The most popular sites for crowd funding are Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, though I’ve been told there are many others.  Depending on the site, a project may need to reach its entire funding before anyone gets charged, or conversely, be allowed to cash out shy of the goal.  Typically, rewards are offered to thank people that donate at varying amounts.  For example, you might get to contribute to the setting, receive an autographed copy, or even get a personal visit from the producer.

Let me start by saying I think this is a wonderful thing.  Podcasting allowed us to get out content that no radio station would have ever picked up.  And in the same way, crowd funding allows people to get the cash they need in the absence of a major financial backer.  Fans can suddenly open their wallets and enable the things they want to see, often through an aggregation of very modest donations from many people.  Publishers get a chance to see their ideas come to fruition and, by observing donations, get an early sense of how the product might do in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, I’m seeing several problems start to emerge.

First and most importantly, I fear that too many people are picking up on this.  The first Kickstarter project I remember seeing was Mikey Mason’s Impotent Nerd Rage.  Since then, I’ve seen many, many more.  The bulk of them are great ideas, and I have nothing but the utmost support for the people doing them.  But with an ever-increasing number of people kicking these projects off, how long before funding fatigue starts to set in and Kickstarter projects become background noise no different than the billboards along a highway?

It’s hard to find truly academic numbers on this sort of thing, but most estimates I’ve found say that only between 30% and 40% of crowd funded projects reach their goal.  And of those that fail, apparently a significant percentage don’t even raise a single dollar.  In an economy of finite currency, contributing cash is a lot harder than clicking “Like” on Facebook.

Second, I think many fundraisers outpace themselves.  When John first brought up using Kickstarter for Bloodmoon, we sat down and thought pretty hard about the goal.  How much will this project cost?  Where can we trim the budget?  Sure, we have an established fan base of a reasonable size, but how much money are we actually likely to get?

I think the situation is even worse for people that have a great idea but no public presence.  Outside of family and friends, projects end up with no contributors and fall embarrassingly short of the goal.  If the site requires full funding, that means you don’t see a single dime.  If the site allows partial funding, you’re left trying to explain what you’ll do with the money in your pocket that’s less than you need to meet your original promises.

With the dreary part out of the way, I want to offer some advice.  I’m sure it will be neither perfect nor exhaustive, but at least it’s better than stating the problem and walking away.

1. People are giving you their money, and they want to know how it will be used.  Talk openly about what you’ll be producing, what features your product will have, and generally how donations will be spent.
2. Set a budget.  Research what it will cost to take your idea from inception to publication.  Ask people in the industry to look over your flowchart to see if you’ve missed an expense.
3. Review your budget and decide if it’s a realistic goal.  Sure, your friends love your homebrew game, but that doesn’t mean the public will front $20,000 for you to make it.  Ask yourself honestly how much you can raise with the people you have access to.  If this is your first time out, maybe it’s better to try for a few hundred bucks, build a following from that project, and get more ambitious later.
4. Be prepared to find some wiggle room in that budget!  How can you get the amount down to something you’re likely to raise?  Maybe it’s time to consider a little less art or purely electronic publication.  The specifics are for you to decide, but make the financial and product goals align.
5. Before selling the product, you have to be able to sell the idea of funding the product.  How are you going to find people that are interested in the idea and likely to support you with a contribution?  And once you’ve got their attention, what sort of text or video message will you use to get them to commit?
6. If your project falls under its funding goal, have a plan already in place for the amount you raised.  I don’t recommend announcing that plan early (why give the impression you don’t believe in your project?) but know what you’ll say if you fall short.  Those people want something for their money, so maybe you can put together a less ambitious version of the original idea or maybe you’ll let contributors vote on a charity it goes to.
7. Be equally ready for the reverse situation.  If you happen to go over your goal, what are you going to do with the extra money?  Make the intended product better?  Put it toward another project?  Donate it?

The way we’re going to address this is by returning Fear the Boot to the description it’s carried in the RSS feed since Episode 1.

Fear the Boot is an irreverent, round table discussion of tabletop role playing games. In this weekly show we debate game-related issues, offer advice for improving your game, and poke fun at the hobby. Our cast changes a little from show to show, but we always assemble a group of dynamic individuals with divergent views, guaranteeing you will hear several perspectives on everything we discuss.

For each show, we will have 3 – 5 hosts present, drawn from the list given above.  That flexibility accomplishes two things.  First, we can make sure we’ve tapped the hosts with the most interest or expertise on a given subject.  Second, it allows the remaining hosts to take some weeks off to spend with family or pursue other projects, such as Fear the Con, Skies of Glass, Epoch of Rysos, and Bloodmoon Goblins.

I don’t expect this change to have any significant impact on the show.  All of the hosts will still be appearing on the show and active on the forums.  However, I wanted to explain in advance why the staffing will shift in seemingly random fashion from week to week.

http://thisjustinfromgencon.com/2011/10/02/tjigencon2011-bonuswrapup/

If you were at Gen Con, you obviously know what the convention has to offer and have likely made up your mind about going back in the future.  However, if you’ve never been, I really can’t recommend the event strongly enough.  It’s one heck of a spectacle, and it’s also nice to have one weekend in the year where geeks take over a town, letting you know loud and clear that you’re not the only one that’s into the things you love.  I hope more of the hosts are in attendance next year, so we can provide coverage of the extraordinarily diverse events the con has to offer.

Last of all, to make up for our inability to cover all of the bases with half of the crew, we partnered with This Just In…From Gen Con!, helping finance their coverage of the con.  If you want some great interviews in podcast form, be sure to check their site!

