Hello,

It's Forge GenCon Booth update time. From the top ...

The three primary companies funding the booth are Adept Press, Arc Dream Publishing, and Driftwood Publishing. The people from these companies include Ron Edwards, Dennis Detwiller, and Jake Norwood, respectively. Each might have a couple other people coming as well (I don't).

I have ordered booth furniture of various sorts, and Danielle and Paul are hard at work organizing the banner and lots of other cool stuff. All further discussion of these matters should go here, in this thread.

The other companies present, and people representing them, include:

Errant Knight Games (Kayfabe) - Matt Gwinn & Janet Johnson
Half Meme Press (My Life with Master) - Paul Czege, Danielle Hall
The Burning Wheel - Luke Crane
Ramshead Publishing - Ralph Mazza
Chain of Being - Dan Geyer, Cory Katzenmeyer, Justin Williams
BTRC (EABA) - Greg Porter
Memento Mori (Decay, InSpectres, octaNe, et al.) - Jared A. Sorensen
Thyrsus Games (Fvlminata) - Michael Miller
Gilded Moose Games (Charnel Gods) - Scott Knipe

Just folks being there include: Nev (real name withheld), Raven, Juergen Mayer, Jeffrey Miller, Matt Wilson (maybe will have a game too), Tom Fitch, Mike Holmes

Please correct me if you are listed but not attending, or attending (and paid) but not listed. (Justin Dagna, did I miss you somehow? Remind me of your status.)

Now for the hotel part. So far, my records for this are very spotty. I'm staying in one of the hotel rooms, and so are Jake, Nev, Raven, and Juergen. I'm pretty sure that Dan, Cory, Justin W, Jeffrey, and Matt W are too. Now is the time to correct me, if you are planning to stay in one of these rooms and aren't listed, or are listed and planning to stay somewhere else.

Best,
Ron

Hey Ron,

Timing-wise, what hours is the exhibit hall open for setting up the booth on Wednesday?

Paul

Hi Paul,

8 am to 10 pm on Wednesday. Lots and lots of time.

Best,
Ron

Ron, I'm PAID, but NOT ATTENDING. However, I will be selling Dust Devils.

I handed off 29 copies (29? Don't ask ... ) of Dust Devils to Ralph this weekend, and he'll tug those along with his own copies of Universalis.

So, I don't have a specific representative present at the con, but I'd greatly appreciate any nod you attendees can give to DD when folks amble by.

Thanks,
Matt

Jeff and I have made separate hotel arrangements, so don't list us there.

My flight puts me in six-ish on Wednesday. Where can I go to pick up my badge and possibly help with last-minute setup stuff?

Ron, I've got my own booth set up for GenCon already. At my distance from the convention (we live in Seattle), the booth is practically the cheapest part of the trip, so I think it's worth the extra money for the added exposure. I've been meaning to see where our booths are in relation to each other, since I hope we can send people each other's way. I'll get back to you on that once my head stops spinning from Origins. Thanks for thinking of me!

As for hotels, we've got that handled as well - we'll have a total of four people there which pretty well fills up our room.

Just for the record, our booth # is 1841 which is way in the back by the staging area. We are kiddy corder to the huge Upper Deck area so hopefully that will draw some attention our way.

I have to admit that I am concerned about space. We have only two thirds the space we did last year and we were pretty short on room then. What kinds of plans do we have to deal with this? Do we have a floorplan yet?

,Matt Gwinn

I know it;s too late to sign onto the Forge booth again (you won;t have a badge for me), but my health and outlook have improved to the point that I am seriously looking at gooing to GenCon after all. If I can manage to get a flight in from Portland, I'd like to go. If I get the right flight I will miss at most four days work. I just have to figure out where all the money will be coming from.

My ganmes will be sold through james' booth, but if somehow it can be arranged to use some of the space for demos and for me to help sell other people's products, that would work. I noticed one non-attending member -- I wonder, would he be willing to sell me his badge?

I'd hate to be trapped at the GPA booth again, especially since all my product is elsewhere....

Fact of the matter -- I want to go, but I'm going to need help in just about every area. I'll need CHEAP airfare, cheap lodigngs and cheap meals. And I might have to raise some extra money anyway.

Can anyone offer any suggestions, or at the very least congratulations on my recovery? 8^)

Ron: I'll be there with puppies. I paid you for the game a while ago and for myself just this very minute.

I'd like to stay in the Forge room, but I have a question about that: can my little brother Drew, who'll be there not as a Forge person but selling his artwork, stay in the Forge room too?

