Paradigm Concepts just finished thier Psionic Unbound book and it got me thinking. You know we really don't talk about psionics all that much in our setting. We only really mention it in one class, the Imperial Jannissary. So I talked it over with one of the main creators on NeoExodus, and we both agreed this was a major oversight on our parts and needed to be fixed. And with that we can up with the Phoenix Guard. What is the Phoenix Guard? Well you will have to wait and see. Plus if we get the writer we want for this project it will be worth the wait. Talk to you later...