Manor #9 Available on RPGNow

Issue #9 of The Manor is available of RPGNow...now. I've been doing this for a while now and no matter how many times I put a product on RPGNow I get nervous, like I'm screwing it up. Which I do, but I go back and fix it. Weird.

Back to my point. If you prefer PDFs over print, click Manor #9 and grab a copy!

If you prefer a print copy, just push the Paypal button below and I'll fire one off to you. I'll also send you the PDF free, by a providing a coupon to RPGNow.

Manor #9: Where Shall I Send It?

USA $7.00 USD Everywhere Else $8.00 USD

Raising Money for Breast Cancer Research Stamps

Hey folks, here's what I'm gonna do. All the money I raise on RPGNow for the month of October (I'm throwing in what I made last month also), will go towards purchasing Breast Cancer Research stamps. If you have one of my PDFs in your shopping cart please consider pushing the buy button.

I have to buy stamps anyway, but I'd rather buy ones that go towards such an important cause. The lady at the post office explained to me that a portion goes towards breast cancer research, I immediately grabbed a couple sheets. I'd like to buy a lot more. And this is what I came up with.

Here's the link to my RPGNow storefront.

Thanks ahead of time.

Buck-a-Manor Sale

All Manor PDFs are $1 at RPGNow.  I've got 8 issues that I'm proud to say I've done and hoping to get out another issue soon.  But for now, it's Christmas time, but yourself something for yourself without breaking open your piggy bank.  Hey, these Manor PDFs are a lot cheaper than an XBox One or the latest Star Wars toy. 

Check out some of the fantastic artwork that decorates the pages of The Manor.

by Jason Sholtis

by Johnathan Bingham

by Emily Burnette

by Jason Sholtis

by Ivy Shorts

by Mike Varhola

by Jason Sholtis

by Jason Sholtis, he has several pieces in Issue #4

by Jay Penn

by Jay Penn

by Jason Sholtis

by Dylan Hartwell

by Dylan Hartwell

by Jim Magnusson

by Jarod Shaw

by Garrison J

by John Larrey

by John Larrey

by Denis McCarthy

Deal of the Day Results

On Monday my Starter Adventures was featured on RPGNow's Deal of the Day.  I submitted to be one of the Deals of the Day about two months ago and was just about ready to email them to see where I was on the cue and more to the point, to see if I was on the cue.  I didn't send the email, because on Sunday I received an email telling me Starter Adventures would be Monday's Deal of the Day.  Normally it sells for $7.99, but for the day it was priced at $4.

I did some light spamming on Google+.  A few good folks reshared my post and helped me get the word out.  Tenkar used his bullhorn to get the news out which always helps.

My Expectation: I wanted to sell 12 to 15 copies to consider a success and if I got 20 sales I would be extremely pleased.  Well, I got 50 sales.  Wow.  Thanks to everyone who grabbed a copy.

One Detail Fixed: For some reason Starter Adventures was listed in the 5E category.  I must have clicked the wrong category when I posted it.  Then when I tried to change it, it wouldn't.  But I see it is fixed now.  Yeah!  Before the sale I always received an email or two about how that stat blocks were not set up for 5E play.

Interesting Numbers: When I started the sale I there were 68 copies in wishlists and 9 in shopping carts.  When the sale ended there were 74 copies in wishlists and 8 in shopping carts.  So the sale did not seem to make a dent in those that already were interested.  And to my surprise there were more.  I would figure if you were interested trying something out when its 50% off.

Suggestions & Conclusion: If you have any products on RPGNow I highly recommend signing up for the Deal of the Day.  Be patient because their waiting list is long.  I waited two months.  But in the end it is worth it.  It costs a lot of promo points, but they well spent and WAY more effective than homepage impressions to get people to look at your work.  If you plan on doing the Deal of the Day I would select one of your higher end products.  Or a product you really like, but it never took off.  I plan on doing Deal of the Day again.  I'm not sure exactly what the promo will be for, but once I figure it out I'm spending some promo points and getting back in line.

