Pros and Cons of a Free to Distribute Rulebook

It's well documented that within the RPG community, Piracy is extraordinarily high. WotC's entire business model is based around selling extras - they pretty much expect to make nothing off the books. (They sell minis and have their monthly subscription service for this very reason). They used to offer their character builder as not requiring internet access, but piracy for it went through the roof, and now it's only available online.

The value of somebody "happening across Alliance" is almost nill. I challenge you to find a hard copy of the book in ANY store. Yes, it could be there, but it isn't. Even if you could find it, Alliance is popular because the chapters are widely available. I play Alliance because that's really my only option for LARP. Also, If I opened up the rulebook and started looking at it, I'd probably think it was an RPG poorly modeled after 2nd edition D&D and out-dated. A book is about as good at describing LARP as your buddy is at describing a movie to you.

As far as their being a higher perception of value if you charge for it? It's already a ~$50 fee each time you play. And you can still offer a hardcopy at lulu.com or any other print on demand store.

Also, one huge PRO
-With a free to distribute, free to revise Alliance rulebook, you could continually fix mistakes as they are found and add the ARC to the PDF. You could crowdsource the making of the book to the community. With as big as Alliance is with as many people wanting Dragonstamps as there are, somebody is a professional writer, a professional graphic designer (hey, my sister who plays is this!), etc.

I've been a community member at http://www.indie-rpgs.com and http://www.story-games.com for 7 years. I've read what works and what is a pipe dream. The hardest part of a pen and paper game is selling it for money to people. Here, that's not a problem.
 
I think there are 2 things going on with the book sales.

1) most new players DON'T buy a book before playing the game. Why commit to a $20 book when they already have to pay to play the game as it is... and what if they don't like the system? So they learn form other players, NPCing, or from their friends whoa re the ones bringing them into the game and are already well versed int he book rules.

2) after said new player becomes a regular, they find out the rule book is downloadable for a small fee in a searchable electronic format. If they want to buy one, they choose this option. Why? Because it's a lot more convenient. That is the burden of technology. People have changed how they make purchases. I know as a recording artist that my digital sales are just as important (if not more so) than my physical cd sales.

Me personally...I have always had physical nero and alliance rule books for as long as i have played (since 96/97)... but recently my cat puked on my current rule book ruining it. i haven't replaced it yet. I might not. I am leaning toward a downloadable one and copying the addendums so I have those on hand as well.

The biggest turn off of the physical book to me is how many "errors" it contains. 1/4 of the high magic section is wrong. plenty of rules have changed since then... from the addition of latex weapons, battleboards, arrow packets, I wouldn't buy the current physical rule book and give it to someone to get them to play.
 
Most of the games I play offer a PDF version as a download for free.

Why? Generally, most people have no use for a LARP rulebook unless they're playing that LARP. The rulebook is an advertisement in that form.

Now, it doesn't have to be the complete rules. I've always thought that a "Your first few levels" in detail with just the basic ideas of later stuff would be a good idea. It'd both be a good introduction and a way to focus new players on what they need to know when they come for their first few events. Newbies don't need to know exactly how to cast a Life, spell, only that it exists. (for example)
 
Talen said:
Newbies don't need to know exactly how to cast a Life, spell, only that it exists. (for example)
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They need to know how to react when one is cast on them, though.
 
elliotbay said:
Talen said:
Newbies don't need to know exactly how to cast a Life, spell, only that it exists. (for example)
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They need to know how to react when one is cast on them, though.
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Sure. But you don't have to sit there and tell them exactly what it does in every possible situation. Just that Life = get back up at 1 body.

You just need to let new players know how it interacts with them as a PC (and a monster marshal anything special as an NPC, if they're playing one.).
 
Talen said:
Sure. But you don't have to sit there and tell them exactly what it does in every possible situation. Just that Life = get back up at 1 body.
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Except when it's been 5 minutes already, or you've been created as undead, both of which can happen to a first-level character.

I have played in a system that had a 29-page "core" rulebook, and skills and abilities that weren't in there were secret until you found them out in-game. That system worked only because effects the player had to react to were fully defined in the rules they were given, and the system was designed to be that way.

