PRESS RELEASE – The Book of Many Things Campaign Bundle through 12/31/18

500 pages of content for sale and a small gift.

The 2018 Campaign Bundle.

Earlier this year, we hosted our successful Kickstarter for The Book of Many Things. Since then, we have continued the campaign, raising additional funds to help make each volume better and bring them to print.

Now, as the year comes to a close, so too does the campaign. This is your last opportunity to pick up the bundle for only $30.00 USD. On January 1, 2019, the campaign bundle ends, and the exclusive content included will be made unavailable.

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The Book of Many Things Volume 2

Join your fellow gamers in playing characters reminiscent of popular videogame characters. From sword, bow, and bomb-wielding heroes, to space bounty hunters and priests who balance the light with the darkness, this 200 page volume contains many such options and more.

The Book of Many Things Volume 1

Come one, come all as we explore this 200 page volume containing requests from around the internet. Break the sound barrier as an accelerist. Vex enemies as 1 of 26 different races. You could even become a skiprock champion! Feats, spells, archetypes, and more await you within.
Thank you for a great 2018 from our team at Samurai Sheepdog. To show our appreciation, a festive preview of something we have upcoming for April 2019.
Copyright © 2018 Open Gaming, LLC, All rights reserved.

PRESS RELEASE – Update Your Favorite SRD for Fun & Profit!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UPDATE YOUR FAVORITE SRDs FOR FUN & PROFIT!

Transcribe OGL Content for the Open Gaming Network

Interested in being paid to add Open Game License (OGL) content to the Open Gaming Network’s SRD sites? The Open Gaming Network is looking for transcribers to copy OGL content onto our SRD (System Reference Documents) sites. You’ll pick your favorite OGL system, such as 5e, Pathfinder, Traveller, and many more, then select from a list of products that need to be uploaded. In exchange for updating these tabletop RPG community resources you’ll receive:

    • A PDF copy of the book that you selected from the Open Gaming Store
    • Open Gaming Store credit equal to the value of the book the content came from, upon completion of adding said content

Owen KC Stephens [Starfinder Design Lead at Paizo Inc. and Founder, Lead Developer at Rogue Genius Games] shared these thoughts about this job, “I think it’s a fine idea.” He continued, “I once had the temporary job of entering phone book names and address and numbers. It was spectacularly boring–but I could do it from my home, at my pace, on my schedule. So yeah, you can pay reliable people to do this kind of work. And it’s possible there’s a way to leverage connections to 3PP and freelancers who want exposure to get the reliable people, while also paying those folks.”

Sound good? Then go to http://account.opengamingnetwork.com/manage/editrequest, register to get a username (log in using the password “xyzzy”), then message John Reyst via the Fans of d20pfsrd.com Facebook group, or email him at help@opengamingstore.com, and he’ll work with you to choose which site and book you can add content for.

The 100% FREE reference websites making up the Open Gaming Network’s SRD sites are d20PFSRD, Starjammer SRD, 3.5e SRD, 5th Edition SRD, Swords and Wizardry SRD, Black Hack SRD, 13th Age SRD, d20HeroSRD, The Modern Path SRD, Dungeon World SRDTraveller SRD, GumshoeSRD, FateCoreSRD, FudgeSRD as well as the Open Gaming Network, and Open Gaming Store

Additional requirements: Some HTML knowledge is useful but not required. The sites are all hosted on WordPress. We have some tools that may speed up these assignments.

 

What is an Open Game License (OGL)? “A royalty free copyright license [originally] developed by Wizards of the Coast.” [Taken from “Open Game License: Frequently Asked Questions Version 2.0 — January 26, 2004] Unique OGLs have been developed by other companies to cover their original game mechanics.

What is a System Reference Documents (SRD)? “A comprehensive toolbox consisting of rules, races, classes, feats, skills, various systems, spells, magic items and monsters compatible with the d20 System version of Dungeons & Dragons and various other roleplaying games from Wizards of the Coast.” [Taken from “System Reference Document: Frequently Asked Questions“] Additional unique SRDs have been developed by other companies to cover their original game mechanics.

