Are You Off To See The Wizard?

You should be. For only one week, you'll be able to see this film classic in IMAX 3D at an IMAX theater near you. (Unfortunately, there are no IMAX theaters near me, so all of you will have to attend a showing in my name.)

But once you've seen the wonderful Wizard of Oz, what then? Especially if you've got kids or other Oz fans among your party, you will be overwhelmed with imaginative energy. So why not use that imagination to make your own Oz stories?

You could even make a game of it. Each person would have their own character that they control. But to make it interesting, one person wouldn't have a character, but instead have the authority to throw in new things for the other people to play around with. They would also have the authority to tell the other players that some of the things that they want their character to do won't work, or might work differently than they expect. But how to keep it fair? Dice, maybe?

You're in luck, because just such a game has already been written, designed and published! It's called Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. You can purchase it at any of the sites listed over on the right, or directly from your iPad, Nook or Kindle. You can get started quickly with the included scenario, The Jaded City of Oz, which includes a special guest appearance by the King of the Winged Monkeys.

Some of those sites also offer the Adventures in Oz Characters Pack featuring your favorite Oz characters all ready to print out and play. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and even Toto are there!

Long Time, No See

Has it really been that long since I've posted here? Wow. I'm really slipping. Worse, I'm breaking my prime rule of blogging: Never fade away.

The second rule of blogging is: Always be doing something. You can't really blog unless you've got something to blog about. And that rule is something that I have been keeping to.

I know I've been working on The Wizard's Magic Bag for a while, and it is still happening. Just a few minor touches and it's off to art and layout. Depending on how quickly things come together, it could be as early as Halloween, but hopefully no later than Christmas.

I have also arranged to be interviewed on the Indie Talks podcast next Wednesday. It looks like we'll be doing it as a Hangout on Google+, so you might even be able to watch it happen live (there is still much I don't know about Google+ and Hangouts). I'll keep you posted as news develops.

Also, thanks to Amazon's new MatchBook feature, if you have purchased Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road from Amazon, you can get the Kindle version for free. At least I hope so. If it doesn't work, please let me know.

Things still to do: Get caught up on the sales info. If I'm going to tell you something, I should tell you everything.

And Beyond the Deadly Desert. Yes, I know I've been talking about it for years now. Since the income from the game is going to a number of places that aren't all game related, I'm going to have to Kickstart it. I tried it once and failed, so when I do it again, I want to everything right. Which means having the book fully written, having a cool video and a number of other things before I even think about kicking it off. And with the amounts of energy I've been able to muster lately, that's going to take some time.

What Time Is It?

Adventure Time!

Many fans of the show (and if you're not watching it, you should be!) have noted the numerous D&D references throughout the series. Finn and Jake have fought classic D&D monsters in their many quests. Good, evil and neutral alignments have been referenced in various episodes.

For all of these reasons, people have been trying to homebrew their own Adventure Time RPG. A lot of these hacks try to use some edition of D&D or a retroclone as a base. But I think that a slightly different base is in order: Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road.

Why do I think AiO is such a good fit? (Other than the fact that this is my blog for shilling my game, that is?)

Fairly static characters. Like most characters in kid's shows, Finn and Jake do not grow significantly in ability over time. They become more complex characters with more backdrop and more depth, but generally stay at roughly the same power level. Putting them on D&D-style upgrade paths doesn't seem right to me.

Combat doesn't solve the problems. While Finn is a very heroic character who likes to fight and carries a big sword, he is not excessively violent. He prefers to help people rather than hurt anyone. He even plays fairly with his enemies, like his nemesis Ice King.

While I'm sure it's possible to start with D&D and start adding that sort of stuff in, why not save some effort and use a rule set that has it all baked in from the start?

