Topic: Help spread the word about ICE games!

[Bruce]

If your interested in getting ICE games out there in the real world and giving the guys who make our favorite game a little help. Then post your ideas here as to what you and others can do to help.
The ideas I've used so far are:
Posting to other RPG forums about ICE games.
Running demos and events at your local gaming hub
 
I ask any and all who read this post to go to ENworld and post to this forum http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?345583-Favourite-Non-D-amp-D-games that asks the  question of "What is your favorite non-D&D Games?" Please put the word out about ICE games!!

Bruce

P.S. Are there any other RPG forums out there I can go post about ICE games?

[PhillipAEllis]

A thought: if you're in other RPG forums, and there's no problem doing so, you may like to add the URL for these forums (with appropriate text) to your signature.

[Old Man]

I'd love to see more people in the Rolemaster communities over on Google+

Some other cool sites:
http://www.thepiazza.org.uk
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/index.php
http://www.realroleplaying.com/rmsmf/index.php?action=forum - a half-dozen or more HARP and/or Rolemaster PBEMs here (I am in four!)

[markc]

 I also think U-Tube Videos would help a lot.
MDC

[Cory Magel]

I'm not sure how well speaking to store owners will help as that largely depends on there being printed stock available for stores to purchase... but talking to any local game stores in your area and inquiring if they carry RM, HARP, etc. products would be a good idea.

Granted, there are not a lot of RPG oriented stores around (I'm in the Seattle/Bellevue/Tacoma area, good sized cities, and there are very few good ones left - maybe three), but it would be good to get the game back on the radar for them.  Every single game store I have mentioned "ICE" to for a very long time initially responded with "Didn't they go bankrupt?"  Only one local store (the only REALLY good one around imo) carries RM that I know of and most of that is the RM-Classic stuff (not even HARP), likely purchased previous to the newest license holder.  I suspect that is largely due to our crowd talking to them about it.

BTW, if you live in the Puget Sound area check out... they are both pretty good stores.  Books, Miniatures, gaming space, events, etc.
The Game Matrix (Tacoma) - Best miniature selection around.
http://www.thegamematrix.com/
Card Kingdom Inc (Seattle) - Best CCG selection around.
http://www.cardkingdom.com/
https://plus.google.com/100362291418822715076/photos?hl=en

[Bruce]

I'd love to see more people in the Rolemaster communities over on Google+

Some other cool sites:
http://www.thepiazza.org.uk
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/index.php
http://www.realroleplaying.com/rmsmf/index.php?action=forum - a half-dozen or more HARP and/or Rolemaster PBEMs here (I am in four!)

Google+ has RM communities?
I will have to check that and the other links above out.
Bruce

[PhillipAEllis]

I joined two of the Google+ communities.

[Old Man]

Rm2 players - https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113335507985544292134
RMFRP/SS players - https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/102585889659382309126
HARP players - https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/105422144618914589429

[PhillipAEllis]

Just joined the HARP group as well.

[GrumpyOldFart]

I'm not sure how well speaking to store owners will help as that largely depends on there being printed stock available for stores to purchase... but talking to any local game stores in your area and inquiring if they carry RM, HARP, etc. products would be a good idea.

I'm in a small town on the Texas Gulf Coast, but even it has a game store. My son is down there on his days off, working on his HARP game that he hasn't started yet.

"What are you reading?"
"HARP... it's an RPG."
"You mean like D&D?"
"Sort of..."

I'm sure the game store would be willing to carry it if it would sell. But it's the Catch-22 of it not selling because they don't carry it, and because nobody carries it, nobody knows it exists and therefore it doesn't sell.

I'm going to talk to one of the people who works there today, maybe she'll be able to give me some insights. I might even be willing to let them use my copies for display for a while to see how much interest they get.

[Thom @ ICE]

We're still trying to work out the details to support the brick and mortar business.  This is being actively researched and we will come out with a plan once we work through the details.  As you can expect, this is not an area where you leap before you look.

[Colin-ICE]

Thanks for all the offers of talking about ICE on other RPG boards (don't forget to always come home to the ICE board though).

