Monday, September 30, 2013

Transparency Agenda #34: With Ben McFarland!!!!



This time it is a little different with Transparency Agenda with the added excitement of having professional hobbylancer, Ben McFarland. This Transparency Agenda we are discussing the top ten from Paizo and some other interesting 3PP releated material. Plus you will get to see all the INTERESTING issues we have pulling this off using Google+. It is good we had a tech guy so close to help us out.  Talk to you later... 

Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Winter (PFRPG) Now available!

Louis Porter Jr. Design has released its newest product, Adventure Path Iconics for the Pathfinder winter focused adventure path and the NeoExodus: A House Divided (PFRPG) campaign setting at RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com.  Here is information on this product:

This is the third installment of our Adventure Path Iconics line, and the eight characters herein are specifically designed for play in a winter-themed Adventure Path. Each character has a full stat block, including campaign traits, a detailed background and personality, and advice on advancement through 4th level. Find one that suits you and you’re ready to play. These characters have been built using a 20-point buy, as many Pathfinder players and GMs prefer it. However, each comes with instructions on how to adjust the stats to a 15-point buy, should your GM wish to use the standard for Paizo’s adventure paths. If your group enjoys an epic fantasy feel for their characters, then adjustments up to a 25-point buy are also available. Whatever your style of play, just a few minor tweaks will have you ready to go.

The iconic consist of four human characters and four unique races from the NeoExodus: A House Divided campaign setting such as:
·         Cavian: Creatures of myth, whispered in legend, lost in the mists of history – and now returned for reasons unknown to any but themselves. Such are the cavians, a race of humanoid rodents noted for their incredible psionic abilities.
·         Cynean: Crystalline scholars of all things arcane, the cyneans are as mighty in mind as in body. While the psionically inclined might expect the cyneans to share their tendencies, these beings of living crystal are masters of magic, not mentalism. On Exodus, which is both their home and their only known haunt, they can ever be found seeking some mystical secret or long-lost spell.
·         Dalrean: Dalrean are a race of sentient, mobile plants. If a treant is a thinking tree, a dalrean is a thinking flower, and indeed, the spellcasters of this race are noted for their astonishing floral ‘spellbuds.’ Dalrean, who live exceedingly long lives, are closely tied to the natural cycles of Exodus.
·         Prymidian: Prymidians are regal, red-skinned humanoids. Their stately demeanor and formidable build impress other races and their learning follows suit. The prymidians are a communication and language-inclined race, dedicated to scientific reason, research, expansion of knowledge and discovery. Their culture seeks to know all there is to know in Exodus, and to communicate that knowledge to others. None know better than the prymidians that knowledge truly is power.

These iconic consist of:
·         Asta Krigersdottir, Female human barbarian (breaker)
·         Viniana Aurcroft, Female human rogue (sniper)
·         Dron Farwalker, Male human ranger (guide)
·         Jarani Zidane, Male human bard (daredevil)
·         Evergreen, Female dalrean witch (hedge witch)
·         Gryn Kynon, Male prymidian gunslinger
·         Chalu Adsila, Female cavian cleric
·         Maqia, Female cynean inquisitor (witch hunter)

Available at RPGNow!!!

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Good news, better news situation for Obsidian Apocalypse!

The good news is that we just got in the FINAL version of the spells for Obsidian Apocalypse from the writers & editor and now it is in layout for the book. This one has all the new updated spell naming specific donors donated for.


The better news is that when the book layout for the spells is finished I will be converting them over to the Ultimate Spell Deck: Obsidian Apocalypse. I am guessing this might all be done my sometime this weekend. We are still waiting for a few more little pieces to come in, but THIS was one of the two the big ones still left. Next finishing up the monsters and getting all the right artwork for them. See that the light at the end of the tunnel and it’s not another train coming right at us. As always, thanks for your support with this project. Talk to you later…

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Adding value by going from Free to Pay What You Want…

I think a lot of people like free and take things that are free JUST because they are free.  Things that people have no interest in really, don’t care about and would never find useful once they hear they are free, they are taken by the handfuls. It does not matter if it was free poison we were giving away. Free to many mean "take more than you will need, even if you don't need me". But does free mean value or better put does free equal valuable?

