As seen here: http://catalystgamelabs.com/2009/09/25/catalyst-red/

It seems that, historically, the only place to buy a PDF was from the manufacturer (or a select few online websites). If you wanted both a PDF and physical book, you were limited to what was available from the manufacturer. Retail stores that serve the player with play space, selection, and knowledge just could not offer a player a PDF and a book. We at Catalyst Game Labs have been working hard to change that.

Therefore we're proud to announce the creation of Catalyst RED, our new Retailer Electronic Delivery system. With RED, retailers will be able to sell you copies of the core book PDFs along with your hard copies right at the store simply by providing your email address. And should you for some reason lose your PDF, you can easily request another download of the file, just like a online customer. We feel that Catalyst RED will finally allow that next step in customer satisfaction that you and the owners of your friendly local game store have been asking for.

Currently the system is in Alpha testing at select game stores across the country, and we plan to have the system available at more retailers later this year. For a list of retailers who currently offer Catalyst RED purchases see below:

Adventure Game Store
6967 Stirling Rd
Davie, FL 33314

Black Diamond Games
1950 Market St Suite E
Concord, CA 94520

Castle Perilous
207 West Main Street
Carbondale, IL 62901

EndGame
921 Washington
Oakland, CA 94607

Le Valet d'Coeur
4408 St-Denis, Montreal
P.Que, Canada, H2J 2L1

Modern Myths
34 Bridge St #4
Northampton, MA 01060

Myriad Games
8 Stiles Rd.
Salem, NH 03079

Rainy Day Games
18105 SW TV HWY
Aloha, OR 97006

The Danger Room
2213 S. Scatterfield Rd
Anderson, IN 46016

Can't wait for this to go worldwide.

Lars

So I want to see if I got this right - I buy a physical hardcopy at my FLGS and give them my email address and they send me a PDF of the book I just bought? If so, that's pretty awesome. Doubly awesome is that there's a store in MA doing this - we're usually the last place that stuff like this would roll out - I'd travel the two hours out there for this.

No, I think that what it means is that you can buy PDFs from the store (In addition to the normal option of buying hard copies there).

So you wouldn't get a free PDF whenever you bought a hardcopy, you'd have to buy that separate if you wanted both (Just like you have to do now)

Hey... i remember this model. Some guys here want to make it possible in the whole European Union, independent of company or other retailers, that people are able to buy eBooks from their FLBS (Friendly Local Book Store).

Wonder what happened to them... they seemed very opposed to Amazons Handling of the US ebook Market.

Interesting concept. I'd have to wait and see if my FLGS, The Compleat Strategist, signs up for it, then after a few people try it out, get their opinions.

probably got burried in local special interests, just watch googles book search project and how it runs into all kinds of trouble from publishers, each having a license to print the same content, but in a different european nation...

thats the difference between trying to merge a whole lot of old nations into a single union, vs picking up new nations as they formed...

This sounds awesome, although I'm kind of hoping the PDF will be at a discount. ATM the only reason I don't support my LGS more (well, other than the fact that it is more of a board/card game shop than an RPG shop) is because with Battlecorps, I can get PDF copies at a discount when I buy the hardback. It's just one of those things, I guess.

Also, I'm out here in the boonies, so no access to RED here.

The PDF will come from Catalyst, not your local store, but that's essentially what happens.

The thing that I like best about this -- it allows us to turn our rabid print pre-order + PDF customers back into customers of their FLGS, and we want those rabid people in game stores promoting and evangelizing our games!

Adam:

Does this mean that we can expect to see combo pre-orders, similar to what BattleCorps does, at our LGS? For the same pricing?

AJC

David would be able to give you a more accurate answer to this question, but as best I know at this time, pricing is determined by your FLGS. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't do pre-order "combos" -- unless they're a store that doesn't take pre-orders [but frankly, I doubt any store that signs up with Catalyst RED is the kind not to take pre-orders!]

I'll nudge David to hit this thread ... after his Shadowrun game tonight.

Thanks for confirming.

AJC

Adam,

This is AWESOME news. I'll make sure my local gaming shop (Atlantis Comics) knows this is coming so they can get on the bandwagon when it becomes available.

