Making Money Selling PDFs Online

Posted on August 6, 2011 by Brent

Tonight, gamefiend was kind enough to host me for one of his At-Will chats, where I talked about my experiences making money publishing RPG PDFs. Here\’s the transcript:

[11:01pm] <BrentNewhall> OK, so it\'s 7:00. We can get started, if you all would like.
[11:01pm] <BrentNewhall> gamefiend, anything you want to say?
[11:01pm] <gamefiend|upstairs> Nope. Start it up!
[11:01pm] <BrentNewhall> Okay!
[11:01pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'m comfortable with questions, so feel free to jump in.
[11:01pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ll start by talking about what I\'ve done, the tools I\'ve used, etc.
[11:02pm] Topic changed to \"Make $$$ selling PDFs online with Brent Newhall | At-Will Chat\" by gamefiend|upstairs.
[11:02pm] <thedandmom> What, make money, you have my attention
[11:02pm] <BrentNewhall> I run Brent P. Newhall\'s Musaeum of Fantastic Wonders, which publishes a set of PDFs, primarily through RPGNow.com.
[11:02pm] <BrentNewhall> http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=2545 if you\'d like to peruse
[11:03pm] <BrentNewhall> I do everything with free tools (other than the computer itself, of course).
[11:03pm] <BrentNewhall> OpenOffice for documents, Inkscape and GIMP for maps and other graphics.
[11:03pm] <BrentNewhall> Plus appropriately-licensed images from Flickr.
[11:04pm] <BrentNewhall> I hit $200 in sales the first year; $200 in profits in 18 months.
[11:04pm] <PixelScum> wait what\'s going on with this topic here
[11:04pm] <PixelScum> i\'m confused
[11:04pm] <PixelScum> oh my bad i see
[11:04pm] <BrentNewhall> PixelScum: No problem. :-)
[11:05pm] <BrentNewhall> Now, as someone pointed out earlier, that doesn\'t factor in the costs of my labor. :-)
[11:05pm] <BrentNewhall> But hey, $200.
[11:05pm] <BrentNewhall> Any specific questions?
[11:06pm] <twwombat> How many pages is each supplement? What\'s your biggest seller?
[11:07pm] <BrentNewhall> Good questions.
[11:07pm] <BrentNewhall> My first was 33 pages long, though that includes both portrait and landscape versions.
[11:08pm] <OppR2nist> So you self-publish then?
[11:08pm] <BrentNewhall> My latest one is 38 pages for portrait or landscape.
[11:08pm] <BrentNewhall> My biggest sellers are always the ones that were around the longest.
[11:09pm] <BrentNewhall> OppR2nist: Yep, all through RPGNow.com.
[11:09pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ve also toyed around with other sites, but RPGNow/DriveThruRPG seems to drive the vast majority of these sorts of sales.
[11:09pm] <BJMurray> How much are you charging per unit and how did you decide on the price, Brent?
[11:09pm] <BrentNewhall> BJMurray: $5 each. I did some research, and that looked like a reasonable mid-point for an adventure: not cheap but not expensive.
[11:10pm] <BrentNewhall> On the biggest seller: There\'s an interesting trend there.
[11:10pm] <BrentNewhall> Every PDF sells a lot its first month, then it dwindles. But I also see a smaller spike for all my other products when I launch a new one.
[11:11pm] <BrentNewhall> Welcome, all!
[11:11pm] • John_ObsCrn waves
[11:11pm] <BrentNewhall> So, each new release definitely helps the sales of previous products.
[11:13pm] <BrentNewhall> As to self-publishing: One big advantage of this is model is that I can now present myself to RPG companies and show them my actual work.
[11:13pm] <twwombat> Better to have a full stable of products for cross-marketing and impulse buys. Got it.
[11:13pm] <BrentNewhall> twwombat: Yes.
[11:13pm] <OppR2nist> Are you doing adventures mainly, or are you doing other things (settings, rule supplements, etc.)?
[11:13pm] <BrentNewhall> OppR2nist: Heh, that\'s another story.
[11:14pm] <BrentNewhall> I originally planned to write a series of adventures (The Stronghold Adventures) that could be played alone or as a sequence to form a large plot.
