• Per Clyde: Black Metal = Cookie Monster, Glam Metal = Elmo
• In addition to having recently completed a successful Kickstarter, Ralph is a Kickstarter junkie, and has backed, I believe, all of the Kickstarters. (More accurately, as I write these show notes, he has backed  142 Kickstarter Projects. Which is a lot.)
• Ralph talks about the differing needs and dynamics of different types of Kickstarter projects.
• Clyde is backing Tenra Bansho Zero when he gets home. (So am I! It’s awesome.  Go check it out!)
• Approaching Kickstarter as a patron of the arts versus approaching it as a customer.
• What qualities give projects a ‘leg up’ in achieving funding.
• Many of the projects that fail are stupid projects.
• This is worth keeping mind when reading stories about Kickstarter’s high failure rates – the success rate for well-conceived projects is much higher.
• What elements Ralph thinks improve the odds.
• Ralph’s experience with the Blood Red Sands Kickstarter.

This Just In… From Clyde! An Interview with Ralph Mazza

Exhibit Hall Interview – Jake Richmond of Atarashi Games

• Relationships and romance in roleplaying games. (And a little bit about gender)
• The gaming experiences that led Emily to design games revolving around relationships.
• Emily’s game Under My Skin, and how it was influenced by Nordic LARP.
• A general discussion of different forms of Nordic LARP, and how it differs from U.S. styles of tabletop roleplay and LARP.
• The history and development of LARP.
• The logistics of running LARPs.
• Horde LARPs
• More discussion about the range of play styles and tone in Nordic LARP.

Relevant Links

• Leaving Mundania by Lizzie Stark
• Vi åker jeep—the home of Jeepform
• New England Interactive Literature
• Major David Wesely on Wikipedia
• A great post about Braunstein by Ben Robbins
• Clyde’s Interview with Major Wesely (this is great!)
• Nordic LARP book
• Knutepunkt on the Nordic LARP Wiki
• LARP in Russia

• And finally:

“The Ugliest Book Ever”

This Just In… From Clyde! An Interview with Emily Care Boss

Exhibit Hall Interview – Cam Banks of Margaret Weis Productions

This Just In… From Clyde! An interview with Elizabeth Shoemaker Sampat

• The upcoming Munchkin game based on the original 1962 Mars Attacks! trading card series, using the original card art.
• The upcoming Guild-themed version of Chez Geek, called, amazingly enough, Chez Guild.
• Progress on Ogre, and estimates of just how huge the box is going to be.
• Car Wars!
• Their new game, Castellan

Exhibit Hall Interview – Andrew Hackard of Steve Jackson Games

Exhibit Hall Interview – Mark Pollard of Fantasy Flight Games

As an added bonus, Terry Hope Romero talks about her techniques for engaging players and kicking off amazing con games!

Finally, here are some notes from John about his X-Card technique:

John Stavropoulos on how he uses x-cards in practice:

I find the pitch is as important as the X-Card itself. Here is a breakdown of why I chose these specific words…

1. “I’d like your help.”

A lot of times we don’t get what we want in life because we don’t ask for it. This also makes it clear that it’s not all on me.

2. “Your help to make this game fun for everyone.”

State the goal, set expectations. Make it clear it’s not about individuals but the group.

3. “If anything in the game makes anyone uncomfortable…”

I switch from saying “you” to “anyone” and “we” below to reinforce it’s about the group’s needs. I say “anything” so it’s not limited or specific because I don’t want to prejudge what people find uncomfortable because it’s subjective and I’m not here to judge.

“…just simply lift this card up.”

It’s so easy! I will then actually lift the card to make it clear physically how easy it is.

4. “Don’t explain why.”

Explaining is bad because it’s extra effort, a higher barrier to accomplish your goal, and it can feel like being put on trial. Plus explanations means more time not playing.

5.”When the card is lifted, we simply edit out any uncomfortable content…”

Repeat what they need to do “lift the card” and emphasize how it is simple and fast.

“…and move forward.”

Nothing to see here. The focus shifts back to having fun, not judgement.

6. “I know it sounds funny but it will help us play amazing games together…”

It does sound funny to most people so I prefer to acknowledge what most people are thinking than let it go unsaid. Saying it out loud takes away its stigma and says “I understand” + “but trust me”.

“…and usually I’m the one who ends up using the X card to protect myself from you all!”

