That's How We Roll

This episode is part 2 of the seminar at Metatopia featuring Fred Hicks and Brennan Taylor discussing Kickstarter from the perspective of someone running a campaign. Show Notes Brennan Taylor Galileo Games Fred Hicks Evil Hat Productions

This episode is a seminar at Metatopia featuring Fred Hicks and Brennan Taylor discussing Kickstarter from the perspective of someone running a campaign. Show Notes Brennan Taylor Galileo Games Fred Hicks Evil Hat Productions

This is a recording from Metatopia that features most of the Evil Hat folks talking about Evil Hat and how it works. Show Notes Coming soon...

In this episode Fred and Chris, discuss Evil Hat's new Kickstarter for their card game Race to Adventure. They discuss what decisions they made well, which decisions could use improvement, and which decisions are basically a wash.  Show Notes: The Race to Adventure Kickstarter The Race to Adventure Tutorial Video Race to Adventure on Board Game Geek Race to Adventure Website Dinocalypse

This episode Fred talks with Rob Heinsoo, and Jonathan Tweet about the structure of Fire Opal Media, and their work on the upcoming 13th Age roleplaying game.  Show Notes: Evil Hat Dinocaplyse Race to Adventure Pelgrane Press Fire Opal Media's Facebook Page Fire Opal Media's, Blog, Twitter, Google Plus. Rob Heinsoo's Twitter, and Google Plus. Jonathan Tweet's Twitter, and Google Plus.

This week Fred is joined by none other than Steve Jackson (@SJGames), and Phillip Reed (@PhillipJReed) to talk about what SJG has been learning from the OGRE kickstarter.  Show Notes Dinocalypse Car Wars Don't Read This Book

In this episode, Chris and Fred are joined by Evil Hat co-founder Rob Donoghue to talk about PAX: East, Kickstarter, and Race to Adventure. This one's all over the map! 

This episode we have a scoop! Fred and Chris are joined by Phil Reed (@phillipjreed) and Andrew Hackard (@RedPenOfDoom) from Steve Jackson Games to talk about business at a big scale, and SJG's plans to launch the new, gigantic edition of Ogre via Kickstarter.

In this episode Fred and Chris talk with Chuck Wendig. They discuss the upcoming Dinocalypse Kickstarter, and Don't Read This Book, the upcoming Don't Rest Your Head anthology. Along the way they discuss the challenges of working on writing fiction that springs from an RPG, their collabration process, and more. Show Notes Chuck Wendig Dinocalypse Dinocalypse Kickstarter Don't Read This Book Evil Hat Deadly Fredly End Game

In this episode Fred and Chris examine Brand Maturity by talking about how Evil Hat has moved from two guys with a free hack of another free game to a company making board games, card games, RPGs, and fiction. Show Notes To come....

In this episode, Fred and Chris discuss; Metatopia, what's interesting about Metatopia as a convention, the area the podcast is focused on, and trying to nail down a definition for what the Hobby Industry is exactly. Show Notes Peter Adkison Shannon Appelcline - Designers and Dragons Metatopia (Rob's take on Metatopia) Divine Cow Double Exposure (Dreamation, Dex Con, Metatopia) Vincent (Vinny) Salzillo Metatopia has innovative pricing. $20 for playtesters, $50 for designers. Darren Watts Indie Press Revolution (I.P.R.) Ken Hite Jennisodes (Recording of Ken Hite's design seminar.) Kickstarter Bulletpoints from Metatopia Joshua A.C. Newman Shock Elevator Pitching Basics Elevator Pitching Advanced (Pitch why you do, how you do, then what you do.) Deadly Fredly: Foot in the Door (Article about how to enter the hobby industry.) Don't Rest your Head Transparency (Fantasy) Heartbreakers

It's this episode Chris and Fred talk to Peter Adkison about his time as the C.E.O. of Wizards of the Coast, which includes the time that period when WotC purchased TSR and acquired Dungeons and Dragons, among other things. This is a bit of a follow up on the last episode. It's very interesting and contains info I've never heard before. Show notes will be crazy. Show Notes Words in quotation are direct quotation. Word's not in quotation are my notes, to fill in or expand the quote. Peter's credentials 1. Founder of Wizards of the Coast 1990 C.E.O. until 2001. (Peter says 2011 by accident, he meant 2001.) During that time WotC; launched Magic: The Gathering, bought T.S.R., on day 2 after purchasing T.S.R. began developing 3rd Edition dungeons and Dragons, created the Open Gaming License and the D20 License, and was bought by Hasbro. He was not involved in 3.5 or 4E D&D. 2. Bought Gen Con in 2002. C.E.O. of Gen Con L.T.D. until present (Present equals Nov 2011, I can't predict the future.) 3. Cofounder of

