Considering writing a Winter War supplement for WaW

[Ben2]

I imagine I am not the only person considering putting finger to keyboard as WaW will be in some way an open source product.
Mongoose are doing it because the majority of these supplements will go on wargaming online, and they will get a 25% cut of the cover price, thus a) supporting their game and b) providing them with an income stream.

I am considering writing a winter war supplement, and thinking of putting it on wargames online and charging a fiver for it. Why would I charge a fiver? Because it would represent an investment of several hundred hours of labour, along with the purchase and painting of models to be photgraphed and go in it. I think all that effort would be worth a fiver.

But what would go in it?

Here is the provisional contents list:

Historical introduction and overview of the Winter War.
Scenarios for the Winter War.
Historical overview of the Continuation War and Lapland War.
Scenarios for the above.
Additional terrain rules.
Finnish army of the Winter War.
Soviet Army of the Winter War.
Finnish Army of the Continuation War.
Wargaming in 15mm.
Modelling and painting the Finnish army.
Modelling the terrain.
Designers notes.

I think it would come to about 48 pages.

Is this a supplement people would be interested in seeing?

More importantly, would anyone be willing to pay for it? I ask this before I start spending large amounts of time working on it.

Many thanks

Ben

 

[Anonymous]

$10 for only 48 pages is a bit steep price wise in my opinion.
But would still be interested in it at a cheaper price.

 

[tiepilot1138]

You should have a "maybe" option. I couldn't say unless I saw the content first (or at least a preview). $10 might be steep, but in general I don't pay for downloads. I prefer hard copies. I realize you'll incur expenses in creating an item of high quality, but saying you need to purchase and paint minis might be stretching it a bit. You'll be using the minis for personal use. I unfortunately found out that you can't expense things like that in a real business, but since it's not really a real business it might fly. We all need to subsidize our habit.

I guess what I'm trying to say is "maybe" :wink:

 

[DM]

I'm interested to see the results. I was thinking of doing the same but covering the war in Burma (XIV Army etc.).

 

[MongooseMatt]

I would suggest anyone taking a 'flutter'. Those 'first out of the gate' are likely to do very well.

It might be an idea doing a few smaller PDFs first to gauge interest, such as armoured vehicles we have not covered in the main rules, for example, or an Italian army list - something like that. Less work, you can get it done quicker, and it will let you know how well things are going before you embark on your Magnum Opus.

 

[Agis]

I am not interested in that conflict at all, but $ 10 seems very reasonable for me.

@DM: Burma will be covered in the 1st official supplement (Pacific War).
I am already working on Commonwealth and Chindit lists. :wink:

 

[Ben2]

On the cost front, bear in mind the weakness of the dollar. Five pounds used to be $8.50-9.00, but it is now 2 for 1 on exchange. Also in the UK you do not really get anything for less than five pounds. RPG modules etc are usually somewhere around that price for 32 pages. I'll look at the feasibility of it, but if I sink a couple of hundred hours into it it will be around that price. When I was writing supplements for AoG Showdowns 6 at 64 pages was $1000 dollars, and this was when it was worth quite a bit more.

I would of course provide a preview, as I don't believe in buying a pig in a poke, and wouldn't expect anyone else to.

One problem is we have no idea how popular WaW will be. On the one hand it is an excellent system, but on the other hand it is an unknown quantity in terms of popularity at the moment.

The other thing is we haven't seen the "open source" bit from Mongoose yet.

As for any money I make, it is both payment for time and costs incurred, and if I even turn a profit from it, I'll plough it into the next supplement.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I think you'll find £5/$10 is a decent price - after all, anyone can just give things away

 

[DM]

@DM: Burma will be covered in the 1st official supplement (Pacific War).

Ok, so who is going to coordinate the "official" supplements versus the private generated material? I can see there being a significant potential for nugatory work and upset people unless everyone has agood idea of what is planned

 

[tiepilot1138]

"nugatory"?

 

[Ben2]

He may well mean duplicated, he has just spelt it with some different letters. A lot of different letters.

 

[DM]

I thought it was apposite to the conversation

 

[Agis]

@DM: Burma will be covered in the 1st official supplement (Pacific War).

Ok, so who is going to coordinate the "official" supplements versus the private generated material? I can see there being a significant potential for nugatory work and upset people unless everyone has agood idea of what is planned

As far as I am concerned, nobody! Only the market will tell who is good... :wink:
Example: Let's say the official supplement is well researched and fits well into the former designs while an open content supplement about the same theatre, campaign is even better researched and just hits the nerve of all gamers, who will get more buys?

As far as any plans for official supplements are concerned, Matt and I talked about PacWar and the Desert war. He favoured the Pac War so we went there 1st.
And that is all we are working on at the moment.

 

[DM]

True, but if potential writers post here to let others know what they are working on it would be handy for letting others know what areas are worth covering first (you've already effectively told me there's no point in doing a WW2 desert or pacific supplement for example so I could (for instance) now decide to put my effort into a Balkans and East European book - which is probably a pretty good idea given the interesting forces in the Balkans, Rumania and Bulgaria so I'll probably give it a go). If I'd foud out after spending some time developing something for Burma it would have been wasted effort.

 

[tiepilot1138]

True, but if potential writers post here to let others know what they are working on it would be handy for letting others know what areas are worth covering first (you've already effectively told me there's no point in doing a WW2 desert or pacific supplement for example so I could (for instance) now decide to put my effort into a Balkans and East European book - which is probably a pretty good idea given the interesting forces in the Balkans, Rumania and Bulgaria so I'll probably give it a go). If I'd foud out after spending some time developing something for Burma it would have been wasted effort.

Unless yours was better...

 

[Agis]

True, but if potential writers post here to let others know what they are working on it would be handy for letting others know what areas are worth covering first (you've already effectively told me there's no point in doing a WW2 desert or pacific supplement for example so I could (for instance) now decide to put my effort into a Balkans and East European book - which is probably a pretty good idea given the interesting forces in the Balkans, Rumania and Bulgaria so I'll probably give it a go). If I'd foud out after spending some time developing something for Burma it would have been wasted effort.

Unless yours was better...

Amen... 8)

 

[Ben2]

It will reward those who get organised quickest. I you take eight months to write your desert war supplement and the other guy takes six, then you're stuffed.

Competition is only equal if they are released at the same time.

 

[Proteus454]

*heh* Too true. Many a time I've independently come up with a half-decent idea, only to find some lazy already-existing company's gone and snaked it, like, a year later.

Admittedly, I'd have more room to grouse if I wasn't so utterly bone-idle.

 

[127th Angry Angels]

It will reward those who get organised quickest. I you take eight months to write your desert war supplement and the other guy takes six, then you're stuffed.

Competition is only equal if they are released at the same time.

But is it the best business approach to have people effectively re-writing your official supplements? Could it do any harm?

I'm playing devil's advocate here. But if two books exist covering exactly the same material is that going to cause issues to new gamers? If you get the 'wrong' one will you want to fork out again for a slightly better version of it. Does the concept of there being a 'better' version do any harm?

I'll say right now, i know very little about open content but it does seem more complex then origionally thought. I think it's alot fairer for Mongoose to declare what's up for grabs and what's not.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I'm playing devil's advocate here. But if two books exist covering exactly the same material is that going to cause issues to new gamers? If you get the 'wrong' one will you want to fork out again for a slightly better version of it. Does the concept of there being a 'better' version do any harm?

Welcome to market forces - the 'better' edition, in theory, will sell more and become more widely known.