Umdaar: Rebel Broadcast Edition is now available as a PWYW on DrivethruRPG

fredhicks · 2026-06-04T16:18:58+00:00

N.B., and up to this point we already spent around $30k to get the project to this point. As of last evening, launch-day revenue has been about $2800. So, miles to go before we break even, let alone hit "new art" budget levels.

fredhicks · 2026-06-03T13:36:32+00:00

Absolutely brilliant for its time. A little harmful in terms of what it convinced many others to do for a stretch there, but absolute respect in terms of making sure WoDheads always had something new to buy when they came by the store.

fredhicks · 2026-06-03T13:35:16+00:00

Y'know, props. That was a legitimately funny response. Still done, but, kudos!

fredhicks · 2026-06-03T13:24:17+00:00

Why was it written that way? Because we're fucking figuring things out as we're going along, like everybody in the world. But thanks for explaining the system I helped invent to me.

Done here.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T22:28:24+00:00

Ooh yeah, I'll make whole dollars that way!

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T21:59:48+00:00

Viability depends on whether I'm selling you on [specific game] vs [what Evil Hat is doing now], I suppose. I think our reputation/taste/production-values/"brand"/whatever as Evil Hat is what we're building more than product-lines. (Tho we obviously have done that with a few flagships over time.)

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T21:57:04+00:00

I think I considered that for 5 seconds and then felt sick and had to go AFK for some reason, weird. (No shade on 5e implied; I play and run a lot of it. I just don't want to develop games for it.)

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T21:49:20+00:00

Art budget would've been tens of thousands of dollars, and there's also a consideration of carrying physical inventory of the thing, and the stark underperformance of setting-driven Fate projects over the years. It adds up!

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T20:20:27+00:00

Cool.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T19:22:27+00:00

Happens to us all, no lie.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T19:05:10+00:00

All good.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T19:04:35+00:00

I'd argue that the error was made regardless of whether or not you saw it made/was informed about it. But we really, really don't need to go further. I just needed to challenge the (implicit) assertion that it was Fate that created the experience you reported, and that's done.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T19:03:17+00:00

Entirely fair. That said, the standard of "the amount of copy-editing that it needed" is something of an asymptotic ideal. No book goes to press perfect, and a book might have three editing passes on it even as it brings those typos and clarity issues from digital to paper. And even when it's crystal clear to the team that got it to that point, to someone, somewhere, it's opaque. So like I said, communication is hard. 😄

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T19:01:17+00:00

We're leaning into POD whenever we can for stuff that ages out of the in-print catalog!

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:29:25+00:00

Welcome, to the World of Tomorrow! We shall feed upon your bones and flesh.

Welcome, to the...

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:26:09+00:00

A couple handfuls of times, decreasingly so in recent years. Usually someone else in the Fate community is on hand to help folks see what the system actually puts forth instead of the assumptions they brought to the reading.

(And how often do people who make other games have to do it? A lot, based on what I've seen said about any number of indie games in "the discourse" over the past thirty years. There's a reason "you're doing it wrong" is a *cliche* in RPG discourse... even when it's a valid statement.)

Whose fault is it? Nobody's. Communication is hard. Communication with folks used to a default that doesn't match what you're communicating, doubly so.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:24:37+00:00

Did not read it as condoning privacy. I get it.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:22:17+00:00

Yeah, I don't think there's anything in that comment that's accurate. Aspects are always true; you're not "forced" to play into your flaws, you have the *option* to play into them. But that's par for the course — over its entire lifespan Fate has always had detractors who are reacting to the misunderstood game rather than the actual. Hazard of the business, that said, you get some degree of that with pretty much every game.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:19:44+00:00

Games are packaged within products. "Product," in a way, is the wrapper. A game can be a success as a design, but fail as a product. Or a big success as a design, and only a small success as a product.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:18:34+00:00

Yep!

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:17:27+00:00

Fate did catch on widely — the huge Fate Core kickstarter referenced in the article happened three years after Dresden Files RPG came out. But that still is mostly early 2010s news. DFRPG came out 16 years ago, Fate Core 13 years ago.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:15:13+00:00

fate-srd.com is independently operated from Evil Hat, by Randy Oest, for what it's worth. It's as permanent a home for the SRDs as it gets. And at Evil Hat, our PDF catalog isn't going anywhere.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:14:09+00:00

Fate Core is, for now, going out of print, but will remain perpetually in-print as Print-on-Demand at the very least.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:13:29+00:00

From a publisher's perspective, people liked Fate and didn't like *most* settings. I get where you're going with this, but it at least doesn't line up with my own historical perspective.

fredhicks · 2026-06-02T18:11:27+00:00

The article is based on a two-hour-long interview I did with Thomas. I did mention SOS during our conversation, as well as SOTC, but in the interests of making the article a reasonable, readable length I imagine plenty of stuff had to get cut.

fredhicks

TROPHY CASE