-Vincent

I'm not going unless I get a huge check in the mail in the next few weeks. :)

BUT... I will still print the little mini-posters if you guys need them. I need those files ASAP so I can get them done and off to Ron or whoever needs them. Please send them to nathanh@cameron.edu.

Thanks,
Nathan

Ron,

Unfortunately I won't be attending after all, barring a miracle (including getting a pregnant woman to change her mind about it *ahem* so...I won't be going...barring a miracle).

(Yes, folks, my wife is pregnant again. She's due early-to-mid September. Yes, this is the last one...I SWEAR!!)

She isn't the only reason, but she's a very compelling one.
I hope everyone has a great time!

Well, I'm probably going after all. My supervisor seems amenable to giving me the time off, Hotwire has quoted the same great airfare for me two days iin a row so hopefuly it will be available Thursday when I order, and I have six games to run 9including a few that are sold out) so I pretty much have to go.

Anything I can do to cut my expenses down would be welcome advice. If there is still space in the Forge hotel rooms, I could use some. Keep in mind that i've seen my game schedule and it isn;t pretty -- I'll be coming in at 4:00 AM every morning after running late-night games. I've seen my schedulle and I have THREE games in the 11:30PM-3:30AM timeslot. This may pose problems. It may also make it easier, as I can catch a few winks of sleep in the bed while everyone else is out and about in the morning.

Membership at the door is $60. I'm thinking of taking up a collection. 8^) Seriously, though, if any of the memberships that aren;t being used in the Forge booths can be transferred, I;'d be interested in one and I'd be willing to work for it (in addition to mtatching the original payment made by the original purchaser). I don;t know if genCon would allow that on such short notice, but if they did I'd be interested.

(I'm only half-joking about taking up a collection., by the way. If anyone wants to see me at genCon badly enough they're willing to help me pay fo rit, i won;t turn them away. But you won;t see a "Send Michael Hopcroft to genCon!" fuind on the Seraphim Guard website.)

Hello,

Michael, let me know yes-or-no privately when the time comes.

Everyone else, thanks for the updates. Keep'em coming.

Best,
Ron

I believe I have the room situation all set (with Mearls) so no problem there. I'll be at the booth with octaNe and InSpectres in tow...and I'd really like to bring some wee games as well (right now I'm thinking of making tiny booklets for Sex & Violence, Clown Cops and Tooth & Claw).

As i have told Ron privately already (but don't mind everyone else knowing), I won't be going after all.

Basically I had hearts-to-hearts with three very important people; my supervisor, my branch president, and the Holy Ghost. They all agreed that I needed the work experience more than the convention this year and prompted me not to go. Therefore I canceled my leave request and won;t be buying that plane ticket.

I'm shooting for next year, at which time I'll have enough seniority at my company to get paid vacation time and be able to be filled in for more easily. Right now my company (which does custodial work for a school district) is in the middle of the heavy school-cleaning system and they need every dedicated body they can get.

We all make sacrifices, but sometimes we have to choose what sacrifices to make.

I will deeply miss you all and hope you all have a fabulous time and make a ton of money selling a lot of games.

Due to some misunderstandings concerning hotel reservations at GenCon, I am now in the situation that my plane will arrive at tuesday, but I won't have a place to stay until wednesday.

I understand that most of you won't be arriving before wednesday, but if you do, or know someone who does, and who'd maybe be willing to share the hotel room tuesday night, it would be nice if you drop me an email at this_email_address_sucks@disastermachine.com or PM me.

Thanx,
Jürgen

mailto:this_email_address_sucks@disastermachine.com

oh my god that is funny...

Hello Ron et Omnes,

By way of confirmation, BW will be at the Forge booth this year. I will be running melee demos and all that stuff. I'll be bringing a BW banner and a bunch of BW signs as well.

Also, I am bringing my friend Drozdal with me to help run BW demos. I sent along the $55 to Ron for the badge a couple of months ago.

Drozdal and I would love to crash out on the floor of one of the Forge rooms. (I also mentioned this about a month ago, if that matters.)

We are arriving in Indy Friday at 930am.

Let me know if there are any problems.

-L

Will anyone be bringing along a computer of any kind that has a tray-loading CD burner? I've got a laptop sans CD, and CD burner in my desktop, but they just don't make external burners for *my* laptop anymore (an old Mac Duo 2300c).

I'll be selling only pdfs, but I have custom blank CD's so I can "burn to order" anything that someone wants. If I can get something to burn them with.

Greg Porter
BTRC
btrc@btrc.net

Hi there,

In reference to Greg's point, don't forget that the booth does not include power outlets, so all computer-type people need to load up their batteries and pay attention to their power demands.

