Community Content Publishing (OneBookShelf)

What, a post so soon?

It's Day 1 of 2021 but I'm not using that naming convention for these blog posts anymore.

I mentioned in my end of year post about potentially publishing content for games other than D&D.

Whilst doing some reading of the other Community Content Programmes on DriveThruRPG I thought it may be of interest to others how this works.

Before we dive in though.

I am NOT an expert on this subject but I have spent a fair bit of time reading the info on DriveThruRPGs website and doing some digging around the interwebs.  If any of this is wrong, please let me know!

If you're creating something that is not tied to an existing RPG and you want to publish it on DriveThru then you have two options:

1. Exclusive
2. Non-Exclusive

What's the difference?  This page explains https://www.drivethrurpg.com/joinchoice.php and here's the table for speed.

	Download Exclusive	Download Non-Exclusive
Earnings on digital sales	70% of customer price you set	65% of customer price you set
Digital sales channels	Only resold through DriveThruRPG.com	Sold anywhere
Earnings on printed sales	70% of print margin*	65% of print margin*
Printed sales channels	Sold anywhere	Sold anywhere
Enhanced title rotation	Yes	No
Bonus on-site promotion	Yes	No

If you want to create something that IS tied to an existing RPG then worth looking at the Community Content Programmes on DriveThru.

Three things to consider.

1. If you're planning to create products for one of the Community Content Programmes on DriveThruRPG then first you need to decide which one. This page lists all of them - https://www.drivethrurpg.com/cc/0/default

All of them give you access to their IP and in many cases provide artwork, templates for InDesign, Word and Affinity Publisher to create content and a variety of other resources.

This is really important to consider when creating something.  If you're wanting to write for a specific RPG then it's an easier decision to make because you are actually writing for that RPG.  If you don't want to lose that 15% or 20% then you have to ensure that what you produce doesn't infringe on copyrights or at the very least uses Open Gaming content.

2. The trade off is in the Earnings %.

In the main the Royalty % is 50% although there is one exception I could find (Savage Worlds) and a few where I couldn't find the %  on the DriveThru website (those in italics).  I'd err on the side of those being 50% too though.

Community Content Programmes	Royalty
Canis Minor (Pugmire)	50% Royalty
Chronicle System Guild (Green Ronin)	??% Royalty
Cypher System Creator Program	50% Royalty
Disciples of the Demon Lord	??% Royalty
DMsGuild	50% Royalty
Free League Workshop	50% Royalty
Genesys Foundry	50% Royalty
Gumshoe Community	50% Royalty
HERO GAMES	50% Royalty
Hero Kids Creator's Guild	50% Royalty
Infiniverse (Torg)	??% Royalty
Jonstown Compendium (Runequest)	50% Royalty
Miskatonic Repository	50% Royalty
Pip Worlds ???	50% Royalty
Savage Worlds Adventurer's Guild	60% Royalty
Scriptorium Aventuris (The Dark Eye)	??% Royalty
Slarecian Vault (Scarred Lands)	50% Royalty
Storypath Nexus	50% Royalty
Storytellers Vault	50% Royalty
Stratosphere (Unknown Armies)	??% Royalty
TinyTrove (Tinyd6)	??% Royalty
Travellers' Aid Society	50% Royalty
WOIN (What's Old Is New)	50% Royalty
ZWEIHÄNDER Grim & Perilous	50% Royalty

Stuff not listed would include games / systems like Pathfinder, Powered by the Apocalypse and FATE mostly because they either don't share their IP or have no specific IP to share.  If you're using these then you're not using a Community Content Programme and if you publish for these on DriveThruRPG then you're able to take advantage of the Exclusive / Non-Exclusive options above.

3.  If you're publishing D&D 5e compatible material you have 2 options.

1. DMsGuild
2. 5e OGL / SRD on DriveThruRPG

The former gives you access to the D&D IP and the dedicated D&D platform for customers that is DMsGuild. Although that's with a 50% royalty.

The latter gives you access to (most of) the core of D&D 5e as a game and gives you 65%-70% royalty. Although that's with being in a marketplace (DriveThruRPG) that isn't targeted at the D&D community.

