History of Sorcerer as an Indie Game

GenCon 2004

Play more "find Ron" or "find the Forge" at Juergen Mayer's photos, Drozdal's photos, and the GamingReport gallery too.

GenCon was awesome for the Forge and Adept Press. Wanna read about it?
Primetime Adventures: Moose in the City
GenCon thanks
Post GenCon indie RPG booth effect
GenCon: from a customer
Forge booth triumphant

2004: Year of the Interview

This is it: the golden moment

The above is from a post by DannyK in this RPG.net thread, and I have to say ... right when you think that you need no validation, that validation has meant nothing to you throughout the entire process ... then someone proves you wrong in the most wonderful way possible.

Indie Awards 2003

Best Indie RPG Supplement: Charnel Gods, by Scott Knipe

Runner-Up for Best Production: Trollbabe, by Ron Edwards

Finalist for Best Indie RPG Supplement: Demon Cops, by Ron Edwards

Finalist for Best Support: Trollbabe, by Ron Edwards

Finalist for Most Innovative Game: Trollbabe, by Ron Edwards

Check it out here!

Sorcerer at the GAMA Trade Show 2003

2002 Diana Jones winner: Sorcerer

The Award's website tells more about the award itself and what it's for. I must say, it's an impressive little object. The photo of Harrison Ford is evocative of something unmentionable.

You can also read their flattering account of Sorcerer and myself here and their questionably-flattering photo of me receiving the award here.

Here's another shot of me receiving the award. My account of the event may be found here.

Here's the news from Gaming Report and RPG News

Success tastes nice

Mike Gentry's personal account of the experience may be found in the August '01 section of his website.

Encouragement

1. The very first version was an ASCII file: plain, un-formatted text. A person arrived at the site and, upon clicking a button, could send me an automatic e-mail. I e-mailed them an attached file of Sorcerer, no questions asked. However, if they liked it, they could snail-mail me five dollars.

You know what? I got a whole bunch of green pictures of Abe Lincoln in the mail. It helped that I canvassed the Internet for other independent, grass-roots games, and traded links with all of them. It helped that I always followed up with an e-mail to make sure someone got the game. It helped that I thanked people for their comments and tried to consider all criticisms seriously. Some friendships I formed at this stage proved to be enduring and, eventually, essential to the game's success.

2. The second version of Sorcerer was an ashcan: a spiral-bound desk-printed photocopy, complete with art by some of my friends. This is what I brought to conventions and played, played, and played some more. This is what I asked $10 for in person, although that was a secondary issue. This was the serious playtesting stage, when rule after rule, idea after idea, was stripped from the system, leaving only its most functional parts behind.

3. Then came the serious task: a full re-write, with examples and instructions and all kinds of work put into it, including turning the beast into a PDF file. I acquired the domain name; the site got a full face-lift to include the credit-card order page, a customer had to pay $10 with honest plastic up-front for the game, and now, suddenly, I was a game publisher. The mailing list boomed into one of the scariest game-design debate forums on the Internet. People started asking about supplements, and I took all my ongoing play sessions, notes and inspirations, as well as a host of suggestions, to make a couple.

At this point, Sorcerer was an unqualified success. The money it brought in paid for the server costs and eventually for all the back-costs. Enough new people happened upon it, and enough of them told friends, for the game to be played around the world. I started to meet people who knew people who'd bought the game.

4. Then I decided to publish it in book form. That's an essay in itself, someday.

My point in all this is simple. Every step of the way, I turned a (small) profit. It is in fact possible to establish a role-playing game as a commercial reality without risking it all on one big lump of investment. And most importantly, you can do it too.

The warning

It was good to talk with you about your game. I hope we can work something out concerning it. I am very intrigued by the information you provided and would really like to be involved with this product....

Most importantly for you, you will retain ownership of the game while [name of company] will own the inventory and be responsible for publishing, promoting, and distributing the products. We will work with you to make sure the products are being promoted according to your wishes; you can be as hands-on or hands-off as you like....

My business partner got a chance to read the manuscript and he liked it so we'd like to pursue this further . we're interested in getting feedback from you right now and we can change what you want regarding the contract - if there's anything. . As soon as we have everything worked out I'd like to send you some samples of work from some of the artists we work with so you can pick some that you'd like for the game.

They offered me $1000 up front and 9% of the net profits. Sounds great, huh? We also had many pleasant phone conversations, including assurances of things like author ownership, control of content, and so on. Presently the company sent me a copy of a "boilerplate" contract - that is, a non-specific contract intended to be edited into the real one by both parties. Here are some excerpts from that contract.

The Publisher will have the right to make the final decision on the title and jacket or cover art. The publication will be in a format determined by the Publisher acting in its sole discretion. All decisions regarding the retail price and all other matters involving terms of sale, distribution, advertising, and promotion of the Work shall also be within the Publisher's sole discretion.

The Author agrees, at the Publisher's request, to prepare revised editions of any of the Work; but if the Author is unable or refuses to do so or fails for any reason to deliver a manuscript of the revised edition, in form and content acceptable to the Publisher, within a reasonable time, the Publisher may cause the same to be done and in such event the expense thereof shall be borne by the Author.

[regarding legal concerns] The Publisher may terminate this agreement in writing at any time . the Author shall promptly repay all amounts paid by the Publisher to the Author.

[paraphrase from serious legalese: the Author can only terminate the agreement IF the Publisher deems the Work unprofitable]

Whoa, there, Tex! Needless to say, I edited this and other parts of the contract extensively before sending it back. We spoke about it on the phone; the person (who is remaining nameless) assured me that such edits were exactly what he expected and intended. He promised the corrected version would be sent back to me straightaway for me to inspect and, with hope, to sign.

I eagerly awaited their edited version of the contract. (I was going to be a published RPG author! Oh boy!) Weeks went by. On the phone, this same nice guy told me repeatedly that he would get right to it. Then he stopped taking my calls. No e-mails were returned. Extreme persistence on my part finally got me on the phone with him, and I was told that Sorcerer was no longer being considered; something else "really big, like AD&D all over again" had come up.

The lesson: Beware of being seduced into a rotten contract. These guys were hoping I would sign the version they sent. I was lucky. My innate wariness prevented me from signing the original contract without considering its details, but my naivete had led me to be hopeful that the assurances and promises I'd initially received were legitimate.

Thanks!

The very first person to help me set up the Sorcerer website was Geoff Gowan.

The first people to play Sorcerer with me were Tom Luango, Dan Kazi, Jonathan Stambaugh, Camille Throckmorton, Ron Stone, Margie Klugermann, and Taer Bluitt.

Jonescon in Gainesville, FL, and the store Sci-Fi City in Orlando, FL, saw the first demos for the game.

Julie Hoverson of Serendipity's Circle and Paul Mason of imazine were the game's first reviewers.

Ed Healy first suggested that I go fully commercial with the PDF form of the game, and helped me set up the next version of the website.

Matt Donino provided the logo, which is still used as part of the current site head.

Raven provided the first cover art, and was so good that he became the Sorcerer cover artist for all three books!

Paul Mason volunteered his PDF know-how for the first versions of the game and supplements, and now for the books as well.

Andy Rothfusz was the first paying customer for Sorcerer. If this were a bar, this picture would be on the wall!

My current webmasters are Clinton R. Nixon and Clay Dowling, who are responsible for the current size, look, and function of the site.