I've been working on finding forums and sites where I can shout about new releases etc. I've found a few which I've linked to below:

www.reddit.com - Reddit has some great RPG discussions and I've started one or two about ICE and Rolemaster
Facebook - anyone who hasn't already liked us, ICE has an ICE page, HARP page, Rolemaster page and Spacemaster page
www.therpgsite.com
www.rpg.net
www.realroleplaying.com - also a great play by post site

There's other sites that I post news to but they're not really forums. If you know of/have your own site where they accept press releases let me know and I'll include them in my mailings.

Thanks again for the support.

[GrumpyOldFart]

As you can expect, this is not an area where you leap before you look.

Exactly. That was part of the reasoning behind

I might even be willing to let them use my copies for display for a while to see how much interest they get.

My son is there several days a week, I know at least a couple of the people working there, if I start looking into it I wouldn't be surprised to find that I know the owners. All that makes me more likely than I would normally be to let them put my personal hardback copies on a display shelf somewhere in the store, and see how the local market responds. There's another store in the small city of Beaumont about 15 miles away that's a similar situation, I have known the owner for decades though I have't talked to him in a while. These are people that a verbal, "no problem, with the understanding that if it gets damaged you own it and you get me a new one" is likely to be sufficient for.

Of course, the downside of all that is that the very conditions that make it workable for me to use my copies as display also limit the usefulness of doing so. I can give you a peek into the small market of Beaumont, TX and surrounding areas, but it doesn't tell you much about Houston, New Orleans or Dallas.

[Thom @ ICE]

You may be better off holding on that until we figure out something that we want to pilot.  Then we can pilot with your local FLGS and work out the bugs.

[Bruce]

ICE,
How goes getting our favorite game into our FLGS?

[arakish]

And then you have a store like here in Albuquerque.  Try to mention any other rpg system except DnD and you are all but asked to leave the store.  Even when I was willing to rent a table to run a Rolemaster game, I was refused.  That store (I forget name) must make enough money renting to DnDers they can refuse others.  A$$ wipes.

rmfr

[Bruce]

And then you have a store like here in Albuquerque.  Try to mention any other rpg system except DnD and you are all but asked to leave the store.  Even when I was willing to rent a table to run a Rolemaster game, I was refused.  That store (I forget name) must make enough money renting to DnDers they can refuse others.  A$$ wipes.

rmfr

You should boycott the store. I wonder if they have a web or facebook page....hmmmm.
That is bad business, if they barely make enough to keep the store open one would think they would be willing to have other games run there to hopefully bring in more people and bring in more revenue. I have never run into a place like that.

The game store I play at, Lightspeed Hobbies on rt 6, allows anyone to run any game on the open tables nights. This includes RPG's, board games, miniature games, etc... Other nights they have different tournaments. The owner wants more people to come in and use his store to play games as he knows that brings in more revenue. Even with that he barely makes ends meet at the store. Oh and by the way, he doesn't rent the tables, it is all free and on a first come first serve basis.
The only thing I wish he could change is his hours. He closes at about 830pm every night, even weekends. Now he does sometimes let us play the game until later (the latest was about 10pm). My previous experiences with running a game at hobby stores is they are usually open until about 1 or 2am. And in those days my games ran until closing. But I understand there are other things that make it difficult to stay open after certain times.

Bruce

[Thom @ ICE]

There are many stores that only allow games that they sell to be played inside their store.  This is understandable as the purpose of allowing the game play in their real estate is to encourage product sales.  It could be said that simply encouraging rpg play is beneficial to their business, but they may not agree that it would be worth the investment.


We're still working on the solution, and the biggest key is to have a product release big enough to support the inventory build so  it is unlikely to go into effect until we are prepared to release Rolemaster in a final print run.  We wish it could be sooner, but it needs to work on the first shot otherwise we negatively impact the stores from considering to participate in the future.

Thom

[arakish]

And then you have a store like here in Albuquerque.  Try to mention any other rpg system except DnD and you are all but asked to leave the store.  Even when I was willing to rent a table to run a Rolemaster game, I was refused.  That store (I forget name) must make enough money renting to DnDers they can refuse others.  A$$ wipes.

rmfr

You should boycott the store. I wonder if they have a web or facebook page....hmmmm.
That is bad business,...

I did boycott the store.  I found the store just three weeks after I moved to ABQ, NM in January 2004.  I never went back.

I just did a search...  And lo and behold, the store no longer exists.  Now the only type of "gaming" stores that exist here are video game stores like Game Stop, etc.

rmfr