The Forge Archives

Hello everybody,

It's about time I announced the Forge plans for GenCon. The main issue is that "the Forge" is not a business entity and as such will not have its own booth. So instead, the plan is to have a Forge section as part of an existing booth.

There will be a three-booth space set up as a unit, with two game companies sharing the basic cost: Adept Press and one other (chime in, you-know-who, if desired). A full two booths' worth of space will be set up exactly as the card-game companies do it, with three diagonally-placed tables and lots of chairs. The two companies' banners will be placed at each end and a big Forge banner will be placed in the center, over the tables.

The point is to generate an ongoing, partly-spontaneous climate of Actual Play. Yes, Sorcerer and the other game will have demos. But the main point is for someone to walk up, get into a conversation about indie this-and-that, and say, "Soap opera? That sounds fun," and wham, they play Soap, then and there.

Same for Wyrd. Same for The Questing Beast. Same for Kayfabe. Same for InSpectres. Same for OctaNe. Same for The World, The Flesh, and the Devil. Same for Universalis. Same for Orbit. Same for Scattershot. Same for Donjon Krawl. Same for any friggin' game that ever got presented at the Forge, pending someone who's willing to do it.

This means we need an army at the booth - an enthusiastic, spunky, inspired army who can charm gamers into sitting down and amaze them in a single half-hour of play, and do it again and again during the con. If you want to do that, you pay us for an Exhibitor badge and it's yours. But if you do that, you owe the time and the energy.

Plus, if you want to sell a game you've written out of the booth, that's cool too. That will cost you $100 flat, though, to help defray booth costs and compensate me and the other fellow for the attention taken from our games. The plan in this case is for the massive assortment of indie games to act as a collective advertisement and legitimizer of any single one of them. (Clearly, Sorcerer and the other book-published game will be doing this for all the "little ones" as well.)

What I have in mind is no less than a complete revision of "what GenCon is for." We are role-players, selling our cool stuff to fellow role-players, and I intend to prove it.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Cynthia Celeste Miller, get in touch and let me know what's up with Cartoon Action Hour. Rob, same for Million Worlds; Paul E, if that Egypt thing is getting closer to ready, same for you; Zak, I totally want a wad of games from you, and your ass in the booth as well; Marco, JAGS big-time; Paganini, what's up with Cornerstone; James V., how about Imp ...

(had to edit to fix someone's name!)

Ron--

I'd very much be up for spontaneously running InSpectres. And maybe some other games as well. (As much as Sorcerer works better with a run of sessions, I'd still be up for running it--maybe Sorcerer & Sword with pregenerated characters?) That sounds really exciting--like last year, only more so.

Where's Sean Demory? I totally want to see Le Mon Mouri going on at GenCon.

Are you putting together a demo scenario for Sorcerer, Ron?

Paul

You know what? Even if Sean doesn't want to run LMM at GenCon, I will. I think it rocks.

And is it just me, or would it be even cooler if we all had cocktails in our hands?

Hi there,

Evidently I need to clarify a point that was buried in the first post.

I will be arriving with several fairly detailed demos of Sorcerer, and the other publisher will be doing the same for his game. In fact, I hope to be have sent copies to some people well before GenCon.

People who are selling games there are free to generate pregenerated demo material. Just remember that by being there, you're volunteering to demo/play more games than the one you're hawking.

Best,
Ron

Quote from: Ron Edwards
Just remember that by being there, you're volunteering to demo/play more games than the one you're hawking.

That's a really good point to keep in mind - we need players as much as demo people. If someone comes up to the booth, and looks interested in Inspectres, two people need to get up and help, for example, Jared demo the thing by playing with this guy and showing him the ropes.

I'm really looking forward to this, actually - I'm hoping to play in three or four demos in per day.

I might have to play InSpectres with Jared and Clinton again! Gee, I don't know, that's pretty rough... ;-)


Wild horses, baby!

Mike

Jared, Mike, Clinton,

Man, last year I screwed up and missed out on the big InSpectres game.  Can't let that happen again.

And I'm curious about some of the InSpectres variants - I'd love to hook up with Sean and Mike and play Geek Season.

BTW, where the hell has Sean been lately?

- Scott

Quote from: Ron Edwards
Zak, I totally want a wad of games from you, and your ass in the booth as well

I'm afraid I can't afford to go to GenCon this year (barring some fantastic raise or change in work schedule) ... I may look into doing it as cheap as I possibly can, though.

And as for a wad of games, well, there's 10 games (not counting Chthonian, which I'm planning to rewrite one of these days). GenCon is when? August? Even if I can't come, you'll have 5-6 new games from me by then.

We'll let Clinton keep convincing me I need to go to GenCon ... :)

Hey everyone.

Key 20 Publishing is the other anchor company for this little endeavor. So we'll have Sorcerer on one end, Little Fears on the other, and hopefully an absolute shload in between. I really hope we get a lot of people involved in this. I also hope to have Seth Ben-Ezra (from Dark Omen Games) and Key 20 partner, Greg Oliver there as well to run demos, hawk product, and generate enthusiasm.

Once we have a list of people and product participating, I volunteer to put together and print a one-sheet pamphlet for distribution and posting that will include a full list of games for sale (and for demo) along with the booth information and whatnot.

Hey Jason, that's great news. The combination should be big KO, IMO. I always look forward to GenCon, but this one is going to be outstanding.

Mike

Wish I could be there to help out but its a no-go this year. However, I am already making plans for attending next year's GenCon (my first).

I'll have The Questing Beast in print by then (digest, b&w, cardstock cover--pretty barebones). I don't know about any other games. My plate is pretty full right now.

This is all very exciting and I'm going to be insanely jealous when I hear all the great stories that'll be tossed around after the event!

I'd love to come.  There's a good possibility Tesseraction Games will be there to show off our first offering, and as an SF/Fantasy writer, I'd like to be there to network with editors and other writers.

But if I'm at GenCon, my first choice will be the Forge et. al. booth.  Happy to be a warm body to throw at a game.

Best,

Blake

For the first time since '94 I'm planning to be at GenCon this year.  Can't very well move to Illinois have Mike living in Milwaukee and NOT go to GenCon can I.  

I'm planning on using Origins for my personal gaming enjoyment this year (8 or 9 years in a row...I LUV the Columbus Convention Center)...Probably play the National Security Decision Making Game again this year.  After 9/11 they'll probably have some totally intense scenarios and a ton of players.

BUT, GenCon for me is all about Business and Networking.  I don't plan on signing up for anything, so I'd be more than happy to while away the hours playing stuff at the Forge booth and selling crack...I mean...selling Indie RPGs.  

So mark me down.  I'm in.

Quote from: Valamir
I don't plan on signing up for anything, so I'd be more than happy to while away the hours playing stuff at the Forge booth and selling crack...

The true source of the Forge's livelihood... REVEALED!