Adopt a Mimic Program

My wife is off on her own conference this weekend, so I came home to an empty house. With nothing really to do, I've been spending all day in the workshop. Mostly cleaning/organizing, but also experimenting with a couple things.

I asked my oldest daughter (who is quite the artist) to draw a hobbit hole for me to use on various projects. She emailed me the results last night and I thought it was simply amazing. So I decided to offer it as a stretch goal once we hit $6,000 in pledges. This is just over 1K away, so I'm full expecting it to be done very soon.

The card you will receive is a business card size piece of black aluminum with the image laser engraved on it.


I may be biased because my daughter did this, but I think it is amazing. I love how she worked the JRR Tolkien sigil into it.

So hit the share button! Get this around.  Lets break the 6K barrier and then get up to 10K!

I returned last night around 9:00 and just vegged for the rest of the night. I haven't even unpacked.

A few local friends have encouraged me to share a bit of what life is like right now. Hrothgar's Hoard has been around for close to 10 years now (I think...its been a second, as my daughter would say).  I was doing about 2 kickstarter projects a year for several years. This project was actually supposed to begin last year.

Some of you know this already. But last March...just about a year ago, we had a fire. It destroyed the entire workshop. Tools, equipment, backstock, wood. Everything. I had 5 employees at the time and more shows lined up than I've ever done before. Luckily, I had some stock in a local storefront and in my trailer, so I didn't lose everything. Just pretty much any way of producing anything new. Sadly, I couldn't keep my staff on and ran a gofundme to get them some money while they looked for new jobs.

So, what do you do when life kicks you in the teeth? You get up and say, "Thank you, may I have another?"

Luckily, I had insurance. Not enough (as usual), but enough to start doing something. I wasn't going to be able to replace the workshop building any time soon (no contractor could get me on the schedule until the fall), so I bought a 15x15' circus tent. I found a used 80w laser a few hours away and ran out and bought it. Had a new load of lumber delivered and I was able to start making some new products.

Meanwhile, I tried to keep my schedule going. I hit a couple shows that I had already paid for using the inventory that was in the trailer and store. I managed to scrape by. Insurance money started coming in allowing me to replace more tools. Fall came along and I got the new workshop up. Had to wait a little longer to get the concrete floor in. Set tools up in there and ran things off generators until I could get electrical hookup. We didn't have any heat, so I insulated and used a torpedo heater through the winter.

I've slowly done wiring. Got plumbing put in last week. Now it is time to start putting up some drywall.

I hesitate sharing these pictures because it makes it look like I work in complete chaos. I pretty much do, but in addition to making things, I'm trying to organize for Gary Con in a couple weeks. Then I'll be at Fan Expo Cleveland. Southern Indiana Ren Fair after that....sigh...it just never slows down.  Anyways, despite the mess, this is the most organized I've felt in months. Believe it or not, things are finally coming together. I've rehired one assisstant and have been advertising for a second. As we get production up, I'm going to be looking either at a dedicated sales/marketing person, or maybe outsource it to a 'consolidator'...a couple companies from GAMA caught my eye and may explore that.

Anyways, that's my story for the last year. As always, please share and let your friends know about the project.

Thanks

Another long day at GAMA. I always seem to wake up early whIen I'm on the road, so generally I'm up between 5 and 6. Today I slept in late. About 6:30.  If you knew me from my younger days, you'd know how messed up this is.
Today I had workshops from Gatekeepers, Wizkids, Lucky Duck, and Sirius Dice. Of the four, I liked Sirius Dice the most, but they were all interesting. There were interesting things with all of them, but, as I've said before, this was a scouting mission. I'm here mostly to figure out things for next year.

Had lunch again (Chester let me eat today) and then went to the dealer hall where I talked with several dealers about various items. I got a lot of good ideas and even an idea or two for a future product or two. Of course, every time I set Chester down, he seemed to get into trouble.



I got one of the "Acerak's Treasure" mystery pouches from Sirius Dice. Naturally, Chester wanted to "protect" them.  He insists that I get him a diet pepsi to help wash them down.



