#pricing breakdown

[taylorannnx]

Pricing My One-Page TTRPG: A Peek Behind The Curtain

I already tweeted this in thread form but I find this topic both helpful and interesting, so Tumblr you're getting it too!

You may be shocked to find a one page game priced at $4.95, so let me breakdown WHY this is. As a disclaimer, we are offering 50 and 100% discounts to make the game accessible to people with different levels of disposable income.

I didn’t have the money to pay people upfront for their work at a fair price, but I knew in my heart Chefs de Partie was a collaborative project. I chose royalty split because the whole team benefits the more sales there are, which aligns with my values of community and supporting my peers.

Math is not my strong suit, but luckily there is a blog post with a spreadsheet template by Lyla Fujiwara that helped me calculate how to do a royalty split. Find it here: https://jarofeyes.substack.com/p/money-and-collaboration-paying-people

Steps I took to choose a price:

1) Determine shares per job. PMing, layout, and editing are all intensive jobs that take more hours than writing (research, back -and-forth-ing, communication hours) so I gave them each 2 shares, and the writers 1 share each. 

2) Set a target number of sales. I chose 51 because for community content you get a best seller metal. Also if each contributor manages to convince 5-6 people (an achievable number) to buy the product we’ve hit the target number.

3) Look at minimum wage for each job. For writing, it should be $0.10/word. For copyediting, it’s $0.02/word. I didn’t take into account layout hourly rates at the time, which in retrospect is a mistake and I will rectify this going forward.

(I cover the math later though!)

4) Word limits. This was influenced by space on the page but also feasible pay. Recipes were capped at 100 words. All writers would be paid the same whether they were under or over and submissions that were over were cut down to 100 (+/-10%) for space and fairness.

5) MATH. If writers are paid $0.10/word with a target of 51 sales to fully pay them, they need to earn $0.20 per sale.

The math is the same for editing thanks to 2 shares and word count limits/contributor numbers.

My workings: Writer: 0.2/sale x 51 = 10.2/100= 0.10/word Editor: 0.4/sale x 51 = 20.4 /936 (final manuscript word count) = 0.02/word

Thanks to Lyla’s handy spreadsheet, I was able to figure out that pricing the game at $4.95 allows everyone to be paid fairly within 51 sales. And that number grows! With 100 sales, the writers and our Mari earn $0.20 and $0.04 per word!

Is it more expensive than average? Yes. But it’s fair, which was my goal.

This pricing, however, comes with two main failings. The first is not taking into account the cost for layout. If my layout artist spent 15 hours on layout, by 51 sales they’ve only earned $1 per hour spent. That’s not enough. (I have discussed this with them and rectified it privately.)

Secondly, I didn’t take into account my own wages for both project management and writing. The core rules are 260 words long. It’ll take 65 sales before I’ve earned $0.10/word for the writing alone. /11

I’ve put 12+ hours into management, from creating documentation to communication to marketing/promotion (writing this thread took 2+ hours and is technically promotion)

At my current rate it would take additional 1176 sales before I paid myself for 12 hours (1241 sales total)!

Games, even one-page ones, are EXPENSIVE to make. Is Chefs de Partie overpriced? No. It’s fairly priced (to the editorial team at least) considering we’re an indie team with no business backing. $4.95 feels like a lot for one page, but the hours put into it make it worth every penny.

#ttrpg industry #indie ttrpg #ttrpg guidance #ttrpgs #ttrpg community #math #finances #pricing breakdown #making games is great #it's also really hard #we explain and own our mistakes in this household #and then we fix them #as much as possible

[rocketbirdie]

just a little bit further now...!