Something else I observed is that while the dealer hall seemed to be a little bit smaller than in previous years, the gaming halls had grown larger.  If you come to this con and find yourself bored, you’re either really bad at simple tasks (like sitting down at tables) or just not a gamer.

Among the booter crowd, I saw the aforementioned Spin the Issues, along with Nuts, Paranoia, Star Trek, Battletech, and other games being enjoyed.  I personally played in several those, including a great Battletech scenario run by Chris Ings in which disgruntled Solaris fighters, Word of Blake zealots, and Lyran troops tangled in a three-way clash with a local militia caught between.  I’m proud of how my team (the Solaris fighters) performed, though ultimately I had to concede that the Lyrans had better map position in regard to the communication tower, which was the stated objective of the game.

I also ran a classic FASA Star Trek game, with a 50/50 mix of new and veteran players.  I decided to recreate the initial battle from The Wrath of Khan, with the Enterprise starting off unprepared and the Reliant losing its shields six turns in.  (16309?  What level of crappy encryption is that?)  Keith Curtis and Ed Sawyer ran the respective ships, and they both did an awesome job of roleplaying Kirk and Khan.  I noted some setup mistakes I made as the Game Master, but everyone had a great time.  I think I’ll be running this one again at Fear the Con 5.  And for anyone that’s curious, the Enterprise won.

If you’re into organized play, there was plenty of that going on as well.  Wizards of the Coast was running a con-wide game in which three forces clashed over the city of Neverwinter.  I also saw the Paizo/Pathfinder folks there in force.  And there were demo teams from just about every company you can imagine.

If you need something really different to do, there’s the live-action, puzzle-solving, monster-fighting, special-effects-bonanza known as True Dungeon.  We ran through that again this year.  It was enjoyable, though I’m not a fan of the increased group size.  Eight people were hard enough to organize, and ten is just a mob.  I wish I had some pictures or video of the various rooms and animatronic monsters, some of which were breathtaking.  Unfortunately, they don’t allow cameras back there.  The only tidbit I can give is that I wasn’t expecting the gargoyle to jump off its pedestal.  If you were there, you know what I’m talking about.

I never took a head count at any of the events, but between the TOFTBCH gatherings and random handshakes in the hall, I think I met around 100 listeners at Gen Con this year.  Fine people, one and all.  I’m sure there are also other listeners I just didn’t happen to bump into.  I won’t start listing names of people I met, because for every name I mention there will be one I forget.  But I can’t stress enough how great it was meeting some booters for the first time and connecting with others yet again.  If you’re one of those people, yes, I’m talking to you!

As for the general attendees, Gen Con is a great place to take the pulse of gaming.  This year, I was reminded that our hobby is evolving.  Every year I see more card games and board games, with a few less RPGs.  I don’t think that represents a decline in RPGs, so much as an increasing number of publishers.  Back in the 80s and 90s, there were a small number of companies that really dominated the scene, and they showed up in force.  Technology has made publication more approachable, leaving less companies on top with a growing number in the second and third string.  They’re putting out great products but might not be able to justify the cost of a booth at Gen Con.

Whether my guess is right or not, seeing the percentage of booths taken up by RPG companies receding ever-so-slowly makes me a little sad.  But the general attendance was up, and to know that the culture of tabletop gaming is on the rise warms my heart.  I also saw an increasing diversity in the age, gender, race, etc, represented which says that our culture is not only here to stay, but it’s reaching across divides it’s historically struggled to cross.  Is our hobby changing?  Sure.  That doesn’t mean it’s fading away.

The first convention I ever attended was a local, St. Louis con back in 1991.  I remember the first two thoughts I had upon entering the main hall: “Holy crap, I’m not the only one into this stuff!”…followed shortly thereafter by…”Wow, everyone here is so nice.”  Both are true of the Gen Con attendees as well.  Watching our subculture descend upon a town gives you a certain sense of being where you belong.  For once, loving D&D or knowing obscure things about anime gets the people around you energized instead of annoyed.  As a man that still struggles with some degree of “gamer shame”, that’s a refreshing feeling.

To close this post off, I’ll go ahead and deal with one of the things several people have already asked about: Pat’s Gen Con photo roll.  Fair warning that while these pictures are all PG rated, they’re…well…what you’d expect Pat to be taking pictures of.  So here ya go.

 Turnstile attendance was over 119,707 with 36,733 unique attendees present for 96 hours of gaming, cosplay, music, shopping and more. This positive spike in turnout represents a greater than 20% increase in a single year. Game event participation grew even more steeply, with over 250,000 event tickets yielding an over 26% expansion throughout the Best Four Days In Gaming!

I’ll come back soon with more posts detailing our experience gaming, shopping, and socializing at the con, so keep checking this space!  Also, I realize we haven’t put out an episode yet this week, so I’ll make it up to you guys by releasing two next week.

This will have absolutely no impact on the podcast itself, as those files are served by LibSyn.  However, when we flip the switch, it can take a day or two for your internet provider to pick up the fact that our forums, blog, email, etc, is now at a new address.  I’ll try to provide 24 hours notice when that’s about to occur, but if you can’t get to our site, just keep trying every so often until we appear again.

Also, we will be migrating all data along with the site.  So no blog posts, forum posts, user accounts, Con Planner entries, etc, will be lost.

The game supports two to five players and takes around 20 minutes to play.  As with the other games from Looney Labs, Seven Dragons is whimsical, easy to learn, and a lot of fun.

If you’re looking for a complex game with a long list of mechanics and choices, this probably isn’t for you.  The rules only take up a single sheet of paper and require just a few minutes to learn.  However, it fit our tastes wonderfully, and we also found that once play commenced, we needed a bit more observation and planning than we initially thought.

