An Idea for DEXCON 9

[Salvius]

Hi Folks,

Some of you may know that my philosophy regarding Double Exposure and our conventions is to always strive to break new ground, to take the good and make it great, to present things on a much grander scale than anyone else does.

I am very pleased, as all of you are, at the way the Indie Presses have had an incredible surge in popularity; it has pretty much re-ignited role playing as fun instead of the monolithic money-making machine it became thanks to certain companies.

I'd like to propose an idea for DEXCON 9 that can take full advantage of the way you folks operate, as opposed to the layers of red tape that would prevent such a thing in the larger companies.

The idea is this: A convention-wide module writing contest. Any contestant would choose one of the Indie game systems which would be presented, and his/her job is to write a 2-hour module for that system. We'd line up role players to play in all given modules for each system represented, and the module which is judged best in each system would not only win a prize (trophy, prize points, etc.), but would be PUBLISHED as a to-be-sold module for the system - perhaps with royalties.

I don't think I need to sit here and explain how many benefits to your games this would bring. From my point of view, we would advertise this as a top-level contest at DEXCON, bringing all of the participating systems into the convention headlines along with our National Championships and the LARP-Writing contest for INTERCON NORTHEAST.

So - who would like to participate? Who has questions? Who has concerns?

Vincent Salzillo, President
Double Exposure, Inc.
Gaming the way it was MEANT to be!
http://www.dexposure.com

[Andrew Morris]

Oh, wow. Cool.

Would this be scheduled at the same time as the Iron GM competition? Because I want to be in both.

The first concern that comes to mind is that some games don't lend themselves well to "modules." You simply can't write a module for, say, Universalis. Writing modules for things like InSpectres and Capes, while not impossible, would carry significant challenges. I suppose this isn't much of a problem, since those games that wouldn't work well with modules can just be left out of the competition.

When you say it would by "published," what are we talking about? A free PDF online? POD print runs? And who would be doing the publishing -- the game designer, Double Exposure, the module writer? I think any of these options are valid, depending on the game system in question, I'm just wondering what you're thinking.

[TonyLB]

Okay, first off on a little "twitch-post" thing:  You can totally write modules for Capes.  It's just that all of the story is encoded in the "Dramatis Personae."

Now, to more general issues:  I will not publish someone elses work.  What I will do (indeed, what I would be eager to do) is give them some money, my whole list of contacts and techniques, and work with them on layout, proof-reading, and like that.  I don't want to publish their work.  I want to show them how to publish it themselves.  It's not that hard, and I think it's a valuable thing to learn to do.

[Andrew Morris]

Tony, I totally know you can make saleable modules for Capes. I'm the one who told you so, remember? I think it was at DexCon 8. It just wouldn't be done the same way as a "standard" module, is all I'm saying. But I guess that tends to solve itself, because if someone doesn't make a module that fits the system, they won't win.

[Dregg]

Now, to more general issues:  I will not publish someone Else's work.  What I will do (indeed, what I would be eager to do) is give them some money, my whole list of contacts and techniques, and work with them on layout, proof-reading, and like that.  I don't want to publish their work.  I want to show them how to publish it themselves.  It's not that hard, and I think it's a valuable thing to learn to do.

Bingo! Tony hit it right on the nose. Although I go through another publishers account for Pulp Era (soon to go to Lulu so it can be under my control) I paid for every page myself, and honestly in the indie community we try to prod others to do games on their own. On my end its not that I don't want to publish someone else, I just want to see new Ideas fly under the flag of their designer. I am afraid that I cannot enter PE in this as I am discontinuing the current version soon in order to revamp, but  I think that the offer of help (layout, editing, art, and other stuff) to publish ones work would be great. Perhaps instead of a "Module" Design contest (gawd I hate that word) we have a indie game contest and the best one(s) chosen will be ran by the designer for a group of 5 of the Forge members in a 15 minute Demo. The winner can then be schooled by the best on how to get their game published. Perhaps DE can put up a 250.00 prize so the winner can set up an account on Lulu, Lightning, Print Fu, whatever and In return they have to come to Dexcon 2007 and run a regional tourney.

Anyway that is my 2 cents

[TonyLB]

Andrew:  Yeah, I know you know.  But you didn't say, and I got all ... y'know ... twitch.

Dregg:  I love the idea of saying that the person who wins needs to come back to the next big con (whether counted as DEXCON or Dreamation) with finished product, ready to run.  External deadlines ROCK!

I'd put up a decent amount of money myself (leaving Double Exposure out of it) to see someone publish their own supplement to Capes.  That would be so cool.

Now participation is an issue.  If (say) Andrew Morris were the only person writing a Capes module then the whole "play it and judge it" thing becomes a little perfunctory.  I'm not saying that I wouldn't give Andrew money, sight-unseen, to publish his idea of a Capes supplement, but I'd be a lot happier having, like, four supplements created and then choosing the one that rocked the house the absolute most.