I was always torn between ordering online and getting at the gaming store. I like the PDFs but I also get a discount at my local gaming shop.

THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!! THANK YOU!!

Plans for Germany?

We aim to add more stores to Catalyst RED by the end of the year.

Hamburg! Please!
Forget about the rest of Germany, only Hamburg is important ^^

Dragonworld.

Is there anything that we could print off and take into our FLGS in-case they aren't aware of this? Perhaps instructions for retailers that should be posted here?

What the heck is the point of this? Why would I drive to a store, give them my email, drive home and then wait until the store owner sent me something when I could just go online at home and download my PDF in about 4 seconds? I mean, wut? Is there some advantage to having a middleman insert himself here? And by advantage I mean advantage to me, not the store owner or Catalyst.

Pricing is completely up to your local game store. Remember however, that they pay for the PDFs like they do a book, so expecting them to fork over a free PDF may be a bit much. Bundles however, we encourage greatly.

As for getting more stores (both domestically and around the world) we'll have an open Beta of the system later this year for all verifiable brick and mortar retailers. However at this time, in the alpha stage, this is limited to the listed stores.

And as a clarification, all Catalyst PDFs are part of Catalyst RED. So if you're at your local store, and want to get the latest Mission, you can. However, FanPro and FASA PDFs are not currently available.

Lets see ...
a) supporting your local economy
b) supporting your local game shop to attract more gamers in your area
c) having a place that you can talk to people about games face to face
d) having a place that you can possibly find other players or GM's

I'm sure that some other people can come up with other points.

PLus, with the current complaints about CGL's delivery system, it's an option to get your hardcopy locally and still be able to get the PDF, potentially in a bundle deal.

Also, there's the occasional person that doesn't have a credit card/debit card, or doesn't like/trust purchasing things online and giving out that information. So this can make these products available to them.

And hey, if you don't want to do it that way, do it another

I hear you here, man. I mean, go CGL with new endeavors and all that, but my LGS is lucky if I bother calling to see if they have something in stock. Mostly because a: they never do, and b: they charge cover for everything. I know, I'm supposed to be a good little gamer and do all those things nylanfs lists. Oh well.

I frankly see little to no point in the (F)LGS model anymore, unless it is offering much, much more than "a place to (occasionally, if they bother to stock it) buy a book." And really, I don't think I'd take advantage of the other stuff you typically see bandied about as "reasons" to support one.

Gaming space? My kitchen and/or living room.
Meet people? I meet people all kinds of places. Add online resources (not just gamer-oriented ones).
Talk to gamers? Forums, where I can ignore the ones I want to at will.

And the "support the local economy" thing is a BS, heartstring tugging pile of nonsense. Last time I checked, I didn't tell anyone to open (or buy) a game store. These people ostensibly looked into it, decided it was worth a go, and opened shop. It's not my job to keep their store open (let alone profitable), it's theirs. And if that model is failing, well, maybe they should look at why, instead of just expecting me to keep them afloat. (Not me, personally, obviously. I'm using "me" as the general "us.") I often wonder if the person that uses this to try to guilt people into shopping at their LGS also use this to get people to shop at Wal-Mart.

Don't you care about that nice man that says hello at the door?

Just to show off one of the stores that's participating in Catalyst RED: http://picasaweb.google.com/endgameoakland

A calendar of the events they're running this month: http://endgameoakland.com/cgi-bin/calendar/calendar.pl

Plus they do quarterly mini-conventions in the store: http://endgameoakland.com/minicon/index.html

10AM to 7PM every day; game room open until 10PM Monday-Friday.

Umm WTF are you stating there? Are they charging a cover to enter the store, or participate in any events/games? If it's the first case I completely agree with you that's full of drek, if it's the second, it's kinda understandable. Lots of times they aren't making any direct money off the event/game. Either the players walk in with the material they need (which may or may-not have been bought there) or b it's supplied by the manufacturer. Although a better solution would be to give a 10-15% discount on any materials bought that day, or give discount coupon's that they can use later.

He's saying that they charge cover price for the titles they sell.

That is correct. Sorry for the confusion.

Beg your pardon, but what's a cover price?