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

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 been exactly the right strategy to do with the brand. That's kind of why it happened. I don't think anyone could forsee the repercussions of the Open Gaming License. The amazing response." "... if we do go down this strategy it means we do have to charge more sharply into the downsizing of our internal staff. Maybe that realization would have said, well let's not do that. why should we do that when the company overall is highly profitable." Peter on ideas that may have been left unexplored for growing the D&D brand. "My vision for D&D, at the time, was doing an MMO. You know a big... do it ourselves... we're making tons of money. Take all the Pokemon money, or not all of it, but a big chunk of the Pokemon money, start a studio... and this was before World of Warcraft came along... and that's what we were real excited to do. and that's what we thought would be the biggest driver towards making Dungeons and Dragons as big, or bigger even, than Magic: The Gathering. We started a studio and had 30 people working on code and art." Links: (to come.) 

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

Season 3: Fred Hicks (publisher) and Chris Hanrahan (retailer) talk about gaming, the hobby industry, marketing, customer service, retail, and more.

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That's How We Roll

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