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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 10:02:56 GMT -5
I wouldn't want to derail the thread, or at the same time do injustice to the tale by reducing it to a partial. I have actually written it up in rough draft as part of a collection of adventure-stories from those days. Unless Gronan wishes to expand upon it from a player perspective, and that's his option, of course. His wily npcs caused Gronan much grief and engendered quite a bit of laughter from his co-Dms (but not from him, at least not initially). There's also "Monstrous Dead Ends" another Greyhawk story involving Gronan (solo) which is very short but strange for it breaking the statistical average occurrence barrier for wandering monsters. Well if you have written it up to publish, then I would just encourage you to do so. Perhaps Gronan will put his version of the tale in the book he is "supposed" to be writing (See Fin's ODD74 site). That would be fun, pull out both books and read the same tale from both the DM and Player perspective.  BTW, we don't have to derail threads, we can always just start another thread.  Yep/ But once again, who will publish it and how well will it sell as a non-gamist book? Small publishers have no way of determining this, which is perhaps why Kickstarters and crowd funding started, but I really don't like those approaches. Besides, I have more pressing things I am finishing; and, as noted, I probably don't have an ice-cube's chance in hell of publishing everything I have written/designed in my lifetime: board games (4 or more in various stages), family games (2 w one being complete), card games (2, with one being complete), promotional games (3, one recent for LUCCA Comics & Games), screenplay (1 finished, one started I really want to finish), novel (I do not want to write any more novels but had started two more, so, one finished), baker dozen of short stories (pretty much done with the SS vein though I need to finish 2,000 words on another), RPG worlds (3/one which I really want to continue working (besides Kalibruhn, which I rate LOWER than it) on but am forced to make money instead), Interview/Essays book (combined essays and interviews, very large, summoning the time to organize and conduct the last interview for it has become a challenge), game models (RPG/working, concurrent, after my current book), adventures ( totally bore me now, not good for the entrenched sellers of "pancakes"), RPG resources (much more interesting to me at least when it comes to RPG material these days), etc, etc. I need at least 4 of me to finish what I really want to do as pared down from this list. And so as you've encouraged, I've done my bit in derailing the thread... 'Now back to our regularly scheduled program...' |
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 12:32:20 GMT -5
I feel so alone... |
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 12:33:57 GMT -5
Should I communicate to myself? I wonder... Hey Rob, how's the writing going? Aw shucks, yoouuu of all alter egos should know that!!!
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 5, 2016 12:44:52 GMT -5
Rob, this brought to my mind several questions. Of the things that you have already written and published, what is currently for sale and in what form and where. I know that you have some items with Black Blade Publishing. Print books Dark Druids adventure module (print) CHP-2001 Dark Druids by Robert J. Kuntz 56 page outdoor and dungeon adventure module The Original Bottle City adventure module BBP-4001 The Original Bottle City is a site for high adventure, where strange magic interweaves with nine trapped gods, demigods, and demons who vie for its control—but all are minikins, captive in the magical city in a bottle! E-books Bottle City transcript - A transcription of Rob Kuntz’s original Bottle City manuscript. The transcript may be useful in preparing Bottle City for play, since it offers some insight and alternate details for many of the encounters (in particular for Keys #3, #4, and #5). BBP-4001a El Raja Key's Magical Emporium #10 BBP-4001b The above is everything listed at Black Blade Publishing. Do you have other items that are listed other places and if so what are they? Are the first 9 issues of El Raja Key's Magical Emporium available and if so where? What is the next item to be published and do you have a firm date for that? Any other details that you want to share would be great. As far as the Novel and the short stories have you considered trying Baen Books or are you only going through Black Blade right now? |
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 5, 2016 12:47:17 GMT -5
I feel so alone... Should I communicate to myself? I wonder... Hey Rob, how's the writing going? Aw shucks, yoouuu of all alter egos should know that!!!  |
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 14:54:53 GMT -5