#god i love hollow. #i WOULD call it the zakkura song of all time if it weren't for price of freedom. #cloud calling zack 'my love' and holding his hand and wanting to see his smile and his beautiful gentle eyes and hear him laugh some more #<- LITERALLY quoting the lyrics to price of freedom. #ohh you know #just dudes being bros! :) #ffvii #cloud strife #zack fair #zakkura #my art <3 #my music <3 #btw obviously i'm OBSESSED with rebirth's soundtrack #oohgmhfff.... listen to that cool classic rock organ breakdown..... WHAT a remix. aaAAAggh

[sharkface]

Hi gang I'm in somewhat dire straits financially so I'm opening up some commission slots.

I have 5 slots open, they're all "pay what you want," just DM and pitch me a price and let me know what style of mine you want it done in and we'll work it out!

5/5 SLOTS OPEN

#talk #One of these days I will consider doing a real breakdown of prices but to be honest this model is less stressful for me

[michyeosseo]

Until when can you live a life of night-traveling?  – It is not your fault, Head Merchant.

Honey Lee and Yoon Sa Bong as JO YEO-HWA & JANG SO-WOON

KNIGHT FLOWER (2024) 1.01

#kdramaladies #kdramaedit #kdrama #knight flower #honey lee #yoon sa bong #밤에 피는 꽃 #a whole month passed between first watch and gifs; i think i held it in quite well #and by it i mean the quiet breakdown over their exchange #sowoon unni's heartfelt offer of all that she has as if that sum would match the price of her savior's freedom #then yeohwa's tenacity to live aside she is convinced death is the only path she'll stop being caged in that identity #she prepared tea to comfort her from the scolding and yet it was lacking *dissolves into tears* #i love the directness of the 12ep run but why was time not made for their (meet cute) flashbacks @ mbc

[lover-of-mine]

i’m always interested in your analyses of the blue-green thing! colour is such a cool way of expressing themes or parallels and when you look at it laid out with all the couples, it’s so clear and non coincidental lol

“up until 6b they were really careful with this particular implication of romantic undertones with buddie and that's out the window now” is this in reference to how they carefully set up buddie’s themes and storylines over 5 seasons and then fucked it up in just a few 6b episodes? 😅

because honestly that’s part of the reason why i don’t have much hope for canon in season 7, i feel like they’ve suddenly backtracked on their relationship for some reason and are gonna go all no homo and/or just ruin them completely

post about the blue and green thing

Okay, I'm gonna go conspiracy theorist here, and I may be giving the showrunners too much credit, but here's the thing, we know the threat of cancellation made them change things around during 6b, there's a very clear tone shift, they changed episode names, called actor back for reshoots, so they changed the way the season was supposed to go so it would work as a nice packaged little happy ending if they got cancelled. Personally, I believe that there is some higher plan with Buck and Eddie going on here, I think they are a slowburn that is still burning, and personally, that needs to burn a little bit more until they can have a relationship that would work (getting Buck back in therapy and letting them talk would be ideal) and if you wanna jump ship go for it, I don't blame you, this shit is frustrating. But the thing is, they are very careful about how characters are constructed, and Buck and Eddie exist as mirrors of each other, and they also mirror canon romantic couple, bathena being the most blatant one. And they make a point to make sure that if you look at it closely, you can pick up on some romantic undertone, most major buddie scenes have that feeling that leaves you wondering. And it's not like the show doesn't know how to write friendships, because they do, so... choices. But going back to season 6, it might just be me, but I don't want them to get together for the sake of them getting together, there's a lot of build-up surrounding them for me to be satisfied with "and they kissed roll credits" (i love you *falls to gay superhell*, oh he had complicated feelings over the jeep) so I don't think they fucked it up, I think they didn't have the time to playout what they wanted to do with buddie in the space they had in season 6 and voted against rushing it since there was a chance the show was going to get picked up by someone else. Because it is still very easy to write off both Natalia and Marisol and keep whatever plan they might have and if they didn't get picked up just shoving them together would be unsatisfying. (In the end, it was unsatisfying anyway because the way they wrote the season makes a real effort into painting Buck, Eddie, and Chris as a family unity, so most things that don't end with them acknowledging this are unsatisfying, but it's an easy fix because the show didn't end, so)

