Hello everybody,

It's about time I announced the Forge plans for GenCon. The main issue is that "the Forge" is not a business entity and as such will not have its own booth. So instead, the plan is to have a Forge section as part of an existing booth.

There will be a three-booth space set up as a unit, with two game companies sharing the basic cost: Adept Press and one other (chime in, you-know-who, if desired). A full two booths' worth of space will be set up exactly as the card-game companies do it, with three diagonally-placed tables and lots of chairs. The two companies' banners will be placed at each end and a big Forge banner will be placed in the center, over the tables.

The point is to generate an ongoing, partly-spontaneous climate of Actual Play. Yes, Sorcerer and the other game will have demos. But the main point is for someone to walk up, get into a conversation about indie this-and-that, and say, "Soap opera? That sounds fun," and wham, they play Soap, then and there.

Same for Wyrd. Same for The Questing Beast. Same for Kayfabe. Same for InSpectres. Same for OctaNe. Same for The World, The Flesh, and the Devil. Same for Universalis. Same for Orbit. Same for Scattershot. Same for Donjon Krawl. Same for any friggin' game that ever got presented at the Forge, pending someone who's willing to do it.

This means we need an army at the booth - an enthusiastic, spunky, inspired army who can charm gamers into sitting down and amaze them in a single half-hour of play, and do it again and again during the con. If you want to do that, you pay us for an Exhibitor badge and it's yours. But if you do that, you owe the time and the energy.

Plus, if you want to sell a game you've written out of the booth, that's cool too. That will cost you $100 flat, though, to help defray booth costs and compensate me and the other fellow for the attention taken from our games. The plan in this case is for the massive assortment of indie games to act as a collective advertisement and legitimizer of any single one of them. (Clearly, Sorcerer and the other book-published game will be doing this for all the "little ones" as well.)

What I have in mind is no less than a complete revision of "what GenCon is for." We are role-players, selling our cool stuff to fellow role-players, and I intend to prove it.

Best,
Ron

P.S. Cynthia Celeste Miller, get in touch and let me know what's up with Cartoon Action Hour. Rob, same for Million Worlds; Paul E, if that Egypt thing is getting closer to ready, same for you; Zak, I totally want a wad of games from you, and your ass in the booth as well; Marco, JAGS big-time; Paganini, what's up with Cornerstone; James V., how about Imp …

(had to edit to fix someone's name!)

Ron--

I'd very much be up for spontaneously running InSpectres. And maybe some other games as well. (As much as Sorcerer works better with a run of sessions, I'd still be up for running it--maybe Sorcerer & Sword with pregenerated characters?) That sounds really exciting--like last year, only more so.

Where's Sean Demory? I totally want to see Le Mon Mouri going on at GenCon.

Are you putting together a demo scenario for Sorcerer, Ron?

Paul

You know what? Even if Sean doesn't want to run LMM at GenCon, I will. I think it rocks.

And is it just me, or would it be even cooler if we all had cocktails in our hands?

Hi there,

Evidently I need to clarify a point that was buried in the first post.

I will be arriving with several fairly detailed demos of Sorcerer, and the other publisher will be doing the same for his game. In fact, I hope to be have sent copies to some people well before GenCon.

People who are selling games there are free to generate pregenerated demo material. Just remember that by being there, you're volunteering to demo/play more games than the one you're hawking.

Best,
Ron

Ron Edwards wrote:
Just remember that by being there, you're volunteering to demo/play more games than the one you're hawking.

I might have to play InSpectres with Jared and Clinton again! Gee, I don't know, that's pretty rough... ;-)


Wild horses, baby!

Mike

Jared, Mike, Clinton,

Man, last year I screwed up and missed out on the big InSpectres game. Can't let that happen again.

And I'm curious about some of the InSpectres variants - I'd love to hook up with Sean and Mike and play Geek Season.

BTW, where the hell has Sean been lately?

- Scott

Ron Edwards wrote:
Zak, I totally want a wad of games from you, and your ass in the booth as well

Hey everyone.

Key 20 Publishing is the other anchor company for this little endeavor. So we'll have Sorcerer on one end, Little Fears on the other, and hopefully an absolute shload in between. I really hope we get a lot of people involved in this. I also hope to have Seth Ben-Ezra (from Dark Omen Games) and Key 20 partner, Greg Oliver there as well to run demos, hawk product, and generate enthusiasm.

Once we have a list of people and product participating, I volunteer to put together and print a one-sheet pamphlet for distribution and posting that will include a full list of games for sale (and for demo) along with the booth information and whatnot.