That said it is worth noting that if the OGL / SRD approach means you can publish stuff wherever you like whether that's itch.io or Kickstarter or frankly anywhere.  DMsGuild produced stuff can only be sold via DMsGuild.

Beyond that we get into the area of ownership of what is created.

It's here that I need to clearly state that I am not a lawyer.

Below is a summary from Travis Legge comparing three such offerings.  Travis also isn’t a lawyer, but he’s been involved in self-publishing for many years so certainly a good guide.

DMsGuild	The FAQ states, “Wizards does not own any of the unique IP that you create in your publications. Wizards does own the IP that they contribute, plus the DMs Guild agreement will grant Wizards and other DMs Guild authors a license to use your IP. That said, if your work merits incorporation into canon, Wizards will contact you about purchasing your IP outright.” What this means is that if you create a Wizard named Blinky McScuzzlefort and in an adventure you create for the Dungeon Masters Guild, you have Blinky McScuzzlefort get kidnapped by Mind Flayers (A Wizards of the Coast IP property) that you own Blinky McScuzzlefort and Wizards keeps ownership of Mind Flayers. If Wizards wants to later use Blinky McScuzzlefort in a book they create called “Blinky McScuzzlefort’s Guide to Stuff” they have to purchase that intellectual property from you in order to do so. This seems to confuse a lot of people, but it is really that simple.
OGL	This is the part of the OGL that new creators seem to find the most challenging. When you publish under the OGL, you effectively split your content into two types, which you must clearly designate in the title or legal page of your text. The first type of content is Open Game Content, which is game systems, rules, numbers, stat blocks, etc. This is effectively added to the SRD in terms of ability for people to draw from and use in their own publications. It becomes open source. Anyone can use it, so long as they follow the guidelines laid out in the Open Game License. The second type of content is Product Identity. Product identity is generally Proper Nouns, setting elements, trade dress, storylines, and other non-system items, which you retain ownership and copyright over. Others using the Open Game License can reuse your Open Game Content, but they cannot use your Product Identity.
Slarecian Vault / Canis Minor	These community content programs each list specifics regarding the Product Identity you are allowed to use and the ramifications of publishing under these programs. The Slarecian Vault FAQ, available here, explicitly states that Onyx Path owns the content you create under the Slarecian Vault. This is not the place to publish ideas that you wish to retain ownership of. You won’t. The Canis Minor FAQ, available here, makes the same stipulation. In effect, you are using their Product Identity to contribute to their Product Identity. This is something to be aware of and create accordingly.

If protecting ownership of any Community Content you create is important to you, worth reviewing the wording of these FAQs etc very carefully.

A New Podcast is born - End The Turn

So as with my post on Roll Against Cancer (hopefully have shareable news on that soon) I have another one of my revised Hobby Objectives to update you all on.  This time it's More Involved.

Tomorrow at roughly 6pm UK time a new podcast will launch.

End The Turn is a drunken promise I made at UK Games Expo to my good friend +Liz Mackie

Unlike other drunken promises I may (or may not!) have made at UK Games Expo this one is now a reality.

End The Turn is a podcast about the hobby, focusing on RPGs and Board Games but also likely to cover other stuff in and around this wonderful hobby of ours.

So what does that mean for A 2nd Chapter?  Nothing specifically.

I'll be posting content here and I'll be posting / podcasting content there.  Some of that content will blend between both but some of it will be different.  You're definitely going to get more RPG related content over on End The Turn alongside Board Games. A 2nd Chapter will continue to be about my views and thoughts about my hobby and the hobby and I think they're compatible outlets.

So have a listen when we launch and let me know your thoughts either here or via the End The Turn avenues.

Thanks!

UK Games Expo 2016 - Teaching with Games Seminar

So the seminar was billed as - "How are games used to teach and learn? Games Jams, boardgames sessions and design are increasingly used in universities around the UK to help the next generation of games developers explore gaming. Come and find out how games help us learn, what academics are getting up to in various universities around the country, and where you can learn games design! 

