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SEP’s Worst Kept Secret: Centurion

TLDR: Centurion will likely go to crowdfunding in March 2013. I would be interested in hearing thoughts on stretch goals and supporter reward levels.

Full Kit
Centurion: Legionaries of Rome is not exactly a secret. I’ve been blabbing about it in a lot of places for a while now. I’ve also mentioned it here, in connection with possible crowdfunding projects. Right now, it looks like I’m going to move forward with Centurion, and the other possible projects can wait.

I have made some decisions regarding Centurion, but others are dependent on what I learn during my research phase. Here’s what I’m fairly certain of:

1. I know what will be in the book.
Along with the actual rules, I will review five historical periods in which one could enjoy a legionary-style campaign: the Late Republic (from the Punic Wars to Marius), the Civil Wars (the time of Caesar), the Principate (early Empire), the Crisis of the Third Century (many, many civil wars), and the Dominate (late Empire). For each of these historical eras, I’ll include information on the structure of government and the structure of the legions, as well as some general historical information to help situate those who may not have a grounding in Roman history.

There will also be an introductory chapter on military-style RPGing, basically looking at some of the reasons people say they don’t want to play in military games, and how to address those problems.

The book should be roughly 45,000 words, which will likely translate into just over 100 pages in the 6X9 format – the format I used for Sword Noir and Kiss My Axe. Basically, the book should be about the same size as Sword Noir.

2. I know who I want to do the art.
If you own Kiss My Axe, you’ve seen the work of Kieron O’Gorman, who did all the portraits in that book. I’ve spoken with Kieron about doing art for Centurion if the crowdfunding is successful, and he’s agreed to do so.

You can see Kieron’s stuff here.

3. I have some stretch goals mapped out.
I already have two writers/designers whom I respect and whose work I admire on board should this go forward, they’ve agreed to write a few pages of extra material. I will need to negotiate with them exactly how much, but I’m thinking around 2,000 words. I will also include a stretch goal of writing about adapting the mechanics to other eras and genres. That would likely clock in at around 4,000 words, so if those three goals are met, the book increases from 45,000 words to around 53,000, which also means almost 20 more pages.

I’m looking at some other stretch goals, such as maps and more illustrations, but I honestly think that for now – at least until the crowdfunding campaign gets going and I have an idea of it will be successful – the three stretch goals are sufficient.

The stretch goal extras will only be available to crowdfunding supporters for a full year after the initial release of Centurion. So let’s be really optimistic and pretend this gets funded, and all three stretch goals are met. When Centurion hits the shelves, none of those articles will be included in the book, only in the PDFs and/or books crowdfunding supporters receive. Then, if Centurion is still selling a year after its release, I might offer a special book or PDF including the extra material. Likely, it will never be seen.

4. I have some reward levels figured out.
Now, this is going to be odd, as most crowdfunding campaigns throw in a lot of associated rewards outside of the game itself. I’m not going to do that. Also, the sticker price for the resulting Centurion product will not be cheaper than what crowdfunding supporters paid. This means Centurion will almost certainly be the most expensive product in the SEP catalogue if the crowdfunding campaign is successful.

