Monday, December 26, 2016

What's Coming in 2017

Hi Folks,
2017 is almost here so I thought I would let you know what is in store for White Box in the coming year.

1st
An update of the 2009 S&W Quickstart by Michael Shorten. There has been a lot of discussion on how to bring new players into the game and this treasure chest product isn't mentioned much anymore. That needs to change. It is by far the best introduction to old school games I have seen. A few of us on the Smoldering Wizard forums are working on this, so stop on by if you would like to have some input. 
http://snw.smolderingwizard.com/index.php

2nd
Into the Unknown. A hexagon-exploration-adventure guide to an unknown realm.  Faeries and goblins and Froud! This is the Froud Project that I have mentioned. All artwork will be by Michael Clarke! 

3rd
White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game in color!  Not just B&W pictures with color accents. This is a FULL color version of the rules!

4th
The Wizard's Scroll - Issue 2. The Swords & Wizardry fanzine. I'm taking submissions now. This one will be released when there is enough content to fill the issue.

The order of release isn't set in stone. And since I'm such a tiny publisher, plans could change. But those 4 projects are the goal. I hope you will enjoy them all.

Cheers to an exciting 2017!

-Charlie

Monday, December 12, 2016

The First Issue of The Wizard's Scroll is Now Available!

Alright folks. The wait is over. The new Swords & Wizardry fanzine; The Wizard's Scroll - Issue 1 is now available on RPGnow!

Check it out:
http://www.rpgnow.com/product/200491/The-Wizards-Scroll--Issue-1

Friday, December 2, 2016

In the Red or In the Black?... Who Cares. Part 4

A special early update. Because today is a big day.

I added the new numbers to the previous update from 11/10/16.

Print
RPGNow: 29
LULU: 90 + 29 = 119
Amazon: 131
+ 42 = 173

Total = 321

--I started selling the book on Amazon at the very end of August. Sales for each month: September = 56, October = 47, November = 60.

Downloads
RPGNow: 1,088 + 117 = 1,205
LULU: 270 + 31 = 301

Total = 1,506

Revenue from the 3
RPGNow: $89 + $6 = $95
LULU: $137 + $45 = $182
Amazon: $86
+ $27 = $113

Total Revenue = $390

Cost to make the book = $330
Print Proofs: $60 
Total cost to make it = $390

I BROKE EVEN TODAY!!

Considering I make a buck and some change on each print book sold at Lulu and Rpgnow and about .70 cents at Amazon; this is pretty amazing to break even after 4 months.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Thursday, November 10, 2016

In the Red or in the Black?... Who Cares. Part 3

Hiya Folks,
It's been about a month since my last post about the PDF downloads and print sales of the game. 
Here is a quick summary.

Downloads
RPGNow: 1,088
LULU: 270

Total: 1,358

Print
RPGNow: 29
LULU: 90
Amazon: 131

Total: 250

Revenue from the 3
RPGNow: $89 (this included some $ when the PDF was PWYW, it’s free now)
LULU: $137
Amazon: $86

Total Revenue = $312

Cost to create the book = $330
Print Proofs: $60
Total Revenue as of 11/10 = $312
In the Red = $78

Oh, and I was curious so about how each cover was doing:

Red = 147 (29 are from RPGnow which only has Red)
Blue = 75
White = 28 (LULU only)

There you have it.  

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The White and Blue Hardcovers are Now Available!

Hiya Folks,
I'm VERY happy to announce that the White (William McAusland) and Blue (Stefan Poag) hardcovers are finally available at LULU for $14.99.

Check it out!
White Hardcover

Blue Hardcover

With this release, I am finally done!

I learned a lot, and there will be updates as needed. But for now, I'm closing it down and turning my focus to the next release.

Thanks so much for your patience if you were waiting for a White or Blue hardcover.

--Charlie

In the Red or in the Black... Who Cares! Part 2

Hiya Folks,
It's been just over a month since my last post about the downloads and purchases of the game.
Here is a quick summary.

Downloads
RPGNow: 801
LULU: 251

Total: 1,052

Print
RPGNow: 14
LULU: 56
Amazon: 73

Total: 143


Revenue from the 3
RPGNow: $73
LULU: $83
Amazon: $50

Print & PDF Total Revenue = $206 (rounded)

Cost to create the book = $330
Print Proofs: $60 (I made a few mistakes and made a lot of adjustments. I'm an amateur people!)
Total Revenue as of 10/8 = $206
In the Red = $184

--Note: There were no mistakes at RPGNow because Travis Casey generously helped with those files!

