I'm starting a personal project. Trying to find out what sort of OSR products are the most popular.

Does anyone have a breakdown on what sells the most? Rules supplements, adventures, character options?

I'd research like this:
Most OSR products are sold via DrivethruRPGnow. What are Electrum Sellers there?
Some OSR products are Kickstarters. I guess they can be searched as well? They are very varied, from dungeon dice to spell cards to maps to stand alone rule sets/clones - and high profile modules/sourcebooks (Midderlands, Zak's stuff, Barrowmaze).

Quote from: Dirk Remmecke;1053651I'd research like this:
Most OSR products are sold via DrivethruRPGnow. What are Electrum Sellers there?
Some OSR products are Kickstarters. I guess they can be searched as well? They are very varied, from dungeon dice to spell cards to maps to stand alone rule sets/clones - and high profile modules/sourcebooks (Midderlands, Zak's stuff, Barrowmaze).

The results of an OSR popularity search on RPGnow seem pretty horrifying and mostly LotFP stuff - https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?filters=45582_0_0_0_0&test_epoch=0&page=1&sort=6a

Edit: It did just prompt me to buy the pdf of Rob's colour Wilderlands maps though - one of my players was raving about how good they are.

Quote from: S'mon;1053652The results of an OSR popularity search on RPGnow seem pretty horrifying and mostly LotFP stuff - https://www.rpgnow.com/browse.php?filters=45582_0_0_0_0&test_epoch=0&page=1&sort=6a

The hottest category is more or less the current list of what selling for the OSR on RPGNow. Raggi has had a bunch of recent releases. But Raggi also really does his niche of the OSR well and rightfully deserve his sales rankings.

Quote from: S'mon;1053652Edit: It did just prompt me to buy the pdf of Rob's colour Wilderlands maps though - one of my players was raving about how good they are.

Appreciate the business.

The Guidebook proofs are due in today and if they are good then there will be another release tonight, Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde.

My totals for Bat in the Attic Games are

Majestic Wilderlands 630 sales since 12-2009 *Electrum seller

Blackmarsh 214 sales since 4-2011
However Blackmarsh has 8,217 downloads

Scourge of the Demon Wolf 298 sales since 10-2012

City State Color Map 245 sales since 11-2017

Wilderlands Color Maps 221 sales since 05-2018

WoHF Guide Book 166 sales since 05-2018

My opinion that for the OSR that it depends what sells based on the reputation of the author for that category.

Quote from: estar;1053693Wilderlands Color Maps 221 sales since 05-2018

And that's enough to put you in the "hot OSR sales" category along with a lot of degenerate LotFP gloop.

Big books of random gibberish tables seem like they sell well - most of that Cattle Oldskull stuff is a best seller despite being nothing much, well, random gibberish tables, spread so each table takes up 10 pages (because of single column and huge text).

I don't get it, but eh, lots of OSR people are big JG fans, so they love random stuff even if they make no sense.

In my own experience, my one Cthulhu mythos module has made more money than all my other stuff combined (like 20 products) and it's like 10x as much, too. So I would suggest that.


The problem with character options is that OSR is kinda fragmented. Seemingly the biggest single game is S&W white box, which somewhat ironically gets the most optional stuff for it (basically adding back everything "white box" takes away and then the kitchen sink). In my own character books I try to include the three main flavors - 1e, OD&D, and B/X but as I only play 1e (basically) the other two really only half-assed support in my stuff.

And then a lot of the more popular non-direct clones are kinda walled gardens. Want to write something for AS&SH?  Beyond the Wall? Starships & Spacemen? Spears of the Dawn (the one I would like to write stuff for personally)? They don't have trademark licenses or in some cases, aren't even written using the OGL. (You might be able to still write stuff for it, but would require additional effort and possibly money)

Quote from: S'mon;1053708And that's enough to put you in the "hot OSR sales" category along with a lot of degenerate LotFP gloop.

It's not degenerate. It's just "Look at me, look at me, look how edgy I am".  More boring than actually shocking. But people look, like they watch reality TV and daytime talk shows

Quote from: JeremyR;1053767It's not degenerate. It's just "Look at me, look at me, look how edgy I am".  More boring than actually shocking. But people look, like they watch reality TV and daytime talk shows

Yeah, I was kidding based on the titles.

Quote from: estar;1053693My totals for Bat in the Attic Games are

So these are just sales through RGPnow, Rob?

Allan.

Quote from: grodog;1053846So these are just sales through RGPnow, Rob?

Allan.

Good catch, I had 679 total sales on Lulu for Scourge and MW Supplement. And 120 sales through con sales by ordering direct from RPGnow and transferring to Black Blade or selling it myself.

It's hard to say really, but for me it seems that main rulebooks (or in the case of Dark Albion, big setting books) sell better than supplements.

That said, if I make enough supplements, they add up to making as much or more than the big books do individually.  This is the theory behind the RPGPundit Presents series.  It takes me about a year to make a 200-300 page book, but I can shoot out a 8-20 page book every week and collectively those 52 issues will sell as much or more than the big book.