Thanks: A huge thanks to those of you who helped spread the word, +Erik Tenkar, +Denis McCarthy, +Peter V. Dell'Orto, +Frank Turfler and I know I'm missing a couple more.

Deal of the Day: Starter Adventures!

Today my Starter Adventures is the Deal of the Day on RPG now.  The PDF is normally $7.99, but today it's only $4.  This is a great product to introduce someone into table-top RPGs.  I wrote this one specifically for folks who don't know a d20 from a ghoul.  A product that enhances what is fun and interesting in the game.  To hook newbies into coming back for more.

There are four adventure/situations for the the four main classes meant to be run one-on-one.  These scenarios will help a new player explore different aspects of the game.

There is a fully developed tavern filled with characters, secret doors and of course a basement that links into a sewer system.  Red Bear Tavern is a place where adventures begin, one ale at a time.

And the final piece is a full-fledged adventure.  After your newbies figure out that pyramid looking die is a d4, they can get busy being heroes. 

And to make it all come together, the incredible artwork by +Jason Sholtis and +John Larrey, the maps were created by my long time friend +Rob Conley and the unsung heroes of any written product, the editors +Tim Snider and my wife.  Any typos or grammatical assassination are on me because between those two they cleaned up a ton of my mistakes.

If you've had Starter Adventures in your cart or thought about checking it out, today is the day to do it.  If you have any questions about it, please just comment, Google+ me or email me.  I'll be glad to chat about anything gaming.

The Flayed King 500+ Downloads in a Week

I've been seeing the print copy has been landing around the world.  I'm surprised how fast it got to my friends in Great Britain.  They seem to get it as quickly as some of the folks in the states.

I checked the numbers and between the downloads on S&W Appreciation Day and the number of downloads on RPGNow, The Flayed King has been downloaded over 500 times in that short span.

Random Map Monday 16

After receiving a brilliant map sketch by the ever brilliant +Simon Forster, I took inspiration from the bold colors he used.  I've been wanting to introduce more colors into my maps, find new ways to texture my map features.

I thought of an underwater coral reef.  One that possessed precious ores or resources to mine.  The orange areas are what I imagine is the precious resource location.  Underwater miner dudes finding a way to gather what they can.  Then I used two other colors and meshed them together.  I like the effect.  I like the color. 

In the bottom right corner is a drop off.  I took someone's suggestion and made the top line bolder and thicker to give a sense of that was up and what part of the ridge was down.  I think it works out.  The ridge drops into a deep dark water with not apparent bottom in sight.  That's the black swirly part.  I wish that would have come out a little better.

The weekend was very busy with the Swords & Wizardry project I completed, The Flayed King.  I went a little crazy and decided to make a print version and sent them out to folks.  Whew.  That was a lot of work.  Ivy even made homemade envelopes for them because they wouldn't fit in any of the envelopes I had.  All the print versions I had are gone.  No more will be printed.  But you'll be able to grab a copy from RPGNow for free.  +Jim Magnusson cover and art inside are amazing.

Stone Fields of Azoroth Released

Stone Fields of Azoroth is now available on PDF at RPGNow.  I originally wrote this mini-sandbox setting as an exclusive for the beta box for Mythoard.  There the folks got a color, 3-booklet version of the it.  Last night, I received a email from Jarrod, creator of Mythoard, and he asked if I planned to sell Stone Fields.  I hadn't originally.  What Jarrod decided to do is have people expand on this mini sandbox.  With the limited release of the first Mythoard box I thought it would be good to get it into the hands of others.  To see what the other folks are working off of.  I love the idea.

For now it is available on RPGNow as a PDF.  I'll set up the Lulu PDF probably tomorrow.  Am I offering a print version?  Not at this time and I'm not sure if I will.  It would be expensive.  If I do offer it in print, it will be a limited run.  I'll know more when I do the calculation.

