Hi Reader,

Welcome! Please, come in, out of that snow. My it's cold out there—winter is biting down. But it's cozy in here. Have some hot cocoa. I made it with warm milk this time.

Did you read the Rascal article about Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast? It's the kind of cautionary tale that keeps me up at night.

If you don't have a Rascal subscription, do get one. But for now, here's my best sum-up:

Possum Creek Games, led by Jay Dragon, made some big promises to the writers and artists who helped make Yazeba's Bed & Breakfast an award-winning game. They made these promises in writing, in a contract. Things like perpetual royalties on every book sold. Then PCG's distribution company screwed them over and seized all their books, forcing PCG to merge with Steve Jackson Games to stay afloat. When all this happened, Jay and co. took steps to preserve their ability to keep making games, but—according to the story—they seem to have treated their existing contractual obligations to those writers and artists as secondary to the new contracts they were signing with SJG.

I don't pretend to know what happened. I don't know what Jay—one of my favorite game designers—intended or intends. This game night, I'm just talking about the universal anxieties the article made me think of.

Indie publishers! Let's put our business hats on when money changes hands. Even—especially—when we set out to make a beautiful piece of art.

When they made Yazeba's, Possum Creek proved what an artistic medium we're in. But people pay rent with the money we give them for contributing to such things. When we make business promises, we can't afford to think like the artsy, ADHD gremlins I know we all are.

So. Speaking just for me: May I always write a contract I can uphold. May I never promise more than I can deliver.

I doubt I'll ever offer contributors royalties. Just cash on the barrelhead at a good rate. Tbf, any creative professional would love to get royalties. May your games get so popular that royalties even enter the picture. But a publisher’s fortunes can change in a New York minute—as the Rascal story proves—and you can't get out of an obligation without going bankrupt first.

Don't treat a contract you sign as optional. Don't give the other signees a Hobson's choice about how the terms are about to change, or move ahead with a merger (may you be in a merger one day!) without resolving all existing obligations first. Give your fellow signees respect through good times and bad.

When you sign a contract or write one, read it with your most pessimistic brain. Make sure it protects your interests, with enforceable terms for when things go wrong. Ask the other signees to do the same. A contract should account for all the things you hope never happen so you can just make art.

We're part of a hobby. An art form. A field of colleagues, a scene, and an industry. All at once. We have just as much right to be businesspeople as artists, colleagues or influencers. You don't gotta know all the pitfalls before sallying forth into business. Just be honest with your coworkers, even about how much you don't know.

At the same time, we're none of us innocents, saints or revolutionaries. We're hustlers, trying to make money off our art. The art doesn't absolve us. As soon as we put a price on it, we're participating in an ugly system. The best we can do is be fair to others as we do it.

Someone on Bluesky said unprofessionalism abounds in our industry because there's no money in it. There's truth in that. Let's be better professionals.

Jay started out as a solo indie game designer. Then, quite suddenly, she rocketed into the industry's big-business stratum. Most of us will never face choices like hers. But if we do (knock on wood), I hope we remember Rascal's article and make them with empathy and good sense.

xoxoxo
Chrys

P.S. I've sent Defy the Gods backers their links to the PDF! I'll publish the PDF for everyone once the hardback is out. I don't wanna put the show on Netflix before it's out in theaters, know what I mean?

P.P.S. If you're a backer who has the PDF coming to them and you haven't gotten it, ping me!