A New Age…

A couple of weeks ago, I got my two oldest boys to try out a game of Risus. They had a great time (and had enough fun to entice the youngest to want to play as well). And so it begins…

More Risus Kickstarter Information

A followup from S. John Ross:

I had an email asking me for some more detail on the possible Risus-module kickstarter(s), specifically the likely target amount. I had _another_ email expressing a desire for collections of adventures rather than singles. Here’s some stuff on both :)

Price: It would depend on the level of ambition I set for the module (12 pages, 16 pages, map-heavy, map-light, etc), but, allowing for Kickstarter’s own cut to be taken out, the Kickstarter goal would range from $400 to $900 total.

Tiers: I’d set the lowest tier at from $3 to $7, depending (same factors), and anyone contributing to the lowest tier would get the PDF immediately on completion. The general public would get (for free) it X months later (probably six, maybe twelve for the biggest ones), to let the contributors enjoy it first. Higher tiers would get assorted higher-tier stuff I haven’t decided on yet :)

Overflow Contributions, and Multi-Modules: Overflow would, to some extent, go into beefing up the original module. _Excessive_ overflow would result in whole extra modules. So, while I have no plan to Kickstart collections (because collections would be catalogue items and don’t exist in that void-spot I need Kickstarter to fill), sufficient support for a single-module Kickstarter could end up _creating_ a free module collection, depending on the intensity of the support :)

Given that over 900 people subscribe to this mailing list and around 800 have purchased the Risus Companion (and a lot more have at least _some_ interest in seeing Risus spread like warm honey on the global gaming toast), I think a $400-$900 Kickstarter would be something very close to a Sure Thing provided I propose a module people would (A) genuinely have a use for and (B) believe I’d do a good job on, and I think I can manage an (A)(B) split without spraining my bowling-wrist. So, I am excited about what might be :)

Risus and Kickstarter…

This is from S. John Ross as posted to the Risus mailing list…

This year I’m likely to dip my toe into the Kickstarter pond. All the other gaming toes are there; I feel like I should bring an extra bag of Cheetos for being late.

I’m not particularly interested in the Kickstart-to-Produce-It-Then-Sell-It model. Maybe _someday,_ if I go crazy and decide to poke back toward retail (I still love the idea of selling Risus as a GM screen with Risus all over it), but for the most part I’m well clear of doing gamestuff for retail and don’t miss it.

I’m more interested in the Kickstart-to-Produce-It-Then-Give-It-Away-As-A-Free-Download-Forever model. And basically I’m interested in doing it for the smaller stuff … to build a library of single-evening free adventures for Risus, for example. I have a number of cool adventures I’ve used for conventions over the years, and a few other from private campaign stock, that would be worthy of bringing into production as PDFs … but they’re too teensy to bother with, really, as things I add to the Cumberland catalogue, while they’re too much work to do as a series of promotional freebies. So, they occupy a middle ground where Kickstarter would make sense: if the Kickstart says yes, then it’s all paid for and it’s a yes. If the Kickstarter says no, well, then I’ve learned that. These would likely be kickstarters on the scale of the small-to-middle hundreds of dollars, per-adventure (basically, the total costs on my end for PDF production, counting writing, “art,” maps, charts, page layout and so on add up to somewhere between $25 and $75 per page … add a bit for Kickstarter to take a cut, and that’d be the number).

We’ll see if it can happen. I’m certain I can make PDFs worth having and worth playing … and I’m certain the size of the Risus community would make something like a $500 Risus-Module kickstarter a shoo-in if folks _want_ me to make ‘em … but the question is: does anyone actually want me to make ‘em? :)

I’m busy finishing up some other stuff right now (including a very small Risus item that _will_ go in the catalogue) … but expect to hear more about this in a couple of months. In the meantime, comments, suggestions, warnings, horror stories and amusing but decidedly dirty anecdotes (to S John Ross and not to the Mailing List, plz&thx) are welcome.

This is very cool! I vote yes!