[Idea] Lets Do Our Own Con Campaign

[Rayaru]

I'll be at Origins. If I can do anything, let me know.

[Doug Burke]

It's not you, Doug. Not you.

Talk about someone making baseless assumptions...

I think I'll go PM with this response...

[First of Two]

... and in other news, Salt Lake City is reported to have suddenly, inexplicably, disappeared from the surface of the Earth.



"...giants in the playground..."

[Don Mappin]

I think I'll go PM with this response...

Thanks for sharing that w/ everyone.

[Summary] Me troublemaker.

[Edit] Snarky comment removed.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

Gentlemen, thank you for taking a deep breath and a step back.

I don't know what the PM contained. But my general thought on the thread at large is this. I think that running something at a convent could be a good idea for several reasons. But as Decipher has every legal right to burrow the RPG line and pretend they never had the license, I don't think that a confrontation is the way to go. All I see is a flog, but no carrot. What incentive do Decipher have to move in a direction that we want?
As I have had no contact with them myself, as several others here have, this is pure speculation.
Money? Their current business model gives them a better ROI elsewhere.
Love of RPGs? Their business is card games. To my knowledge, the only reason Decipher acquired the RPG licenses was to make sure WotC wouldn't be able to lay their hands on the licenses for the card games.
Loyalty to the fans? They are, they seems to put a lot of effort into the card games. Oh, RPGers... a strange, highly opinionated crowd that wouldn't hesitate a second to buy a competitors product and convert it, just because it was more suitable. Would probably need a xenologist to understand them.

If we can get their attention, where is the carrot?!? Is there a carrot that is viable, or do Decipher have to high expectations?
A second question, what is our goal. Is it more important to us that new RPG material are published? Or is it to somehow punish them for holding the RPG license as hostage?

Bye the way, a 10x10 booth at GenCon is $1,100 including 2 badges. Add work and money if it is supposed to be "dressed" in any way. A lot of money, but well within reach as a joint effort.

[First of Two]

Thanks for sharing that w/ everyone.

[Summary] Me troublemaker.

I refuse to accept this! With S- and L- gone, that title should fall to ME!

I demand a recount!

[Don Mappin]

I refuse to accept this! With S- and L- gone, that title should fall to ME!

I demand a recount!

Okay, I'll amend the statement: a troublemaker in this particular instance.

You can be our regular-appointed Troublemaker.

[Don Mappin]

Well, contrary to what others may feel, my idea isn't solely to just generate "hate" -- it would be to voice our collective dissatisfaction to Decipher. They're doing a darn fine job ignoring us individually; it'd be nice to show them that there is a large, active community who want to see the RPG line continue. Does anyone here not feel taken for granted with numerous brush-offs, canceled release dates, and outright lies? (Remember, there's "exciting news" about the RPG "coming soon" "later this week.") [sic]

I have a number of ideas but don't want to share them at this time. I'd rather see what you guys can come up with. I don't want to dominate/lead the discussion, simply plant the idea that we collectively could make an impact. That impact, be it positive or negative, is really up to us.

Ultimately I think we all know that this idea is something of a long shot. It would take a large effort to get something like this going plus a large commitment on our part. For example, more than five guys saying "good idea" and a sole person actually attending one of the major conventions.

With that said, there's a small part of me that doesn't have a problem writing some adventures, printing some t-shirts, grabing a plane ticket and making this happen. I just don't want it to be a solo effort.

Finally, if it appears that I've been berating or slamming on Doug, that has not been my intent. I consider Doug a friend and I genuinely sympathize with the position he's been placed in over the years and the amount of crap he's had to put up with. (Bloke, anyone?)

Being a friend, I kinda assumed that Doug and I could joke about this sort of thing -- being shafted by Decipher -- but apparently not. I stand by my comments, however. Just please note that any ire or tone in my communication is directed at the wayward company squatting on the RPG, and not their fine NetRep.

Carry on.

[Ineti]

I have a number of ideas but don't want to share them at this time. I'd rather see what you guys can come up with. I don't want to dominate/lead the discussion, simply plant the idea that we collectively could make an impact. That impact, be it positive or negative, is really up to us.

I'm struggling with this, actually. On the one hand, I'd like the gaming world at large to know what a mismanagement Decipher made of both RPG lines. But on the other hand, I wonder just how many gamers out there would give a damn. Other than the handful of online folks here and on other boards who know the basics, I have to wonder whether the average gamer knows the score.

And with that in mind, I have to wonder whether the effort we put forth would be worth it. It's unlikely we'll change Decipher's mind. I'm definitely open to ideas, though.

[Captain Blake]

The latter part is the actual point and problem. "We're unlikely to change Decipher's mind".

I think the fundamental idea here is to show Decipher that there's a market for their product, and if they're not going to support us, then we'll do it ourselves.

for that, I'm in. I don't actually own any Coda Trek books because I was waiting for the nice Special Edition books (and I'll be waiting a long time apparently), and I don't do conventions anymore (Living City DMing burned me way out). So, not much help there.

so, all I got to really contribute is money. (Cheerleading doesn't count) I'll be happy to kick some in.

Dunno if it'll work, if, say, actual book sales didn't convince Decipher that people were serious.

But, hey, I'm a cynical pessimist.

