Highmoon's Ponderings

Well, Halloween is almost over now and it was ok. We didn’t really do anything; I got here around 6 pm and, though I was ready to give out lots of chocolates, no trick-or-treaters came this way! Kids, it seems, don’t really go out trick-or-treating anymore, except very young kids and very early in the evening (which I completely understand). Most older kids seem to go to places that you’d never imagine, such as the supermarket and the mall. Adults, on their part, head over to South Beach and congest the streets. My wife got dressed up this morning to go to work:

My wife is, I am sure, part fairy. Just take a look how natural those ears look on her!

Myself, I didn’t dress up. It’s been a couple of years since I got dressed up as anything, though my wife and friends continue as enthusiatic about the celebration as they can be.

I’m the one in the white shirt, and I think that explains pretty well why I really haven’t done much for Halloween in the past couple of years: I don’t have a costume nor do I care enough to go and get one (actually, I do have something of a costume, my RenFaire garb, but I’ve used that to death in the last 6-7 years). I have no problem with celebrating Halloween, I just don’t really get into it as I used to back when we were in college (ah, those days).

As I said, my wife and I stayed in, watching House and handing out candy… except no one came to trick-or-treat at the house, so now we have a large shadllow bowl full of chocolates. What we did do, however, was have something completely new for dinner, Slime Soup!

It’s a peas & mozarella soup blitzed in a blender, from the book Feasts by Nigella Lawson, and it certainly looks slimy and bubbly; a couple fake eyeballs floating in it would have been the ultimate garnish. It was quite tasty, too, and a recipe that I believe has now made it into our regular rotation.

Finally, not to be a complete spoilsport, I did end up putting on a very simple costume to celebrate, if only for a moment:

I’m a Cereal Killer.

In any case, even quiet as it was, it was a good Halloween. Somewhere in my mind I kinda wish that it was like the old days when we used to get dressed up and go to Coconut Grove or party until the wee hours. But just somewhere.

Later!

I’ve signed up for Wolfgang Baur’s Open Design project. I’m quite looking forward to the fun of seeing an adventure designed from the ground up with input from interested parties.

I am in love.

STAR WARS MINIATURES STARSHIP BATTLES
Coming in November.

You can buy it for me here. 

Last Thrusday all of the vendors at RPGnow.com and DriveThruRPG.com, the two largest online retailers for downloadable gaming products, sent received a letter telling us of some very big news: These two sites, up to this moment competitors, had merged into one joint company, OneBookShelf, Inc. On Friday the news was made public via a press release to all news mediums. I had been waiting to comment here since I wanted an official press release to come out (so I’d be sure I wouldn’t be releasing info before its time) and because I wanted to have a couple of days to mull it all over.

Wow!

In one fell swoop, my two bigger sales outlets had combined to make my life so much easier it wasn’t even remotely funny. Furthermore, the third of my online retailers, the EN World Game Store, closed its doors and reemerged as an affiliate mirror of RPGnow, as did a mirror store for RPG.net. That means that my top 3 sites are all now united under one umbrella company that makes me selling at any other site an almost ridiculous proposition.

Under the new merger, my catalog gets crosslisted at both RPGnow and DriveThruRPG, and by consecuence at ENWorld and any other affiliate mirror. That means I only have to concentrate on adding products to one database, and more important, track sales from one database. Actually, this last one is not quite there yet, as DriveThru sales get tracked through their own site for the time being. In 6 months’ time more or less we should see a new storefront that will absorb the two current sites and incorporate the best of each plus some new features. The downside to this whole deal is that my vendor fees will be increased across the board as of Dec. 1st, a little less if I become an exclusive vendor.

In the various industry and fan boards there is a lot of furor about the new merger, the fee hike and all that will come from it. Some vendors who stand to lose a pretty penny by the fee hike have voiced their concern and of course we have heard some of the expected doomsayers tell people how this is the end of the downloadable RPG industry.

