I’m Making A Note Here, Big Success
We are just now cresting onto the other side of the big hill that was the release of the Dresden Files RPG.
We started the preorder in April, on Easter. The release hit at Origins at the end of June, and the shipping operation began at the warehouse — and commenced eating our warehouse’s face for breakfast. Thankfully that wrapped up in early July, so there should only be a few straggler orders now not yet delivered (though folks who ordered internationally, or domestically via Media Mail, may still have another week or so — them’s the breaks with those shipping methods).
It’s been a bumpy ride, but it’s also been an exhilarating ride. And all the while distribution (and thereby game stores) have been hopping on board with their orders as well.
The upshot of this? So far, The Dresden Files RPG: Your Story has sold close to 5,000 copies, with Our World not far behind.
Those of you following along at home may remember that this is out of an initial print run of 6,000 copies of each book. So we are, technically, running low — though we still have books in stock, and have shipped off several orders recently to distributors who are quickly realizing they just didn’t order enough the first (or second) time around to meet the demand.
Dropping down to 1,000 copies of Your Story is why we’ve kicked off the reprint process with our printer, which should mean more books will be in hand by late August. We’re having another 4,000 copies of Your Story and another 3,500 copies of Our World printed up. If we’re projecting this right, at worst we might see a week or two lapse in availability.
Some folks have written to us (and thanks for that!) to tell us about conversations they’ve had with their game stores about the Dresden Files RPG being out of print. We’ve investigated each of these claims, and it has always emerged that someone in the chain (this is a lot like a game of “telephone”) misunderstood the distributor’s message of “we sold out and have more on order”. For some folks the message that a distributor doesn’t have any more books right now simply translates to “oh, that title’s out of print” and “the publisher didn’t print enough”. Neither of those things are true, since we still do have books available for sale both to distribution and direct to customers, and because we’ve already got that reprint ball rolling to make sure we minimize any short-term out of stock situations that arise.
So, let’s be clear about this: The Dresden Files RPG books will not be out of print any time soon. We’re committed to keeping the product available for purchase for as long as it’s financially viable to keep doing reprints (and as long as Jim will let us).
Six thousand copies was already a pretty ambitious number for a roleplaying game in today’s RPG market, but thanks to the fans we’re on track to smash that figure in another few months (maybe less), and are setting our sights on smashing more figures after that. Thank you all!
That’s great news to hear for EHP, but what about those of us who did pre-order through a FLGS, and the store’s distributor hasn’t gotten their shipment in yet?
@Eric, tell me the store and the distributor and I’ll see what I can find out, but we definitely supplied our preorder-period distributor, Alliance, with as many books as they asked for. Same goes with our UK distro Esdevium.
I finally got my book! Go Evil Hat!
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.
Fred,
Thank you for the information. Not sure I like the fact that the distributor is “passing the buck” so to speak.
I’m very proud of you guys for pulling this thing off as well as you have. The books are beautiful, the system is excellent, and the setting/characterization is spot on to the source material. Consider me a faithful Evil Hatter for life!
Last week I bought my own copies at Gigamesh, the most famous brick and mortar store of Barcelona, Spain. The books are simply amazing and I’m very happy they have reached so fast our local shelves. As far as I can tell, the sells are good here too.
Congratulations for a job well done.
Selenio.
Well, my store had a couple of copies left, so I was able to just walk in and pick up both books. In addition, rather than having us have to go online and requisition the .pdf of the book, we get a CD with it, with the purchase.
Anyway and so far, I’m liking what I see. I’m going to have so much fun running and playing this. I’m trying to sell my wife on it, and it seems to be working, as she’s a Castle Falkenstein fan and she uses the Fudge system rather than the original R. Talsorian rules.
Keep up the good work, guys!!!
I just received my pre-ordered copy of the books (I live in Australia). I wanted to thank everyone involved in the writing, publishing and most importantly the printing process for producing such an amazingly high quality product – from the rules, dialogue between the characters in the book, down to the AMAZING printing job.