During setup, each person is secretly assigned a dragon they’ll be representing during the course of play.  Each of these five dragons bears a particular color: green, blue, red, black, or gold.  A silver dragon staring into a sort of magical mirror is placed in the center of the play field.  There are also rainbow dragons that pop up as wild cards, simultaneously representing every other color of dragon in play.  (There’s the seven dragons for anyone that’s counting.)

As with Fluxx, players are dealt three cards to form their hand.  During each turn, they play one card and draw one card.  The primary cards (featuring original paintings by Larry Elmore) have one, two, or four panels that show dragons of various colors.  When you play a card, you must place it adjacent to the other cards in play, with at least one panel touching a dragon of the same color on any adjacent card.

The silver dragon starts off colorless and thus legal to be in contact with any card.  However, to keep things interesting, players will also come across action cards that let you swap hands, rotate goals, reorganize cards on the field, or engage in similar forms of mischief.  These cards each bear a color that matches one of the five dragons.  When you play one, the silver dragon will see the magic in his mirror and morph to match the color on the action card.  This is an important part of play strategy, since he’s typically the center of the expanding play field.

In order to keep players from consistently skipping over action cards whose color are unhelpful to them, you have the choice of either playing the card normally, playing the card but ignoring its action (thus only changing the silver dragon’s color), or doing the reverse and requesting the action while tucking the card beneath the discard pile so the silver dragon retains his prior color.

As a side note, we invented a house rule that helped us keep track of the silver dragon’s color.  Instead of keeping a separate discard pile for used actions, we piled them on the silver dragon (poor guy) so we didn’t have to look in two places to see his current color.  That’s why you won’t see him in the picture I took of our game.

The objective is to get seven panels of your dragon in a contiguous pattern.  So, for example, if I’m playing the black dragon, I need seven black dragon panels which touch each other in an unbroken pattern.  Having three touching on one side and four on the other doesn’t count.  Nor can you move along diagonals.  However, rainbow dragons and the silver dragon (if he’s either silver or currently mimicking your dragon’s color) will help you achieve victory.

With the basics explained, I want to add two specific bits of praise and one minor criticism.

First, as I noted above, the game is more strategic than it sounds.  Matching dragon colors implies a game so simple that it’s moved from beer-and-pretzels into why-bother-playing.  However, Looney Labs has a track record of introducing simple ideas that keep play surprisingly fluid.  For example, we had someone deduce the player next to him was playing the gold dragon. He let them get very close to victory and then dropped an action card that allowed him to switch dragon colors.  In another game, the black dragon won simply by being very casual about her card placement along the bottom of the field while everyone else bickered over the silver dragon’s color and the matches along the top.

Second, for anyone that has kids, the game includes rules variants designed for young children.  The simplest one suggests using the dragon cards alone in a non-competitive format where the kids just look for matches, thus teaching colors and visual reasoning.  Another variant suggests changing the size of the chain needed to win based on the player’s age, leveling the playing field for gamers of varying age.  That’s a great addition for a casual game that’s just as likely to end up on the dinner table as in a gaming group.  I wish more companies would offer rules along those lines.

My minor criticism is that the action cards — while featuring lovely artwork in the middle — don’t take advantage of the black margins to write out an explanation of what they do.  So whenever a player wanted to use one of the five action cards, they had to refer back to the rules insert to see what their card would unleash.  The rules for each card are relatively simple, so an experienced group is likely to have them memorized after a game or two.  But for new players, a sentence of explanation would have made these cards much more user-friendly.

In closing, I suppose the highest praise I can offer the game was its reception.  My family had a great time playing it and has asked me to bring it back on future holidays.  If you’re a fan of Looney’s other offerings, I’d recommend spending the $15 to pick up a copy or at least tracking down someone that has it and giving it a try.  It’s a great product to tuck in your bag for downtime in your gaming group, a pick-up at a con, or some casual fun at a family gathering.

If you’re interested in grabbing a copy, Seven Dragons is set for release on June 24th.  You can get more information at your local gaming store or on Looney Lab’s own site.

Let me be as straightforward as I can.  While this money is going to be used to finish the product — he’s not just pocketing it — this isn’t a charity.  You’re not curing cancer, saving babies, or feeding remote villages.  However, he’s a great guy working on a product that will make life a little brighter for geeks like us, based on the comedy act he does free of charge at the con every year.  And in case you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, you will get something in return based on the amount you pledge, so it’s not just a donation.

If you’re interested in helping Mikey out, please do so here!  As for Fear the Boot, we’ve made our own pledge, we’ll mention it once on the show (probably episode 229), and then we’ll get back to raising money for stuff that really is curing cancer, saving babies, and feeding remote villages.

2. Since I’ll need to print the game sign-up sheets with some time to spare, any changes made on Con Planner must be in by the end of Wednesday night.  All changes made on Thursday or Friday will not be accounted for.  If you need to change anything about an activity, please either get it in before Wednesday night or simply wait until the con and do it on the registration papers there.

3. If you’re coming for the pre-con tourism, don’t forget to either PM your cell phone number to ZeikeCopperEyes on the forums or keep an eye on our Twitter feed.  Those are your two best resources for getting linked up with the group.

4. Since I’m entering into a week of pre-con activities, last minute prep, and finally hosting the convention itself, I will be out of contact until next Sunday.  If you need anything dealt with immediately, please send me a PM on the forums.  That’s the only form of communication I’ll be checking with any regularity.