What is the Open Gaming Network? A family of websites owned by John Reyst that cover tabletop roleplaying game information, news, publication, and distribution/sales. Learn more here.

OPEN GAMING NEWSLETTER – Free Sandstalker (Starfinder Monster), Free Starjammer PDF, End of Year Sale, and RPG KSs You Should Back!

END OF YEAR BLOW-OUT SALE ATOPENGAMINGSTORE.COM!

Almost ALL physical goods (things we SHIP TO YOU)  are…

30% OFF in October!
Whatever is left in November is 40% OFF!!
Whatever is left in December is 50% OFF!!!

ALSO FLAT-RATE SHIPPING $6.00 for ALL orders or FREE SHIPPING orders $50 OR MORE!!!

WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

Check out everything on sale now!

Open Gaming Network Updates

We’ve added a new, better, problem reporting feature! See open issues here, or report a new problem here!

Newest Pages on d20pfsrd.com!

Recent Changes on d20pfsrd.com!

Don't make me kill puppies!

Hey Everyone! John here! As you may (or may not know) I have built and manage a LOT of roleplaying game rules reference websites for various Open Game System games. Here’s a few!

All of these websites provide 100% open game content for the associated roleplaying games and it takes a lot of time, effort, and cost to keep them all updated.

The funds raised in my Patreon help keep all of them up and running and up-to-date with the latest open game content on a regular basis. Your contributions will help support the purchase of open gaming materials to use to add to the websites as well as help keep all of the necessary pieces up and running (like my electric bill, gas to cook my food with and keep me alive in the winter… lol)

Consider Backing My Patreon!

Most Popular Products in the Open Gaming Store!

Here are the most popular products in the Open Gaming Store for the last 30 days!

  1. Pirate Campaign Compendium (Pathfinder) by Legendary Games
  2. Hybrid Blood by Silver Games
  3. Alien Bestiary (Starfinder) by Legendary Games
  4. Path of War by Dreamscarred Press
  5. Ultimate Psionics PLUS by Dreamscarred Press
  6. In the Company of Dragons Expanded by Rite Publishing
  7. Spheres of Power by Drop Dead Studios
  8. Path of War: Expanded by Dreamscarred Press
  9. Deluxe Pathfinder Character Sheet (Form-fillable) by Notsonoble’s Gaming
  10. Starfinder RPG: Core Rulebook (HC) by Paizo, Inc.

Remember! When you shop the Open Gaming Store you help keep the Pathfinder SRD website (as well as several other 100% FREE rules reference websites) going! Not only that, more of your dollars go directly to the publishers of the products you buy than when you shop anywhere else because the sales commission at the Open Gaming Store is THE LOWEST OF ANY ONLINE STORE.

Plus… YOU GET FREE STUFF!

For every $20 in your order you get ANY one (1) PDF listed here absolutely FREE! Just include a comment in your order indicating which books you’d like!

MORE FREE STUFF!

Rogue Genius Games donated a pile of PDFs for you to be able to choose 100% FREE with orders over $20 along with all of the d20pfsrd.com Publishing PDFs! Check out what’s available here!

Join the Fans of d20pfsrd.com Facebook Group!
Shop the Open Gaming Store
Follow on Twitter
Read the OGN Blog!
Chat on Discord!

Free OGL Content!

The following monster first appeared on the Open Gaming Network blog, and stalks your low-level Starfinder PCs in silence!

Sandstalker CR 2

What looks like a cross between a scorpion and a lizard bursts from the dunes, sun glinting off its dark carapace and the stinger already arcing over its back.

N Huge animal
Init +2; Senses low-light vision, blindsense (movement) 10 ft.; Perception +7

DEFENSE HP 25

EAC 13; KAC 14
Fort +6; Ref +6; Will +1
Resistance fire 1

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft., burrow 15 ft.
Melee pincers +7 (1d6+7 S, grab), stinger +10 (1d6+5 P, fleshrot venom)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft.