If you want a copy of Stone Fields of Azoroth, just hit the link.  I've priced it at $4.99.  It's made of 3-booklets and a map.

• 20 page booklet of the Village of Bad Water
• Map of Bad Water
• 8 page adventure Last Temple of Praxus
• 8 page adventure The Prison of Azoroth

If you have any question you can hit me up on Google+ or leave a comment.  I've got to thank +Jarrod Shaw for creating Mythoard and getting my psyched about writing this adventure.  It was fun to do and I look forward to working with him again.  To everyone else, enjoy the adventure.

Starter Adventures for Sale

Yesterday I received my copy of Starter Adventures from Lulu.  I was pleased with the way it turned out.  This is my first experience dealing with POD.  I tried RPGNow first, but found it difficult to navigate the print side of things.  Lulu was more user friendly.  Easier to get your book setup. 

This project took a long time.  Mainly due to me getting distracted by a different project or just plain laziness.  +Jason Sholtis and +John Larrey did all the the artwork you'll find inside.  They did an awesome job.  This was actually the first project Jason and John helped me with and these guys really went to town.  The cover was done by Jason.  He sorta tossed it at me and asked if I could use it for anything.  I looked at it and said, "That's my cover."  I love the twilight lighting, the orcs searching and the PC hoping whatever is in the bottle is going to help.

I had another OSR all-star assist me with this project, +Rob Conley did the maps.  I think I had him do six different types of trees for the one map.  I think he was ready to hit me with one of those trees.  His maps are always fantastic and pieces of art themselves.

Starter Adventures was thought up after a night of gaming with my wife.  I wrote it so folks could use it to introduce someone into the RPG hobby.  There are four adventures for each of the four main classes (cleric, fighter, magic-use and thief).  I wrote Starter Adventures to teach a person what die to use, some of lingo, that combat is not the only option, using magic items and so on.  Also inside is Red Bear Tavern.  Every adventuring group needs a place to hang out.  It's a pretty cool tavern if I do say so myself.  And the final entry is a full-fledged adventure to put those newbs to the test.

If you have any question, feel free to ask in the comments or email me. 

Lulu Print Link
Lulu PDF Link

RPGNow PDF Link

Review: How to Create Great Fantasy Maps (even if you can't draw)

Sometimes I go on to RPGNow and cruise around for some random thing to buy.  I always stash away some store credit for such occasions.  This time around I saw the title, How to Create Great Fantasy Maps (even if you can't draw).  Great title.  I like maps.  I like great maps.  I like to try and draw maps.  So I bought it.  At the low price of a $1.50, hell yeah I was going to get it.

This is the PDF printed.  The staple is not included in the PDF.

How to Create Fantasy Maps was written by Mark Wightman (don't touch him or you'll lose a level) for Draken Games.  The PDF comes in at 24 letter sized pages.  This features, don't be shocked, a lot of maps.  It's very printer friendly.  No large black spaces.  No backgrounds.  Just text and maps. 

Being a map guy myself, I'm always looking for a few tips, tricks or cheats.  There are a couple of cool techniques I learned in this that I want to try.  I won't go into detail because that would spoil the fun.  While you won't find any deep, dark secrets of mapping within, it is very handy and I can see it being especially useful to beginners or folks like me who want to see how other hand draw their maps.

The biggest draw to How to Create Fantasy Maps is Mark's writing.  The guy's excitement for maps really comes across in his writing.  In the intro he mentions his love for the Tolkien maps and a spectacular example of his lack of artistic ability (I am right there with you brother).  It's a fun, practical way to learn how to draw maps.  The examples are great.  He gives advice that I would have difficulty following, such as be patient.  I forget that.  Let the ink dry first before you try to erase the pencil lines.  Good advice.

I give a big thumbs up for How to Create Fantasy Maps. 

