Annoying Game Questions You Want Answered

[Bihlbo]

Well, you might be able to get away a bit cheaper (and riskier) if you only fund the writing/art, then kickstart the actual printing.

Yeah, doing it the other way around is just stupid.

[Meikle641]

I figured I'd go digital with print on demand, at least initially.

[Meikle641]

So, if I was to make an attribute system with letter rankings, how might I calibrate the numbers? I've looked at system done by Type Moon and it ends up being downright lovecraftian in terms of power levels, which isn't something I really want, but I liked the idea of the system. So, like Type Moon I decided that 1, or E rank, is normal human ability for someone who isn't a protagonist.

The Type Moon page for stats

Rank	Value	+	++	+++
EX	16	32	48	64
S	12	24	36	48
A	9	18	27	36
B	7	14	21	28
C	5	10	15	20
D	3	6	9	12
E	1	2	3	4

An attribute rank with a modifier next to it represents the ability to temporarily surpass its normal limits when certain conditions are met. While a D+ is normally no match for a C, it can sometimes exceep C. + indicates a two times increase, ++ three times, and +++ is a four-times increase.

Not entirely sure, how I'd allocate stats, but I think a tier system might be worth considering (let's use 4e's tiers). Heroic characters perhaps having a cap of C: 1x C, 2x D, 1x E along with two + modifiers to allocate. The paragon tier could be: 1x A, 1x B, 1x C, 1x D and three + modifiers. Epic would be 1x S, 1x A, 2x B with three + modifiers to allocate.

The numbers I chose are largely pulled from my ass, but I wanted the upper limit of power to be considerably higher than a normal human, but still sort of relatable. I was thinking about this in regard to BIWA, but it's more of a general question. I dunno, what do you people think?

[Meikle641]

Got some questions about the game industry

1) How should artists and authors be paid in regards to book profits? Or is that called residuals? In any case, what is a fair amount.

2) I'm planning on starting a game company, but I'm not sure whether it should end with Games, Press, or Publishing. Is there a meaningful difference? I'd prefer to go with Bag of Rats Games, but I'm fine with changing.

3) I know that writing rates are usually around 2-5 cents per word, but what are some other payment costs I should be aware of for game design/publishing?

4) Would I be able to claim expenses from last year as part of my business expenses? I paid some freelancers for some work on BIWA, but it was an an individual.

[Almaz]

3) I know that writing rates are usually around 2-5 cents per word, but what are some other payment costs I should be aware of for game design/publishing?

That rate is highway robbery and poorhouse money. Y'know what a fair rate is for a writer? 10 cents per word. Even that isn't very high, considering. You won't be able to pay it as a games publisher, this much I know. But don't delude yourself into thinking that any of the rates you're offering are "fair." 5 cents per word is merely "beginning to be acceptable."

[virgil]

3) I know that writing rates are usually around 2-5 cents per word, but what are some other payment costs I should be aware of for game design/publishing?

That rate is highway robbery and poorhouse money. Y'know what a fair rate is for a writer? 10 cents per word. Even that isn't very high, considering. You won't be able to pay it as a games publisher, this much I know. But don't delude yourself into thinking that any of the rates you're offering are "fair." 5 cents per word is merely "beginning to be acceptable."

It does explain why so many RPG books suffer from word bloat. If they're going to be paid so little per word, by golly they're going to pad that text.

[Ancient History]

You'd think so, but most contracts specify a maximum word limit (and by god we're going to achieve it!) The real problem is shovelware philosophies like nWoD and D&D3.+ were guilty of.

[Almaz]

You'd think so, but most contracts specify a maximum word limit (and by god we're going to achieve it!) The real problem is shovelware philosophies like nWoD and D&D3.+ were guilty of.

I cannot count the number of assignments that I have turned in on writing that were "write up to X words" and I came in on exactly that number.

[fectin]

1) How should artists and authors be paid in regards to book profits? Or is that called residuals? In any case, what is a fair amount.

Not at all. Investors get residuals; people who work for pay get cash. It's not right to ask someone who's trying to do contract work to accept additional risk, and it's not right to dilute your investors' returns.

If you really want to, you can hand out shares as bonuses, but that's more of a big company strategy.

