FanPro - spare anything for the troops?, Ziggurat-Con in Iraq Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Switch to: Outline Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Baphomet69]

Original Article

[the_dunner]

In another posting about this con, they've specifically mentioned that they'd be playing Shadowrun and Mechwarrior. I've forwarded the contact information on to FanPro, but have not heard anything back yet.

[nezumi]

Huh, I've seen those teacher supplements that let you buy 100 or 200 d6's for a relatively low price, but never thought it was worth while for me. Might this be a good course to pursue? With 10 or 20 gamers, 100 dice is whittled down pretty fast.

[Demonseed Elite]

I don't speak on behalf of FanPro, but I know I have a pile of comp copies of books I've written for in storage that I could definitely afford to donate.

[Baphomet69]

nezumi,
If you can make that happen, that would be a grand gesture, especially since they specifically mention the need for dice. :)

[bibliophile20]

I get my bulk dice from here: http://dicepool.com/catalog/ They've got decent prices, especially when you get into the *big* blocks of d6s.

[PBTHHHHT]

Heh, I guess if people are sending stuff, we should kinda shout out to everyone of what they sent. It would be kinda hilarious if they get 6 separate bulk orders of D6s.

[eidolon]

The folks over at Treasure Tables have been in contact with them, and you can find some info at that link.

[bibliophile20]

[Baphomet69]

I'm not sure yet what I'll be sending, I'll have to look when I get home from work. Though I won't be sending only Shadowrun stuff. I'll be sending whatever I can spare, regardless of game. Heck, this might even get someone over there into a game they otherwise would have missed.

As for duplicates, I can see an upper limit of dice (though I think that should be quite high), if they end up with 3-4 of the same game/book/supplement, that's fine too. More to go around. Maybe a few soft-covers will eventually even make their way to the combat troops out in the field...

[nezumi]

Gah, I've been beaten! Someone else suggested dicepool. Well there you are. The 1,000 16mm lot looks to be cheapest, with 200 close behind. Kinda upsetting that 500 is so overpriced, because that's around the size I think would be most useful. We can chip in a few bucks if we're going to do a bulk order. Shipping shouldn't be anything special, since APO are considered domestic, although some places don't ship to APO so it might have to go through a middle man.

[bibliophile20]

[nezumi]

I don't think they need miniatures and playmats :P I do have a big hex sheet somewhere I could look into getting photocopied, but miniatures are uber expensive...

(Actually... I have a color image of some shadowrun cardboard cut-outs. Presumably I could get it printed onto cardboard and mail that along.) Because specialty printing is expensive, I'll let people decide... We can chip in $27 (enough for 200 dice) OR print off a few large hex sheets and maybe ten or twenty cardboard sheets of "miniatures" (which we'd mail ourselves).

[PBTHHHHT]

Yeah, I don't think I want them to worry about lugging miniatures around, cardboard cutouts are good enough and easily replaceable/shipped.

[bigdrewp]

As a former member of the Army, I'd just like to thank everyone for getting behind this so quickly. I know that everyone over there will thank you as well, but I thought I'd get a jump on it. Don't worry I'll be sending a couple of books too, though I am not sure what title just yet.

[nezumi]

I remember a few years ago we tried to have a drive here at work for odds and ends (razors, deodorant, so on and so forth). Unfortunately I was living a $24k lifestyle on a $25k salary (before taxes). Half of my family is Navy and Marines, so I definitely appreciate what you all do for us. It's good to finally get a chance to support not just people who are putting their butts on the line, but a line of products that I've gotten a lot of mileage from.

[bibliophile20]

[PBTHHHHT]

hey nezumi, the chipping of 27. how should we do that? Contact the company and say that several of us are going to contribute to a particular order?

[nezumi]

Bibliophile, I'd be happy to share. Obviously I can't send you the hex sheets. Just give me an e-mail (PM or whatever is your preferred method).

PTHHHHT - two options. If one person ponies up $90, he can buy the dice and everyone else who makes donations can just buy other things like books. Alternatively, I don't mind being the front man for this. IF we go that way, people can PM me and I can share my snail mail address for checks, paypal account or you can pay with CC through my wife's web site with google pay (or whatever that service is called). So we're very open to payment methods. The only problem is anything other than paypal takes about a week or two to process.

I'll see how much Kinko's or whereever charges for the hex sheets, bibliophile will run off a bunch of sheets of the miniatures. How many hex sheets/miniature sheets should we run off? 4 hex sheets 4 miniature sheets? If we run through 4 hex sheets, that'll likely kill my funds, so we're looking at the money already brought up (about $40, half way to the 1,000 dice mark) for dice and books.

Thoughts?


As an aside, what's the best way to send books? Buy paper books and have them snail mailed? Buy electronic books and have them e-mailed? If we buy electronic books, how do we deal with copyright protections (since if I buy the book, I don't want some Army guy sharing it around and I get sued, nor do I think Fan Pro wants their file to be shared around).

[Jaid]

well, i'm going to make the following observations:

fallout warfare happens to be a free game that you can download. the rules are so-so, at best, but it conveniently comes with paper 'counters'... including people in power armor, tribals armed with hand weapons, armored people with various weapons, a couple of explosion templates, a robot or three, and i think even a vehicle or two... in any event, they're intended to be downloaded, printed off, and cut out, so all they need is web access and a halfway-decent printer basically.


WotC released some free downloadable paper models a while back... i have tried out at least some of them using regular printer paper, and school glue, and they work great. a good variety of buildings is included, though they are all fairly medieval oriented (certainly not much good for running shadowrun, though earthdawn could benefit quite a bit). actual card paper would make the buildings sturdier, but is more of a nice thing to have than a necessity.


finally (and this one's a little on the odd side) here is a spelljammer fan's collection of homemade spelljammer ship models. if nothing else, the ships are unique, and again, are designed to be printed, cut out, and glued together.

best of all, all three of those sites are free :)

[Lady Door]

Fistandantilus3.0 and I would be happy to contribute.... just don't know what. Do we have a comprehensive list of who's sending what yet?

[fistandantilus4....]

Boy I hope she means money and not books. I loves my books.

[PBTHHHHT]

Well, you'll know the next time you look upon your bookshelf, especially when it seems a bit empty. ;-)

[Method]

Do you think there would be any interest in SR3? Last I checked I had 3-4 copies of the BBB and I would happily part with one or two that are virtually brand new...

[Baphomet69]

Speaking from (ancient) experience, when you're deployed in the middle of BFE and the nearest game or book store is several thousand miles away, trust me, you're happy to have ANY version. Either to play retro or just for something to read!

That reminds me, I think I still have a spare SR3 BBB I can send too! I have some duplicate issues of Dragon mag too (unfortunately they are after the mag started to suck).