STATISTICS

Str +5; Dex +2; Con +2; Int -5; Wis +1; Cha -1
Skills Athletics +12, Stealth +7, Survival +7
Languages none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Fleshrot Venom (Ex)

A sandstalker’s stinger is loaded with a nasty payload of acid and venom. On a successful stinger attack, the target must make a DC 11 Fortitude check or be injected with fleshrot venom. If afflicted, this venom requires a DC 11 Fortitude save every turn. Every failed save causes it to progress one step down the Constitution poison track. Curing this affliction requires either three successful saves, which need not be consecutive, or one dose of antivenom derived from sandstalker saliva. The antivenom can be created using at least one bulk of saliva and a successful DC 10 Medicine check. A sandstalker’s body can be harvested for 1d4 bulk of saliva and 1d2 doses of fleshrot venom, each requiring a DC 13 Survival check to harvest.

ECOLOGY

Environment deserts, dry grasslands, any arid environment
Organization single, pair

Sandstalkers are the apex predators of their native environments. Their preferred hunting method is to simply burrow beneath the sand and lie in wait for prey. When they detect something passing by with their tremorsense, they burst from the sand to seize it in their pincers and sting it repeatedly. They will do their best to hold onto the victim and get in multiple stings, but one sting is all they really need. Some will even let prey go after delivering the first sting, avoiding wasting energy by struggling to hold onto the prey and simply following it until the toxin fully sets in and they die. It’s a curiosity that a sandstalkers venom actually acts more like a virus than any poison or toxin. The substance is composed of two parts, an acidic base and a specialized series of cells suspended within it. Once injected, the acid breaks down the flesh f the victim, which the cells quickly consume as raw material to replicate at an incredible rate. As a side effect and as waste products, the cells produce more acid, which damages more of the body, which lets the cells reproduce more quickly, and so on until the victim is melted from the inside out.

Kickstarters You Should Back!!

Check out the latest projects from Kobold Press, Petersen Games, as well as an update of a classic RPG from Frog God Games!

  1. Tales of the Old Margreve: 5th Edition Forest Adventures by Kobold Press (link to their Open Gaming StorefrontEnds on Fri, October 26 2018 3:30 PM EDT.
  2. Bunnies and Burrows 3e by Frog God Games (link to their Open Gaming StorefrontEnds on Thu, October 25 2018 2:01 AM EDT.
  3. Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos for 5e by Petersen Games ends on Mon, October 22 2018 7:00 PM EDT.

Read them all here!

FREE PDF!!!

The Black Codex – Alien Catalog Entry 1!!!

Enter discount code “ILOVESTARJAMMER!” (no quotes but DO include the exclamation point!) when checking out to get this PDF 100% FREE!

NAB IT HERE!

Copyright © 2018 Open Gaming, LLC, All rights reserved.
You’re receiving this email because you opted into the Open Gaming Newsletter either on our website or when creating an account at the Open Gaming Store.

Why Kickstarter RPG Vanity Press Rewards? Why Not Self-Publish?

Why am I dead set on buying role-playing game writing credits via Kickstarter? Why build a resume through paying to work for other creators? Why not, you know, self-publish my own RPG content? There are a number of options to sell third-party RPG publications: OpenGamingStore.com, DMsGuild.com, RPGNow.com, DriveThruRPG.com, Kickstarter.com (of course) and more. So why not be my own boss and dive in?

open-gaming-store-logo

I’ve touched on my major obstacle to doing more, time. I lack it so it makes more sense, for now, to do small parts of larger, collaborative projects.

Another major concern I have is being seen. I want what I write to be read. Would I develop a following out of the stone blue?

Then there’s the one my creditors care about the most – Profitability. Would I make more publishing than I hope to make as a freelancer?

