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Ptolus Kickstarter Quotes Good Review from RPGsite, SJWs Make Them Take It Down

Started by RPGPundit, February 18, 2020, 05:05:10 PM

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Kyle Aaron

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1122741It's like T5, but it doesn't even have the devoted fanbase.
Best review ever.
The Viking Hat GM
Conflict, the adventure game of modern warfare
Wastrel Wednesdays, livestream with Dungeondelver

GameDaddy

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1122741It's like T5, but it doesn't even have the devoted fanbase.

Eh? No love for T5? Anyone write a review on it?
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson

BoxCrayonTales

Quote from: Spinachcat;1123314That entire article - and all like them - are completely negated by the American Dirt controversy. The American Dirt author thought she was being a good little liberal, but thanks to the newest purity tests, she and her book (and probably career) got pureed in the blender by the same people demanding "diversity".

Now the mob has tasted blood, why would they stop?

The book appears to be enjoying success. I don't think most customers actually care about the controversy. Especially since the outrage mob has probably desensitized most people to controversy.

Ghostmaker

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;1123318Best review ever.
Thank you, sir :)

Quote from: GameDaddy;1123329Eh? No love for T5? Anyone write a review on it?
Evidently, the art is awful, the organization is flawed, and there's reams of data that while interesting, really aren't -useful- in a game.

A good example one friend pointed me to was Extensions, which lists number stats for Importance, Economy, and Culture, and how to derive them... but it doesn't explain what the USE of these stats are (and for Culture, whether having low or high numbers in the subfields is a good thing). It would be like, oh, if D&D characters had an attribute called 'Intensity' but never specified why you needed points in it or what it was used for, or even which ends of the number spectrum were good.

EDIT: Oh, y'all know Erin Palette. I should've searched before. Her review of T5 is here:
http://lurkingrhythmically.blogspot.com/2014/01/traveller-tuesday-review-of-t5.html

Spinachcat

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1123334The book appears to be enjoying success.

The author lost her book tour. AKA, all her promotional marketing. Why? Death threats and promises by SJW freaks to disrupt every step of her tour. Apparently, her "proud wahmen" card didn't mean much to them.

No other author is gonna look at this shitshow and go, "yup, that's for me!" Let alone any publisher! Nope, the future is authors and books which pass the purity tests. Both you and your writing will need to jump through whatever the hoops-du-jour might be.

But I love it. The author is getting everything she deserves. Turns out that while the SJWs demand the panderbear...they then destroy the panderbear! That's pure fabulous.

GameDaddy

Quote from: Ghostmaker;1123338Thank you, sir :)


Evidently, the art is awful, the organization is flawed, and there's reams of data that while interesting, really aren't -useful- in a game.

A good example one friend pointed me to was Extensions, which lists number stats for Importance, Economy, and Culture, and how to derive them... but it doesn't explain what the USE of these stats are (and for Culture, whether having low or high numbers in the subfields is a good thing). It would be like, oh, if D&D characters had an attribute called 'Intensity' but never specified why you needed points in it or what it was used for, or even which ends of the number spectrum were good.

EDIT: Oh, y'all know Erin Palette. I should've searched before. Her review of T5 is here:
http://lurkingrhythmically.blogspot.com/2014/01/traveller-tuesday-review-of-t5.html

Ahh Thank You very Much! I'll be visiting with Marc in a couple weeks and will ask him about it. Planning on picking up T5 at the same time, soooo....
Blackmoor grew from a single Castle to include, first, several adjacent Castles (with the forces of Evil lying just off the edge of the world to an entire Northern Province of the Castle and Crusade Society's Great Kingdom.

~ Dave Arneson

Bradford C. Walker

Quote from: Spinachcat;1123408The author lost her book tour. AKA, all her promotional marketing. Why? Death threats and promises by SJW freaks to disrupt every step of her tour. Apparently, her "proud wahmen" card didn't mean much to them.

No other author is gonna look at this shitshow and go, "yup, that's for me!" Let alone any publisher! Nope, the future is authors and books which pass the purity tests. Both you and your writing will need to jump through whatever the hoops-du-jour might be.

But I love it. The author is getting everything she deserves. Turns out that while the SJWs demand the panderbear...they then destroy the panderbear! That's pure fabulous.
Only for authors playing the dying TradPub game.

Over here in IndiePub, none of that shit is a concern. The worst to worry about is rogue SJWs in Big Tech orgs (e.g. Amazon) noticing that you're a Wrongthinker (not a problem for most Indies) and messing with your listings, and that's more tedious than difficult to deal with. Instead, IndiePub authors have practical business issues to address: what is the current Amazon algorithm state, what ad buys are most effective, how to put a cover that sells, etc. with nary a dangerhaired screamer in sight.

