 September 1, 2011 - 2:00pm | Though I'd start a thread here about a virutal con. 2012 is fast approaching and Issue 18 will not only be hot stuff but it will celebrate 30 years of Star Frontiers. I was thinking that a virtual con could be run. What if we propoted a virtual con, recruited a 1-2 people to referee, set a date and time, had a color flier virtually printed and posted it everywhere we can on the net with a key word "Star Frontiers", places like SF-Un @yahoo, photobucket, some of the active RPG gaming bloggers, if we sent Dyson Logos a copy of the flier I bet he'd post it in his blog, etc; heck the flier could even go into issue 18. of course one of the problems could be that lots of people would say, "Yeah cool I'm in," and then real life would conspire to cause them to not show up. One way to combat that is to have registration and a nominal cost. Say $3-5 (just enought to cover the cost of a patch and shipping). Then they will have committed by sending in a fee and would have a tangible reminder (the patch) Could even scale it so that the flee covers slightly more than a patch and then on the day of the event at the appointed time there will be a "door prize" if you are in chat at the time of the drawing and your name is pulled you will recieve a print version of Issue 18 ordered from Lulu and mailed directly to you. Plus with registration we get an idea of the possible attendance. So to sum up One way is to schecule an event and promote require registration and a fee give out a participation patch have a "door prize" and run enough games for everyone to participate in (games should be able to be run in 2ish hours more or less) for this I'd schedule a day off and pay the wife to take the kids out. Ideas? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 1, 2011 - 4:40pm | Are you speaking of an online game, or an actual FtF meeting somewhere? |
September 1, 2011 - 5:55pm | Online, thus the name virtual. But perhaps just virtual is a poor name. Perhaps something like Virtual Star Con. It justs seems that 1day or even two with game(s) scheduled in the evening might be easier to pull off. Could even be plans to meet at a regular scheduled con. It would be cool to meet Frontiersman for a drink and even sit in on a game together. A huge KHs game would work great at a miniatures gaming con. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 1, 2011 - 7:18pm | So I've been chatting with SMkelly and w00t about a virtual con I'm envisioning a 1-2 day event with activities of scheduled: Chat session with a door prize games virtual Guest speaker- via pod cast Not sure what else we could do for activities at a virtual con- a dealer hall is not possible other than we go on ebay and buy stuff :( at any rate if there was interest then I'd say go with it in early 2012 on a Friday and possibly a Saturday. have pre reg with a nominal fee and register "attendees" get a patch by mail, fee structured to cover the cost of a patch, mailing and a little bit more that will cover the door prize. Prupose of the door prize is it gets people to show up as thats the only way to claim it is in chat. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 2, 2011 - 10:35pm | For some reason, the second thing that popped into my mind about Virtual-Con (the first being "hey that sounds pretty damn kool") was security. It's more likely to have trolls come (virtually) tromping in to disrupt a virtual con than the actual physical kind. Security at physical cons can forcibly remove those who might only show up to be complete ass hats or otherwise have the police remove them. In a virtual environment, how do you either prevent the unsavory types from entering in the first place (assuming they'd gleefully pay the couple of bucks to register to have the opportunity to be a virtual ass hat), or if already in, how can you virtually toss them out? Just a thought. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
 September 3, 2011 - 7:28pm | I think something live someday when I actually have some money to go there would be cool. Vegas Con, anyone? |
September 4, 2011 - 12:55pm | For some reason, the second thing that popped into my mind about Virtual-Con (the first being "hey that sounds pretty damn kool") was security. It's more likely to have trolls come (virtually) tromping in to disrupt a virtual con than the actual physical kind. Security at physical cons can forcibly remove those who might only show up to be complete ass hats or otherwise have the police remove them. In a virtual environment, how do you either prevent the unsavory types from entering in the first place (assuming they'd gleefully pay the couple of bucks to register to have the opportunity to be a virtual ass hat), or if already in, how can you virtually toss them out? Just a thought. I accidently posted this in another thread: Do you really think we'd get some ass hats? I guess its possible if we're advertising everywhere that roll players frequent on the web. Have to ask w00t if he has the ability to eject someone from chat or the gameroom on this site. I wasn't in favor of using an off site virtual table top as they can be a pain and have a learning curve which can turn people off but that is a possibility and those things can be set up with a pass word to get into the game room. I'm just not so sure we'll have a problem, I've been to 3 miniatures conventions without seeing a problem. @Imperial Lord: yeah if we all had money to travel a Vegas con would be nice but somehow I dont see it happening thus the suggestion of a virtual con. However, I suspect that I could talk my boss into letting me reserve one of the small function rooms at our East Boston Location and I have little doubt about being able to get the food on an employee discount as long as this was arranged during a slow time in the year (FEb-March and June-Aug would be best) East Boston is not so glamorous as Vegas but I merely suggest this as a way of keeping cost down. There is a couple of hotels that are more cost effective not far from the function room as well. But like I said East Boston is not glamourous though the subway connects close by and the rest of boston is accessable. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 5, 2011 - 8:52am | @jedion: Well I don't know really if we'd get trolls determined enough to pay a reg fee only to be an ass hat. Maybe it's my basic suspicion of people in general. It'll likely be fine, but I still think it'd be a good idea to have the mod for virtual con stand ready with some sort of virtual ass hat disintergrator beam... just in case. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
