I can't really say from a personal perspective, and Stolze is the only person I know of in the RPG field that's ever attempted this method of RPG creation, but let's not forget that most of Stolze's ransom stuff is supplements for Reign, which is a pretty popular print RPG. I think that has a lot of bearing on their popularity. I think heavy advertising and a solid fan following are definately huge benefits, if not absolute necessities, when approaching the ransom model.

That said, I've never tried it, I can't think of any other examples of people who have tried it, so I can't really answer authoritatively other than to say "It couldn't hurt to try!"

Ash

Benefits... once a book is out via Ransom it's free, so new players and GMs get an instant amount of support material right there and now. So it encourages them to adopt the game. It's a big converter I feel. Of course, you've already been paid for those books so it's no big deal they're free.

Since... you've now won more fans to pay for the next ransom too. If the last book was good you've also won trust that the next book is worth paying the ransom for.

If your material is good then fans will willingly pony up the money to see more, and you can have a steady serial income as long as the books are good and you can get people to read the stuff that's there for free.

It also works well if you have a product with a solid, or growing, fanbase who are loyal to the niche product that you do.

Stolze started the ransom price pretty high, but he can because of name value. I guess any other designers would do well to start lower and figure out what is achievable as a ransom ($100, 200, 400?). In any case, the only downside is that if the ransom isn't reached you've written something you won't get paid for.

(Though you could then whack it on the usual PDF sites I suppose in a more normal model.)

Greg's been involved with Arc Dream in the creation of GODLIKE etc., and they sol Wild Talent based on getting cash up front (they were struggling to get money together to print the thing).

Essentially though, you've got to be a proven author to get people to stump up money for something haven't you? Greg's having runaway success with his model from what I can see, so clearly the material is up to scratch. I can't keep up with the reading!

It has the advantage that he can ask his fan base what they want to see, then write it for them, so you know there's a market for it as you're writing.

If you can convince people of your "brand" it sounds good. If not many people know of your products, clearly its not likely to be as successful.

Arguably you could offer "bonus material" to people who bid in the initial ransom so they'll get hold of stuff that johnny-come-lately's won't be able to if they're poised like vultures waiting for everyone else to pay for something.

My 2p.

Stolze and Detwiller (IIRC) were doing this well before Reign.

But folks are right that it hinges on recognition/following.
Good job I have my legions of loyal fan... :(

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk

Well, Meatbot Massacre (Stolze) was ransomed and the 4C system (Phil Reed's writing a system that used the mechanics of the Marvel Super Hero system) was done to a ransom model too. But when all is said and done the one person with real experience of it, and the numbers, is Greg Stolze. Ping him an e-mail Tim and see what he says, and if he has any advice on numbers, length of time to ransom, etc.

It's probably better doing a staged ransom. So you release one product free to show the quality. Then make further products ransomed. That does mean you need to frontload some development to effectively build a name.

-Matt

Realms Publishing

The ransom model has also been used in France to produce a game called Brumaire set during the French revolution. In common with many other French games, the typeface used is so horrible as to make it neigh illegible. I'm going to have to paste the text from pdf to open office to read it.

The ransom for that has not gone well, to put it mildly.

There seems to be a lot of talk from people who contributed to that particular ransom, almost all of it negative. They seem to think, rightly or wrongly, that Reed took the money they'd given in good faith to write the book and basically didn't finish the project.

Apparently there was supposed to be a formatted PDF and POD book at cost. Here is someone complaining that they haven't had either after 6 months.

http://jrients.blogspot.com/2007/09/faseripfour-color-non-update.html

My own dealings with Phil Reed are limited at best, but he's always seemed like a pretty decent bloke to me. I'm sure this isn't a case of him taking money and not bothering to do the work, but a lot of people seem to have interpreted it that way. And to be honest, when he says in February:

"Well, if we were to assume two weeks of solid work I'd put that at $1,000. When the project was finished it would be released in PDF for about 30 days -- to give time for us to catch errors/mistakes/screw-ups/you know -- and then released in print at Lulu."

He opened up donations on 27/2/2007, was up to 65% within 36 hours and had hit the $1000 after less than 3.5 days. The total was $1130.

https://www.fundable.org/groupactions/faserip

Like I say, a lot of people are really angry about this. This may make it very hard for anyone not called Stolze to do ransoms.

{EDIT:} Most of the details are in this gargantuan thread on RPG.net:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=313445

...I know two of the people that paid for 4C (myself and Brian Nisbet) and there is an almost finsihed document that has been widely circulated. In fact Seraphim Guard went ahead and released a free PDF based on the almost final documents on RPGnow.

But, that's a really good point to add into the discussion Rich. Thanks!

Yeah, I'm aware that there is a PDF of the thing about out there, but it appears people were donating on the understanding there would be a POD book available to them at cost via Lulu 6-8 weeks after they donated. Which didn't happen.

If we unpack this and break it down, I think that if Phil made any mistake, it's probably only something like not stating up front the fact that this was a likely outcome. Also, "about 30 days" was a pretty optimistic estimate of how long the typo-hunt and editing process was likely to take. For a free project trying to fit into a busy schedule it's understandable that there are delays. But when people perceive that they have already paid for something with a set release timetable, they don't view things quite so charitably.

That and apparently not being quite active enough in communicating with fans when things didn't happen according to plan. He planned, pitched and advertised the whole thing on the RPG.net forums, there was obviously a reasonable expectation from people that the RPG.net forum would be used to communicate news of the project's progress.

(I didn't donate, I think MSH is pants! I dig that there's a lot of love for it though and a desire to see thing project happen. In all honesty I though, I probably would buy the POD book if it was about. Mainly because I like Phil's work and writing style.)

{EDIT:} Maybe the moral of the story is that you shouldn't try to ransom somethng unless it's finished and ready to go?

I was following that at one point and didn't keep up - mainly from the point of view of whether it'd be worth trying to publish anything for it. (I actually think Truth & Justice is a good successor to MSH, though.)

One issue was that Phil Reed got a job with Steve Jackson Games partway through the process, which derailed things a bit. But there should still have been some output and communication.

Rich said: "Maybe the moral of the story is that you shouldn't try to ransom somethng unless it's finished and ready to go?" But my understanding of the ransom process is that the whole point is to see whether the interest is there before you put the time and effort into the product. If it were finished and ready to go, you'd just put it up for sale.

Tim Gray
Silver Branch Games
www.silverbranch.co.uk

Excuse my ignorance, but what the hell is a ransom model?

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

...or you can read this page here.

Speaking to the Greg seems the best way forward. I'd note that a couple of his ransomed items "got stuck" at the 60-80% funding mark and then a mysterious benefactor ponied up and they got released.

So, second to speaking to Greg, get yourself a Sugar Daddy.