BRP license

[Trifletraxor]

For all those of you who have wondered, here's a draft of the BRP license:

http://basicroleplaying.com/forum/downloads//ec_tmp/BRP%20draft%20license.pdf

Opinions? (posted with Dustin's approval).

SGL.

[RosenMcStern]

First of all, Chaosium replied quickly to our inquiries, as usual. Kudos to them.

Secondly, even though I am more comfortable with the OGL of the new RuneQuest, I think this is a good, fair license that leaves plenty of room for independent publishers and external contributors. Unfortunately, I do not see any reason to convert my existing publications to BRP, as most people will be able to convert them alone from RuneQuest, but my future projects could include some BRP stuff as well.

Anyway, I really appreciate what Charlie, Dustin & Co. are doing.

[Zane]

If I read it correctly, royalties are paid in the form of copies that Chaosium can sell. This means anyone publishing supplements will have to carefully calculate the "sweet spots" for their print runs. For example, it is better to print 500 copies, than 600 copies, due to the number of copies you have to give to Chaosium. The 50 copy minimum pretty much rules out small print runs.

Additionally there is the clause in the same section that allows Chaosium to purchase additional copies at 65% off the cover price, on "30-day terms". I'd say this means anyone publishing anything had better make sure the cover price includes enough profit that they're not hurt by Chaosium's 65% discount.

I don't know how common these sort of stipulations are, but all I can say is ouch! Somehow a fixed percentage of profits would strike me as being more fair, even if they're collected up front.

[threedeesix]

Originally Posted by Zane

If I read it correctly, royalties are paid in the form of copies that Chaosium can sell. This means anyone publishing supplements will have to carefully calculate the "sweet spots" for their print runs. For example, it is better to print 500 copies, than 600 copies, due to the number of copies you have to give to Chaosium. The 50 copy minimum pretty much rules out small print runs.

I don't know if this makes sense, how would you give them 100 PDF copies?
Maybe it means you have to "pay" them the equivalent to that number of copies.

Rod

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by threedeesix

I don't know if this makes sense, how would you give them 100 PDF copies?
Maybe it means you have to "pay" them the equivalent to that number of copies.

Rod

I would guess that it means that they can sell 100 PDF copies through various .pdf merchants, like rpgnow, drivethrurpg, etc.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by Zane

I don't know how common these sort of stipulations are, but all I can say is ouch! Somehow a fixed percentage of profits would strike me as being more fair, even if they're collected up front.

I know a few small press publishers who think these are great terms.

A fixed percentage of profit is almost always unfair at either extreme... a runaway success means Chaosium gets paid a disproportionate amount of money, and a trickle of sales means that the publisher is having to send minuscule checks on a regular basis - generally less than the effort of determining the profit margin and sending the check is worth.

[RosenMcStern]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

I would guess that it means that they can sell 100 PDF copies through various .pdf merchants, like rpgnow, drivethrurpg, etc.

Exactly. I asked the same question to Dustin and got the same reply. Chaosium reserves the right to sell 100 copies, then it will be up to the publisher alone to sell the PDF.

[NickMiddleton]

Originally Posted by Zane

...I don't know how common these sort of stipulations are, but all I can say is ouch! Somehow a fixed percentage of profits would strike me as being more fair, even if they're collected up front.

As Jason's pointed out, percentage of profits deals have their flaws, especially in small run publishing like RPG's. As for the direct purchase discount for copies after the "royalty" copies, it's in the ball park of the figures I've heard previously from RPG publishers as to what retail and distribution take out of the SRP.

Dan Harm's comments at Yog-Sothoth.com (see here ) are interesting: Dan's hardly a gushing Chaosium fan boy (he's never shied away from being highly critical of them in the past when he feels he has grounds), but he knows publishing well and like Jason his assessment seems to be that it's a pretty good license.

The observation I'd make is that it's NOT a license for "casual" use - the product requirement (at least 1, no more that 4 books a year), the necessity for royalty copies BEFORE a product enters distribution and the discount for Chaosium purchase of further copies all mean that a licensee needs a robust business plan in place before they commit to this... And that's a good thing. It means that the casual, frankly deeply variable, stuff that glutted the d20 market is less likely but there's no impediment to non-commercial fan material that I'm aware of. And the license would have little or no negative impact (and as already said, probably looks quite appealing) to high quality "third tier" small press RPG publishers.

I think some additional clarity on how Electronic / PDF sales will work is needed (Chaosium currently only sell PDF's via DTR / RPG Now, who are the main PDF retailer - so how's that going to work if the original publisher is ALSO with DTR?) and also on true PoD services like Lulu - I assume they'd want the royalty copies up front, and that they'd expect the next set when sales roll over the next threshold - but there are some details that I'd want ironing out before signing up myself.

But I think that looks like a very good deal, and I hope it generates a lot of decent support for BRP.

Cheers,

Nick

[RosenMcStern]

Originally Posted by NickMiddleton

The observation I'd make is that it's NOT a license for "casual" use - the product requirement (at least 1, no more that 4 books a year), the necessity for royalty copies BEFORE a product enters distribution and the discount for Chaosium purchase of further copies all mean that a licensee needs a robust business plan in place before they commit to this...

Yes, it's indie friendly but professional.

I think some additional clarity on how Electronic / PDF sales will work is needed (Chaosium currently only sell PDF's via DTR / RPG Now, who are the main PDF retailer - so how's that going to work if the original publisher is ALSO with DTR?) and also on true PoD services like Lulu - I assume they'd want the royalty copies up front, and that they'd expect the next set when sales roll over the next threshold - but there are some details that I'd want ironing out before signing up myself.

Having both chaosium and the third party selling via DTR / RPGNow could create some issues, but as I sell only via YGN I have not considered all the implications so far, and in fact this could even be an advantage should I want to publish something for BRP. I think it requires some careful "coupon policy" planning on the part of the third party publisher to avoid been eaten up by Chaosium. But again, it is way better than paying fees up front before knowing whether you will sell a lot of copies.

As for Lulu, Dustin told me it qualifies as a "less than..." run, so they require 50 copies up front. Which might be too much, as you can actually sell less than 50 books in total (I have sold some 40 physical books so far with lulu). But better ask Dustin yourself.

[NickMiddleton]

Originally Posted by RosenMcStern

As for Lulu, Dustin told me it qualifies as a "less than..." run, so they require 50 copies up front. Which might be too much, as you can actually sell less than 50 books in total (I have sold some 40 physical books so far with lulu). But better ask Dustin yourself.

If I had the time and resources to be seriously considering a license, I would, but alas it's mostly just obsessive fan curiosity on my part...

Cheers,

Nick