> >I would say Issaries needs each and every (rules set) dollar to finance the
> >development and marketing to get us the Hero Wars supplements we want.
Absolutely. It was not my intention to suggest anything that would *reduce* Issaries' bottom line!
Eric wrote (no pun intended),
> Just to add to this. Role-playing game companies make money (if they do) on
> sales of Core Rule Books. Supplements are just designed to sell more of the
> rule books and hopefully not lose money. Really. And they're fun to write.
Wow. I stand corrected. That is a fairly depressing factoid! Not that it doesn't make sense. There are many games that never do get supplements out. I was thinking more along the lines of GURPS or White Wolf games that seem to have an endless supply of supplements. Sell one core rules book and you will sell ten suppliments. On the other hand, if you go broke selling the core rules, there won't *be* any suppliments.
> Rule-lite versions are also designed to sell more full rule books. Expect to
> see more of them coming from many of my client companies (Issaries, Green
> Knight, Chaosium, Guardians of Order, etc.)
Yep, the flaw in my argument here was fairly obvious. When I said that the minimal GURPS lite would drive suppliment sales, I glossed over the fact that the first of these "suppliments" bought would be the core rules. Still, the balance that SJG (and hopefully Issaries) struck was good. If the "lite" version of the rules is complete enough to allow people to actually play a scenario or two, but not complete enough to go the distance, then it will surely drive sales. On the other hand, if the game sucks, then it probably isn't such a good idea... :)
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http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kpaul
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