Best,
Ron

In reference to Greg's point, don't forget that the booth does not include power outlets, so all computer-type people need to load up their batteries and pay attention to their power demands.

H'm! I was under the impression that we have to pay for electricals. But I'll check.

Also, the current hotel room situation is looking pretty full. Some people have emailed me to add them (or rather, to remind me about it). So if you are looking for or counting on a room, are not listed above, and haven't contacted me recently, then get in touch pronto.

Best,
Ron

Luke,

We are arriving in Indy Friday at 930am.

The $100 you paid was for the full four days. If you're local to anyone you know who's going to be at the convention on Thursday, you should have them bring six or eight copies of your game to the booth...and tell us how much to sell them for.

Paul

What's the current plan for signs?

Who is officially doing them?

What size pics do you need?

Where do we send them?

Do you need cover art or graphics?

Will all the signs be the same or just thrown together based on what you were sent?

What about companies that have more than one game for sale or more than one designer? Do they get more than one sign or one really cluttered one?

Where will they be hung? back wall? the stand?

What's the deadline for getting pics to the right person?

Just some thoughts.

,Matt Gwinn

Hi everyone,

To answer and inform:

Matt, we do have a floorplan based loosely on the dimensions of the booth. It can be modified to fit our needs of course. It is going to be more open than last year and I think it will work out well.

Signs or mini posters- as Nathan and Matt have said, I was suggesting smaller posters for all games for sale or free. I had posted a deadline of July 4 but didn't receive any information regarding them from anyone. The basic idea of the sign is to be 11" by 17" with an author photo, game cover or text and subtitle. An example was posted in the eariler booth thread started by myself. Michael S. Miller created a great poster for FVLMINATA and I will ask Paul to set it to his website site and post a link for an example. A designer doesn't have to be present to have a sign! (hint hint Matt Snyder) I wanted a cohesive display of the signs for all the games to be attached to the rear wall of the booth (I've got the 'how' covered). Nathan and I have both volunteered to print signs out. I don't see a problem with one sign per game

I did want to create a blank spreadsheet that we can use to tally the sales, but I either need to know 1) bare minimum, how many games for sale OR 2) the name of each game and author.

Also, the final and biggest news!!! The banner and stickers are being shipped and I expect to receive them tomorrow. The cost with other various office supplies will be about $300. I have set up a PayPal account and as soon as I figure out how to use it, I will be asking for donations.

This all sounds great. But I'm still worried about ambiance. That is, what are we doing to get to that "coffee house" feel that we keep talking about? Or has that been abandoned entirely? As I have it right now, we have the stock furniture, and some signage. Is that the entirity of the plan at this point?

If someone has some ideas about what we can do at this point, I'm here to volunteer to help.

Mike

Hey Mike,

As I have it right now, we have the stock furniture, and some signage....

Just last evening I completed carpentry on a three-sided kiosk style game display unit. It is 5'8" tall, sized to fit the bed of my truck. Each side is 32" wide, with three 15" tall, but shallow shelves on which games are displayed face out. The sides are connected with small door hinges, with removable pins for flat transportation of the unit. It will sit near the leading edge of of the booth. Designers will congregate about it, interacting with the crowd. I'll be applying stain and polyurethane between now and GenCon, and constructing individual "Indie RPGs" signs that will attach to the top of each side.

Paul

I have received the banner. Paul has posted the image on his website:

http://www.halfmeme.com/banner.jpg

And here are the stickers:

http://www.halfmeme.com/FORGE_Labels.jpg

And here is another example of the sign or mini poster that Michael S. Miller created for FVLMINATA:

http://www.halfmeme.com/FVLSIGNL.JPG

More later!

nice work all around.

how big is that banner?

-L

How hard would it be to update the cafepress site with a t-shirt with that design on it? I'll happily order a couple to wear at the show.

For that matter, who's gonna be at the booth selling that has logo shirts available? My stuff won't be ready, so I'm happy to be a billboard for other people.

Send me a PM, and tell me where I can buy one.

Hello,

I've consulted with the GenCon people, and those little boxes on the exhibit hall diagram show where a "power drop" would go if you have one. We don't have one; it costs money to set that up.

So laptop people, fire up your batteries. I suppose if a bunch of you want to come up with the money, you can, but (a) realize that it'll be at last-minute prices, and (b) I will not organize it, someone else has to; I'll just be the last step in the process.

