| Brennan Taylor September 9, 2006 |
| About Brennan Taylor Brennan Taylor is a veteran of the game publishing business as the founder of the small press Galileo Games. His first product, The Legend of Yore, was published in 1996. More recently, he produced the critically acclaimed d20 sci-fi game Bulldogs! Brennan is co-founder of the independent publishers' online game store Indie Press Revolution, a co-operative aimed at giving small publishers a chance outside the current distribution system by emphasizing direct sales to game-players. For more information regarding Brennan Taylor, Galileo Games, and Indie Press Revolution, please visit www.indiepressrevolution.com and www.galileogames.com. |
Post Meeting Write-up
A good time was had by those who attended the SFSNNJ's
September installment of Face The Fiction at the GSP Borders
in Paramus last night. Due to some miscommunication among
the Borders staffers, there was no offical pre-meeting
activity last night. However, promptly at 8:00 pm. Todd
Ehrenfels opened the meeting by briefly previewing the
events for the coming week, then introduced our special
guest Brennan Taylor,who brought his wife & 2 young
children with him. Brennan began by giving an overview of
what role-playing games are, describing them as a cross
between a game and performance art, or collaborative
storytelling, as Kate Landis put it so eloquently. He stated
that he first became interested in gaming when he was in
fifth grade, which was when Dungeons & Dragons first came
out in 1980. Because of the confusing way the game's book
was written, he discovered that he was playing it wrong! By
the time he got to college,he was pursuing writing game
books more seriously. He said that his earliest efforts were
terrible,and that even BULLDOG, which was his first
successful game book, in retrospect could have been better
than it was due to the troubles he had with some of the
contracted artists getting their work to him on time. As a
result some of the artwork planned was not used, and the
artists who failed to deliver did not get paid! With his current
game book MORTAL COIL, he only used one artist and it
worked much better. The book was published using print on
demand, which he
indicated was the only way to make money since the market
for gaming books is so small. His budget for MORTAL COIL
was $2,500.00, which he's made back plus a little extra. His
day job is being a designer for a web-based company. He
talked a bit about his company INDIE PRESS
REVOLUTION which acts as a distributor for new and original
game books and other related products. He also talked
about "play-testing", which is the best way to make sure
that your games will work in the marketplace. He mentioned
role-playing games for computers,which he said he wasn't
particularly interested in creating due to the mathematics
involved (of course if a company offered him money to
revamp one of his game books for computers, he would take
it to support his family). Many good questions were asked
and the presentation wrapped up around 9:30 p.m.
A good time was had by those who attended the SFSNNJ's
September installment of Face The Fiction at the GSP Borders
in Paramus last night. Due to some miscommunication among
the Borders staffers, there was no offical pre-meeting
activity last night. However, promptly at 8:00 pm. Todd
Ehrenfels opened the meeting by briefly previewing the
events for the coming week, then introduced our special
guest Brennan Taylor,who brought his wife & 2 young
children with him. Brennan began by giving an overview of
what role-playing games are, describing them as a cross
between a game and performance art, or collaborative
storytelling, as Kate Landis put it so eloquently. He stated
that he first became interested in gaming when he was in
fifth grade, which was when Dungeons & Dragons first came
out in 1980. Because of the confusing way the game's book
was written, he discovered that he was playing it wrong! By
the time he got to college,he was pursuing writing game
books more seriously. He said that his earliest efforts were
terrible,and that even BULLDOG, which was his first
successful game book, in retrospect could have been better
than it was due to the troubles he had with some of the
contracted artists getting their work to him on time. As a
result some of the artwork planned was not used, and the
artists who failed to deliver did not get paid! With his current
game book MORTAL COIL, he only used one artist and it
worked much better. The book was published using print on
demand, which he
indicated was the only way to make money since the market
for gaming books is so small. His budget for MORTAL COIL
was $2,500.00, which he's made back plus a little extra. His
day job is being a designer for a web-based company. He
talked a bit about his company INDIE PRESS
REVOLUTION which acts as a distributor for new and original
game books and other related products. He also talked
about "play-testing", which is the best way to make sure
that your games will work in the marketplace. He mentioned
role-playing games for computers,which he said he wasn't
particularly interested in creating due to the mathematics
involved (of course if a company offered him money to
revamp one of his game books for computers, he would take
it to support his family). Many good questions were asked
and the presentation wrapped up around 9:30 p.m.
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