The Preorder Is Go!
The preorder for the Dresden Files RPG is now live!
You can learn more about the particulars of the preorder — and place your early order for both books in the set, including getting access to the almost-complete PDFs right away — at the Evil Hat Productions web store:
http://www.evilhat.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=65_72
Free shipping is available in the USA to people who place a preorder for both books, and the final PDFs will be made available to preordering customers once they are available (which should include the addition of a short story by Jim, still getting written as we speak)! The books will ship out in late June/early July.
Fans of the series may be particularly interested in the second book, which among other things provides a comprehensive character guide up through Small Favor. A handy reference to have on hand as you read through Changes next week.
and already ordered!
the PDFs are awesome!
thanks and keep up the good work!
can’t wait to get the books in print…
Got it preordered around 4am CST. Didn’t get to sleep for a bit….
I made my pre-order at North Coast Role Playing yesterday. The books look spectacular, and there’s so much great stuff in them I hardly know where to start.
I’d like to thank Fred for being so on top of things. I went into the store yesterday to let Barry (the owner) know about the pre-order starting up on Monday. He sent off an e-mail while I was there, and I thought that I might be able to do my pre-order in a couple of days. But when I got home I had a message from him saying that everything was ready to go, and I could come back to the store, pay my money and walk away with the PDF. Which I did. Awesome.
I’ll pre-order on Wednesday, when I get paid.
Is there any way adding a few mail options for the international orders? To send the books to Australia costs nearly $60!
Personally I don’t need priority mail and would be happy to pay for sea shipping and get the books 4 weeks after the release date.
I…I have the books. On my computer. Right now. Three years of waiting and they’re finally mine… I think I might cry a little….
@Mesar, unfortunately our store software doesn’t understand that shipping option (it just plain doesn’t display it) — what we’ve got listed is the cheapest we could find (crazy, I know). If you can drop me an email about it on the http://www.evilhat.com “Contact Us” page, I can do a little more research, but I don’t want to get your hopes up.
Ordered both! Here’s to hoping the $8 extra for shipping USPS to Canada ($30 comp to $22) will win out over the absurd customs/brokerage fees UPS tends to have…
Either way, it’ll be worth it. Mmm… massive tomes…
Just ordered the books and downloaded the pdf’s. Awesome job!
Got the preorder and I’m stoked. What’s more, my wife who’s had zero interest in role-playing the 10 years we’ve been married but is a big Dresden Files fan informed me that I had better invite her to play or else…
Just downloaded the PDF, I got the preorder, and I’m super-excited to have this gorgeous book in my hands!
Paypal only?! I have money. I would like to give it to you, but I need some real options here.
Oh.man.oh.man.oh.man… happy dance. Now to sweat talk the wife extra good.
@Jake, that’s what we could easily set up. That said, you do NOT need a paypal account in order to use paypal as an intermediary to pay us via credit card. Just scroll down on the page when you get sent to paypal to where it says “pay by credit card” and it should be like most any other commerce experience.
@fred
I just a bad history with them and I dread doing business through them. I went ahead and ordered though because I like you.
Fred… ordered the books, and LOVE the PDF’s! Great job by everyone on this project.
That said… my cat hates you. The scream of joy, when I saw that Preorder was a go, kind of scared her. Oh well, she has 8 lives left
Again, thanks for doing such a great job!
Fred:
Wonderful Work!
Found myself getting really misty-eyed based on two of the stat-blocks in the Second Volume due to his case-files coming out still.
Wooo! Awesome news!
I’m planning on organising a group order for myself and other folks I know here in Oz to cut down on the per-head shipping costs. Fred, I presume that in doing so, I’d get one download link, but I could then in good conscience give copies of the PDFs to the other folks who were in my group pre-order?
@RobRendell, yep. That’s the size of it.
fred, is there a thread, mail-adress or site were owners of the preorder-pdfs can make suggestions or ask questions?
(I know that the pdfs are not final, but maybe there are some points that need more clarification, even if it is just a FAQ on a web page.)
@Wyrdrune, sure is — plenty of conversation happening over on the Jim Butcher Online Dresden Files RPG forum board: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/board,5.0.html
Are these books being distributed in the UK after release? It seems like it might be cheaper to buy the books when they are officially released here if they do… unfortunately, because I really want to preorder them but can’t afford to drop £100 for them.
@alexjstuart, yes. And in fact, you can preorder them “locally” through Leisure Games if you want to get the benefit.
@fred Thanks, have done so. Turns out it’s £30 cheaper that way.
+5 for the old Marvel Super Heroes reference, +10 for the Big Trouble in Little China reference
One question – will there be a chance to get the various worksheets and character sheets in a format where I can cut and paste text from my computer? I’ve printed pages from the PDF, but my handwriting is awful, and just being able to print out a character sheet with the text already on it would be a blessing.
@Josh Jasper, a couple people have volunteered to create form-fillable versions. I haven’t managed to move that forward yet.
Is Leisure Games already accepting preorders? I’ve been checking their website since Sunday for it but this morning (well, morning in Spain) it was still not updated. I suppose it went live in the last few hours, I’ll go for it.
Great job by making it cheaper for European people to buy it through local retailers, thanks Fred. I hope something similar can be achieved for other foreigners (like the Australian guy above).
Selenio.
@Selenio, Mike at Leisure Games tells me that preorders have been rolling in, so I think so. I haven’t gone to their website to be sure.