Now, I'm not going to argue that all new players should read and understand the rulebook cover-to-cover, but unfortunately there isn't much in the "Effects" section that a player can do without, because you could potentially be affected by any of those things. We could make a smaller rulebook that only includes things a player needs to know if they don't have the skill, but we couldn't cut it down to a couple dozen pages, because our system wasn't designed with that in mind.
 
There's a section that talks about the good sportsmanship rule.

I seem to remember there's also something about letting players who are resolving things, do so, without getting up in their grill while they're doing so.

Why don't we just teach people to play nice and polite rather than worrying about stuffing a rulebook down everyone's heads in the first 5 minutes they ever come to a game?
 
I would argue that new players are least likely to be getting up in peoples' grills about resolving things.

Nevertheless, your point that a good attitude is more important than good knowledge of the rules is certainly true. In our newbie training, we always include a section like, "And don't be afraid to put your hand on your head and ask what something did. People are really nice about telling you what they just did to you."

Good attitude or no, though, I still need to know the rules to play the game. If I were given a book and told, "This is all you need to know to start playing", and then got hit with an effect I didn't know how to react to, I would be frustrated that I wasn't told all I needed to know. On the other hand, if I were told, "Here's a crash course in how to play, and you'll have to pick up the rest of the stuff as you go," I would be more understanding if I didn't know something. Then again, I feel the same way about dragon magic.


If we could significantly pare down the number of effects, though, I could see a smaller book going out and being useful. I just don't find the, "you don't actually need to know how to react when you're hit with x effect" argument to be compelling.
 
I do think most chapters give a crash course - especially for NPCs. As an NPC you're not getting hit with any plot effects (though you might be swinging/throwing them - in which case that's obviously explained in monster camp). You're pretty unlikely to get hit with anything that's going to heal you; you're pretty much on the receiving end of damage, various forms of binding and occasional gases. So crash course basically becomes this:

1. Good sportsmanship, roleplaying, and how npc's "win"
2. The Hold Rule
3. The major rules of combat (valid targets, swing arc, calling damage etc)
4. Spells and other packet-delivered effects (see below)
5. If you don't know - ask
6. How to die

We generally review the broad categories of packets- binding, evocation, gasses etc. Thankfully PC-made gases are mainly self explanatory: get hit with a nausea, you can't do anything but puke. Laugh? Paralysis? Relatively Easy.

They go out with encounter heads that can also help clarify things and coach them as they go. In between encounters the encounter heads/marshals review what happened and clear up any confusions.

And yes it's followed up with "if you're not sure what something does, just stick your hand on your head and ask." Seriously, I've never had a player be nasty to one of these new players because they asked what they got hit with. If a player gets annoyed at somebody who is trying to play fair and actually take effects, they probably need an attitude adjustment. Just be patient - they'll get with it soon enough.
 
the problem comes then is when monsters have defensives or aren't effected by an effect group. That's where things get complicated. I have given a crash course to mare than my share of pcs, but it is easier to keep track of them cause I look out for the people I teach. It's why I like being a new player marshal keeping a lookout for the new players. Thoug I think it may translate a bit too much ig for me. After an event it is easier to talk about effect groups and blown incants and the like...

I gave a friend of mine a life spell item once and as I lay there dying and realized he didn't know the incant. I had to call blown. It was a funny moment
 
elliotbay said:
I would argue that new players are least likely to be getting up in peoples' grills about resolving things.
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The "getting up in people's grills" commentary was specifically meant as "people who come up and hit you or the guy you are talking to while you're resolving an effect."

If you see two people talking who shouldn't be (read, an NPC and a PC, on a battle field) just leave them alone. Look for another target, or stand back and wait... the talk could be in game, but taking a moment to assess that is decidedly important. It's pretty poor sportsmanship to roll up on two players resolving stuff and start wailing on one of them before they're finished. You don't even know if the target you're wailing on might actually be dead (in which case you shouldn't be hitting them!)

I honestly think this is a bigger problem than teaching new people the rules. It's a lot easier to learn the rules of any system when people are playing fair (at least, on an OOG level.)
 
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