[GenCon Oz 2008] and Games On Demand

[Vulpinoid]

Just realised, I quoted Peril Planet...then I forgot to address the quote that I used.

I'd definitely be interested in sharing the costs on a booth once I knew it was worthwhile. An independant publishers booth would be a great way to meet others in the same sort of position, and could aim toward the indy games passports as mentioned in another thread...

But as I've written above, I'll be doing some investigation into the matter and seeing where things stand. Worst case scenario, I'll offer to run a range of independant games and try to cut a deal with a store-holder if I'm, not able to ply my wares on the side.

V

[Peril Planet]

Supernova has an "artists alley" for independant comic creators which is separate from the stalls and is designed to help out the fledging comic artists and companies from the local market.

I'm going to be enquiring if there will be anything similar to see if GenCon is able to help nurture an under-nourished local gaming development scene.

V

I think that is a great idea.  I attended a writers convention recently and an afternoon was set aside in the dealers hall for authors big and small to do book signing and sell their stuff.  I picked up a bunch of self-published novels and comics and am considering taking some of my own stuff next year.

An independant publishers booth is certainly something worth further discussion, but I agree that every avenue must first be investigated.  Now, I read about the indy games passport, but am not 100% sure what it is - can you explain?

Cheers
Nathan 

[Andrew Smith]

An independant publishers booth is certainly something worth further discussion, but I agree that every avenue must first be investigated.  Now, I read about the indy games passport, but am not 100% sure what it is - can you explain?

I saw a little about it here.
http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=3893#Item_1

From the accounts I heard on various podcasts it worked a treat, but as with any guide it relies on the preferences and influence of the person who put it together in the first place.

[muddlepud]

Sorry I've been away from discussion for a while - things got rather hectic.

I've just received an email from the GenCon Oz people. I enquired about running a Games On Demand area and what kind of set up they might be able to do for it. They like the idea and are currently looking into what kind of space they could offer. If we work out a bit more about how to run the event, I could give them a bit more detail on what we'd need.

We still have people interested in doing this?

[Vulpinoid]

Sorry,

I hadn't responded either because I was waiting almost two weeks for someone from Gencon OZ to get back to me.

I've nominated my interest in being an artist exhibitor at the event, and I've also queried their policies regarding independant games and non-profit roleplaying associations. I've had a positive response, but it looks like they hadn't really considered a lot of the potential options regarding independant groups and how they might be nurtured through the convention. Even so, I guess it's time to book my annual leave for July.

Unless something drastic happens between now and then, I'm in. 

V

[Andrew Smith]

Yeah, I'm definitely still interested.  Have you replied to GenConOz about how you think it could be run?

[muddlepud]

I haven't replied to them yet. I thought we could try a bit more discussion on how we might do it.
I'm also emailing around to people who have done something similar overseas for a few more ideas.

So I'm in, and I have at least one other friend who's interested in GMing games. I've got a few more friends I've approached but yet to hear back from them.

There's a lot of games to represent and probably a limited number of GMs for them. I've brought back a bunch of games with me from visits to GenCon Indie the past couple of years and bought a few more online. Still that's a lot of rule systems to try and memorise. One idea I had was for each GM that we have to run this, they would each have their own Menu Of Games. Basically a list of 5 - 10 games that they're comfortable and happy with running through Games On Demand. We could mix and match some of these menus to cover what games we have and to give a spectrum of different games.

[Peril Planet]

The "menu" idea sounds good.  GM's will get to concentrate on the games they are familiar with (or think they can become familiar with) and Joe Public will hopefully have a broad range of choices - al a carte role playing!  I am still interested, but may soon be starting a new job which puts a big question mark over my leave entitlements!  Aaahhg!  Pencil me in.

[Andrew Smith]

I suppose that it means each session should only last for a short time, perhaps one hour (or less?) rather than three hours (or more!).  Otherwise the "on demand" part might not work out.

With regard to the "menus" I just had a mental image of some actual A5-sized menus printed up.

"Games on demand"
GM: Andrew Smith

Spirit of the Century for 5
Burning Wheel for 4
etc...

I know it's just flavour, but it would make it memorable and also make it look coordinated.

[Peril Planet]

With regard to the "menus" I just had a mental image of some actual A5-sized menus printed up.

"Games on demand"
GM: Andrew Smith

Spirit of the Century for 5
Burning Wheel for 4
etc...

Totally cool.  Menus.  Flavour.  Food and games.  What more could a rotund gamer want?  (I am talking about myself - I didn't mean to call YOU rotund! )  Hey, now my smiley has a double chin.  Like me.

[Andrew Smith]

I didn't even realise I'd started it with "flavour".    Who knows what we'll serve up next?  ^_^

[muddlepud]

Yep the imagery for the menu was pretty much how I envisioned it.

So what we need for the event....a few jottings...

GMs and their games. I think maybe a mix of those willing to run longer sessions on demand (2 - 3 hours) and perhaps a few willing to run some demos? (15 - 20min). People might not be sure which games they'd want for a longer session until they've had a chance to sample some of the games.

Tables to run the games. Depends on how many GMs we'd have.

Probably use of Generic tickets to sit and play a long session. Nothing for the demos. That's to get people interested.

Reasonably public area so we can have a few people walk by and become interested

Menus for the GMs and their games.

A bit of a schedule for which GMs might be rostered on at certain times for events (giving others a chance to run around and play too).

Pamphlets maybe to point out where to find out more about the games we're running. I'd like to be able to point people in the right direction to find the games we're running AND where to find similar games.