Looking way into the future, I've been looking at the idea of putting The Gay Recruitment Squad into a box.
The Box Office will do A5-size rigid coloured boxes for 1.01p each, minimum shipment of 50 boxes. Add shipping (10 quid) and VAT and that leaves you with about 1.38 a box.
Because it's in a box, I figure you can get away with a lower quality rulebook. I'm thinking of my old Tunnels and Trolls rulebook: A5, cardboard cover, stapled in the centre, laser-printed.
Everything else is fairly cheap: laser-printed cards, counters, griplock bags.
Do these numbers ring true to you? Can you see any obvious problems? Is this something that anyone else here has thought of doing?
Graham
I was thinking about this
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 13:02.
I was thinking about this and I think that GRSWY really wants to be a boxed game. That way you can supply the board, special cards and counters and stuff. I was thinking that if this were (say) a cheapass games product, it'd have a board, a deck of cards and sheet with the rules on plus a handful of characters.
Have you looked at www.plasticsforgames.co.uk ?
The only downsides I can see are: A5 is quite small. I'm sure the character sheets will work OK at that size, but I'm not so sure about the board. You'd be looking at the board being in at least 6 pieces joined together to be any kind of decent size.
Have you seen John Wick's Necronomonopoly? The print version is just the PDF printed onto coloured card. The cards aren't even cut out. It comes in a heavy manilla envelope that's just over A4/letter and had a colour sticker on the front with the game's logo on. I think that's a good way to produce this game, at least at first. Go for that slightly "punk" feel.
Box Problems
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 16:44.
I like boxes, but they have a problem with VAT in the UK.
I'm sure you need to pay VAT on the cover price. So if your price is £10 (say) then you need to add on 17.5%, so it retails for £11.75. And the taxman will want his £1.75.
Books and newspapers don't get VAT added on. This is the sort of topic where I wish we had a spare James Wallis lying about to help us.
I actually checked on the
Submitted by Graham W on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 17:27.
I actually checked on the Revenue and Customs website: I'm fairly sure VAT only applies if there's a turnover of over £61,000.
Edit: I just phoned their helpline. Yes, you don't need to charge VAT on a boxed game unless your turnover in the previous 12 months is over that figure.
So, if it comes to 12 months after release and I've sold 6,100 copies, I'll a. be ecstatic and b. have to bump the price up.
Graham
Now, there's a problem worth
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 17:28.
Now, there's a problem worth looking forward to!
Yay!
Submitted by Gregor Hutton on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 18:07.
Awesome.
I always liked those plain cardboard japanese-style boxes. Maybe with something like a stencil on them for "branding", or perhaps a sticker.
Just shooting a few
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 19:09.
Just shooting a few alternatives out there:
How about a tube like posters come in and the board printed as a poster? Although this might lead to the board not laying flat once unrolled. I have a game somewhere that was made by some dude in Canada that a mate bought back from a holiday. Apparently the guy was literally selling them in the street.
Kitchener would be appalled!
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 21:52.
To throw in my ha'pennyworth...
I think that TGRSWY! is absolutely suited to being in a boxed format. I like the suggestion of quite a plain box with a simple stencil on it (kind of like what you get in Muji or somewhere like that?). But part of me is hankering for a cardboard box with a version of the classic poster on it. You'd need to keep the 'tache, but maybe a different hat of some kind...
All in all, it's a great idea. The Cheapass games manage to have a DIY look but still look cool. So I can't why TGRSWY! wouldn't benefit from a similar approach.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
Hi graham, I have thought
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Wed, 07/02/2007 - 22:19.
Hi graham,
I have thought about doing boxed games before, including dice and everything needed to play the game so it is more self contained. Haven't really looked into it much though so thanks for the link to the box office. I had looked at similar sites before when I started to think about printing 'Bmovie'. I might have to work on my Pirate vs. Ninja board game now!
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
Check out my home brew games like 'Reel Adventures'
That's useful stuff.
Submitted by Graham W on Thu, 08/02/2007 - 12:09.
That's useful stuff. Cheers.
What do you think on the specific thing of the book being lower quality? I'm imagining a laser-printed A4 thing with a cardboard cover (also laser-printed). Would you feel cheated if that's what you found in the box?
Graham
It's kinda-sorta
Submitted by Rich Stokes on Thu, 08/02/2007 - 15:54.
It's kinda-sorta expectations vs price.
I mean, I've bought pretty much every single Cheapass Games product they ever made (some of them twice it turns out) and some of them don't even have boxes. They used to come in plain old envelopes which had been run through a laser printer. To this day, they're still collated by hand and the cards are bound using strips of whatever magazine Toivo happened to have lying around when he was collating. But they cost, like, £4-8 a go.
Would it actually be any cheaper to produce the rulebook that way? I mean, seriously, how many pages does it need?