Hey Jason, that's great news. The combination should be big KO, IMO. I always look forward to GenCon, but this one is going to be outstanding.

Mike

Wish I could be there to help out but its a no-go this year. However, I am already making plans for attending next year's GenCon (my first).

I'll have The Questing Beast in print by then (digest, b&w, cardstock cover--pretty barebones). I don't know about any other games. My plate is pretty full right now.

This is all very exciting and I'm going to be insanely jealous when I hear all the great stories that'll be tossed around after the event!

I'd love to come. There's a good possibility Tesseraction Games will be there to show off our first offering, and as an SF/Fantasy writer, I'd like to be there to network with editors and other writers.

But if I'm at GenCon, my first choice will be the Forge et. al. booth. Happy to be a warm body to throw at a game.

Best,

Blake

For the first time since '94 I'm planning to be at GenCon this year. Can't very well move to Illinois have Mike living in Milwaukee and NOT go to GenCon can I.

I'm planning on using Origins for my personal gaming enjoyment this year (8 or 9 years in a row...I LUV the Columbus Convention Center)...Probably play the National Security Decision Making Game again this year. After 9/11 they'll probably have some totally intense scenarios and a ton of players.

BUT, GenCon for me is all about Business and Networking. I don't plan on signing up for anything, so I'd be more than happy to while away the hours playing stuff at the Forge booth and selling crack...I mean...selling Indie RPGs.

So mark me down. I'm in.

Valamir wrote:
I don't plan on signing up for anything, so I'd be more than happy to while away the hours playing stuff at the Forge booth and selling crack...

Crap on a stick! As the lead (and only) designer and artist for the Mal-Ange release Le Mon Mouri, I assume I must finishe the artwork so Sean can publish it.

I told Sean about this and he was absolutely floored that LMM could be demoed at GenCon. I am sure that when he picks himself up off the floor he will address it himself.

As for the game, it should be totally done by GenCon, and hopefully looking quite stylish.

Aaron

Cool, this sounds like an excellent idea, Ron. I'm totally up for demoing Sorcerer, Sorcerer & Sword, and just about anything else. Hell, I just caught an unexpected 100 dollar windfall. Maybe I should put together something of my own over the next few weeks.

- Mearls

I'm dancing around the possibility of hitting GenCon, and would love to shake my Narrativist/Simulationist thang for the shimmy-show that is indie gaming if I do, indeed, show up.
Nice thing is, I found out this weekend that I'll be pulling down what is commonly known as mad fat tax refund dollars, which makes a GenCon trip a little less financially onerous.
What would the mechanics of this whole thing be? I know I'd need to throw some cash to someone to sell the beast (which I'd like to do). Ron, if you could send me some general info on how much things cost and how I'd go about getting things in gear, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'd need the most basic info, really.
Oh, yeah... definitely cocktails. And smoking jackets. And Indie-RPG Bunnies. Maybe not the Bunnies, but I've found that I'm always a little more Narrativist with a Cuba Libre in my hand.

And Indie-RPG Bunnies.

Here are some points people should consider.

1) If you are "staff" at the booth, you pay no registration and stand in no lines. That's right! The cost of the badge ($45) and the cost to us ($100 if you're selling) is it.

That means that if you show up with a fistful of give-away photocopies and a promo pamphlet, and you're gonna do the Forge thing for a significant amount of time (which means playing your ass off), then you pay a whole $45, not a penny more.

2) Need a place to stay? I am not averse to sharing my hotel room with ten semi-strange men (or whatever). Did it last year. Chip in a bit on the bill, and given enough people it should cost us all hardly anything. Bring your own fuckin' towel and some means of sleeping stuff.

Best,
Ron

Ron Edwards wrote: That's right! The cost of the badge ($45)

Ron Edwards wrote: and you're gonna do the Forge thing for a significant amount of time (which means playing your ass off)

Hi Fang,

Payment for badges that I pay for can come at the con itself. I'd prefer earlier, but certainly we're talking about June/July, not any time soon.

Basically, Jason and I get X many badges with the booth (forget how many, not very many though). After that they cost us $45 apiece. As I said, I'm willing to let it shake out at the con, like I did last year. Jason may be more sensible than me and ask for reimbursement ahead of time, but it's up to him.

As for actual time at the booth? This depends to some degree on the number of people. What I want is about six people there at any given moment, besides Jason and myself (or whoever we have manning the registers, which in my case is rarely anyone besides myself). That way impromptu demos can be pretty easy, two or three at a time if necessary, without everyone fallin' over each other.

