The First One's Free
May 24th, 2010
Hello everyone. Today I want to talk to you about one of Necromancers of the Northwest’s core values, and a major aspect of our business model. Specifically, the topic of today’s article is why we provide all of our material 100% free of charge.
I’d like to say that the reason is an idealistic one: that we here at NNW feel very strongly about freedom of information and that we’re doing this, in large part, to give back to the gaming community. This, obviously, is not the reason, because if it was I wouldn’t have had to preface that by saying “I’d like to say…”. Some of us do, when more idealistic moods strike us, have lofty ideals about freedom of information and the internet revolution and what have you, but at the end of the day we are also very keenly aware that game designers, even those who specialize in necromancy, have bills to pay and need to put food on the table, if only for the benefit of their handful of living minions.
Since it can’t be idealism, I’d like to say that the reason is one of more benevolent understanding. Whether you like it or not (and from the viewpoint of a game designer, the answer is almost universally “not”) piracy is now a major part of the tabletop gaming world, just as it’s a major part of the video game and music industries. A quick look on google didn’t reveal to me any statistics about tabletop game piracy, so I’ve decided to make some up: for every hundred people who purchase a given tabletop gaming supplement, a zillion people pirate it instead. (Keen mathematicians may wonder where the people in excess of 7 billion are coming from in this equation. I will say only that the denizens of the infinite abyss need sourcebooks to play games, too.)
Certain larger gaming companies have tried several things to stamp out internet piracy of their products, and the community at large just sort of stands back and scratches their head, wondering how it is that anyone can really follow a path so obviously similar to attempting to stamp out the tide. Many small publishers, at this point, have accepted the fact that their books will be pirated and put little disclaimers in their products, saying that if you like it you should buy it so they can continue to produce material. Since all of our money comes from advertising we have more-or-less zero fear of piracy. Even the most hardened pirate might as well come download our book here, rather than there (wherever there may be), especially since we have all these nifty articles. Obviously the reason we picked this business model was that it allowed us to cope with the now undeniable fact that internet piracy is here to stay, right?
Wrong. Though immunity to piracy is a nifty side-benefit of our model, you clearly forgot that I said those magic words “I’d like to say” again. No, the real reason is that we simply don’t believe that anyone would buy our material if we put it up for sale.
Now, wait a second before you react to that. It’s just about the most loaded sentence I’ve ever written, so, let me try to explain. You see, when I decided I wanted to get into game design, I didn’t really have any interest in starting my own company. The creative freedom is nice, but the extra responsibilities are not, and then there’s the fact that this just isn’t a very easy business to get into. The old adage goes something like: “How do you make a million dollars in the gaming industry? Start with two million.” Naturally, then, once I had my degree and had determined that I had the necessary talent to work as a game designer, I applied for a position at some well-known gaming companies.
These companies, being understandably conservative, weren’t interested in anyone without 3 years prior experience in the field. Confident in my ability to do good game design, I was stymied by my lack of opportunity to demonstrate that I had what it takes. How does one get their foot in the door when every position requires prior experience? The answer is that one simply has to make an opening.
So I gathered a few like-minded (and like-talented) people together and Necromancers of the Northwest was born. We didn’t have tons of excess capital lying around—and besides, investing it in the gaming industry is a bad financial move, remember?—so we decided to minimize the amount of capital we put in. What does this mean? It means that every Necromancers of the Northwest product you see is the product of a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on the part of my design team and I, but that no (or virtually no) money has actually gone into any of our products. Our artists (bless them) grant us permission to use their existing work in exchange for credit only, which is why we don’t have very many art pieces, and why, if you’ve noticed, our art tends to vary widely in style even within a single book. It also means we don’t print physical copies, because that would require money.
Based on my own experience as a consumer of tabletop gaming products, I cannot conceive of paying any amount of money for a sourcebook from an unknown, third-party publisher (sadly, I still suffer from anti-third-party-publisher bias), which only came in .pdf and which had very little art.