BOARD GAME RESOURCES

• Board Game Geek
• Board Games with Scott
• Myriad Games
• Pulp Gamer’s White Glove series

BOARD GAME TITLES

• 1870
• Agricola
• Arkham Horror
• Battlestar Galactica
• Blokus
• Carcassone
• Castle of Magic
• Chaos in the Old World
• Colossal Arena
• Cosmic Encounter
• Diplomacy
• Dominion
• Empire Builder
• Fluxx
• Formula D
• Fury of Dracula
• Le Havre
• Pandemic
• Powerboats
• Puerto Rico
• Race for the Galaxy
• Return to Castle Ravenloft
• San Juan
• Settlers of Catan
• Shadows Over Camelot
• St. Petersburg
• Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
• Ticket to Ride
• Tsuro
• Twilight Struggle

We’ll be back on our normal schedule next week!  I also have a Fear en Route file from Wayne which I’ll try to post tonight or tomorrow to at least have something on the feed for this week.

The company that first owned the game, Sabertooth Games, did actually go under and the game was bought by Fantasy Flight Games.  After a number of overpowered sets and promotional cards, players started to leave the game.  When they decided to make seven sets illegal in the Standard format, most players stopped buying the cards.  Fantasy Flight Games decided to end the game.  However Fantasy Flight Games is still very much in business and I do appreciate their board games.  They just were not equipped for the trading card game market.

Around January 2010, a local game store down in Texas decided to buy the license for the game.  The owners were very much fans of the game and saw its potential in the right hands.  When they [bought the game], they determined that the focus should be on the players.  We have already had several polls about formats and banned cards and errata to cards.

Even in this short time, they had a new set ready to go.  It is their own intellectual property, since they cannot yet afford to buy the rights to use popular figures from Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tekken, etc.  They only were able to get the license to the mechanics of the game.  The older cards that include these familiar properties can still be used (Soul Calibur IV and Tekken can still be played in Standard).  But it may be a couple of years before they can afford these other licenses.

To build a deck for sanctioned tournament play, a player must choose an existing character that is included in the released sets.  They come with their own powers.  The rest is how you stated it.  Now there is a caveat.  In non-sanctioned play, you can use cards of your own making.  Although please support the developer by buying sanctioned sets.  But you can develop, say Batman, with his own powers and play with your friends.  When Fantasy Flight Games stopped supporting the game, our play group decided to make our own set (attacks, assets, foundations) with us as character cards.  It was a lot of fun to do and to play.  Our characters were totally overpowered, but it was still cool.

I just wanted to add one more thing.  They have a thing called, “The Coolest Prize in Gaming”.  Winners of nationals and worlds standard tournaments get to make themselves as character cards that are tournament legal.  I have also seen store groups be able to make tournament legal assets.  It is a really cool concept.  While cash is not awarded to winners, these prizes are definitely worth the price of playing.  Also the removal of cash has also made this a really great, fun player base to with which to play.  I have not encountered the cut throat player that I have seen, even in low level tournaments [of other games].

Also if anyone has questions about the game, they can reach me at liendolf@gmail.com.  I really want to be an ambassador for it and make it prosper.

If you’re not signed up to come yet, you can find the convention site at http://www.fearthecon.com.

A century or two before the game began, human technology could only provide FTL travel along certain paths.  A ship full of 50,000 cryogenically stored colonists fell off one of those paths and was stranded.  Realizing they would be stuck there for an extremely long time — and likely never be found at all given the vastness of space — the crew of the ship responsible for these colonists was left to panic.

Some of them lived out their lives normally and died when supplies ran out.  Some killed themselves.  But a few dozen traded places with colonists.  They dumped one body per crewman that opted into this plan, placing themselves in the chambers instead, hoping to be revived one day.

Along come the PCs in an age when humanity has more sophisticated FTL travel, and for reasons I won’t get into (that would be a novel-length gaming story), they discover this ship.  When they start thawing out the thousands of colonists, they realize that a few dozen were ship crew living in cryo chambers that were labeled for other people.  And in some cases the family members of the “murdered” were still among the living colonists.

However, this ship was sitting outside of claimed territory when the event happened, so technically no law was broken.  And with the ship’s Captain dead a century ago, there was no one left with legal authority to rule on their actions.

After being thawed, the crewman begged the players to take them back to Republic space so they could live out their lives there and escape the potentially-vengeful colonists.

So what do you do with these guys?  Kill them?  Turn them over to the colonists who don’t technically have any legal authority over them?  Turn them over to a Republic that has no legal authority over this event either?  Take pity on them as people that did a selfish — but perhaps understandable — act of desperation and take them back home?  Impress them into service in your own ship’s crew so you can exact punishment?

The diversity of character perspectives on life, death, and self-preservation clashed wonderfully in this situation.  And it also played out on some personal level.  As the characters discussed it, the players put themselves in the shoes of both the colonists and crewmen, wondering what they would do in the same situation.

In case you’re curious, the crewmen ended up being turned over to the colonists for judgment by the colony’s governor.  He chose to show them mercy of sorts, forcing them to roll up their sleeves, living a hard life on this new world alongside the rest of the colonists as a form of penance.

I will have this week’s episode edited and posted later tonight, so the feed should be update on major aggregators a full day before the site goes offline.  Also, the MP3 files are stored on another server and will remain available for download during that time.  All that will go offline is features like the forum and blog.

* All times are in U.S. Central.