Ghostmaker

Quote from: GameDaddy;1123424Ahh Thank You very Much! I'll be visiting with Marc in a couple weeks and will ask him about it. Planning on picking up T5 at the same time, soooo....

Ask him about the screw tank! :D

Spinachcat

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;1123427Only for authors playing the dying TradPub game.

100% agree, but TradPub is still where most of the money happens. It's where the advances, book tours and film deals happen. It's a much harder road for the IndiePub, although far more freedom.

Snowman0147

Quote from: Bradford C. Walker;1123427Only for authors playing the dying TradPub game.

Over here in IndiePub, none of that shit is a concern. The worst to worry about is rogue SJWs in Big Tech orgs (e.g. Amazon) noticing that you're a Wrongthinker (not a problem for most Indies) and messing with your listings, and that's more tedious than difficult to deal with. Instead, IndiePub authors have practical business issues to address: what is the current Amazon algorithm state, what ad buys are most effective, how to put a cover that sells, etc. with nary a dangerhaired screamer in sight.

Actually I do have one good question.  How does indiepub actually advertise their books?

Votan

Quote from: Shasarak;1122565Speak for yourself, I am not missing out on Ptolus a second time so I am giving him all the moneys.

And dont even talk to me about the cost of shipping that bad boy.

I think I am going to get the electronic version. It has a good reputation in some quarters and might be fun to see if it has good ideas. If nothing else there is an advantage to well constructed city map and names for major NPCs.

Bradford C. Walker

Quote from: Snowman0147;1123573Actually I do have one good question.  How does indiepub actually advertise their books?
According to the folks in #20BooksTo50K, the indiepub mentoring group I'm in, most ad buys are on Amazon itself or on Facebook because that's where the majority of novel-buyers (regardless of genre) are.

Bradford C. Walker

Quote from: Spinachcat;1123512100% agree, but TradPub is still where most of the money happens. It's where the advances, book tours and film deals happen. It's a much harder road for the IndiePub, although far more freedom.
Not really. The advances remain anemic for most authors (two book deal is still $5K or so, and that's the standard, with terrible royalty rates that are rarely realized), churn is stupid-high (most newbies don't earn out their advance and get dropped), and the publisher now expects authors to do all the real promotion work themselves. Only the very top-tier talents get that attention anymore, and that was before OldPub's cancer got as bad as it is now. Might as well just go via Amazon as indies for all the work you're going to have to do anyway.

OldPub is like a Pay-To-Win mobile game. It relies stupid-heavily on a handful of whales and a long-tail of back-catalog titles it has the rights to, and it feeds them the rapidly-dying midlist as well as the new blood in the vain hope of finding anyone close to another Martin or Corey while churning through them at a rate that would make the Imperium of Man blush. Wine Moms and Cat Ladies dominate the publishing jobs, and they care more about feels and status than business- with the sale of Simon & Schuster being the most blatant proof to date that OldPub is a zombie giant slowly collapsing as the rot finally eats through at mission-critical components of operation.

And don't expect the film and TV deals to stay out of NewPub hands for much longer. Not when authors with film and TV ties build up new properties that would adapted well to those media. (e.g. Cole & Anspach's mil-SF series, "Galaxy's Edge") Not when internationally-savvy authors eye parties outside of Hollywood for such deals.

Spinachcat

What percentage of best sellers are coming out of NewPub vs. OldPub?

I'm hugely supportive of NewPub and DIY self-publishing for all the reasons you stated, but maybe I'm missing it, but when I look through the best seller stacks at the airport, I am seeing OldPub.

Bradford C. Walker

Quote from: Spinachcat;1123613What percentage of best sellers are coming out of NewPub vs. OldPub?

I'm hugely supportive of NewPub and DIY self-publishing for all the reasons you stated, but maybe I'm missing it, but when I look through the best seller stacks at the airport, I am seeing OldPub.
Because the stacks at the airport aren't where over 80% of book sales--and yes, spreading out to retail generally, this includes RPGs--are made. It's Amazon. Yes, including hardcovers and paperbacks. Yes, including merchandise. This is why Amazon can bully the hell out of OldPub, and the only growth--if you can call it that--in retail is in the secondary market, which is also severely inhibited by Amazon competing with it. Sure, this will change in due course as folks figure out how to retail effectively vs. Amazon, but OldPub won't survive long enough to get there.