GenCon 2014 - Part I, Prelude

It's been almost a week since our exhausted return from the Nerdvana that is GenCon. It was a long, strange trip this year from the Monday prior right through to Sunday evening.

For those that don't know, on the Monday before GenCon, riding my bicycle home from my son's football practice, I slammed on my brakes to avoid a situation. My front brakes worked wonderfully. Unfortunately, my rear brakes failed completely. This sent me over the handle bars and on to the pavement. For my troubles, I ended up in the emergency room with a mild concussion and a jacked up right hand, wrist, and shoulder.

I was lucky in that I did not break anything - just a lot of soft tissue damage and pain. Unfortunately, there was no way I could drive from our abode in the far northwest suburbs of Chicago to the Indianapolis.  Heck, I didn't even know how I was going to get all of our stuff in the van now that I was in a sling. But I have an awesome wife who, despite hating driving in that kind of traffic, took on the pilot role.  I'm not sure who was more anxious...

But  with the kids' help and my wife's will, we made it down to Indy...only to be standing on the street with nowhere to sleep. I'm not getting into details, but I am fortunate to be able to stay in a condo just up the street from the convention. Problem was, the keys to that lair were in a closed UPS store just of Monument Circle. Apparently the delay in our departure (due in no small part to the slow packing because of my injury) and the one hour time difference placed us outside the UPS store 55 minutes after it closed.

Now, we were fortunate in that we had a spare key for the condo itself. Problem was we could not get into the building. The security system into which one can punch a code and gain access was in the process of being repaired; a fact we found out later. all we faced is a sign that read something like "Temporary - Access only through garage 8/13-8/14" Now the only way in was using a special key fob and going through the parking garage...a key fob we did not have because it was on the key chain sitting in the UPS store.

After waiting around a while (with part of the contents of our vehicle on the curb) to see if someone would come out or go in (thus opening the door to the building) a worker from the restaurant  in the adjoining building - which uses the same lobby/basement - took pity on us and used his access to allow us to gain entry. Finally we were in! We then had to play a kind of relay game to unload the vehicle - with me playing the part of door stop, for which I'm eminently qualified...and not just because my injury limited my carrying capacity.

We had expected to arrive at about 2:00 PM, relax for a while, eat some dinner, then go to a party that is a Wednesday night tradition. Instead, we arrived at 8:00 PM (local time), scrambled to get ready, then headed to the party sans children; if we all went, we wouldn't be able to get back in the building!

We were already pretty exhausted...and the  convention hadn't even started yet...

Injunctivitis

Well, to be honest, this was one of my fears about funding The Great Kingdom.

If you try to find the project on Kickstarter...ya know, just to see how things are going..you'll get this message. You can send a message to the project creator, but given the situation, I'm not even sure how they can respond.

Because this apparently just happened. And according to that court document - go on, read it, it's pretty interesting:

"IT IS ORDERED that Defendants (the producers of The Great Kingdom) are hereby enjoined from having any contact , for any purpose, with any of the parties or persons who were previously involved in the D&D Production film and from in any manner advertising the film The Great Kingdom or making efforts to solicit funding for such film or any film on the subject of Dungeons and Dragons pending further order of this court."

I'll preface the rest of this by pointing out I am not a lawyer...so take the rest with a boulder of salt. The threshold to allow for this kind of order is not overwhelmingly difficult. Like most things in the court system, in this preliminary stage you just kind of have to show that there is even a possibility that something the defendant did might cause harm to the plaintiff. But if the accusations in that order are born out..well, what an ugly situation.

I do so hope that Kickstarter funds are not now going to be used to defend against this court action.

You can commence with berating and condescending pointing of digits in my general direction. I told you so's will have to wait a bit...

NOTE: Hat Tip to Zachary Houghton for the news.

The Great Kingdom: I Give In

I won't bury the headline. After much consternation, I've decided to give to the Kickstarter for The Great Kingdom. It was not an easy decision. I've tried for a few weeks to get answers to various questions and I still feel like I'm left wanting. But in the end, I want to see both movies get made. So I'll dig into what little money I have and see what pittance I can provide.