• Buggin’ – Inspired by movies like Antz and Bee Movie, participants play tiny bugs out on big adventures.  (Thanks to Todd Downing of Deep7!)
• Dread House – In a combination of RPG and board game, you play teenagers spending the night in a haunted mansion.  (Thanks to Emily Care Boss of Black and Green Games!)
• Faery’s Tale – An introductory RPG where players take on the role of one of four kinds of faeries and go adventuring in Brightwood.  (Thanks to Marcy Ganow of Tabletop Adventures who also helps organize the kids’ track at Nuke Con in Omaha!)
• Fuzzy Heroes – A tactical game with plenty of RPG and character elements where kids use stuffed animals to tussle out battles.  (Another hat tip to Marcy Ganow and the game’s creator, Christopher Clark!)
• Happy Birthday Robot – A storytelling game where players take turns writing the story of Robot’s birthday.  (Thanks to Jessica Blair from Sandstorm!)
• Land of Og – Players take on the role of cavemen that have extremely limited vocabularies and go adventuring in a prehistoric world.  (Another hat tip to Marcy Ganow!)
• Meddling Kids – This game is something like Scooby Doo where you make investigators and chase down mysteries.  (Thanks to Tim Dugger from Ice Crown Enterprises!)
• Pre-School RPG – Designed for his daughter when she was very young, this flexible game is easy to learn and requires no literacy.  (Thanks to Keith Curtis for creating this game!)
• rpgKids – A cheap and easy-to-play fantasy game designed for children as young as 4.  (Thanks to Daniel Perez from Highmoon Media and also Brannon!)
• Siege Games: Harvester – Players match little animals with fantasy classes and take their heroes into a world of fantasy adventure.  (Thanks to Christina Stiles of Misfit Studios!)
• The Heroes of Hesiod – A simplified, kid-friendly D&D adventure put out by Wizards to help introduce kids to the hobby.  (Thanks to Matt Forbeck for this one!)
• The Secret Lives of Gingerbread Men – Players create gingerbread cookies which represent their characters and then go on adventures about the house.  What other game lets you eat the character sheet?  (Thanks to Ryan Dancey of CCP / White Wolf for introducing me to this game several years ago!)
• Toon – Players take on the role of wacky, slapstick characters straight from Saturday morning cartoons.  (Thanks to Bill Stoddard of Steve Jackson Games!)
• Warriors – A free RPG based on the Harper-Collins books, with a new adventure coming out to accompany each novel.  (Thanks to Stan for this one!)
• Witch Girls Adventure – A fantasy game for new players about the lives of young mistresses of magic.  (Thanks to Grant Davis for this one!)

First, I want to thank Cape Rust for the very generous review of our show posted over on Geek Life!  Check out that article and his other stuff when you get a chance.  Among topics he’s tackled is a great series on gaming life in the military (part 1 and part 2).

Second, the dates for Fear the Con 4 have been locked in.  Wing Night is on Thursday, March 17th, 2011.  The con itself will be on Friday, March 18th and Saturday, March 19th.  Much more follow, and I look forward to seeing you there!

First, I’d like to thank the TOFTBCHes. Those guys do an incredible amount of work making reservations, putting together the contact lists, and sending out the text messages that make the events possible. They put in a lot of hard work, and I am in their debt for the service they provide to the community.

I’d like to thank the community for being such excellent, supportive individuals. Not only did a good number of people turn out to our events, but I was yet again amazed at the quality of people that comprise this community.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank Tim and a second donor (I believe wanted to remain anonymous) for generously giving us tickets to True Dungeon. It was an absolutely incredible experience that has to be seen to be fully appreciated. I wish we could have filmed some of the puzzles and monsters, but they don’t allow cameras in there.

It was a great con, and I look forward to posting the rest of the interviews and then making early reservations for Fear the Con 4.

1. What does TOFTBCH stand for?

It’s an abbreviation for “The Official Fear the Boot Communication Hub”.

2. What is the TOFTBCH network?

When at Gen Con, many people find they have empty spots in their schedule or maybe just preferring being around friends than strangers.  Or maybe they came pretty much alone and are looking for a welcoming group they can fall right in with and immediately make some new friends.  The TOFTBCH network was created to fill that need.

A group of outstanding volunteers take the cell phone numbers of anyone interested in joining the network.  When someone wants to kick off a game or social event, they simply inform one of the TOFTBCHes who will then blast it out to everyone on the network.  If you can make it, great.  If not, you’re still free to join us at later events.

3. How do I use the TOFTBCH network?

You can create an account for free on Con Planner, after which you can create an attendee for the Gen Con 2010 event.  If you go that route, be sure to provide your cell phone number in your account profile so they know how to reach you.  Alternately, you can send a private message via the forum to ZeikeCopperEyes, Necronomitron, or Aaron Stack, providing them with your name and cell phone number.

During the convention, if you want to run an event, just let them know so they can pass it along to the network.  If you want to attend an event, just wait for the message and stop by wherever we’re gathered.

4. What sorts of things do you do?

Pretty much anything you would expect: pick-up games, grabbing meals, going out for drinks, checking out the main convention hall, or just enjoying the company of good folks.

5. Is it too late to get signed up?

No, there’s still a little time!  I don’t know exactly what their plans are, but I’m sure they’ll be updating the list for at least a little while longer.  If you want to sign up, do it today!

I’d also like to take the time to highlight the RPG companies that sponsored this event with prize support. They’ve demonstrated their interest in supporting this cause, and I hope you’ll consider them when making your future RPG purchases.  I will list them below in alphabetical order.

