[UA] Bizarre text distribution model

[S. Ben Melhuish]

What about some scheme where you release parts of the game as you reach 
certain sub-goals?  If you know enough about the game in advance, you 
can even announce those parts in advance:

$1000 --- basic setting information, and a nice picture or two
+$1000 -- basic rules & chargen, and some more art
+$1000 -- advanced/optional rules & chargen, and more art
+$1000 -- top-secret setting information, and a nice full-color cover

... or whatever.

This way, people get what's paid for, you don't do (much) work you don't 
get paid for, and you get a predictable income stream and instant 
feedback on your material ("damn, I gots me a winner here", or the 
less-desirable but still-good-to-know "well, I guess that sucked, glad I 
didn't finish it").  Also, completed work serves as advertising for 
unfinished work.

One trick would be dividing the game into releasable sub-units, and 
predicting how big they'll be (i.e. how much they'll cost) -- but you've 
done this enough before that you'll probably have some good guesses. 
You'd probably also have to re-release older parts, assuming things 
change as you keep writing.

Another downside would be the (inevitable) horde of people waiting to 
see whether they'll like what you've done before they pony up.  But I'll 
hazard a guess that you've got enough of a fanbase that you'll at least 
be able to meet your first goal (or, more to the point, you can set your 
first sub-goal to be reachable only with your existing fanbase paying), 
which should be enough to get the process self-sustaining.

Big (whatever that means) contributors can get their names in the front 
of the published parts, a la what Issaries does with their patrons in 
their HeroQuest books.

-- Sben

-- 
Means and Ends, a Nobilis series
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