I forgot to include the print proof cost in the first post.

There you have it.  I continue to publish and learn!



Friday, September 30, 2016

New Google+ Community for White Box

Hi Folks,
I made a new Google+ Community for anything that is fantasy White Box related.

You can check it out here:
White Box Google+ Community

It's brand new so there are not many posts yet but please join the group and share the White Box love.

Monday, September 26, 2016

White Box: FMAG Text Document

Hi Folks,
Here is a link to google drive for the White Box: Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game text document.

It's not pretty. Uploading it to google drive messed with the fonts and formatting. But hopefully it will help with all the home brewers out there who want to make their own document.

White Box Text Document

Fight On!

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Submission Call for a New Swords & Wizardry 'zine

Hi folks,
I'm now taking submissions for " The Wizard's Scroll"  (working title) a new Swords & Wizardry zine.

This is a fan zine that is just starting so there is no money to pay for submissions. But you will have the glory of your name in print! Or possibly I may be able to send you a print copy or maybe a free PDF. I haven't determined the cost yet (it might be free or very low cost)

Any version of S&W is fair game but special preference will be given to White Box :) Just kidding.

I'm open for anything: Art, adventures, cross word puzzles, fiction, recipes, whatever! Who has the meanest halfling stuffed pie recipe?

There is no schedule for the zine. Issues will be released when enough content is gathered. And I have one project being worked on right now. So I'll take submissions while I work on that and when I have enough content, I'll put together issue 1.

There will be a PDF on RPGNow and LULU, with a print option at LULU and Amazon.

Fight On!

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Pictures of the "Red" Hardcover from Lulu & RPGnow

Here are some pictures if you want to see the differences in how the cover turned out between Lulu and RPGnow.

Lulu on the left. RPGnow on the right.



The binding is tighter on the RPGnow version. So the cover pops open a bit when laying flat (RPGnow on the right)



The tight binding also causes it to not easily lay flat (RPGnow in the front)



The ink of the RPGnow version has a higher contrast (looks more black) and the paper is a little thicker.

So that is just a quick look at the differences. So you can make an educated purchase when you choose which place to get it from.

Monday, September 19, 2016

New Print Options, Including Hardcover!

Hi Folks,
I'm happy to announce that the "Red" Eric Lofgren Hardcover is now available on Lulu for $14.99!

Check it out here:
Red Hardcover

The "Blue" and "Black & White" hardcovers are coming soon.

Also, thanks to Travis Casey there is now a hardcover and softcover print option at Rpgnow!
Check it out here:

Red cover at Rpgnow

Monday, September 5, 2016

New Referee Screen!

Hi folks,
Here is a White Box Referee screen.

Check it out and let me know what feedback you have.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B-5vOLLXjraJYzVZbEhpQ3lMdGc

-Update 9/12/16
There are now 2 versions available:

A 3 page portrait or a 4 page landscape.

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Price Changes


Hi Folks,
It was pointed out to me on Google+ that my pricing strategy is confusing and bad (my wife agreed!)

So since it's White Box and things should be simple; all the color softcovers will be $5.99 no matter where you buy them!

My apologies to everyone who purchased a book at $6.99 at Lulu.  I hope you can forgive the dollar difference.  I hope this pricing change makes things much clearer and better for the future of the game.


Friday, September 2, 2016

In the red or in the black... Who cares!

Hi Folks,
In the interest of providing information for others that are interested in in publishing RPG stuff.  I want to be open about the numbers for WB: FMAG.

Here are the numbers after the game has been available for 1 month.

Royalties:

Lulu
Black & White softcover: $1.25
Color Softcovers: $1.88

Amazon
Color Softcovers: .70 cents

To date 28 print books have sold on Lulu for a total royalty of $47.65.
6 books have sold on Amazon for a total royalty of $4.20.
So combined print books are 34 books for $51.85.

The PDF has had 209 downloads on Lulu and 336 downloads on OBS, for a total of 545 downloads.  The OBS PDF is pay what you want, and I have received a royalty of $19.30.

So I have made a total of $71.15 so far in sales.

Now let’s look at the numbers for creating the book.
I spent a total of $330 for art. Which paid for art packs by William McAusland and a cover by Eric Lofgren on OBS. And it also covered commissioning Stefan Poag to do a cover.

So I’m currently in the red about $258.85! 

But this was all for fun as a fan project. Making money was not a primary goal. Although if I made enough to cover the art expense then that would be awesome! I sold some of my RPG collection to make back the money spent (my wife pretty much demanded it) so really the numbers are all good as far as I’m concerned.