Here’s what I’m looking at right now.
$ 3 – Raw Recruit. Rules PDF – A PDF of just the rules, none of the historical discussion.
$ 5 – Marius’ Mule. Historical PDF – A PDF of just the historical discussion, none of the rules.
$ 7 – Legionary. The Centurion PDF, including any stretch goal additions
$ 12 – Principale. The Centurion PDF and a PDF of my sword & sandal story “Singer of a Strange Song.”
$ 17 – Principale Noir. The Centurion PDF and a PDF of my sword & sandal story “Singer of a Strange Song” and my sandal noir story published in Black Gate, “A Dead Pound of Flesh”
$ 20 – Centurion. The Centurion print and PDF
$ 25 –Pilus Prior. The Centurion print and PDF and a PDF of my sword & sandal story “Singer of a Strange Song.”
$ 30 –Pilus Prior Noir. The Centurion print and PDF and a PDF of my sword & sandal story “Singer of a Strange Song” and my sandal noir story published in Black Gate, “A Dead Pound of Flesh”
$ 40 – Primus Pilus. Everything for Pilus Prior plus the opportunity to name one of the example characters used throughout Centurion. (maximum of 5)
$ 50 – Praefectus Cohortis. Everything for Primus Pilus plus the opportunity to create one of the iconic characters that will be included in Centurion as an NPC. (maximum of 5)
$ 65 – Tribuni Militum. Everything for Pilus Prior plus access to a podcast about Centurion. This will include the existing Collateral episodes on Legionary campaigns, plus at least five further podcasts about the historical eras and playing in them.
$100 – Praefectus Castrorum. Everything at the Tribuni Militum level, plus the opportunity to be a guest on one of the Centurion podcasts. (requires the use of Skype) (maximum of 10)
$150 – Tribunus Laticlavius. Everything at the Tribuni Militum level, plus the opportunity to participate in a Centurion one-shot run by Fraser Ronald at Gen Con 2013 in Indianapolis. (maximum of 8 )
$200 – Legatus Legionis. Everything at the Tribunus Laticlavius level, plus the opportunity to be a guest on one of the Centurion podcasts. (requires the use of Skype) (maximum of 5)

The goal, right now, is $3500. Each stretch will be an extra $1000. I would need 175 backers at the Centurion level to fund and 500 at the Legionary backer to do the same. Daunting task.

5. The rules will be released no matter what.
This is a way to include good art and a restricted print run for the full book. However, if this doesn’t fund, the work that I completed will be released. The rules themselves will see release. Each historical era section will be released independently as well. I’m not clear on exactly how I would go about doing so, but I do know that other than paying for the cover (which is already done) the releases would have little art, and that would be public domain artwork. I would do the layout, and it would be very, very simple.

So maybe that demotivates some people from supporting this, but the book you would get by funding this would be way better than the book you could get otherwise. Also? It’ll be a lot cheaper in the long run if you want it all (rules and historical eras). If it doesn’t get funded, it is likely I would only release products for the Late Republic, the Civil Wars, and the Principate, as the research and outline are completed for those sections.

6. The crowdfunding starts no earlier than March 2013
I want to have the rules in as good a shape as possible, and have at least three of the historical periods written and the others researched and outlined before this goes up for crowdfunding. The plan is to crowdfund in March 2013 and, if the campaign is successful, have the book to printers by July 2013 so that I can have copies before Gen Con in early August 2013. That’s a pretty tight schedule, which is why I want as much of my work done before the campaign done as possible.

There’s still the chance things will be late. But I want something to show the supporters if the campaign is successful, and I hope that if people play to have a game with me at Gen Con, I can hand them their books at the start of the game.

I’ll keep everyone posted here as things move forward. Guaranteed, the posts will be shorter than this one.

I’d be very interested in hearing opinions about reward levels and stretch goals, as in what you would like to see or would be interested in paying for.

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Centurion: By The Numbers

No, the silence hasn’t really been broken. You can pretty much expect the SEP website will consist of monthly sales numbers for some time yet. For those of you still hanging around, maybe with the site in an RSS feed reader or something, I thought I’d continue on with my crowd-sourcing thoughts, as promised.

Centurion, Legionaries of Rome is an RPG for playing legionaries in historical Rome, from the tail-end of the Republic to the Fall of the Empire. The system has been playtested, but is on hold right now (I’ve promised my home group 10 sessions without playtesting) and will require further development.

Were this to go to crowd-sourcing, the amount I’ve set is $8,000. That’s really steep. Here’s how it breaks down.

The entire project is planned at 45,000 words. That’s about 100 pages, possibly bigger with art. At 5 cents per word, that’s $2,250. Copy-editing would cost another 450 and rules editing another 100. The estimates for editing are low, but with these numbers that’s a text budget of $2,800.

For art, I’m looking at 6 quarter pages for $60 each, 3 half pages for $110 each, 1 full page for $225, 1 cover for $225 and 3 full page maps for $250. That’s an art budget of $1,895.

I’m throwing in a very low project management cost of $200 and a graphic and cover design cost of $400.