You thought it was podfaded? Season 3 Episode 01 is here to convince you otherwise. That's How We Roll is back with a vengeance. In this Episode Fred and Chris discuss what lead to the long hiatus, how they're planning to get back on track, and what they've been up to. They then dig into the main topic which is a discussion of Wizards of the Coast marketing, and brand strategy, for Dungeons and Dragons. Show Notes  Race to Adventure  Lisa Stevens claims Pathfinder has surpassed D+D D+D Essentials  DDI  Bill Slavicsek  Pathfinder prepainted minis, aka Pathfinder Battles.  Monte Cook  Fred's interview on the Jennisodes.  D+D's board games  Fantasy Flight Games  Gamma World  Star Frontiers  Top Secret  Ravenloft  Birthright  Brand Strategy  Open Gaming License  2011 Ennie Awards  Fate  Dresden Files RPG  Diana Jones Awards  D+D Experience  Chris mentions D+D worth $25 million? Best I could do was this fact. WotC acquired TSR and Five Rings Publishing Group for $25 million on April 10, 1997.  Brand Confusion  D+

Chris visits Fred in Maryland. We talk about Jeni's Ice Creams, The Dresden Files RPG, distribution, The Leverage RPG, Happy Birthday Robot, and the role confidence plays in marketing your games.

[1h 2m 5s] Fred and Chris catch up on the last three months, including the impending release of the Dresden Files RPG at Origins 2010 and Chris's impotent rage about not getting to order Jeni's Ice Creams for delivery. Then on to talk about how they won't be picking up on last episode's cliffhanger and instead focusing talking about VSCA's approach to publishing with Diaspora (the good and the bad) and Games Workshop's surprising attitude towards its fans.

Fred and Chris talk about:- Is it worth the effort to sell RPGs, as a retailer?- Not Attending GenCon - The Ennies Results- Dominion and the Diana Jones Award- Should NDAs exist?- Disclosure vs. SurpriseComments welcome!

In this abruptly shortened episode, Fred and Chris talk about Transparency.  There would have been another half hour of material here, but unfortunately the recording software on each end of the call screwed up (differently), making the rest of the episode hard to listen to.  We'll be publishing some "deleted scenes" elsewhere, away from the podcast's main feed, for those made of tough enough stuff to listen to our mangled blatherings.Sadly, this means you missed out on our cliffhanger for the next episode, so we'll give it to you here: Fred asks Chris the question, "Are RPGs worth it, for a gaming retail store?"

Fred and Chris talk about Origins, the Origins Awards, and the Ennies. (Also, Battletech, and other typical ramblings.)EDIT: We missed some "this needs editing" bits towards the end there, sorry! We've uploaded a new version of the show, so if you heard the "bad" one, you can pull down the revised copy now-ish.[Show notes pending volunteer effort!]

Now featuring much, much improved audio. If you hated the audio in episode 1, don't worry -- it's all better now.0:oo - 1:30 Chris and Fred giving some intro thoughts 1:30 - 2:50 Fred talks some about layout for Hero 6th edition 2:50 - 9:00 Fred talks about the birth of his child 9:00 - 15:00 Chris and Fred get a bit meta 16:30 - 1:10:00 The talk turns to communication with the gaming community Fred's early history in customer service Chris' orginization of the Endgame Mini-cons The three D's of building community Game evangelists How to disseminate information How community impacts sales for retailers and game companies Ways lack of communication has hurt game companies A small bit of DFRPG talk The use of forums in building community The power of responding positively to negative reviews Mind control through synergy Mean what you are saying to your community Compartmentalize the negative and accentuate the positive 1:10:00 Another cliffhanger for this week - "Transparency" Follow Chris and

PLEASE NOTE: The audio on this episode is CRAP.  Don't judge the podcast by the audio quality here. It improves significantly with episode 2.[1hr 6min] Season 2 kicks off with a "digital delve" into the topic of D&D Insider, PDFs, conventions, and some retail store community basics.  Our sound on this was a little wonky -- a combination of Skype and the tendency of Fred's laptop fan to randomly scream at "heavy whirr" levels in the background.All timestamps very approximate.1 min - Fred and Chris talk about WOTC's decision to take their PDFs off the market.7 min - Fred talks about the Evil Hat PDF philosophy13 min - Fred finally gets to the Evil Hat PDF Guarantee18 min - Catalyst games is trying to get PDFs and retailers working together too19 min - A bad economy is an opportunity. It's time to innovate.20 min - Loop back around to D&D again: how has D&D Insider (DDI) affected the picture?31 min - Wrap-up on the PDF/DDI topic. Send us your thoughts!32 min - Chris is going to Origins, but Fred isn'