Let's Talk Money

I know, it's almost sacrilege to speak about that abomination called money in this field, but I'm gonna.  I know there are lot of people who are already into making their own stuff or thinking about it.  Here's what it looks like in my corner of the self-publishing world.  I've calculated the gross, the cost and net of the past month.  This gave me, I had a bit of an idea, but not really sure until I ran the numbers, of how much I made and how much was going out.  These numbers are about as accurate as I could get them.  When I send out comp copies and freebies it's difficult to track their costs.

I broke down the sales in the different categories so I could see where the money was coming in.  The bundles represent the biggest money maker, but if you look at the per issue, single issues sold for $4.03 on average.  Where the bundles included 6 issues, averaged $3.52 per item sold.  Still, $685.50 for the month is great.  But now let's look at the costs.

Some of the costs were estimated the best I could.  Such as the ink and cardstock.  I burned through 2 ink cartridges this month and into my 3rd, but since I do personal printing on the same machine I just averaged it as best I could.  And the reason the paper was $0 was because I am very good at taking advantage of Staples rebates and all the regular paper I have has cost me nothing.  All the different fees from Paypal, Lulu and RPGNow are accurate.  Paypal has a fee system I don't quite understand.  If someone sent in me in $4 for the latest Manor, I get charged  a .42 cent fee.  If someone sends in $20 for the Manor bundle Paypal charges an .88 fee.  RPGNow is a straight 35% off the top of what you charge.  Lulu, about the same.

 So after a month of sales I was able to make $333.48 to the good.  I figured out what the average gross sale price was for each unit sold, average cost of each unit and how much profit I made on each unit.  These numbers are all based off of selling 208 units this month.

These numbers can be off putting.  This doesn't include all the time I put into printing and mailing these issues.  Which is a considerable amount.  The other thing is most of my products are below the $5 mark so there isn't a lot of room for profit.  But, I do this because I enjoy it.  The profit I make allows me to buy other OSR books and populate my shelves with a few other goodies.

There are a number of folks who get pissy about people making a little money off RPGs...ignore them.  People can figure out what they want to spend their money on without the help of those few griefers.  People can vote with their money if they are interested in what you're doing.  If your interested in publishing your own thing than I say give it a go.  It's a lot of work, but good fun.  I've met a lot of great folks because of doing this and have gotten a ton of support I never expected to get.

The Manor, Issue #6 Unleashed!

Where you at? US $4.00 USD Canada $4.50 USD The Rest of the World $5.00 USD

Available on PDF at RPGNow and Lulu.

Well shit, look at that, it's done.  I hadn't realized it had been nearly six months from the last Manor.  I'm hoping to get the issues out a little quicker.

Anyway, here's issue #6 and a lot of great OSRians have added their own touches to this issue.  +matt jackson penned a perverse little brothel that you'll need to find a place for in your game.  +Jason Sholtis created the cover, a pimp halfling with a Cthulubeholder belt buckle.  Break it down and you get Cthul-lube-holder.  Yeah, we'll find our humor anywhere.  Jason drew a few of the ladies that you have to chose from.

+Ken H added three puzzle rooms.  Ken is great at creating puzzles.  These feature three sets of rooms and how to get from one room to another.  It's not as easy as opening a door.

I've added my Guard class.  A simple guard class that can be added to your game.  It gives the men on the wall a bit more personality and a few extra skills they would develop doing the job.  While being a guard is not the most glamorous job, this class makes it a bit more respectable.  A supplement to this is a random table of guard greetings.  Add variety to your "Halt, who goes there."

A lastly I wrote a short, low level adventure I really like.  There are so many good things coming out of OSR minds these days I wrote this adventure by using +Timothy Brannan's The Witch class.  His book helped tremendously with the atmosphere and culture development.  Throw in a +matt jackson map which I think I got from one of Moleskin Map series.  And finally +Dylan Hartwell whose Big Book of Spiders shaped the adventure.  And Dylan went out of his way and helped me with art for the adventure.  His creepy style really enhances the entire piece.  It was fantastic using these things that others have created and combining them to make something of my own.

