Kat and I have been in touch with GenCon about securing table space and promotional opportunities for the Indie Games Explosion and Games On Demand. I’d like to discuss these two things separately, as the registration deadline for events is very early in April, and we’d like to get these finalized as soon as possible.

INDIE GAMES EXPLOSION
The Indie Games Explosion at GenCon is a collection of scheduled events of independent RPGs being run at the con. If you would like to run a scheduled event as part of the Indie Games Explosion, please contact Kat’s e-mail (whim at enter dot net) as soon as possible. If you run enough games, you can have the cost of your GenCon attendee badge refunded (does NOT apply to exhibitor badges). At the present time, only one person has sent us events to be included in the Explosion. This looks like a tiny Explosion compared to previous years, and we invite you to join us and run some great games!

GAMES ON DEMAND
Games On Demand was a big experiment last year. The idea is simple: Show up at a table with an indie game you want to play. Maybe there will be some folks there willing to play it with you. Turn in a generic ticket and PLAY. At GenCon 2006, we learned about how the idea worked in practice and hope to expand it this year.

Games On Demand works because of the Table Custodians who collect the tickets, run some of the games, connect players with GMs, play in some of the games, and generally have a good time. However, at the moment, NO ONE has volunteered to be a Table Custodian for Games On Demand 2007. This is a big problem. Without Table Custodians, Games On Demand cannot function.

The Games On Demand tables run on three 4-hour shifts on Thursday, Friday and Saturday—they are 10am to 2pm, 2pm to 6pm, 6pm to 10pm. Sunday has a single shift from 10am to 2pm. That’s ten shifts. If Kat and I each take one, that leaves eight unfilled shifts. If we don’t have volunteers for those shifts by next Sunday, March 25, there will be no Games On Demand at GenCon this year.

Furthermore, if we are only able to get one Table Custodian per shift, Games On Demand will operate on the same scale it did last year. If we want to expand, we need more Table Custodians.

If you want to be part of one of the coolest events at GenCon, you can sign up for a specific shift in this thread, or by e-mail to Kat (whim at enter dot net). Thanks!

I'm in.  Depending on my Forge booth duties, I'm flexible.  I'd actually incline towards morning duties, since I'll probably be awake early anyhow.

-G.

Put me down for Friday from 10am to 2pm for being a Table Custodian.

If I refresh my memory, I should be capable of running: MLWM, Primetime Adventures, The Questing Beast, Risus, Kayfabe, Sorcerer, Little Fears, Appalachia Now, Universalis, and proabbly a few more than I'm just not thinking of at the moment.

I will also have my serial killer game "Fragile Minds" ready by then, if things are slow (it's a 2 player game).

,Matt

Did I miss another notice about this somewhere along the way?  This is the first I have heard about a deadline.

I will send Kat four different submissions for IGE.  I just love to run games at GenCon.

Hi everyone,

I have updated the God Schedule information.

the schedule can be located on the IGE community Livejournal here:
http://community.livejournal.com/ige/1546.html?view=3338#t3338

as of now I just need one shift left of coverage sunday morning at 10am-2pm

No one has had any interest in running a 6pm to 10pm shift so unless there is a change, the GoD tables will only run from 10am to 6pm.

Hans wrote:
Did I miss another notice about this somewhere along the way?  This is the first I have heard about a deadline.

I will send Kat four different submissions for IGE.  I just love to run games at GenCon.

I strongly recommend that anyone planning to participate in the Forge booth also participate in GOD / IGE.

Kat: I'll take any open GOD slot.

yrs--
--Ben

Ben wrote:
I strongly recommend that anyone planning to participate in the Forge booth also participate in GOD / IGE.

Kat: I'll take any open GOD slot.

yrs--
--Ben

Hi Michael,

I'd like to commit to one shift. The only problem is I can't say when as the Game design seminar is going to be my highest priority this year. Assuming there's another game design seminar, so I would want to make sure I work around this. Games on Demand is where I planned on spending most of my Gen Con time anyway. This would obviously be hard to do without there being a Games on Demand. Is this acceptable?

Ben - thank you so much.  I really appreciate your offer of help knowing how much work is involved in doing a booth.
I'm going to slot you in on Friday at 2-6pm if that's all right.

James - would Thursday 2-6pm be OK with you?

Clyde- there is an open shift Sunday 10am-2pm and that seems safe enough to slot for you, since its doubtful that the Seminar will be scheduled then.  I'll set you in then.

The God Event is going to be from 10am-6pm Thursday to Saturday and 10am-2pm on Sunday.

thank you everyone.

The schedule can be found on the IGE Live journal Community
here:
http://community.livejournal.com/ige/1546.html#cutid1

Thursday is good for me, thanks.

Rock. Good thinking Kat. Thanks.

I think dropping the 6PM tp 10PM slot was a good idea.  I know a lot of us enjoy going out to dinner together after the exhibit hall closes.  This may explain why people were reluctant to volunteer for that time slot.

Now that we have a schedule set, what now?  Is there anything we need to do other than show up?
How awkward is it to coordinate tables AND run a game at the same time?
Will games be restricted to the standard 4 hour blocks or can people show up at any time and play?

,Matt

To add to Matt's questions... how many tables will G.o.D. be this year? My assumption is that you will expand some on last years success.

These are good questions.

I'm hoping to have 6 Tables
30" x  8'
There will be Two Custodians on each shift,
Each custodian will be responsible for 3 tables.