September 5, 2011 - 10:07am | We're doing some looking into public chat room where we'll set up a room per game and have a pass word to log in. The number of games will clearly depend on number of participators. But I'm thinking that a friday session and a Saturday session slotted for 3-4hours each. Someone who GMs on Friday may not GM on Saturday so they can play. The big question is whether it should be free (something I'm very much against) or have a nominal fee that covers the cost of each participant getting a commemorative item like a patch or a mug. With a patch unless we have a stampede to participate I expect to be left holding some. A mug is going to be more expensive though I have less fear being left holding some. Right now with out promoting it I would say we have the interest of 3-6 people. Mini-mods for games and an ambitious GM can run a big mod over the course of two days. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 9, 2011 - 1:56pm | Is that where you are jedion? Boston? |
September 10, 2011 - 5:17am | Is that where you are jedion? Boston?
Yeah, came for college and never escaped, then had the misfortune to marry a woman who refuses to leave.
I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 23, 2011 - 7:24am | If you want to do it in March, I'd recommend the 9th/10th or 23rd/24th. Personally, I'd prefer the end of April as by then my wife is done teaching for the semester and I have fewer conflicts but March would work as well. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 23, 2011 - 7:33am | If you want to do it in March, I'd recommend the 9th/10th or 23rd/24th. Personally, I'd prefer the end of April as by then my wife is done teaching for the semester and I have fewer conflicts but March would work as well.
I assuming i'll have to take lead in organizing this so I have to set it for a slow month when I can take a Saturday off and in March I can use my Bday as an excuse though it could be held in feb. But I'd prefer not.I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2011 - 8:17am | February wouldn't be good for me either as I'm already planning on taking 2-3 days off that month for the "Life, Universe, and Everything" conference. It's a writer's (and used to be gamer's when I was in HS) conference held at BYU every year in mid February. I'd be willing to help you organize it. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 September 23, 2011 - 10:35am | I would like to see a layout of events and organization of the con. Run a poll to see who will help run different aspects of the con. Pick a date and stick to it. People can shift schedules around that time. Suggested organization
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September 23, 2011 - 12:12pm | Lets commit to a date: March 9th thru 11th (in case anyone is feeling froggy to do a game on Sunday) with details to be announced at Sfman.com and dot US site and in issue 18. we'll also put together an ad that anyone who runs a blog and post in their blog- I have 1 person in mind already and I think his blog has a decent following. need to make sure we schedule stuff to accomodate the difference in time zones from East coast to west as I expect that the majority of the participants to come from North America- though our British Frontiersman will be getting a raw deal unless someone from across the pond steps up as a GM and runs an event that is scheduled for their time zone. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2011 - 12:23pm | I won't be there on Sunday (or any other Sunday regardless of the week) but otherwise that should work for me. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
September 23, 2011 - 12:44pm | I won't be there on Sunday (or any other Sunday regardless of the week) but otherwise that should work for me. yeah I'll have church and not sure how far I can push the wife by parking my butt at the computer for 2.5 days.So we need event times for Friday, Saturday and Sunday (providing someone wants to run an event on sunday) We need referees We need decisions on how games will be run, Map Tool, Chat or game rooms on this site or something else. (I'm prepared to do a more abstract game session where a map and miniatures would not be required and players rely on imagination.) I still have to go check out that link larry sent me on a similar event I'm wondering about using a Yahoo group as the official site for the convention- not for play but for announcements, and once a registrant is paid and registered they will be approved for membership in the group. Yahoo groups have email notification so everyone will get notices and participants will be able to ask questions and get a quick response since it will hit an email box within a day (I happen to use daily notification for the yahoo groups I wish to follow). after the event the Gms can post their gaming files in the files section for players who want to rip off the adventure and run it with their local groups, We can run a photo upload promotion- all the participants upload a photo of themselves so we all get an idea of what everyone looks like- Game reports can be uploaded etc. The site would sit a little stagnant after the event but a year latter if we decide to do a repeat we'll have a mailing list of those who already participated and can make an announcement for the new event. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