Rob, this brought to my mind several questions. Of the things that you have already written and published, what is currently for sale and in what form and where. I know that you have some items with Black Blade Publishing. Print books Dark Druids adventure module (print) CHP-2001 Dark Druids by Robert J. Kuntz 56 page outdoor and dungeon adventure module The Original Bottle City adventure module BBP-4001 The Original Bottle City is a site for high adventure, where strange magic interweaves with nine trapped gods, demigods, and demons who vie for its control—but all are minikins, captive in the magical city in a bottle! E-books Bottle City transcript - A transcription of Rob Kuntz’s original Bottle City manuscript. The transcript may be useful in preparing Bottle City for play, since it offers some insight and alternate details for many of the encounters (in particular for Keys #3, #4, and #5). BBP-4001a El Raja Key's Magical Emporium #10 BBP-4001b The above is everything listed at Black Blade Publishing. Do you have other items that are listed other places and if so what are they? Are the first 9 issues of El Raja Key's Magical Emporium available and if so where? What is the next item to be published and do you have a firm date for that? Any other details that you want to share would be great. As far as the Novel and the short stories have you considered trying Baen Books or are you only going through Black Blade right now? Black Blade has the rights to print: Garden of the Plantmaster (for over a year now) Maze of Zayene (parts 1 -4 + updates estimated at 6,000 words) (They also have the rights to produce all of my works for DCC Classics, IF they decide to do so.) The Machine Level (which is in my ball park and I need to finish , but as mentioned, my creative vibe for adventures is just not there right now) They have voiced interest in: "Horsing Around" (original Castle Greyhawk super level, 1974) based on the Greek Mythos; map drawn from the old one, much expanded and updated; but, adventure hiatus time And just about any other adventure which can be linked from my past history--that is, Greyhawk related mostly, which has not been encouraging for me as a multi-talented designer. My own works: A New Ethos in Game Design (no estimate on release, at approximately 180,000 words and growing (2 oublishing offers which I am considering); after that New Models for RPGs; the fiction novel, "The Twelve Labors of Drystaff" is a send-up to Jack Vance and is very stylistically his own (it is dedicated to Vance), a style which is now poo-pooed in the mainstream market due to elaborate sentence constructions and archaisms/archaic language, et al; the short stories collection is diverse, from Dark Fantasy, to S&S, Sc-Fi, to one modern etc, so I don't know where to take that. I really need a solid/consistent publisher outside games and I am on track with finding a few but the move over seas has slowed me down considerably and I am instead huffing and puffing on the book. It is very dense at many points, and I am making sure that it has accessibility to those who might not be as familiar with design and design/play/game theory as I am. The DVD collection will soon be out, this according to Paul Stormberg from the Collector's Trove who I have partnered with. But that date keeps fluctuating. So much to do, so little time... Oh, and I need a new editor as well. An outlet for some rarer works (maybe taken care of by JM's (Northwind) suggestion, last month). And I need to set up a website for my new company (Three Line Studio) that Nathalie and I have formed. Sounds like I'm doing too much doesn't it? Well, you're probably correct if you think that... There's just no room in this current market for my varied works; most publishers are all about adventures or related. It's very disheartening in many ways considering the diverse minds, products and markets which formed wargaming, miniatures and such on through TSR's golden age (1974-1977, in my estimation). I am so far behind having lost a good 7 months moving, resettling, that it is upsetting; but that is the way of life and love... Thanks for asking! |
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 5, 2016 15:18:18 GMT -5
Does Black Blade do print runs or do they have the ability to do print on demand?
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 15:24:05 GMT -5
Does Black Blade do print runs or do they have the ability to do print on demand? They do print rums and usually in concert with their limited convention cycle. I might be forced into POD in the end and to Drive Through RPG for much of my RPG work; and maybe Amazon for the non-game-RPG stuff/other. So much to consider within the IP variety that it is very often confusing... As for the board games, family/educational card/board game, I am going to source that when I catch my breath. |
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Post by Admin Pete on Apr 5, 2016 16:01:33 GMT -5
So just to confirm, the items in listed above at Black Blade are the only things that are currently available for sale?
It also looks like Chaotic Henchmen Productions has your Dark Druids for sale and also at Noble Knight Games.
