Saturday, July 23, 2011

I Want to Turn You All Into Money-Grubbing Whores

Yesterday, the 22nd, was the 2nd anniversary of LotFP as a professional concern. It's gone well so far.

Looks like that distribution thing is going to happen. The price for parcels to the US increased to the point where it didn't make much sense to keep sending packages to multiple locations in the States anymore, so I'm arranging to just send a pallet to a single location whenever there's a new release.

It could potentially put me in every game store in North America and many more around the world, but realistically being available doesn't mean the stores will stock it. But some will. Not every Mom and Pop game store wants the box with the boobs on the cover, but they'll take Vornheim if they're smart. (It's passed Death Frost Doom as my all-time biggest seller). Upcoming releases will mostly be store-shelf friendly but of course I won't be able to resist a bit of mischief now and again because if you can't have fun watching people become outraged at pictures and words in a game book, why bother?


At the rate the releases are coming out though, that mischief won't be out until 2014. Hell, Carcosa and Isle of the Unknown are well past their expected original dates (I'm the holdup on Carcosa as I go through the prelim layout making notes, but almost 300 pages is just hell to read on a screen, but it's a multi-color layout and I'd destroy my printer if I printed it out... *sigh*), and Exquisite Corpses is all Poag . And my policy with these is "Take the time you need, we have no deadlines, let's do it right."

I need smaller things popping up a little more regularly. I'm progressing well with the Monolith adventure (and I've seen the cover prelims... I have a feeling we're all going to shit ourselves in awe) but I need more.

So I thought I'd trot out drafts of my Compatibility License and Submission Policy. These are indeed drafts, not final versions for use, and I'd like your comment. What's missing? What's ambiguous? Let me know.

LotFP Compatibility License Terms 1.0

This license allows non-affiliated “third party” publishers to release free or commercial publications for use with, and declaring compatibility with, LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. You do not have to pay a licensing fee nor submit your product for review prior to publication.

Your product must comply with all applicable trademark and copyright laws. LotFP is not responsible for any infringement claims against your product.

The title of the work may not contain “Lamentations of the Flame Princess,” “LotFP,” nor have a three word product name beginning with “Death” and ending with “Doom.”

The compatibility statement/logo must be smaller than your product's title and your company's logo.

Your product must not in any other way give the impression that it is an official LotFP release.

In your legal text, you must include the following: “This product is an independent production by [Your Company Name] and is not affiliated with Lamentations of the Flame Princess. LotFP and Lamentations of the Flame Princess are trademarks owned by James Edward Raggi IV.”

You must submit one copy of your product, in every format it is published, to LotFP after publication.

If these requirements are satisfied, you may declare compatibility with LotFP Weird Fantasy Role-Playing and use the compatibility logo (link to the graphic to come later, made by The Yoqqothl Grimoire's own Il Male™ ). The logo may be resized and the color changed to fit your product's graphic design, but may not be cropped or otherwise altered.

LotFP Submission Policy

LotFP is looking for submissions for its series of adventure modules. These are to be 32 page A5-sized pages. This averages out to 15,000-18,000 words plus maps.

All submissions must have been used in actual play.

LotFP Adventures should be different than the usual traditional fantasy adventure! In particular:

  • Every monster in the adventure (other than real-life animals) should be an individual and unique creation and they should be used sparingly.
  • Magic items should be also be rare and unique.
  • NPCs with class and levels should be rare.

Think outside the box.

All submitted work should be your own original work that you own all rights to, and the work should not have been previously published elsewhere in English.

Compensation will be handled in one of two ways, chosen by you:

  • 0,015€ per word (final draft, after editing) up front, paid upon publication. LotFP owns the work outright after payment is made.
  • 30% of profits made from the work, paid every quarter. No up front money, but rights will revert back to you when the print run is sold out or after five years, whichever comes first.

(contracts noting the specifics would be sent in either case; these are just the sum-ups)

If you have a longer-form project in mind (or even a full game), different arrangements can be made – get in touch!

12 comments:

  1. First of all, congratulations on your success over the past couple of years. Being the proud owner of a copy of Vornheim, I can say the quality of your products, and what you are bringing to the field of RPGs is both different and refreshing.

