...considering that I find all economical models to be inherently flawed and that things will be neither better or worse if capitalism was replaced as the dominant economical system, I would say it hardly matters.

But that's not what this thread is about...(although I don't have a hard time believing the existence of BTLs that are about revolutionaries)

Revolutionary Propaganda in BTL is pretty much a surety! But some would more likely be in Simsense of various legal grades in order to show that they're "The Good Guys".

I have a stack of Malaysian Che Guevara Personafixes from the mid-50s sitting around. I also have Horizon's brand-new One Percent PersonaSoft for successful businessmen, power brokers and socialites!

That is funnier to me then it should be

The more the book sells, the more likely you'll see more stuff out of me. I'm not ashamed to say I need the positive feedback and creative criticism. Emphasis on the "creative"! (There's a reason I pimp my book out so much...)

Also, more likely CGL will want me on their team still.

Isn't there a line in there some where about how governments and what not consider it (Simsense) a necessity to things like welfare and what not to keep the populace sedate and 'happy'? Pretty jaded but I could TOTALLY see it in the Shadowrun world.

I grew up in the bad part of a Northern Ontario mining town, literally a few blocks away from the Welfare Housing. Some of my classmates were second-generation welfare kids.

A good number of them are exactly where I left them, repeating the cycle.

I'm sorry, but I can't see it as jaded when I've seen it with my own eyes. It just gets worse in Shadowrun.

I hear ya brother. Perhaps jaded was the wrong word. "Pretty -sad- but I could totally see it in the shadowrun world"

Reading the preview just makes me want the rest of the information more.. but now it's down to like, 11 pages for $5. One of them the cover. *Wince*

You're missing an important point: 5$ is in the impulse buy range. So ... Impulse buy it!

FWIW -- not a defense, just an explanation -- but much of that price tag comes from new artwork. Artists want more money than writers do, and put in a different amount of work and time (for a different amount of page space). A new book with some all-new art (and also full color, which Sim Dreams has) is just...well...nature of the biz, it's gonna have a different price point than a book with more text and less artwork.

So, if it helps any, know that it ain't like it's Ray's fault, or something. We get paid what we get paid, largely independent from the price point of the book involved. Ray wants folks to buy it because Ray wants folks to read it. Lots of us are alike that way. It's not like we're rolling in the money based on sales, we just want folks to read what we worked on, is all.

QFT.

And I'm an attention whore.

Who did the title?

Also, it really is worth the price.

I started with a slightly different title, but it was too long, and shortened to this. So, mostly, me.

Sounds like a fair deal, I mean you pay that for a half-sub and I don't think they put the same effort into your cheap lunch

Edit: Holy shit what happened to my grammar?

Lets try that again.
Sounds like a fair deal, I mean you can barely get a half-sub for that price and I kind of doubt they put as much effort put into that.

Oh it's not that I'm blaming Ray or the artists. Not at all. I want to read it and look at it.

I just object to the price point in general. If I (And the rest of us) Keep paying $5 for 17 pages. How long till they go "Well they're paying $5 for a 17 page supplement. Our core book is 378 pages... so.. charge them $111.18 for it."

Now that's an extreme, but by the math, it could work out. Now that's a big jump for the core book but still. I think we're paying a pretty good penny as is. I paid $25 for a digital product last week. That was quite a bit, but I did want Stormfront bad.

Thing is, color or black and white, it's not like the Digital product costs them any more. Yes they have to pay their writers and their artists. I get that, but digital products don't have print costs and the like. It's a tough decision. I don't want to pay $5 for a 17 page thing, but then I ask myself, "What would I pay? A buck? Two? That seems like a small amount, but would they make up the difference in volume?

If it was 50 pages, Would I pay $5 for it? it's alot more than 17, but still far from what you'd consider 'fair' for a novel.

In the end, personally, I'd prefer such work to be banded together as part of a larger book, so that I feel I'm getting my dollar worth. That, however flys in the face of the little supplements out 'quickly'.

And it's not like $5 is going to break me. It's just that worry from a business point where the company goes "Ok they're buying up tiny lil 17 page suppliments for $5. Our corebook is 378... charge um $111 for it! that worries me. The only way we can tell the company that we won't do that.. is to 'vote with our dollar'. And the only way to really do that, is to not buy.

Which kills me. What I have read looks good and people are raving about it here. So I very much want to read it. I'm just stuck, not wanting to 'vote with my dollar' that such a price point is 'ok'. When I feel that it's high, for that 'much' content. 17 pages. One is the cover. That takes it to 16. One is jackpoint that takes it to 15. Even if there was no other art in the book you're getting three digital pages per dollar. I'm going to guess... 25% artwork. Maybe 30%. Assuming 30% artwork through the rest of the supplement, and we're getting roughly 10 pages of text. Which drops it down to two pages per buck. I like the art. I know artists need to be paid. I get it. I respect them. In the end though we're looking at 10 pages of text to read/use, for $5 and that makes me wince.


Again. I'm not going to front.. I'll probably break down and buy it when I get paid. I just wish there was a way to 1) Support the writer, 2) yes, support the artist and even 3) Support the company, at a price point that A) Makes sure the writer and artists get paid, and B) Makes sure the company gets paid and C) Also makes me look at it and go "I didn't just spend $5 for 10 pages of text and 5 to 7 pages of art, in a digital file.

Ah, I phrased it wrong. The title image.


It's also less delicious. Even Chicken Teriyaki.