I'm really happy with how this issue turned out.  Even down to the editing process.  +Ken H helped again in this regard.  Although he said that he could find nothing wrong with his piece.  It was perfect.  And the last couple nights, Ivy helped a ton with reading it aloud and making changes, tightening up the prose and calling out when something didn't make sense.  This issue took a little while to get out, but the process was a lot of fun.

I want to thank everyone I've mention for making this issue happen. 

Publishing Struggles Sometimes Works Outs for the Better

Yesterday, I wrote about my struggles with getting approval from RPGNow, but that may be a good thing in the end.  While I am still struggling to find out what's wrong with my file, I don't understand the message they sent, and there have been a few very cool OSRians like +Joseph Bloch, +Rob Conley and +Pete Spahn have been helpful.

While the process is frustrating, RPGNow has always been fantastic to deal with and I've shot an email to Chuck, who apparently is the gatekeeper.

While I was frustrated, after looking it over...again...I found more small things I wanted to tweak.  A stat block shifted a few lines.  Another block cut off the last sentence in an entry and their are a few orphans I want to find homes.  Orphans are a single word of a sentence that has its own line.  So there is some cosmetic things I want to tweak and make it the best I can.  But its about as good as I can make it now so I need to get it out there or I'll start messing with it and screw it all up.

I write theses posts as I go through the publishing process to share with others.  I always enjoy reading these posts from others.  Because if I can get through this stuff it should be fairly easy for the rest of you.

Tonight I'll tweak the mistakes I found, shouldn't take too long and then get some assistance with the other problems.  It's a learning process.

Another Hiccup in the Process

I received a denial from RPGNow for Starter Adventures.  When I did it the first time, it was approved.  I made adjustments on the color of the cover and resubmitted it.  This time I was denied because the interior art was too low of resolution.  I hadn't changed anything in the interior.  Plus I'm not sure which image they are speaking about.  Here's the message:

Your product Starter Adventures (Softcover Color (Premium)) was rejected by LightningSource for the following reason:
Title Received - Contact CSR
B3 - 36 - Low resolution images in interior file
LOW RESOLUTION IMAGES IN INTERIOR FILE Lightning Source recommends images be 300 ppi.
B3 - 36 - Low resolution images in interior file

Not sure what that means, but I email Chuck to help me figure out what I need to do.  RPGNow customer service is top notch.  I've always had great luck with them.  I would just like to put this puppy to bed.  It's been a long wait.

For any of you out there in blogger land can speak RPGNow technicalese please let me know.  I thought it meant the image on page 36.  There's isn't an image on page 36.

Anyway, that happened.

Starter Adventure Proof in Hand

As the title reads, I got my proof copy of Starter Adventures.  It looks good, but the cover needed tweaking.  The reds were muted.  That was my fault.  I used a textured red and it didn't translate well.  I changed it up with a more striking red that will make the words and cover pop a little more.  Ivy also said, "put your name on the damn cover, that's where it belongs".  So I added it at the bottom.  That's a light glare in the bottom right corner.

On the back cover, the picture's colors and reds were also muted.  I changed the contrast on the picture and that improved it.  Ivy also said, "put your blog address on the damn back cover, that's where it belongs".  So I added it at the bottom.  The upper left corner got dinged pretty good during shipping.

Here's a glance of what it looks inside.  It came out better than expected.  I'm happy with the guts of it.  And look at how +Jason Sholtis and +John Larrey and +Rob Conley made it look amazing.

A little trivia.  Jason drew a picture of stirges for me way back when this project started.  While this project languished in land of dust bunnies he needed a stirge picture for Frog God Games, Monstrosities.  It looks spectacular in those pages.  So Jason drew me a whole new stirge picture.  I think my stirges are scarier.

I absolutely love the map Rob drew for me for the adventure.  You'll find several masterful maps by Rob inside.  And Jason captured the final moment of an adventurer with an unfortunate name.