Because, in the end, they are purposely writing Buck and Eddie as mirrors of each other, and it goes down to the first death on the job for both of them being someone falling to their death. You have the first love that ran away from them and came back without giving them real closure, you have the rocky relationship with their parents, you have the relationship they were pushed into by other people (Eddie and Ana and Buck and Ali if that's not clear), you have the way that Shannon is introduced and the next episode Buck gets a girlfriend, Shannon dies? Next episode, byebye Ali, Eddie starts dating Ana? Next episode, let's bring Taylor back into the mix, Buck is dating Natalia? What a wonderful time to have Eddie decide he's ready to put himself out there. You have the late confirmation they are the same age. You have the way they both escaped home, the way they found themselves in firefighting. You have the pretty blunt parallels between the shooting and the lightning and the well and the lightning, you have Eddie's will and the way Eddie decided to hide it (because they could have Eddie talk to Buck before changing and I've seen this playout between friends in other shows, but the choice to hide it gives a different feeling), you have multiple confirmations that Buck sees Christopher as his own, you have Eddie being hurt being Buck's berzerker button. One or two things are an accident, this many? They're on purpose, and I chose to believe there is some bigger, longer plan in action here. Sometimes I feel like there's a large percentage of the fandom who doesn't understand the stakes behind a network slowburn. Even shows like castle or the mentalist, where you KNOW they are gonna end up together, took like? 6 seasons? of build-up for something to happen? And like, I want them together, but with everything we have around them, I want them together in the right way, and yes, I think the show is delaying them because the stakes keep getting higher so it's harder to make it work, but I do have faith they can make something good work, just look at everything about them from 6x10 to 6x13.

Also, that particular statement was just about the blue and green thing because I actually looked at every scene where they are together, and they are never in those colors except for those two scenes, and the choice of shades of blue and green is very on purpose to be on accident, you know what I mean? And Buck and Taylor have multiple blue and green scenes, to pick the shades from the shooting is insane really.

Everything is on purpose, but a tv show is not like a book or a movie where everything is gonna be contained, you need to let the story evolve and adapt to the circumstances in which is being aired, and personally, I think 6x16-6x18 are just a detour, some construction on sunset lol, I think they had a choice to keep the season the way it was supposed to go and risk leaving the show feeling unfinished or shift things around and just leave Buck and Eddie feeling unfinished and they went with the second option, because it had less consequences.

Season 7 could absolutely go just kidding, no homo, but the thing is, you have two characters whose storylines are deeply tangled together, you can just sit them down, have them talk, say "you're my brother, dude" and goodbye, they're platonic best buddies. But I also don't think they would draw such a hard line because us crazy buddie shippers keep watching the show in the hopes of seeing them in the same frame together, and I feel like a significant part of people could give up the show altogether if they make such a blunt statement. And the showrunners know that, keeping us in the will they won't they thing helps their numbers and we are a significant enough portion of the viewers to make a difference. The hope of buddie brings audience to the show so I wouldn't expect a no homo thing. Or any hard line between them really.

But what do I know? I'm just a girl with a blog and a hyperfixation lol

#i have theories about season 7 #and the way bucktalia mirror eddiana and how bucks breakdown is coming #leading to a situation that would mirror the effect of the shooting #that would lead to a conversation #would that be another aborted love confession? would that be a plain old love confession? i don't know #i need more information than just i have a feeling to make that statement #shit this is long skaoskoaksoaks #911 meta #??? #i really need a tag for asks #anon 😌 #i could go on about this forever really sokasokaoskaosk #anyone want to hear my season 7 buddie spec that has no basis besides the voices in my head? sdoaksoaksokasokasoak #reading this back for typos i feel like i may sound a bit condescending and I'm sorry if it does that's not the intention #i just sometimes like to think about the show as a business #and it makes some choices make more sense that way but also makes everything more frustrating #because the goal ends up being numbers and we pay the price #quite literally sokasokaoskaosk