Name: Finn the Human
Template: Child in Oz (I mean Ooo)
Size: 2

Basic Skills

Athletics: 4
Awareness: 3
Brains: 1
Presence: 2
Sneaking: 2
Wits: 3 (Brave heart)

Traits: Deadly Weapon

Friends List: Princess Bubblegum

Name: Jake the Dog
Template: Small Animal
Size: 1

Athletics: 3 (Stretching)
Awareness: 3
Brains: 2
Presence: 2
Sneaking: 3
Wits: 3

Traits: Stretchy Powers(see below) (1) Musician: Viola (1)

Friends List: Princess Rainicorn

 Jake's flexibility makes him an ideal candidate for an optional rule I've had in mind about "floating" Specialties. Even though a Specialty is associated with a specific Basic Skill, there are times when it makes sense to use the Specialty with another Skill. Jake's Stretching Specialty could be applied to Awareness as he stretches his eyes to look around corners or makes his ears bigger to hear better. Presence and Sneaking could allow Jake to disguise himself to fool people or get places that he shouldn't go.

Stretchy Powers

Power: Transformation, 2 points of changes (1)
Scope: Self/Person/Object (0)
Ritual: None (0)
Item: None (0)
Effect Power: 1

Design Notes: It does seem a little odd (even to me) that the ability to make 2 points of changes to yourself only costs 1 point. Though this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that this cost does not differentiate between positive and negative traits.

Bad news

Sorry to disappoint you, Evillene, but I've got some bad news for you.

One of my goals for a long time has been store availability. And not just general store availability, but game store availability. My plan was pretty simple, with only two steps. 1) Save up enough money from the profits of the game to order a modest print run of 100 copies. 2) Get a contract with Impressions to handle getting those copies into the hands of the distributors that sell to game stores.

I had paid everyone off by January of last year, so by this February I had completed step 1. I had the money. I didn't order the print run then, since I didn't have a place to put the books until I could foist them off on Impressions. So I moved on to step 2, contacting Aldo at Impressions to get things set up. And that's when I hit the big snag.

Getting set up with all of the other places I sell through has been remarkably easy. There's been little concern of rejection, since there's very little risk on their part. Digital storage is dirt cheap. The only time cost is an issue is when moving that file to the customer, either using internet bandwidth or paper and ink to print it into a POD book. At which point, the seller collects that cost from the end-user and kicks me back a royalty.

So I was more than a little surprised when Aldo politely but firmly turned me down. Since I only had one product out, he said, the chances of it making any money for him was pretty slim. If I had at least 3 products, then there was a better chance that at least one of the products would be successful enough to pay for physically storing and shipping those inventories. I've sat in on many seminars at DunDraCon with Aldo, so I'm going to trust him on this one.

Then came the death knell. Almost immediately after accruing that much money, I started spending it. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to. My day job was in panic mode over Obamacare, so they were trying to pull an Olive Garden and keep as much staff as possible under the 30 hour limit. So in order to make ends meet, I had to dip into savings and my game profits in order to pay rent or buy anything that couldn't be bought with food stamps. (For the record, I'm not blaming Obamacare. I'm blaming my employer's reaction to the law. Especially since the relevant portions aren't even in effect yet.)

Things are stabilizing somewhat. I'm looking for another job that will give me full time hours. My manager at my current job (who I game with) is giving me as many hours as he can without going over the limit. I've got room to breathe, if not actually relax.

The Wizard's Magic Bag is written, but I'm getting a few more eyes on it before I go further. (If you want to be one of those eyes, let me know!) The initial burst of publicity from my Pay What You Want offering should pay for most of the production expenses (layout and art) as long as I'm able to spend it quickly enough that it can't go to rent.

Where to go from here? Probably Indie Press Revolution. They do some distribution, sell direct via their website and go to cons. The main thing that's kept me away from them so far has been my fear of their content standard. While lots of people have told me that AiO is actually pretty awesome, and I've actually made more than a buck or two off of it, there's still this little fear in the back of my head that it might not meet their standards.

Wish me luck.

Tearing Down the Walls

When I was talking with all of the other publishers at Pete Figtree's last Hangout with all of those other publishers, there were a few things that came up that I want to talk a little bit more about. Here's one.

While we were talking about the advantages of Createspace in order to get on Amazon.com, I mentioned that when Oz the Great and Powerful came out, I got a notable surge in sales from that corner. (When I'm able to get caught up on my quarterly sales reports, you'll see the numbers.) I think most of the reaction I got from that statement was because the other publishers hadn't made a strong effort to reach outside the hobby.

To be clear, I don't think this was a flaw in any of their business or marketing plans. They have all done very good work and have found their own success and happiness, and I'm certainly not trying to stomp on that for them. And also, it is certainly true that selling a new game to an existing gamer is much easier than taking people off the street and turning them into gamers.

