The Ashcan Front at Gen Con 2008

[Paul Czege]

Darcy, welcome to the 'Front.

Ralph, I'll start collecting buy-ins next week.

Paul

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

I'd like to bring an ashcan copy of "Silence Keeps Me A Victim." It won't be at the 90% level as I think I really need to gather some outside impressions. I don't think I'm getting quite what I want from it, although the play has gotten much better. This isn't to say it won't be playtested, I'm playtesting right now, just that I don't think it will be 90%. I think I've talked to Paul and Matt about this but can't find the email, so if this isn't acceptable... no hard feelings on my part.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Clyde,

I think an ashcan makes a ton of sense for Silence Keeps Me A Victim. I think your game, more than any other in development, really needs input from beyond the indie design community if you're going to achieve your goals. Welcome to the 'Front.

Paul

[Paul Czege]

Hi all,

Okay, we're ready to take payments for buy-ins for the 2008 booth at Gen Con. If you've posted interest in participating to this thread, send payment of $185 ($120 for the buy-in and $65 for your exhibitor badge) via PayPal to paul +at+ halfmeme +dot+ com, with "<the name of your game> for The Ashcan Front" as the subject.

And if you haven't posted interest in participating because you're still thinking about it, get in touch. We're not full yet.

Paul

[Darcy Burgess]

1) Will you be providing some sort of formal receipts?  For tax purposes.

2) Just to crow a bit, here's the introductory text of the Propaganda Edition of Black Cadillacs.  I'll be bringing the PE to CanGames in (holy fuck!) four days.  I'm pretty chuffed.

Black Cadillacs has gripped me, in one way or another, for about five years.  You're holding a work in progress.  I'm calling this first printing of the game the Propaganda Edition for a good reason.  It's really rough around the edges; it's missing huge, bleeding chunks of text; it's far from perfect; it takes a certain amount of "I'm lying through my teeth" jingoism to pull shit like that.

Here's the thing; I'm not charging you money for the book.  That, I'm giving you for free.  I'm charging you money for your commitment.

Yeah, you heard that right.  I'm charging you for your commitment.  "That takes some fucking nerve!" you say?  Damn skippy.

I've been actively developing Black Cadillacs since September of 2006.  I've beaten, hammered and mutilated the rules to get it to do what I want it to.  And it does...When it's me and my friends playing it.  We know this game inside out.  We know what I want it to do.  We fill in little gaps.  We literally are a crutch, and Black Cadillacs is the battle-scarred soldier limping along on us.

That's where you come in.  If I managed to get you to read this, you probably liked the game you just played.  What I need from you is for you to commit to playtesting this game without me, and then to get me some feedback.  That's why I'm charging money; if I handed you a freebie copy with a hang-dog look in my eyes and asked "pretty please with sugar on top, won't you playtest my game?" you'd probably take it just to shut me up.  And then it would sit on the back of your toilet for the next year.

So, if you want to make Black Cadillacs better, meet me in the parking lot in about five minutes.  I don't have a permit, so I can't sell stuff here on the convention floor.  Bring five bucks.

Thanks for playing!
Darcy

[Paul Czege]

Hey Darcy,

A printout of your PayPal "transaction details" won't meet your needs? If that's the case, I'm sure we can figure something else out.

That intro text is badass.

Paul

[Darcy Burgess]

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately, my PayPal printout won't say what the money's for.  Y'know: something like: "Membership at the Ashcan Front booth, GenCon Indy 2008".

Although Revenue Canada is a lot less strident in policing tax-dodgers (we're basically on the honour system up here) than the IRS, they are insanely sticky when it comes to tax deductions that you claim.

Essentially, their reaction to a PayPal printout will be "So, you sent this email address some money.  So what?"

It doesn't even have to be a "formal" receipt (as in from a receipt book).  Just a piece of paper with "blah dollars received from Darcy Burgess for blah de blah purposes" dated and signed by the owner of the booth (you?  Matt?)  Tax time is February '09, so I can wait until the con to get this.

Thanks!  I like it.  I'm really happy about the $5 in the parking lot bit.
D

[Paul Czege]

Darcy,

Put whatever you need to as the subject of the PayPal payment. I'll sign and write whatever additional text is necessary at Gen Con.

Paul

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hey Paul,

Thank you. Do I have to have a pay pal account to send you money, or can I do like online places who use pay pal as an online credit card processor. I won't allow pay pal to have access to my bank account, because I don't trust them.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Clyde,

You can create a PayPal account that isn't hooked to your bank account. It's just hooked to a credit card. It's called an "unverified" account. (They'll nag you every so often to "get verified" by providing your bank account information.)

But if you'd prefer to send me a check, email me and I'll give you my mailing address.

Paul

[Paul Czege]

Hi all,

Anyone who hasn't posted to this thread but who's thinking about doing an ashcan of their game at The Ashcan Front for Gen Con should get in touch. The Gen Con deadline for paying for exhibitor badges is fast approaching.

Paul

[Paul Czege]

Hi all,

The deadline for having your payment to me is this Friday, June 6th.

Designers who can't be at Gen Con, but who want to do an ashcan of their game-in-development for purposes of getting targeted feedback, should also get in touch. The rest of us who'll be at the booth would love to represent for a couple of such games.

Paul

[Darcy Burgess]

Fellow 'Front-Mates!

I'd like to issue a personal challenge to each of you:

Let's actually hunt down folks with an ashcans-in-development who can't make it to the best 4 days in gaming.  Ideally, I'd like to see one "orphan-can" per Front-mate.

Paul, once the date for buying in has passed, could you post either a list of the Front-Mates, or at least a total number?

D

[Paul Czege]

Hey Darcy,

While I'd love to have us representing for a few ashcans of designers who can't be at Gen Con (and I'm personally very geeked I'll be representing for Marshall Burns' The Rustbelt), I'm not sure I'd go so far as one per attending participant. An effort by a participating designer to represent for his/her own game's design goals as well as those of a non participating designer could be a recipe for disappointment for both of them. To do justice in your representation for another designer you'll want to know the game well, and trying to learn another designer's goals in advance of Gen Con at the same time that you're trying to finalize your own ashcan is not a trivial endeavor. So I'd rather participating designers not be subjected to social pressure to represent for any game design other than their own. I'd rather agreeing to represent for other designers be entirely voluntary, and derived entirely from an attending participant's personal enthusiasms.

That said, if you feel you're far enough along with Black Cadillacs that you personally can enter into a conversation with a designer, learn his/her game over the weeks prior to Gen Con and represent for it at the booth, then I say get on it

Paul

[Paul Czege]

Hi all,

If you've bought in as a booth participant by sending me a PayPal payment, and your payment included the price of your exhibitor badge, please email me your name and ID number as it appears in the Gen Con system. I need this information for our badge list paperwork for Gen Con.

Go to http://registration.gencon.com/indy/index.cgi
and log in (or create an account if you don't have one). And then on the page that comes up it will list your name and ID number in the upper left. Mine looks like this:

     Welcome Paul Czege (ID: 10666) (Active regular member)

That's what I need from you. Today or tomorrow, please.

Thanks,

Paul