Fragor Games: An Open Letter to the Board Games Community

Friends,

Running a games company is enormous fun. It is an enormous amount of work but we love it. However, every now and then, through no fault of your own, a problem presents itself without which has no real obvious “good” solution. This has just happened to us.

Part of what makes a Fragor game is the animal pieces that we put in our game. Some even describe it as our trademark. We go the extra mile to ensure that our pieces are as good as we can make them. It causes production problems and presents a whole load of logistical problems but, ultimately, we think it is worth it.

As you may know, we announced at the beginning of the week our Essen 2007 release “Antler Island”. We have started taking pre-orders which already number over 200. Our intention was and had always been to produce 1,000 games and to take pre-orders on that basis. That was the plan up until yesterday.

Yesterday, we received an e-mail confirming that the minimum order for the stag pieces would be10,000 (enough for 2,500 games). This was a total surprise and totally unexpected. We had no warning this was about to happen and completely changed what we understood the position to be since February. Both of us spent yesterday discussing what to do.

The realistic options were:

1. Still make 1,000 games and substantially increase the price of the game
2. Use other wooden pieces for the stags in the game
3. Make 2,500 games for Essen despite our announcement a few days ago.

We want the pieces in the game. You want the pieces in the game. They are great. We do not want to increase the price. That leaves option (c). Put simply, we are now going to make 2,500 copies of Antler Island for Essen. We would add :

• Individuals who pre-order from us will now get a Fragor Flinga—a specially made foldable flying disc. This will only be available with pre-orders. We are in the process of designing this and will post pictures of it as soon as we are able to. It will come with its own storage pouch.

• If you have already pre-ordered from us and the increased print run makes a difference to you then we fully understand and will simply cancel your preorder. No problem. Simply let us know.

We are letting the board games community know of the change in our print-run immediately. It may have been superficially attractive to let the game sell out its planned amount of 1,000 games and then announce a second edition / increased run prior to Essen. This may even have made good business sense. However, our reputation in the board games world is more important to us than simply selling games. What we do is fun. We are straightforward, honest guys who publish games for the love of it. Life is too short. We could not have lived with ourselves taking pre-orders on a false premise. That is why we have written this open message.

Of course, we now need to sell 2,500 games. That takes us out of our comfort zone (aaarrrggghhh !). However, our marketing department (that’s us) have told us to say to you that it simply shows how confident we are in the game being a success ;-)

Please still preorder (fragorpreorder@yahoo.co.uk with Antler Island in the title). It will achieve two things: Firstly, you will get a Fragor flinga. Secondly, it may allow two Scottish games designers to get an hour of sleep between now and October!  We will treat this as a challenge and are gearing up to do what we can to sell this many games. In the words of a previous Counter article, “Fragor are now swinging for the fences….”.

When the going gets tough, the tough publish 2,500 games.

Gordon and Fraser (the Lamont brothers)
Fragor Games

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Comments:

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Bravo.  Best of luck to you two! My preorder should be on the way, if you haven’t received it already. I look forward to seeing you in Essen soon… The big question I have is this:  Does this mean that the two of you might actually have to work the booth this year for more than the first afternoon?! Dale Posted by Dale Yu on Jul 3, 2007 at 06:36 PM | #

These guys are class acts, I tell ya.  They’ve got my pre-order! Posted by William Bussick on Jul 3, 2007 at 07:57 PM | #

Already preordered… hmmm, perhaps I should order more! Posted by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on Jul 3, 2007 at 08:18 PM | #

Thanks for the post, I’m still glad I pre-ordered. Posted by Brian Leet on Jul 3, 2007 at 08:40 PM | #

Still happy about my pre-order #94 :) Best of luck with the new challenge! Posted by Tom Rosen on Jul 4, 2007 at 01:29 AM | #

I think they can be quite confident they’ll sell the additional copies too Posted by Surya Van Lierde on Jul 4, 2007 at 03:20 AM | #

Bravo, Gordon and Frasier!  You already have my pre-order, although I must admit that the thought of seeing you two wearking antlers & kilts at the same time is going to cost me many hours of sleep ... Posted by Greg Schloesser on Jul 4, 2007 at 03:31 PM | #

While it’s cool to be one of 1000 (number 95 to be exact), that really had little to do with why I ordered anyway.  I have no problem being 1 of 2500 :). I am just happy the components are staying the same.  Thanks for letting us all know though, that was a nice gesture.  It enhances the good reputation that you were so worried about in the note :). Posted by Ryan Olson on Jul 4, 2007 at 07:10 PM | #

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