The plan is to put any money made into future projects.

Hopefully seeing these numbers will help shed some light on this little part of the RPG landscape called the OSR.

Going forward, I'll update this post every month or so.

Fight On!

------------
Addendum of Possible Interest to People Who Want to Make Lots of Dimes in the OSR Publishing Business:

Here is some great info from Guy Fullerton from google + regarding my post, I asked him to point out my strategy flaws in regards to making a profit (now remember, making a profit was not a goal of mine, I just thought his advice would be interesting to know).

Sure, but I have no experience publishing game systems, so that's gonna color my advice, and possibly make it invalid for people doing game systems (especially variations of systems already available for cheap).

1. Pick a price that gives much more royalty per sale. (In the case of something like White Box, at least $10 or $20 for the print version. Look at the pricing on White Star for example.)

2. Make a product more usable to a broader range of people willing to pay that higher-royalty asking price. (Like a module or supplement, instead of a variation of an existing game system trying to stand out among the free/cheap OD&D clones.)

3. Have a shorter first product, whose length that needs less art. (e.g., 12 to 24 pages, instead of 150+ pages.) Learn the ropes with less up-front art expense.

4. Don't pay for redundant cover art.

5. Use crowdfunding or a ransom model, so you know how much money is in your budget for artwork, before commissioning all the artwork.

6. Avoid pay-what-you-want on a product until it’s in the long tail of sales.

7. Make a hardcover option for longer books. You can squeak some extra royalty out of the hardcover asking price.


(Again, I think what you did is completely fine, considering your goals!)


Oh and also Kevin Crawford of Sine Nomine games also said on Google+ that when releasing a product you should have everything ready to go when you announce it. So the PDF and softcover and hardcovers. Which I definitely did not do! Oh well, you publish and learn.


Wednesday, August 31, 2016

White Box : FMAG Now Available on Amazon!

Hi Folks,
I'm very happy to announce that the White Box books are now available on Amazon for $5.99!

You can choose between the 2 color covers:

Blue Cover

Red Cover

These are slightly different from the Lulu color editions. They use a 50# white interior paper (Lulu is 60# cream) and they have a white back and spine (Lulu's are red and blue).

So the options by price are:

Black & White cover with 50# white paper on Lulu for $4.99
Color covers with 50# white paper on Amazon for $5.99
Color covers with 60# cream paper on Lulu for $6.99

Enjoy!

Saturday, August 27, 2016

White Box Color Covers Are Available!

Hi Folks,
I'm very happy to announce that the color covers are now available on Lulu for $6.99!

Both the color covers feature interior cream paper with a 60# weight.  The Black & White cover is white paper with a 50# weight.

For whatever reason, the Poag cover (Blue) has a crappy preview image. I can't seem to fix it. I have opened a support ticket with Lulu to correct the issue. But the print book cover looks just fine.

Here is a preview of the covers. I did make an adjustment to the Red cover for the final print book (added FMAG for the subtitle).




Check 'em out here:
Red Eric Lofgren Cover
http://www.lulu.com/shop/charlie-mason/white-box-softcover-red/paperback/product-22840182.html

Blue Stefan Poag Cover
http://www.lulu.com/shop/charlie-mason/white-box-softcover-blue/paperback/product-22842132.html

Thanks for your support and patience while I worked on getting these ready.






Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Update on White Box

Hi Folks,
It's been a week since my last post and I just wanted to give you all an update on how things are going with White Box: FMAG.

The Eric Lofgren "red dragon" cover PDF for White Box has been on OBS for one week and it has 213 downloads.

The B&W PDF on Lulu has 182 downloads since its release on 8/1/2016.

The B&W softcover on Lulu has sold 7 copies to 6 customers since its release on 8/14/2016.

The Lulu color covers took forever to print and are taking forever to arrive. I'm still waiting for them, though it looks like they should be here this week.

The Createspace (Amazon) softcover has arrived. There is an issue with the cover, and I'm working on fixing it.

So, we are getting close to having the color copies in print.  Just a little longer.

Here is a quick pic of the Amazon cover, so you can get an idea of what it will look like


Tuesday, August 16, 2016

PDF Now Available at RPGNow!

Hi Folks,
The PDF with the red dragon cover by Eric Lofgren is now available at OBS.

Check it out at the link on the right or here:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/190631/White-Box 


Sunday, August 14, 2016

Print on Demand is Live!

Hi Folks,
Great news.  The Black and White version (William McAusland cover) of the print book is now live on Lulu!

Get yours now for $4.99.

