Recently, and several times in the past, it's been asked whether there would be any further BWP products.
The short answer is: no.
I had intimated this in a previous post here, but I think I was perhaps not clear. I am retired as a tabletop game designer, and am currently pursuing a career in programming.
Finland is a difficult country to be self-employed; you're more or less on your own, and writing RPGs simply doesn't pay enough of the bills to be worth it. I found myself in a situation where I was risking the loss of €700+ a month for the sake of often less than $100 a month in book sales. In the entire brief history of BWP, I never even made enough money to have to pay taxes on anything.
As well, I have found over the last couple of years, that the online RPG scene has become an increasingly toxic environment which I no longer wished to have any part of. Book burnings, harassment, racism, sexism, and all manner of other ugly behaviors came to define the part of the industry I'd found myself part of, while the other parts of the community had made it abundantly clear they weren't interested in my being part of that either. Further, the OSR community had become increasingly hostile to self- and public-funded works like mine: I was actually booted or had posts deleted from several boards when attempting to announce and advertise for the Arcana Rising Kickstarter.
So I'm done.
As mentioned in a previous post, all of BWP's products are now under open licenses: Hulks and Horrors, Heaven's Shadow, and Arcana Rising were released in full under the OGL. They remain for sale in print for those who wish copies, but such sales have been few and far between since the digital versions went free.
I consider all of them complete games, however, it is part of why I never finished the planned H&H expansions, so I don't think that should be any impediment to enjoying them, and I hope people will continue to do so.
Thank you to those who supported me as I made a go of it, but it's best I move on now.
Happy New Year.
Sorry to see you go, but I completely understand if it wasn't paying the bills. For most RPG publishers it's only part of what they do.
ReplyDeleteI'm, quite upset to hear that you've been treated so poorly by the community.
I'd like to thank you for all your work, and I deeply hope that you find success and happiness as a programmer.
That's rough indeed, all the best going forward. It'd be great if handhRL can carry it forward perhaps incorporating the best of whatever your had cooking on the expansions for the P&P edition---to say nothing of hopefully all your other projects getting an eventual Roguelike representation.
ReplyDeleteDarn shame about the change in the online environment. Reminds me why I prefer to stick to the blog-o-sphere, but you can't really do that and promote a product.
ReplyDeleteGood luck in whatever you do now, hope you keep gaming, and thank you for some fine contributions to the hobby.
Hulks and Horrors is a great game. Best of luck with the next phase of your career!
ReplyDeleteThanks folks.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate all the well-wishing.
One of my all time favorite Sci Fi OSR games, Hulks and Horrors...good luck buddy!
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