But when I go there and type in “Dresden Files” in the search-box, I get a listing…
Got the pre-order, I’ve been reading, and have already started telling my friends about it. The system is great, but anyone who’s messed with Spirit of the Century or Starblazer Adventures knew the system would be good. The presentation and layout is clean and fun; I find myself chuckling at many references (Alphas are not Amazing (50), Alphas are Remarkable (30)…love it), not to mention how it is wonderfully self-referential. Finally, the “voices” of the characters seem “on the money”, so far. It sounds like Harry giving a witty remark or making a short lecture. It sounds like the flippant, arrogant, but all-knowing Bob. So far (I am far from done reading the books, in fact I am only 3/4ths through “Your Story”) it is in-theme, fitting, and well-written. Thumbs up. Well done. I hope this gets the recognition it deserves.
I seem to remember a “That’s How We Roll” podcast stating that Evil Hat allows GM’s to lend the PDF for the book they purchase. Is that true and does it still stand?
@JimB, yep. Lend like you’d lend a book; but you gotta “get the book back” at the end (have them delete it after a short period unless they buy their own copies). But “lending it out” so folks can work on their characters? totally cool.
Fred, you made my day. This group is an old school. They need hard copies to flip through. But the PDF will get them started. Thanks much.
OMG – how did i miss this for 4 days! (it’s the 8th here) Yeah ok the $60 to ship to australia sucked – but hey I’m happy to finally know i have a copy
just a shame that more of the money i am honestly happy to spend on my copy hasn’t gone to you guys. A HUGE thank you for the pdf’s now and on final release mentality – that is by far the best customer service I’ve seen thus far.
All i have is one question as my finger hovers over the checkout button. Are these nearly complete pdfs enough to run the game? Or are they enough just to tinker with while we wait?
@Joe the only things missing are a short story by Jim and some late-hour incorporation of errata.
holy fuck! $90 for both books are you guys smoking crack? i was all about ordering them but for that price i’m gonna pass. pretty sure the guys in my gaming group are gonna feel the same.
@Kitsunex, we announced those prices at least a month back, and they are very comparable to other products with similar licenses and production values on the market. If that’s out of your price range, so is a vast swath of other gaming product. But suffice it to say it’s been proven that the market is happy to bear the cost and that it’s a fair one.
You can see where we announced the prices in late January/early February here:
http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2010/01/26/press-release/
And you can see my breakdown of costs on this project here on my blog:
http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2010/04/dresden-sausage/
http://www.deadlyfredly.com/2010/01/the-shelf-is-a-gamble/
@Kitsunex
$90 sounds like a lot for two books… However the amount of material (you get 400+ pages in one book alone), and the amount of work this entailed (DFRPG has been in the works for *years*), $90 for the two books is not only extremely reasonable, it is extremely fair.
Like a ton of other people I did the whole preorder thing. After getting my hands on the PDF, I am not complaining. In fact I am really thrilled (also happy, ecstatic, and in a DFRPG-induced euphoria) with the product! I also have not heard anyone complain about the price who *has* seen the PDF- something for you and your group to take into consideration.
*after hours of pouring over the books his head full of ideas, he says nothing, just stands up and starts the slow clap*
@Joe — Eeeeexcellent!
thank you. Great work.
The cost for shipping in Europe is vety high but fotunately the euro is strong against dollar.
I’m planning to start the first italian campaign.
Having got the pre-order via Leisure Games earlier this week, my son has returned from travelling today, seen my pdf version and is very enthusiastic about having his own copy to take back to university as a late birthday present – so another order has gone into Leisure Games today.
I pre-ordered, I printed, I sold it to my group and we created a city and characters and had a blast and have heads full with ideas and wishes and stories.
Best 73€ I’ve ever spent on any RPG.
The wait really was worth it.
Hey, a buddy of mine pre-ordered this and gave me a chance to check it out.
Stars and Stones, this is the most ENTERTAINING rpg book I’ve ever read.
I’ll definitely be preordering at the end of the month when the paycheck hits.
We just started our game last night, with my girlfriend, of all people, as GM. It’s her first time, and the aspect system is so intuitive that she has been able to handle it with no problems at all. Kudos.
As a side note, I’m currently drawing up a more crunch-heavy sheet, would you guys like to post on the site when I’m done?
@Rob, we’ll want to give it a look-over first, but definitely send it our way.
Glad to hear it’s such a hit!
Fred, I have to say that this is one of the neatest rpg books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I have been burnout on rpgs for awhile now and this game just might get the roleplaying juices going again.
This is the only game I have ever went and preordered. I normally wait to see a book on the shelf, look through it, leave it, and debate for the next week or 12 to decide if I am going to buy it. I am extremely glad I didnt with this one.
Great job, Evil Hat, great job.
At £92 odd (including P&P), this is probably the most expensive RPG I’ve ever bought, but definitely well worth it from my brief skimming through the PDFs so far. Nice job, Evil Hat. Now, let’s see if I can make the kitsune PI I’ve been thinking of for a while now… xD
Preordering as we speak. Butcher, a gamer himself, has written a gamer’s setting in his novels. (I’m halfway through Turn Coat as we speak.) I look forward to playing in his universe as soon as possible.
@fred
Hey, I’ve got a PDF of the sheet ready to go. How can I get it to you guys?
Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make it better.
I might have gone a little overboard.
@Rob, how big is it? Email should work: send it to evilhat at that there gmail thingy.