Online Publishing for Rifts

[Giant2005]

Palladium Books has been leaping into the modern age by finally submitting its books for sale on Drivethrurpg. Drivethrurpg has a subsidiary known as DMsGuild.com that is dedicated to fan-made WotC content. So should Palladium dive even further into its online presence by doing the same?
I suspect those behind DrivethruRPG would be very open to the idea, considering that they are doing the same for the Margaret Weiss Productions system "Cortex Plus" (and probably other game lines that I am unaware of) and it has a much smaller fanbase than Palladium does.

Sure the Rifter serves the same sort of purpose, but it comes at a much slower rate and consumes a significant amount of time from those behind the doors at PB for it to be as profitable. If Palladium followed in the steps of WotC, it would generate a lot more content for the fans and a lot more profits for Palladium. I think it is time to let the Rifter go for the sake of far greener pastures.

I have a couple of minor products on DMsGuild that are not particularly good sellers (they are far from the top 100), but even they bring in about $20 a day on average. One-quarter of that ($5) goes to the publisher and another quarter goes to the IP holder (WotC, or Palladium if they were to take the same opportunity).
Sure Palladium's fanbase is much smaller, so you could expect significantly less sales, but even that would be far more profitable than the Rifter. If it only reaches 20% of the market share that WotC claims, the equivalent of my very average products would still generate $1 a day for Palladium. Once the site fills with hundreds of similar products, Palladium would welcome some very significant residual income that would not only bring them a greater degree of security in the industry, but perhaps give them the means to release official books far more regularly.

Any thoughts?

[Dreamstreamer]

I like the idea of more companies providing a way for fans to create content and receive remuneration for their work. You mentioned Margaret Weis Productions already, and Monte Cook Games and John Wick Presents are two others that I know will be doing something similar. That said, Margaret Weis and Monte Cook both already had pretty generous free and pay licenses available for use, so I see their transitions being considerably easier.

Some of my reservations include:
People subscribed to the Rifter will likely want their subscription fulfilled. That takes Palladium into 2017 before they could drop the Rifter entirely and switch over to your suggested method of fan material distribution.

I think it will consume at least an equal amount of time, and certainly not less. In addition to deciding what content will be available to fans to use in their products (an initial time investment with possible additions going forward), somebody will need to track and enforce all uses of said IP.

Looking at WotC's offering, they only allow use of the Forgotten Realms and Ravenloft currently, and suggest that creators focus on one-shot adventures to pad their official, published adventure arcs. They do provide a number of art and map assets for creators to use, royalty free, and I've seen some free templates, too. They are providing as much cookie cutter content as they can to get the creators started. Where should Palladium allow its fan base access? All of Rifts? Something more limited in scope? What assets should they provide? What content will be allowed? The same as the Rifter (such as stories, classes, and adventures)? How much promotion of this fan material is Palladium willing to do?

I have no idea how much money is generated by the Rifter. I know they do a subscription drive each year, which always seems relatively successful. I don't believe they hold 20% of WotC's market share, but many tiny streams can provide additional revenue. I don't think more money necessarily translates into quicker turnaround and higher regularity in book publication (See Northern Gun 1 & 2), but I'm all for added success for Palladium Books and love digital distribution.

[Giant2005]

Thanks Dreamstreamer, that was a really well thought out post. I would like to comment on some of your reservations however.

People subscribed to the Rifter will likely want their subscription fulfilled. That takes Palladium into 2017 before they could drop the Rifter entirely and switch over to your suggested method of fan material distribution.

That is a fair point, and in retrospect, I think giving up on The Rifter may be ill-advised. However now that I have given it some more thought, I can imagine a world where both online publishing and the Rifter exist together.
Rather than the Rifter simply being replaced, the Rifter could post the exact same content. That sounds like a terrible idea but DMsGuild's biggest issue is that there is no way of filtering the crap from the actual decent content (especially considering people refuse to review or even rate anything - DMsGuild has less than a 1:1000 download to rating ratio and even less of a download to review ratio), and the Rifter could be the answer.
The Rifter would be used to publish the best of the offerings in print for the same fixed price that is being paid now.
DMsGuild has a whole bunch of terms of use, most notably the fact that WotC retains the rights to everything there and may use any published material in further works. That same disclaimer would give Palladium the ability to repackage anything for sale on the site in order to put it in the Rifter.
Of course, that option wouldn't cut down on any of Palladium's workload, but it would give them an extra revenue stream without overly influencing the revenue streams they already have. If too much crap ends up getting published online, or prices there start to soar, demand for the Rifter might even increase beyond where it currently stands.

I think it will consume at least an equal amount of time, and certainly not less. In addition to deciding what content will be available to fans to use in their products (an initial time investment with possible additions going forward), somebody will need to track and enforce all uses of said IP.

In my experience the site administrators take care of enforcing the IP issues. I have had to make some adjustments due to their requests and even had something taken down in need of being altered and republished. To the best of my knowledge, neither occurrence came at the request of WotC. However you are certainly right in that the work required by WotC is more than zero. I imagine I am a bit of an annoyance to them due to using the "contact us" option a little bit excessively. Usually the site administrators take care of my questions/concerns on their own, but on at least one occasion they had to redirect my question to WotC.

