Ordo Draconis

The title of this post is is shamelessly lifted from the blog of Serpent King Games, the startup firm which has taken over as publisher of the Dragon Warriors line.  We will be including an interview with Ian Sturrock, SKG supremo, in OD #3 – in the meantime we wish the new company the best of luck and hope that it quickly grows to enjoy the same success as that other publisher with the same initials

OD Issue #3 is in fact complete bar a few editing tweaks and a few bits of artwork and maps, on which Steve is working feverishly.  Given our past slippages we won’t dare to mention a publication date, but it should be sooon!

Meanwhile OD #2 continues to sell consistently – have a look at the figures below, which we publish in the spirit of Deadly Fredly’s excellent series of quarterly reports about his firm’s sales progress.  Unlike his, the figures are based on quarters SINCE PUBLICATION (that is, since beginning of March 2010).  Note that ALL of these sales are full-price sales: we have not sold any copies at a discount so far, and we have excluded comped copies from the analysis.

• Period      OBS       Paizo       Others       TOTAL

• Q1          154          30            3         187

• Q2           33           6            1          40

• Q3           46           6            0          52

• Q4           29           2            0          31

• YEAR1       262          44            4         310     

Since we released issue #2 (sorry, hadn’t plugged it for a while!) many of you will have noticed an impressive silence regarding our next issue: Ordo Draconis issue #3.  Well, we are certainly delayed, due mainly to all of the editorial team having their hands filled with “Real Life” for an extended period – and partly to some of our regular contributors taking time out to work on some other DW material.  But we are now bouncing back.   Here are the articles we have so far in the “final polishing” stages…

• Sky Shaman – a new Profession from the heart of the steppes
• The Nomad Bride – an adventure featuring nomads, and a woman soon to be married!
• Codex Cryptozoologica – an extended creature feature with a variety of atmospheric yet vicious denizens of the grass ocean
• City of Kef – a gazzetteer to an old settlement facing new challenges on the frontier between the Sultanate of Opalar and the Khanate domains
• Thuland Campaign – another episode of “actual play”

Now, we couldn’t help but comment on the news about the future of DW, given MoP’s recent announcement that it is shortly to cease publishing more supplements (though there is one more still in the works – In From the Cold – which WILL be coming out).  So we’ll be including an editorial about that, as well an article looking in more detail about how DW might evolve in the future.  To serve as grist for the mill of this analysis, the readers of this blog will probably be interested in – and are invited to contribute to – a “semi-structured discussion page” I have put up at the DW Wiki, about the future evolution of DW and specifically the “System vs. Setting” debate.

We surely hope to hear from you!

Two of the Ordo Draconis contributors have released a new adventure for Dragon Warriors, published by Magnum Opus Press.

Fury of the Deep is available on DriveThru now for the handsome price of USD9.95, and according to our brethren who have already read it, is 54 pages of solid material (no guff or padding)!

Like Ordo Draconis issue #3, it is set outside Ellesland, the “fantasy Britain” island where most of the published Dragon Warriors material up till now has been set.  It is aimed at medium-rank characters.

Finally!  Long after we breached 100 sales on OBS, we have finally passed 100 (and then some) on DriveThru’s main site, thus earning the Silver badge coveted by countless trillions of RPG publishers.

You can now read Roberto Micheri’s review of OD Issue #2 in Signs & Portents 80 – the free house zine of Mongoose Publishing.

Meanwhile this blog has been pretty quiet – mainly because we’re gearing up to unleash OD #3, focussed on the Nomad Khanates, to the east and south of Legend’s heartlands.

Ordo Draconis, issue #2 is now also available on YourGamesNow.  You can find more info plus links for all the other online stores which carry our magazine, right here.

After my post below a kind gentleman from OBS contacted us and pointed out that if we use their affiliate system, we can actually make the same revenue as we do on Paizo, at least when people buy our mag through one of our links rather than just headin’ there straight from the DriveThru front page.  And lo and behold he was right… you can read more here.

That’s right, Ordo Draconis Issue #2 is now also available from Italy’s leading seller of electronic RPG materials.  Naturally, in the English-language section!  Priced at EUR2.75 you can pick it up right here.

That’s right!  A few days ago we broke 100 sales on OneBookShelf (the mothership from which RPGNow and all the little DriveThrus descend to earth).

Now here was us a thinkin’ that >100 should mean a Silver medal, as according to some blog posts we read, when DriveThru and RPGNow merged in 2007 to form OneBookShelf, all the sales get counted as one.

No sirree!  Most of our sales came via DriveThru… but enough came via RPGNow so that we only get copper on DriveThru and diddly-squat on RPGNow.  :-(         Never mind – we also made #9 on the Top 100 Small Press Ranking, and #34 on the Top 100 overall.   Not bad for our first four weeks of sales

So… if you still ain’t bought our mag and would like to, please go via DriveThru rather than RPGNow if you wouldn be so kind.   Or alternatively just grab it at Paizo if you have an account there (we actually get a bit more revenue from Paizo sales).

Good news if you are an EN World Subscriber.  You can now get OD Issue #2 completely free – see here for details.

Meanwhile, if you read the mag and would like to start playing Dragon Warriors (and, admittedly, have $43 in spare change) you can get a very good deal on the Dragon Warriors: a Compleat Introduction which is available now on DriveThru.

Now, if that seems a bit like plunging headfirst when your gaming group just wants to dip its toe, you should know that everything you need to get started, including all rules, a basic bestiary and an introductory adventure are in the Core Rulebook which is currently $23 on DriveThru.  After that, there is some pretty good setting material and a full-on adventure in Ordo Draconis #1 and #2.  After that your party might try the majestic Sleeping Gods campaign which comes bundled in the Compleat Introduction.