Why I am not using rpgnow to publish my game

Posted by on Feb 24, 2011 in Games, Minimalist Business, newsies and bootblacks | 0 comments

I am happy rpgnow.com customer. I believe they provide a great service to gamers and I wish them well. But I am not using their services as a publisher. Instead, I am going to let you download the game and then donate to Love’s Bridge. Or not, it’s up to you. This is why. No red tape I’m a Spaniard, and establishing a business here means a lot of administrative hassle. And it gets worse for me, as I am supposed to work exclusively for the Spanish state, for most everything else I need a special permission. Taxes, fees, queues and some headaches would pave me the way to...

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Why I created Newsies & Bootblacks

Posted by on Feb 24, 2011 in Featured, Games, Minimalist Business, newsies and bootblacks | 0 comments

As many role-players, I had dreamed about creating my game, any game. My first idea was about explorers and traders in the high seas. It was meant as an expansion for a little game that went belly-up before I could finish mine. Then I created an introductory game that had a nice review in Líder –the Spanish role-playing fanzine–, but back then I knew next to nothing about the Internet beyond some basic browsing and emailing. A few years later… I watched Children’s Underground, a long documentary about street children in Romania. It moved me enough to work as a...

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I am going to trust in you

Posted by on Feb 23, 2011 in Featured, Games, Minimalist Business, newsies and bootblacks | 4 comments

And I hope that you will trust in me. One year ago a famous Spanish writer was challenged by a representative of the record industry to upload his book, “if he had the guts”. He had the guts. He uploaded his book, shared it with everyone, and created a movement. Unlibrouneuro.com (One book, one euro) lets you download a selection of Spanish bestsellers. All they ask is that you donate 1€ or more to Save the Children. No safeguards, they go by the honor system, and it is working. OK, I’m not famous, but I choose to trust in you. Big news! Newsies & Bootblacks will...

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Newsies & Bootblacks Update

Posted by on Feb 12, 2011 in Minimalist Business | 0 comments

So I have solved all most of the issues I wrote you about last week. Links show in blue, now; and not in an awful reddish pink that for some reason, somebody thought it should be the standard for LaTeX. It is not so hard, once you know how to do it. They tricky part about LaTeX and LyX is to find precisely the information you need. Text seems alright now. I have even included drop caps at the first paragraph of every chapter. Not that it was truly necessary, but it just looks smart. In LyX you need to download a module called lettrine. You do that through MikTeX, which is a separate...

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Newsies & Bootblacks final draft is finished

Posted by on Feb 7, 2011 in Minimalist Business | 2 comments

This is how you spend your weekend if you are publishing a role-playing game on your own: correcting typos —and yet knowing it won’t be 100% perfect. And then you wake on Monday at 5:00 AM so you can tell the world you still have work to do. But it is great to have the game finished and complete; or at least the first edition of it. I still need to fix a few issues and add a couple of features, which I hope to have solved soon. Yeah, I say soon, I have learned the hard way that on your first attempt to publish anything you should not promise any deadlines. Basically because you...

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The e-book and the role-playing business

Posted by on Jan 31, 2011 in Minimalist Business | 4 comments

I am really amazed at the lack of role-playing game published for kindle and/or similar reading devices. I mean, I know that for too many years there has been a competition running on to see who makes the fattest game around. I hope you know what I mean: extensive backgrounds that hide your text, enough illustrations to draft a grafic novel, tons of rules that not even Sheldon would care to effectively use in a game and an enciclopedic equipment list where it’s hard to find anything that looks remotely useful. So, yes, I can understand why the guys behind a fat game would not love to...

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