Where should Palladium allow its fan base access? All of Rifts? Something more limited in scope?

I think WotC only allows Ravenloft and Forgotten Realms because those are the only settings they have published anything for. Ravenloft was only added to the mix after the release of their latest adventure. It is essentially a case of them trying to prevent people from pissing all over the playground before they have actually built it. Once the playground has been built, the people can do whatever they like with it.
With that in mind, I don't really see why Palladium would restrict anything. Their setting is already established enough that it won't be damaged.

What assets should they provide?

That is a fair point. All of that stock art on DMsGuild probably came at some expense. That alone may make any attempts at using the medium problematic for Palladium.

What content will be allowed? The same as the Rifter (such as stories, classes, and adventures)?

I can't imagine why not. DMsGuild is basically that way right now and it is doing fine. My contributions have been player options (one of which was even a revamped version of official WotC material), but adventures are certainly popular on the site.

How much promotion of this fan material is Palladium willing to do?

That question is probably what inspired my idea for the Rifter's use.

[Dreamstreamer]

That reminds me that I need to provide a few more ratings and reviews to my purchases on DTRPG...

Good to know that the site administrators take on some of that load. Out of curiosity, what kind of changes were you requested to make?

In the DM's Guild FAQ, it describes what is covered by the DM's Guild's license compared to what is covered by the OGL. PB doesn't (yet!) have an equivalent to the OGL. What should be fair game for inclusion in the fan material? For example, should an NPC stat block from a published book be allowed in an adventure that features that NPC? Say, Erin Tarn or (spit balling) a rogue A.I. bottweiler or one of the Four Horseman? Which spells/psionics/super powers can I republish for convenience or must I always use references to the product where they're introduced? Perhaps a list of required books in order to use the product? I can see that getting exhaustive quickly, even with the generous content of the Game Master Guide!

What limitations should there be on product scope? Single class per product or entire sourcebook? Should adventures that cross between worlds/settings be allowed? World Books? Dimension Books? Equipment books? Can (optional) rules be introduced that make the game play more like another game or will that skirt too closely to their "No Conversions" policy?

I know that Palladium Books reuses art from time to time. Perhaps they might be convinced to furnish some of the art that sees the most (re)use? The CCG had some fun art that would be useful for quick publications, too.

Is fan fiction allowed on the DM's Guild? Kindle Worlds was suggested a while back on this site, but I have to think that having fiction to go along with related RPG products might be a better sell.

With DM's Guild, I also get the impression that sharing and borrowing is encouraged. Somebody's published character class can be used in another's published product without permission (though recognition is encouraged), right?

[ffranceschi]

Is it really necessary to let The Rifter go? Why not both "products/ideas"at the same time? I fail to see the logic of just only one but perhaps it´s because I love The Rifter.

[Lukterran]

I really wish Palladium books would move into the modern era and release digital books. I hate having to order two books knowing that I am going to have to destroy one, just so I can send it off to book scanning service so I can get a digital version of the book. (I don't really need to order two books but I like having a hardcopy as well).

[Shawn Merrow]

They been adding on average several books a week to DriveThruRPG this year. They have all the Chaos Earth books up there including Resurrection which just came out a few months ago. They are up to world book 27 for Rifts.

[kaid]

If you look at the most recent blurb it sounds like they are cranking away at adding more and more stuff to PDF availability. Without knowing exactly how their books are stored I assume there is some to a fair amount of reformating layout stuff needed to take what they use for their printers and pump out PDF's from them. So its probably a matter of doing what they can with the time they have available for it and even from a year ago there are a lot more things up there now on drivethurpg.

[Killer Cyborg]

They been adding on average several books a week to DriveThruRPG this year. They have all the Chaos Earth books up there including Resurrection which just came out a few months ago. They are up to world book 27 for Rifts.

Cool!

[Josh Hilden]

They been adding on average several books a week to DriveThruRPG this year. They have all the Chaos Earth books up there including Resurrection which just came out a few months ago. They are up to world book 27 for Rifts.

Cool!

Can't fault the rate books are being made available on DTRPG this year, good work.

[Spinachcat]

Palladium deserves some credit for (finally) getting their product available for download. It also sounds like most of the catalog is available and more is coming along. Thus, it must be bringing in some sales for them.

I see no reason to discontinue the Rifter, but I absolutely agree that a DM's Guild for Palladium would be a GREAT idea.

[Giant2005]

Palladium deserves some credit for (finally) getting their product available for download. It also sounds like most of the catalog is available and more is coming along. Thus, it must be bringing in some sales for them.

I see no reason to discontinue the Rifter, but I absolutely agree that a DM's Guild for Palladium would be a GREAT idea.

I figured the Rifter would go extinct not by choice but by being obsolete. The Rifter relies on fan submitted content - fan submitted content which would likely be put on the DM's Guild-like website rather than being sent to the Rifter.
That was my initial thought process at least, but now I figure there isn't any reason why the Rifter couldn't go ahead and publish the same stuff anyway. People would like a printed option and the Rifter would be a good place to publish the best the DM's Guild-like site would have to offer. It saves people the time and money required to wade through the crap in order to find the true gems - there is a lot of value in that.