[11:14pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ve since discovered that the market isn\'t so much interested in adventures as they are in adventure ideas.
[11:15pm] <BrentNewhall> So, while I started by focusing on adventures, I\'ve been broadening that a lot in recent months.
[11:15pm] <BrentNewhall> (I\'m currently working on a project that has me really excited, and is a significant departure from what I\'ve done so far.)
[11:16pm] <thedandmom> what\'s it about, or can you not say?
[11:16pm] <John_ObsCrn> Brent - what did you do for maps in adventures Brent?
[11:16pm] <OppR2nist> So, campiagn outlines? Thing like that?
[11:16pm] <BrentNewhall> John: I mainly used the GIMP, the free image editor.
[11:17pm] <BrentNewhall> I use Render > Grid to create my grid on its own layer, then new layers for each graphical element.
[11:17pm] <BrentNewhall> LOTS of layers.
[11:17pm] <John_ObsCrn> where did you source layers from?
[11:17pm] <BrentNewhall> And I\'ve built up a library of public-domain map elements, like textures and trees (I use a lot of trees).
[11:18pm] <BrentNewhall> John: That\'s a tough one. I haven\'t found a single good source.
[11:18pm] • John_ObsCrn notes Maptools might have been less painful
[11:18pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ve had to search the web for \"public domain shrub texture\" and such things.
[11:18pm] <John_ObsCrn> Maps are the thing that have stopped me trying to actually sell stuff.
[11:19pm] <BrentNewhall> (And I\'ve had to check that the image is actually public domain, and not stolen.)
[11:19pm] <BrentNewhall> John: Cool, I didn\'t realize that all of Maptools\' images are licensed for resale.
[11:19pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ll look into that.
[11:20pm] <thedandmom> what I do for maps is get some free textures and such from DA and overlay them on a sketch
[11:20pm] <twwombat> Good to know.
[11:20pm] <BrentNewhall> If I had more skill at drawing, I\'d love to sketch the map out and just can that in.
[11:20pm] <BrentNewhall> But digital tools work well for me.
[11:20pm] <BrentNewhall> And there are a lot of YouTube tutorials on RPG map-making.
[11:21pm] <twwombat> Nice.
[11:21pm] <BrentNewhall> (Hey, ChattyDM just won an Ennie!)
[11:22pm] <PixelScum> nice
[11:22pm] <thedandmom> wooo!
[11:22pm] <John_ObsCrn> Brent I\'m not sure they are liscenced for re-sale, however if you can get textures from public domain it does all the map stuff you can want.
[11:22pm] <BrentNewhall> John: Ah, OK.
[11:22pm] <twwombat> BrentNewhall: (Oh sure, =you= can mention the Ennies...)
[11:23pm] <BrentNewhall> (hahahaha)
[11:23pm] <thedandmom> I wish i could make that sort of money from something on the internet
[11:24pm] <BrentNewhall> thedandmom: I\'m sure you\'ll do fine once the commission business spins up a bit more. :-)
[11:24pm] <thedandmom> yeah, i should do stuff for prints too
[11:24pm] <BrentNewhall> (Heck, I know I\'ve already put you well on your way. ;-) )
[11:25pm] <BrentNewhall> RPGNow actually posted some stats on their sales recently, which were quite interesting.
[11:25pm] <BrentNewhall> For example, most sales come at around the $7 price point.
[11:25pm] <OppR2nist> So, BrentNewhall, you just approached RPGNow, and went ahead?
[11:26pm] <BrentNewhall> OppR2nist: Yep. Once I saw that they have no up-front fees, and they pay a straight percentage of each sale.
[11:26pm] <PixelScum> my problem is i cannot draw
[11:26pm] <BrentNewhall> PixelScum: That\'s exactly why I use GIMP. :-) No drawing skills required.
[11:28pm] <BrentNewhall> Also, 26% of sales come from rulebooks, and 25% from expansions/supplements; only 14% from adventures.
[11:28pm] <PixelScum> i\'m pretty bad at gimp too
[11:28pm] <BrentNewhall> So, create your systems! :-)
[11:28pm] <BrentNewhall> (That\'s across all of RPGNow, not my stuff.)
[11:29pm] <thedandmom> I actually had a system i was working on, it only used d6\'s
