UPDATE

[Clark]

No doubt many are wondering WTF?  So here is me coming clean with what has been happening over the last few months.

First is that I was downsized to part-time in my job back in May, and then I was let go due to lack of work in July.  I hope you will forgive me for frying these bigger fish and generally attempting to stave off bankruptcy (actually, I would have declared bankruptcy long ago, but that would mean selling off LOS).  I gave up being a lawyer back in 2009 to become a teacher and during the summer I finally landed a teaching position. . .in China. 

Right now, I am behind the Great FireWall of China and can't get things like Facebook or YouTube. Luggage space was at a premium so I couldn't bring any books.  As it turns out, the CD backup of LOS is now damaged and I can't read it.

There is little prospect of me doing much on a revision until I get back to Canada next July.

However, when one door closes, another opens.  I have been contacted by a crew of professional computer game programmers in Shanghai who want to do Legions of Steel for the iPad!  I have encouraged them to join this forum and talk to you guys aid in their develpment efforts.  There are no signed deals yet, but if we can work out a few technical problems about the rules and such they inform me that they could produce an initial release in 3 or 4 months.

For the last 3 weeks I have been dealing with visa follies: somebody messed up and I could have been deported.  However, that is all clear now so I have time to do other things.

I want to run something by you all:

What do you think of the idea of having the LOS books - other than Planetstorm - available here for download for free?

Now that I am not worries about bankruptcy or deportation, I will have to go through the traffic that has been posted here in my absense.

[smokingwreckage]

Good to hear from you, and of course, fry the big fish first.

As to the books, I have only opinions. I had heard that books don't spin much cash. I also hear people say good books sell minis. But it seems to me you want to get something rolling at relatively low cost, so downloaded books might be best? Kryomek is now available as a download, the quality is a bit iffy though, not very clean scans IIRC.

[smokingwreckage]

LOS for iPad? Oh wow. That could really, really work. Here I was playing plants versus zombies and admiring how a strict grid layout made the most of the small touch-screen on my iPhone, and I never once thought of my favourite miniatures game!

The touch-screen would be perfect for intuitively moving and facing pieces, the grid would make good use of the space (strict grid makes it easier to tell what you're trying to poke; PvZ, which I highly recommend you take a look at, highlights the current row and column so you can position accurately even when a piece is obscured by a fat, sausage-like finger), and LoS doesn't need a huge map or a lot of pieces in play to work. Best of all you don't need a million man-hours making cool enough graphics for modern PC or console games.

This could also get your IP a lot of exposure, if it's a decent game; certainly you could extend gameplay by making units beyond the "black box" either free in updates or downloadable at a small price.

[Kindred]

between those of us who are technical here, I think we can get clean copies of the books online and even update the wiki and other features to include the specific stat lines, etc....        I think that having the old books available is a great idea. 

If you like, we can even set up a "donate to download" feature. 

[Dave Chase]

Well, IMO

For the die hard fans, free books work but make others wonder what else is available
For a small fee, like $5 (assuming it doesn't cost you more per book to make it work) make them ebook format
If the books are free (or very low cost) what else drives people to buy into LOS?

Story, miniatures, hype, movies, books, etc

While talking to the guys see if they have any bubby companies that are willing to pick up another line of miniatures. Whether lead, metal, plastic, 3 1/4, 6" or larger.
Example, even though Halo is a very popular game, the cool firgures (6") are purchased by many who don't even play the game.

Sorry to hear about your wild ride on the beast of economics this summer. Just keep us up to date. We would have been happy to tear into what you had and waited patiently for your return to tell us we brainstormed too much.

As for selling LOS, your choice, but have you considered licensing it out for a 3 to5 year run or something like that? You could even do like TMNT, where even though Hasbro has full rights to TMNT, everything must be approved by the originator before it can go to print, manufacture.
Mainly, Peter just makes sure that the story side and the look is there and takes in the royality. He keeps full control of the comic side of TMNT.

Just my thoughts for now.

And good luck.

Dave Chase

[mongol]

Connection is the key to success in China. If you manage to learn to speak Mandarin, that will be better. Due to many years of communist rules and cultural revolution, you may find it hard to convince the people there to play a miniature game. On the other hand, they are very open to any ipad apps. Having something similar to Ex illis or Skylanders may be the key.

[Scoutzout]

Ebook Format is great. I am buying everything electronic now which will make quick reference sheets, diagrams and examples key. Large size detailed gameplay examples are great to see online and I see a lot of mini companys doing great things to show the minis and the rules together. I would love and would pay for electronic copies of all books.

iPad is great..I wonder what kind of gameplay they envision? Remake of the game or a adaptation?

