I Need Meat to Feed the 2003 Indie RPG Awards (apply within)

[Andy Kitkowski]

Hey all.  After a long hiatus, and a loose plan to start this year's Awards registration in the Spring and declare winners in the Fall, I've come again to my little Indie RPG Awards. ( www.rpg-awards.com )

This post, or something like it, will eventually go into Connections. But I wanted to capitalize on all this goodwill and cheer to find some manslaves for the Cause.

As many of you know, I made them at some point last year just to give a little recognition and support for the Indie community.  I wanted to set up an awards process that was voted on by Peers, I didn't want to vote for them myself, nor did I want to open it up to public vote. I wanted to spread a little cheer in the Indie community, and I think people had a good time with it.  I did.

But it was a fucking lot of work for one guy.  So much work that I've been thinking of closing shop on the awards.

Then I thought, "The Fuck?  These awards aren't voted on by me alone, so why do I feel like the awards have to be completely managed from the ground up by me?" So that's where I am now. Here, on the Forge, asking for some volunteers to sign up to, over the next few months, help out a little bit on the awards.

If I get help, especially with registration and the like, it will free up my time to create and streamline the tools used in voting and the like.  Help would be a godsend.  But in the end, no help means no awards.

If you're interested in helping out, here's an idea of what I'd be having you do.  I'll keep enlisting as many people as who want to help, although I may not use some folk (but will have them on standby if things get rough).

Here are the areas I need help on, and that I need volunteers to help with:

Registration of Voters
Registration of Games and Supplements
Registration of Games and Supplements Part 2: Coordinating with the Registrant to get all the needed data from them (cover thumbnail, blurb, etc)
Tallying Votes and Coordinating that Data
Marketing and Publicity: Posting to major RPG News sites
Marketing and Publicity Part 2:  Actively hunting down known designers to submit stuff for the award
Help with Prizes

Now, if you volunteer, there may be something that you're familiar with from the above that you'd particularly be willing to do  (Marketing, for example).  But just note that I have far more need for Registration Help than anything else, so if you volunteer I'll probably ask you to help with that most.

So the above is the basics.  I need brainmeat, and I need meat to help coordinate the above.  

The good news is that, from an initial inspection, there were far less Indie RPGs released in 2003 than there were in 2002, so the workload may be light. Bad news is, last year was kind of a haze, so I'm probably forgetting tons of folks.

Anyway, if you're interested in helping, let me know- Either PM me, or post here, or throw out ideas for the 2003 awards as well (categories, methodology, etc). Even though I may not go for it, I'm always, ALWAYS open to suggestions.

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Just FYI, here's the major changes I plan on making to the awards:

1: "INDIE RPG", for the purposes of the award, will be similar to but different than the Forge definition (Note: These aren't the Forge Awards, although many folks participating on them come from here).  Here's this year's definition.  Changed are Italicized:

* A game where the creator is the person who has written at least 50% of the actual game content.
* A game where the creator has full control of content and publishing.
* A game where the creator is the publisher: They alone are responsible for paying all the costs of printing, art, advertising, etc.
* A game where the creator of the game has full executive receipt and disbursement of profits.

In the above, team effort-made games are kosher, too.  But you have to be able to point to one team member who has Final Say in the matter of Publishing, as well as who has written 50% or more of the content themselves.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

2: Prizes: Last year there were money prizes (Total was somewhere around $400).  This year, however, I want to buy a house.  So I'm not putting an emphasis on money prizes (it was thought of as an "advancement" for the author's future work).  Instead, prizes will pretty much consist of a pat on the back and a pretty handmade postcard. I'd also like to work with some of the folks who Judge or Register for the awards, perhaps to get copies of their game (be it hardcopy or downloads) to give to winners of various categories. If others want to donate money to winners, bless 'em.

Length is going to be quite different than last year.  I mean, no award will be able to impartially and fairly judge EVERY RPG work made in an entire year, but I'm going to go as close as I can to that.  To that end,

* I'm starting the award registration process at the end of April or beginning of May.  This gives more time for games that came out at the end of 2003 to make their rounds.
* The voting will take place in the early Fall. This gives the publishers more time to drum up support for their goods at the awards. It also gives us a little breathing room to find as many indie publishers as we possibly can and ask them to get involved.

No d20 or "OGL" Games  This was the hardest move for me. I do believe that games based on an existing system, especially d20, still qualify as "Indie", as long as it meets my criteria above.

However, you don't have to be the most acute person to see that there's a fucking derth of d20 stuff on the market.  An endless slew of stuff that's just too numerous to track, order, or even comprehend.

There's two major reasons that I'm doing this. These are the only two reasons:
1) There's just too much fucking product for such a small awards committee to keep track of.  Just. Too. Much. Stuff.  Seriously. Keeping an "open" for d20 and OGL games, while saying "I want to try to get as many designers involved as possible", will be like trying to attach 15 linked freight train carts to the back of a small sports car.  I simply don't have the time or resources to manage that.
2) Alone, the above still wouldn't have stopped me.  However, as part of the Ennies Suite of Awards, there is an award created by Mike Mearls called the "Peer Awards".  This "Peer Awards" is only open to d20 and OGL games, and does EXACTLY what I intended to do with my awards anyway. This was a great relief for me, as I can simply direct the creators of worth d20 material to the Ennie Peer Awards and know that they'll be on even ground there.  

