Brainstorming Ways To Keep HDWT Alive
Posted by Keith Baker in UncategorizedJun 21st, 2010 | 19 responsesLast year I set out to run games in as many places across the world as possible. It was a wonderful experience, and I’ve met a lot of incredible people. And so far, I’ve only been to a fraction of the places I’ve been invited to. The problem, quite simply, is financial. My hosts have been extremely generous with their hospitality, which has kept lodging down. But that still leaves travel, and over time that adds up. Beyond that, I was overly optimistic about the amount of work I could get down while on the journey. So with little to no positive income, negative income, however small, will add up.
But I’m not ready to give up. So the question is how I can make it more feasible. I threw out one possibility in my last post – auctioning off a game – and that idea received a mixed reception. So I wanted to ask YOU for ideas. What are some ways to fund a traveling DM show? This is a thread for brainstorming, so no idea is too dumb… well, except for the really dumb ones.
Let me know your thoughts!
19 Responses to “Brainstorming Ways To Keep HDWT Alive”
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You could maybe do the game auction in some major cities. Maybe get a store to sponsor you in a city to pay for gas/some extra money, etc. Hell, maybe even some game companies… I know, REAL stretch there.
There is a chance that you could blog the travels, and get advertising revenue here… though, that is pushing it.
Buy Ramen noodles by the pallet load to reduce eating expenses?
Sadly, ramen noodles are a luxury I can no longer afford.
Personally, I like the system as I’ve been doing it. My hosts – you among them – have been generous with their hospitality. The idea was never to get people to pay to have me visit. So I suppose I’m searching for a clever secondary revenue stream to help cover the costs of GETTING to people.
My friend Lee Moyer actually put together a tour t-shirt design for the first part of the tour, but I never sorted out Cafe Press to figure out how to make it available; can people think of anything else along those lines?
Ok, here are some (bad ideas) off the top of my mind:
1. Record the games and sell a Live Keith Baker Eberron CD. As corny as it may sound, people might pay money to experience the master at work.
1b. The Penny Arcade podcasts are pretty popular. Maybe along those lines? Someone could sponsor/advertise on your free/cheap podcasts.
2. The t-shirt idea isn’t too bad. What about buttons, cards, stickers, Bossy the cow vinyl toys. . .
3. Something like Open Design where patrons sponsor HDWT, and then they get first dibs.
CafePress is less flexible and useful than it used to be. Maybe there’s a better alternative?
I wonder if game stores would be willing to sponsor you to run a game. It wouldn’t get you everywhere you want to go, but if you picked the right places with stores that could potentially afford it, it might work out.
@Seth – The Open Design thing is certainly a concept I’d like to explore, and the direction I was trying to go with the previous auction post; not simply “pay me to run a game”, but bid for the chance to have me write an adventure in your favorite period or unexplored place. I’m interested in finding out what has value to people.
@Christopher – I hadn’t heard that about CafePress – any alternative suggestions would be appreciated!
@Keith – Would creating a unique Eberron adventure for profit in a patronage system conflict with WotC IP? I’m certainly no lawyer so I have no idea.
I read your other blog and saw no problem with the auction idea. As a graphic designer who has done plenty of freelance work at ridiculously low rates (and recently looking into game design), I certainly can appreciate that freelance game design isn’t by any means a lucrative career.
I recommend looking at Etsy to see if that’s a better fit than cafepress. I have friends who sell t-shirts, posters and prints in their etsy shop.
And I don’t know who else would be interested, but I’d buy a cd or dvd or pay to subscribe to a podcast featuring you DMing Eberron games. Of course, I do realize the kind of tiny minority I may represent. (RPG>D&D>Eberron>DM>willing to pay $$ to watch/listen to game sessions)
oh, and duh. Can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.
My friends used http://www.kickstarter.com to self-publish their comic book.
This is EXACTLY what Kickstarter was invented for.
I don’t know if Etsy is the right place. It’s supposed to be for handmade and vintage gear – unless you and/or Lee were going to screenprint the t-shirts yourselves, I don’t think it would be permitted. Plus, I don’t even know if screenprinting your own design onto a shirt is “handmade enough” for Etsy; I know people sell clothes that were hand-sewn there.