[Clark]

I've looked at DriveThuRPG.com which is all PDFs of varying prices.  Older stuff sells for a pittance.  For instance, Mongoose Publishing's rework of Traveller's High Guard is $14.95 while the original is $4.

We never really made any money on the actual books because the volumes were too low.  They were basically advertising for the miniatures.

With the books being basically 15 years old, they wouldn't command much of a price anyways. I like Kindred's "donate to download" idea.  Hell, if Radiohead can do it, why not us?

Personally, I like having a hard copy when dealing with game rules because you tend to be flipping back and forth.  Perfect binding is nice, but a self-printed ring-bound version at half the price is the other option.

The guys I am talking for are doing their own thing, not as representatives of their company.  There are a number of ex-pats and some Chinese guys and they actually play games on a regular basis.  I am planning a trip to Shanghai this weekend to meet with the ostensible ring leader. And I am working on my Mandarin (Wo zhi dao yi dian dian putonghua; wo  nu li xue geng duo.)

An iPad game offers a lot of potential, and would probably be easy to port to the iPhone, with some additional modifications (I own the latter but not the former, although I might get one next year - and definately get one if this goes ahead). I'll be exchanging emails leading up to this weekend to get a feel for what rules might have to be compromised, and how it will be released.

In the meantime, can somebody upload a clean copy of the Rules of Engagement and Scenario Pack?

[mongol]

For anyone that is interested. Sentry Box in Calgary still has a copy of Rule of Engagement and 2 copies of Scenario Pack.

[Clark]

For anyone that is interested. Sentry Box in Calgary still has a copy of Rule of Engagement and 2 copies of Scenario Pack.

Perhaps a little bird should tell them to sell them now before they are available free online.

[grendeljd]

Clark - glad to see you back on here after your recent [mis?]adventures...

eBooks; solid idea.

I think you should still try to generate some cash-flow from them, the donation idea may work [although really, you'd likely have to set a minimum amount, which few would exceed]. Most video game apps are $0.99 these days, seems like a reasonable fee for an old rulebook. If out of date Traveller material still fetches $4 a pop, well... eBook Apps like Kobo charge much more than that to download novels...

I guess ultimately it depends on the future of the game - you'll certainly want to charge more for any new material like a 3rd Edition... and if that renders old books useless, will anyone buy them in the first place? A new rule set won't nullify the scenario/campaign packs though, or possibly the Alien Sourcebook until an updated version is developed...

other pdf download sites to check out;

RPG Now    http://www.rpgnow.com/
Wargame Vault    http://www.wargamevault.com/
Wargame Downloads    http://www.wargamedownloads.com/
Your Games Now    http://www.yourgamesnow.com/
E23 [Steve Jackson Games]    http://e23.sjgames.com/
Sabers Edge    http://www.sabersedge.com/

[Clark]

kindred would know more about the transaction costs of accepting donations; there is not point in someone making a donation that ends up going the the ISP, bank or whomever.

The "price" points would obviously be in the low, single digit numbers.  Maybe a buck for the Rules of Engagement, $2 for the Scenario Pack, $3 for the Advanced Rules, $4 for the Alien Sourcebook and maybe $2 or $3 for Junction Point.  These would be "suggested donations". The donate and download works if you guilt people into accepting just how awesome the download was.  Story: a friend of mine gave me a downloaded (ie. pirate, illegal) copy of The Hurt Locker.  After I watched it, I felt so guilty that I went out and bought the DVD.  On the other hand, I have watched - at least part of - some movies and said to myself that this is crap and deleted it pronto.

Any progress on getting the Rules of Engagement and Scenario Pack uploaded?  I am planning on meeting the guy this weekend.

[mongol]

Any progress on getting the Rules of Engagement and Scenario Pack uploaded?  I am planning on meeting the guy this weekend.

Neither my office nor home has a scanner. Besides, you need to break up Rules of Engagement booklet to get a good scan. If you really need them by weekend, I can fax a copy of the Scenario book and the original rulebook from the Black box edition. Just send me a private message with what number to dial from Canada.

Even though the minis are considered out of date by today's standard. They are still great pieces. Anyway you can revive them?

[Scoutzout]

It looks like some files were uploaded but I am not sure if they are the actual files (I may be doing something wrong of course

[Clark]

There were pieces of the Advanced Rules and Alien Sourcebook uploaded but not the entire publications.