A few years ago I was speaking with Christian Gossett fromThe Red Star comic book fame and he said to me, “Never give anything away for free. People don’t value it at free.” And I have to admit, in “some” cases that is true.  I have given away over ten thousand copies of free products at LPJ Design from Buff Sheet to Daily Spell Sheet to Chase Sheet to many others. Usually we get about a 0.10% of those who downloaded it thanked us for the free product or even take a second out to review it. Why? I think when they get it for free to them there is no real “value” attached to the product. But the second we add a price to it, even with it being Pay what you want we create what Chris Anderson, author of Free: How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit byGiving Something for Nothing calls “friction”, a resistance to the “deal” or sale.

So I started to think how could I maximize both points of view of Free with Pay What You Want? And I think I have come up with something that makes me happy from a customer and business prospective.  From now on when LPJ Design releases a new product that we consider giving away for free, we will make that product available for free for 7 days. After the initial 7 day release, we will convert that product to a Pay What You Want rate. The initial 7 days will determine who is our core fans base and is this product interesting. The following Pay What You Want period will determine is this product interesting AND is there value in this product. 


I have already tried this our recently with several LPJ Design Free products that are now Pay What You Want, to discover there have been a drop on the free downloads, but there have been people who paid us for what we were giving away for free because they found value in it. Best of all, people who paid what they wanted to really determined the real value of the product and that is VERY important to me. Talk to you later… 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Transparency Agenda #33: Examining Top Ten sales 3PP Sales on Paizo.com for Week Sep 20th

Another week has gone and now is time for another round to reviewing the statistics from Paizo.com. Let’s do the quick over view:

September 6th the Top Ten consist of:
Kobold Press – 1 product
Legendary Games – 5 products
Minotaur Games – 1 product
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
Super Genius Games – 2 products

September 13th the Top Ten consist of:
Kobold Press – 2 products
Legendary Games – 4 products
Minotaur Games – 1 product
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 2 products
Super Genius Games – 1 product

September 20th the Top Ten consist of:
Frog God Games – 1 product
Kobold Press – 3 products
Legendary Games – 3 products
Minotaur Games – 1 product
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
TPK Games – 1 product

As with last week, we had another week of surprises AND somethings things staying the same.

First off Jason Bulmahn pulls of the hat trick (I still don’t know what that really means) with Minotaur Games stayed #1 for the third week in the row with Rule Zero: Underling. Jason said on Facebook that he did not think he could get to three weeks as number one. I guess he was wrong about that one. Can he pull out four weeks as #1? I guess we will see next week.

Kobold Press adds ANOTHER product to the Top Ten increasing their numbers to three and taking the top #2, #3 and #4 spots with Advanced Races 2: Darakhul Ghouls, Dark Fey and New Paths #7: The Expanded White Necromancer.

Pathfinder Paper Minis reduces their number of product to one and took the #5 spot with the all new just released The People of Belhaim. The other two products that were listed last week is no where to be found on this top list. Does this signal something about Pathfinder Paper Minis' staying power?

Legendary Games lost ANOTHER product from the Top Ten spot this week reducing their number to only three product (from a high of five products in the Top Ten just two weeks ago) taking the #6, #7 and #10 spots with Mythic Magic: Core SpellsUltimate Battle and finally Ultimate Rulership in at #10 for the 2nd week in the row.

And some very INTERESTING news we have TWO ALL NEW companies breaking the Top Ten for the first time in over the last TWO MONTHS!

First we have TPK Games with their The Deductionist Base Class coming in at #8. It seems this one is getting good reviews and people are interested.

Finally we have the fan favorite Frog God Games entering the Top Ten at #9 with Tomb of Horrors 4. More monsters from Pathfinder fans is always welcome it seems. 

