When I started getting more into tabletop roleplaying games in 2019, I noticed a new term popping up on various books and games I saw on the marketplace Itch.io: “community copies.” After learning more about these programs that various tabletop game publishers support, I knew that after I launched Journey I would want to have my own community copy program set up.
And I’m just really glad I did.
What are tabletop Roleplaying Game community copies programs?
The general concept of a community copy is this: if someone visits your game’s page and would like to be able to play it, but might not currently be able to afford the game for whatever reason (we don’t ask, and we don’t judge), there are free copies made available to the community to allow those folks the chance to play.
Those copies are finite, with only a certain number of digital copies of a game being made available at a time. Those copies get replenished every so often, with most publishers who have communities copies program tied to sales and community support.
Community support often comes in the form of a version of a game that costs a bit more than a single copy would, with the idea that someone can buy the game for themselves while also buying an additional copy to donate to the program, making the game available for someone who could use it.
Sales may also replenish community copies by hitting certain sales goals. For example, maybe you sell 100 copies of your game and want to acknowledge the community, so you add some copies to the available set of those available.
How My Community Copies Program has Done
I’ve offered a community copies program since the beginning of my indie tabletop roleplaying game publisher Graycastle Press, with my bestselling worldbuilding solo tabletop game Journey being available as community copies since release.
To date, since the beginning of my publishing journey, the Graycastle Press community copies program has been able to offer folks who might not otherwise have been able to buy my books 285 digital copies of books valued at over $3,000. Those have come from a healthy mix of community support and my own addition of blocks of copies when meeting sales goals.
Not a small number but one that makes me incredibly happy that the community of folks who have purchased and continue to support my books have the same support for their community at large.
How can tabletop roleplaying game publishers implement their own community copies programs?
If you’re a tabletop roleplaying game publisher who would like to offer community copies, you’re largely limited by the marketplaces on which you sell. Itch.io is the only marketplace I’ve used (so far) that even offers tools that let you make it happen, and only through the creative use of their Rewards system (more on that below).
Selling on DriveThruRPG doesn’t really offer a streamlined way to accomplish this, but I have some thoughts on how it could technically be done, albeit in a limited fashion.
Offering community copies on Itch.io
You can get an example of what the final version of this might look like on your own page by visiting the Journey Itch.io page and scrolling down to the Community Copies section. You can see that there are two options, one for purchasing Journey and donating a copy, and one for redeeming an available community copy.
This uses the “Rewards” feature on Itch.io, often used for offering free downloads, more robust packages of a game with additional resources, and other kinds of value-added content.
To configure this yourself, head to your Dashboard, click Edit on your game, and look for the Rewards tab. It may be hidden under the More tab, but it’s definitely there.
Once there, set up two rewards for your game. You can refer to the image below for how I’ve done this on my game Journey:
You can see that I have one reward called “Donate a Community Copy” which is the option that allows customers to purchase an additional copy to be added to the available community copies, and one titled “Community Copy” which is the actual free option.
Be sure to pay attention to the price points on each reward, as if you flip these (as I have in the past) it will look like the free copies are paid, and vice versa.
In addition, also pay attention to the Total Quantity field. When creating a reward, this will indicate how many copies can be purchased by customers. The “Donate a Community Copy” option could be as high as you like (though note that visitors will see that on your game’s page), but set the “Community Copy” quantity to how many free copies you’d like to make available at launch.
You can increment the quantities upwards as needed however many times in the future, so nothing is set in stone!
Collecting Emails
You might notice that my “Community Copy” reward has a link to sign up to be emailed when more copies are available:
These are simply links to pages on the Graycastle Press website specific to each title where I added signup forms for their respective community copy programs.
This has resulted in hundreds of signups of interested people over the last few years, far more than the actual number of community copies than I’ve been able to distribute. However, I let this list know first when more copies are being added so that they have first whack at them. I’ll also occasionally offer these folks discounts on the game they signed up for, in case that price break makes the game’s price easier for them to manage.
I try not to market to my community copies lists outside of general mailings from Graycastle Press and deals exclusive to their own lists. I tried to sell to them more actively early on, and got feedback that some felt it was a bit predatory despite deep discounts being offered, especially since the entire point of the list and community copies relates to not having the funds to make the purchase. Since that’s the furthest thing from my goal with this program, I scaled back the content they’re sent pretty massively.
How can I find other tabletop roleplaying game publishers that offer community copies?
Again, unless publishers add community copies programs to their own website shops, you’ll mostly be limited to finding community copies programs on Itch.io. You can search for community copies and you’ll find a ton of lists that users have assembled of games that have free copies available.
The best way to find these collections on their site (which somehow doesn’t appear to, as of writing this post, offer the chance to search the collections on the site) is to pop this search query into Google:
"community copies" collection site:itch.ioThat should find exact matches to “community copies” limited solely to their site.
Community copies support the community, and that’s a worthy goal
While each book given away as a community copy is technically a hit to my games’ profits, it’s worth it to me to do what I can to help folks who find themselves unable to spend the money on them currently to enjoy the game. I’ve been in that same economic position multiple times in my life, and whatever little things I can do to make this world a little nicer for someone else just feels like the right thing to do.
They may not lead to money in my pocket, but money isn’t everything. Nor should it be.