[11:30pm] <thedandmom> and races were grouped into types and got features from types
[11:30pm] <BrentNewhall> thedandmom: Cool!
[11:30pm] <thedandmom> never really got off the ground
[11:31pm] <BrentNewhall> Any other questions?
[11:32pm] <BJMurray> How do you market your work. Brent?
[11:32pm] <BrentNewhall> Extremely poorly.
[11:32pm] <BJMurray> haha
[11:33pm] <BrentNewhall> I post on Twitter and my blog.
[11:33pm] <BrentNewhall> That\'s…really about it, to be honest.
[11:33pm] <BrentNewhall> In all seriousness, I started this whole project partly to see just how far I could get with no advertising/marketing.
[11:34pm] • BJMurray nods
[11:34pm] <BrentNewhall> Now that it\'s something of a success, I\'m exploring ways to market it better.
[11:34pm] <BJMurray> Well with zero risk, that\'s not a drawback. :D
[11:34pm] <BrentNewhall> hahaha, exactly
[11:34pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'m looking forward to learning from all of you how to promote better. :-D
[11:35pm] <thedandmom> ask to borrow ad space on friend\'s sites?
[11:35pm] <twwombat> How often do you get sales?
[11:36pm] <BrentNewhall> twwombat: Usually, the first month I get a lot, the second month a few, then in subsequent months 0-2 per month, unless I publish something else that month.
[11:37pm] <twwombat> And all your initial sales are just from posting to Twitter?
[11:37pm] <BrentNewhall> twwombat: Yep.
[11:37pm] <BrentNewhall> And that\'s back when I only had, oh, less than 100 followers, I bet.
[11:38pm] <twwombat> Would more reviews help sales, do you think? And do you hand out review copies at all?
[11:38pm] <BrentNewhall> Great question! Yes, reviews drive sales.
[11:38pm] <BrentNewhall> I shot out review copies to a bunch of the big-name bloggers initially, but couldn\'t get much traction.
[11:38pm] <BrentNewhall> They were all really nice, but they just didn\'t have time to review Yet Another Thing.
[11:41pm] <twwombat> Cool.
[11:42pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'ve had nothing but good experiences with the RPG blogging community.
[11:42pm] <thedandmom> that\'s good
[11:42pm] <BrentNewhall> Well, except for a few people that I made sure not to interact with. :-)
[11:43pm] <twwombat> Heh.
[11:43pm] <twwombat> What would you do differently if you were to start again knowing what you know now?
[11:44pm] <BrentNewhall> Excellent question.
[11:44pm] <BrentNewhall> I\'d release more regularly.
[11:44pm] <twwombat> Monthly, maybe?
[11:44pm] <BrentNewhall> Monthly would kill me, to be honest.
[11:45pm] <BrentNewhall> But at least quarterly.
[11:45pm] <twwombat> Probably me too.
[11:46pm] <BrentNewhall> But getting that momentum seems to really help sales.
[11:46pm] <twwombat> How long does it take to develop something? How many hours a week? Does anyone edit for you?
[11:47pm] <BrentNewhall> Usually 3-4 months, 5-6 hours a week every week.
[11:48pm] <BrentNewhall> I have no editor, though I do often send each PDF out to some friends for a look-over before publishing.
[11:49pm] <BrentNewhall> It helps that I\'ve been a tech writer, editor, and proofreader in the past.
[11:50pm] <BrentNewhall> Otherwise, I\'d definitely recommend finding an editor.
[11:51pm] <twwombat> Cool.
[11:51pm] <John_ObsCrn> There is certainly a lot of scope out there at the moment for self-publishing, especially in 4E I would think
[11:51pm] <BrentNewhall> Definitely.
[11:52pm] <BrentNewhall> Free stuff gets a lot of attention, too.
[11:53pm] <twwombat> Cool.
[11:53pm] <John_ObsCrn> Yeah I have reasonable traffic at dailyencounter when posting an encounter
[11:53pm] • BrentNewhall nods.
[11:54pm] <John_ObsCrn> Though it is usually opinion pieces or DM advice that generates the most traffic.
[11:54pm] <BrentNewhall> OK, I think we\'ve covered it pretty well. I\'ll hang around to answer any other questions, but in the meantime, shall we open it up to regular chat?

