#RPGaDay2017 day 24: Share a PWYW publisher who should be... better known?

Part of an ongoing series, occasionally updated in real-time!

IT'S BLOG O' CLOCK, homies.

#RPGaDay2017 day 24: Share a PWYW publisher who should be charging more?

Nah fam, that's a pretty asinine premise for a question. PWYW is a pretty sweet business model, and I'mma just disregard the fundamental assumption that it's devaluing a product here. And if you're stuck on that, research by Kim (2009¹), Gneezy (2010²), and many, many more that I'm not going to list³, shows pretty conclusively that that's simply not the case.

Sure, sometimes people make less than they might have otherwise done - as it turns out, setting price points is a tricky thing in any model - but sometimes they make more. A lot more.

Sorry, fam; but if you wanna drop that wack pseudo-science not-marketing, you'd best come correct.

Having said that, here's some of my favorite PWYW stuff.

Fate Core, Toolkit, and Worlds

Check out Evil Hat's Drive-Thru selection. I mean, damn. If you like narrative-focused RPGs⁴, there's enough here to keep you playing for a long, long time. Plus, their art is lovely, the books are smartly laid out, and the Worlds of Adventure explore a wide variety of different themes. You can probably find something  you like there.

Also, apparently the excellent War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus is PWYW now! I bought it at retail, and regret that not for a single second; but if you haven't checked out Sophie Lagace's adaptation of this Grimsical game, you might want to consider doing so now.

It's really good!

Big ups to Evil Hat, and its Patrons on Patreon that have made all this super rad stuff available.

Quill

A solitaire RPG, Quill is simple: roll dice, write letters, rinse and repeat. Fun and different!

Nothing much to add; you're either hyped to write
letters, or you're moving on. As is just.

OSR Sci-FI

"But Killstring," you ask...

Dude, that's not how we format questions here

Oh, for the love of...

Don't create a format and then not use it! You'll confuse people!

Fine. Go ahead.

...Maybe I don't want to anymore.

Seriously?

Kidding! Anyway. But Killstring, I ask, I thought you didn't like OSR?

Who ever said that I have to enjoy something myself to see merit in it? Listen friends, I literally have a degree in evaluating media, and I'm excited to use it⁵! Besides, there's not nearly enough of this sentiment in Geek subculture; we get strangely tribal about our sub-fandom, to the point of being hostile.

Ain't got time for that ish.

So yeah, I'm not a big fan of OSR games, but these two make me wish I was. They're incredibly stylish, flavorful, and well put-together. 

Lookin' Fly

First, White Star.

If you're looking for something that goes after the feel of classic Space Opera, hard, then you could do a heck of a lot worse than White Star. Based off the Swords & Wizardry White Box (which I'm not linking, 'cause I have no idea if it's any good or not. OSR homies tend to like S&W, but I bounced off it pretty hard), this game unabashedly gives you rules to play Not-Star-Wars, as well as Not-Other-Classic-Sci-Fi.

It's fun! I think it's fun.

But after that, we're gonna break the category a little bit; this next game is free; there's a Pay-What-We-Want version available too, should it catch your eye. The game in question?

Stars Without Number

Hell yeah.

This is the game that made me desperately wish I liked OSR. It's so, so good. Hell, even if you (like me) cringe at the sight of STR, DEX, CON, etc., there is so much good material here, that it's worth picking up as a resource for your Space Opera games, even if you're allergic to d20s. It's got a wealth of amazing supplements, piles and piles of useful tables, and is just smartly put together. 

So, so fresh. 

There's a free version that I mentioned, but in looking for images, I discovered that there's a Kickstarter going on for a new edition. Six days left as of publishing this, and it too looks super fresh. Check this art: 

Dope.

The new edition will have a free version too, and it looks to have considerable polish. I don't usually hype projects that I'm:

1. Not involved in
2. Not interested in playing
3. Not done by anyone I know

but if you dig OSR stuff, this seems like a worthwhile use of your time and/or money.

And hey, since we busted the format anyway, here's my all-time favorite PWYW product:

How come I end up where I started?

Though it's since gone traditional, this gorgeous album launched PWYW models into the public consciousness, and I, for one, think we're better off for it.

~Killstring

* * *

1 - Ju-Young Kim, Martin Natter, Martin Spann (2009) Pay What You Want: A New Participative Pricing Mechanism. Journal of Marketing: January 2009, Vol. 73, No. 1, pp. 44-58.

2 - Gneezy, A., Gneezy, U., Nelson, L. D., & Brown, A. (2010). Shared social responsibility: A field experiment in pay-what-you-want pricing and charitable giving. Science, 329(5989), 325-327.

3 - This is, after all, not a scholarly article, and I'll be citing all damn night if I want to make this point properly.

4 - I do! :)

5 - Not that this really counts as objective critical review, nor am I really trying to do so. But when I can work in an "I used my degree today" joke, I do so. You've been warned.