People can show up any time and play, but they must hand in a generic ticket for every two hours of game time unless they are a gm.  Gms do not have to pay.  As a TC (table custodian) you help them get settled, matching players with Gms and collect tickets.  It sounds more awkward than it is, things ran very smoothly last year.

Here is a link to the TC's duties:
http://www.enter.net/~whim/Conventions/custodians.html

Kat,
I was looking over your table Custodian Duties page and I have a few questions.

Am I correct that players will need to determin ahead of time how long they want to play?  Seems like it would be awkward to interupt a game half way through to collect more tickets.

Also, seeing how a game can spring up at any time, it may be awkward to keep track of how much time each table has left to play.  This may seem a bit too structured, but maybe it would be helpful to have a timer at each table.  If GoD gets really busy we should make every effort to ensure that everyone that shows up gets an opportunity to play.

Is GoD restricted to indy games or is it pretty much a venue for open gaming?  If a bunch of people show up and want to play D&D or WoD is that cool?  I think we should be open to any game, but at the same time D&D clearly draws more people to GenCon than any other game, and the registered D&D games always fill up quickly.  I'd hate to see the indy games driven out by mainstream games as people become more aware of GoD.

,Matt

Hi Matt Good Questions:

I'll be providing timers. 

The Gms seemed to have a good idea if they were going to finish a game in 2 or 4 hours, so there wasn't a problem with people playing over.  And there is some leeway.  If a Game is 15 minutes away from a satisfying ending let it pass.  Many Registered games run over time.  But if we're crunched for table space AND these guys are over an hour after the end time for that game, then they need to play another ticket.

There will be mini whiteboards for each game.  When you settle a game at a table. You'll provide them with a whiteboard and the gm will end what time he thinks the game will end.  so if its 2:46 and he's thinking a nice 4 hr run of dogs, then he'll write 6:46 on his white board.  Then it'll be up to the GM to run his game in that time.  There was really no trouble with this at all last time.

This is not a replacement for the Open gaming area since Gen Con is always nice about supplying some and it is in our best interest to find out just where that is so that we can direct others where they can go if the tables are too full.

For now GoD needs to stay as indie as possible.  Thing is there are lots and lots of DND and WOD games being offered at Gencon.  I have the same impulse as you do and Ideally GoD would be able to handle all forms of Gaming at Gencon.  But the number of indie games being run at Gen Con is rather sparse and sad to say I'm actually offering LESS registered indie games in the Indie Games Explosion, then I did last year.  Everyone keeps hearing about these Great Indie games, but in the Exhibit hall you can only get a taste of them the competition to get one of those seats to an indie game is very high.  That's why GoD must stay Indie for now.

-kat

I am planning on spending a lot of time at IGE this year. Unfortunately I don't have enough experience yet to be a custodian or GM, but I really want to focus on playing more this year than working. You've said competition for seats at these game is high, so what do you recommend as far as trying to secure myself some of those seats (without being greedy, of course)?

My recommendation for Games On Demand is to simpy not leave the room.  Since GoD games require generic tickets, seats will be filled on a first come first serve basis.

For the "scheduled" IGE games, be sure to preregister.

,Matt

I'll do the Table Custodian thing as well. I hesitate to put times down yet, but I'm pretty flexible. What I'll probably do is take a look at the slots that haven't been filled and see where I'm needed most.

ok, supposedly, event registration opened today at noon pacific. I can't find it on the official site... what am I missing?

Nev wrote:
ok, supposedly, event registration opened today at noon pacific. I can't find it on the official site... what am I missing?

Ah... there it is. I must not have been logged in before or something. Or possibly I'm just blind.

Thanks!

I would like to note that Don Corcoran's DRYH game is listed in the Friday section of the IGE schedule page, but the link to it gives a Thursday timeslot. GenCon's schedule has it on Friday. And of course, full, like all my other first choices. =\

Thank GOD for.. well, GOD.

slight correction: the link from the IGE schedule lists the DRYH game on Thursday and Saturday, when in fact it is only on Friday.

Next question: WGP: A League of Their Own is listed on the GenCon schedule as: Thursday 3-7 and Sunday 10-2, with "Issue #2" running Friday 12-4 and Saturday 10-2.

Shouldn't that be Issue #1 Thursday and Friday or Thursday and Saturday, with #2 running Friday and Sunday or Saturday and Sunday?

Do I have to worry about anything here or have my GOD games been organized for me?

Nev wrote:
Next question: WGP: A League of Their Own is listed on the GenCon schedule as: Thursday 3-7 and Sunday 10-2, with "Issue #2" running Friday 12-4 and Saturday 10-2.

Shouldn't that be Issue #1 Thursday and Friday or Thursday and Saturday, with #2 running Friday and Sunday or Saturday and Sunday?

Okay, well, I guess it doesn't matter now, they're full. I should have been more aggressive in figuring it out myself. My bad.

At this point, my option is to get a bunch of generic tickets and sit in the GOD room trying to get something going, is that right?

Hi Dave,

That's what I did last year, it wasn't very difficult to get a game started at the GOD tables.

Well, that's good to know. How many tickets do you recommend getting? And can I safely wait and purchase them onsite?

Hi Dave,

I just bought tickets as I needed them. The lines weren't very long if you don't try to get them early Thursday, so maybe get some for Thursday. I think it was a ticket every two hours? I think it was a ticket every hour for the rpg design talks.

Hm. Thanks for the tip.