    Check my review for Vornheim here

    I am certainly intrigued by your submissions requests. Definitely has piqued my interests in development. I do have one question, which I'm sure will be one shared by many interested in your policy for submissions. If someone has an idea for an adventure, should they submit a synopsis before actually writing the entire thing up and sending it to you to ensure you are interested in the product, or should they simply send the completed product to you for review?

    Again, congrats on your success and wishing you continued success in the future.

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  2. I have an idea for a fan conversion of Tekumel (mostly using EPT) to the LotFP system, but I think I'd also need to talk things over with the Tekumel Folks. The thing is, I was going to call it "Lament to the Wheel of Black" (the title of a famous epic poem in canon) as a nod to the new system, but this comes awfully close to violating your license terms.

    The adventure module announcement is exciting, though. My only concern is, while I could crank out the text, I know next to nothing about layout, never mind integrating illustrations, etc.

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  3. @ James
    - Ask Professor Barker to allow you to rework to original TSR/Gamescince Empire of the Petal Throne. It would be one of the best OSR games published.

    His source material is vast and deserves an OSR rebirth, and you could easilly be that guy!

    Oblations to Sarku!

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  4. Creating a compatibility license has worked spectacularly to transform Adventurer Conqueror King and Hill Cantons: Borderlands from potential competitors over the same "domain game" turf into collaborators, each focusing on the part of this where we have the most unique vision and sharing the best ideas in areas which we agree. We would have wanted to try to do this anyway, but having the compatibility license + the open gaming license made it like duh, of course a declaration that these games work well together is the way to go.

    I'd like to see your license also allow for a way to use the trademarked name of your game for the purpose of citing ideas you originated, so that I can say "the Adventurer Conqueror King encumbrance system is inspired by LotFP:WFRPG" in an OGL work without either claiming that sentence as open content or my own product identity.
    - Tavis

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  5. >>If someone has an idea for an adventure, should they submit a synopsis before actually writing the entire thing up and sending it to you to ensure you are interested in the product, or should they simply send the completed product to you for review?

    hmmm. Difficult to say. It's possible that a synopsis might sound bad to me and I'd pass on it, but the execution in the completed work might have sold me on the idea.

    But putting together a full thing and having me pass on it probably wouldn't feel too nice either.

    Up to you.

    >>Lament to the Wheel of Black

    I wouldn't consider this close to the LotFP name. I don't pretend to claim all ownership of "Lament" and its forms...

    >>The adventure module announcement is exciting, though. My only concern is, while I could crank out the text, I know next to nothing about layout, never mind integrating illustrations, etc.

    Text is all I want.

    >>- Ask Professor Barker to allow you to rework to original TSR/Gamescince Empire of the Petal Throne. It would be one of the best OSR games published.

    I've never seen any EPT material, so I'm not the guy for this.

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  6. "money grubbing whores"...isn't it morally superior to be a bimbo that gives it away for free? ;-)

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  7. LotFP said, I've never seen any EPT material

    LOL

    Speaking for myself I am looking forward to the second generation of blog personalities writing professional monster games. One becomes stale don't you know.

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  9. Ask Professor Barker to allow you to rework to original TSR/Gamescince Empire of the Petal Throne. It would be one of the best OSR games published.

    Jeff Dee is working on just such an adaption for his Pocket Universe rules lite system. It already has the Foundation's green light I believe.

    That said I hope Jeremy goes for it, there is a need for a more classic D&D oriented "living game".

    @mule
    What Tavis said in both paragraphs, it has the potential for promoting an interesting new era of cross-pollination.

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  10. Info on the Jeff Dee thing: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/06/in-pocket-with-jeff-dee.html

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  11. "hmmm. Difficult to say. It's possible that a synopsis might sound bad to me and I'd pass on it, but the execution in the completed work might have sold me on the idea.

    But putting together a full thing and having me pass on it probably wouldn't feel too nice either.

    Up to you."

    Or perhaps maybe a one page synopsis, sample chapter of the adventure along with a map?

    Well, either way, if I decide to submit an adventure, I'll hit you up with the idea first to see if it would be something you feel would work in LotFP, and go from there.

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  12. I think Vornheim is one of the greatest rpg play aides of all time, ranking right up there with the very best of the best of the past.

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