As for signs, I have my cool little Adept Press sign from last year, and will bring it along. Everyone else, get in touch with Danielle immediately if you want one. It's pretty harsh to mail someone stuff like that two days before a con. Danielle, you've posted your desired format before, right?

Best,
Ron

Hello again,

I recommend that everyone review last year's thread GenCon 2002 - VERY IMPORTANT, from last year. Some of the concerns discussed in there were dealt with effectively last year, but I'm now pointing to my first post in the thread and its statement of the primary goal at the booth.

In other words, everyone promotes everyone else. You do that by talking to con attendees in a nice way, to find out what they like and might be interested in. You do it by being friendly and by having fun. You do it by being willing to sit in on a demo session for someone else's game, if they need another person.

What we're trying to avoid is a flea-market situation, in which someone comes by and gets instantly buttonholed by one of a dozen eager merchants to check out his and only his game, now now now. No. I want people to feel fine with hanging out at the booth, and playing stuff.

And then for my next point ....

Sales. The other goal is to sell tons and tons of our games. How is this done? My answer is based on these points.

1. That friendly hang-out atmosphere should include, as a second stage of the interaction, a recommendation toward a given game at the booth. This goes for every single person who drops by - evaluate them regarding games that might be a good match for them, and then either sell'em your game (if applicable), or send'em to someone else.

2. Sell your game through actual play. Spend half an hour playing? If you sell no copies, then you wasted half an hour and lost money for yourself or for the person whose game you played. If you run a session of Sorcerer, for instance, then send those players to me. Listen to no excuses ("Oh, my brother has a copy"). Send them to me. If you run a session of your own game, then brook no excuses - finish up the demo, then fan copies out in one hand and say, "OK, $5 apiece." (or whatever)

If interacting like this embarasses you, then work hard to get over it. Remember, people want to spend their money at the booth, but they also want to see your commitment to the product as well. Your enthusiasm, for both play and sales, is inspiring to them. Without that inspiration, they'll wander on.

3. Keep demos short. I said this last year, and I saw tons of hour-and-a-half demos getting run that resulted in no sales. This is a bad thing, especially since space is more limited this year. "How can I run a forty-minute demo?" Put your minds to it - what you're showing off is how much fun your game is to play, after the ninjas come through the windows, not how clever your PC creation system is, or how many options there are. Consider demo-ing situations, not scenarios.

OK, enough sternness for now.

Best,
Ron

ok, the banner is 3'x 6' which is a standard banner size.

The mini-posters were created from suggestions to have a game menu, poloroid photos of the game designers and a message board. My previous post has examples of the sign as well as the banner and sticker jpg. The mini-poster are 11x17 sheets of paper with the game logo across majority of the page, with a sub title or slogan below it. In an upper corner the author’s photo and name. Below this could be a list of other people who could run a demo game. (The game designers have the option of putting this together themselves or I will be happy to put it together if they send me the info.) I will still be happy to print out signs or put them together.

300 dpi minimum images or like Michael, the game cover. I will be printing them out using Microsoft Publisher on a color lazer printer. Nathan has also volunteered to print out these signs. I will have to put a new deadline on this, I don't want to be doing these the day that we are leaving, so let's say Friday the 18th.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the banner:
http://www.halfmeme.com/bannerdisplayed.jpg

So, that means that I am now accepting donations for the cost through paypal under danicow@hotmail.com. The banner, stickers and current office supplies are $290. If there are supplies that you think are needed, please post them by the end of this week.

Also note that the deadline for mini-posters is this Friday, the 18th. I can accept them as .pdf, zip files or microsoft publisher.

-D

When do we get to see a pic of Pauls cool creation?

I now have a reservation for a hotel room on tuesday, so if anyone wants to get into Indy early, you're welcome to crash in my room. Also, if anyone is there on tuesday and wants to get a game going that evening, PM me or open a new thread.

Hi Ron et omnes,

I have a very practical question: How do I get my badge and stuff from you when I arrive? Since I won't get to the hall until 10 amFriday, I figure you all will already be over there.

Does anyone have a cell phone that I could call? Is there a place I could meet someone? Can the badges be left at the info or registration desk?

Also, what's our booth number?

(I just got my banner back today, it is very cool! I'm very excited.)

Lastly, if I wanted to ship packages to the hotel does anyone have any advice? Has anyone actually done this before?

thanks,
-Luke

Greetings all,

I'm back from LA and I will be at the con although I won't be working at the booth, but I'm willing do any little things that you all need.

See you there,
Mario

One thing to consider might be customers who bought a non-working Violence Future CD at the indie booth last year. Will Dav be there with working CDs for replacement? What are we going to do if not?