I suppose what I am saying is that no game like Kuro or Qin need fade away simply because the old school distribution method suggests they have run out of life. Kickstarter is even will cater to the closed loop of fans but without sufficient marketing (a difficult prospect) it won't reach potential buyers like myself who aren't in that loop (unless they advertise on ENWorld, I suppose). Both were so slight in their actual impact on the hobby due to the limits of the conventional distribution system that my knowledge of either system came well after the fact of their release, and via more obscure references at rpg.net and elsewhere. Online sales and POD may be the best way to go for books like these.
True, but perhaps I am finally coming around to the idea that an RPG should not define its health by the brick-and-mortar distribution system's limited needs. I'd actually suggest making the PDFs also available to buy as print-on-demand through drivetrhu/RPGNow like the older long out of print White Wolf and TSR/WotC titles so people can still access them if they'd like without the publisher having to risk a large inventory sitting in a warehouse.
Cubicle 7 yggdrasil rpg what happened pdf#
That way the demand can be seen before reprinting and, if enough demand exists, maybe even persuade the publisher to look at bringing out some brand new material for it too.Īll the books should be available in PDF though - which is always an option until physical copies can be found. Maybe a possible solution is to run a Kickstarter to reprint each line. If you could downgrade the books to black and white then it becomes a lot more viable - and of course with the softcovers you can mitigate risk by printing off smaller runs through some of the print-on-demand services as opposed to printing higher quantities through traditional full-run printers.
Cubicle 7 yggdrasil rpg what happened full#
Doing a print run for a hardcover book with colour templates (if not entirely full colour) is expensive and you really need a minimum quantity to make it economically practical. Qin hasn't had a new book for years and no further books are planned (as far as I'm aware). Whenever a new book is released for a line the company will generally see a 'bump' in orders from distributors/retailers of the back catalog of products in that line - as they have confidence the line is alive and so restock the older books to go alongside the new release. Thus they are less likely to restock the line unless it is a great seller (and after ten years of availability you might not be seeing very many sales). The problem is that books that have a finite number of titles will be considered 'dead lines' by many distributors and retailers as no new material is coming out to support them.