And even though I do so with a twinge of...regret isn't the right word...dissatisfaction? Nope, that's not right either. I guess I'm still searching and it appears the only way I'll get the answer I'm truly looking for will be to get this thing funded and completed. So I suggest all twelve of you who read this go and given them a buck or two and get it over the finish line. It's late in the process, and as I write this they are just over half funded. Let's see if we can get it over the finish line successfully.

What do I think will help, other than an all out media blitz? Differentiation. What do I mean by that? Well, it is the answer I've been looking for from the beginning I suppose. Tell me...hell, tell everyone, how this movie is so different. The Q&A linked to in the comments of the previous post was a good start...but it's just a start and it was 8 days before the end of the Kickstarter. More! Use your updates on Facebook, Kickstarter, etc. to tell us more about this incredible story at which you keep hinting. Do it now!

Those not directly invovled in the production may want to get this thing spread outside the normal geek channels. For example, I'm going to talk to my brother about giving some money and spreading the word in his circles. He's a geek as well, but not a gamer. So the rest of you need to think of people that might be interested and get them involved.

Reticence? Yeah...maybe that's the word...

Why are you still here reading? Go. Now. Do.

D&D: A Documentary versus The Great Kingdom: Update 2

I’ve had some further communications on the subject. Nothing serious or earth shattering by any means (wow…talk about reeling in the readers, eh?), but a few items I feel I can pass on.

First, I’ve been assured there is no animosity even though I’ve been asking a few, how shall we say, uncomfortable, questions. That is a relief, and I’m not being sarcastic about that. One thing I did not want to do was make people upset; I’m just looking for some answers…and a hard copy of the new movie.

Second, I’m afraid we’re not going to get many answers because it is clear by both the complaint and the emails that this is really going to be a lawyers’ battle. Nobody wants to make any claims or say anything because now IT MATTERS.

Third, I’m not adding anything to the completion of either movie. And while that stings a bit, it is true. I’m just an onlooker and the distraction keeps the point of all of this from getting done. This is not to say we can’t or shouldn’t continue to ask questions; however, given point two – that this is now a bona fide legal fight – it’s unlikely we’ll get much but platitudes and obfuscations.

UPDATE:

It appears this thing got some more legs soon after I wrote the first blog post – again “coincidences” heh. First, there was this article in the examiner. Now the inestimable Tenkar’s Tavern has posted about it.

On top of that, one of the folks I’ve known for years online has apparently decided to throw his support behind The Great Kingdom – and looks like he’s been prepped to talk about it.

Now comes the part where this fight that started between three people making a documentary about D&D breaks bad all over the Internet.

D&D: A Documentary versus The Great Kingdom: Update

I’m truly beginning to wonder if I stirred up a hornets’ nest. I’m not some ego maniac like some RPG folks who thinks anyone really reads this blog. I wouldn’t expect it because I barely blog. But coincidences are happening.

Before I get started, I want to thank Andrew Pascal, one of the producers of The Great Game, and former producer of D&D: A Documentary. With this blog, I really was making an offhand comment about the oddity of the situation and how something had been gnawing at me for a while, and he was kind enough to respond.

On with the show…

In my email to Andrew, I proposed what I figured was the reason for the situation:

“My guess is that in the process of doing the groundwork of interviewing all of those people, some of them several times or follow-ups or whatever, a story started to emerge. And not just the story of how D&D came about (Mr. Peterson's tome does that in spades), but a more personal tale of the men involved and the rise and fall of..well...an idea, I suppose. And that story was far more gripping and appealing and exciting for you to tell than simply a kind of record of What Happened.”

Mr. Pascal responded with broad confirmation. It was creative direction that led to the separation, driven by a desire to tell the story of the creators more than an overall history of The Game. It should also be noted that he expressed that what to do for folks like me who gave to the Kickstarter for D&D: A Documentary has remained foremost in their minds.

So while it didn't explore much detail of the need for separation, nor did it offer for anything more than the digital download, I did get a response.

