Re: [DL] Looking for Gamers (in all the wrong places)

["John Goff" <JohnGoff@deadlands.com>]

> 1) The groups in the store are self-sustaining; it's better to have an
> outside group in a public place 'cause not only do they buy all the books
> themselves <g>, but we've got deniability with unhappy players/customers.
> ;-)
>

While that was a light-hearted post (as you've all probably guessed from
_everything_ I've posted this morning), after a moment, I realized it
actually ties into something I've noticed (anecdotally, of course) about
this hobby.

It seems to me that one person in a group tends to buy most of the books for
an RPG (not just Deadlands); in the case of my group--which has been running
for 4 years--it's me <g>. This plays into a lot of things both business and
creatively for me, so I'd like as much input as you folks would care to
give.

How many of posses out there just use the Marshal's books?

How many players purchase _only_ the book appropriate to their particular
character?

How many Marshals _don't_ want the players reading the Posse sections in
each book?

One thing we've always tried to do with our books was set up a "Posse" and a
"Marshal" section so a player could get some use from the book as well.

Now, obviously, some books (in spite of player info) are purely Marshal
draws (RVC II comes immediately to mind here) and some don't even have
player info at all (adventures). What I'm interested in is for
setting/informational sourcebooks like, say, the Back East and other
location books, Tales o' Terror, etc.

I doubt we'll change the format, but I'm wondering about the space devoted
to the Posse section in these works. If only the Marshal is buying/reading
them, we'd best be serving you guys by reducing the size of the Posse
sections in these books and _increasing_ the Marshal section.

Thoughts?

John