Big SNAFU on the HH CKG...

[Treebore]

I've also been thinking about this, and I think one "solution" is fairly obvious, slow down the production schedule to where quality is more of a guarantee, rather than a shot in the dark, or roll of the dice.

[Arduin]

I've also been thinking about this, and I think one "solution" is fairly obvious, slow down the production schedule to where quality is more of a guarantee, rather than a shot in the dark, or roll of the dice.

Agreed. I'd rather wait a month or so for higher quality product... Like with the KS PHB. If it isn't ready by June because of quality, I'll wait.

[gabriellyon]

I will third. I like TLG and Love the system, but I would rather have quality over quantity. When I run a game at this years Free RPG day, I would like to be able to recommend a polished product. I think this is the biggest stumbling block to me getting new players to buy in. Course it doesn't help when the players are a university press editor, two librarians and a graphic novel artist. They can be a nit picky bunch with spelling and the like.

[Troll Lord]

Well I took the plunge and picked up the HH CKG book. I did notice that some parts of the maps are missing in this and are just white pages. Is there any way to get a copy of the missing maps?

Gabriell,

Email us at orders at trolllord.com and Todd will get you hooked up right quick!

Thanks,
Steve

[Troll Lord]

These are the changes I instituted the day that HH mess landed on my desk.

Editing Process
1) Writer submits ms to me. I give it a brief look over to make sure things like stat blocks are in order and the book is complete.

<snipped>

This is not going to fix all these problems, but it should stop some of them.

But, sincerely. I thank you and all of you out there who continue to give us love and support.

Thanks!
Steve

I don't know if what I'm about to suggest is feasible or desirable from a business angle but here goes. What if instead of sending to print after step 10, turn into PDF form and sell it to us who want PDF's. We can go over (all of us who buy those) and send feedback within a couple weeks. With that info, make any corrections and THEN send to expensive physical printing...

Think of it as a risk free shake down cruise.

This isn't a bad idea, but it creates a logistics problem, both from the getting info to us and to you, communicating "is this what you meant" type thing and then having multiple edited copies going to the layout guy.

Deadlines become a problem too, we can't wait too long on a release, or our revenue drops off and we can't keep afloat (we run VERY tight margins). Print is still about 70% of what we do (though digital grows all the time).

That said, we are toying with setting up a ranking system in the Knights, whereby if you work on Project X, your given membership and access to the Knight. Once in we assign one of the officers to manage all this material back and forth. But again, we want it to work both ways.

Does that make sense?

Steve

[Troll Lord]

I've also been thinking about this, and I think one "solution" is fairly obvious, slow down the production schedule to where quality is more of a guarantee, rather than a shot in the dark, or roll of the dice.

Yeah, one would think...hhaha

Part of the problem is we need a constant flow of revenue, to which releases are the majority. The more staff we add, the more we need to produce. And this is largely for the retail market. If distributors don't see a constant flow of material, then they start dropping tons of titles. Its a problem.

The other end to it is we run out of books, and need to pump out the reprints. That's one thing we are hoping to achieve with our present KS. Go DEEP on the print runs. We print thousands everytime we print the PH, but I really want to ramp that up both because we are selling more now, but also to give us a larger cushion.

Steve

[Troll Lord]

I will third. I like TLG and Love the system, but I would rather have quality over quantity. When I run a game at this years Free RPG day, I would like to be able to recommend a polished product. I think this is the biggest stumbling block to me getting new players to buy in. Course it doesn't help when the players are a university press editor, two librarians and a graphic novel artist. They can be a nit picky bunch with spelling and the like.

LOLOL Yeah, one of my gamers was an Aquatic Ecologist and when I used the words "river muck" I got a load full of what muck is and how its never found in rivers.

Of course now there is always muck in my rivers, just to make her throw things at me! hahaah

Steve

[Arduin]

I don't know if what I'm about to suggest is feasible or desirable from a business angle but here goes. What if instead of sending to print after step 10, turn into PDF form and sell it to us who want PDF's. We can go over (all of us who buy those) and send feedback within a couple weeks. With that info, make any corrections and THEN send to expensive physical printing...

Think of it as a risk free shake down cruise.

This isn't a bad idea, but it creates a logistics problem, both from the getting info to us and to you, communicating "is this what you meant" type thing and then having multiple edited copies going to the layout guy.

Deadlines become a problem too, we can't wait too long on a release, or our revenue drops off and we can't keep afloat (we run VERY tight margins). Print is still about 70% of what we do (though digital grows all the time).

That said, we are toying with setting up a ranking system in the Knights, whereby if you work on Project X, your given membership and access to the Knight. Once in we assign one of the officers to manage all this material back and forth. But again, we want it to work both ways.

Does that make sense?

Steve

Understand. With print being 70% it must be a tight, fast process. Using the Knight system is a good idea as it is a more controllable process.

[dachda]

This isn't a bad idea, but it creates a logistics problem, both from the getting info to us and to you, communicating "is this what you meant" type thing and then having multiple edited copies going to the layout guy.

Deadlines become a problem too, we can't wait too long on a release, or our revenue drops off and we can't keep afloat (we run VERY tight margins). Print is still about 70% of what we do (though digital grows all the time).

That said, we are toying with setting up a ranking system in the Knights, whereby if you work on Project X, your given membership and access to the Knight. Once in we assign one of the officers to manage all this material back and forth. But again, we want it to work both ways.

Does that make sense?

Steve

I also play Advanced Squad Leader by Multiman publishing. Their company is so small, that all but one guy has a day job, but they've been publishing ASL game product since they licensed it from hasbro, when Avalon Hill folded in 1998. They quality of their products is top-notch even considering the incredible level of detail in a game featuring nearly 1,000 individual WWII vehicles and tanks. One of the things they do for quality purposes is ask the fans to help with proofreading. They set up a special download page on their website and give passwords to the volunteers. I've been one of the volunteers. We read thru the material in pdf form and email our notes listing any errors we find, then their coordinator compiles it all. Using the Knights of the Crusade for this seems a good idea.