Quote from: SineNomine;477528It's tempting, to be sure, but it doesn't seem entirely fair to Mongoose, with what they're doing in getting MongSWN into gaming stores and otherwise pushing it to the bricks-and-mortar crowd. And I really, really don't want to have to deal with conversations with peeved buyers who thought they were getting a big discount buying the DTRPG hardbound only to discover it's missing 40 pages out of the Mongoose version... and it's Murphy's certainty that I'd run into that a week after I pulled the trigger.

I think it might seem a lot less unfair to Mongoose once sales settle after release.

What I hope will be done is that the old cover print will be released again at some point once it become obvious the two versions are actually not competing with each other. I think they are actually not at this point either, but since you fear perceptions in that regard, I think time will smooth things out and make it very clear these aren't intended for the same audiences.

As for the missing content, as long as you make it very clear in the description of the product that this is an original edition lacking content added in the Mongoose version, with the subsequent link to the PDF on RPGnow/DriveThru and so on, there's no reason customers couldn't make educated choices on their own.

Look: wherever I'm looking, I'm seeing people comment on the old cover and how that matters to them. Grognardia, here, Knights and Knaves... I think there's something not negligible about this outlook, honestly.

Quote from: SineNomine;477528The general zeitgeist for Terran Mandate starship stuff is something akin to "TOS Star Trek crewed by a mix of EU and Chinese bureaucrats". Lots of clean, rational design, a heavy technocratic the-state-knows-best angle, and a purpose that is simultaneously intended to do horrible things to targets and then condemn them for not appreciating the necessity of the favor bestowed upon them. The late-era Terran Mandate was a very, very screwed-up place, and the Maestro-class AIs were barely able to contain the sheer boiling psychosis of the ruling bureaucracy on Earth. The constant export of malcontents and troublemakers from Earth to the frontier worlds allowed the ruling class to gradually refine itself to a degree of sheer bastardliness that would've resulted in inevitable collapse if they weren't constantly shipping out everyone who might possibly form a nucleus for discontent. The AI Maestros kept the crazy on a leash most of the time, but every so often something ugly bled through the bureaucracy's shell.

As for what's coming next, the next SWN product up is Darkness Visible, which is intended to be for espionage campaigns what Skyward Steel is for naval jobs. The main trick I'm trying to accomplish with Darkness Visible is to more effectively support espionage-type adventures, where intrigue and obfuscation tend to make them a lot harder to brew up than conventional exploration and problem-solving adventures. There's nothing immediately at hand for Red Tide, though I may be publishing a Labyrinth Lord-compatible domain system tied into RT's fluff. I'm considering it as a version 1.0 of what will eventually go into Other Dust, the post-apoc SWN standalone that will cover Terra 200 years after the Scream.

DUDE! You're my hero. I can't wait now, Darkness Visible sounds absolutely rockin! Espionage is pretty much my favorite style of game, so this is great news as far as I'm concerned. Other Dust also sounds rockin, and will be a must-buy for me as well.

QuoteIt's tempting, to be sure, but it doesn't seem entirely fair to Mongoose, with what they're doing in getting MongSWN into gaming stores and otherwise pushing it to the bricks-and-mortar crowd. And I really, really don't want to have to deal with conversations with peeved buyers who thought they were getting a big discount buying the DTRPG hardbound only to discover it's missing 40 pages out of the Mongoose version... and it's Murphy's certainty that I'd run into that a week after I pulled the trigger.

I don't blame you at all here. I was wondering, however, if between you and Mongoose, a less expensive pdf could be offered that contains stuff we early-adopters, as Benny put it, don't have. The extra info sounds pretty awesome, but buying another whole print book to get just the extras makes no sense. I would buy a pdf of the extra stuff alone in a heart-beat though.

If the difference in price is a concern, why not bump the print-on-demand version's price to equal the Mongoose version?  Put a big disclaimer in the product description, pointing out the newer Mongoose version has additional content not included in the print-on-demand version.  I think that would reduce the chances of someone buying the print-on-demand version "by mistake" to practically nothing.