Thread by @machineiv

And now, #maschinezeit second edition is available for sale. It's a perfect game for your October/Halloween spooky one-shot game.

drivethrurpg.com/product/253501…

Short thread talking about #maschinezeit. Bear with me.

It's a much shorter book than the original. The game was supposed to be good for one-shots. The original took forever to get to the meat of the game. We felt that we had to make the book bigger to appease audiences. This time? Super tight and barebones.

The idea is, you should be able to present pretty much the whole damn thing at your table. It's easy to pick up, easy to explain, easy to jump right in.

We will have a print version available... some time. This is all up to complex issues with shipping proof copies to Japan. If you buy the PDF, I will give you an at-cost coupon if you want to get the print version later. That'll be about $5. The final will be $20.

I was nervous to ask $15 for a game PDF. I'm so fucking masochistic about this shit. I kept trying to convince myself to cheapen our work. "It's short! It's relatively low production!" Fuck that. Our time is worth a movie ticket or two.

And like with anything else I make, if you're broke and can't afford it and genuinely want to read and play it, I will give you a copy. I'm tired of undercutting our work.

Remember when I talked about subscription/short game models? I want to do that. A $15-20 core rulebook, with maybe bi-monthly short supplements for $10-15 should be reasonable in a world with $120 prestige books. And it's safer for us to make.

Part of the thing I was able to do was cut out all the stuff that was "kill your darlings" material in the original. Those things never really got much attention in first edition, so they were wasted space. Now? I can do a micro book based on those. Cool, right?

But if this is going to succeed as a model, no fucking joke, I need your help. I NEED this first book to do well if I'm going to try to justify further releases. I'm releasing TWO books today, #maschinezeit and #ultra. This makes me nervous as hell. But also excited.

For the first time in my life, I'm trying to build a production schedule which would fully empower me with my own work. I wouldn't need to constantly chase freelancing shit or kick my ass with a 60 hour a week day job.

But I'm going to need your help. Talk about it. If you're part of a massive forum or community, bring it up. Pitch it to your game group for a Halloween one-shot. It's $15/20. That should be worth an evening's fun for 3-5 people, right?

I talked about a model of release for RPGs, and now I'm doing it. It's sink or swim. This book basically teaches me whether or not I should keep doing this. Do you want more shit from me? Like the urban fantasy #MoreThanNight I've been teasing? Buy this and get others to.

We have amazing plans. We have #MoreThanNight. I have plans to make a second edition of #Amaranthine with a completely different, really punchy and easy romantic action system. We want to rebuild #Flatpack: Fix the Future as a Fate hack. If you want this shit, show us.

I WILL be doing a Patreon soon. This is how we'll be structuring our release schedule. The "core books" will be smaller, simpler releases. Then the other stuff, you can "subscribe" to. If we get the interest, we will make it a full-time endeavor. We'll hire people.

It's been like six years since I've released a full game. Is there still interest in what I'm doing? This is how I'm going to try to find out. Do you want my fucked-up, weird experiments in game design? Show me.

I haven't released a game in years because, frankly, I've been fucking terrified. The gaming community scared me. Stalkers scared me. I tried, over and over, to make more stuff. But every time, crippling anxiety stopped me. This was a huge bit of labor to make happen.

And what's going to get me over that hump is a win. If I can see that people want what I make, and want me making things, then it's a lot easier to say "fuck the haters."

That's part of the model. I need to position my work, my time, and my games in such a way that I CAN ACTUALLY SUCCEED if people are interested. No more shooting for the moon and scraping the barrel. I was young and stupid. Now, everything has to stay realistic and manageable.

So fuck. It's here. It's live. Go buy it. Let's get this momentum started. Go get murdered by ghosts possessing machines and shit. Eight years ago, we made this thing. We've learned a lot since then.

In publishing, this is what we call a "Call to Action." If we want this to succeed, it's more than just buying a copy and retweeting. Essentially, you're my marketing department. I have a tiny budget for ads, but that's not going to be enough.

If you want to do an interview with me, I'm game. Do you have a Twitch channel you want me to run a game on? Hit me up. Right now, this is a Huge Fucking Deal to me. I lost my full-time job, and this is a chance I've got to seize.

You can also get Maschine Zeit t-shirts, posters, and all sorts of other shit. Use the code "SWEETDEAL" and get 20% off.

redbubble.com/people/oliviah…

Here's that #maschinezeit interview I did yesterday!