Forge in RopeCon?

[Eero Tuovinen]

There most probably is; I don't think the lecture program is even halfway done yet (it usually gets into shape few weeks before the convention, with the people responsible for the lectures begging for more of them). Reserving your place well before that gives a good change of getting a good program slot (afternoons, I think).

Buying beer to the male member of the program group also helps, but don't quote me on that one.

Hey, thanks for the low-down on that. I'll definitely contact the programming people this week and pitch a certain kind of lecture. What it'll be, will be revealed in due time...

[Eero Tuovinen]

OK, everyone I've dealt with has given his payment information and (hopefully) shipped the games I've ordered. Heartfelt thanks to everybody, and I hope you got the payment. I also hope that we get the final shipment going in time, elsewise I'll be running a mail order shop until the next Ropecon...

Anyway, if all goes well we'll return to this thread after the convention to see how it went.

[Matt Snyder]

Crap! Eero, I totally forgot to reply to your query. This last post reminded me. SORRY!

What's the deadline for getting things to you? I wanted to try to get 6 copies of Dust Devils sent your way.

Sorry again for the oversight.

-Matt

[Eero Tuovinen]

Crap! Eero, I totally forgot to reply to your query. This last post reminded me. SORRY!

Hey, no problem. I'm not holding it against people if they do not want to or otherwise won't participate. Would be quite strange to keep my acceptance as hostage for cooperating in selling me games for discount, wouldn't it ;?

What's the deadline for getting things to you? I wanted to try to get 6 copies of Dust Devils sent your way.

You got it! There's still time for special considerations like Dust Devils. I will contact you privately.

[Eero Tuovinen]

Valamir-Ralph got me to realize that some of the people who sold us games might actually care if the games got moving allright. Mr. Young's retail department did a fabulous job on the matter, getting the games into land mail for a quite cheap price. If 6 weeks is the absolute maximum the mail takes I'll have at least three days to spare before the convention :)

I'll probably report here in a month with a really big stack of books.

[chadu]

Hey, running Dead Inside is a good show. There's one game that should cater to Finnish tastes of modern horror.

There's also a game which requires certain kind of players - the ones who usually sit and listen the lectures through the whole convention. A problem you're bound to run into if you plan to run demo games.

That's always been a concern of mine with demo'ing DI: the type of game and tone required for full-enjoyment may not be conducive to open, public demos.

CU

[Paul Czege]

Heya Chad,

That's always been a concern of mine with demo'ing DI: the type of game and tone required for full-enjoyment may not be conducive to open, public demos.

My current thinking is that the pursuit of demos that deliver "full-enjoyment" is a bad idea.

The demo scenario I wrote for last year's GenCon with that objective just wasn't that successful for me. It was a pre-generated Master and several minions, and took about 45 minutes to run. I ran it three times last year, and didn't produce a single sale of the game. My friend Tom ran it twice, and sold a single copy. Gordon Landis ran it once, for a single player, spending nearly a whole hour with her, and ultimately made the sale. By comparison, Ron runs a twenty minute bare-bones Sorcerer demo and always sells one or more copies.

So I've been thinking quite a bit about how I want to redesign my demo scenario, with a goal, in part, of not leaving players so completely satisfied with the experience that they don't hunger for more. I'm thinking less demo scenario will produce more sales.

Paul

[chadu]

Yo, Paul!

So I've been thinking quite a bit about how I want to redesign my demo scenario, with a goal, in part, of not leaving players so completely satisfied with the experience that they don't hunger for more. I'm thinking less demo scenario will produce more sales.

That's an intriguing, and provocative, idea.

I like it.

Now, I've got to think about it myself -- how to fit the jazz of DI into a short, sweet package.

I've already got an idea for a super-tight Monkey, Ninja, Pirate, Robot: the RPG demo, but I need to flesh it out. Maybe I'll produce it as a freebie.

Anywho, I gotta finish Cold, Hard World before I can revisit demos.

CU

[M. J. Young]

Paul, I'd be really interested in discussing demo design; unfortunately, this is neither the thread nor the forum--and I'm not at all certain which forum would be correct. (I'm fearful that it might be Actual Play, as I don't cover that one and am stretching my time pretty thin already.)

Maybe this can be picked up in another thread here in Conventions, as a "how to design convention demos" thread? I've had some experience by now, and would be interested in knocking it around with some of yours. (And maybe we can get Luke to share a bit on his methods. He runs demos pretty much straight through conventions and always sells at all of them.)

--M. J. Young

[Merten]

That's always been a concern of mine with demo'ing DI: the type of game and tone required for full-enjoyment may not be conducive to open, public demos.

This is something that, I'd think, would cover most of the Forge-based games. Granted, I haven't read single one of them, but one would think that they appeal to a small portition of gamers - the one's who (at least around here) are a bit more mature and thus have already booked themselves silly with different panels, shows and Thoughtfull Discussion In Front Of Pints.

A convention- and demo-game thread would be an intresting addition, I've been running the former for the past ten years, but only few demo games.