It’s not just about them, it’s also about me. We’re in this together. The rules apply to everyone. And it takes the edge off a potential serious topic by ending with humor.

I will then usually X-Card myself early on in the game. Say I describe a gory fight, I might say out loud, “whoa John, relax there” and lift the X-Card on myself to show everyone it’s no big deal and I’d rather make the game comfortable for everyone and put my own ego aside.

This Just In… From Clyde! An Interview with John Stavropoulos of NerdNYC

• This is Dennis’ first Gen Con in ten years!
• The new edition of Godlike is finally available!
• Everyone at Arc Dream is hard at work on the new stand-alone Delta Green RPG!
• Shane Ivey’s must-buy (non Arc Dream) products were the new One Ring Loremaster’s Screen and Tales from Wilderland, and the new Iron Kingdoms RPG.
• Dennis was really excited about Ken Hite’s Night’s Black Agents, and the 20th anniversary edition of Over the Edge.

Exhibit Hall Interview – Arc Dream

Exhibit Hall Interview – TiltFactor

We also have additional interviews to post, which we will releasing individually, so you can pick and choose which you would like to listen to.  Stay tuned!

Gen Con 2012 – Sunday AM

Gen Con 2012 – Saturday 5PM

• Mark Jacobs of Chivalry Games
• Simon Rogers of Pelgrane Press
• Mick Bradley
• Today’s sponsor, Tim Rodriguez of Dice + Food + Lodging

Gen Con 2012 – Saturday Morning

Gen Con 2012 – Friday 5pm

Morning everybody! We have two interviews with you this morning, with Neil Stidham of Parenthesis Press, and today’s sponsor, Rob Eisenberg of RPGwithMe!

• Alex and I talk about the crazy day 1 Gen Con experience, and review a few highlights.
• The Superheroes and Alternate History Panel with Ken Hite, Dennis Detwiller, Greg Stolze and Shane Ivey was amazing!
• Alex hit the D&D Keynote, and shares some impressions.  (You can stream the keynote here.)
• We run down some seminars we’re excited to check out!
• Neil talks about the two new games he has in development, and the excellent experience he’s had so far with First Exposure!  A nearby baby does not seem impressed with our interview technique.
• Rob shows us his new virtual tabletop, RPGWithMe, and we are floored by how great it is!  We are not kidding, it’s awesome.
• Rob has a new Kickstarter going for RPGWithMe, to add a character sheet creator which will allow RPGWithMe to support almost any system.  Check it out!

Gen Con 2012 – Friday AM

Gen Con 2012 – Thursday 5PM

Gen Con 2012 – Thursday AM

Tonight, we interview 2 more members of the Indie Game Developer Network – Mark Diaz Truman of Magpie Games and Matthew “Blackhat Matt” McFarland of Play Attention Games!  We talk about the following:

• This is Mark’s first time running a booth, and only his second Gen Con!
• Though this is Matt’s first time running a booth, he’s spent plenty of time at Gen Con back in his White Wolf days.
• Matthew, Mark and Rich talk about how diverse the developers participating in IGDN are, and the resulting incredible range of knowledge available within the network.
• Magpie Games first published game, The Play’s the Thing will be available at Gen Con, as will its associated fiction collection, By No Means Vulgar.
• Magpie’s newest game is Our Last Best Hope, which just completed a successful Kickstarter in June! Our Last Best Hope is a game that captures the feel of apocalyptic disaster movies like Sunshine or Armageddon. (Hard copies may not make it to Gen Con, though. Updated!: As Mark says in the comments, yes they will! Awesome news!)
• Magpie has over 30 hours of gaming scheduled for Games on Demand, including demos of their next game, due out next year, called Eternity. (Eternity was actually the first of Magpie’s games I heard* about, and it sounds awesome. It’s basically a game for playing the Endless, from Neil Gaiman’s  Sandman.)
• Find details of Magpie’s event schedule here.
• Play Attention’s first game, Curse the Darkness, may or may not make it to Gen Con.  Printing problems mean that the printer is in a race against time to get the book to the Convention Center.  It may be available before the end of the show.
• Curse the Darkness is a post-apocalyptic game set in the near future of our own world.  It was successfully Kickstarted in June of this year.
• Matt or his wife Michelle will be glad to run demos of Curse the Darkness at the IGDN booth.
• Matt will also be running 2 scheduled sessions of the game, and while they are both sold out, he would love to have visitors stop in to find out more about the game!
• Mark Truman would also love to run Curse the Darkness  for folks at Games on Demand!
• Magpie Games and Play Attention Games will of course be at Booth 1933, with the rest of the IGDN team.