Some of the answers to those questions appear in One Year on DM’s Guild, an entry by Jacob Driscoll on his blog The Wonder Waffles. In the article, he discusses his RPG sales in 2016 on the DMsGuild.com. Well worth a full read.

drivethrurpg-logo

Without reprinting all of Jacob’s research, here are the *edited* parts of his article that are pertinent to what I do (see his article for a fuller picture):

Productivity (Supply)

  • I’ve made a total of 16 Products […] Prices ranged from Pay What You Want (potentially free!) to $5.
  • These products have had about 340 Total Sales, in all, or a raw average of about 21 sales per product.

Profitability (Demand)

  • I’ve made about $250 profit for myself in royalties …
  • That profit works out for me to about $2.06 per page, or, hourly, $0.50/hour. Or, by word, about three-tenths of a cent per word.
  • On a per-product basis, I’m looking at an average of $16.19 profit per product. That breaks down to about $0.70 per unit …”

From the perspective of my vanity press experiment, there are some worthwhile pieces of information to be assumed from this. After buying two of Jacob’s products – People of the Eternal: Races of the Astral Plane and Hereos of the Eternal: Classes of the Astral Plane – and some Googling, Jacob has more experience in freelance RPG creation than I do. Because of his position ahead of me, his results are worth referencing as a roadmap for the road not taken.

rpgnow-logo

For this comparison, the most important difference between Jacob’s path and mine is our methods. I’m hoping to buy writing assignments, do a solid job and move from being a wanna-lancer that pays to write to a freelancer that gets paid to write. Jacob is jumping right into production and profit and contacting RPG fandom without working for a third-party publisher.

That deserves emphasis. He’s making money while I’m spending it. Jacob’s generated profits ($250) equal to what I spent on my first RPG Kickstarter vanity press reward ($250). He’s WAY smarter than me.

That said, I’m experimenting and that’s worth something. Testing a hypothesis has value… right? Right? I mean, what’s, ah, what’s money?

I mean, other than everything… hmm… uh, <sniffle>… back to topic…

kickstarter-logoJacob points out that, to-date, his per word pay rate (the normal measure for a RPG freelance writer) is $.003 (3/10ths of a cent) per word. While I have not jumped to paid writing gigs, many RPG publishers advertise freelancer rates of $.01 and $.02 per word and $.03 per word and $.05 per word, between three and sixteen times higher than Jacob’s current take. That said, I believe (and clearly Jacob does as well since this is the direction he’s moving) that he will grow a fanbase over the years and in the long game see more money.

In measuring his first year’s accomplishments, Jacob notes his total units sold in 2016 are 340. While that does not represent 340 individual fans, he’s been seen by a number of fans. In the article, he talks about the pricing methods he’s using to attract customers and get a greater amount of sampling. I am lockstep with him on the need for fans to see your work. It’s part of why I chose to buy onto Kickstarter projects. Because they funded, I know they were successful and that any work I do will get eyes on it. As an example, my short (few hundred words) location seed in Sasquatch Game Studio’s Primeval Thule for 5e was seen by at least 850 RPG fans. No one bought it because of what I wrote they bought it for the genius of what Sasquatch Games created. In that amazing campaign setting, the fans got to see what I added and, I hope, will look favorably on trying my future freelancer work because of it.

If Jacob is bringing in a check and building a fanbase and establishing himself, why don’t I? Why am I not going Jacob’s route?

dmsguild-logo

It’s still time. He’s putting in an estimated 10 hours a week. I have difficulty being certain I’ll have that week after week. But also there’s the exposure. I believe that saying I worked on X projects is more likely to turn heads and generate interest in future works. Then there’s the money. In the near-term, freelancer work has the potential to pay more. In the end, there’s my experiment. I think that there is value in a story. Saying you bought your way into your job, well, that’s a story worth telling.

Thanks to Jacob Driscoll for writing his article and John McGuire for pointing it out to me.

* * *

Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer

Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:

  • Sasquatch Game Studio’s Primeval Thule for 5e (2015) available at DriveThruRPG.com
  • Ember Design Studios’ Yrisa’s Nightmare for 5e and Pathfinder available at DriveThurRPG.com
  • Ember Design Studios’ Rats in the Street for 5e and Pathfinder available at DriveThurRPG.com