I wouldn't worry to much, selling bite-sized chunks for the price of a sandwich works... Because it's money people don't really miss.
While as driving up the price on a larger product tends to have the inverse effect, people need to be invested to buy your product, which in turn leads to a slower adoption rate, less sales and declined interest in the product which makes merchants less likely to stock up on it.
There's a few ways to sell overpriced products despite competition and the factors I just mentioned... It usually involves ingrained brand loyalty, throwing money at advertisement or clever marketing techniques... Like selling it like a lifestyle choice, Uh... Hello Apple.

Although, I'm no expert.

Ah, someone else, NDA prevents me from saying, I think. Safehouses was my idea, but this one I "phoned in" as I didn't have a really good idea for the cover.

Pity, it's a great image.

Why pity? It's a great cover! I'm happy to have it!

I think in words, not images, so artwork doesn't come so well to me. I do have great ideas at times (Safehouses shows a good deal of my requested items), but sometimes it's better to let folks that can work better on something do their job without jostling their elbow.

It's probably the fact that I know I'm writing for a "Shared Universe", and know that my "baby" is going to have a "village" raise it. Also, I've dealt with Micromanagers and wished I could have hired Shadowrunners to explain "the facts of life" to them.

Ray... D'awwww

Pity because I'd like to check up on the artist!

Art transports the idea of SimDreams brilliantly, and does so without cheap effects like semi-naked babes. That's a rarity.

And yeah, sometimes you want to hire real-life runners to go visit certain people, I know such a case right now too ...

I'm pretty sure our NDAs don't prevent us from giving artists their due credit. In fact, the cover artist might (or should) be in the credits somewhere, right?

Unless it's a super sneaky stealth artist of doom.

Well, it's either AAS, Echo Chernik or Arndt Drechsler, but unfortunately it's not stated who did the cover.
I'd put a wager on Drechsler, though, as the style is neither obviously AAS's nor Echo's.

I'm quite sure it's not Chernik, she has a different style ... so it's either AAS or Drechsler.

Edit: ninja'd.

I was referring to how the artwork decisions were made.

Ah okay. Whoever made them, it was the right ones.

Question for CanRay, on page 7 when RRW is talking about how hilariously easy getting a prescription for mood chips is, a direct correlation to people on "Medical Marijuana" in present day society, and how stupidly easy it is to get the 'prescription' for pot is these days?

Or am I looking deeper than was intended?

Isn't that legal in the state of Washington since the election?

kinda sorta. As best I can tell (( and I'm ---not--- a pot head, and I live in MI)) It's legal to 'own' in small amounts in two states. Still not legal to technically grow it, buy it or sell it.

Ah, legal to own for personal use (or at least not persecuted).

Right but you run into the problem of "owning it' is legal but 'acquiring it' is not, nor is growing it yourself.

I'm guessing alot of people in Denver and Seattle are spontaneously finding bags of pot on the street.


Still, I just thought the 'prescriptions' for mood chips being so easy to get was a parallel to getting a pot card. People go to the doctor, say they're stressed or depressed and "Have heard" That pot could help them. The doctors write the script, they get their pot card and then go to the pot outlets. (( My Cousin works at one. I had to kick her off my facebook feed for all the pot crap she was posting. Just all day every day. And she's in her 30s))

Reading too much. I was more referring to the fact that Moodchips are so prevalent and easy to get a "License" for that it's a no-brainer.

As a Canadian, I don't have the issues with Marijuana that happens in the USA (Where it's still illegal by Federal Law, even if you've got your State-Approved "Medical Marijuana" prescription.). If I wanted to do a Marijuana reference, I'd have used Deepweed.

I'd also probably have ended up with a huge case of the munchies after I wrote about it. Speaking of, where's my Scooby Snax?

Ahhh ok. Well. Intended or not, there is stuff there that links up with the modern (American) mind at least. So... good job, if by accident. lol

Those bags are all over Berlin, too. Dealers are such careless people!

Or maybe just very very friendly? lol

All jokes aside, I don't and have never done drugs. Rather loathe them with extreme prejudice.

Thing is.. the way that Mood chips and sims and stuff are written up, it makes you kinda pause and tilt your head and wonder.

One of the really good aspects of this file. It ties in those similarities and makes the idea of chips being the drug of the 6th world that much more tangible that way.

I got the impression the Mood Chips were more along the lines of Prescription Anti-Depression, Anti-Anxiety, etc pills taken to the next level.

Many of the "Poor put upon patients" that "Need Pot" would say the same.

Tempted to but but before I do I just want to know one thing.how compatible will this book be with 5th ED,id is it more fluff or is there a good deal of crunch in there as well?

Due to NDAs, the best thing I can say at this point without violating it would be "Fluff is editionless", and most of the book is fluff. Will the Crunch be useful with SR5, I literally, legally, cannot say "Yes" or "No" or "Maybe" to. Can. Not. Say.

"Rabid Attack Lawyers have my scent"-level of cannot say, OK?

So, about those Seadogs...

Ah yes, I am told a good hot dog is made even more delicious if eaten by the sea.

Especially one of them mythical "Coney dogs" I've heard so much about in the far off land that is the East Coast of the USA...

<-----West Coaster

The Seattle Mariner's nickname in Shadowrun is "Seadogs", and part of the book (edited out due to sports ramblings) is related to that.

Channeling Slamm-0! ?

...and hence my lack of knowledge about the Seattle (both in-game and IRL) continues to show its' ugly face...

Well. IRL you're not missing much. In game though, whoo there's what, 3 or 4 dedicated books on it alone? lol.

When aren't I? He's pretty much one of my author avatars, and I'm not afraid to admit it. Plan 9 and Kane are the other two.Read the "Wolf and Raven" novel if you can get your hands on it, it'll explain a lot of what Slamm-0! tried to post.