Hey there everyone,

GenCon is over and we’re back to the regular daily tasks of making more beautiful Gamescapes and the best roleplay material for Shaintar and Suzerain. And now that we’re back to ‘normal’ it’s time for us to ask you a favor. We need your help.

The thing is that we’ve had a good year. We’ve made plenty of books and game accessories that we’re really proud of, and we’ve made a bunch of new friends along the say. If you’re reading this, you’re probably part of the Talisman family, and that is how we’ve always thought of you.

But here’s the thing – it’s still a very small family. Our visit to GenCon was a real eye-opener for us, showing what a great group of people we have around us, and how much fun we all have playing with the stuff we make. Sean’s game on the Saturday night was just the best, thanks to his efforts, those of Mark, and of every player there (and there were more than twenty I’d guess, in one session!). We made a few new friends and we’ve coined a new phrase – Talismaniacs. That’s folks like us, and maybe you, who really dig what we’re doing.

Now back to the ‘thing’. Talisman distributes most of the money from sales to the people who work on all these books and maps and cards you like, and whatever is left over is put into a tin and used to promote what we do. To give you an idea of how little that is, all the money from a year of sales was just enough to allow us to have the smallest space in the most out of the way isle at GenCon and now the tin is empty again.

Because Talisman distributes most of the money to the people who do the work on the projects, there’s never any to do any real marketing. We rely on word of mouth from happy members of the family like you. And a few of you have been kind enough to post positive reviews in various places, or start threads on EN World or RPG.net or elsewhere. And thank you for that.

It’s not enough though. To give you an idea, a couple of us work about 80 hours a week to keep Talisman going and keep the cool stuff flowing at the absolute best quality and to spend some time with you guys and the rest of the Talisman family, listening to suggestions and requests for future products. With the amount of sales Talisman gets, nobody here has earned more than a couple of hundred dollars in any month, which doesn’t even pay the rent or food or the ever-increasing cost of fuel. Some have earned next to nothing for many hours of dedicated work over the last year.

If Talisman is going to be able to keep doing this, we simply need to increase the size of the family. Not by a few people, like GenCon did, but by lots of people. The world needs to hear about what we’re doing, with the same passion that we hear about it on this site and when we meet you all. If we can’t offer our contributors at least enough money to cover their rent and bills, we can’t expect them to stay with us, to keep working so hard and so earnestly on your behalf. That’s not fair to expect.

We have some wonderful books and maps and some even bigger super-secret projects under way and we’d love to share them – but it all depends on there being a critical mass of people coming to our site and buying what we make. We’re not asking to be millionaires, but we need to be able to live without fearing eviction by the landlord.

This is where you come in. We do the right thing – we give the money we make to the people who have the wonderful creative talent at Talisman. But that means we don’t have a ‘marketing’ budget (it’s a very small tin, at least). We rely on our friends and family to tell the world about us. That means you.

What we’re asking for is a little of your time to help out, to talk to the internet and tell the gaming world about us and what’s cool about Talisman. If you want to help Talisman and help us make the next generation of games and Gamescapes accessories, then please email me – I’m mmk [at sign] talisman-studios.com - and we can talk about some way, small or large, that you can promote us.

Thank you in advance for your support. You’re a great family to have, and I don’t doubt that plenty of you will come forward to offer your help. And to all of you I say…

Happy gaming.

Martin
On behalf of everyone at Talisman Studios

So GenCon was intense, hard work, and a great thing - all in equal measure. We're back now, and we need about a week's sleep (which we won't get, but we can dream... daydream, anyway). We met thousands of new people, made new friends, caught up with old friends, and ate tapas. We brought art, games and cool maps on roll-out posters (which everybody loved and we decided to start offering from our website - so keep an eye on the shop for those). We talked to gods and slew dragons, made history in our worlds. We drank way too much soda, carried way too heavy loads, and fell asleep way too early. We got up way too early, got sick from Steak 'N' Shake, and still carried on through the day.

We took photos and I'll post a couple here (EDIT: Done - see below). When I've slept. At least a little bit.

Martin M Klimes
Publisher, Talisman Studios

Here's our latest press release with more details of our GenCon master plan:

July 28, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Going to GenCon? Drop by for some big news.