[fellhellion]

tbh i don’t even think miguel’s breakdown rant about miles’ existence as “anomaly” spiderman causing the death of 1610 peter is even about peter, or even quite abt miles. it’s about the idea that somehow 1610 peter could’ve shut down the collider if it weren’t for miles, even though miles’ presence didn’t actually affect peter’s death in any way. it’s about the idea that peter could’ve prevented a reality - that is, anomalies getting slingshotted throughout the multiverse - that miguel feels like he’s buckling under the emotional burden of (”And all this time, I have been the only one holding it all together!”). But even that’s not quite it, it’s about the fact that Miguel has been sitting on the resentment of feeling like he’s utterly alone in this burden, when in reality he’s not. When he created a structure designed to help share that burden between people who should understand it the most. But he won’t - can’t - ask for help bearing the emotional burden because it’s not even quite about the anomalies, it’s about Gabriella. But you deserve to suffer for it, you deserve to hurt. You dwell and grieve her and a mistake you won’t forgive youself for over and over again, all while hiding away and refusing to confide in the people who care about you how badly you’re spiraling, all while a part of you resents them for not knowing, even as they couldn’t know. 

#this is only one component of what i read in his breakdown personally but its an interesting one. its not blaming miles for gabriella. #miguel never shifts that blame. he bears it wholeheartedly. but what i think he offloads onto miles in that scene is the resentment thats #been building - that he CANT acknowledge because doesnt he deserve that suffering? how else do you atone? - a resentment that he #feels so alone in what he does EVEN AS HE CREATED THE SYSTEM TO SHARE THAT BURDEN WITH EVERYONE ELSE #and they WOULD share it with them. but he won't confide because he's a chronic self isolator. because i don't think miguel can disentangle #himself from the fact that a part of him doesnt want to be in pain anymore #because he believes that pain IS the price he needs to pay for what he did. even though it was an accident. #so he offloads that resentment onto miles. blames him for peter's death because he can't acknowledge that resentment for what it is #because miles' very existence lights a beacon of doubt that every choice he made believing SINCERELY it would protect people may have been #in vain. and youve doomed those you wanted to protect all over again #ANYWAYS. is this anything fkjdshfkjsdhfkjsd #tunes talks spiderverse

[transwhorefinn]

We got Jay’s trauma arc in the first jrweek, we got gillion trauma this jrweek. Chip trauma when. I want to see my bastard boy face all his 99+ problems which are all daddy issues.

#considering the fact that my man’s doesn’t even know his own trauma now idk how long it’ll take- #i just want to see him breakdown and realize that he has to move on from the past 🥺 #that maybe in life you lose people and you can’t ever get them back sometimes and all you can do is move forward #and also considering his last interaction with Arlin from the weird sequence in his head omfg the angst #jrwi #haha what if ur only good father figure hated u now then what #what if Chip faced his problems instead of running away #he ran away from wherever he was before Arlin picked him up #he ran away from price #he ‘ran’ from his trauma by literally erasing them #he is kind of a coward #jrwi podcast #jrwi riptide #jrwi show #just roll with it #jrwi spoilers #chip jrwi #jrwi chip #gillion tidestrider #jrwi gillion #jay ferin #chip lastname #jrwi jay #jrwishow

[gideonisms]

.....realized I would literally rather work 12 hours a day and come home to complete silence where my space is exactly the way I like it and I don't have to continue to mask my reactions than have to work all day then come back to a roommate. wish I'd had this realization 2 months ago. I've been crying about how much I don't want to live with someone else and just NOW realized I'm an adult and I've organized my life in such a way that I don't technically Have to I can just work harder at a number of kind of shitty jobs I'm qualified for