Besides that, I really didn’t want our products to wind up in the 99 cent bin on DrivethruRPG.com. After all, the whole point of this was really to gain exposure and experience, right? So publishing our stuff only to watch it rot on the proverbial shelf wouldn’t get us very far. In fact, even if people were interested in buying our product, wouldn’t we reach more people if it were free?
You see, I don’t doubt the value of our product. Liber Vampyr, our first product, was pretty fantastic in my admittedly biased opinion. If I made a habit of judging books by their contents I’d have certainly been happy to pay for it. No doubt there are innumerable little-known, third-party books that are perfect gems in the rough, and anyone who ever looks at them long enough to see what they really are is rewarded for their efforts. But that isn’t how most people work. Most people are happy to dismiss a product which seems, at first glance, likely to be poor. This is just human nature. As someone who got his bachelor’s degree in psychology, I could explain why that is, at least to a certain extent, but it doesn’t really matter, because, as the great Mark Rosewater once said, “you, the designer, cannot change human nature. It is a fight you are destined to lose”. Just like a company isn’t interested in looking at the skills of an applicant with no direct experience, regardless of their potential, a consumer just isn’t interested in looking at the products of an unknown third party publisher.
…unless, of course, that third party publisher is giving something away…for free! After all, it’s also human nature to love free stuff. And though people may initially de-value free things, if the product is good, it’s a great way to get them to try it.
Does that mean that Necromancers of the Northwest will be switching over to selling its content in the future? I honestly don’t know. If we find ourselves with a large enough fan-base I can say that we will consider it, though for the above reasons (the piracy and idealism ones) I certainly intend to at least try to continue providing a lot of our content free of charge. Depending on our advertising, we may be able to continue “giving it away” indefinitely. Honestly, I have no idea if Necromancers of the Northwest will still be around a year from now: I can’t imagine that any of our members would turn down a job offer from a more ‘mainstream’ company, and it’s possible that the entire company, like so many other noble projects on the internet, will wind up falling by the wayside, a victim of “real life”. For that matter, I could get hit by a bus tomorrow.
Whatever the case, don’t worry. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon, and we’re going to continue providing new, free content for you. At the moment, we’re working hard to make sure that our articles are all top-notch (and if you have any opinions about the quality of our work feel free to let us know) and we’re all eagerly looking forward to being able to talk about our next big project, the Book of Beginnings, due out next month. Unless, of course, I get hit by that bus.
Until next week may everyone judge you by your talent, rather than the thickness of your resume. Oh. Right. And Eldrazi. Almost forgot.
As always, the Pathfinder version comes first:
Broodwarden (CR 9)
XP 6,400
N Huge aberration (extraplanar, eldrazi)
Init +8; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +22
DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 12, flat-footed 20 (+4 Dex, +12 natural, –2 size)
hp 161 (14d8+98)
Fort +13, Ref +11, Will +14
OFFENSE
Speed 40 ft.
Melee slam +18 (2d8+10)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks Invigorating Aura, Growth Spasm
STATISTICS
Str 30, Dex 18, Con 25, Int 10, Wis 17, Cha 17
Base Atk +10; CMB +21; CMD 35
Feats Power Attack, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Skill Focus (Perception), Improved Initiative
Skills Escape Artist +13, Perception +22, Stealth +15, Swim +12
Languages Eldrazi (can’t speak)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Invigorating Aura (Su): All Eldrazi creatures within 30 feet of the Broodwarden are affected as though by the spells Bear’s Endurance and Bull’s Strength. The Broodwarden can suppress or resume this effect as a free action. A Broodwarden is not affected by its own invigorating aura.
Growth Spasm (Su): At will as a standard action, the Broodwarden can invoke a powerful growth spasm in another willing creature within 30 ft. The affected creature increases one size category, gaining all the associated bonuses and penalties (see the Pathfinder Bestiary for more information). The creature also gains an additional +2 Natural Armor. The effects of the growth spasm wear off after 2d4 days. Multiple instances of this ability are not cumulative. A Broodwarden cannot benefit from its own Growth Spasm ability.
ECOLOGY
Environment any
Organization solitary or nest (1 plus 3d6+18 eldrazi spawn)
Treasure incidental
And for 4th edition fans...
