This episode is part 2 of the seminar at Metatopia featuring Fred Hicks and Brennan Taylor discussing Kickstarter from the perspective of someone running a campaign.
Show Notes
Brennan Taylor
Galileo Games
Fred Hicks
Evil Hat Productions

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Interlude 02 Part 2 - Kickstarter seminar at Metatopia

This episode is a seminar at Metatopia featuring Fred Hicks and Brennan Taylor discussing Kickstarter from the perspective of someone running a campaign.
Show Notes
Brennan Taylor
Galileo Games
Fred Hicks
Evil Hat Productions

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Interlude 02 Part 1 - Kickstarter seminar at Metatopia

This is a recording from Metatopia that features most of the Evil Hat folks talking about Evil Hat and how it works.

Show Notes
Coming soon...

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Interlude 01 - How It Works

In this episode Fred and Chris, discuss Evil Hat's new Kickstarter for their card game Race to Adventure. They discuss what decisions they made well, which decisions could use improvement, and which decisions are basically a wash. 

Show Notes:
The Race to Adventure Kickstarter
The Race to Adventure Tutorial Video
Race to Adventure on Board Game Geek
Race to Adventure Website
Dinocalypse

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 10 - Designing the Race to Adventure Kickstarter

This episode Fred talks with Rob Heinsoo, and Jonathan Tweet about the structure of Fire Opal Media, and their work on the upcoming 13th Age roleplaying game. 

Show Notes:
Evil Hat
Dinocaplyse
Race to Adventure
Pelgrane Press
Fire Opal Media's Facebook Page
Fire Opal Media's, Blog, Twitter, Google Plus.
Rob Heinsoo's Twitter, and Google Plus.
Jonathan Tweet's Twitter, and Google Plus.

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 09 - 13th Age with Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet

This week Fred is joined by none other than Steve Jackson (@SJGames), and Phillip Reed (@PhillipJReed) to talk about what SJG has been learning from the OGRE kickstarter. 

Show Notes
Dinocalypse
Car Wars
Don't Read This Book

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 08 - Steve Jackson, Phil Reed, and the OGRE in the room

In this episode, Chris and Fred are joined by Evil Hat co-founder Rob Donoghue to talk about PAX: East, Kickstarter, and Race to Adventure. This one's all over the map! 

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 07 - Evil Hat Round Table at Pax: East

This episode we have a scoop! Fred and Chris are joined by Phil Reed (@phillipjreed) and Andrew Hackard (@RedPenOfDoom) from Steve Jackson Games to talk about business at a big scale, and SJG's plans to launch the new, gigantic edition of Ogre via Kickstarter.

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 06 - Kicking the OGRE with Steve Jackson Games

In this episode Fred and Chris talk with Chuck Wendig. They discuss the upcoming Dinocalypse Kickstarter, and Don't Read This Book, the upcoming Don't Rest Your Head anthology. Along the way they discuss the challenges of working on writing fiction that springs from an RPG, their collabration process, and more.

Show Notes
Chuck Wendig
Dinocalypse
Dinocalypse Kickstarter
Don't Read This Book
Evil Hat
Deadly Fredly
End Game

That's How We Roll: Season 03 Episode 05 - Kicking It Dino Style With Chuck Wendig

In this episode Fred and Chris examine Brand Maturity by talking about how Evil Hat has moved from two guys with a free hack of another free game to a company making board games, card games, RPGs, and fiction.

Show Notes
To come....

That's How We Roll: Season 03, Episode 04 - Evil Hat Levels Up

In this episode, Fred and Chris discuss; Metatopia, what's interesting about Metatopia as a convention, the area the podcast is focused on, and trying to nail down a definition for what the Hobby Industry is exactly.

Show Notes
Peter Adkison
Shannon Appelcline - Designers and Dragons
Metatopia (Rob's take on Metatopia)
Divine Cow
Double Exposure (Dreamation, Dex Con, Metatopia)
Vincent (Vinny) Salzillo
Metatopia has innovative pricing. $20 for playtesters, $50 for designers.
Darren Watts
Indie Press Revolution (I.P.R.)
Ken Hite
Jennisodes (Recording of Ken Hite's design seminar.)
Kickstarter Bulletpoints from Metatopia
Joshua A.C. Newman
Shock
Elevator Pitching Basics
Elevator Pitching Advanced (Pitch why you do, how you do, then what you do.)
Deadly Fredly: Foot in the Door (Article about how to enter the hobby industry.)
Don't Rest your Head
Transparency
(Fantasy) Heartbreakers

That's How We Roll: Season 03, Episode 03 - The Meta-Industry Show

It's this episode Chris and Fred talk to Peter Adkison about his time as the C.E.O. of Wizards of the Coast, which includes the time that period when WotC purchased TSR and acquired Dungeons and Dragons, among other things. This is a bit of a follow up on the last episode. It's very interesting and contains info I've never heard before. Show notes will be crazy.