The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is a fast-growing network of roleplaying, board and card game developers sharing knowledge and resources with one another to create new games, refine designs, and open new doors for independent publishers.  This year’s This Just In… From Gen Con! is made possible in part through their generosity.

*Last Note: Mark did a really fun interview about Eternity on Scott Dunphy’s New Style podcast. You can check it out here.  It’s over a year old, though, so I bet the game has changed and grown since then.

Patron Spotlight Part 3 – Magpie Games and Play Attention Games

• Jonathan’s new game with Rob Heinsoo, 13th Age will be out this fall!
• 13th Age is their take on fantasy roleplaying. (I’m pretty excited to see what the lead designers of 3rd & 4th Ed. D&D will come up with together!)
• They will be conducting a seminar at Gen Con to talk about 13th Age.
• Jonathan is really excited about the Diana Jones Award Ceremony on Wednesday night.  He’s rooting for Nordic LARP to win.

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Jonathan Tweet!

Tonight, we interview Brennan Taylor of Galileo Games and Thomas Rushing of Tech Lab Games! We talk about the following:

• Brennan is bringing his son and daughter with him to Gen Con this year.
• This will be Thomas’ first Gen Con EVER.  He’s pretty excited.
• Brennan is planning on living at Games on Demand when he’s not working in the exhibitor hall.
• Tech Lab Games will be debuting their card game ARC at Gen Con.  ARC was successfully Kickstarted in December 2011, and has just come back from the printer.
• They will be demoing ARC at the IGDN booth (1933), and will be organizing multiple play events and raffles. Check at the booth for more information!
• Brennan will have the Bulldogs! RPG (up for an Ennie this year!) Mortal Coil, and How We Came to Live Here available for sale at the IGDN booth (1933).
• Brennan will also have the new Ports of Call supplement for Bulldogs!, which looks awesome, as well as More Things in Heaven and Earth, a collection of campaign frames for Mortal Coil.
• Galileo Games also has a brand new game on Kickstarter – Ralph Mazza’s Blood Red Sands, which looks amazing.  Check it out!

The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is a fast-growing network of roleplaying, board and card game developers sharing knowledge and resources with one another to create new games, refine designs, and open new doors for independent publishers.  This year’s This Just In… From Gen Con! is made possible in part through their generosity.

Patron Spotlight Part 2 – Galileo Games and Tech Lab Games

Today, we interview three members of the Indie Game Developer Network, Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend Publishing, Eloy Lasanta of Third Eye Games, and Joel Sparks of Faster Monkey Games! We talk about the following:

• Everyone is totally prepared for Gen Con, and has no last minute preparations to make.
• Jason is excited about the panels he’s on at Gen Con this year, including:
  • Playtesting Roleplaying Games
  • Introduction to Independent RPGs
• Jason is also really excited to run games at Games on Demand
• Joel is really looking forward to playing games at Gen Con, and is participating in Pinnacle’s Savage Saturday Night event. (Here’s Joel’s game!)
• One of Eloy’s games, Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. is also being run for Savage Saturday Night. (Here’s the event!)
• Eloy is really excited that he’ll get to hang out with several of the freelancers who work with Third Eye Games.
• Jason will be bringing Genesis of Legend’s flagship game, Spark to Gen Con.  Spark is in a very complete beta edition, and Jason will be playing the heck out of the game at Games on Demand.
• The Walking Eye Podcast recorded playtest sessions of Spark, and interviewed Jason about the game.
• Jason talks about Spark and its goals and inspirations.
• Eloy Lasanta is a kickstarting machine!
• He’s currently a few days in to the Kickstarter campaign for Truth & Lies, a sourcebook for Wu Xing: The Ninja Crusade.
• Eloy talks about the history and vision (and games!) of Third Eye Games.
• Joel talks about the origins of Faster Monkey games, as a publisher of OSR adventures.
• Faster Monkey Games has expanded into creating setting books for roleplay, including Lesserton & Mor and In the Shadow of Mount Rotten.
• Joel will be working two booths this year, the IGDN booth (1933), and the OSR Booth (1359)
• Faster Monkey has also expanded into making play aids. (Joel calls them toys, but play aids seems more dignified.) These include:
  • Tracker Tokens
  • The Turn Tracker
  • And the Monkey Claw, a 4gb thumb drive containing all of the Faster Monkey Games PDFs, which is also a bottle opener. (Depending on your play style, this might be a toy, and not a play aid – tough call.)
• Eloy Lasanta is much, much younger than Joel Sparks. Like, a lot younger
• Eloy will also be working at two booths, IGDN (1933), and the Third Eye Games booth (419)

The Indie Game Developer Network (IGDN) is a fast-growing network of roleplaying, board and card game developers sharing knowledge and resources with one another to create new games, refine designs, and open new doors for independent publishers.  This year’s This Just In… From Gen Con! is made possible in part through their generosity.