Categories: Role-playing | 4 Comments

50 Games in 50 Weeks: Hive

Posted on July 26, 2011 by Brent

Years ago, I designed a territory-building game, one in which players lay down territory cards, then spawn monsters on them in an attempt to capture another players’ castle. Never went anywhere; turns out that game design is hard.

But as I sat down with a co-worker to play Hive over lunch last week, memories of my territory-building game floated to my mind. This had a similar concept, beautifully realized as a chess-like pure strategy game.

Each player has a set of bakelite hexagonal pieces, each representing an insect. Each player sets down a piece next to each other, then take turns either laying down another piece or moving an existing piece. By the fourth turn, each player must put down their bee, which corresponds somewhat to the king in chess. The object of the game is to surround your opponent’s bee with pieces.

Each piece has its own style of movement. Grasshoppers can jump over any number of continuous pieces to land in an empty position, while beetles can climb on top of other pieces.

There are other rules, but you see the overall shape of the game: the hive grows as the game continues, and the pieces shift based on each player’s strategy. One has to be careful about what piece one moves. What are you leaving vulnerable, and what pieces can take advantage of your new position?

Very young children would probably have a tough time remembering how all the pieces move, but tweens should have no problem playing. Better, the game comes in a vinyl carrying case the size of a hardback book, so it’s easy to take anywhere.

Despite the simplicity of the rules, there are a lot of complexities that arise from gameplay. Because there’s no random element, beginners are at a massive disadvantage against expert players. So be nice if you’re teaching!

Categories: 50 Games in 50 Weeks | Leave a comment

50 Games in 50 Weeks: Freemarket

Posted on July 25, 2011 by Brent
\"Freemarket

As part of RyvenCon, the online gaming con, I played a quick game of Freemarket.

Freemarket\’s a fascinating system and world, which I honestly had trouble wrapping my brain around. That\’s not a complaint or a suggestion that either system or world are deficient; they\’re just sufficiently unusual for me to feel lost on mechanics and their consequences.

Freemarket is set on a space station, in a post-capital society of plenty. Everyone has enough food and clothing. Matter printers can regenerate your body, so you can\’t die. There\’s no money. You create things, and if people like what you create, they give you \”flow,\” which can be redeemed for access to more space and certain station resources.

So, you can set up a coffee shop in your tiny living space, and make coffee for people, and do it all for free. You can operate that for years without having to spend money (there isn\’t any). But hopefully, folks will appreciate your coffee by donating flow, which you can trade in for a larger space somewhere else on the station.

Back to mechanics. Character creation took about 2 hours. Characters have genelines (a family that suggests their tendencies), experiences (skills), interfaces (internal tech), technologies (physical possessions), short-term memories, long-term memories, a generation, and more. It\’s overwhelming.

At the end, though, you have a well-defined personality for your character. Moreover, the character creation process defines the group that the PCs are part of (the \”MRCZ\”), so once you\’re done creating your characters, you know why they\’re all together, and you have some hooks for the story.

The conflict resolution mechanic involves cards, risking tokens, using cards based on tags on your abilities, and a poker-style decision to \”call.\”

Each player begins with a couple of cards (based on their abilities), then draws cards each turn. Some cards give you points towards winning the conflict, while others can be used to sabotage or otherwise affect others\’ cards. At any time after the first round, anyone can \”call,\” which ends the conflict. The cards laid out determine the winner(s), loser(s), and effects of the conflict.

This allows for a more nuanced conclusion to a conflict than \”I won,\” at the expense of a much more abstract, weird process. I couldn\’t map the drawing of two cards on my turn to anything in the actual conflict. Granted, that\’s probably part of the point.

The system and the setting fit together like a glove, and I love what I saw, but it\’s clear this is not a pick-up game. I think I\’d have enjoyed it more if I\’d played a couple of sessions around a physical table. This is nothing against our wonderful GM Dan; this was caused by Freemarket\’s fundamental weirdness as both a system and a setting.

Thanks to Dan Clery the GM, and fellow players Ryven Cedrylle and Adam Minnie.

Purchase Freemarket. More information on the game.

Categories: 50 Games in 50 Weeks | Leave a comment

50 Games in 50 Weeks: Introduction

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Brent
"Dice" by ellasdad on Flickr

"Dice" by ellasdad on Flickr

I want to be a better game player, a better GM, and a better game designer.

I’m poor at playing. I just don’t get deeply into my characters, and I don’t remember the system well.

I’m a pretty effective GM, I think, but my narrations are often bland and I hesitate often. I don’t prove a smooth play experience.

I need exposure to a lot more games to have a sufficiently large toolbox of mechanics to use when designing games.

One of the best ways to improve is through experience, so I’ve set myself a challenge:

By the end of July 2012, I will play 50 games that I’ve never played before. They can be card games, board games, or role-playing games, but because I’m most interested in RPGs, I’ll focus on those.

I’ll write about each game I play. RPG posts will be posted on The New Haul, while board/card game articles will be posted back on my regular blog. I hope you’ll follow me on my journey.

