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.
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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