Other VERY interesting facts to notice after being on the Top Ten list for eight weeks straight, SuperGenius Games does not make it this week in the Top Ten.  Apparently this was the week for the “two new upstarts” of TPK Games and Frog God Games to make their make in the Top Ten. Will Super Genius need to "step up their game" this week to regain this elite status and positioning in the Top Ten? 


Looks the competition for online exposure on Paizo.com is getting tough for a lot of the 3PP out there. Can Minotaur Games keep holding on to the #1 spot or will Kolbold Press finally break into the #1 spot which has eluded them for the last eight weeks? Will Legendary Games lose more product spots to the new up and coming  3PPs looking to break into the Top Ten or are they planning a return to former fame with the release of new products? With being off this list for nearly a month, will we see Rite Publishing return to the fray of the Top Ten listing or are they just waiting for the right time to return to their past glory? What do think about this? What gets you interested in buying a products? Tell me what you think! Talk to you later…

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Transparency Agenda #32: Examining top 10 sales 3PP Sales on Paizo.com Week - Sept 13th

Well after all the interest that I created with the last Examiningtop 10 sales 3PP Sales on Paizo.com I did
I decided it might be best to do this weekly and keep the information going. So let’s compare the last three weeks:

August 30th the top ten consist of:
Kobold Press – 1 product
Legendary Games – 4 products
Minotaur Games – 2 products
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
Rite Publishing – 1 product
Super Genius Games – 1 product

September 6th the top ten consist of:
Kobold Press – 1 product
Legendary Games – 5 products
Minotaur Games – 1 product
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
Super Genius Games – 2 products

September 13th the top ten consist of:
Kobold Press – 2 products
Legendary Games – 4 products
Minotaur Games – 1 product
Pathfinder Paper Minis – 2 products
Super Genius Games – 1 product

As you can see right off the bat the list of companies that the top 10 have not changed in 3 weeks, but there is a change in quantities.  In the week of September 13, both Legendary and Super Genius Games both sold 1 less product while Koblold Press and Pathfinder Paper Minis both increased sales by 1 product.  

Minotaur Games stayed #1 for the second week in the row with Rule Zero:Underling

Legendary kept the #3 spot with Mythic Monsters: Demons while Ultimate Battle dropped to #4. Mythic Magic: CoreSpells came in at #7 and Ultimate Rulership in at #10

Kobold Press’ releases Advanced Races 2: Darakhul Ghouls entering at #2 and Dark Fey entering at #5.  

Super Genius Games had there only appearance at #6 with TheGenius Guide to More Cavalier Talents.



Can Minotaur keep the #1 spot for another week? What new 3PP will be added to this list of names? Who will fall off the list? What do think about this? What gets you interested in buying a products? Tell me what you think! Talk to you later…

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Lots of rough draft of Adventure Path Iconics work

Just though you might be interested in the process that we use for creating our artwork for our upcoming Adventure Path Iconics series, so enjoy! Talk to you later...




Wednesday, September 11, 2013

[LPJDesign] 5-star review + seal of approval for Enemies of NeoExodus: Cyrix (PFRPG)

Louis Porter Jr. Design has just received a 5 star + seal of approval from the prolific and well respected Pathfinder Role Playing game reviewer, Endzeitgeist, on our Enemies of NeoExodus: Cyrix (PFRPG).  Endzeitgeist said this about the product: “Don’t let perhaps the coolest villain (with or without) psionics currently available for PFRPG pass you by. This is an easy 5 star + seal of approval pdf and one that is a candidate for my Top Ten of 2013. And yes, if I could, I’d rate this 6 stars – pdfs like THIS are what I’m reviewing for.”


Working freelancer Eric Hindley like a dog!!!

