What Do I Know?

Today, we reach day twenty-four of RPG A Day. I’m going to ask your forgiveness today. What is today’s question?

Share A PWYW Publisher Who Should Be Charging More

I’m not shy about sharing RPG material that really impresses me. One of the reasons I started doing the reviews on the blog was to share my thoughts on products that I had purchased with other people. I love calling out the things that speak to me in the RPG industry. I love people that pour their heart and soul into games so that people can come together and share them.

I can’t really drop everything and single out one publisher to single out. Further more, I can’t speak to their pricing strategy. Some publishers charge PWYW for some products to get a set of rules into various people’s hands so that they can sell additional supplements. Some people shared an item for free before they had a venue to host their product, and because it used to be free, they don’t want to ask money for their product.

In many cases, it will make a person more money to charge a very small amount than it will to charge PWYW. As someone that has a couple items on the Dungeon Master’s Guide, I can attest to this. When I was charging a couple of dollars for my stuff, I actually made money (very little, but some). Since I shifted my stuff to PWYW, a lot of people appreciate my generosity silently, and that’s cool. I get it.

You have to charge what you want to charge. You have to have a strategy. I’ll point you to people that I like, and if they happen to be posting a good product with a PWYW price, I’ll encourage you to let them know what you think of their product with your dollars. But I’m not going to second guess a marketing strategy.