[Meikle641]

Not at all. Investors get residuals; people who work for pay get cash. It's not right to ask someone who's trying to do contract work to accept additional risk, and it's not right to dilute your investors' returns.

If you really want to, you can hand out shares as bonuses, but that's more of a big company strategy.

Well, I meant in addition to the pay. I seem to recall that a free copy of the book in question is sometimes (often?) how it goes, for perks.

[fectin]

Generally, if you want to receive money based on product success, you need to have invested something that you stand to lose on failure.

[Wiseman]

If you go ethereal or incorporeal or whatever, and your underwater, do you still have to breathe?

[tussock]

There's no water on the ethereal plane, nor air for that matter, everything's just insubstantial foggy muck.

But incorporeal things on the material plane do need to eat, sleep, and breathe unless they've got a type (or spell) that lets them not do those things (like being Undead, which most of them are), or have the Aquatic or Water subtype to breathe water.

[ishy]

Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air.

[Whatever]

http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/typesSubtypes.htm

You default to Type to check whether something eats, sleeps, and/or breathes. The Incorporeal subtype doesn't override that, and neither would any spell that doesn't specify doing so.

[...You Lost Me]

As of Saturday, everything at my local Half Price Books is going on $3, including a bunch of 4e and (I think) and AD&D. I was thinking of dropping the $10 for the core books--any other things I should look for?

[shadzar]

As of Saturday, everything at my local Half Price Books is going on $3, including a bunch of 4e and (I think) and AD&D. I was thinking of dropping the $10 for the core books--any other things I should look for?

dont waste your money on 4e.

which AD&D? while compatible there is some changes so some things might not work with others

1st:
PHB
DMG
MM
MM 2
Deities & Demigods (128 pages version has the later removed mythos)
Unearthed Arcana

2nd:
PHB
DMG
MM (hardback book)
MCs (any in shrinkwrap you can find)
Spell compendiums (4 wizard, 4 priest, every damn spell you will never need and more)
Aurora's whole realm's catalogue (interesting things in there)
DMGR Creative Campaigning (blue splatbook)
Arms and Equipment guide
Dungeon Master's Design Kit (3 books, lots of forms to help flesh out a game and plot and everything)
Mystara: Player's Survival Kit & Dungeon Master Survival Kit (only if they have their forms and such cause player has all sorts of random background and stuff if your players or you want to use it and DM has forms and such that let you have interesting handouts. one of them has an adventure log booklet that is pretty interesting.)

PHBR: these are if you want them, but look in the back to see if you want the character sheet with some things already on them like thief sheets have thieving skills already written down, elf sheets might have elf abilities already on the sheet so you dont have to pull them out of the texts in the books. i would suggest humanoids to anyone that wants the sheets and your group might like the optional PC races in it.

AVOID: magic item encyclopedia vol 1 and 2, they look like little brochures and are really just indexes for every adventure made so you need the adventures to really use anything, unless you just want a magic items name and GP value but no description of it or what it does.

[Omegonthesane]

As of Saturday, everything at my local Half Price Books is going on $3, including a bunch of 4e and (I think) and AD&D. I was thinking of dropping the $10 for the core books--any other things I should look for?

Don't bother - there's better toilet paper available.

[deaddmwalking]

As of Saturday, everything at my local Half Price Books is going on $3, including a bunch of 4e and (I think) and AD&D. I was thinking of dropping the $10 for the core books--any other things I should look for?

At $3/item, it's probably best to pick up one of everything. You can probably get your money back on any single item and some you might be able to make a good profit on.

[Mistborn]

So the grognards like to claim that caster supremacy isn't a thing before 3e. Are they right or are they delusional paint huffers like they usually are?

[Kaelik]

So the grognards like to claim that caster supremacy isn't a thing before 3e. Are they right or are they delusional paint huffers like they usually are?

Yes and no, and also yes.

1) Wizards suck at low levels. Unlike level 1 three to five save or dies, you literally got one fucking spell, and it was shit.

2) At higher levels, a bunch of monsters, like all fucking demons, had MR 90-100%. So you could just go play Smash brothers. Now in reality, there were spells that ignored MR, but whatever, they weren't as good as the ones in 3e.

