We’ve been quiet for a while now and it’s time to tell you where we’re at and what’s going on. To put it simply, we got caught in publisher cross-fire again – and we’re having to face a changing marketplace.

Most of you know our history. We’re a small company of guys who does this part-time because we love the gaming industry. Because of that, we’ve had to form publishing partnerships with people who do this full-time. That has not gone well for us.

Most recently, the start-up Sandstorm was our publisher. Their model looked bright and a partnership with them seemed like a dream come true. Unfortunately, our relationship wasn’t sustainable. Sandstorm, like many up and comers, was so excited that they tried to do too many things at once. This has led to the company changing the way they do business and focusing on several core things to do well. Unfortunately, roleplaying games aren’t one of them.

In short, we do not have a publisher again. Sandstorm is continuing to fulfill orders for CthulhuTech, which is great. But that doesn’t get Burning Horizon out to shelves, despite the fact that it has been done since May. It also doesn’t give us a home for future CthulhuTech products or the upcoming The Void.

We’ve been waiting on key data from Sandstorm that will inform us as to what choices we should consider for the future, and that data is starting to arrive. It will still be a little while before we have a plan of action that we like and makes sense from a business perspective.

Just so you don’t get nervous, we believe in roleplaying. Roleplaying is meaningful. How many of us have had formative experiences when playing roleplaying games? How many of us carry game stories with us that are just as cherished as important family moments? Roleplaying games create important experiences for people – ones that can’t currently be had anywhere else.

However, the world is changing. The size of the roleplaying market shrinks every year. People prefer the convenience of on-line games, which are a quick fix where one doesn’t have to necessarily coordinate with other people to meet up. Every year, the vocabulary and reading level of Western civilization continues to drop. The average adult in American society has a fifth grade reading level and the average teenager or young adult won’t read more than 700 words in a stretch (this post will be TL:DR). Let’s face it – roleplaying is a reading intense hobby and people don’t read anymore. At least not people who aren’t dedicated gamers.

That doesn’t even address the issue of piracy. I remember a day when a mediocre release of a game book sold 3000-5000 copies, with healthy restock orders. Now, a successful release might sell 1000, if you are lucky, selling through the rest of your 3000 unit print run in three years – many companies print far less. Not only is the industry shrinking, but people don’t have to pay for their gaming books anymore if they don’t want to. Unfortunately, unlike the music industry, we are not made of money. It costs a surprisingly large amount of money to develop a well-written and attractive gaming book and the return is not so hot. Without those extra sales, the traditional model of core plus regular supplementation isn’t really viable.

One of the things we are having to address is how to create viable products in the changing marketplace. We are not Pathfinder, Warhammer 40K, or Shadowrun, who sell a lot of product based on long-term brand loyalty. We are a new brand and have to compete in a new vista. We’re trying to figure out how to leverage print products versus micro-transacted electronic products versus free products and crowd-sourcing. We want to create a sustainable business model and release schedule that makes sense and won’t kill us work-wise – we also want to have families and lives.

Thank you for being patient and for buying our books. We are working hard to get the data and make the decisions that will decide how we will continue to support roleplaying in the future, and I personally will post again as we’re getting closer to those decisions.

Regards,

Matthew Grau
Vice-President
WildFire LLC