[GenCon 2008] - The Helping Hand of G.o.D

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi,

The ugly truth is that I was cleverly tricked into doing this.  The beautiful truth is that I'm really glad that I was tricked into it -- this should be a great event.

Here's the logic behind the Helping Hand of G.o.D:

• Lots of us 'round these parts are going to GenCon.  I'm fortunate enough to be in that camp (and I'm really excited, too).  I imagine that a significant number of us are bringing in-development games to the con.  I'll be bringing mine to the Ashcan Front, as well as running some scheduled playtests at the Indie Games Explosion.
• This is great, it's exciting, and it's part of the process.
• There are also folks who can't make it to the con for a variety of reasons.  This was me last year.
• Let's give these folks a little bit of the GenCon goodness -- the con is going to be swarming with feedback Vikings, for goodness sake.

So, what is the Helping Hand?  It's an association of GenCon attendees who stand up and say "I want to lend a hand to someone who can't make it to the Con this year.  Their game excites me, and I'm going to playtest it with feedback Vikings!"

Here's how it's going to work:

• If you're being a part of The Helping Hand of GoD, you declare it here, in this thread.
• You then go out and hunt down a game that will benefit from the Helping Hand.  You talk to the desinger, and find out if there's anything in her game that needs attention during playtesting.
• We run our playtests at GenCon, most likely at (but not necessarily limited to) the Games on Demand tables.
• We coordinate our scheduling so that we're not pillaging playtesters from each other.  I'm not suggesting that we all have to run at different times.  However, it would be unfortunate if we all showed up, playtest in hand, on Saturday morning.
• We get the ever-precious feedback back to the designers.

And just to be clear: the purpose of this thread isn't to be a clearing-house for designers to show up and offer up their games.  I can't stop you from doing it elsewhere, or in private, but please don't do it here.  The Helping Hand is predicated on the notion that the people who will be doing the 'work' have to sieze the initiative and make the damned thing happen.

Thanks,
D

[Darcy Burgess]

In case it wasn't perfectly obvious, I'm in.

I'm currently in discussions with a designer, and I'm hoping to have my playtest locked down soon.

Excited!
D

[Mike Holmes]

Hmm. If a designer doesn't say here that he needs help... then I have to either have stumbled across the fact that they need help? Or have found a thread elsewhere, where a designer is asking for help? Or I'll have to start a thread asking if there's somebody I can help? Or...

I'm just wondering why designers can't ask for help here. Wouldn't that be the best way to get designers and potential helpers together? Is there some potential problem I'm not seeing?

Mike

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi Mike,

Valid concern!  I have the same one myself.  However, the intent doesn't stop at getting desingers and "helpers" together.  The point is to make sure that the playtest happens.

The thinking is that if you're committed enough to go out, hunt down a desinger, and talk about her game with her, you're more likely to carry through and playtest it.

I may be problematizing this, and I'm willing to admit that up front.  However, I'm looking at past community endeavours (for instance: any given Game Chef or the Rev/Eng competition) and I'm trying to find a way to do away with the drop-out stage as much as possible.  The ideal is that every Desinger/Helper pair results in a successful playtest at GenCon.

Does that make sense?  Can you think of a better way to achieve the same results?

Thanks for the interest,
D

[Darcy Burgess]

Hey all,

I'm happy to announce that I'll be playtesting the second edition of Joe MacDonald's Perfect this year.

Ultra-violence, bound hands, and victoriana shall abound!

D

[Darcy Burgess]

Oh!

I totally forgot to mention this earlier.  We should also use this thread to organize the playtests, and to find players!

My plan is to post a sticky note at the GoD table, with blanks for folks to sign up for Perfect.  I'm betting it will be Thursday or Sunday.  Anyone interested?

D

ps -- over here, Joe just announced that Perfect is back in open playtesting.  Even if you can't make it to Gen Con, check out Perfect.  It's fun.

[Double King]

Darcy, I'm in.  And if you need more for Perfect i'm in on that too.

- Eric

[Double King]

eek.  i seem to have misread the purport here.  i believe i fall into your viking category.  you're soliciting gms, are you not? sorry for my confusion.

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi Eric,

I'm soliciting GMs (or facilitators, or whatever) and players!

There's nothing wrong with standing up and saying "Hey, I want to play in one of these games!", which is pretty much what you've done.

It'd be even better if you brought a game to playtest, but not everyone rolls that way.  Cool.

D