June 16, 2009

@ Nevermet Press - We Want You!!!

(Original Art by Matt Lichtenwalner • dragonbones.net)

I've received a number of emails from several readers and other bloggers in the RPG blogging community wondering what the heck is Nevermet Press and what our plans are for it. I guess this is the part where I spill the beans.


Together, we want to change the way roleplaying games are made. There is a vast storehouse of creativity locked up in the community of gamers who play RPGs. We want to build a meetinghouse where we can all work together to unlock that creativity and drive the development of new, innovative material for roleplaying games of all styles and genres that everyone can enjoy.

It's an ambitious plan, but someone has to try, right? Enter Nevermet Press...

Several months ago we started working together on various projects, it naturally evolved into thinking "Hey, we should start a small press publishing company!" I love challenges, and tend to get way over extended before saying no to anything, so of course that is exactly what we did: Nevermet Press was born.

Being that all three of us are avid RPG bloggers -- we wanted NMP to offer something different to the gaming community. So, we put on our CrazyHats and started brainstorming. In no time, three "cornerstones" of Nevermet Press took shape (in true to form blogger style bolded list... oh and we are still looking for that missing forth corner...):

  1. Community Developed & Supported- The strength of Open Game Table is that it draws from a host of writers that don't represent the "industry" (for the most part), but instead represents gamers, the fans, the "end-users" of what the RPG industry produces. Nevermet Press will seek to emulate that same core value by working with RPG bloggers and blog readers in the gaming community (that means YOU). We want to produce great games, but we want to draw on the community as a whole to develop them. An important difference from NMP and Open Game Table is that we will also be implementing a profit sharing mechanism for the most active content developers contributing to any one project. Our creator revenue sharing program will cover both content contributed by authors and artists alike. Everyone's contribution will count. Thus, Nevermet Press eventually be able to field potentially multiple projects supported by dozens paid content developers.
  2. System Independent & System Optional- What games do you play? How many systems do you enjoy? Chances are you play many games and enjoy multiple RPG platforms. What doesn't change is the social gaming experience. Nevermet Press wants to develop game products that are independent of any one system. We will aim to publish stat'less books that can be used with any game system. All system specific statblocks, rules and mechanics, etc will be made available from our website. All them will be paired with a host of multiple systems as well, so we will not be focused any one system. We believe thisinnovative approach will help us stay focused on the creative aspects of RPGs. Our first major printed book: tentatively called "The Villain Manual", will be completely statblock free. You'll find tons of backstory, maps, encounters, adventures, campaign arcs, and other materials about dozens upon dozens of villains for a variety of campaign settings. This book will be supported by our website - where you will be able to download all the statblocks and "crunchy" system-specific details for all your favorite games. Found a cool villain, and want to run him in Savage Worlds? No problem. 4E D&D? Done. d20 Modern? OD&D? It will all be available through NevermetPress.com.
  3. Stuff You Can Use Today - In the blogosphere, content is king. And much is the same with games. On NevermetPress.com, we are going to provide USABLE content every day. It's a very tall order, but think about it: new villains, new monsters, new equipment, new adventures or campaign hooks every single day of the week for multiple game systems. We will avoid advice on how to play (don't you know what's best?). You wont find definitions of what is or is not old school (do you care?). No reviews. No 'fluff'. None of that. Just stuff you can use for your game tonight. All Content, Everyday. Period.
That's basically the gist of it. The biggest challenge to Nevermet Press is going to be gaining the trust and involvement of the community. But... we are not looking for free hand outs. We want community whom we've come to know in the last few years to come together and for everyone to mutually benefit. We also recognize that this is an ambitious plan. Basing an entire company on "crowd sourcing" might even be considered risky by some. Nonetheless, we want to try. Michael, Quinn and I will be acting as owners, content developers, and (most importantly) project creative directors. The final shape of those projects, however, will greatly depend on the level of involvement from the RPG blogging community.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm looking forward to working with all of you.

If you are interested in climbing on board, and want to start working with us, then please by all means shoot me an email. I'll get back to you as soon as I can with additional details.

I can always be reached at jonathan.jacobs@gmail.com


Best Regards,


Jonathan Jacobs,
with Michael Brewer and Quinn Murphy.
from Nevermet Press

13 comments:

  1. Interesting idea. Not sure I have the time to spare to help out (School, work, and convention planning), but I can't wait to hear more about it as time goes on.

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  2. I would add that if anyone likes the idea, please feel free to promote heck out of it:

    Stumble it
    Digg It
    Tweet It
    Facebook It

    Share It!

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  3. Watching this closely. Good luck, guys!

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  4. Great idea. I'm interested in seeing this work out.

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  5. Suhweeet! Open source gaming is a great idea!

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  6. thanks for the support everyone! We are shooting for a live date of July 1st on NMP... I'll keep you posted.

    Oh, and we are on Twitter now too

    @nevermetpress

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  7. The idea of producing system independent content is a good one... for example, a lot of 3rd edition GURPS material is made up of just plain good reference books. Their 4th edition has books that are a lot more "crunchy", but some of them--like Fantasy and Space--could stand as treatises on elements of the genres.

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  8. It's interesting, but at the same time I'm not sure I quite understand the whole idea. At least to the degree that it involves anyone outside the group of you three. There's oblique references to wanting other people involved, but at the same time it sounds like it's being done in-house.

    That may just mean some revision is necessary.

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  9. I would be less than honest if I didn't say that our ideas are evolving; but there's one thing that is core to our model: community input and involvement in the process. Content Developers are not exclusively "in house"... they are anyone who joins NMP and participates in the forums, blog, etc. From this pool of talent, we are looking to draw from three resources 1) content developers who sign a contract with us and want to participate in profit sharing; 2) members of the NMP community who post in the forums and help provide feedback and content (at our discretion); and 3) the larger blogger community who we will encourage to post and write content that would be able to be directly plugged into any project we are developing (although the content would be on their own blog). Again, these ideas are evolving - but that's the basic idea.

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  10. i want to add that our vision is one where NEW products evolve and are shaped by literally dozens of authors instead of one.

    Who knows... it may not work; but I love the idea and I want to explore where it takes us.

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  11. Well, I've no idea as to if I could take part (my ideas and work tends to be pretty self-sufficent) but I'll definitely try to keep an eye on it.

    Would this sort of stuff be what you're referring to in regards to point 3?

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  12. I am wishing you guys the best of luck! That sounds like an awesome idea and perhaps we can work together sometime in the future (a man is still allowed to dream, isn't he?).

    By the way, when is the NMP website going live?

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  13. @stargazer Of course we can work together! All you have to do is reach out and ask! Shoot me an email (I believe you have it) or use the Contact page above. Things are already rolling, but the whole idea behind NMP is to be as inclusive as possible.. community driven game design is the idea. We are planning on going live July 6th with content, the site might be fully operational as earlier as the 1st though.

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