Again, I have no hates for the d20.  The above two reasons alone are why I can't take d20 or OGL games.

Note: There are some generic game systems coming out recently that fit under the OGL that aren't d20: IIRC, "Action! System", among others (perhaps FUDGE under the new license management).  Since no one has actually developed them into a game, though, the issue of "OGL games that aren't based on d20" is a moot point until next year.

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Anyway, that's it.  That's the news from the rpg-awards front, as well as a call for willing helpers.

Sooooooo.... HELP!

-Andy

[Ron Edwards]

Count me in.

Best,
Ron

[Christopher Weeks]

Here are the areas I need help on, and that I need volunteers to help with:

Registration of Voters
Registration of Games and Supplements
Registration of Games and Supplements Part 2: Coordinating with the Registrant to get all the needed data from them (cover thumbnail, blurb, etc)
Tallying Votes and Coordinating that Data
Marketing and Publicity: Posting to major RPG News sites
Marketing and Publicity Part 2:  Actively hunting down known designers to submit stuff for the award
Help with Prizes

I know you already typed a bunch about this, but could you say a little more about what helping in these tasks means?  Registering seems like a cinch if you build a registration portal of some kind first.  How much subjectivity is involved in the process?

Chris

[Andy Kitkowski]

I know you already typed a bunch about this, but could you say a little more about what helping in these tasks means?  Registering seems like a cinch if you build a registration portal of some kind first.

Sure, dude.  

The "portal" last year was nothing more than a webform that I pointed people to.  It fired off an email to me, which I kept, copying and pasting the user's info into various docs.  This year, I'm looking to an actual "registration" portal and DB interface (in fact, this week I'm gonna be scouring Sourceforge and my PHP haunts for "plug & play" code).  I have a month to find something suitable and implement it.  Otherwise, registration will consist of last year's registration and I'll work on the DB for next year:  People will register online, that will fire off an email to me which I will forward to the Helpers.  The Helpers keep those organized, compile a list of email addies for important mailings, note their comments, etc.

In the end, I'm hoping to get a DB in place.  But if wishes were horses we'd all be eatin' steak.

Other areas:

Registration of Voters
Demonstrated Above
Registration of Games and Supplements
Like the Above
Registration of Games and Supplements Part 2: Coordinating with the Registrant to get all the needed data from them (cover thumbnail, blurb, etc)
Same as above, just going back to make sure everyone submitted the information that I needed (thumbnails, etc)
Tallying Votes and Coordinating that Data
This will be the tricky part.  Again, it may come down to "copying and pasting results from emails".  But I also want to collect, like last year, "comments" on the various games being voted for.  This feedback is really cool and I want to post as much as possible, and possibly do what I couldn't last year, which is send feedback to all the registrants who received feedback (and not just the top five that made it to finals).
Marketing and Publicity: Posting to major RPG News sites
Just like it sounds.  In the end, this is the stuff I was planning on doing myself.  But if someone is really familiar with the sites out there, I wouldn't mind turning over part or all of this work. (whether I write the PR and they circulate them, or they write and post PR).
Marketing and Publicity Part 2:  Actively hunting down known designers to submit stuff for the award
Just like it sounds.
Help with Prizes
Easy Sheezy.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and again, I'm up for any FEEDBACK you have about the awards as well. Feel free to bring it on.

And thanks, Ron, for jumping right in there.  I appreciate it!  I forgot to mention that, once I gather folks, the first missives and requests for work (and it amounts to just about an hour or two a week, when broken up) will go down in about 3 weeks.  I will PM the people interested, though, before that just to say thanks and mark them down.

-Andy

[Dav]

Just let me know what you need... I'll toss in.

Dav

[coxcomb]

I am passionate enough about wanting the winners to receive a statue or other mantlepiece type item, that I volunteer to research the issue, and (if my finances allow) front some, most, or <gulp> all of the cost for them myself. Unless, of course, you think the idea is crap.

In any case, hats off to you for starting this in the first place.

[Andy Kitkowski]

Thanks Dav!

I am passionate enough about wanting the winners to receive a statue or other mantlepiece type item, that I volunteer to research the issue, and (if my finances allow) front some, most, or <gulp> all of the cost for them myself. Unless, of course, you think the idea is crap.

In any case, hats off to you for starting this in the first place.

Hey dude, sounds good!

As for funding, I'll throw in about $30 or so- Maybe if you take on the project yourself, you can find sponsors?  Also, the "Prize/category list" will probably change little from last year (save d20 category), make sure you check the list so that you have enough to go around- www.rpg-awards.com

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Um, do you need suggestions for nominations? If so, what's the procedure?

-Lisa

[Andy Kitkowski]

Um, do you need suggestions for nominations? If so, what's the procedure?

Recruiting and all that will begin at the end of the month or beginning of may.  It's not so much "nominate" as "get the creator to haul ass to my site to fill out a 20-second survey", too. Again, though, that's happening at the end of the month.

I would like some suggestions on things like... well...  feedback. Procedure. "You should do this" or "You should have that kind of award", etc. Stuff to get my mind in motion.

Anyway, I'm probably going to later post on Publishing and Connections:  Publishing, to ask for directed feedback, and Connections to get more folks into assisting.

Thanks!

Still looking for meat!

-Andy
(vegetarian)