I tweaked the covers and submitted the changes to RPGNow and await their approval.  Last time it took six days.  I'm going to release Starter Adventures on PDF for $8 and print at $16.  If you purchase the print version you get the PDF for free.  I'm also going to see if Rob can create me a VTT friendly version so GMs can use it on Roll 20 or Fantasy Grounds without the room numbers.  This will avoid any complains from grumpy dwarves or metro-sexual elves. 

If you have any questions, please let me know.  You can email me, Google + me or just comment.

Starter Adventures Approved

Yesterday I got the okay from RPGNow to order a proof copy.  Ordered it ASAP.  Now I'm waiting on that.  In the meantime I need to go over to Lulu and do the same thing and get the PDF finalized.  I'm very excited about getting this done and out there.

Valentine's Day Present

So Whisk asked me what I wanted to Valentine's Day.  Normally we don't pay attention to it, but this year we've come to even the goofy holidays with a new attitude and decided to enjoy them.  Our new attitude these days is, "You only get a certain number of these so you might as well enjoy the ones you can".  So that's what we're doing. 

Our gifts are not going to be surprises, but rather I pick out some I want, she picks what she wants.  She wants baking stuff.  I want gaming stuff.  Shocking, I know.

So here's what I selected.

Castle of the Mad Archmage by +Joseph Bloch.  Ordered it this morning.  While it is shipping media mail I probably won't exactly get it by next Friday, but maybe.  Now with this ginormus adventure you'll need to get the Map Book and the Illustration Book.  There has been some minor bitching about there being three books, only minor, but those that have complained about it apparently haven't run an adventure, especially a large one, where the maps and illustrations are in the same book.  Too much flipping around.  I think it was very smart of Joe to separate it into different books for easy reference.  The cost of all three plus shipping was $39.34.  To me that's good value for your money.  And, you get all the PDFs included.

Time for work.  I have a yellow card in my PO Box and I've heard rumbling that Tavern Cards are beginning to appear.  I'm hoping I have my six decks waiting for me.

Execution Corner on RPGNow

Execution Corner is now available on RPGNow.  I put it under the PWYW category.  It's a small location you can drop into your campaign.  A crossroads area where 96 criminals have met their end.  You'll find the No Tomorrow Tavern serving the thirsty crowd on hanging day.  A pair of peddlers selling until the rope goes taut.  And an executioner who is very particular about what rope he uses. 
What you'll find inside:

• A hand drawn, colored map of the area.
• Descriptions of the people and area.
• Extras that include superstitions and a few game mechanic additions.

The map and idea came from the post I did yesterday.   But then I started fleshing it out more and thought it was a cool locale.  If your interest you can grab a copy for free or if you feel like tossing a quarter into the tip jar it would be much appreciated. 

The Manor #4 Available in PDF

All those who have ordered the Manor, they are in the mail headed your way.  There has been a great response so far.  Tonight I finally got around to getting the PDFs set up on have them available on RPGNow and Lulu. 

Manor #4 on RPGNow
Manor #4 on Lulu

I think the post office folks think I am stalking them because I've been hanging around so much. 

Knowledge Illuminates Pay What You Want Update

I put Knowledge Illuminates on the Pay What You Want on RPGNow and now that its been over a couple of weeks I thought I would update how its been going.  I know some are interested. 

Total Sales: 51
Free: 38
.01:     1
.10:     1
.78:     1
$1:      5
$1.50: 1
$1.90: 1
$2:      2
$10:    1

Nearly 75% of sales were free downloads.  Of the thirteen paid sales I made $23.29 (not going to figure in the RPGNow cut).  I averaged .46/sale. 

This is a skewed result because KI has been out for a while and most who wanted it already got it.  While the results aren't spectacular they are interesting.  I appreciated who plunked some coins into the tin cup.  All the sales I made went to ConTessa fundit.  I'll keep KI on PWYW, but not sure if I would do it again.  I do like having the option though.

I'd be interested to see how others fared.