Thomas at PAX Unplugged

by ThomasNo Comments

I’ve been looking forward to attending PAX Unplugged for a while. My major client, John Wick Presents, will be taking me to the convention to help sell 7th Sea games and related coolness. (I’ve got a two-minute demo down cold, which could expand to a five-minute demo with interest, and can talk about the game for as little or as long as interest remains.) While there are several things I want to see and do, I think this will be a rather laid-back event for me.

The show is in Philadelphia, and while it’s a bit lighter on the roleplaying side of things than say, Gen Con is, there are still a lot of people and colleagues I’d like to meet up with (and merchandise to check out). With the number of events scheduled, this feels like a larger RinCon, mainly by having a huge open gaming library (the no pre-registration for events is odd), and RinCon was only up to 800+ attendees. It appears PAX Unplugged is simply taking that small convention idea and upscaling it. Saturday tickets are sold out, but I really have no idea what number “sold out” translates to. Signups for tournaments and events are anywhere from 16 players to a few dozen. Smaller than PAX East? That’s the impression I’m getting.

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#RPGaDAY 2017, Day 29: Kickstarter

by ThomasNo Comments

For the 29th of last month’s #RPGaDAY entry, the prompt was about the best-run rpg Kickstarater campaign I’ve backed. When I work on layout — and I come under contract before or duing the campaign — I always back the project for one dollar so I can see what communication goes out to the backers.

So far, I’ve only come onto two projects that funded through Kickstarter after the campaign ended: Bluebeard’s Bride and Bulldogs. It’s interesting to see how both campaigns handle communication with backers: Bluebeard’s Bride has everything done publicly — which I think makes it a marketing opportunity for post-KS sales — while Bulldogs has had several that were backer-only. Just because I can see Bulldogs, I’ll use this as an example: why not make that 2016 “Current Print Status” available for anyone to see when they can purchase the game in stores? I don’t know, but some creators like to have backer-only updates. As a person on the creative side, I’d like to see what they’re saying to backers.

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Thomas Was At Gen Con 2017: It Really Happened

by ThomasNo Comments

Back from Gen Con and it was amazing. I’ve been to the show a few times before, mainly as a way to network — which is nearly impossible at the show for people new to the industry — and as part of a company. Now that I have several works published (and was there as a part of a company’s booth staff), network is so much easier.

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