2009 is fast coming to a close and 2010 is upon us. And Jon Brazer Enterprises is still around. So far, so good. Eight months in active operations and we’re going strong. A total of 36 products released and I am pleased with how all of them are doing. We started off this year with a few ideas: specifickly an expanded character sheet and an attempt at making a book of monsters for Traveller. Since then, we have released a series of tech items and a lists of names. But the biggest surprise to us is how well our little test product has performed for Pathfinder.
So what can you expect from Jon Brazer Enterprises in 2010? Well, the big news is that you can expect to see us more places. Hopefully your local game store. Last week, we signed an agreement to get us into distribution and into game stores. We are so excited about this. But this does mean a major shift in our released products to date. Pretty much the minimum page count for such products is 32 pages. That’s roughly twice as long as our longest product to date. So yes, we are permanently moving away from our 1-3 page product size model. This also means that our price per page will be going down (finally). We have not been happy with neither Lulu’s prices nor CafePress’s prices, but we’ve been pretty much been forced to charge around $10 for 16 page books to simply make a profit. We’ll moving to a different model which will cut our costs alot, allowing us to have more material.
To do this well, however, we will need your help. We will show you how you can help us get into game stores and detailing the incentive for doing so as the time gets closer. In this current economy, many game stores have cut back on products from smaller, relatively unknown companies and have stocked up on titles that are big sellers. To get into stores, you (their customers) have to ask your game stores to special order our titles. We’ll have a PDF on our website for you to print out and give to your local stores will all the ordering information that they need to make both your life and their life as easy as possible.
One of the harder part of entering distribution is now I have to plan ahead what we’re going to be producing. But I also get to get excited about what’s going out sooner. I’ve been telling myself for a while that my first Traveller book that’s going to hit game stores from us is a book of Mechs. Mech Tech ‘n’ bot: Mechs and Mercs is its current working name. It is shaping up to be a 32 page book of 20-25 mech stats and a mercenary company/military outfit’s mass combat stats that uses an individual mech in mass numbers. I personally am really exciting as, well, I love mechs, but also it is the first Traveller supplement to use the mass combat statistics as presented in the Mercenary Core Book from Mongoose Publishing. Ever wanted to have lead a company of mechs through an enemy city and take over? I know I always have wanted to. Now here’s your chance. We’re hoping to have this hit store shelves in early-to-mid April timeframe.
What is planned for Pathfinder you ask? I don’t want to say to much yet, but we have a book of themed monsters planned. There were a few design philosophies that are going into this book. The first and most important is no “hit point bots,” monsters that do little more than can absorb tons of damage. Each monster has atleast one unique ability or something else to surprise players. The first batch of rough drafts came in only a few days ago and I am cannot help but laugh like an evil wizard planning to rule the world. I’ll be beginning teasers in the mid-Feb/early March time frame. You can expect to see this toward the end of April or early May.
April and May are a bit of a ways off yet. In the meantime we will be continuing the d66 lists for Traveller and another Book of the Faithful for Pathfinder. We know these few offerings will not be satisfying your desires much, but we want to focus on these first print offerings as much as possible so things will be rather quiet from us for a little while.
We have a few other titles we will definitely be doing in the new year and many more we are strongly considering. If you have any suggestions as to what you would like to see from us, please feel free to leave us a reply here or send us an email.
Lastly you can meet us at several conventions. We will definitely be at GenCon and Gama Trade Show and are strongly looking at Origins and TravellerCon. We’re also looking into several smaller conventions in and around New Jersey. If you are planning to attend, please feel free to drop us a line and let us know.
Happy New Year to you all and be safe.
Dale McCoy, Jr
President
Jon Brazer Enterprises.
“Traveller” and the Traveller logo are Trademarks owned by Far Future Enterprises, Inc. and are used with permission. The Traveller Main Rulebook is available from Mongoose Publishing.
Pathfinder and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and are used under license. See paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more information on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