Now the coincidence. Within 5 days of the previous blog post, I received a Kickstarter update from the D&D: A Documentary project. It’s not unheard of, I mean, we got updates in January (26th), April (18th), May (22nd), and June (6th) - four so far in the almost 6 full months of 2014. But now we got two in one month…and this one was titled “An important update” and includes a bit more detailed discussion of this very topic (as well as a possible short preview at GenCon)!

Either way (coincidence or new readers), one of the things most interesting about this update is that it included a reference to the complaint filed in New York involving these two films (or more accurately, the producers of the films) – as JRT references in the comments of the previous post. Now I suspect I know why very little details is being provided..."I can't comment while legal action is pending."

Read it...it's very, very interesting and appears to be a kind of legal representation of what I was feeling. That is – it basically alleges that the producers who left D&D: A Documentary continued to use the “assets” of that project to kick start…yeah, I said it…the new project, The Great Kingdom.

Now, let us return to the reasons for the creative differences – a desire to tell a different story. From that legal document, here’s the original subject of D&D: A Documentary, as submitted to the United States Copyright Office for preregistration:

“An analytical look at Dungeons & Dragons, a role-playing game created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR), its history, effects and appeal. Subjects will include (but not limited to): - Early history of Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, et al - Creation of TSR - Legal battles between Gary and Dave - Legal battles between Gary and TSR - The influence of the role-playing and D&D on modern gaming and culture. - Interviews with celebrities, historians and cultural experts on their experience of D&D.”

That’s a really broad scope. It leaves a lot of room to turn and tack as information is gathered. Now at some point there was a desire to break out of this constraint to make a different movie. What kind? Well, here’s the United States Copyright Office preregistration for The Great Kingdom:

“The Great Kingdom is the story of families, blood and personal bond, affected by the success of the game, a game that brought joy to millions but heartbreak to its creators. In 1969, Gary Gygax, a family man and game designer with an entrepreneurial mind meets Dave Arneson, another brilliant game designer from Minneapolis/St. Paul. Their collaboration over the next few years would change the gaming world and themselves. This is the story of the people behind the creation of the epic role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. The history of how Dungeons & Dragons was created has been told in many forms. The Great Kingdom will look to explore the personalities behind the game and the families and gaming groups they engendered. From humble beginnings, in the heart of America, a brand new game was created. A game that would have far-reaching effects and would lay down the foundation for the for modern-day RPG video games. What happens to these individuals as they whether through the success, the betrayals, the excess, the downfalls and eventual redemptions all happens within The Great Kingdom."

Now, like I said in the first post and in my email to Andrew, I can see where something like this might happen. Start out making one film to tell story X and then, in compiling the research and doing the legwork, realize that you really want to tell story Y.

But here’s where things get dicey for me (look, more gaming puns!). There’s a way to do this. You finish the one you started…then you go and make your other movie. I mean, it seems different enough, right? You’re not going to lose anything by finishing the one you started, right? Unless…

What could you lose?

First and foremost in my mind is attention…that’s what you could lose; attention from the people you need to interview, attention from people who will want to see it, attention from people who you might need to help fund it with something like a Kickstarter project to, say, finish the film. How would you do that if there’s a slightly-different-but-not-different-enough film already out there – one in which you were a principle player?

So I think when this wasn’t going in the “new” direction the producers of The Great Game wanted (or didn’t focus creatively in the areas they desired), they knew they had to strike while they could. They had to in order to keep interest in all of those various camps alive and working for them - because a second film coming out at a later date without enough to distinguish it from the first film would be a death knell.

I have a terrible feeling that Andrew is not going to be as nice to me as he was the last time we ran into each other. I hope it does not prove true. It would be a shame. I don’t know him well enough to hold any animosity towards him, or James Sprattley for that matter. They’ve always seemed like nice enough folks when I’ve run into them in the past. I hope the fact that I don’t think they handled this very well doesn’t burn that bridge.

