What are the "big dates" for RPGs?

[J Arcane]

This is something I was thinking about the other day, trying to come up with a good date next year to try and shoot for for my own work.

I know Gencon is generally a really big deal, and there seem to be lots of releases there.

Are there any other especially big dates in the industry? Is the holiday season as huge for RPGs as it is for so many other things?

[Spike Y Jones]

This is something I was thinking about the other day, trying to come up with a good date next year to try and shoot for for my own work.

I know Gencon is generally a really big deal, and there seem to be lots of releases there. Are there any other especially big dates in the industry?

There's the lesser "big date" of Origins, usually about a month and a half to two months before GenCon. It's a smaller con in terms of actual numbers of people, but it has some important distributor, retailer, and industry gossip-spreader attendees that can make it worthwhile to release there. And if your product is something that works well with supplements, then one strategy is to release the initial product at Origins and then the first couple supplements at GenCon.

But possibly a bigger date than either Origins or GenCon is the GAMA Trade Show in March. Here you're not trying to sell to individual gamers, you're trying to convince distributors and retailers to carry your product line in their warehouses and stores and catalogues. If you can make a good impression there (ideally having your product on the table, but at the very least a detailed mockup with all sorts of proof that the product will be available by summer), then you'll potentially make more sales through that convention than you would at Origins and GenCon combined.

Is the holiday season as huge for RPGs as it is for so many other things?

From what I've heard, RPGs don't get as big a pre-Christmas bump as other classes of games do.

Spike Y Jones, not a publisher, so accept everything I say with the appropriate amounts of salt

[Spike Y Jones]

This is something I was thinking about the other day, trying to come up with a good date next year to try and shoot for for my own work.

I know Gencon is generally a really big deal, and there seem to be lots of releases there. Are there any other especially big dates in the industry?

There's the lesser "big date" of Origins, usually about a month and a half to two months before GenCon. It's a smaller con in terms of actual numbers of people, but it has some important distributor, retailer, and industry gossip-spreader attendees that can make it worthwhile to release there. And if your product is something that works well with supplements, then one strategy is to release the initial product at Origins and then the first couple supplements at GenCon.

But possibly a bigger date than either Origins or GenCon is the GAMA Trade Show in March. Here you're not trying to sell to individual gamers, you're trying to convince distributors and retailers to carry your product line in their warehouses and stores and catalogues. If you can make a good impression there (ideally having your product on the table, but at the very least a detailed mockup with all sorts of proof that the product will be available by summer), then you'll potentially make more sales through that convention than you would at Origins and GenCon combined.

Is the holiday season as huge for RPGs as it is for so many other things?

From what I've heard, RPGs don't get as big a pre-Christmas bump as other classes of games do.

Spike Y Jones, not a publisher, so accept everything I say with the appropriate amounts of salt

[LBrownIII]

Spike is, as usual, right on the money here.

One concept I've heard from someone I largely trust is that getting your product out in time for the summer season is more important than waiting until summer is essentially over for the direct sales at GenCon.

A small press, who sees a greater percentage of his sales direct vs. distribution than the larger companies, might benefit more by waiting for GenCon--or might be completely overshadowed by the giants and their (sneer) budgets.

You can basically justify anything as a good date. Just do everything possible to ensure that you hit your announced release date. Any ads should just say "summer" or "spring" instead of give a date, unless you actually have printed books in your hand.

[MatrixGamer]

The big dates? Hummmm... A lot of that depends on what you're trying to do.

Say you have one game. Lets say an RPG book. It is in a great herd of RPG books so you are not going to get the big "Hey look at what I did first!" (like D+D did for fantasy, Traveller did for Sci Fi, Champions did for super heroes (though wasn't Villans and Vigelantis out before that?), or Call of Cthulhu did for horror.) So you will have a limited market. The big dates of Gen Con, et al. are not that important. Put it out as a PDF product with a POD option and talk it up on the forums. Go to Gen Con and Origins if you can and run your game. Start a web page and build up links to other sites. In the end it is your sustained effort that will sell it rather than making a splash at a big show.

Say you have ambitions beyond a single game. You want to sell at shows and get into stores. Well then the big dates start becoming more important. Not for sales but for building contacts. When you go to Gen Con and start making friends at game booths you will learn a flood of things. When they see you there year after year these contacts can lead to selling at a group booth (GPA and Forge come to mind). You might develop contacts that will allow you to squat at another companies booth. All the while your writing and learning your craft. (The craft here is a little about writing and a lot about business skills (being a good communicator, seller, accountant, marketer, and negociator). I would call this paying your dues. If you are patient (inshallah) it will work out. I've heard that people need to be seen playing the game for three years before people start taking them seriously.

Say you are not just establishing yourself but have a small company with a line of products in the can. Now big dates and release dates become important. You want to be at the Gen Con and Origins to sell and market. If you don't have distribution then GAMA might not help but should be considered as your third con. (Though I've heard that the Games Quarterly Catalog guys are putting together another trade show in 2007). You go to be seen and to sell enough to pay for the trip. Release dates on the other hand are not so much about when a game is printed as to when they are "released" to distribution. Distributors send out lists of what's new to game stores months before the release date. If the orders come through they order the game. If not they don't. It is not personal. Just stay paitient and keep on workong on developing skills and contacts.

Game selling is not so much a business as a life style. Not a glamorous life style but potentially a fun one. (Along with accounting, marketing, sales and other not so fun stuff.)

Chris Engle
Hamster Press

[Spike Y Jones]

One concept I've heard from someone I largely trust is that getting your product out in time for the summer season is more important than waiting until summer is essentially over for the direct sales at GenCon.

Good point. You want the time period when your game is considered new and exciting to coincide with the time period when your potential market has time to play a game and money to buy it with. If your potential market is high school or college-age folks, then summer vacation is likely to be the best time to hook them. And since you want to get them buying and playing your stuff before they buy and play someone else's, releasing in early summer (after a promotional campaign that prepares the potential customers to buy the game right when it comes out) is better than late summer.

Spike Y Jones