HYPERBOREA / PAX Unplugged

**Posted by Ghul** 12/12/2019 3:34 pm

grodog wrote:
How was the con for you as a publisher, Jeff?---worth it compared to GaryCon or TotalCon?

I was in town, but caught a cold from my eldest just before coming out, so I elected to stay home vs. infesting everyone else at the show

Allan.

It was a bit of a disappointment, as a publisher. Better for well-known board game publishers with a $10,000 display budget. Took a loss, but met some great gamers and definitely got some new blood into Hyperborea, so not a failure by any stretch, but still a financial loss due to the high costs involved with everything.

**Posted by tomas** 12/13/2019 9:14 am

Ghul wrote:
It was a bit of a disappointment, as a publisher. Better for well-known board game publishers with a $10,000 display budget. Took a loss, but met some great gamers and definitely got some new blood into Hyperborea, so not a failure by any stretch, but still a financial loss due to the high costs involved with everything.

Which leads to the question of other than running games at cons, is there anything we can do to help promote (or even sell?) the game at smaller, more local cons?

**Posted by mabon5127** 12/13/2019 10:36 am

tomas wrote:
Ghul wrote:
It was a bit of a disappointment, as a publisher. Better for well-known board game publishers with a $10,000 display budget. Took a loss, but met some great gamers and definitely got some new blood into Hyperborea, so not a failure by any stretch, but still a financial loss due to the high costs involved with everything.
Which leads to the question of other than running games at cons, is there anything we can do to help promote (or even sell?) the game at smaller, more local cons?

Running games at cons is the primary way of word of mouth advertising, the strongest and most effective type! I often get the question at cons "Can I buy this here?" I always encourage them to attend the website and forums or buy the PDF as a gateway drug. Obviously it would be better to have the product to put in their hands.

Having another company sell the product at conventions often means giving over a substantial portion of the creator's revenue to help cover the seller's booth cost and other expenses. It would also be the red-haired stepchild of the booth as it's not the main focus of the other company.

Having a group of fans represent the product at a con could lead to substantial loss of control of the product in shrink, damage, shipping, and other logistical costs. As well, no one can rep the product like the creator to those asking questions at the booth. Though I would be totally jazzed to try repping AS&SH at say BFG Con I also understand the consternation to Jeff caused by the lack of control over the situation.

**Posted by tomas** 12/13/2019 1:03 pm

You bring up valid points.

I know that after my game at BFGCon I had two people asking where they can buy the rules. They took pictures of the cover and said they would order it afterwards. Had it been there I'm confident they would have impulse purchased it.