The color covers will be coming soon at a little bit higher price but with higher quality paper. I have ordered proof copies.  So if you would rather have one of those, then you will have to wait a little longer.  Oh and hard cover will be coming soon as well.

http://www.lulu.com/shop/charles-mason/white-box/paperback/product-22826495.html

Thanks for your support and I hope you enjoy!
Charlie


White Box Character Sheet

Check it out folks, a White Box Character sheet by James V. West!


This will be added to the PDF download and print on demand files

Saturday, August 13, 2016

Announcing the Final Cover

Hi Folks,
Originally I wasn't planning on commissioning any art. I just wasn't sure if it would be a good choice for what money I had to use for this project.  But then I decided that if I'm going to do this, then I'll do it the way I want and I'll just sell a copy or two of the Rules Cyclopedia and maybe my unopened copy of Ptolus to help fund it!

It was tough choosing which OSR artist to select for this project. I wish I could have commissioned a couple of them. But ultimately I chose Stefan Poag.  I really like his old school style and thought that it would make a wide variety of cover styles with the other choices that will be available.

So here you go.  A preview of the cover by none other than, Mr. Stefan Poag!


Friday, August 12, 2016

Announcement: The First White Box Supplement

Hi Folks,
I wanted to let you all know that I'm currently working on the various covers for the game.  There should be around 3 for you to choose from. I'm currently waiting on one more thing before I'll release the print on demand copies... but it's coming soon.

Also, I do plan to follow up with additional releases.  The first one will be a hexcrawling wilderness setting.

Check out the mock up cover below.  I fiddled around with the lone rider cover and managed to make it fit the whole page where it still looks pretty good and because I have since purchased the Lofgren red dragon cover for the main rule book, I thought this picture would work well for the setting book.

Now for full disclosure, since I'm a complete amateur and learning as I go, all of this may completely change!  :)


Thursday, August 11, 2016

Another Color Cover

Hi Folks,
Ok, here is one of the color options for the cover.  It's by non other than Eric Lofgren.


This version is a definite go... since I paid a hefty gold coin for it :)

List of Additions/Changes to the Game

Hi Folks,
It was requested to provide a list of changes and additions I made to the game.

Here are the basics that I can think of at the moment.

Additions:
Thief class
Magic-User establishing a tower at 10th level
14 monsters
Better attack damage for some big monsters like golems and dragons, etc
Adventuring Rules; like torches, finding secret doors, etc.
Underworld monster stocking tables
Wilderness Transportation Movement Rates
Jousting rules
Reaction roll table

Changes:
Modfied the Sleep spell, like victims HD

Other small changes here and there, for example; with Clerics I changed the reason for only being
allowed blunt weapons to secret religious practices rather than being forbidden to shed blood.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

The Color Back Cover

Here is the back of the color cover

Possible Color Cover

Hi Folks,
Here is a possible color cover for White Box. This is just the front cover. It would be a full wrap around image to the back cover. Let me know what you think.


Friday, August 5, 2016

White Box Update

Hi Folks,
Just wanted to give a quick update.

The proof print copy is on it's way from Lulu.  I plan on doing one more and final revision to the PDF and then if all goes well with the print copy; I'll release the Black & White POD.

The color cover is still in progress. I'll announce the artist very soon.

Fight On!
Charlie

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

For Love of the Game

I love Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox.  It is one of my favorite retro-clones. I was hoping for years that it would get a revision and better layout with more art.  But, alas that never seemed to happen.

So one day I was thinking; Matt Finch gave the game "to the fans" and I thought, hey wait, I'm a fan and nobody else seems to be revising it, why don't I just do it?

So I revised it myself. I added some various OSR stuff to change it up a bit. I included the much needed "essential adventuring rules" by Douglas Maxwell. Jousting by John Stater. Overland transportation rates from Delving Deeper. The Thief and some monsters from James Spahn.

I would like to point out how awesome the OSR is.  There are so many excellent writers, who put out great material and they keep it open in the spirit of the OGL.  There was no need for me to reinvent the wheel. I just chose what fit best. Which really is the whole spirit of the OSR and Original Dungeons & Dragons as well.

I wanted to keep most of the game intact, so I only applied some light editing. It is the game you know and love.

I hope you all like it.  

The PDF has been available for a couple days and you can find it here, for free: http://www.lulu.com/shop/charles-mason/white-box/ebook/product-22811512.html

Print On Demand is coming soon.  

The White Box Blog is Alive!

Hi Folks,

This blog is where I'll announce everything concerning White Box : Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game.

So yep, there you have it.

The White Box blog is alive!