So, something I've been wanting to do for Cold City for a while now is to produce a dossier of memoranda, reports, letters, transcripts and so forth covering the period 1940 - 1950. About 10 items in all, from a variety of sources: sinister SS experiment reports from Natzweiler, RPA subject dossiers on disappearing generals, clandestine British intelligence factfiles, torn and worn letters found of the body of a GI on the banks of the Rhine and so on. The text in the items weaves truth and fiction together: sections from the Nuremberg Trials mixes with reports about Nazi dimensional gates to cold, dead worlds.
Rather than produce these as a book, Paul (my artistic creative partner in Contested ground Studios) and I are intent on hand-making a limited number of dossiers (30 of the things) in time-worn Manila folders, stained paper, rusted paper clips, treasury tags, fingerprints, coffee mug stains, blood splatters, wear and tear. All to make them look as authentic as possible.
To produce 30 it will be a fair amount of work, as each will be a unique item: the text will be the same in all of them, but the aging, wearing and marking will be subtly different in all 30. The time invested in producing them will not be recouped by sales. But then again, that isn't really the point. We're doing it because we want to produce something cool, that is not only useful for the game, but is an object in and of itself.
Is this sheer folly? Not just for Cold City, but do we (as in gamers) value such things as an object, not just for the inspiration a game item give or the story making enjoyment it can provide, but as a thing to leaf through, hold and use.
Cheers
Malcolm
You should talk to Keith
Submitted by Matt on Mon, 05/03/2007 - 20:37.
You should talk to Keith Senkowski. That sounds very similar to what he did with Untitled. If I remember right he almost burnt his house down doing it...
What you could do is release the thirty as a special limited edition promo. Then sell scans of the thirty as a PDF edition.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
I'd totally buy this ... but
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 08:28.
I'd totally buy this ... but I'd want a pdf version too so I could make more once my grubby players had ruined the originals!
The PDF idea is one that
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 09:55.
The PDF idea is one that Paul and I were talking about as part of the project, so it'll certainly be something we'll do.
As regards the originals getting grubby and worn: that's one of the great things about this, the grubbier and more worn the items become, the more authentic they appear. Through handling and use they become even more like what they are meant to be.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
It's sheer folly
Submitted by Steve Dempsey on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 14:18.
But I'll cry if I don't get one.
Hurrah for art!
Steve
Cheers Steve! These response
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Tue, 06/03/2007 - 20:17.
Cheers Steve!
These response to this has been very gratifying. Paul and will be pushing on with this over the next few weeks. I'll be taking photos of the individual pieces and the completed item so people can see what they might potentially be buying and judge if it's worth it or not.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
So, we produced the first 5
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Mon, 26/03/2007 - 15:14.
So, we produced the first 5 Cold City dossiers for Conpulsion, just to see how they went. One was earmarked for the charity auction, so we had 4 of them for sale at £20 each on the Collective Endeavour stand. The doors were open 10 minutes and we had sold 2. By the end of the morning, the other 2 were also gone. To be quite frank, I was amazed. We could probably have sold more if we had them.
on the flipside, the effort that went into making them up over the past few weekes was pretty intensive. Paul did a fantastic job on the design elements, giving a really authentic look to the entire thing.
It was very gratifying to hear people say how great it all looked, with the handwritten letters, RPA reports, intelligence memos, cyrillic documents (with translations, obviously) and all the other bits and bobs.
Now we just need to make another 25....
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
(just to repeat the post
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Mon, 26/03/2007 - 15:36.
(just to repeat the post I've just made at Story Games for the sake of completeness)
It looked absolutely fantastic, especially the Nazi passport and (my favourite) the Russian document with accompanying translating document. I'm a bit disappointed they all sold though, as I wanted to pick one up at the end of the con!
If anything, I'd say at £20 you were selling yourself short. The work from both you and Paul that went into it was incredible - were you happy with £80 return for all that time and effort?
How much did the dossier go for in the charity auction? £200 wasn't it?
Erm, £220
Submitted by Shevaun on Mon, 26/03/2007 - 18:16.
Erm, £220 actually*.
Shevy
www.conpulsion.org
info@conpulsion.org
*to me.
So how do us poor
Submitted by Steve Dempsey on Tue, 27/03/2007 - 15:14.
So how do us poor Southerners get hold of one of these objets d'art?
Plus do you want a scan of my 1950 Services Guide to Berlin, with map and guided walk for visiting soldiers?
Steve, Paul and I will be
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Wed, 28/03/2007 - 09:45.
Steve,
Paul and I will be working on more dossiers in the near future (once paul has a few art pieces he neede to do for other people out of the way). So, they should be available within the next month. At that point, we'll also be doing the PDF version.
And a scan of the Services Guide would be absolutely fantastic!
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
I'm not so interested in the
Submitted by Steve Dempsey on Wed, 28/03/2007 - 11:52.
I'm not so interested in the pdf version but I'd like to reserve a paper version if possible.
Absolutely. We'll set one
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Wed, 28/03/2007 - 12:12.
Absolutely. We'll set one aside for you as soon as they are done.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
Steve: we have recently
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Tue, 24/04/2007 - 10:01.
Steve: we have recently completed the next batch of dossiers, so if you'd like one, they are sitting there waiting. A dossier costs £20 (plus postage) but that also includes the PDF package that we are producing as well.
Drop me a line if you would still like one.
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios
How many more copies will
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 24/04/2007 - 11:34.
How many more copies will there be? I want one but can't afford to just yet - maybe at Spodley!
Well, 5 went at Conpulsion,
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Tue, 24/04/2007 - 11:38.
Well, 5 went at Conpulsion, that means there will be another 25 physical copies and that's it. Beyond that, it'll be PDF only.
It has been an interesting experiment, but by jingo it's a lot of work to make these things!
Cheers
Malcolm
Contested Ground Studios