Forge booth 2009: sign-ups begin!

[Ron Edwards]

Hello!

In a nutshell, the offer goes like this. You've designed a game and the idea of selling it at GenCon sounds fun. You either have the game ready as a physical object or are pretty sure it can be ready in good time for August.

At the Forge booth, there will be a few-to-a-bunch of first-time publishers like yourself, and everyone helps demo everyone's games. There will be a strong Adept Press presence there, including the spiffy re-written book version of Trollbabe and Christopher Kubasik's new book Play Sorcerer, and I expect traffic will be heavy. The booth will also be an information center for other independently-oriented booths and activities at the con.

If this sounds like something you might like to do, please review these threads:
Forge Booth 2009 (mainly my opening posts; never mind the if-and-but stuff in the second half)
The Forge Booth 2009, part two (this one has the rules for participating)

Here's the nitty-gritty of exactly how to sign on. Please note the deadline of June 1, 2009.

1. Contact me at sorcerer@sorcerer-rpg.com. Let me know about you and your game, and make sure I reply so you know I know, et cetera.

2. Pay me $125 to help defray the cost of the booth itself. (If you are returning for your second year, it's $250.) Also pay me $65 for your exhibitor badge, which is the GenCon cost, per person. I recommend not bringing twelve friends and your spouse; it's actually better to get only one or two badges with the booth and have everyone else be regular attendees. Send this money by Paypal to the same email address. Optionally, if you want to be really nice, overpay by a small amount so we split the Paypal cut.

3. Make sure that you have a place to stay. I can't do anything about this for you. The best bet is to have a friend or kin who's a regular attendee get a room using their GenCon registration, and stay with them.

4. Do not sign up for GenCon in any other way. You will only cause mental anguish for the staff and lose money by paying more unnecessarily.

5. Come to GenCon on Wednesday if possible. Your badge will be ready for you at the exhibitor booth (not the place where regular attendees get them), in the Adept Press folder. Do not say, "Forge!" "Ron Edwards!" "[your company]!" because it will alarm and confuse them. We are not breaking rules by doing this, but their system at that booth only knows Adept Press. It would be great to have people there so we can set up the booth together.

In case you care about "who else is doing it," so far, James Brown and Christopher Kubasik will be helping me with the booth overall, and about four publishers (three new, one returnee) are verbally committed at this point. So you won't be first.

I want to stress that ashcans are very, very welcome, in precisely the spirit and methods that Paul has promoted for the past two years. I'll have at least one of my own. Paul has generously offered the Ashcan Front banner to include at the booth. If we get some publishers doing this, then I will design some ashcan-specific activities at the booth too.

It begins!

Best, Ron

[Matt Wilson]

Anyone who's even kind of thinking about it, I wholeheartedly encourage you to take that leap. Get your ashcan ready and share your ideas with the world. Even if your game turns out to need tons of work, maybe even especially because of that, you'll be glad you did it.

[Jason Morningstar]

Just to dog-pile Dog Eared Designs, participating at the Forge booth as a new designer is a fantastic and fun experience.  It's a very supportive environment and a lot of hectic fun. 

[Ron Edwards]

A private message raised a question which birthed a new policy.

As always, it's OK to buy in if you won't be at GenCon so your game can be at the booth. People have done this every year so far, and I always take it on myself to rep for the game and run demos for it. Again, if this seems good for you, then get in touch by email.

Obviously there's no badge fee if you do this, and I just decided that it's silly to count such an event as "present," so even if you were at the booth last year, and if you want to do this, then the fee is still the first-year rate, $125, and you still have a second year coming to you if you want it.

Best, Ron