Besides, I'm still open to both sides of this little tempest in a teapot. I'd love to hear Mr. Savini's (of Westpaw films) perspective as well or some further details from The Great Game producers as to why this was really the right way to handle this situation...

Oh…and Rich….you want to get really meta? We need to create a game about the small independent film industry and how it leads to these kinds of implosions using these D&D films as a model. Then we need to have creative differences and publish similar-but-different rules sets…and then sue each other.

D&D: A Documentary versus The Great Kingdom

So..

At GaryCon a few years ago, I noticed some gentlemen trying to get in the front door, struggling with a bunch of what looked to be video equipment.  Being a smoker at the time and, thus, being out front taking a break, I set down my cigarette and tried to help by holding a door open and ushering the luggage cart through. In the process, I queried them as to the purpose of the video equipment. This was my first introduction to D&D: A Documentary.

I spoke with the young men a few times in passing over the next few days; nothing serious, ust asking how there endeavors were going, learning how tough it was at the convention to get a quiet spot and time to interview the old guard. I still have the business card they handed me that day.  I bought in on the spot. OK, not literally, but figuratively. I did, later, contribute money through kickstarter.

I watched the kickstarter updates without much excitement, to be honest. I had already received my copy of Playing at the World and read it cover to cover a while ago. I was content to simply wait for the finished product so I could see it, finally.

Then, a short time ago, I started to see things pop up on Facebook, Google +, and even at GaryCon, about The Great Kingkdom. “Hmmm,” I thought to myself, “two D&D movies. That’s interesting. Maybe these The Great Kingdom guys should talk to the D&D: A Documentary guys.” Only, they had…because they are the same guys. Well, apparently all but one.

You see, the gentleman for whom I first held the door at GaryCon, lo those many years ago, along with one or two of the other producers of D&D: A Documentary have apparently left that production to instead take up The Great Kingdom production…new Kickstarter and all.

So this is the D&D: A Documentary update on received in April of this year:

“In January of this year it became clear that a competing film is being made by a production company owned by the executive producers of this film. This was a surprise to everyone and it raised questions and confusion.”

Yeah…it sure did raise questions.

OK…so this is probably a good time to clear something up. I know the risks in kickstarters. I understand that I was not really buying anything (although, as I said, I did get the book…and it’s awesome, IMHO); I understand that the folks involved could have just taken the money and walked away. This is not a complaint about anything like that. In fact, I’m not all that upset. And yet, something is kinda eating at me.

Here’s the way the" Risks and challenges" section of the kickstarter of The Great Kingdom starts:

"Some of you may know James and myself from a different D&D documentary project that was started on Kickstarter a couple of years ago. As projects like this go and part of the nature of filmmaking, there were creative differences that opened our eyes to another perspective of the story and ultimately led to our new direction and separation from the previous project."

OK…so there were “creative differences”. I get it. I’m not cold-hearted. But here’s how that same section continues:

“So, to those who helped support the previous documentary, James and I would like to offer a digital, downloadable copy of THE GREAT KINGDOM for FREE. It's our small way of thanking you for your support and patience. All you need to do is email us and there will be a copy waiting for you when the film is done.”

Wait. Maybe this is what is bothering me. I’m not kidding that I’m realizing this as I’m writing it…this is not snark, this is honesty. I want more.

Even though it is spelled out that financially The Great Kingdom “started from scratch”, why I do feel like I helped them because of all of the connections and open doors and interviews and, possibly, stories they got from D&D: A Documentary work? Heavens, I have to kind of believe given the amount and kind of information I’ve seen to this point that The Great Kingdom really only exists as a concept because of what they learned on a project I helped fund that they walked away from!

Here’s my list of demands ( :) )

1)  I want a physical copy, dammit. Come on man…just make a DVD and ship it to me. I know it can’t cost that much. Hell, I might even give you the cost of production once it’s done.

2) I want the real scoop. That’s right, come clean with the dirty little story. Yeah, I know there’s probably legal action. Tough…tell me what happened.

There…that’s it. Easy.

BTW…I owe a write-up of GaryCon VI. Maybe by GenCon!