>
> Total pleasure time I've spent reading my hundreds of game files: zero.
> Total pleasure time spent reading RPG books: please, don't make my wife
> angry
>So it's a fair question to ask in a niche market like this, how typical am
I?
I certainly know what you mean. I bought BoG rather on the assumption that all Rick needed to get things going was an injection of money, but found it pretty much unreadable. Nothing wrong with the book now I have a dead tree edition, it was just the wrong format. For me at least. Others seem to manage. It's at least in part to do with the tools you have for the job. My PDA is too small for laid out PDFs (mobipocket fiction is fine) and my computer's too big and static and surrounded by other distractions.
>
> Yes, in theory you can print from Lulu, though I haven't had good
> experiences. They often drop titles (like Hearts in Glorantha), and the
> print quality isn't great.
What's this? I've just had HiG 2 delivered from Lulu and it looks fine. Got a book of Donna Barr comics at the same time and it looks a lot higher print quality than the last couple of comics published by her 'real' printers.
>
>
> John's solution is a lot more appealing:
>
> > John Machin wrote:
> > >All sorts of indie gaming folks have found that pre-orders, with PDFs
> > >being provided to pre-ordering clients until the books are printed, is
> > >a fairly good way to go.
>
>
> This seems increasingly common with boardgames for wargamers. Multiman
> Publishing (which now prints the Advanced Squad Leader Games) is typical:
> they prepare a game, and once it has a certain number of orders (1500 for
> the last ASL release), they start the print. The games are beautiful, and
> the first run is entirely sold before the presses even heat up.
>
> I've ordered several games from different publishers in this format, with a
> typical waiting period of about nine months. It allows customers to get
> high-quality prints and publishers to sell their games with payment
> up-front.
>
> Is this a viable option for RPGs?
>
The big problem with all these models is that they seem to accept as gospel that local stores have no role in the industry. Don't know about you, but the FLGS had a lot to do with why I became a gamer and why I remain one today. Drive Thru, and Lulu, and 'we'll only print when every surviving fan has ordered their copy' don't leave a space for copies to appear on shelves in a shop and people who remember Glorantha from their youth coming back to it.
And if that's true, if we're a dying breed of old fogies without any prospect of new blood, then I'd be very sad.
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