So, for you, I'd say, oh, couple hours a day, maybe a half day for at least one of them? That's with the proviso that "family crisis" means you have to scoot off.

Best,
Ron

Hey Ron,
I was wondering how the cash situation is going to work for those of us selling stuff. Meaning, if I'm running a demo of something who will collect the money when someone wants to buy a copy of Kayfabe or a T-shirt? I know some people may be touchy about running someone else's register. Should I arange to have someone there to back me up? I'm sure there will be plenty of people there I can trust with my money, but aside from Moose I don't know anyone well enough that will want that responsibility.



On another note, I am looking for T-shirt ideas. If anyone can think of an idea for a t-shirt that may be popular I'm planning to have a bunch of T-shirts screened.

At the moment I have the potential to bring any of the following.

50/50 T-shirts from sizes Medium to 2XL in the following colors: ash, gold, kelly green, royal or navy. Sizes small thru XL will be $12.00 each and 2XLs will be $14.00

Exact colors available will depend on interest. I'm thinking I will probably only be able to afford 2 colors and sizes L-2XL.

I may also do bags, hooded and crew style sweatshirts, duffle bags and nylon jackets if enough people are interested and I have enough money to have the stuff made.

Any ideas?

,Matt

For flyer purposes, I'd like to know who is involved by May. I don't need any money for badges by then but I would need a list so I can get the flyers designed and enough made.

As far as booth-action, I will be there most of the time. If not, Seth or Greg will be there. For me to be truly effective at the playtesting, however, I'd have to be able to play the games available. Which I certainly hope to do. ;)

As far as the selling situation, we can either all have separate registers or we can have an Adept one, a Key 20 one, and an indie one (that would be very dependent on good record-keeping) that would be divvied up at the end of the day. I think the latter one would be a good choice but it's not my money, so decide that on your own.

As far as badges, whoever wants Key 20 ones, just let me know and I'll buy them. If I could have the money the first day of the con, that'd be great. Cash only, please. ;)

Of course... I think we could buy the middle booth as "The Forge," but I'm not entirely sure. I'll have to read up on it.


Sorry if this meanders, I'm discussing St. Anselm with the missus.

Hey all;

I will have copies of The Eternal Twilight present at GenCon, and I hope to have Apophis as a whole adjacent or near to the Forge area this year.

While TET will not be Apophis imprint (it is my own indie project, not the whole company), I am thinking it will be published under Repressed Publishing.

So, count me in.

Dav

Dav,

Off-topic here, but is there some place to find teaser imformation regarding The Eternal Twilight? This is the first I've heard of it...

- Scott

An important detail: we need a rally point for distribution of badges. I met Moose last year holding up a box top that read "Ron Edwards". I too was looking for Herr Ron, as were a few others, standing outside of the exhibit area wondering how we were going to get in to get badges. It all worked out in the end, but it was not comfortable.

So, being as we cannot get into the exhibitor area without badges (well, not supposed to be able to), we'll need to get them somewhere outside. To avoid this catch-22 this year, I propose that we set up a Wednesday night meeting place to get these matters sorted out. If the badges are not available on Wednesday, then we should do it on Thursday morning before the exhibit area opens so as to be able to set up. In fact, now that I think of it, both a Wednesday night meeting and a Thursday rendezvous should be orgaznized for late arrivals, etc. Any number of details could be worked out at such meetings as well, and heck, I just want to see y'all again ASAP.

Perhaps this has all been considered, but I just wanted to make sure. I was thinking that we could possibly meet at my house on Wednesday, but it's probably a little out of the way as most will be staying downtown, and I'm a little ways out. Still, its available if we need space. But there are plenty of places to meet. Anybody have a suggestion? Or, like I said, has this already been planned?

Should we continue to plan on-line here, or is there a better venue? If discussion on this really gets rolling, perhaps a new forum would be in order? Lots of things to discuss. Just thinking out loud.

Mike

Eloran wrote:
On another note, I am looking for T-shirt ideas. If anyone can think of an idea for a t-shirt that may be popular I'm planning to have a bunch of T-shirts screened.

Mike,

All logistic details concerning badges and acquisition thereof are going to be established during the summer, as the con gets closer. I agree it does need to be organized better. That's a "later step" of the process though.

Best,
Ron

I don't know how they'll be doing things this year, but last year I just walked up to the WotC booth on the third floor, asked for a badge from the Fantasy Productions box, and that was that. No questions asked. I don't know if they would have given me more than one - although since I was standing next to a friend, I'm sure they would have given us two.

I wonder how many people wandered around for 4 days with exhibitors badges that weren't intended for them?