Alex

[Scott M. Macek]

Worse than not changing Decipher's mind, I'm worried they might take the discussed actions to mean that we don't want them doing the game, in which case they drop the license and it either sits in limbo (who wants a Star Trek license when the major players are saying it's "dead pr dying"?) or gets picked up by yet ANOTHER company with a whole new set of rules/ideas that again makes the stuff we have and love obsolete. Maybe I'm taking more of a Next Gen view than a DS9 view, but I think there should be a showing at the convention that tells the Decipher guys that "Hey, we are not happy with being dangled around by the nose. We have not seen or heard of any RPG products or even what you plan to do with them for over a year. We are very frustrated." Again, this is just me, but I don't want Decipher to take their ball and go home, I want them to pick up a bat and start swinging at pitches...

[Don Mappin]

(From another thread...)

Apparently release dates for the Decipher product lines were given at GAMA/GTS (annual trade show).

Note the lack of any Star Trek products.

Link

[spshu]

<snip>

Ultimately I think we all know that this idea is something of a long shot. It would take a large effort to get something like this going plus a large commitment on our part. For example, more than five guys saying "good idea" and a sole person actually attending one of the major conventions.

<snip>

Ineti said he was attending Gen Con Indy. Rayaru said he was attending Origins. So there is more than one that have stated that they will attend one of the major convention.

Having demos of the system to get people interested in playing in our campaign would be a good idea. Find a retail vendor to cosponsor or split revenue for all sales of the Trek Coda RPG that we send their way. There were some earlier ideas I threw out with no coments made:

<snip>
But talk about t-shirts, those would not be a bad idea if they had the TrekRPGnet logo on them. The t-shirts would be a good consolation or subsititute prize. Another idea would be for fan made netbooks (the ESO comes to mind) to be print at say cafepress.com or burned onto CD-ROM and offered as prizes.

Should we go for a multiple round event? Living campaign type? Probably pregenerated characters. Make how Enterprise the series should have been??

As I pointed out earlier for Origins, we have an April 10 deadline to make their on site registration book, so work on the adventure should be paramount . Even if the adventure is not used this year it can be used for the next year. No adventure no moving this plan forward.

[Cpt. Lundgren]

The executives at Decipher, are they primary businessmen working with card-games or Card gamers/designers doing business? I guess it is the former. But if it is the later I would be lost, as I have never touched a CCG ot TCG in my life. I don't even know what they are about (well, I watched two of my friends play Magic almost a decade ago, but I got bored after 15 seconds ).

Assuming we are talking about businessmen, the mindset probably is risk - effort - reward.

Why publish only LotR and not Trek.
* Only publishing one product insted of two gives a lesser risk.
* Enterprise got canceled. They are talking about making Bilbo. Free marketing, lesser risk.
* How many have you heard bashing the LotR movies?!? Lesser risk.
* If they don't look beyond their own forums, LotR has about twice as many posts. Using that information as base to calculate the possible market, lesser risk and higher reward.

Another possible point. My guess is that there are a higher precentage of old MERP player who are ready to change to CODA, than there is ICON player who are ready to change. As the already published material are mainly core books, they might not have the same sale figures.

Assuming any of my rambeling is at least remotely close, what can we do that persuades Decipher to resume Trek as well?

One idea that bounces around in my head is why try to get lure people away from Deciphers tables. If we could help Doug to fill the Decipher table, and fill one of our own. Sending a clear message that there is a market (a success would also include a subtle message that they don't have a clue how to read the market. But that would probably be to subtle )

I don't think there is any plan at Decipher to produce any new material, as that would raise the effort bar to much. As I don't think that a "give us material for free, and we will publish it for profit" is a viable business strategy, there has to be some other business model that both Decipher and writers will accept. Having some solid ideas to present if we can get their attention...

[Don Mappin]

Where my opinion changes from the bulk of you (or maybe not) is that Coda Trek is already dead. Enterprise is on the way out, apparently the approval process at VCP is all messed up, and Trek -- as a whole -- just isn't in the mindset of consumers like it used to be. I've no doubt that the Trek books would recoup their production costs but I've seen nothing to say that Decipher thinks that way. They want to see CCG revenue numbers from their RPG lines. That just isn't going to happen. (And if it were, LotR is the only one to have a shot.)

All this adds up to a big tease on Decipher's part, shopping the line for the past year, and missed deadline after missed deadline. I'm not so much putting this idea forward in an effort to demonstrate to Decipher that there's a legitimate market for Coda Trek; I think that ship has already sailed.

People (the fan community) like a good drama. We're the little guys who've been sitting around for the better part of a year for some news. We've been lied to, mislead at best, and ignored at least. Casting Decipher as the villain is a handy way of rallying the troops for the Good Life After Decipher (GLAD).

Are we going to convince Decipher to ramp up production with a full crew and resume the schedule? Oh hell no. We'd be lucky to get them to even take notice. But it'd be a hell of a send off.

On the flip side, you could just as easily work with Decipher to try to boost attendance. The sad thing is (and I've seen this firsthand) if you don't get in the convention booklet schedule your game, for all intents and purposes, does not exist. This includes Decipher. Then there's the whole mindset of running conventions: running 10 games with 5 people on average is 50 potential customers. Do 50 people really make a difference? (Now we're headed into a whole other discussion on RPG marketting.)

I've rambled a bit but in closing, I don't think anything is going to cause Trek to return. Certainly nothing that we can do. Not unless any of us have about 10,000 close friends ready to place orders for the Core Books tonight.