Dr Esther MacCallum-Stewart is joined by Douglas Brown, Brian McDonald, Patrick Morrison and James Wallis."

Well, did it live up to that?  Kinda sorta...

The seminar covered two key things -

• Game design whether it be video, mobile or whatever has it's foundations in board game design.  If you can design a board game then you have the building blocks for any sort of game.
• Game Jams are cool (more below) and give attendees the opportunity / challenge to create a game from scratch over roughly 48 hours.

What it didn't cover was the use of games as an tool for education as it was focused on the use of tabletop games as a design method as part of an educational programme.  No biggie, I still got stuff out of it just not what I wanted or went in to get.

The topic of using games as a tool for education is what "Teaching with Games" suggests it would be about.  Granted the description doesn't spin that way and does lean more to the game design aspect.  I would have liked to have heard something for the former but was happy with what I heard ultimately anyway.

Core element of the seminar that I took was the power of Game Jams.

So what is a Game Jam then?  Well it's like a lot of "creative bubble" events. You enter with nothing more than a desire to create something and leave with an idea developed and physically represented by a prototype.

In the 1st Chapter I ran 24 Hour Comic Book Day and 24 Hour RPG / Game Chef events at the shop.  These are essentially Game Jams by a different name.  Arrive with nothing, take some keywords and formulate an idea either on your own or in a team then turn it into something tangible.  Sites like 1000 Monkeys, 1000 Typewriters specialise in distributing that kind of content in games at least.

The Game Jams that the panel talked about tended to 48 hour events (long enough to crash and burn then recover to achieve something) which is different from those I've hosted and I can see the advantage of that.  Especially in the case of 24 Hour Comic Book Day which is 24 pages in 24 hours, a much harder task than you'd consider on the face of it.

So having taken away the Game Jam guidance they gave I think I see their inherent advantage over the one's I hosted in the 1st Chapter.  Not least of which is the 48 hours involved as the number of times someone "won" a 24 hour event was few and far between.  Giving them 48 hours enables that reset and try again opportunity plus of course it also means you're more likely to come out with a pretty decent prototype game and associated components!

For those interested in holding a Game Jam here are some links -

Global Game Jam

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/GlobalGameJam/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/globalgamejam

Website (with UK filter) - http://globalgamejam.org/2016/jam-sites?country=GB

Scottish Game Jam

Facebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/Scottish-Game-Jam-136412446403315/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/scottishgamejam

Moray Game Jam Website - http://www.moraygamejam.com/

Glasgow Caledonian University Game Jam - http://www.gcu.ac.uk/newsroom/news/article/?id=110100

BBC News Coverage - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-35438716

Plus Game Jam Central - http://www.gamejamcentral.com/

If you do host one or are interested in doing one, let me know!

RPG Life UK

So a while back I stumbled upon a Twitter chat using the hashtag #RPGLifeUK

Curiousity got the better (?) of me and I started to interact with the chat and found myself amongst fellow hobbyists with a particular interest in Roleplaying Games.

Now that's not really a surprise.   What was a surprise though was how easy I found the conversation to interact with.

Backtrack a little...

Twitter has never really worked for me.  As a medium for conversation I've mostly used it to promote ENT and for direct messages.  Very rarely have I found it conducive to conversation.

A large part of that is because I don't usually access social media during office hours, not because it's banned or anything, moreso because when I'm at work I'm almost always in "work mode".  So my Twitter use was and still is largely binge based at night when I settle down post work and post family stuff.

Anyway, as I said I discovered #RPGLifeUK and for reasons unknown I decided to make a suggestion.

Has @symatt or anyone thought of hosting a #rpglifeuk discussion "in real time" at a con? Sunday 11-12 at UK Games Expo suits me.

— David Wright (@A2ndChapter) March 13, 2016

Which has turned into -

10 days before #RPGLIFEUK LIVE @UKGamesExpo Topic suggestions? 8pm Hilton 2nd Jun @symatt @pedr @richgreen01 @paulbaalham @FarlandsGames

— David Wright (@A2ndChapter) May 23, 2016

So, if you're going to be at the Hilton at 8pm on Thursday 2nd of June and fancy chatting about RPGs with some random Twitter folks then let +sy matt or myself know.