Here are all the articles in this series so far:

[catlist id=9 orderby=date order=asc]

Categories: 50 Games in 50 Weeks | 3 Comments

An All-Digital RPG: The Flip Side

Posted on July 13, 2011 by Brent
"Shanghai | Hazy Lujiazui - PuDong, Shanghai" by Ikiller123 on Flickr

"Shanghai | Hazy Lujiazui — PuDong, Shanghai" by Ikiller123 on Flickr

I wrote a little while ago about a model for an RPG handled entirely via apps and software, in which all the mechanics are run by computers and the humans just see the results.

This is conceptually elegant; let computers handle the number-crunching they’re good at.

But there are problems.

For one, the system has to have apps for many different devices. In the current market, that’s a lot of work. This means, at minimum, an iPhone app, an iPad app, and at least one Android app for each major version of Android on phones out there.

(Required caveats: Yes, I know you can develop one app for both iPhone and iPad, but you need separate UI designs for each class of device to be effective. I’m not familiar with Android development, but I understand that different phones are locked into different major versions of Android, so you can’t always have one Android app for every Android phone.)

You have to get every single player to download the apps, set them up, etc. It’s not as easy as loaning someone a book and a printed-off character sheet. Harder adoption rate.

If it’s a paid system, the developer has to choose effective prices, which would be harder in an unproven frontier like this than in the more tried-and-true markets that currently exist. What are players willing to pay for? Which parts of the system do you charge for?

GMs can’t fudge the system, or invent their own house rules. This is a major problem for a lot of gamers; adjusting a game to one’s play style is an important part of the experience. Can a system be built that people wouldn’t houserule?

You have to trust the software. When every calculation is opaque, it’s easy to wonder how fair the software is. Or if you’ve set up your character correctly.

Categories: Uncategorized | 3 Comments

An All-Digital RPG System

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Brent

Imagine an RPG system that’s handled completely with digital tools. Not only is your character sheet displayed on a screen, the mechanics are handled there, too.

Imagine this: a group sits around a table, each participant holding a smartphone, PDA, or tablet.

The GM touches “Moderate difficulty” on his tablet and asks Maria for a Perception test. She touches her Perception stat; it immediately rolls and flashes the result, “19,” at her. A wireless message is sent through the ether, and the GM sees “Success!” on his tablet.

Everything would run on an app. Characters could be created directly on these devices, or developed on a desktop or laptop then accessed on those devices.

How about a virtual tabletop? This is a bit harder to envision, but it’s certainly possible that a company will build and sell a tablet that’s much larger than today’s iPads. Such a thing could easily be used as a virtual tabletop, and wirelessly sync with each players’ device to automatically show markers, bloodied creatures, etc.

These digital systems would revolutionize LARPing. Just reach into your pocket and touch your smart phone to determine if you hit or miss an opponent.

(Obviously, there’d be purists; this wouldn’t kill traditional LARPing. But it could add a new experience.)

The technology is really already in place for all of this. Would it work? That’s another post.

Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

What Do You Want Your Fights to Feel Like?

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Brent
"Fantasy battle" by krukof2 on DeviantArt

"Fantasy battle" by krukof2 on DeviantArt

This applies to GMs and to designers.

For GMs: What fights do you want? Take a moment to imagine the feel of those fights. A big, roaring monster? Swarms of mooks rushing at the heroes? A cackling, insulting controller with a bunch of minions? A squad of enemies, each with its own attack patterns? Choose monsters that fit that theme.

For designers, this gets more interesting.

What sort of conflict do you want in your game? What would that look like in your world?

Will your world include a lot of subtle social conflict? Will there be monsters (e.g., non-sentient, antagonist creatures)? How dynamic will your combat be? Will your setting have a lot of easy-to-kill minions? Should combat be brief or long and complex? How deadly should physical combat be?

Not only will you benefit from designing your conflict system around these considerations, you’ll also want to design your monsters and enemies to support this.

If you want dynamic physical combat, something like D&D 4E’s powers will help a lot. If you want combat to go quickly, a status-based system might work better than HP.

It all comes down to what you want.

Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Castles Were Decoration

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Brent
"Castle Durnstein (with YPaul)" by muppetspanker on Flickr

"Castle Durnstein (with YPaul)" by muppetspanker on Flickr

I’ve been listening to a series of lectures on historical castles, and it’s changed how I think about castles in an RPG setting.

