The Culture: The Future Of The Hobby (Publishing Edition)

Most of you reading this need to Come To Jesus when it comes to publishing tabletop adventure games.

Unless you do like the RPG Pundit and move out of the First World, you are not going to make a living publishing this stuff; if you're not The Only Game That Matters, or The Only Game In This Niche That Matters, you're already forced to leech off of them or you're not really a viable business.

That's why I put forth the model that I did yesterday, as I think a lot of you can pivot from Product to Service.

Which leads to the question of "What about the product?"

Many of you are familiar with the concept of a loss leader. The product performs a similar function. It exists to draw prospective players into your secured space. It has no other value than to be playable advertising for your service business. The fact that videogames do everything that tabletop tries to do, in terms of Conventional Play, better across the board coupled with Wizards abandoning the medium means that tabletop publishing is already becoming non-viable commercially. Get ahead of the curve.

Again, this is already a solved problem, and it was solved by Chris Gonnerman years ago: downshift to a self-sustaining hobby in itself.

The Proof Of Concept

Your publishing efforts, therefore, need to focus upon competent technical writing and presentation over all else. Dump everything surplus to requirements.

The reason for your product is that it is the default game being played in your clubhouse, like Blackjack or Poker at a casino is the default game, and this was always the case. It just wasn't acknowledged until circumstances forced people to acknowledge that this is reality- like it or not.

And yes, "default game" is not only a loss-leading bait into a sales funnel, it is also the first secondary convenience that you provide. "You can buy your own copy of the game from the club at-cost" is a value-added conveience and people will appreciate that.

It still has to be a good game, but if you don't have it in you to hit that target then don't worry. You can just focus Games That Matter. Recall that AD&D1e, a game that ceased publishing in 1989, is still one of the most dominant games around, and will be until everything collapses and Civilization falls.

Go where the money is: the service of providing a safe and secure place to play. All a game does henceforth is to advertise for your secured space. Get used to it.