Patron Spotlight Part 1 – Genesis of Legend, Third Eye Games and Faster Monkey Games

• Geoff will be demoing his new game Space Cadets, which he created in collaboration with his kids.  (It will be seeing official release at the Essen Game Fair.)
• Geoff’s previous game, the Ares Project was co-created with his son.
• Geoff really wants to try the Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator at Gen Con this year.
• Geoff is also really excited about the D6 Generation Podcast’s Play by Mob event, which will be running a version of  Space Cadets this year!

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Geoff Engelstein!

• Matt is on several panels at Gen Con this year, including the following:
  • 12 for ’12: Writing a Dozen Novels in a Year.
  • Freelancing in the Game Industry
  • Games and Novels
  • Kickstarting your Game Q&A
• Matt is also part of the Gen Con writer’s symposium this year, and will be participating in a number of related seminars and workshops:
  • Going it Alone – A Guide to Self-Publishing
  • Passing the Torch – Writing in Another Author’s Voice
  • Reading: Erik Scott De Bie and Matt Forbeck
  • Well Said! – Getting Dialogue and Language Right
  • Advanced Plotting Workshop
• Matt is bringing all five of his kids to Gen Con this year!
• Matt is really looking forward to the Diana Jones Awards on Wednesday night.
• Matt also really loves True Dungeon.

You can find Matt’s Gen Con schedule on his website, forbeck.com

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Matt Forbeck!

• As an Industry Insider Guest of Honor, Tavis is participating in lots of panels at Gen Con, including the following:
  • Beyond Child’s Play – Raising Money for Charity with Gaming Events
  • Fund your Game Project with Kickstarter
  • GM Tips
  • Teaching Games
  • The Old-School Renaissance
• Tavis will be hanging at the OSR booth in the exhibit hall (Booth 1359)
• At night, Tavis will be running marathon sessions of Adventurer Conqueror King in the Embassy Suites lobby until he falls over.  Drop-ins are welcome, so come check it out!

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Tavis Allison!

Gen Con 2012 Pre Show

• Paul has some new games in development, but won’t be showing anything at Gen Con.  He’d be glad to talk about it, though. Hit him up!
• Paul will be introducing his 11-month old to his first Gen Con.
• Paul is planning on spending time at Games on Demand this year.
• Paul is planning on using Google+ to try to coordinate meetups at Gen Con.
• Paul is really excited to check out Elizabeth Sampat‘s They Became Flesh.

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Paul Czege!

• Ryan is participating in a number of panels at Gen Con this year, including:
  • Beyond Child’s Play – Raising Money for Charity with Gaming Events
  • Doing Kickstarter Right
  • Editing and Indie Games
  • Freelancing in the Game Industry
  • Getting the Most out of Working with Editors
  • Working with Licensed Intellectual Properties
• Mythender is coming out at long last! (Probably around October)
• Ryan is really looking forward to checking out Games On Demand!

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Ryan Macklin!

• John will be unveiling the Epic Table Collector’s Edition  Box Set at the Epic Table booth this year.
• John is really excited to check out Durance, Jason Morningstar’s new game at Gen Con.
• John is also hoping to get a sneak peek at Dungeon World at Gen Con.

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: John Lammers!

• Epidiah’s totally excellent facial hair.
• Dread House, the ”Dread for kids” roleplaying boardgame he created with Emily Care Boss.
• Epidiah’s long in development masterwork, Swords Without Master.  (There’s a downloadable preview, called The City of Fire & Coin. Check it out here!)
• The influences on Swords Without Master, and the joys of trolling used bookstore shelves.
• Eppy is excited to check out Games on Demand this year, and is looking forward to running Swords Without Master there.

One Cool Person to Meet at Gen Con: Epidiah Ravachol!