The System DL Online Business Model

• I would like to start selling the full version of System DL and finally make some money off my years of labor.
• Established game companies won't buy a whole new system at the expense of their already-profitable game lines.
• I don't have enough money on hand to print System DL, market it, ship it, etc.
• I don't even have enough money to hook up with an established e-provider and sell the thing online. Let's face it, folks, I'm flat freakin' broke.

So here's my idea. I will make System DL a yearly subscription service. For some puny fee (probably around $10 via PayPal), you will receive, direct from me, a copy of the full version of System DL in Adobe PDF format. This book won't be copy-protected in any way, but it WILL have your name on every page and your full address on the inside front "cover" page. Why? Consider it a crude form of copy protection. You can print it, store it, send it to your friends, whatever; but if I discover you've been distributing it on the Net, I will personally come to your house (since your address is right there inside the cover), ask for you by name, and sit on your head. And I'm a heavy fellow.

But that's not all! That's just the beginning of your elite System DL subscription. You will also receive:

• Access to an exclusive System DL players' mailing list for one full year. Ask questions, give answers, schmooze with your fellow gamers.
• A bimonthly(?) System DL newsletter which I personally guarantee will contain cool game-related stuff, like new rules expansions, new "mini-genres" to game around in, even the occasional full-fledged adventure.
• Maybe, maybe, even a gamers' online registry. Meet interesting new people from all over the world, and game with them.

But wait, there's MORE! For an additional $10, you'll be upgraded to the System DL Gamesmaster Suite! This will give you one years' access to yet ANOTHER, even more exclusive GM's mailing list, PLUS full access to any "Gamesmaster supplements" I put out. These supplements will contain full "behind the scenes" information to help you play some of the more unique System DL game worlds while still keeping your players in the dark about what's really going on. And they thought the players' supplements were the whole story? evil chuckle

The players' book will probably be around 100 pages, no illos, with very little color besides the covers, so it'll be home-printer-friendly. This book is practically finished, so I'll offer it first. The GM's book will probably also weigh in close to 100 pages, but that's only a very rough estimate at this time, since I only have the roughest of drafts. If the players' book makes enough money to keep me from starving, I could have the GM's book finished by years' end.

So that's the pitch. I'm trying to gauge reaction before I go all out. Would you pay $10/$20 for a year's access to all this? If you think it sounds wifty, or not very good at all, let me know.

--C.