For the creation of the book itself, that’s a budget of $5,295

Now I could remove the art costs and just use public domain art. That’d actually be pretty time consuming, though it is tempting, as I was totally screwed on art for Kiss My Axe and was saved by a couple of artists who were able to pull together some stuff quickly. I could cut out editing, which increases the chance of people getting an inferior product. If I did all that, I’d still end up with $2,850. More manageable, but if I’m going to crowdfund something, I should do it right.

And creating the book is only part of the process. I’m going to need print copies. A very rough estimate of a softcover print run of 250, including shipping and handling, is around $3,350

Wait, we’re already over $8,000.

Yes. I know. It gets worse.

I intended to have hardcovers available as well. A print run of 50 hardcovers, including shipping and handling, would be around $2,200.

Printing costs are therefore around $5550.

That leaves a project total of $10,845.

Now, where did I get $8,000 from? That would be the cost minus the writing ($2,250). The math is still off, but I rounded down. And that doesn’t even count the Indiegogo fees, which would be just under 10%.

All told, it looks like the only way Centurion has any hope of a crowdfunding launch would be to use public domain art, not pay myself for my work, and don’t do a hardcover print run. If I do that, total costs would be around $4,500. Add the Indiegogo fee for around $5,000.

I really don’t like the idea of not paying me and not paying artists, but there’s no way my project could get off the ground at $10,000. It has more hope at $8,000, but I think $5,000 might just be doable. Maybe.

Then again, I have more research to do. What about doing the books as print on demand? What if I aim for $5,000, get real art, and PoD direct to the backer for books? It’s a thought, but like I said, more research is necessary.

And if I want to include perks like t-shirts or custom dice? Then things get really complex and I have no idea.

Or someone can just give me $5,000, and I’ll do the damn thing and release it for free.

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Costing Out Success

Over on Sword’s Edge, I mentioned that I was eying crowd-funding as a way of addressing a couple of projects on which I am working. I gave some numbers in that post, but didn’t really offer how I came to those numbers. This does not relate to the perks, and

The shortest, cheapest project would be a modern, action short story tentatively titled “Boltcutter.” I put the amount needed for success at $500. The writing itself, at around 5 cents per word, would cost $350 (assuming around 7,000 words, which is a rather long piece of short fiction). For layout, I added 20% and rounded up, for $420. Then there are the fees required by the crowd-funding sources (almost certainly Indiegogo, unless Amazon Payments allows Kickstarter to begin embracing Canadian banks in the near future). I added on 10% for the various fees, which put the project at $462. Given that there will likely be unforeseen fees, I increased it to $500, a nice round figure.

The easiest to produce with a medium cost would be a new short story collection. This would include four new stories and one reprint (“A Dead Pound of Flesh,” published previously in Black Gate). I threw out $2,500 as a back of the envelope success point, but that might be too much. It depends on how I want to approach it. For the four new stories, I would want 5 cents per word, leading us to around $800 for those. The reprint, I would want 2.5 cents per word, for $125. Since I’m working with a budget, I’d hire an editor, which I’d like to pay 1 cent per word (not sure if that is a good rate or not) for $210. I’d like to commission a cover for it, so that’s $250. Then there is the layout, which is basic enough that I wouldn’t budget more than $250 for it. That totals $1,635.

Now, that’s just getting the book done. Since one of the perks is a print copy, I need to factor in print costs. I’d need around 250 to 300 backers to get this funded, and most of those I would expect would want a print copy if the perk is reasonable. A print run of 200 would likely cost me around $1,000 (based on previous print runs), and then there is the shipping and handling, which would likely cost me another $1,000, so it looks like my initial estimate was way wrong.

Including print costs, the total would be $3,635. Add in the website fees of 10% for $3,998.5 or $4,000.

That short story collection not looking so cheap now.

Next post, I’ll show you the math for Centurion: Legionaries of Rome RPG, which is even more developed than these, and which costs out at $8,000 including a print run of hardcovers or $6550 without hardcovers.

You can find my post on Sword’s Edge here.

You can find Indiegogo here.

You can find Black Gate here.