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 5, 2016 16:36:06 GMT -5
Correct, these are the only items being sold through BBP or CHP.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 5, 2016 20:32:54 GMT -5
Speaking of, it was good seeing ol' Grodog again.
Also... "How do you have a million dollars and a game company? Start with two million!"
by which I mean do it for the love, not for the money.
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 6, 2016 2:35:47 GMT -5
Speaking of, it was good seeing ol' Grodog again. Also... "How do you have a million dollars and a game company? Start with two million!" by which I mean do it for the love, not for the money. By what I have invested and been paid in my career, I have only been doing it for the love... |
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Post by robkuntz on Apr 15, 2016 16:53:10 GMT -5
A rumination before I cast "Sleep". I'm beginning to like JMCann's idea (some time ago, lost the link to it here) of a published 'zine the more I sense the limits of forums. Not as a codification of same, but as a continued expansion of thought. Forums are very limiting as blogs can be. An article, well thought and researched, was the mainstay in my day. It would still be if the medium was not so crunched into plug-n-play and had more conceptual matter, design thinking angles to them.
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Post by Crimhthan The Great on May 9, 2016 10:27:31 GMT -5
It sounds like you have enough irons in the fire and enough things already committed to paper/electronic file that you need to be working with many publishers along with the things that you self-publish and eventually the self-publishing may take over the entire show.
Just a little thinking out loud here:
1. You need someone (publisher or otherwise) who will take things to all the conventions - for instance your Kalibruhn Supplement(s) that were originally planned bitd as a one volume booklet, is now going to be several volumes. This and similar types of things really need to be at the conventions and get as much publicity as possible. These would be hard copy sales with I would suggest a free pdf with the first 100-200 (maybe even 500 if we can get the word out) signed hard copy of each volume and also later sell just the pdf alone and also with the hard copy.
2. A New Ethos in Game Design when this comes out one of the things(out of many) you need are reviews on at least a dozen or more blogs by people committed to the DIY ethic and those shared widely on Facebook, G+ and other places.
3. Your short stories and other fiction, I would suggest Baen books and consider the Baen option of selling pdfs for the general science fiction and fantasy audience perhaps off a free pdf of the book. Eric Flint one of their major authors (and the guy that took over when Jim Baen died) swears that free pdfs did and do make book sales go up. If you like to write short stories (a special art and more difficult than novels IMO) and plan to do more you might try this route.
On the other hand you might offer a mix of a teaser story for free in pdf and then sell pdfs of short story collections from your own website and link to a POD option.
4. Can you tell us more about the DVD collection? What part is Paul Stormberg doing - is he the editor and in charge of organizing the file hierarchy for the DVD so things can be easily found and accessed?
5. Of your published items, which ones are out of print and could be made available for sale as either a pdf or a POD item. YMMV but my suggestion is to try to put all of your past work back in print and then continue to add to it.
I personally hate to see things unpublished, and as you state you have several lifetimes of materials in various stages of completion. It would be great if you could get at least two or three lifetimes worth of materials published while you are still here to enjoy the fruits of your labor and only leave another lifetime or two or three worth of materials for your heirs.
BTW a published 'zine is a great idea. It would be only a good thing for you to have a much more substantial and prominent internet presence.
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Post by robkuntz on May 9, 2016 11:40:40 GMT -5
A very astute MORGAN noted: It sounds like you have enough irons in the fire and enough things already committed to paper/electronic file that you need to be working with many publishers along with the things that you self-publish and eventually the self-publishing may take over the entire show.
The idea with our company (and its, now, three brands) is that self-publishing IS going to be the show... There are not that many publishers out there who are major ones in this industry and that are not already committed to their own thrusts. One, for instance, is already 18 months ahead in their schedule and is looking to increase it... This industry is saturated to the hilt, blown out in fact, so rather than interface at that level I am moving sideways to be non-competitive...
