Revving up for GenCon!

Cross posted at Stone Baby Games:

I'll be at GenCon this year dividing my time between The Forge/IPR and the Ashcan Front booths, and will have games available at each: Steal Away Jordan at The Forge/IPR and Tales of the Fisherman's Wife at the Ashcan Front.

I've been hard at work on the latter. All the books will be hand-bound and full color. I'll have about 12-15 extra special editions. No two covers will be alike, and they'll have 5 extra collaged images. Tales of the Fisherman's Wife is for mature audiences. At one point I had considered making available a "clean" version, but I'm running out of time! And the design concept for the book a Japanese pillow book. In that spirit (and in the spirit of the game), the book contains sexually graphic images (classic ukiyo-e shunga).

Tales of the Fisherman's Wife is and ashcan, but I do know the game works and it's fun. Here's what makes it "ashcanny": there is an untested mechanic, which in theory sounds very fun. I want to see it in action though. While I've played the game several times, I want more play-testing. I want to know how it plays when I'm not there. Also, this game lends itself well to creating beautiful custom hand bound versions. I want to get good at it, and practice makes perfect.

So what do you get by buying a really pretty ashcan? It depends on what you do with it. Within the next six months, hopefully you'll play it. (It takes no more than 2 hours for a whole game!). Then you'll post your play report at the Forge, or Story Games, and let me know about it. Or send me feedback by email on the text or the mechanics. If you do this, you get a free pdf of the official release, a hard copy at printing cost, or a custom hand bound edition at a discount.

I have not decided on a price for either the basic or special hand bound versions. I will have pictures of some of the special ones soon, but I'm up to my ears in book binding right now. I may not post anything until after GenCon!


And here's more (what I'm not quite ready to disclose on my "buy my games" website, heh heh) : The elevator pitch for Tales of the Fisherman's Wife could well be "A sex positive roleplaying game for lovers with demons and octopuses." Yeah. It's a tough concept to market, which is another reason why it's still an ashcan. I would love it if I could sell this game in other venues beyond games stores. See ya in a couple weeks or sooner.