Synchronizing scheduled events with sales.

[cdr]

Open Gaming at Gencon was in the Hyatt lobby, reachable via the skywalk but not somewhere anyone would walk by unless they were staying in the Hyatt or headed there deliberately.

Paka's game of DitV was in 205, very near IGE in 207.

Will there be an IGE room at GenCon SoCal?  Is there an interest in having one at DunDraCon (held mid-February in San Ramon in northern California; GM applications open September 5th)?

I'll be at both of those (as well as ConQuest labor day weekend near SF airport) and would be very happy to run as much Dogs as anyone cared to play.  Possibly also Capes, Under the Bed or The Mountain Witch.

--Carl Rigney

[Mike Holmes]

Open Gaming at Gencon was in the Hyatt lobby, reachable via the skywalk but not somewhere anyone would walk by unless they were staying in the Hyatt or headed there deliberately.

Paka's game of DitV was in 205, very near IGE in 207.

Thanks for the info. I hope we don't have to resort to going to open gaming in the Hyatt. That's just too far, and out of the way (then again, somewhat the same problem with the Embassy).

Will there be an IGE room at GenCon SoCal?  Is there an interest in having one at DunDraCon (held mid-February in San Ramon in northern California; GM applications open September 5th)?

I'll be at both of those (as well as ConQuest labor day weekend near SF airport) and would be very happy to run as much Dogs as anyone cared to play.  Possibly also Capes, Under the Bed or The Mountain Witch.

Carl, the only way these things get set up is for somebody to set them up. The Forge is not a cabal, but a community that includes you. So if you want something like this to happen, start organizing it now (or get somebody else to do so).

I'm not even sure if there will be Forge booths with these, but start out by finding out, and coordinating with folks who might already be going. Mail the staff of the convention, and get to know them. Then politely ask what it would take to get the resources you need.

Mike

[Luke]

Hi guys,
I thought I'd chime in from the other side. As a game designer and primary sponsor of the booth, I'm not leaving mid-day to run anything. There's just too much to do -- either running demos or dealing with headaches. Also, it appears any free time I do have will be absorbed by the game design panel. (Which we will be doing next year.)

However, Thor, Dro and I did discuss this at length. We're going to add another member to our crew next year. One that can run 2-hour games in the IGE track during the day. The other two can run support for the demoers/GMs and help out at the booth.

I strongly urge the game designers to work with Mike Miller to get a game or two into the schedule via the IGE. Mike ran 7-9 slots that seemed to be full. I ran 8-12 slots that were definitely full. I saw Matt Gwinn run a packed Kayfabe game from 9-1, I think. Or maybe it was 8-12.

Anyway, organizing daytime pick-up games is a different animal. Mike (Holmes), if this is something you'd like to take up with Gencon, please do so. But I have a feeling it's going to have to be a "Game with the Forge Monkeys" event. 'Specially if it's happening during the day.

Then again, maybe those designers not on a panel or running an event, should take Thursday or Friday afternoon and do something like this to drum up interest in their games early on. A little public exposure does wonders.

-L

[Michael S. Miller]

Mike is right that the IGE could be a lot better. One of the things that could get it there is having a non-exhibitor running it. I was over-committed this GenCon and consistently chose to support WGP over IGE. My wife Kat has volunteered to run the Explosion next year, but with both her AND Holmes, all I gotta say is WOW!

About the daytime slot issue, during GenCon '04 I ran one 2-hour WGP scheduled event each day. All of them were full and one I had to turn away several people with generics. For GenCon scheduled events, my rule of thumb has always been "if you run it, they will come." Except for early Thursday morning and later Sunday afternoon, I've never had a problem filling games by listing them in the convention book.

As for the original purpose of this thread, I think making it widely known to people at the booth that "these cool games are being played at location XXX" and making it known to people at the IGE that "these cool games are being sold at booth YYY" would go a long way toward coordinating sales and play. For mid-day games, you can even walk people right to the booth.

[Eric Provost]

Good plan Mike.

I'd be more than happy to escort buyers right to the booth.

I'm also considering putting some line on each character sheet (cuz ppls like to keeps their character sheets) that lets people know right where they can go to buy a copy of the game if they enjoyed it.

Maybe someone who's manning the Forge booth next year will compile all the Forgite games being run from the Book O' The Con and post a short list right there at the booth.  I imagine that would be pretty effective.

Right now my agenda for the big cons next year is pretty solid;  Bringing it to the masses during the day ('official' games in the book) and meeting up with the crowd after hours.

-Eric

[Mike Holmes]

But I have a feeling it's going to have to be a "Game with the Forge Monkeys" event. 'Specially if it's happening during the day.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Like you're assuming that by "cool kids" I mean all of the sellers at the Forge booth.

