MShipley88 wrote:Someone help me here.  I watched the auction unaware that Deadlord was the seller....I put it on my watch list to see the fireworks.

If Kalifax is a unique item, doesn't that pretty much make it just someone's dungeon with a slightly nicer cover?

I have a pre-pub item from a nascent company called Master Gamer's Guild, from back in the early 80's.  I doubt it ever saw publication in more than two or three copies.  Is that valuable?

Mark  

How many pages is it?  Is it any good?

Badmike wrote:
What if you ran up 50 copies of Kalifax and started selling them for 10 bucks each?  I'm not saying you should do this or anything, just playing devil's advocate.  Would anyone really care? I don't want to turn this into a time waster copyright discussion, but when it comes to "unique" items that are out of print (or in this case apparantly never even printed), is there any protocol at all?

Mike B.

I guess my question has to do with the comb binding and the faux parchment cover.

If those things were absent...and the item in existed in only 3 or 4 "pre-publication" copies...wouldn't that make it an amateur publication with no real value?

For instance...I have some of Deadlord's dungeons downloaded.  If I printed them on slightly impressive paper...would they automatically acquire collector value?

I am not just being snotty.  I'm genuinely interested in why Kalifax is valuable as compared to other amateur publications.

Mark  

When you get into "making copies of items to sell" this really is just a copyright argument.  If you are going to make copies why not print out some of the Wee Warriors items?  If you really wanted to do this and make some money there is probably a good chance that the real copyright holders will not come after you because of the cost they would incur just to stop you.

One difference with Kalifax is that it really does have a limited number of copies that are even out there to make copies of.  

Similarly why does Booty and the Beasts or Lair of the Spider Mother/Lord Farricks Keep or the John Scott Clegg stuff sell for upwards of $100+ each?

Like most of these, the book is rare, seems interesting, has sex appeal (a nice cover) and looks like a good amount of work.  Also for Kalifax, it helped that Frank vouched for it rather highly.

How large a print run do some of these items have?  

Not saying that Kalifax is not cool, by the way.  

Mark  

According to what I was told by the other owner, it was sold at GenCon. I would hazard a guess that the two writers sold it personally, given its scarcity and the presence of a company name. It also mentions a second item, but I would imagine that was slated for a future date, IF Kali sold well. Since it is in an older-style format, I wouldn't be surprised if only a handful of copies sold. And it was long before the collecting craze.
The possibility does exist that the original publishers kept whatever copies they printed. But even if that happened, I am sure it is a million times rarer than DG, for example. And since it is looseleaf, it would be a bit more difficult to keep intact, even if one wished to.
I don't know what the original price was, but perhaps it was too high to sell many modules. And I would think that the looseleaf nature of it might put off many gamers, who tend to prefer book forms.
It's such a weird item. It is strongly reminiscent of a JG item, but it occurred to me earlier today where I have seen a similar format: Thieves Guild. It has a strange numbering system for the pages that are actually numbered.
The encounters are fleshed-out with regards to NPC personalities and tendencies, but the statistics are usually left open. A mage shopkeeper, for example, might be described as "the second or third most powerful in the city", but no specific level is given. This is definitely my preferred format, since I like to handle details like that myself, and it makes it virtually impossible for players who read a copy of it to know exactly how powerful creatures/NPC's are. It is very generic in form, and I can't think of a single game system it couldn't fit into.
One neat thing: it uses what I believe is a steel piece valuation system. Things are listed as being worth "X  st." I THINK Darksun used that as well.
I am still awaiting details on whether the other copy is a "rough cut", amongst other things.
Mark, it will take you DAYS to go through this, if you decide to. It's enormous, over 200 pages. Granted a lot of them are maps, but it is still a monster.

200 pages...wow   ...who are the authors?

Incredible, Marlith...nice one.

Marlith wrote:Speaking of picking up LegendQuest modules on the cheap....


** expired/removed eBay auction **

I saw that lot, didn't bid on it since I wasn't really sure what the quality of the LQ materials was:  what's your opinion Marlith and others?

Marlith wrote:
I honestly have not given them the attention they deserve. Spending too much time with Bard's Gate.

The PC game or Necromancer Games supplement?