#Third party Creators using DTRPG

54 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

limber pier
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Hey all, DRS here(Publisher of Field Guide: Liminal Space). I'm currently working with DTRPG to try and get a dedicated tag for LANCER content, however, DTRPG has decently strict rules for what systems get to have their own tag(vs having "other system")

The basics are that there need to be multiple publishers putting out content for a system and that system needs to be doing respectable numbers. Only catch is that since LANCER products aren't actually tagged as LANCER projects it's not immediately apparent whether or not LANCER meets the requirements on their site.

So I'm currently attempting to curate any and all LANCER content published on DrivethruRPG.com. Once I have a decent list put together I'm gonna send it to my Publisher Service Representative and hopefully get LANCER its own dedicated tag.

So if you're a 3PP LANCER publisher that publishes on DTRPG, or know someone who is, feel free to DM me or post in this thread, preferably with a link to the store pages of any of your products(on DTRPG).

Thank y'all for your time!

tranquil girder
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I will take a moment to say for prospective 3rd party publishers that it is 100% possible to put Lancer stuff up for sale on multiple sites, and expands your reach to new users and customers. Obviously check what the rules and policies are for each site, but in my opinion, it’s definitely worth looking into if you’ve currently published to itch.io and nowhere else.

tranquil girder
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I will also note that @noble kindle has also published Sleeping Above a Stolen Crown on DriveThruRPG (https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/397019/Sleeping-Above-A-Stolen-Crown)

@high belfry has published Lancer topdown tokens on DriveThru too: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/19665/DirePengin

Sleeping Above A Stolen Crown - Laurie O'Connel Games | DriveThruRP...

Stolen Crown is a three part adventure for Lancer RPG set on the frozen wastes of the planet Sparr. Set in the far fut

DriveThruRPG.com - DirePengin - The Largest RPG Download Store!

Your one-stop online shop for new and vintage RPG products from the top publishers, delivered fresh to your desktop in electronic format.

opaque furnace
tranquil girder
noble kindle
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Hey! I do have stolen crown out on DTR0G but it does very low numbers compared to itch.io

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That's because it's a) priced differently as dtrpg takes such a big cut (this is actively breaking dtrpg rules but I have to do it) and b) because I don't push it at all for the above reason (I'm thinking about moving off dtrpg altogether because of their terrible terms and conditions) and c) probably because there's no lancer tag!

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I should have another lancer title coming in the new year

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A Lancer tag might even encourage me to publish it on dtr!

opaque furnace
noble kindle
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I've sold 20 copies of stolen crown on DTR. Over 250 on itch.

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It's a pretty big difference!

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That is not including community copies, copies of death on the glacier, and physical copies

tranquil girder
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Since Lancer’s core book lives on Itch, it’s easier for similarly-named and tagged projects to be discovered along with it

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I know most of my marketing has been on itch, but DTRPG has done a few sales for me too

limber pier
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I personally feel that a large reason for the difficulty of selling LANCER stuff on DTRPG comes fromt he lack fo a dedicated LANCER tag

limber pier
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Email sent

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We should get it, since we have quite a few titles listed and Liminal Space has practically met the average monthly gross needed for it on its own.

static palm
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I’m happy to see this happening, great job taking the initiative to get everything moving, DRS, and thank you to everyone who’s published on DTRPG to help get content ready.
Thanks to Valk for compiling everything. It is very cool to watch this take place.

tranquil girder
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Wanted to put the following Lancer-adjacent products by Ashen Victor here in case we need to shore up our claim:

These aren't solely intended for Lancer, but Lancer is mentioned in their marketing blurb. They may help round out a title count, at the very least.

opaque furnace
tranquil girder
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Worst case, they’ll tell us “make more stuff” and then we just encourage people to publish to DTRPG alongside itch.io and wait lol

vagrant sierra
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As someone who hasn't published anything at the moment, is the extra exposure of DTRPG worth the cut they take?

tranquil girder
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I’ll let someone better versed answer definitively, but I do know they have different promotion options for raising visibility on your content. That and imo their search is better than itch.io’s

vagrant sierra
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True, I expect a casual buyer is more likely to look for Lancer modules on DTRPG than Itch, maybe?

tranquil girder
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I think the bias would be towards itch.io since that’s where the core book lives, so you’re more likely to run into “more like Lancer” there. However, again I don’t think itch.io’s search is super great

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In my opinion, if you were just flat out browsing, DTRPG is probably going to help you the most. If you know what you’re looking for, itch.io does its job of having a webpage just standing up

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Example: I found that list of Lancer stuff on DTRPG by searching “lancer” in their search bar and then combing through the pages. When I do that on itch, I only get the top results. And when I tried to use itch’s tag search, I couldnt get the “lancer” tag to search using the UI; I needed to fiddle with the URL

cedar pumice
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Basically, DTRPG is, as Valk notes, better for flat out browsing and getting window shoppers to glance at your game

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but the cut is strictly much, much worse when going by DTRPG, while itch is vastly better on that end for creators

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the optimal approach is to completely ignore DTRPG's exclusivity agreement (which gives you a paltry extra 5% if you agree to it, it's a complete ripoff) and just post your stuff on both DTRPG and itch unless you're ideologically opposed to selling via DTRPG

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and then when you post links to where people can find your stuff, link to itch first, tell your friends to buy from there if possible, etc

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Itch is a pretty decent platform but they've really dragged their feet on a lot of basic quality of life features that would turn them into a great platform. Last time I checked, there's still no way on itch for project payments to be split between multiple creators, for example...payment has to go to one person, who is then responsible for giving co-creators their share, while that functionality exists via DTRPG (which is why I periodically make beer money for the half dozen shitty lists of 100 Random Things To Put In D&D Games I gave someone else to publish)

molten coral
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I've been interested in publishing my stuff through DTRPG but think I should wait for the second draft to be done. Should I post my Players Guide there to boost Lancer's numbers, or should I wait?

cedar pumice
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tbh I have no idea what sort of numbers game is actually needed to juice things in the "getting your own custom tag" direction

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I wouldn't publish something there JUST for that imo

molten coral
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Alright!

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It wouldn't be just for that, but I'll wait for second draft

tranquil girder
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But also, if you plan to do so, create a publisher account early so you don’t have to wait for them to approve your account for very long EDIT: before posting a publication

limber pier
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Sorry, haven't been able to post updates on this because of a death in the family

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either they weren't able to find every title on DTRPG for lancer, or we just straight up didn't make the cut

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Limspace has on average hit the threshold every month, but that's based on averages, so we didn't make it in October

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however, we may very well make it in January and that should hopefully put it over the threshold

molten coral
celest plaza
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One thing I discovered recently is if you're outside the US you have to pay a US tax if selling through itch.io, and it's a significant percentage. You can apply for a reduction if your country has a trade agreement like mine, but when I tried it was rejected for an unknown reason and support was unhelpful, so it really put me off.

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So Drive Thru might be a better option for non US tax residents, though you might have to do the same thing, haven't tried haha

opaque furnace
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So after having two different .lcp files approved on DTR, I just got a support email saying I can't upload a third because they're " in a file type our customers will have issues with". Anyone else had any difficulty with DTR support over this?

celest plaza
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short term solution, could try put it in a zip file lol

tranquil girder
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iirc that was what LimSpace did