Debate about castles rages, naturally, so take all this with a grain of salt, but:

Castles were not just fortifications. Indeed, fortification was a relatively minor element of their function. Castles were homes and symbols of power. Many of them were built to look imposing, and were actually hard to defend.

Castles became symbols of power and stability. Not only did they say “The noble is wealthy,” they said, “This noble can protect his peasants.”

Statistically, most castles were earth-and-timber affairs. Stone was just too expensive. In later centuries, many earth-and-timber castles were slowly converted section by section to stone. That conversion was, of course, messy and slow. So one might enter a “castle” that consisted of an earthen wall surrounding a stone keep.

Speaking of keeps: an important aspect of every castle was its relation to the noble who owned it. Each gate and wall was another layer keeping you from the noble, so the deeper you were allowed inside a castle, the more important you presumably were. The inner keep was a very special political place, because of what it said about anyone allowed to get inside it.

As the Middle Ages wore on, sieges grew increasingly popular, and castles became obsolete as a result of two primary practices: cannons and slash-and-burn tactics. As important as cannons were for wearing down a castle’s defenses, destroying all the surrounding property was arguably the larger problem. It does little good to lock oneself in a castle only to watch the destruction of your long-term food supply. Thus, castles became superfluous.

Implications for role-playing games:

  • If running a castle siege story line, why aren’t the besiegers destroying the surrounding countryside? What do the besiegers want out of that countryside?
  • How much food is in the castle’s stores? Many castles would keep months’ worth of food, but many others had only a few weeks’ worth. What happens when the besieged run out of food?
  • What if the castle is in the middle of conversion to stone, or partly built? How easy is it to defend? Might the castle need human protectors for its weak spots?
  • Where does the noble hold court? Where does he live and sleep? Where does he keep his valuables?

What questions would you add to this list?

Categories: Uncategorized | 1 Comment

D&D 4E Forces More Interesting Stories

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Brent
"Death Face Vector Image" by Vectorportal on Flickr

"Death Face Vector Image" by Vectorportal on Flickr

D&D 4th Edition makes death rare. A player-character can be knocked unconscious, and one can be dying, but actual character death is generally uncommon.

Character death is a big driving force for players, and provides the primary dramatic tension. Death is always scary. For a long time, the possible death of your character (usually via poor Hit Point rolls and good monster Hit Dice rolls) created a lot of the tension in D&D–will the next monster murder my character? Will this boss crush her?

Now that 4E makes death rare, combat is less of a risk than before, and death is no longer a driving force. That means that DMs must now make the overall story more interesting.

The story itself must be dramatically interesting now. DMs can’t rely on possible death for drama.

I wonder if 4E’s designers intended this, or if it was a lucky result of incorporating player feedback that random character death in the middle of a dungeon isn’t fun.

Just thinking.

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Playing D&D 4E on IRC

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Brent
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(I\’m really unhappy with the way this blog post turned out. But I can\’t think of a better way to write it, and I\’d rather have it released than sitting in my drafts folder for months. So, here you are.)

Last night, as I waited on yet another piece of software, I looked in on the Four Winds Tavern, a freeform IRC channel gamefiend of At Will runs on his 4eAtWill.net IRC server. Folks were conversing, and I asked if they\’d be interested in my running a quick story. They agreed.

We proceeded to play D&D 4E for an hour in an IRC chatroom.

I\’m fully aware that this should be insane. This is about as far from the ideal as you can get. And I learned a few things:

The biggest advantage came from the players, who focused on role-playing as opposed to making rolls. We rolled almost no dice until just before combat. So the story just flowed.

Time for the evergreen refrain: combat took longer than I would have liked. That said, since there were only 2 PCs, it moved quickly enough that it never felt boring. Fortunately, too, the other players had to leave after the second round.

In the future, I plan to halve any enemy\’s HP and increase damage by 50%. Combat just needs to move quickly.

Once combat began, the channel filled with mostly OOC chatter. gamefiend later suggested that we open a channel purely for combat OOC discussion. This would work far better, judging from how well that worked on my Google Wave games. There\’s just that much rolling in a 4E game.

The grid posed no problems; we just described where players were relative to each other, using squares mostly to calculate distance. Precise positioning will certainly be more difficult to model over IRC, but I trust that players and DMs can be as fine-grained as necessary.

Overall, I was very happy with the time we spent. I had fun, and the players wanted to play again. Success.

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