1. Arc Dream – This publisher produces the critically-acclaimed roleplaying games Monsters and Other Childish Things, Wild Talents: Roleplaying in a World Gone Mad, and the classic World War II superhero game GODLIKE: Superhero Roleplaying in a World on Fire. They also work with Pagan Publishing to develop for the award-winning Delta Green game line and Cthulhu mythos magazine The Unspeakable Oath.
2. Bards and Sages – RPG publisher, writing resource, and writing competition sponsor, Bards and Sages supported our efforts by donating copies of the exceptionally modular and flexible Karma Roleplaying System.
3. Crafty Games – Crafty joined the fray by offering copies of the sleek, mix-and-max Fantasy Craft system for developing highly customized fantasy settings and campaigns.
4. DriveThruRPG – Your one-stop-shop for RPG downloads for an incredible variety of games, DriveThruRPG was extremely supportive of the charity drive, fixing us up with products from many of the publishers listed here.
5. Fat Dragon Games – Producers of great fantasy terrain and building models, Fat Dragon offered free copies of their DRAGONSHIRE: Deluxe Edition product featuring an easy-to-make collection of roads, bridges, and buildings to enhance your tabletop game.
6. Pinnacle Entertainment – Publishers of the well-known Savage Worlds system, Pinnacle put up copies of their Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion, packed with hundreds of items, monsters, and spells to help you flesh out your savaged fantasy campaign.
7. Polymancer Studios – Polymancer weighed in with subscriptions to Polymancer Magazine — an RPG resource packed with columns, articles, ready-to-play adventures, cartoons, and fiction — and the short fiction anthology magazine, Polygraff.
8. Reality Blurs – Last but not at all least, Reality Blurs generously donated copies of their excellent Savage Worlds setting book for Cthulhu campaigns, Realms of Cthulhu.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Gamer Adventures, you can do so here:

http://www.gameradventures.com

And if you want to contact Kim to ask for more information or discuss pricing options, you can do so here:

http://www.gameradventures.com/contact.htm

For you history buffs, there’s a fort that sits at the entrance of the port.  I was only half paying attention, so I didn’t catch the story behind the place.  But if you’re bored at work, it’s something you can track down on Wikipedia.  I’ll also post a picture of it with this post.

Speaking of excursions, I have a tip for anyone contemplating a cruise.  If the cruise company allows you to book your excursions online, be sure to do so before departing on the trip.  Many of the best activities fill up fast, so it’s your way of guaranteeing a spot without fighting the rush.  Just huddle your traveling partners around the computer one night and consider such things as everyone’s interests, how early you’re willing to get up, and the level of physical activity you can handle.  And if nothing sounds good, don’t be afraid to entertain yourself around the pier.

Our stop today was in Grand Turk, and despite having been on quite a few Caribbean cruises, this was my first time ever seeing this island.  It was an unexpected gem, and while not quite as beautiful as St. John, I will confidently say we had the most fun on this stop.  We took a catamaran out for a two part trip that started with snorkeling along a reef.  The marine life was not as diverse as what I’ve seen in other places, but it was quite concentrated.  Colorful fish were swimming close together, making me regret once again that disposable underwater cameras suck and that I have yet to purchase a professional one.

After snorkeling, we gathered back on the boat and were taken to a beach.  The four of us searched for seashells for Duncan (Pat’s son) and something called “beach glass” that Karla wanted.  Beach glass is just regular bits of glass from bottles or other garbage that ends up in the ocean, but after spending so much time out there, the sand and salt works it into rounded, matte pieces that can be turned into jewelry.  Being a part-time glassworker, Karla wanted us to collect all of the shards we could find.

Upon returning to the pier, we still had a couple of hours before we needed to be back on the ship.  Being right next to a public beach, we continued our search for seashells and beach glass.  The expedition was amazingly fruitful.  Unfortunately, I learned the hard way just how difficult it is to swim with five conch shells, and at one point I got drug along about 20 yards of rocks while sitting in the shallows.  I lost almost all of them, and during the retrieval I ended up face to face with a fairly large crab.  I got the three best ones back and let him have the other two.  We’ll call that even.  I also managed to locate some starfish hiding beneath a rock, which I pried up to show Pat just how fast the creepy things can move.

In addition to a wonderful public beach, the pier had a cluster of well-kept shops and restaurants.  This is definitely a place I’m coming back to on future trips, and given how easy it was to entertain ourselves, I think I may forego organized excursions in favor of the local businesses and personal treasure hunting.

Changing subjects a bit, while going through the things we’ve found throughout the trip we noticed a rather unexpected item.  It appears to be a pottery shard inscribed with symbols that are not from the Roman alphabet.  If anyone’s interested in playing junior archaeologist, you can find a high res image here.  We have no idea what it is.  Might even just be a decorative pattern.

So what’s still ahead on the trip?  Saturday will be spent entirely at sea, which I’m looking forward to.  The total lack of adventure is the best and worst thing about such days, though after today, I could use the rest.  I may also record an episode with Pat, Don Dehm, and anyone else we can grab.  There’s a guy here from Mayfair, so maybe this will become an impromptu interview.  Who knows.

The only thing I can say for sure is that I’ve had some great conversations with Don about the nature of the Pulp Gamer Network and the future of our respective shows.  I’ve come to realize there are some great resources in the network I’ve failed to take advantage of.

Despite being US territory — and the driver seat being located on the left of the car — everyone drives on the left side of the road.  Our guide explained this practice is done because of the mountain roads.  The driver is always on the same side as the ledge, giving them the best view of where the danger begins.

Getting back to Trunk Bay, words do not exist to express the beauty of this place.  If you’ve ever owned a calendar of the world’s best beaches, I can almost guarantee it was in there.   Warm, turquoise water, white sand, and a lot of exotic marine life to see while snorkeling.  It’s the sort of place that can make a bad trip good and a good trip better.  Of all the places I’ve been on Caribbean cruises (this is my fifth) there’s no stop I recommend more than St. John.