3) Lots of little bullshit that doesn't actually prevent them from having real ultimate power, but makes it more annoying, like days to prepare all your spells, or arbitrary inability to learn spells.

But really, you are still a class with out of combat abilities and cool effects, so you aren't some stupid boring fighter.

[deaddmwalking]

So the grognards like to claim that caster supremacy isn't a thing before 3e. Are they right or are they delusional paint huffers like they usually are?

Yes and no.

First off, in earlier editions of D&D, caster's were really weak at low levels. There are all kinds of problems with 'weak now - ultimate power later', but it was really a thing, so if you always start from 1st level it tends to be less objectionable than if you start at 8th level.

Also, with the dual-class rules, starting at a higher level basically made that kind of 'char-op' super-easy. Prior to 3rd, I don't know many groups that started at lower levels.

At later levels, wizards could be pretty uber, but there are a whole bunch of 'fuck-you' rules that are inconsistently enforced across gaming groups. If you follow them all, than wizards can be hosed. In no particular order they include:

1) effectively random spell selection
2) a strict limit on the number of spells you can 'know' for the purpose of memorizing - if you find a spell and commit to learning it, you can't drop it in favor of a better spell later, so you might never get to learn the awesome spell.
3) Interrupts - I'd have to re-read the rules, but my poor memory thinks that if you take any damage while casting a spell, it is interrupted. That's a lot easier in earlier editions (because spell casting happened at the end of the round after you announced). Be warned I haven't played earlier editions in a long time, so this might also be a fever dream.

In earlier editions, high level casters could dominate, but they usually didn't as much. Using the spells for out-of-combat utility was more the style. Fighters were designed to absorb damage, and only if the fighters were getting their asses handed to them would a wizard tend to participate. There was a lot more emphasis on holding your spells for a 'real' threat.

So you could dominate combat, but that leads to the 15 minute work day, or you could hold your spells and go all day and only sling spells in a real emergency.

It's kind of like the British Naval doctrine of a 'fleet in being'. The British didn't want to engage their powerful fleet against another powerful fleet because even if they WON, their fleet would be smaller and less effective. By avoiding a massive fleet to fleet confrontation they not only preserved their fleet - they made it so that no other naval power could safely ignore the presence of the fleet... Having a powerful caster that never casts spells means you always have a powerful caster that the bad guys have to be worried about - once he's spent his load he's just a speed bump on the way to a TPK.

[infected slut princess]

3) I know that writing rates are usually around 2-5 cents per word, but what are some other payment costs I should be aware of for game design/publishing?

That rate is highway robbery and poorhouse money. Y'know what a fair rate is for a writer? 10 cents per word. Even that isn't very high, considering. You won't be able to pay it as a games publisher, this much I know. But don't delude yourself into thinking that any of the rates you're offering are "fair." 5 cents per word is merely "beginning to be acceptable."

That is ridiculous. Say you are writing flavor text. A good writer should be able to do 1000 words an hour easily. That's $50 for an hour of work at 5 cents per word. If you are slower and it takes you twice as long, that's still $50 for a couple of hours of work. If it takes you twice as long as that, you are still making $50 in four hours and you don't even have to get dressed or have a shower.

If you are writing mechanics, those should not be paid for on a per word basis.

In general, writers should never be paid on a per word basis. They should never be paid in advance. For an RPG project, it would be best to give them an equity position, because then you will automatically screen out all the lazy losers. Few 'writers' are actually motivated enough to finish anything, so you want to avoid dealing with those people.

[shadzar]

So the grognards like to claim that caster supremacy isn't a thing before 3e. Are they right or are they delusional paint huffers like they usually are?

if you play the game correctly with the system of checks and balances in place, then casters get more powerful shit, but are the easiest target and have to be protected so much. they are glass-cannons.

[Whipstitch]

It also helped that wands etc. weren't universally tagged with "Caster only, eat all of the dicks." Likewise the hitpoint bloat had yet to really kick in so finding a weird, blasty item didn't always result in people groaning about vendor trash. Eg, getting a type IV Necklace of Fireballs early was actually pretty metal.