But I knew an RPG set in the land of Oz could be different. Nearly everyone knows about the Wizard of Oz. Even if they've never gotten around to watching the movie or reading any of the books, they all know about the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West and her Flying Monkeys. So part of my design process was to make sure the game was accessible to everyone who might want to play.

By and large, the strategy has worked. I've been interviewed on the Royal Podcast of Oz and the Atomic Array podcast. My game has been reviewed in Fight On! magazine as well as the Baum Bugle (a publication of the International Wizard of Oz Club).

For a little while there, I was the only Oz RPG on the market. But then competition started appearing. First Oz: Dark & Terrible, and now Savage Mojo has a project in the works. Now I realize that they are not really competition at all, because we're not competing for the same niche. Those products are trying to appeal, not only to a "more adult" audience, but to a specifically gamer audience. They make changes to the setting that make it feel a little more comfortable to action-movie oriented gaming sensibilities. Their iconic character is the Tin Woodman: strong, armored and ready to fight.

My iconic character is Dorothy. She's just a little girl from Kansas with no secret ninja training or magic powers. It's her heart that sets her apart. Her ability to make friends and stand up for what she believes in are what makes her special, not her ability to wield a railgun. And so it is in Adventures in Oz: Fantasy Roleplaying Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. Friendship is how characters grow. A well placed Impress action can turn the tide of battle, or end it altogether.

So to all of those indie designers out there, here's a little bit of advice. As part of your design process, put a little thought into who else might be interested in playing your game.It can lead you in some interesting directions.

The Best Things In Life Are Free

Last night, I was honored to attend another one of Pete Figtree's Google+ hangouts. This one featured a roundtable of self-published game designers. Sorry about the lack of advanced warning, but it was something of a spontaneous decision on my part. It was a lot of fun and a learning experience for everyone involved, I think. And a learning experience for you, too, we hope.

And for those who are interested in how Pay What You Want is working for me, it's actually going rather well. I've been getting a nice little bit of traffic to the game. It's also been bringing in some money, which is always nice.

Now, I'm not as brave as Ben Gerber (one of the other panelists from last night), who put his entire product line on PWYW. I also don't have as deep a catalog as he does. But I will show you how my numbers compare.

First off, the equivalent period last month. (May 11-20th)

Total sales: 2
Total $ Gross: 15.98
Total $ Net: 8.26

Now Ben has more free products than I do, so even though I got less traffic than him during this period, I still managed to out-earn him because every transaction brought some money in.

Now let's see what Pay What You Want has done for me. (June 11-20)

Total sales: 57
Total $ Gross: 35.96
Total $ Net: 23.37

Note that these numbers only reflect PWYW purchases. There has been a little activity in other quarters, which is good, but not accounted for here.

Now, I did not experience anything to confirm Ben's first hypothesis (that he made more money because his customers thought his product was worth more than he was originally charging for it). Only one of my customers paid the regular price for AiO with everyone else paying some lower value. The most common price paid being $1.00.

I think the other three do have some value, though. PWYW is the new hotness, so all the trendy people are jumping on it. The front page attention I got from having to create a new product was probably a big part of my sales spike right there. And since a PWYW product is basically a free product with a tip jar (Thank you Fred Hicks for that metaphor), it means that a lot of people are trying things out because they don't have to put money down before they see if a product is any good. And then they can pay what they feel is a fair price for a product once they have made a decision about what a fair price is.

Whether this turns into a viable business model remains to be seen. But I am looking.

Filling Up The Magic Bag

One of the reasons for my silence over the last few weeks has been because I have been trying to focus on writing The Wizard's Magic Bag. And I think I can safely say that I'm 90-95% done polishing the text that originated from the blog, making it a bit less casual, but hopefully easier to read.

Now I'm just thinking of what I want to add. Because if it was all blog stuff, it wouldn't be worth it for you to buy it. I do have some things that I want in there, and I am working on getting them in, too.

But what would you like to see? What magical thing would you like to accomplish in your games? What magic item from the stories excited your imagination? Or maybe you'd like to see me import a magic item, rule, or idea from one of your favorite games into Oz.