Kickstarter question

[Derek Hiemforth]

I get that some people only want a PDF, or don't want a PDF at all, or prefer one type of book to another, or whatever. And that's cool; there's nothing wrong with having preferences. But unfortunately, even in today's highly digitized world, where we're often presented with a myriad of options, not everything can be so "customizable." As a small (one might even say ultra-tiny ) producer in a very specific ecological niche in a marginal hobby industry, I can really only go so far down the route of "options." I think, in the end, it's best if I pick a goal and stick closely to it.

Understood. I wasn't really talking about offering multiple options per se (though I know it reads like that). I'm certainly not suggesting (in my example) that the book be produced in both softcover and hardcover. I'm really aiming more at trying to gauge the best option.

For example, imagine you're having ten people over for a dinner party, and you ask each person what entree they'd prefer (beef, chicken, or pork). Six choose chicken, and four choose beef, so you make chicken. But... let's say that -- if you had given them the ability to rank the choices 1-3 -- then the ones who ranked chicken first would have ranked beef last, the ones who ranked beef first would have ranked chicken last, and everyone would have listed pork as their second choice. With that additional info, it seems fairly clear that the best choice to make would be pork, because it's acceptable to everyone, and isn't anyone's last choice.

I'm just trying to think if there's a way (though of course it would need to be a clear way) to capture that kind of info. Not just the pass/fail of whether or not they want a specific thing, but trying to gauge what the best option overall would be.

[Kaze9999]

I know that when the initial goal for Book of the Empress was met, a secondary goal was set. Is it possible to set up a "tiered" goal like that from the beginning, where differing levels of success actually affect how the product is done? For example, would it be possible to set up something like this (numbers just for sake of illustration):

$5000	If this is the highest goal level reached, the product will be written and given basic layout, but with no artwork, and published in PDF only.
$7500	If this is the highest goal level reached, the product will be written and given full layout (including B&W artwork), but published in PDF only.
$10,000	If this is the highest goal level reached, the product will be written and given full layout (including B&W artwork), and published as a softcover B&W book.
$20,000	If this is the highest goal level reached, the product will be written and given full layout (including color artwork), and published as a softcover color book.
$30,000	If this is the highest goal level reached, the product will be written and given full layout (including color artwork), and published as a hardcover color book.

If something like this is possible, would you be interested in approaching a product that way? (For Hero Games, or any licensed publishers who might want to chime in, "interest" in this context would be interest in doing such a Kickstarter; for customers, "interest" would be interest in supporting such a Kickstarter.)

I think the only way to do this would be with a different KickStarter project for each different goal...

[Steve Long]

For example, imagine you're having ten people over for a dinner party, and you ask each person what entree they'd prefer (beef, chicken, or pork). Six choose chicken, and four choose beef, so you make chicken. But... let's say that -- if you had given them the ability to rank the choices 1-3 -- then the ones who ranked chicken first would have ranked beef last, the ones who ranked beef first would have ranked chicken last, and everyone would have listed pork as their second choice. With that additional info, it seems fairly clear that the best choice to make would be pork, because it's acceptable to everyone, and isn't anyone's last choice.

I'm just trying to think if there's a way (though of course it would need to be a clear way) to capture that kind of info. Not just the pass/fail of whether or not they want a specific thing, but trying to gauge what the best option overall would be.

That actually sounds a little like how we ended up choosing black-and-green for the cover of 5E.

[Ndreare]

really i liked the Black & Green what were the other colors you considered.

[Steve Long]

We started out with a whole bunch, each having its own nickname: besides "Green Lantern" (the black and green), we had Indiana (white on red), Colts (white on blue), Steelers (gold on black), Booster Gold (a gold on blue vaguely similar to 6E, but darker shades), and a few others. (As a joke on Darren, Andy even did a cover in Yankee pinstripes. )

Andy's and my first choice was Steelers, but Darren felt it looked too much like a radiation warning symbol. I forget what Darren's first choice was. But all of our second choices were Green Lantern... so that's what we went with.

[Ndreare]

Cool new Hero trivia.

One option woild be to change the logo to meet the setting. For example turakian age 6th ed could look like stone and plants background, cyber hero look like computer ciruitry , STORMLords could be made in greys and blacks. It would be a hint of the flavor the player is to expect.

[Steve Long]

One option woild be to change the logo to meet the setting. For example turakian age 6th ed could look like stone and plants background, cyber hero look like computer ciruitry , STORMLords could be made in greys and blacks. It would be a hint of the flavor the player is to expect.

In a sense we did that with 6E. In Champions books the colors are red and gold, and the logo on the front a deeper, richer yellow-ish than on 6E. For FH the colors are green and gold. For SH, blue and white. Maybe if Cyber Hero ever gets done we'll try that circuitry thing you mentioned; that's occurred to me before as well.