See you there! I'll be the one in the geek t-shirt.  Oh wait...

RPG A Day 2015 - Day Thirteen

Favourite RPG Podcast.

Ok so this one is tricky as I don't actually listen to podcasts of any form any more.  That said about 7 or 8 years ago (need to check that!) I was listening to lots and lots of podcasts although not all of them were RPG related.

Pulp Gamer
Fear The Boot
The Tome Show
Sons Of Kryos
Have Games, Will Travel
Errrrrmmm memory failing me!

There were several / many more that I listened to including a Savage Worlds specific one that I can't remember the name of with Ron Blessing I think?
Yeah Ron and his wife did "The Game's The Thing". Yeah that was pretty good.

Ah wait I was supposed to choose favourite one...

I'll plump for Pulp Gamer but not for RPG reasons. It was the GAMA Trade Show and Family Night podcasts that they did which really spoke to me about what I could achieve through opening up a game store or starting a games club.

For that I'm forever in Don Dehm and the late Derek Rex's debt.  Thanks guys.

Hobby PR

So I was contacted recently by the Aberdeen Press & Journal about them wanting to run a feature on the local scene for games like Dungeons & Dragons in their paper.

I'll let you digest that for a minute...

So I've previously reflected on media coverage of the hobby and since then there's a been a swell of coverage on board games in particular and strangely enough in The Guardian specifically.

I've also been interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland in the past on D&D around the time that Gary Gygax died.  That was cool and particularly memorable for the quotes from the attendees of +ORC Edinburgh who took part in the broadcast.

But to be contacted via Twitter about a potential article in the P&J (not a paper covering my geographical area of Scotland) was kinda odd but very cool at the same time.  I duly pointed Andrew at some contacts I have in the area and encouraged him to speak to the people at Plan 9 Comics (nearest thing to a FLGS in Aberdeen). The feature went live today and is excellent. Really takes a serious look at the history and stigma of the hobby and comes out the other end representing it properly and positively. Excellent coverage I think and especially pleased to read that Andrew took part in the game of D&D that was ran. As Steve says in the article - "Role playing games are to be experienced, and not observed." You can read it here.

Another thing with respect to Hobby PR that came up recently was in relation to the East Neuk Tabletop Games 14th December session.  It was the final session for ENT  in 2014 and we decided to host our own award show (see previous post - Golden Axe Award).  The opportunity to promote this event, the hobby and most of all the club was too good to let slip so we approached the Fife Free Press and they agreed!  Now this promotion could be very beneficial as we're looking to have a number of special events in 2015 which we can try and get the press to promote alongside us, not least of which is the Pandemic Party we plan to host at our January 25th Event.

So with that in mind Alan and I pulled together a draft press release for ENT which our contact at the FFP really liked. A photographer turned up to our Golden Axe Awards and took photos (including one of the winning game - Dobble - alongside an actual Golden Axe!).  Now it's been a while since I wrote a press release (KoA days) but between Alan and I we managed to cover all the bases.

The photographer turned up on the day and took some great photos.  As I write this the feature hasn't been published yet but once it has been I will share it like crazy on Facebook and Twitter.

Gen Con 2014 - Event Booking

Given the experience of booking accommodation that we had for Gen Con I felt I should do one on the Event Booking.

This was a multi step process -

What To Do?

The event catalogue is a monstrous spreadsheet (that could do with some data refinement but that's me being picky) with at this time almost 10,000 events in it.

This was released on the 9th May and I spent something in the region of 14 hours looking at it over the first week, if not more...  actually I think it was more but I'm going to go with 14 hours...

14 hours?!?!  What's the problem?

Well... as you'll be aware from previous Gen Con posts one of my motivations to go is to play / buy / experience Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition but from reviewing the event catalogue there are a LOT of other things I wanted to do to (unsurprisingly!).

Wednesday wise there are a whole host Trade Related events.  Some are specifically aimed at retailers but others are aimed at other aspects of the trade business.  Now normally this wouldn't be open to non-Trade people but thanks to the wizardry of the internet I have been granted Press access which is awesome!