#had a whole breakdown in private when i found out they had already leased my place i am hot mess this year #there are other places around the same price it was just. i thought about not having to move and the instant relief and hope for the future #then again i thought about not having to live with anyone else in general and that did also restore my hope for the future a tiny bit #if i had just realized i can do what i want even a month ago #:( #i don't WANT to suffer the 2-4 month mental consequences of changing where i live #i was getting a roommate because i was like. so i lose my ability to be around people and still function/hold down a job every 2 years #i should start planning for the next go around of the cycle #THEN i realized wait. i was living with my family for burnout 1 #i was working 2 jobs and going to school for burnout 2 #i was living with a roommate for burnout 3 #(extension of burnout 2) #i was living with my family working full time and doing classes online for burnout 4 #what if. here's a thought #i wasn't living with family i wasn't living with a roommate i wasn't in school #and i worked the same shitty job that gave me $16 an hour #but at the end of the day i just didn't have to do any other work #hm. #idk if i will even be able to find a place that accepts me on my own without a guaranteed income but #god it would help me keep a guaranteed income to live alone #who knows maybe i'd even be able to get therapy for the fact that i have never felt truly comfortable around anyone irl #it's always been like i had to force myself through anyway but what if i got to stop for even like 2 years

[loving-jack-kelly]

more random celebrity au posts. jack will start an instagram livestream if he's feeling bored no matter what he's up to. there are accounts dedicated to recording these livestreams because the people willing to watch all of the footage get to see unfiltered jack who is very very different from on camera putting on a show jack, and that's how everyone knows that he thought unironically until he was twenty-seven years old that robins had x-ray vision to see the worms underground and also that he's a socialist with some particularly radical ideas about big business

#jack pausing in his breakdown about birds not being able to see through dirt #for a twenty minute back and forth rant with charlie #about the medical field being an industry and not a service revealing an in depth knowledge of price gauging #and the way corporate profit margins disproportionately affect the poor #only to be like yeah anyway. get those birds xray vision. also i have to shit. ending the live

[enderagenda]

a mutual contacted me for the first time and let me know that it said I "post about #suicide and #the boopening". that's so funny I'm not even mad

#my post #suicide #if this is the price i pay for tagging all my mental breakdowns so people can opt out of seeing them. then so be it

[discountalien-pancake]

The friendship harem has started up some good old analog correspondence, so I fell down a fountain pen rabbithole and splurged on some new materials. Did I choose a very expensive ink purely because it was glass green and named Cinderella’s Slipper? Absolutely.

In the meantime, I dug out a very old, inexpensive dried up pen that I have no idea where it even came from. Took it apart and tossed the nib and cartridge into a bottle full of water to dissolve the old ink.

Something about this image of my dimly lit desk covered in art supplies and papers and random junk, with a bottle of bright blue water smack in the middle of it is immensely pleasing?? No idea why.

Anyway, perhaps I will pick up a bottle of less expensive, more versatile blue-black ink tomorrow so I can put my cheap pen to use while I wait for my nice pen to arrive.

#the ink cost more than the pen #well. sort of. #the pen is the aesthetically prettier version of a less expensive model. literally the same except for the finish #so the cheaper version of the pen costs less than the ink #but it’s still on the lower end of fountain pen nonsense tbh #the prices on these things gets. astronomical #but it’s an investment of sorts #fewer disposable plastic-bodied pens #i won’t ever have to replace it if i take good care of it #if you are also intrigued by fountain pens then jetpens.com is a wonderful place to start #their guides are so thorough and informative and less daunting than the fountain pen forums #and all of their listings having samples of how the pen/ink/paper performs #the stat breakdowns are so detailed #you can filter by sooo many criteria #it’s like. ao3 for penmanship nerds

[lith-myathar]

I remember back around when I first watched The Killing I saw a critic calling it misery porn and like...to a degree I think that's fair, it's a VERY heavy show, but I think it earns it, y'know? There's always a payoff. Like it's one of the few crime shows I've watched that really digs into the emotional core behind the awful things that happen and the way they affect survivors. The b plot following the Larsens in the first 2 seasons was great, they weren't just ''the victim's family,'' they were really deep characters in their own right and going through all the different layers of their relationships and individual baggage really makes you FEEL Rosie's loss. The characters in the latter two seasons are also very interesting and fleshed out even though there's less focus on the cases and more the dynamic between the main characters. I think the only other show I've seen that manages to nail this in a similar way is Broadchurch.