Just a little thinking out loud here:1. You need someone (publisher or otherwise) who will take things to all the conventions - for instance your Kalibruhn Supplement(s) that were originally planned bitd as a one volume booklet, is now going to be several volumes. This and similar types of things really need to be at the conventions and get as much publicity as possible. These would be hard copy sales with I would suggest a free pdf with the first 100-200 (maybe even 500 if we can get the word out) signed hard copy of each volume and also later sell just the pdf alone and also with the hard copy. Yes. BBP does this for two conventions. So does Mondiversi in Italy. Review copies are high on my list for upcoming books. 2. A New Ethos in Game Design when this comes out one of the things(out of many) you need are reviews on at least a dozen or more blogs by people committed to the DIY ethic and those shared widely on Facebook, G+ and other places. Our website is linked to social media and ready to go on launch. I also have several review outlets already targeted and beyond the DIY ethic as it incorporates RPG history past present and, in theories I am proposing, future, so its impacts are very comprehensive for many different review categories, even primary ones outside the RPG industry. 3. Your short stories and other fiction, I would suggest Baen books and consider the Baen option of selling pdfs for the general science fiction and fantasy audience perhaps off a free pdf of the book. Eric Flint one of their major authors (and the guy that took over when Jim Baen died) swears that free pdfs did and do make book sales go up. If you like to write short stories (a special art and more difficult than novels IMO) and plan to do more you might try this route.
On the other hand you might offer a mix of a teaser story for free in pdf and then sell pdfs of short story collections from your own website and link to a POD option.I have a finished novel, three related short stories and about 8 more that are finished. I do not intend to write any more fiction in my life time (other than some Robilar stories as Lord “R” from bitd entitled Lord of the Green Dragons (about 18,000 word finished for the collection of those so far). So I have no need to push these at the professional publishing houses. In fact, the Drystaff stories (novel + 4 shorts) are written in “High Vancian” (the novel is dedicated to Vance) and I really doubt that publishers these days, from what I’ve seen, would be able to market it in the face of all the modern day styles prevailing out there. BBP is due to release J. Eric Holmes collected short fiction soon, so they may try to piggy-back mine into that stream. 4. Can you tell us more about the DVD collection? What part is Paul Stormberg doing - is he the editor and in charge of organizing the file hierarchy for the DVD so things can be easily found and accessed?Over 1,100 files; something unique about it which i cannot tell at the moment but which is tied to the adventures on them; Paul is in fact the project “everything” along with Kevin Maurice. They have dealt with the mapping and organization of the massive number of files. The structure is linked via local html to be accessible and browsable easily. 5. Of your published items, which ones are out of print and could be made available for sale as either a pdf or a POD item. YMMV but my suggestion is to try to put all of your past work back in print and then continue to add to it. Lots are OOP. But there are few out there with the capacity to bring them all into print again. Mostly fan-driven outfits. So pdf/POD may have to be the way, or nothing... I personally hate to see things unpublished, and as you state you have several lifetimes of materials in various stages of completion. It would be great if you could get at least two or three lifetimes worth of materials published while you are still here to enjoy the fruits of your labor and only leave another lifetime or two or three worth of materials for your heirs.Heh. True. BTW a published 'zine is a great idea. It would be only a good thing for you to have a much more substantial and prominent internet presence.TRUE. But I was only going to be a contributor, not the publisher.  |
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Post by Admin Pete on May 9, 2016 13:31:33 GMT -5
BTW a published 'zine is a great idea. It would be only a good thing for you to have a much more substantial and prominent internet presence.TRUE. But I was only going to be a contributor, not the publisher.
Total pages 73 including the cover:
Staff:
Publisher - One
Editor - One
Associate Editors: - Nine
Submissions Manager: - One
Graphics Editors: - Two
Title Graphics: - One
Design & Layout: - One
Cover Art - Donated
Contains 13 Articles Just to give you an idea of what goes into one very professional looking 'zine.
