"Speaking from the purely business side of things. It actually doesn't make
sense. It really turns out that it is much faster and less expensive to just
write new material than to translate/merge/scrape together/gather existing
material."
Eric,
Where exactly does the business cost lie? (I'm asking in a friendly way!) If most Hero Wars supplements will be written out of house, then a lot of the translating/merging/scraping together/gathering existing material doesn't have to be done by anyone closely connected with Issaries. It's a fan labor of love, with eventual payment perhaps being a nice thank-you, but not a prerequisite for the authors to eat.
Now obviously it's not enough to have someone turn in a manuscript. The manuscript has to be reviewed, approved, and edited, and that does have to be done "in-house." Artwork has to be commissioned, layout has to be done, and there has to be money available for the print run. I know those things take time away from other projects, and money.
And also obviously, there has to be an expectation that the books in the print run will sell. If the goal is to attract new players to Hero Wars, then presumably new players who like the Hero Wars rules would find a Praxian setting original and exciting and useful, just as they might an Orlanthi or Lunar setting. If the goal is to cater to existing players, some might not want to retread old ground, but it seems like there is at least some interest in seeing a familiar gaming background updated. (As has been mentioned before, I suppose that turns on how representative the Digest readership is of fans at large.) If some of the Praxian material was new (e.g. scenarios, for instance), this might make it more appealing to old Glorantha hands. If novelty was the sole issue, why not start off with Vithelans instead of Orlanthi and Lunars?
So could you clarify: Where exactly is the business problem? If dedicated fans want to do the work of building a manuscript, extensive though that may be, is that really a business problem for Issaries? (It is a commitment on the fans' part, for certain.) Does that in itself cause any additional work for Issaries? Once the manuscript is turned in, is that where the problem begins, with editorial/art/layout work being redirected away from one project toward another? I guess I would like to know where the bottleneck might lie: Too few manuscripts coming in? Too much material coming in for layout/art/print financing?
If you could enlighten us, it might keep Issaries from getting deluged with
"nuisance" proposals from fans that do more harm then good, or better yet,
it might help fans-who-would-be-authors take a more professional and
generally useful approach.
James, delurking with curiosity and goodwill
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