(Lexa’s sold more than a few handmade cards and journals on Etsy, actually.)
Googling “alternative to CafePress” pointed me to an article discussing three alternatives; Printfection (www.printfection.com/) seems like a pretty decent option. They have the same system as CafePress – free to open a store, all items have a minimum retail price and you make money by increasing that price over that minimum – charge $18 for a $13 shirt and you make $5.
I suspect Etsy wouldn’t be so good for selling your shirts. I believe Christopher is correct that you would have to screen print the shirts yourself. If you could figure a way to do it yourself (or have a friend make the prints of your design, so you were co-owners of the store), that is definitely suitable. But traveling and running a hands-on online store are not very compatible! If, on the other hand, you came up with a digital product you could sell, such as recordings of your gaming sessions, you could try selling those through Etsy with only some time and very nominal listing fees ($.20 per listing) to get set up. However, I suspect you have better ways to directly market such a thing to your fans.
Lemonade stand?
Oh, I’ve got it! Become an adventurer, and get insanely rich if you don’t get utterly slaughtered by kobolds on day one!
You could also try becoming friends with a magic user to teleport you around, but if you do go that route, make sure to check what spell he’s planning on using, because teleportation is pretty darn risky in some magic systems.
Worst case, you could just say “it’d be appreciated if transportation costs were covered, but it’s not at all a necessity” or the like. Teleporting would be so much more fun, though
How about being a dealer at anime or gaming conventions? These places attract large gaming crowds so there’s a good market to target there.
I think the problem is that the first leg of the trip, even if it’s kind novel and a very nice idea, was pretty hidden.
We didn’t get to see photos, we didn’t get to read blogs, we didn’t get to hear podcasts with the hosts. What could be an amazing travel bloging experience got lost.
That kind of content being generated could have brought attention to your trips, maybe sponsors, or just advertisement for the website.
Do a nice coverage, I bet that it will bring a flux of readers to the website, and you can cash on that.
Dealing in what, Tina?
Certainly a good point, Daniel. And something I’ve always meant to address. So far, it’s simply been a matter of time. To begin with, I was trying to continue a normal freelancing career WHILE traveling. That didn’t work at all, and in the process, I ended up being up against or behind deadlines; I spent pretty much my entire time in Sydney holed up writing. As a result, I didn’t have time to write about the travels, because whenever I had spare time I was working on those deadlines. I want to completely reboot the website over the next few months – both finally telling some of those travel stories and also posting gaming material. But actually, that’s a good subject for a new thread. In any case, it’s certainly something I intend to work on – it’s simply the case that I’ve been hard pressed for time for what feels like forever (and I spend much of what free time I do have posting on Eberron message boards!).
I guess what I was getting at, is stay an extra day in town, or set aside some time to go to a store. When you were here, I know we wrangled up some time to get you into a book signing at Hastings. It sounded like it was at least somewhat successful. If you could do something like that, but ask for a store to sponsor your expenses (say, some extra food money, gas money, to make the trip). I wonder if you could set up some “game design workshops” when you are in areas. I know we have a group here called Fandamonium. It is a loose group of people that put on the yearly “fan convention”. I could see them getting behind a workshop like that.
Picture 1 and Picture 2 of Keith GMing the game here in Boise, for those wanting pictures.
A funny note, our kitten crawled into his seat before the game started… the look on his face when he felt something touching him from inside the seat… was priceless.
Interesting, the links didn’t come through.
Picture 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryfter/3569348150/
Picture 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryfter/3568536593/
Good ideas. I enjoyed the Hastings signing. And I’d be all for doing some sort of workshop or event at a local game store.
Easy,
Stay longer! Staying longer in the same place will keep travel cost down, expectancies on how much DM’ing you need to do down, allow you to work productively (that’s always connected to known surrounding and peace and quiet).
You’re always welcome with Christina and I, Keith
Søren
What Søren said.