Planning for Expansions
Tabletop Roleplaying's road to a forever game
When developing a new game, it’s really easy to start throwing the kitchen sink at your concepts and overbuild what you’re doing. And generally speaking the real work is trimming away all of the cruft that doesn’t support your game’s core ideas, game loop, or emotional resonance. The goal is always that you’re trying to make something clean and delightful that clearly expresses your ideas.
So where do expansions come in?
Expansion products extend a product line and are a great excuse to communicate with your customers. They’re a marketing tool that serves as a reminder to existing customers that they probably liked the original thing. They’re an indicator of health for new customers that your game is a living, breathing thing that is very much alive and well and obviously popular, or else why would you make expansion products? They can reinforce your brand positioning and help you communicate who you are/who your company is. And after all that, they’re another thing to sell and up-sell.
…as a marketing tool
Certain kinds of expansions that are inexpensive to produce and serve primarily to generate interest, educate, and remind potential customers that you exist might fall into the category of loss-leaders. My product, Backstory Cards [https://www.galileogames.com/s/stories/backstory-cards], uses Setting Grid expansions that we give away for free or on a pay-what-you-want basis. These are fairly easy to write, cost almost nothing to produce (hiring an external writer at a decent rate costs less than $100, and we have a layout template that makes production insignificant), and every time we push a new one out, we tend to see a spike in purchases of Backstory Cards.
Free written adventures for traditional RPGs often fall into this category, too. We have a number of these for Bulldogs! [https://www.galileogames.com/s/stories/bulldogs]. They’re great for our internal use to run at conventions, not to mention players who are sharing the game with a group of friends for the first time. And while they’re a little more work than our setting grids, they really only need a basic plot and a couple of encounter write-ups to get things started.
…as a branding opportunity
Branding, to my mind, is one of the most misunderstood elements of business—especially for new entrepreneurs and game publishers. Branding helps your customers easily decide if your products are right for them. Branding isn’t just a logo, it is your company philosophy and value proposition coyly rolled up into everything you present to the public.
I think a great example of expansions as a branding opportunity is Cortex Prime [https://www.cortexrpg.com]. The “Hammerheads” spotlight game and the other two included in the full text of the book explore what kind of a game Cortex Prime is intended to be. It’s modular, but it’s not generic. It creates complex multi-talented heroic characters. And the licenses that are part of the history and lifeblood of this game are reflective of that: Tales of Xadia, Leverage, Smallville, and Marvel Heroic (one of my personal favorites). Complex multi-talented heroes. That’s where this game shines.
In the context of a smaller publisher, it might be the core philosophy and value proposition you’re communicating; that in turn represents your whole company. Splotter [https://www.splottershop.com] is a small board game publisher that includes a section in their about-page that describes themselves perfectly:
We're just saying, these games are not for everyone. Plus, we try to make different games each time, and we normally put a twist on things that some people love and others hate. The good thing is, it allows us to make original and unique games that lots of people love. They are very expensive though, because of the small print runs. So play the games before you buy them, if you can. </BOX>
Splotter’s games absolutely aren’t for me. And that’s entirely okay. No product is for everyone. Being clear about who your customer is, and who your customers are not is a benefit to everyone because it minimizes the guesswork involved and allows your fans to find you.
…as a line extension
What publisher doesn’t need or want more things to sell? Especially products that can be developed relatively easily because they build on an existing framework, successful product, or ideally, both. Sometimes it’s a set of ideas that didn’t make the cut for the first iteration of your core book, as in Katanas & Trenchcoats [https://www.galileogames.com/s/stories/katanas-trenchcoats]. We made the call to cut one of the main character types (we call them “splats”) from the core book because we hadn’t quite figured out how to fit them into the world as a playable character. In some ways it felt like punting away a problem, but it is also an opportunity to give yourself some breathing room to figure out how to make something work better, or more coherently. Done may be better than perfect, but something that sucks but is done, still sucks.
The things you trim away from your core game in the first place are a great place to look for opportunities to extend your game. You can add new options, variations on the core themes of your game, and put stuff that didn’t fit in the first place, back in.
Expansions can bring vibrancy and life to a product and turn it into a product line. They’re a great way to build on your successes and give your fans more of something they loved.
This article is brought to you by Tim Rodriguez of Galileo Games. If you want to get in touch with the contributor please visit their website at https://galileogames.com or contact them at tim@galileogames.com.
This article is part of the Indie Game Developer Network's blog series. The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the IGDN or its members.