I’ve read quite a few of the threads and have kept up with the posts and news developing. After having mulled this over, my opinion of the merger remains the same: this is one of the most amazing things to occur to our industry and I fully believe it will help us move into a whole new level and into a new era. Let me state that again: I like the merger, think it is a grand idea, fully support the new company and look forward to an exciting future. Yes, I have some concerns, and yes, I fully expect growing pains that will need to be addressed and dealth with when the time comes. Even with that, even with the higher fee I’ll be charged, I am convinced that only good will come and it will be up to me as a publisher to make the best of it for the future of my company.

Some vendors have officially announced they will be increasing their prices to make up for the fee increase, while others are contemplating the move. For my part, I need to evaluate a couple of things before I decide if Highmoon Media Productions products will see a price increase at all. At the moment, my feeling is that, aside from a couple of products that I could use the opportunity to bring normalize their prices, I won’t be increasing our prices. While it is an option that is always available to us as a company, it’s not one I want to take lightly nor hurriedly.

I quite look forward to the new opportunites that will develop as a result of this merger. This is one of those pivotal points in our industry, and I want to do my part to make sure the results are grand.

stow-on-the-wold church door
Originally uploaded by ayearineurope.

Actually, it’s the door to a church in the English village of Stow-on-the-Wold. Personally, I think it looks more like the door to an elven temple. Just awesome.

Actually, it’s the door to a church in the English village of Stow-on-the-Wold. Personally, I think it looks more like the door to an elven temple. Just awesome.Photo courtesy of the folks at A Year in Europe Podcast.

Last year, designer Wolfgang Baur did a very strange and interesting thing, he announced he would be designing an adventure using the ancient system of patronage. To this end he created a website called Open Design and allowed people to buy into different levels of patronage for the project, with each level allowing more of a say in both the process and the final product. Once the amount collected from the patrons reached a pre-determined amount, the project got green-lighted (and if it hadn’t reached the amount, the money would have been refunded to each patron, so no risk there) and a couple of months later, all the patrons ended up with an exclusive, one-of-a-kind adventure never to be made available beyond those involved.

I recall when this was being announced at the various industry news sites, and recall the ongoing updates, both from industry sites and from my friend Mark Gedak’s LiveJournal, since he was one of the patrons, and I have to admit that I just didn’t pay attention to it simply because of scattermindedness and just plain being busy with other stuff. However, the results of the first Open Design project are in and everyone that has commented on it has said it was awesome. A quick look at the Open Design website showed me a bunch of really cool-looking stuff that instantly made me wish I had gotten in on it when I could. I mean, just look at the cover of the 115-page (!) adventure, Steam & Brass. That alone looks awesome.

I find the whole concept fascinating, and I have to admit I like the model and feel slightly annoyed that I both didn’t think of it first nor that I followed it the first time around. Wolfgang has a whole post on the issue of patronage where he explains how the system worked for the first project, and he makes a lot of good points; if the system worked for the artistic community of the Renaissance, then why not take it out for a spin today? RPGs are certainly a niche enough market that a person highly skilled in his craft (and seriously, check out the partial list of Wolfgang’s credits) or someone with a good amount of talent working in a sub-niche area of the same field could stand to benefit from the same business model that got the David made, among thousands of pieces of art from the last handful of centuries.

I’m not making the same mistake again. Wolfgang has announced that the second Open Design project is now underway and seeking patrons. Three different product options have risen to the top of the heap based on the votes of the patrons, with the one that is currently my favorite as well at the top: Castle Shadowcrag. So yes, I will be joining as a patron for the second Open Design adventure project, and thus support not only a really good writer in doing his craft, but also an economic system that for ages has allowed us artists (if I may humbly include myself there as well) to practice our craft in a highly materialistic world (funny how some things haven’t changed), not to mention a unique roleplaying product for my collection.

If this sounds interesting to you, too, check out the various Patron levels and join in as well!