I don’t have an underwater camera, but I’ll post a few pictures to give you some idea of what the above-water scenery looks like.  I’m not sure they do it any justice, but lacking the millions it would take to fly you all there, it’s the best I can do.

Dinner was excellent as always, and it raised another example of the quirky behavior that arises on a cruise: most people will aspire to the level of everyone else’s bravery.  When there’s a food item or cocktail on the menu no one has heard of before, if at least one person orders it, usually a second will follow.  For example, last night Don ordered Remy brandy — which none of us had tasted before — so I did the same.  Pat ordered some extremely masculine drink called “Kiss on the Lips” and at least one other person (can’t recall whom) did the same.

After dinner we caught a magic show in the ship’s theater.  While the show itself isn’t worth a whole lot of commentary, it did get me thinking about the nature of onboard entertainment.  During a cruise, you will encounter a host of magicians, singers, musicians, dancers, and comedians.  Cruise entertainers have a reputation of being a real mixed bag, and this reputation is well deserved.  I’ve enjoyed some of the most outstanding performances I’ve ever seen in my life and cringed as someone embarrassed themselves from stage.

The nicety that offsets this truth is the sheer number of performers on the ship at any given time.  If someone isn’t living up to your expectations, simply relocate to another lounge and you’ll likely get something much better.

The previous Gamer Cruise I took had two performers that serve as great case studies in this juxtaposition.  There was a pianist that could put Billy Joel to shame and play any number of songs from memory.  He was comedic and talented, and across two different performances I was able to get him to play November Rain and one of Chopin’s Nocturnes with equal skill.  Then there was some poor woman that sang beneath the level of drunken karaoke.  John G. nicknamed her “Wing” after an episode of South Park which I had to track down out of curiosity after the cruise was over.

We’re in San Juan, Puerto Rico right now, but I’ll get to that in my next entry.  The cruise director is on the intercom talking about options for debarkation when we get back to Miami.  That’s still several days away, and I’m not sure most people want to be thinking about the end of their vacation right now.  It’s a bit of a killjoy.

The following morning we got onto the ship.  In case you’ve never cruised before, I’ll let you in on a little secret: maritime security is just as intrusive and annoying as airport security.  To avoid getting into political issues, I’ll let that comment stand on its own.

There are many things to enjoy about cruising.  You’re on a large boat, filled with lots of fun things to do and fellow guests that are in a great mood.  The food is outstanding, drinks are plentiful, and someone is on staff to take care of every need you have.  The entire environment is designed to enable your enjoyment.

To keep this grounded, I should probably note that cruises are a lot like weddings.  You can’t bring this many variables together on one event and expect perfection, yet often people do.  Things will go wrong.  I’ve run into a small number of rude people, and the drain in our shower doesn’t quite work right.  But when you compare that to the number of things going right (i.e. food, scenery, and company), the trip is more than worth taking.

At dinner Sunday night, I met the other people we’ll be eating with.  I’m at a table of eight, so in addition to my party of four, I’m sitting with Don Dehm (host of Pulp Gamer), his friend Edward, and then Mike and his wife, Laura.  It turns out that in addition to being a board gamer, Mike is an avid LARPer.  He’s invited FtB to join him for a fairly large LARP event in Houston this October, and I’ve invited him to write some guest blog posts on LARPing.

I know that sounded tangential, but it perfectly illustrates what I like about these gamer trips: you already have a lot in common with the friendly people you meet.  There’s no awkward small talk.

After dinner we headed to the casino for a bit.  I don’t gamble large amounts of money, but I’ll happily play a little bit of Craps or Blackjack.  Pat and I did pretty well with Craps, doubling our money before doing the smart thing and cashing out.

Monday morning we had to get up fairly early for our first stop in Nassau.  We chose a pretty easy excursion of just hanging out on a beach near the place I had my first hands-on experience with dolphins several years ago.  To be honest, it wasn’t as fun as my previous trip to the Bahamas.  I was exhausted from two days of traveling and standing in line, so getting up early was rough.  It was also strangely cold.  As I said above, not everything on a cruise will go perfectly.

The following day was spent at sea, heading between Nassau and St. Thomas.  I slept in, had lunch, and watched the sea go by.  It may sound boring, but to me it’s quiet relaxation.  Having a busy and noisy life, I need times like this.  I also showed Pat and Beth the flying fish getting caught up in the ship’s wake and skipping along the water.  We took some pictures around the ship, watched the moon shine over the front of the boat, and caught a movie while sitting out on the main deck.

The first round of the Catan tournament was held in the game room, but I didn’t participate.  I enjoy Catan, but I have no delusion of being good enough at the game to win a tournament where a pretty significant prize is on the line.

Speaking of games, I went through my goodie bag.  I was pleasantly surprised to find a copy of Mastermind in there!  That was a favorite game of mine growing up, and I haven’t seen it in years.  It’s only for two players and hardly the most complex game in the world, but it should be fun teaching it to my nephews or niece as they get a bit older.

As I write this, we’re sitting in the port of St. Thomas.  It’s a gorgeous place.  I’m killing a little bit of time before we go snorkeling at Trunk Bay.  I’ll post some pictures and a report in my next entry.  In the meantime, do a Google image search of Trunk Bay.  By my estimation, it’s one of the most incredible places in the world.

I’ll come back in later entries to give details on what we’re doing, but I’ll start by explaining what exactly a Gamer Adventure trip is.