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Post by robkuntz on May 9, 2016 13:50:32 GMT -5
Yes. I am very aware of what it takes to produce a magazine of that quality. One might as well forget about doing anything else if they get involved with a for-profit magazine at the publisher/editor level, even if it's a bi-monthly... I am way too inundated to do anything but be a contributor to such 'zines; thus a few I have done in the past years for AFS. But I'd champion a different type of 'zine where design philosophy could be comprehensively forwarded as part of the thrust of one. Probably just a pipe dream with all I have going and with the DIY crowd wanting to make available stuff at primary use levels (specific) rather than general excursions and even gonzo design projections like Arneson and myself used to forward very early in RPG's history.
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Post by Admin Pete on May 9, 2016 14:53:19 GMT -5
I am sure you know, but I (and likely others) don't think about that until we take a look and that was a good example. If anyone wanted to step forward to do it - that gives them an idea of how much help they would need to do it. On average Footprints is published every 6 months. A lot would depend on the size and frequency that you were going for. If you had a couple of people with decent editing skills, a couple of support people and a number of articles in the pipeline and some free art between some good public domain stuff and one donated piece each time you could probably put out 30-40 pages every 4-6 months. If you had 6-7 editors and several support people to share the work and rotate in and out for alternate issues you might be able to put out 20-30 pages every other month. With alternating teams that would give four months to put together every issue, but publish every other month. Pipe dreams, yes it definitely is a pipe dream. However, all dreams start somewhere. Perhaps over the next year members that have the writing skills and the inclination to write about "general excursions and even gonzo design projections" will write some articles and share them among ourselves and then perhaps we shall reach a point where there is a consensus and the will to create a 'zine. Or in the meantime we can perhaps vet the articles here and then post them with perm on multiple blogs at the same time or perhaps create a dedicated forum space for them as a place to start.
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Post by robkuntz on May 9, 2016 15:33:34 GMT -5
Heh! "Pipe dreams, yes it definitely is a pipe dream. However, all dreams start somewhere." Yours or mine? As I noted, I'd champion something of this nature, even endorse it, and definitely contribute to it, but would never publish. There's just too much on my plate. I hope RPG philosophies start becoming more unhinged, in fact. They are so wound tight for play purposes that comprehensive design thought has become linked to various straight forward and often times unalterable paths. But that's a topic for one of those articles in that FUTURE 'Zine... |
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Post by xizallian on Jun 30, 2021 9:35:05 GMT -5
Note Rob Kuntz thinking back in 2016 and also that a zine for this forum was floated back in 2016.
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jun 30, 2021 9:55:41 GMT -5
Note Rob Kuntz thinking back in 2016 and also that a zine for this forum was floated back in 2016. Yeah, Rob is not going to finish and publish a lot of things he has been working on. But let's hope he lives a long life and publishes more than we expect. That means that some of us will not be around when he does publish some things, oh well, that is life. I have no idea other than his wife who his heirs might be, but I hope it is someone who will might all of his files and bring them to print, even incomplete if need be. Yes, we have been talking about a zine for a long time. But usually there was not follow up by anyone on the topic, till this year. |
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Post by xizallian on Jun 30, 2021 10:22:03 GMT -5
Note Rob Kuntz thinking back in 2016 and also that a zine for this forum was floated back in 2016. Yeah, Rob is not going to finish and publish a lot of things he has been working on. But let's hope he lives a long life and publishes more than we expect. That means that some of us will not be around when he does publish some things, oh well, that is life. I have no idea other than his wife who his heirs might be, but I hope it is someone who will might all of his files and bring them to print, even incomplete if need be. Yes, we have been talking about a zine for a long time. But usually there was not follow up by anyone on the topic, till this year. Let's hope we do better with our zine than others, prominent or not do with some projects. |
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Post by The Perilous Dreamer on Jun 30, 2021 11:27:59 GMT -5
Yeah, Rob is not going to finish and publish a lot of things he has been working on. But let's hope he lives a long life and publishes more than we expect. That means that some of us will not be around when he does publish some things, oh well, that is life. I have no idea other than his wife who his heirs might be, but I hope it is someone who will might all of his files and bring them to print, even incomplete if need be. Yes, we have been talking about a zine for a long time. But usually there was not follow up by anyone on the topic, till this year. Let's hope we do better with our zine than others, prominent or not do with some projects. I am confident that we will. |
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