1. We have gotten well into the first (and maybe only) "Art Buy" for JAGS. This is a complex process involving me deciding what art I want and then trying to find ways to make it happen. It's expensive and ... difficult. I sometimes have a clear idea of what I want--other times I just have conceptual direction--and to lesser or greater degrees this aligns with the artist.
We try to find artists whose strengths match the piece. That isn't always so easy to do. It's also true that sometimes an artist ignores what I write and does their own thing. Often this is great. Sometimes it isn't.
So it's a process.
When it is finished, we will then integrate the pictures into the book and see what kinds of "blank space" remains. That blank space, usually, will be filled with art. Depending on how much their is ... and so on.
2. We then need to get the book edited and packaged for Lulu, our print-on-demand solution. I might look for another one--but I've been happy with Lulu. The problem is this: with artwork the book may come to 400 pages. That's too big. Lulu will do a hard-cover premium up to 250 pages.
Does that mean Vol 1 and Vol 2? Yes--and that means two covers and a more difficult editing process. This also creates difficulties: how do I distribute the chapters--they do not break down "easily." Also, I think it's clear the "rules chapters" both the opening chapter and the "Back of the Book chapter" need to go into Vol 1. But I'm not sure.
In any event, the cover art and the editing are both expensive and I have a solution for that--but getting the money together will take some time.
What else?
Well, I'm super excited about some of the artwork we've gotten. In some cases I have ordered things and am trying to figure out if it's "what I want or not." That's my problem--but it speaks to how fluid the situation is.
In any event: the book is coming together and the end is most definitely in sight. For a project I have, at times, emotionally given up on, that's incredibly gratifying.
I also want to point you to a thread on our 2+ year Have-Not game. I'm not in it--the GM is posting it.--but I want to re-post it here ... if I can. Although that may take some work: not sure how will copy-paste will work off a message board.
http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=24097
Here's "Animal Adventurers" by David Chow ...
 |
| Yeah, as a computer MMO they'd probably get their asses kicked. I'm still super happy with it. |
Have you considered Paizo at all? Prior to their huge hit with Pathfinder, they published supplements and printed various things...
ReplyDeleteEven if you just got able to have a "thread" on their boards, JAGS would likely get a lot more attention.
JAGS could easily be the next GURPS if it had some support behind it.
Hi M! Thank you for the vote of confidence! I think that what JAGS needs first and foremost is a core group of users. It's fairly opaque to me how many people are playing or otherwise using JAGS right now or how they come to it.
DeleteFor example, how did you find us? Are you using the rules or planning to? Where are you located (what country, at least), and so on.
I think once Archetypes is published we'll have a package that might be of some interest to an established company and I certainly wouldn't mind having a message board (we did run one off the JAGS site years ago--and also did regular IRC chats--but traffic was minimal).
When it comes to generating interest, that's something people who like JAGS (other than us) have to do in other places: we can't go around and start threads talking about the game--that's generally seen as spamming.
Take care,
-Marco