Too many RPG companies publish using thin, glossy paper (D&D 4E being the worst offender for using almost magazine thickness glossy print that smudges at the slightly hint of moisture). NOT these books! Each book weighs about 1.5kg and has the thickest, sturdiest pages i’ve ever had the pleasure of handling, and the smooth, beautiful pages.
They feel like a tome of arcane power in my hand!
So for anyone thinking about buying a copy of the book, do it. These books could (should?) have been price even higher just for the quality of the print run alone!
Thank you again EvilHat, Publishing Team, Jim Butcher!
Extraordinary!
Congrats guys. So glad to hear the books are selling well.
Question: what’s the availability look like for Gen Con? Will I be out of luck?
@Tim C Koppang, IPR should have a couple hundred copies of each in the IPR/Evil Hat booth.
I got my copies a while back and am very pleased with the purchases. In addition to the awesome Dresden adaptation, I very much like this iteration of FATE, and am working on a quirky casual adaptation to introduce some of my long-time friends to this kind of gaming over my upcoming vacation.
My hat goes out to the Evil Hat crew. Let’s hope the sales are enough to sustain additional runs!
@Thampsan
Am a little bit jealous that Thamspan got books already!
If that is the same nickname I know – then not only do we live in the same town, but ordered around the same time!
Oh well, happy to have the pdfs and happy to wait for the goodness.
On the topic of the pdfs – some people looking over my shoulders while I read have seemed very interested – so I am glad to hear of another print run!
Congratulations and good work.
So…how many copies will you have at GenCon? Trying to decide if I need a ninja to shop when the hall opens.
@Nate, I think we’ll have between 200 and 300 copies of each title, but I have no idea how fast they’ll go.
Just received my copies.
I’m making a note here, I’m impressed.
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction in the product.
I’ve been following the progress of this project since Day 1 of your announcement and DFRPG has exceeded all expectations.
Congrats!
Does anyone else find it odd that “Your Story” is outselling “Our World”? I would have thought it would be the other way around, due to Dresden fans wanting “Our World” to use as a series reference.
Oh, well. I’ve got both, so I’m happy.
Just picked up the books today. Scanned through them and a beautiful product all ’round – presentation and layout alone is excellent! The art, the notes scribbled in the margins, ‘sticky notes’ and highlights all make it look like a living document. I’m a fan of the books and of gaming, so these are at the top of my read pile – but I had to post something on receipt because such loving attention to presenting a product is sorely lacking these days, even from larger companies.
@Simon, no oddity from where I’m standing. Volume 2 (Our World) is seen as a GM’s book primarily (reducing the number of folks who might buy it) while Volume 1 is seen as a Player + GM’s book. You might see multiple V1′s at one table, but usually only one V2, I suspect. The fact that V2 is tracking as closely to V1 as it is is explained, I think, by the fan-value you’re talking about.
This would explain why I’ve seen several copies of “Our World” show up at Borders, but no copies of “Your Story” yet. Looking forward to picking up “Your Story” when it becomes available again. So far, from the PDFs, I’m quite thrilled with how this has turned out. Awesome stuff!
@Craig Maloney, Borders ordered hundreds of copies of Your Story … If they’re not there, it’s because they sold them! We still have copies for sale at our web store at the very least.
Hi everyone,
is it true that you’ve planned a 2nd (revised?) edition to be released soon? I’ve heard rumours about that but can’t find any information to back it up. I’ve been thinking about buying both books for a while now but right now it wouldn’t make sense for me if there really was a revised edition coming up soon…
Thx in advance for your answer!
Good heavens no! Where would you have heard such a rumor? This is the first I’ve heard of anyone supposing such a thing, and whoever did is out of touch with how much time usually passes before revised editions happen (if they ever do). The game’s only a year old — if it were five or ten years old, I’d understand the notion.
You’re safe buying the current (and likely only, in perpetuity) version.
Maybe someone got confused about the Paranet Papers supplement we plan to release in 2012?
Thanks, Fred, for the quick answer! That confirms exactly what I thought when I heard about that rumour – EHP can’t possibly want to publish a revised 2nd edition with the 1st one being only a year old… I guess the person who told me that confused a “real 2nd ed” with those reprints. Now I can safely buy the books, that’s great