Show Notes
Words in quotation are direct quotation. Word's not in quotation are my notes, to fill in or expand the quote.

Peter's credentials
1. Founder of Wizards of the Coast 1990
C.E.O. until 2001. (Peter says 2011 by accident, he meant 2001.)
During that time WotC; launched Magic: The Gathering, bought T.S.R., on day 2 after purchasing T.S.R. began developing 3rd Edition dungeons and Dragons, created the Open Gaming License and the D20 License, and was bought by Hasbro.
He was not involved in 3.5 or 4E D&D.
2. Bought Gen Con in 2002.
C.E.O. of Gen Con L.T.D. until present (Present equals Nov 2011, I can't predict the future.)
3. Cofounder of Hidden City Entertainment with Jasper Myfors in 2004
C.E.O until 2011
Hidden City licensced and created cards for Bella Sera. (Girls on horses.)

Peter on TSR being purchased for 25 million, and it's actual value.
25 million was roughly the amount of debt T.S.R. had acquired. Purchase price was actually higher.
"25 million was way way way more than it was worth." If you used the 1997 revenue to determine the value. If you used 1996 revenue, "it was right on the mark." By 1998, WotC had increased the value to the 30 to 35 million range.
Novels actually made up the larger share of revenue not games. It was "roughly 60 / 40 split."
The purchase was more for strategic purposes. "By us it was strategic in nature... by buying T.S.R., Wizards became clearly the top dog in the industry." It changed WotC's positioning "from the head of a category to the head of an industry."
This seems to pay off as they are purchased by Hasbro in 1998, and Peter reveals the D+D brand was at least 1/3 of how Hasbro valued the company. Wikipedia put's the purchase price of WotC by Hasbro at 325 million.

Peter on Hasbro.
Hasbro was hands off as far as managing WotC. Peter was told, "You will earn your way into integration through poor performance." Peter posits they were interested in WotC as their foot in hobby games. "Add it all up, it's as big as the mass market."

Peter on the OGL.
"The strategic vision behind it was, hey-- lets let other companies, frankly, do the part of the business that doesn't make money, and we'll just do the core books. I think that was a good strategy. The problem from Wizards perspective was that Wizards never really made good on the strategy. We kept... Wizards kept doing core books and kept doing companion settings. Whereas I think, Ryan Dancey, would say the original strategy was to cut the D&D team down to like half a dozen people. And that would have been painful. One of those painful decisions companies make, but might have bee

That's How We Roll: Season 03, Episode 02 - Making D&D History with Peter Adkison

You thought it was podfaded? Season 3 Episode 01 is here to convince you otherwise. That's How We Roll is back with a vengeance. In this Episode Fred and Chris discuss what lead to the long hiatus, how they're planning to get back on track, and what they've been up to. They then dig into the main topic which is a discussion of Wizards of the Coast marketing, and brand strategy, for Dungeons and Dragons.

Show Notes 
Race to Adventure 
Lisa Stevens claims Pathfinder has surpassed D+D
D+D Essentials 
DDI 
Bill Slavicsek 
Pathfinder prepainted minis, aka Pathfinder Battles. 
Monte Cook 
Fred's interview on the Jennisodes. 
D+D's board games 
Fantasy Flight Games 
Gamma World 
Star Frontiers 
Top Secret 
Ravenloft 
Birthright 
Brand Strategy 
Open Gaming License 
2011 Ennie Awards 
Fate 
Dresden Files RPG 
Diana Jones Awards 
D+D Experience 
Chris mentions D+D worth $25 million? Best I could do was this fact. WotC acquired TSR and Five Rings Publishing Group for $25 million on April 10, 1997. 
Brand Confusion 
D+D Encounters 
Hasbro stock price 
Pathfinder Adventure Path 
Fiasco 
Hocus Focus (A Dresden Files playset for Fiasco) 

That's How We Roll: Season 03, Episode 01 - WTFotC

Chris visits Fred in Maryland. We talk about Jeni's Ice Creams, The Dresden Files RPG, distribution, The Leverage RPG, Happy Birthday Robot, and the role confidence plays in marketing your games.