Thursday through to Sunday there were too many options.  TOO MANY!!!  However I managed to narrow it down to around 30 events that I would be putting on my wish list.

Wish List?

Oh yeah, the system for getting into games involves the submission of a wish list at a specific time and then waiting for the website to come and tell you what you actually got.

Sounds fairly straight forward but when there are TOO MANY things to choose from it becomes very difficult to shorten that list and then assign a priority to events.

To help with this I arranged to meet up with my partners in Gen Con and we went through the event list.  This was additionally supported by the excellent fan website http://gencon.eventdb.us/ which was regularly updated every 6 hours to reflect changes in the catalogue.

Submitting Wish List!

This was the bit where I think things conspired against me...

Wish Lists were to be submitted at 5pm UK Time on Sunday 18th May.
I was co-running the 2nd East Neuk Tabletop Games meetup from 2pm to 5pm that same day.
Given the problems with the hotel system I expected the web access to be a nightmare.
I was reliant upon the pub across from the ENT venue to have a decent internet speed.

Ultimately at 4:45 I left ENT to head for the pub.
At 5:00 (and maybe 1 second) I clicked SUBMIT!
The planets must've been aligned or something as I (and +Greg Barr as I was submitting his at the same time) got pretty much the priority events that we wanted.
Given that they're expecting upwards of 50,000 attendees this year I find it amazing that the website didn't crash.  Indeed it didn't even seem to get slow.

Huge praise for the Gen Con web team on that front!

Since then there's been some tweaking of the event list by the team but everything seemed to be settled.

So that's that then?

Well no, more events have been uploaded since the initial launch and indeed tonight (8th June) had another 1,000+ events being listed and I've stayed up late (I get up for work at 5:15am) to see what new games are listed.  There were a couple of things I knew would be listed but there was only 1 sure fire event I really wanted to make sure I got in to.

Bring Me the Head of Dr. Dinosaur - An Atomic Robo RPG event run by Mike Olson (who created the RPG).

And I GOT IN!  Woohoo! For Science!

Tabletop Day 2014 @ DWARF in Dunfermline

So this Saturday is Tabletop Day.  If you're not sure where to go and take part in one of the many thousands of events to celebrate our hobby then go to the Tabletop Day website and find out where your nearest one is.

If that happens to be Dunfermline in Scotland then come along to the DWARF event.

I'm bringing some of my board games -

Sentinels Of The Multiverse - 2 to 5 player co-op superhero card game. 45-60 minutes to play.
Gloom - 2 to 4 player card game where you make your family miserable and kill them off. 45-60 minutes to play.
Lords Of Waterdeep - 2 to 5 player board game where you are powerful lords vying for control of this great city. Roughly 60 minutes to play.
King Of Tokyo - 2 to 6 player board game where you play mutant monsters, gigantic robots, and strange aliens fighting each other to become the one and only King of Tokyo. 30 to 45 minutes to play.
Bang! - 3 to 7 player card game set in the Wild West where barrels are your friend and dynamite randomly explodes! 30 to 45 minutes to play.
The Resistance - 5 to 10 player card game where you are either in The Resistance or you're a Spy trying to stop the resistance! 30 to 60 minutes to play.
Jungle Speed - 2 to 8 player card game which is nothing like Snap! (with violence) whatsoever... 15 to 45 minutes to play.
Fluxx (Zombie, Star, "Standard" and I think 1 other variant) - 2 to 8 player card game where the rules and goal are always in Fluxx! 15 to 45 minutes to play.
Straw - 2 to 6 player card game where the players are trying to NOT break the camel's back unless it's with that elusive Straw. 30 to 45 minutes to play.

Plus I plan on running (if there's demand) 2 RPG scenarios.

The first one is a hack of my Prison Break scenario for Star Wars.  It's a hack as I need to condense it to no more than 90 minutes!  Doable but challenging!

The second one is an as yet undecided scenario for D&D Next/5th Edition.  I probably have toooooo many options here so will be picking something that fits the 90 minute slot as well as gives players a proper taste of the rules.