I think his eyes were bigger than his stomach here. He definitely is attracted to dice. I'm sure that if you adopt one, they will be just as eager to protect your most precious shiny math rocks.



I thought I best if I didn't tempt Chester any further, so I brought him back to the room for a little down time. 

Tomorrow may be a short day...I have a couple seminars in the morning and ant to hit the dealer hall one last time, but will probably get on the road by 3 or 4. I have about a 5 hour drive to get home and would like to be back before too late, but I probably won't end up posting tomorrow.

Thanks again for showing your support for me both in the past and in this project. If you haven't pledged yet, be sure to get in soon. We are half way to the next stretch goal, and I'd love to send some rangers out to look for a new line of mimics.

I think that's a good name for a mimic, right? Chester...

Did you know that a group of mimics is called a "clutch"?

So today at GAMA, I had three workshops in the morning, each sponsored by a gaming company. The first was with Asmodee on their big releases for the year. Honestly, despite their attempt at making it feel like a corporate retreat big event type display, I thought it fell kind of flat. They have some good things coming out this year, don't get me wrong, but the presentation was.....uneven. I'm not huge into their line up of games, so maybe I'm biased.

The second workshop was with Foam Brain Games and it was much more in line with the types of things I'm into. Being on the convention circuit, I assumed that they were a smaller business, but either I was wrong about their offerings, or they've grown a lot in recent years. From pins to dice, to accessories, they are coming out with a lot of great products this year. I'm not sure if there is a way to mix any of their products with mine, but it was an interesting workshop.

The last one was with Dragonshield who is celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. Oddly, when they said that, my mind immediately thought, "I didn't know they were around in the 80s." Took me a minute to figure out that 25 years ago was 1999. That doesn't seem right.

Well, after the workshops were over, I had a meeting with Martyn from Backerkit where we talked about this project and my next one (more about that at the end of this project). I hope to launch it maybe sometime around Gen Con? We'll have to see how this ends up and how the summer goes, I think.

After that meeting, Chester was getting hungry, so we sat down for some lunch. Well, I tried to get some lunch, but Chester wasn't in a sharing mood.

He left me a little crust, so I guess that was OK.

There is an exhibitors hall here and I spent a few hours there talking to publishers. Like I've said before, I'm using GAMA as a scouting mission. I need to always be looking for ways I can make products which compliment what is going on in the industry. I've focused mainly on the D&D market, but really need to look at the industry as a whole as well.

I have  a few more things tomorrow. I'll send more pics of Chester then.

I had a full day at GAMA today. Lots of meetings. Marketing, marketing, branding, marketing....

I even met with a marketing company: The Marketing Clerics. They are a business that focuses on marketing companies in the geek realm. I'm definitely going to look into them further. One of the hardest things about running a business is that there are just too many hats to wear. I'm good at a few things. But others....not so much. And it takes time away from the things that I am good at. So one of the big things I need to start doing is outsourcing certain parts of my job so I can concentrate on the things that I do well.

One other seminar I attended had to do with starting a local convention. I've been thinking of this since COVID and it was interesting in getting a viewpoint from someone who has done that many times before. As you may know, I'm from Athens, Ohio and any convention there would be by definition a small one, but I think it would be fun to have something close to home that helps spread gaming in our community. We have a weekly game at the local Library...about 15 of us play at a couple different tables. And there is a local book store that has been trying to expand their gaming footprint. It could be worthwhile (although probably not profitable) to try to start something that has a chance of growing in the community.

That is something that I've thought a lot about over the years. I'm in my 50s and spent many years coaching softball when my kids were young. I even coached at the local high school for  a few years. I did this mostly because I wanted to be a part of something more.  After the kids left for college and I got out of coaching, I've been looking for something to replace that feeling. That was about when we started playing D&D at the library. I think organizing (or helping organizing) a local con might help with that desire. 

In any case, today was a pretty good day. Even though there is open gaming tonight, I'm probably in for the night.  More tomorrow.