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Episode 7 - Confidence Games With Harry

[1h 2m 5s] Fred and Chris catch up on the last three months, including the impending release of the Dresden Files RPG at Origins 2010 and Chris's impotent rage about not getting to order Jeni's Ice Creams for delivery. Then on to talk about how they won't be picking up on last episode's cliffhanger and instead focusing talking about VSCA's approach to publishing with Diaspora (the good and the bad) and Games Workshop's surprising attitude towards its fans.

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Episode 6 - Catching Up With The Ass Tax

Fred and Chris talk about:- Is it worth the effort to sell RPGs, as a retailer?- Not Attending GenCon
- The Ennies Results- Dominion and the Diana Jones Award- Should NDAs exist?- Disclosure vs. SurpriseComments welcome!

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Epsiode 5 - Worth The Effort

In this abruptly shortened episode, Fred and Chris talk about Transparency.  There would have been another half hour of material here, but unfortunately the recording software on each end of the call screwed up (differently), making the rest of the episode hard to listen to.  We'll be publishing some "deleted scenes" elsewhere, away from the podcast's main feed, for those made of tough enough stuff to listen to our mangled blatherings.Sadly, this means you missed out on our cliffhanger for the next episode, so we'll give it to you here: Fred asks Chris the question, "Are RPGs worth it, for a gaming retail store?"

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Epsiode 4 - Abridged Transparency

Fred and Chris talk about Origins, the Origins Awards, and the Ennies. (Also, Battletech, and other typical ramblings.)EDIT: We missed some "this needs editing" bits towards the end there, sorry! We've uploaded a new version of the show, so if you heard the "bad" one, you can pull down the revised copy now-ish.[Show notes pending volunteer effort!]

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Epsiode 3 - Origins and Awards

Now featuring much, much improved audio. If you hated the audio in episode 1, don't worry -- it's all better now.0:oo - 1:30 Chris and Fred giving some intro thoughts
1:30 - 2:50 Fred talks some about layout for Hero 6th edition

2:50 - 9:00 Fred talks about the birth of his child

9:00 - 15:00 Chris and Fred get a bit meta

16:30 - 1:10:00 The talk turns to communication with the gaming community

Fred's early history in customer service

Chris' orginization of the Endgame Mini-cons

The three D's of building community

Game evangelists

How to disseminate information

How community impacts sales for retailers and game companies

Ways lack of communication has hurt game companies

A small bit of DFRPG talk

The use of forums in building community

The power of responding positively to negative reviews

Mind control through synergy

Mean what you are saying to your community

Compartmentalize the negative and accentuate the positive

1:10:00 Another cliffhanger for this week - "Transparency"

Follow Chris and Fred on Twitter: @chrishanrahan or @EndGameOakland; and @fredhicks

Call the voicemail at 1-301-637-7HAT (7428)

or Email roll [at] evilhat [dot] com

Music by Finn Kish

Show annotation provided by J. B. Mannon of At The Table.

That's How We Roll: Season 2, Episode 2 - Practical Mind Control

PLEASE NOTE: The audio on this episode is CRAP.  Don't judge the podcast by the audio quality here. It improves significantly with episode 2.[1hr 6min] Season 2 kicks off with a "digital delve" into the topic of D&D Insider, PDFs, conventions, and some retail store community basics.  Our sound on this was a little wonky -- a combination of Skype and the tendency of Fred's laptop fan to randomly scream at "heavy whirr" levels in the background.All timestamps very approximate.1 min - Fred and Chris talk about WOTC's decision to take their PDFs off the market.7 min - Fred talks about the Evil Hat PDF philosophy13 min - Fred finally gets to the Evil Hat PDF Guarantee18 min - Catalyst games is trying to get PDFs and retailers working together too19 min - A bad economy is an opportunity. It's time to innovate.20 min - Loop back around to D&D again: how has D&D Insider (DDI) affected the picture?31 min - Wrap-up on the PDF/DDI topic. Send us your thoughts!32 min - Chris is going to Origins, but Fred isn't. He has a good excuse.34 min - IPR isn't going either38 min - Let's give the Forge booth its props: it wasn't easy40 min - What's the future of Origins?41 min - Dreamation/Dexcon: East Coast awesome, but not really a big con42 min - Actual predictions about Origins get made; then we sing its praises49 min - Wrap-up on the predictioneering51 min - Let's talk about mini-cons: Good Omens is coming to Endgame in July53 min - Endgame's minicons in general54 min - So let's talk about mini-con how-to's for retailers...55 min - ... only not, because we need to talk about community-building first.59 min - "A clean, well-lit place to play"61 min - Going beyond the physical62 min - The trap of distribution. It's not the one you're thinking of.64 min - It's all about communication ... and it looks like mind control will be the topic of the next show.65 min - Cliffhanger wrap-up!

That's How We Roll

That's How We Roll

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