Several years ago, travel agent Kim Maita decided to start vacations that were geared toward specific types of gamers.  For example, right now I’m on a cruise for board gamers.  To be more specific, it’s an 8-day, eastern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Glory, stopping at Nassau, St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk.  There are other kinds of trips, both in the nature of the travel and the sorts of games they cater too.  As of this writing, there’s still no RPG trip, which is why I’m on a board gaming one.

There’s a room of the ship dedicated to board game play, everyone gets a bag of free games, and lots of people brought additional stuff to play.  Alex from Mayfair is on hand to chat with people and oversee a Catan tournament which I believe is some sort of semi-final before the national championships.

Whenever I mention these trips, I typically get one of two objections that I’d like to deal with in this intro article.

1. “I can’t afford a trip like this.”  Unfortunately, this may be absolutely true.  The economy is rough all around.  But these vacations may be more affordable than you think.  There are trips of varying cost, so even if you don’t have thousands sitting around, you might be able to get away for hundreds.  And while the sticker price on some trips may be staggering, if you total up what you spend on other trips (for example, a trip to Gen Con: hotel, ticket, gas / plane ticket, food, game purchases, snacks, event tickets, incidental expenses, etc) the price points are surprisingly close.  If you’re in this situation (i.e. you want to go but think you can’t afford it), call Kim.  She’s a travel agent!  This is what she does for a living.  She has many tricks to help get you somewhere nice without breaking your bank.

2. “Why would I want to go on a trip and game?”  The idea of going to a cruise or resort and then locking yourself away in a room to roll dice sounds rather nonsensical to some people.  Others find the idea of playing Catan to the backdrop of the sea wonderful, but this objection doesn’t apply to you folks anyway.  The best response I can give to such people is that I fall in this category as well.  On the last cruise, I played half of one Arkham Horror game.  So far on this cruise, I haven’t touched dice except at the Craps table.  The attraction for me is taking a trip I would probably do anyway, but I’m doing it with people that share common interests.  When we sit down to dinner or while away the peaceful hours on deck, I have an instant connection with these folks.

In case you’re wondering, I’m not being paid to write this, and I’m not trying to sell you something on Kim’s behalf.  In our entire history, Fear the Boot has never accepted money or products in return for plugging anything.  I’m writing this article partially to share my experiences, but also because I want you to have similar experiences of your own.

In other news, I’ll be away from email and the forums for the remainder of the week, but the blog should remain fairly active.  Wayne has some more articles on time travel, I have a video from Chad we’re looking for feedback on, and episode 187 was pre-recorded for release this Wednesday.  There may also be a few Fear the Con videos to post, but internet is expensive and slow onboard, so I won’t be able to process those until after I’m back home next week.  Until then, you’ll only hear from me here!

There is some limited cursing in the videos, so use discretion about when/where you play them.

Also, if you’re not already a member of the Fear the Boot or Fear the Con groups on Facebook, now’s a great chance to fix that!

Also, I promise that more audio and video from our own crew is on the way. It just may be a little slow in coming, because we’re still conducting the after-con tourism events. So stay tuned!

Mikey Mason makes Chris’ dream come true.

I’m really tired, and it’s really late, but expect more videos to follow over the coming days!

- create an attendee
- pay for your ticket
- create games
- join games
- leave games
- remove games you were running
- remove an attendee that can no longer make it

…then it must be done by tomorrow (Tuesday, March 9th) at 2:00pm Central time.

FYI, people are absolutely welcome to attend the con as walk-ins, join games, create games, etc! They’ll just need to take care of that on location during the con itself. All we’re cutting off is changes made through the registration website.

2. Remember that you can print a copy of your con schedule!  Login on Con Planner, pick “Schedules” from the left-hand menu, and then click “Printer Friendly Schedule”.  If you’re running a game, the description will be replaced by a snapshot of the signed-up players.  Just keep in mind that a schedule is only as accurate as the moment it was printed, so print it off as close to departure as you can.

3. New events are still getting added, so if you’ve just been lurking — or you don’t feel comfortable being an alternate — take another look at what’s out there!

If you won’t be at the con, it’s not too late to change your mind!  But if that’s just plain not possible, we’re still planning some video blogging to help get you guys in on the fun.

They’re only running this event through the end of the month, so if you’re interested, be sure to get out there soon!

http://www.conplanner.com

http://www.fearthecon.com

So what’s Con Planner?  To help make running FtC a little easier, we decided to build our own convention software.  We’re running it in a limited beta during Fear the Con 3 to see how it works, what features get requested, and what bugs people stumble across. We’ll keep adding onto it between now and the convention, and thereafter, we may open it up so other small convention organizers can use the software to host their cons.

Being a new site, don’t hesitate to tell us about bugs, feature requests, or even things you just find generally annoying.   We already have a long list of new features and improvements we’ll be trickling out, but we’re interested in your ideas as well.

Get out there, create your own games, and sign up for stuff that sounds fun!

Also, if you want to help us promote the con, tell your friends or email them the URL.  If you’re a real trooper and want to go the extra mile, you can find a PDF of the ad flyer here. Tack one up in your local gaming shop, bookstore, homeless shelter, or county jail!

To deal with that, I switched us over to PowerPress. The transition seems to have gone smoothly, but if you notice anything strange on your podcatcher over the next few days, please let me know.

Also, our RSS feed has gotten too large for most aggregators to handle it anymore. iTunes is truncating it and BluBrry won’t even process it. To deal with that, I’ve had to set our feeds to only show the 100 most recent entries. Shouldn’t be a problem unless you’re way back in our catalog of shows. I’m annoyed I had to do this, but the technology isn’t giving me much of a choice.