A Whole ‘Nother Store: Amazon

For folks that prefer getting their games from Amazon, or just to widen the opportunities for expanding their market, or just ’cause . . . SJG now has a custom presence on Amazon. This supplements the existing Warehouse 23 sales channel, and is hopefully more discoverable by folks.

The Dungeon Fantasy RPG, GURPS, and The Fantasy Trip all have dedicated, prominent drop-down menus. This is happiness.

Even happier: I confirmed with Phil just a moment ago that the Gaming Ballistic titles that pertain to particular games will appear on the store! The first two (Nordvorn and Hall of Judgment, 2nd Edition) are already up!

GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

The other bit of huge news is the announcement of the July 1 launch of the GURPS 2020 PDF challenge. Phil Reed has released more details about the dozen or so short PDFs in various places. Here’s the text:

June 23, 2020: Coming Next Month: Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge

Sean and the GURPS team have spent months preparing a dozen different GURPS PDFs . . . and next month we’re taking them to Kickstarter as Steve Jackson Games’ GURPS 2020 PDF Challenge. The challenge: How many stretch goals can you unlock before the campaign comes to a close?

For a $3 pledge, you’ll get one GURPS PDF. As stretch goals are unlocked, we add titles to that $3 pledge. If all goes well and all of the stretch goals are unlocked, then your $3 pledge will land you a dozen 10-page GURPS PDFs.

The project is for PDFs only – no print rewards – and there are only three reward levels:

• • • $3 – You get all unlocked PDFs.
    • $30 – You get all unlocked PDFs and $30 in credit to spend in BackerKit on existing GURPS PDFs.
    • $99 – You get all unlocked PDFs and $125 in credit to spend in BackerKit on existing GURPS PDFs.

Please click the green “notify me” button on this page to receive email notification when the project goes live in July!

Can we unlock all twelve PDFs before the clock runs out?

— Phil Reed

So for three bucks, you get a minimum of a single 10-page PDF if it funds. Considering that in today’s market, an 8-page PDF in color like Fantastic Dungeon Grappling usually costs $5 by itself, this is a big discount over even retail pricing. Stretch goals are key, here. No word yet on what levels they’ll be, but since they’re all the same length, one expects something similar to “every $N, another PDF is unlocked.” I know what N would be for me at this level, but my costs can be higher (because I usually go with bespoke art and SJG has elected to throw down some really nice stock art from people like Dean Spencer – I recognize his stuff – and that is amazing value for the quality you get; Rick Hershey is the same way) in some respects, and lower (because it’s just me) in others. So we’ll see.

But the more folks buy in, the better the deal gets. All stretch goals achieved means you wind up paying less than $0.50 per PDF. That’s a lot of content.

The PDF-only option is also pretty much genius for this. It means zero shipping hassles. It means no marginal costs beyond fees. And the “Backerkit Credit” idea is a fantastic way to allow free selection from add-ons. I’m going to be looking hard at this. I’ve got two upcoming Nordlond-ish books (one on hirelings and NPCs by Kevin, and a Nordlond Magic Items book by Christopher) that might benefit, though only mildly, from this model.

Phil is also providing bits of insight as to the process on the SJG Forums, as one would expect. Check the link for comments and questions. Follow the Kickstarter page (!!) to be notified when the project launches.