As of late while I have been working on and focused on the last bits of Obsidian Apocalypse, I have been assigned all kinds of work to our newest freelance, Eric Hindley. Eric has also done several pieces of work for us on Obsidian Apocalypse too so you can see we are busy. I got an email form Eric and told me that the first draft for the upcoming Adventure Path Iconics: Path of the Star will be in house VERY SOON. Also he is working on upcoming Adventure Path Iconics: Path of Righteous and the iconics for Obsidian Apocalypse. Sensing a theme here? So we have iconics coming out of the wood works here which is a good thing. After all this is done we are going to have Eric work on … wait for it … MORE iconics with The Mummy's Mask and Iron Gods (2014 Adventure Paths). I know that you will see a Machinesmith iconic in Iron Gods iconics from us so at least I will be happy about it. Maybe a Gunslinger too. Who knows? I guess Eric will know soon. Talk to you later… 

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Transparency Agenda #30: Examining Top 10 3PP Sales on Paizo.com

So I started doing some research on looking at the sales data that Paizo.com provides each week in their email and I noticed some interesting things.  First off, I compared each week of sales from July 26 until last week’s email on September 6. Over those seven week there were a total of 70 possible different products in the weekly top 10 listing.  The following is a list of 3PP and how many products they had in the top 10 over this 7 week period (In alphabetic order):

Now looking at this list, I am sure you already will have some preconceived ideas and concepts of who the most successful companies in 3PP at Paizo. On products alone, Super Genius Games, Legendary Games and Kobold Press have count for over 65% of the products on this list. While this is very impressive the really interesting part is looking over these numbers over time. 


Starting with July 26th the top ten consist of:
  • Dreamscarred Press – 1 product
  • Kobold Press – 3 products
  • Legendary Games – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 products
  • Super Genius Games – 3 products
  • Zombie Sky Press – 1 product

August 2nd the top ten consist of:
  • Dreamscarred Press – 1 product
  • Kobold Press – 1 product
  • Legendary Games – 1 product
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 4 products
  • Zombie Sky Press – 1 product

August 9th the top ten consist of:
  • Dreamscarred Press – 1 products
  • Kobold Press – 2 products
  • Legendary Games – 1 product
  • Necromancers of the Northwest – 1 product
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 3 products

August 16th the top ten consist of:
  • Kobold Press – 2 products
  • Legendary Games – 2 products
  • Minotaur Games – 1 product
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 3 products

August 23rd the top ten consist of:
  • Kobold Press – 2 products
  • Legendary Games – 3 products
  • Minotaur Games – 1 product
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 2 products

August 30th the top ten consist of:
  • Kobold Press – 1 product
  • Legendary Games – 4 products
  • Minotaur Games – 2 products
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Rite Publishing – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 1 product

September 6th the top ten consist of:
  • Kobold Press – 1 product
  • Legendary Games – 5 products
  • Minotaur Games – 1 product
  • Pathfinder Paper Minis – 1 product
  • Super Genius Games – 2 products

Now if you have been paying attention looking over these charts did you notices a few things about 3PP. Let’s take these one at a time:
  1. Over time it looks like the many of the established 3PP (Super Genius Games and Kobold Press) are being out sold by the new 3PP company (Legendary Games).
  2. Minotaur Games, Pathfinder Paper Mini and Rite Publishing each seem on average to have a steady sell rate of 1 product in the top 10 each of the 7 weeks.
  3. There are normally an average of 6 different companies on the top 10 list but last week there were only 5 companies listed.
  4. Looking at how products actually sale (using Super Genius Games’ products and sales ranks), the initial week the product comes out there is great interest. But only after two or three week interest fades as new product is released.  
  5. Based on Legendary Games sales cross promotion of product with other related Paizo specific does promote sales as does products that can be cross promoted with each other’s like Super Genius Games’ Talented line products .
  6. Minotaur Games is the only one man shop 3PP who made this list. The effect of being a great game designer AND an access to Paizo’s “aura of influence” as an employee can affect your sales directly.
  7. Even though Legendary Games PDF products have a price point of $9.99, customers seem not to be phased by it and still purchase in large numbers.

What do think about this? What gets you interested in buying a products? Tell me what you think! Talk to you later…

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Should I do a Google Hangout?

I am thinking about doing a Google Hangout about LPJ Design, NeoExodus, Obsidian Apocalypse and other cool things like that. Would you be interested in participating and/or attending something like that? Let me know...