After Super Samurai, Issue 1, was released the topic of moving to 3rd Edition M&M rules came up. This is a topic that will remain a debatable issue until there is some sort of market sense as to whether or not the 3rd Edition Superlink License will spur a renewal of sales or not in the marketplace. As it stands, 2nd Edition Superlink–although a great system of rules to support as an independent publisher–does not do well enough to support high-production-cost products.
This is not to say there aren’t a few people (counted on one hand possible) that make the Superlink work for them from a financial standpoint… I’d warrant though that the main producers TIME is not taken into consideration when “breaking even” on the financial investment. It is not only writer and art costs that need to be taken into account. The time it takes to layout, edit and promote the product (if done by the publisher–as in my case) takes time… and as they say: Time is money my friends!
For the most part, as I understand it, many Superlink publishers do what they do because the LOVE to do it. That love of the game system allows for them to offer their time “for free” at the end of the day. That is where I stand with Super Samurai #1 at least. I will likely not break even on the production cost (not accounting for my personal time), but it was a product that I felt HAD to be done. If anything, I wanted the experience of just making it happen, from start to finish, to know the process, the requirements, the market, and ultimately what the sacrifice to my time and effort would be, and what it would give in return to warrant making a 2nd or 3rd, or 4th issue.
The process of it all behind me, I can say I enjoyed it very much. I can also say there will be more Superlink products coming out by XEI Books in the future. BUT… that being said, there will definitely be production costs cuts to both writing and art. I’d love to make $1 units in PDF form. Something lightweight as hell, but with enough juice to make it worth the consumers time. Super Samurai will be cut down to half the pages–bringing it more in line with a standard comic size of 22 pages–that will reduce the cover price and increase the chances of making it financially worth my effort.
Misfit Studios is backing an option for publishers to continue to release products under the 2nd Edition Superlink License, without using the actual “M&M Superlink” branding. They offer the suggestion of using a new branding system called “OGL Superhero 2e“. I, for one, am actually pretty excited about this option and can see at least a partial-use of this branding in the near future considering the jump to the 3rd Edition Superlink License branding can only happen from January 2011 onward.
