This weekend I get to try out my first convention since Redshirts has arrived. And so off I go spend the weekend selling as many copies as I possibly can. I’ve never actually worked at a con where I was selling directly to the public before, so this should be interesting, to say the least.
So if you are in the DFW area, be sure to check out Dallas Comic Con. And buy several copies of the game.
If you are in the DFW area there will be a Redshirts Demo at Lonestar Comics in Plano. You can show up and play a game or two, and we even have some promotional cards available that will not be included in the core set. This is your chance to play the game before anybody else, and score some extra goodies.
Be sure to stop by and say hi.
That’s Lonestar Comics
3100 Independence Parkway #318
Plano, TX
(972) 985-1593
This next Saturday, March 31st.
I arrived in Vegas on Sunday morning. My first impression? Bad location for the zombie apocalypse. I’m staying at the Excalibur which is sort of like living inside the bastard step-child of a Dave & Buster’s and a Medieval Times, that was raised by chain smoking carnies I’m here to work however, so I am forced to ignore most of it, although I did allow myself a small gambling budget.
During the afternoon I wandered around a few Casinos and discovered there is a Star Wars slot machine.
Star Wars. Plus gambling. If there is one thing I have learned it’s that, ignoring 50% of the movies, Star Wars never lets me down.
My entire gambling budget later I was forced to conclude that Star Wars had indeed let me down.
While walking on the strip I learned that while prostitution is still illegal, that particular law is evidently not well enforced. Periodically you find small packs of people handing out what I can only describe as “hooker trading cards”. These cards are photos, along with vital statistics and phone numbers. The people handing them out are wearing t-shirts with QR codes on them. For those unfamiliar with QR codes, they are squarish black and white nonsense looking images that can be scanned by a smart phone and direct you to a website. So it’s basically like checking out at a grocery store but instead of eggs and milk, you get a painful STD and and awkward conversation with your wife.
Yesterday I hopped on a plane to fly over to Las Vegas to spend a week picking the brains of game industry veterans and trying to find distributors and retailers for Redshirts. Here are my impressions of the trip thus far:
Air travel: Spirit Airlines has a economy based entirely on baggage fees. There was a fee for every bag, including carry on. A fee based on bag weight. I’m pretty sure there was also a fee for paying the fees.
Once on the plane: I was seated behind a family with two infants, and in front of a group of sorority girls. Guess who was more annoying?
I’ll give you a hint. The soroity girls had managed to turn “whoo!” into a form of punctuation. ”We’re going to Vegas! Whoo!” “Brittany isn’t pregnant!” “Whoo!” “I’ve decided to become a vegan!” “Whoo!”. For the record, from their conversation it appears that vegan means “I will only eat animals that aren’t cute.”
At one point the girls decided to be profound, or at least what passes for profound within their social circle. ”Tiffany just tweeted “not every skinny girl is hot, and not every fat girl is ugly. That sounds like something a fat girl would say!” “Whoo!” Then an old guy in my row said “That sounds like something a ugly skinny girl would say.”
“Whoo!” added his wife.
I graduated from college, which is a relief because trying to run a business, start a second business and be the primary caregiver to a pair of rambunctious twins was already a great big pile of work.
During my last quarter I did some math and realized that as long as I just barely passed the course I would still graduate with a decent GPA. I promptly began treating the assignments as my own personal playtime. Strangely, my grades went up.
I have been receiving a terrifying set of lessons about US Import law. I always thought it was “products ship over, paperwork gets filled out, small amount of money is paid to the government, and you get your stuff.” Which is technically true. In the sense that if you get accused of murder it goes “Show up at court, say stuff to the judge, avoid going to jail.” While technically correct, it is just a smidge more complicated than that. And if you fail to enlist the aid of a trained professional there is an excellent chance that horrible things will happen to you.
My game is on track to be released late next month, although the shipping process is dragging out a bit longer than it should have. So far I am committed to GAMA Trade, Origins, Give to Game, and Dallas Comic Con. We’re planning to try for Gen Con, and pretty much any medium-sized cons in Texas that we can find. If you know of any, please let me know.
Last year I worked on a board game that got published called Please Don’t Wake Dagon. The publishers are finally beginning to move again on that, and more news should be available soon.
I went to two conventions recently. I got invited to ConJour in Houston as a guest. This was a very very tiny con, and I think that there were barely more guests than staff. I wound up on several panels with Glen Welch, of the “2000 Things That Mr Welch Can No Longer Do in an RPG”. I was surprised by the invitation because, well, I wrote a viral joke on the Internet something around eleven years ago, which I’m not exactly sure is a current event any more. This was one panel that was supposed to be the two of us disusing the origins of our lists. Nobody showed up.
While in Houston I met the Tully’s, who had the scariest RPG ever. It wasn’t a horror RPG, it’s just that nearly every thing about it was virtually identical to a homebrew table top game I ran last year. It was like they were watching me, taking notes and published it. The game is called Mana Punk and I will be trading a copy of Redshirts for it once my shipment comes in.
Last weekend I went to ConDFW, to schmooze. I found a store that may be carrying my game soon, and a few podcasts that want to interview me for a chance to plug my game. The fun moment was when they took my email address down and they go, “skippyslist .com? You’re not that Skippy are you?”
My children have discovered artistic expression. Right now they are working primarily in the fecal medium. Their masterpieces are called “Poop mural on texture painted wall”, “Poop smeared into carpet”, and the popular “Poop used as hair care product for my little brother.” Do you know how long it takes to get two childrens worth of poop off of a texture painted wall with a combination of spray cleaner and toothbrush? Because I do.
We have replaced cable television with my old desktop PC. Nearly every show I want to watch is on the Internet anyways. The others are on DVD or available to watch at my friends houses. I’m finding this to not only be cheaper, but frankly I prefer my big living room television to be a giant computer monitor. Fun bonus: Infinite free porn in the living room, which is handy as it is the only place the wife and I can fit the Twister mat.
I actually recently wrote something that even I thought might be a little too far. People that regularly read the sort of things I find funny might want to think about that for a bit.
This Friday 1.5 tons of boardgame will be leaving India, and sailing it’s way to my new warehouse facility. And by that I mean my garage.
The site for WeaselPants Productions will be live soon, and in about a month sales will begin.
School is done. Most of the work for the game is out of the way. I suppose I really should start writing more now that I finally can.
Guess what’s going to the printer soon?
Here’s a hint.
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So a few weeks ago I got introduced to this guy (Who very specifically wishes to not be mentioned on this site.) He likes some of the creative things I have done in the past. Some of his friends have tried out some of the table top games I have created, and he saw how Please Don’t Wake Dagon did pretty well (And will be doing even better once they get the second printing up and going).
The rapid success of PDWD thus far means that we will be upgrading the print method to be able to produce more copies of the game. One of the fringe benefits of the new printing service is that we will be able to cram even more gaming goodness into the box.
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