Well, OK, I would like to have y'all participate, but I can understand if you don't. Specifically, however, I was talking about just booth monkeys, and cool people like Eric and Lisa who, though associated with the Forge, are not associated with the booth.

Basically what I'm hoping to get going is to have action like the Embassy Suites night time activities during the day for those of us with the time to do so. Why only play one really cool game per day if you can play four???

Mike (Miller), Kat seemed to do a good job as far as was possible for the coordination of the events as they happened. So I'd be glad to work with her again. Perhaps she as "Scheduled Events" coordinator, and me as "Pick Up Events" Coordinator. That sounds like it would work excellently well.

OTOH, and not to hedge, I have to watch my time committments. I will also be probably with family again, and running games for MOLAD (Issiaries Demo Team - hopefully we can combine forces?). Not to mention my boardgaming connections that I have to deal with. So I'll probably will need even more help with this. So if anyone else wants to volunteer to take shifts as coordinator, let me know.

Mike

[TonyLB]

Urggggggh....  Is it a good or a bad sign that I'm actually feeling jealous of the people who haven't published games, and could therefore enjoy four solid days of top notch Indie Gaming with clear consciences?

[Kat Miller]

I have noticed with the Preview Edition of WGP.  Mike and I would go to a con, run schedualed events.  Even if he didn't make a sale at the con, there sales off the internet would increase.  the larger the con and more events run, the larger the increase.

Even if they don't buy the game at the table they talk, and someone will get curious enough to look it up.  So its been our experience that schedualed events = sales.


 

Mike (Miller), Kat seemed to do a good job as far as was possible for the coordination of the events as they happened. So I'd be glad to work with her again. Perhaps she as "Scheduled Events" coordinator, and me as "Pick Up Events" Coordinator. That sounds like it would work excellently well.

thanks mike.  I'm looking into getting IGE its own room next year,  I'm looking at some other things too.  but I'm not sure if this is the right thread, and I don't as many solid answers as I'd like before creating a new thread.

-kat

[Lisa Padol]

Yes! Scheduled events for us plebes!

As someone who generally buys what I want fairly quickly, and who isn't Forge Inner Circle, I find myself in a position where I want to hang out at the Forge booth, where all the cool folks are. At the same time, there is a definite vibe of "We're actually interested in the paying customers here."

That's absolutely legit. The booth is there to sell stuff. It's one thing to complain about the Hard Sell (and I have, on the relevant thread). It's, I hope, acceptable to get into a demo at the booth for a game that I've bought that convention. I even presume to try to get into demos of games I've bought at previous conventions so that I can see how they are meant to be played. But, more than that is pushing, and that's not cool.

But, y'know, even though I've bought a bunch of games and am now no longer a target audience for the demos, I want to play these games. I don't just want to play them at home. I want to play them with the cool people I see once a year and the cool people I've never met. This is especially true of Forge games, where it often doesn't click for me until I see how the game works in play. I've had very mixed success running things at home, even when I've been in demos.

Well, there are the games at the Embassy Suites. These sound really great. Of course, I didn't even know that's where the gaming was happening after hours, and I'm not sure if this is something I'm supposed to show up to without a direct invite to a specific game, as with Kat's Everway game on Saturday. If this is something for the people who work the booth, write the games, sell the games, and run the games and demos, well, yes, I'm disappointed, but, y'know, it's not unreasonable to say, "No, these are by invitation only. It's our chance to detox and play with each other."

So, what does that leave? Open gaming, pick up gaming, and scheduled gaming. Over the years, I've gotten pretty good at figuring out what games are to my taste, so I'm definitely fine with scheduled gaming. Without it, even if it makes little economic sense to run such games, I feel a bit of resentment. What, I have to be an open wallet before someone runs a convention game?

So yes, I loved the fact that there were officially scheduled games of TSOY, Capes, MLWM, WGP, PTA, DitV -- and Charnel Gods! There was scheduled Charnel Gods! I am jealous of the folks who got to play that one. More scheduled games!

Then, there's open gaming. Yes, that's in the Hyatt, but if the Forge could get a room, or a table in a room in the convention center, great! And don't forget pick ups. Some companies had sign up sheets for scheduled pick ups, four hour games that weren't on the schedule, and were held wherever was convenient. I'd be willing to put my money where my mouth is (well, my time where my typing fingers are) and run stuff at for pick ups and open gaming. I'm not sure enough of my skills or schedules to run Scheduled Events yet, but this sounds like a good way to start.

Josh and I are planning to do Origins next year. By then, I am hoping to have run PTA, at the very least. I would like to be confident that I could run PTA, Polaris, DitV, and Mountain Witch at the drop of the hat. These are listed in what I think is order of likeliness. If I nail those, then Sorcerer would be next. Apart from actually learning by running, what resources should I be checking out? Are there any "Okay, here's how to demo my game" packs?

-Lisa