#and even though sometimes it feels like it's just never going to get better it does in the end #happy endings earned with a very heavy price but happy all the same #and angst with a happy ending will always be my favorite lol #it ALSO demonstrates how fucking broken the legal system and law enforcement is #breakdowns of justice at every turn because of people's greed or callousness #or complicity

[kenobihater]

came up with an absolutely devious scenario for my fic. it both elevates the story through conflict and character building, AND fixes a plot hole i had regarding me completely forgetting the existence of a very important weapon in the possession of one of the characters

#i was playin around w the idea of another angsty Scenario w/ character 1 w/ that weapon but now that i'm adding a new traumatized character #who has direct history with the weapon in question? two emotional breakdowns for the price of one baby!! #i'm genuinely so thankful i had a bigbrain moment yesterday to add this new character to the crew. it's fixed my complete block around #writing new chapters bc i felt i was flying blind & had 0 idea of the direction of the plot & arc. this character has fixed most of that!! #len speaks

[rotisseries]

sorry for the vld insanity, pjo series liveblogging tonight queen 🥺?

I need to set up a venmo and then any time you bitches want me to watch something famously awful you have to pay me for the privilege

#I'll watch vld for 60 bucks. buy me a new video game I'll watch godawful space cartoon queerbait #this is a great idea hella would have to constantly pay me. i should've done this forever ago #“catch up on mha” I will entertain your touya breakdown for the price of a milkshake #ask #yourlocalamoeba #hi amoeba!

[lovesickeros]

(Anon from yesterday ⭐)

Would you mind showing your Furina plushie when you will get it? (Or if you already did, I am interested)

(love how you wrote the small drabble in tags I was kicking my feet reading it. Poor baby doesn't know how highly Sagau and other Archons are thinking of her.)

(forgive my mistakes, English not my native language.)

i don't know when she will be coming (probably not until feb at this rate) but i got her from plushshop if you wanna see it!!! it's part of their meow collection.

also your English is fine djsvshdjjd I am not immune to writing whole essays in the tags though its a habit atp....I can't escape it

#asks #anon #even my fics r not safe. i just start ranting abt random hcs and no one has stopped me so far soooooo #sagau furi makes my heart hurt bc its double the pain for the low low price of free #if we r talking pre aq furi even if shes your favorite shes having constant mental breakdowns bc she feels like a fraud #what if you only like her bc you think shes one of the archons? what if you find out??? #also brings up the horrible dilema of can she tell you abt her pretending to be an archon or not.. #because like. technically your part of teyvat bc your the creator. but also they had to summon (kidnap) you from your original world so. #furina does not have s great time she deserves sweets and a hug but all she got was some trauma and a cool hat #i could talk abt the whole aq still happening even in sagau and h #and thst being kind of. odd. but it adds angst!!! bc what is the prophecy if not a test by you :] #falls down a flight of stairs

[proserpine-in-phases]

Finally this thing is done being recovered except the tube which I got rid of for being covered in glue)

I hope the cats actually use the fucking thing now. It was a bitch to take apart and a bitch to put back together and next time fuck it I'm just buying new

#crap #unexpected cat adventures #cost breakdown: cat tree $30 used carpet $20 sisal rope 2 roles $13 drill bits for the stupid square screws $2 #i already had a staple gun and a power drill #so idk $70 total versus like $150 new sure the new is more but also you factor in the time i spent ehhh #actually wait add $12 i forgot the nubby carpet #so round up to $85 to redo this thing and also if id had to buy the staple gun and screw driver #those things included easily makes it the same price as just gett iji ng a new one lol #then again most cat trees are just that ugly boring beige and not fun black and white patterns