Talisman Studios will be at GenCon, demoing games, launching product, changing the landscape of entire worlds. If you’re there, drop by for free product and a chance to make your mark on history!

Celebrating our first GenCon as a full publisher, here are a few of the things you can expect at booth number 2215, over by the Art Show:

• Book signings by Sean Patrick Fannon and Miles M Kantir, creators of Origins Award nominated Shaintar and Suzerain. They’ll also be running demos of their roleplay creations, and giving away free product.

• Art signings by Aaron Acevedo and Jason Engle. Come and talk to the men whose art wins awards. We’re also scouting for new talent, so bring your portfolio and see what they say.

• Coupons for discounts at www.talisman-studios.com and at the show.

• Sean will be running an exclusive campaign where you could change the very future of Shaintar if you get a place at his gaming table.

• Our full range of products, including 4th edition compatible tile maps, all our game books, plus a great mix of art prints, posters and T-shirts.

• Plus, launching at GenCon, our newest game setting, Relic. Under wraps for more than five years, it’s finally time to unleash our new world!

See you there, August 14th -17th at GenCon Indy, where ‘A Universe In Gaming’ meets ‘The Best Four Days In Gaming’!

FURTHER INFORMATION

Talisman Studios was formed in 2003 as an art and design studio to the adventure games industry, the brainchild of master artists Jason Engle and Aaron Acevedo. The studio is an Origins Award Winner (for Deadlands Reloaded), and has worked on dozens of products. In May 2007 the company stepped up a gear and became a publisher in its own right, starting with its Gamescapes line of game accessories leading up to the launch of Suzerain and Shaintar before Christmas. 2008 will see the company work on more than a hundred high art gaming products.

Shaintar is the Origins Award nominated fantasy roleplaying game by Sean Patrick Fannon, with art by Jason Engle. In development for over twenty years, its depth of detail has enchanted fantasy players in various incarnations. It is the standout choice for Savage Worlds players or any gaming fans seeking epic high fantasy adventure.

Suzerain is a multi-genre, multi-world game system, Origins Award nominated in 2008. Ron Blessing of The Game’s The Thing (www.thegamesthething.com) had this to say about it, “I can't wait to spend time in this playground. The book as a whole is awesome. Suzerain can be as simple or detailed as the players and director want. The art is absolutely gorgeous. Hopefully it's obvious I'm pretty high on this product. Wow. Just wow.”

For contact on this or any Talisman Studios topic, contact Talisman Studios at:

Website: www.talisman-studios.com
Email: hello [at sign] talisman-studios.com

It's true, we're expanding our scope and adding a new line of goodies to the shop. By popular demand, we'll be starting to sell art prints and posters in the coming weeks. We'll have some available at GenCon - yes, we'll be at GenCon so drop by and say hi - and the selection will hit our shop at the same sort of time. If people want them, we'll also have access to T-shirt printing, canvas printing, and a few other things too.

What will they look like? Well, here's our sample print of a Suzerain poster, just to check the quality of our print partner. We think it looks pretty darn good. Expect many of our most popular images to be available over time.

It's a sad fact that sometimes you really want to do the right thing but can't. We always want to help you guys as much as we can, keep the costs down, and give you the best in gaming. I think we do a pretty good job of it, too.

Unfortunately, there are all sorts of organizations in the world that want a slice of your money, stopping it getting to the people who work on the books, cards and maps we produce and we have to pass a little of that cost on. Banks, for instance, and credit card companies. Paypal.

Talisman is happy to soak as much of that cost as we can, but there's one place where it's simply not possible any more - very small orders. If you spend under $2.50 then we now charge a 25 cent surcharge to cover the transaction cost. Other places make it a $5 minimum and we don't want to have to do that, so this is the best compromise we can afford to offer.

The 25 cents won't apply to free products or where you have a voucher bringing the price down to $.00 - if we get charged any costs there, we'll still soak them.

I know, I know. Most places have something like this already in place. I didn't want you thinking that we did this lightly or flippantly though. We never like adding on any money that we don't absolutely have to.

We've got a great summer of gaming lined up, and hope you'll check out some of the wonderful things we're releasing - fantasy map tile sets, for starters, and a whole new Suzerain setting in the works.

Happy gaming,

Martin M Klimes
Publisher, Talisman Studios