+Zach Glazar laid out Swords & Wizardry Light.

+James Spahn laid out Swords & Wizardry Continual Light.

I'm looking to take over layout duties with the Torchlight Zine.

I've heard nothing but good about Indesign - except for its pricing. I think I'd be paying for more horsepower than I need and certainly for more than I'll make my money back on. While you don't publish RPG material to become rich, you don't want to become poor ;)

Scribus gets some good talk and it is Mac friendly although I tend to find open source software to lack a certain depth of documentation. The price is certainly right.

LucidPress looks very interesting. Online app accessible from all devices, you OS is irrelevant. Starts at $5.95 a month with a yearly sub.

I'm sure there are many others.

I'm looking for inexpensive publishing software with a small learning curve, preferably for OSX (although I can boot into Windows, I'd rather not). It will mostly be used for laying out zines of about 16 or so digest sized pages and occasional adventures about the same size.

If you have advice, I am all ears. I'm also all noob ;)

Last night's "Marketing Your RPG" panel was hosted by the Blonde Frog. Although some of the advice was applicable to smaller (hobby) publishers, most was aimed at larger publishers. That makes sense, as the panel was composed of folks representing Frog God Games and others with fairly large footprints in the hobby.

The OSR does not have a large enough footprint in general to use many of the advertising and marketing techniques in question. Our strength is the tightness of the OSR community, which I saw first hand with the Basic Fantasy RPG and Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Days. There are some amazingly creative members of our community that enjoy giving back to the community.

It's a community that is very accepting of "fan and hobbyist" created works and can also be highly critical when those hobbyists attempt to make the step to professional. If they slip we tell them. Often vocally. It is simply how we are.

This also means that projects can live or die based upon the rep of the people being it, as word of mouth is our hobby's main method of marketing. That doesn't mean a good rep will necessarily make a project successful, but a poor rep can kill it before release.

The OSR, with a few notable exceptions, pretty much works for beer money and a pat on the back. There is nothing wrong with that, but I for one would like to step up to buying more microbrews ;)

So, any words of advice for your fellow hobbyists?

Yep, I'll be putting some gaming stuff out under my own "label" if you will. I'm still involved with Dead Rat Publishing, but certain projects work better under different set ups. The Grump Dwarf will allow for those projects.

Huge thanks to +Greg Christopher who put the above together without being asked. It is inspirational :)

I'll have another announcement later today with a bit more substance ;)

When I do a project (in this close putting new flooring in a room) I want perfection, or damn close to it.  I'm still quite annoyed that one box of flooring was too damaged for use (it will probably work fine in the second room, in the space where I am building the closet).  The thing is, I still found a few imperfections... peaking in two spots (one which will be under the bed) and some slightly chipped laminate where i had to work too close to a wall - they will be covered by an armoire and a bookshelf, but still, I know they are  there.

I suspect the same happens in publishing, especially when you serve as your own proofreader.  I know it happens with my blogging - and I correct it as I see it.  Thankfully, online posts and PDFs can be corrected and update.  Print copies can only be corrected by a new printing (an errata sheet doesn't really corrects the mistakes).

Tomorrow I do the finishing touches (reattach moldings, stain some other pieces, touch up paint where needed) and then prep the other room for its new flooring.  That also means I can put more time into reading an reviewing.  I really want to talk more about Adventurer Conqueror King.  I'm really digging it.

Anyhow, the topic comes up on the blogosphere fairly frequently... what is the proper pricing of a PDF?

To my mind, there are many questions that need to be answered before the first question can be addressed...

Is there a ratio between PDF and Paper pricing of the same item?

What price point is too high, no matter the number of the pages (size)?

Is there a page to price ratio that you, as a consumer, use to evaluate PDF value?

Do certain publishers deserve a premium price for their PDFs? If so, why?

Is FREE a selling point for you, or something the consumer should avoid? Does a $1 price point imply more value then FREE? Why?

Does top shelf art add value to a PDF the same way it adds value to a paper product?

Are lower production values accepted for a PDF product then the same in paper?

Does finding a PDF product is also available as a Print on Demand product add value to the PDF? How about a PDF / POD Bundle?

I ask this, because WotC is apparently planning to release less 4e products. At the same time, if you look at the Underdark Gazette blog, OSR products are being released more often then ever before. Heck, even Tunnels & Trolls has been hitting a release or so a month recently (I'll be doing a mini-review on the latest tonight).

Is there a sweet point? Is more always better? Is a line that is suffering cuts (4e) being trimmed to a healthy state, or is this the beginning of the end?

The hobby suffered from the D20 Implosion in the recent past. Can it prevent the same from happening again?

One plus that rarely gets mentioned about PDFs, and even Print on Demand (PoD) publishing, is that neither will fuel another D20 Implosion - there won't be a glut on gamestore shelves. Then again, with a switch to PDF and PoD publishing, there won't be many games at all on gamestore shelves.

Is the future of the RPG industry linked to the internet for good or ill?