Welcome to Pocket Gremlin Games

Pocket Gremlin is a new imprint from Deeply Dapper/Octopress Books, printing pocket-sized paperback versions of tabletop roleplaying games in a retro, pulp-inspired format. Each book will be paperback with black and white interiors, reformatted for the smaller print size (4”x6.5), with a specific focus on keeping the game accesible, easily navigable in paperback format, and printing durable games that look better as they get tossed around, drawn in, and played. Each book will feature a distinctive spine treatment, designed to look uniform on a shelf together as a collection, and inspired by Pocket Books and the orange spines of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons books.

Each wave of Pocket Gremlin books will be supported via crowdfunding, with minimal stretch goals or extraneous items, though some games may feature essential extras as add-ons, such as digital materials, specialty dice, cards. etc.

The waves will feature a mix of content, from indie games that have never had a physical print run, to out of print classics, to all new games. Future plans include Core rulebooks and Adventures for various open content systems, and smaller zine-sized runs. Pocket Gremlins is exclusively a physical printed item, with links to purchase/obtain the original digital version of the game in the book. The current plan is to print the books in the United States.

How it works for TTRPG Creators/Publishers:

My primary goal with these books is to make a small format paperback book that we can sell at a reasonable price at conventions, game stores, and online. I don’t have any specific ambitions to create new add-ons, have anything to do with other print runs, or manage the digital versions of your games - you retain all rights and connections to those, unless we discuss alternative options. This book format will likely appeal to a specific group of gamers, with less interest for the broader “D&D” crowd. (Although I would love to reach them as well.)

Our currently planned details for creators are as follows:

• You retain all rights to your game, we are only licensing the rights to print the Pocket Gremlin Edition of the book.

• We will work with you on your preferred licensing fees/costs.

• You will get 4 copies of the finished book.

• Upper extent of quantity will be cut off at 4,000 books printed, though that will likely be produced in multiple print runs if warranted.

• The creator can purchase as many copies of their game as desired at cost+10%. They may also purchase additional Pocket Gremlin games if desired at a negotiated rate for sale at in-person events and on their own webstore.

• The content licensed includes the complete unabridged text of the game and any artwork included in the original game, if available.

• We are open to edits, amendments, expanded content, etc for the Pocket Gremlin edition, but we would like the book to be as complete as possible.

• Octopress Books will reformat the game to fit and read in the smaller book format, but will not remove any content or edit text. They may add helpful headers, etc to improve the play and reading experience. We may also discuss cover art, back copy and tagline options.

• If the art is unavailable, we may source, create, or hire new art for the game (with your permission/participation). That art will belong to Pocket Gremlin, but can be licensed to the creator of the game if they would like to use it in their own future works attached to the game.

• We will include links to your website, digital versions of the game, or other end materials in the book.

Crowdfunding

• The crowdfunding campaign will likely be entirely focused on the costs for the offset domestic print run of the books, however, rewards that involve items that the creator have a hand in, we will set up options for their inclusion.

• We are not planning to do a digital Pocket Gremlin version of any of the books, but we would like to make a digital reward add-on part of the project that would allow backers to pick up your book as a pdf or part of a digital bundle. Any purchases of the digital books would be divided equally between the creators. (Single PDFs would go to that creator, bundles would be divided between the books included - both after site fees)

• If you have physical elements of the game that you would like to include as part of the project - custom dice, original cards, playmats, etc., we will work with you on including them and whether they would be fulfilled by you/your agent or if we would include them in the fulfillment of the books.

• Finally, we would require creators to aid in the advertising/promotion of the project by posting about it on social media, newsletters, and the like.

Interested in having your game included in the Pocket Gremlin’s stash? Send us a message! Please include any pertinent links or game files so taht we can see the game in question.