Big news. I've finally got my website (http://www.divine-games.org/) updated and I'm now taking pre-orders for DL-Quarterly. For those of you who haven't been following, I'm working on a new business model for my RPGs. Thanks to some timely contests (Ronnies and Game Chef) I've got several ready-to-go RPGs. Instead of releasing them all in a bunch, I've offering a subscription. For way less than what four books individually would cost, someone can buy a 1 year subscription and get one book sent to them every three months at no additional cost. It's something new I'm trying to see if it's a viable model. I'm not sure what to expect yet, but I am quite excited to see what happens.
I've got to say, you've priced that really well. It's just cheap enough so it makes me willing to take a risk on it; but enough money so you'll get something significant back. The title's perhaps a little confusing (the $20 "DL-Quarterly" subscription lasts for a year).
Graham: The first year will include Cutthroat, Hierarchy, Standoff! and Holmes and Watson. Each will be sent every 3 months. You won't get them all at once. Come to think of it, I'll probably have to charge more for shipping for international buyers that want books. Crap, I hate that. I'll have to look into it. But anyway, expect a lot of very fun, very short prep games the first year.
As a note, as excited as I am about Troy's games, I'm even more excited to see someone taking a risk with a new publishing model. To that end, Troy, I really hope you'll be as transparent as you can with your experiences. I want to see if this can work, and I really want it to succeed.
These are some games I've been eager to see released, and the novelty of the approach intrigues me. A question, though: why no subscription option for getting the books and PDFs together?
Eric: Because I hadn't thought of that! :-D When I get home, I'll add that option to the list, Eric. Thanks for mentioning it.
Jason: I definately plan to be very transparent with this expirement. I should have some very good data at the end of the first run: number of subscribers, number of back issues sold, number of repeat subscribers, total income, PDF vs. Print etc. Plus I'll talk about the hardships of such a rigorous release schedule. Heh. But I truly do appreciate your support. The real key to this model's success will be in getting outside playtesting for the second generation of games. Hopefully, I'll make enough to hire Remi as an art director for those games. I'll probably start worrying about all that after the New Year. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see how it turns out :)
If you order a subscription before the second week of December you will get all four issues of the first series. So if you're tight on cash right now, you've got plenty of time yet. Plus, if someone ever orders a subscription within a week of a game's release date, I'll start their subscription with that game. At least I'm considering that. So, you've got almost two months yet. :)
What might be nice - and it's just a suggestion - is if, when a person starts a subscription, they immediately get the last game published. So there's a bit of instant gratification as well.
Graham: That might be nice, but I would never be sure if someone was ordering a subscription to get the next four games or the latest game plus the next three. In the end, I think it would be better for for me if I'm all hard core about it and say 1 Yr subscription = 12 months / next 4 issues period. You know, just to save myself headaches (cause I'm sure others will come up anyway). But anyway, I totally appreciate the suggestion and I'm totally pumped about getting these out the door.