Spending a few minutes this morning posting our Fun Factory list link across socials, looking for comments on what we might be missing.
Always amazed at the ideas the community sees that we don’t.
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
#1TBZ #boardgames #FunFactory
We’ve reached the stage with the Fun Factory Kickstarter where tough choices have to be made. Which great ideas make it in, and which get saved for the future?
I love this stage when there are too many good ideas, and you still feel like you’re getting enough done.
#1TBZ #boardgames #FunFactory
Proof graphics for our Ding Ding hard enamel turn token. It is our free gift for newsletter subscribers during the Fun Factory Kickstarter.
If you are not signed up for our newsletter you should. AEG has lots of fun things planned www.alderac.com/sign-up-for-...
#1TBZ #boardgames #FunFactory
I always wonder about the round-trip timing for a spoiler that drops like this.
Will it travel through the Smash Up player grapevine?
Will it lure curious fans over here to Blue Sky?
Guess we’ll find out soon enough. 🤡
#1TBZ #SmashUp #boardgames
Trying to focus on work but my brain is already at Gen Con, sprinting between demo tables like it’s the board game Olympics.
Can’t wait to play, explore, and maybe sneak in a celebratory cocktail or two.
#1TBZ #GenCon2025 #boardgames
Currently watching Ghosts and can’t stop thinking there’s a unique social deduction game buried in the premise, players are ghosts, people who can see the ghosts and people who can't. Can't figure out what you are doing in the game yet but it will come to me.
#1TBZ #boardgames
Mad respect to folks like Jamey Stegmaier who’ve built up years of social content. It’s no small thing. Building AEG’s full published games list and timeline is taking time, but it’s going worth it. Every game’s a chapter. Every chapter tells the story. #1TBZ
Decided if I want to do this right, I need a definitive list of every game we’ve published.
Then I’ll sort out when they came out, one turn at a time.
Here’s what I have so far:
docs.google.com/document/d/1...
#1TBZ #AEG30
Before I dive into the L5R era, does anyone have requests? Stories you want told? Things you always wondered about? This part of the journey was wild, messy, and full of big swings happy to dig into whatever you’re curious about. #1TBZ
Over the past couple of days I recorded two 90-minute podcast sessions with the amazing Katrina Ostrander, one of the current stewards of the L5R brand. It got me hyped. Next up here on #1TBZ: the stories behind Legend of the Five Rings. Buckle up.
I walked the hall with Ryan and we hung out after show hours, talking about Magic. Everyone was obsessed. It was wild. The industry had never seen anything like it. By the end of the show, we were kicking around the idea of making a CCG of our own....so was every other company at that show. #1TBZ
I had sold a few ads in Shadis #9, including one to a mail-order company called RPG International. At Gen Con, I met its owner, Ryan Dancey. He says I shook his hand across the booth and pulled him into the game industry, I think we pulled each other in. We’ve been building stuff ever since. #1TBZ
We spent three days running, sweating, handing out Shadis anywhere people gathered. By the end, our booth was empty, our feet were wrecked, and we felt like the road crew from Cool Hand Luke. Just heat, hustle, and opportunity in every direction. #1TBZ
That night we wandered the city and found the crowds. Huge RPG lines in hotels and the stadium across the street. The con was everywhere. So the next day, Dave and I loaded up bundles and hit the lines. We gave out thousands. We learned fast. And we hustled. #1TBZ
Thursday of Gen Con we learned a hard truth: the White Wolf “10,000 giveaway” was just a rumor. We gave out 400 copies. Total. That first day, we pitched Shadis to everyone who walked by. But something was wrong, the hall wasn’t where the people were. #1TBZ
This photo captures the moment perfectly: three guys, a cheap banner, a mountain of magazines, and absolutely zero clue what we were doing. First Gen Con. No sleep. All heart. #1TBZ
Z is looking one turn back and reflecting on the start of AEG and the legacy of L5R. We’re wondering do you have any memories, stories, or thoughts about Legend of the Five Rings you want to share? We’d love to hear them #DingDing #L5R #L5R30 #1TBZ
L5R- I’ve been asked to join a lot of L5R 30th anniversary conversations It makes me wonder, "Am I feeding an instant gratification monkey by spending so much time looking back?"
I believe documenting the past can help those who’ll carry L5R forward so it is both worthwhile and fun. #1TBZ #L5R30
Thirty hours later, we made it. We thought the hard part was behind us, hand out magazines, make some new friends, plays some games. Boy were we wrong. #1TBZ
Somewhere in the Midwest, we got pulled over. The officer looked at the truck, the trailer, the three of us, and said it wasn’t safe. Dave the officer told him he was off duty and had his weapon in the car. They talked cop-to-cop for a bit. Then the officer let us go. #1TBZ
It’s a 30-hour drive to Milwaukee from LA. Through the Colorado mountains. We drove in shifts, at night, eyes burning, hoping the truck wouldn’t fall apart.The whole thing was so janky it strained going uphill and rattled going down. But we were young, dumb, and blinded by hope We didn’t stop. #1TBZ
We had a little red truck with a camper shell, and we rented a U-Haul trailer. Filled them both with magazines. We built a kind of bed in the back of the truck, just stacks of Shadis with a blanket, so one of us could "rest" while the other two drove. We were overloaded and broke. #1TBZ
Back then, I had a spell cast on me. That affected others. If you were within 10 feet of me, anything seemed possible. That’s the only way to explain how we decided to drive 10,000 magazines to Gen Con, in an overloaded truck and a rented trailer, with almost no money and no real plan. #1TBZ
Dave found a place that printed newspaper inserts, Glossy covers, ad-quality interior. It looked just like the giveaway mags of the day. Suddenly the dream felt real. We were going to print 10,000. NOTE: Reed Printing is no longer around but played a pivotal role in AEG's early years. #1TBZ
1993 We’d set the goal: give away 10,000 copies of Shadis at Gen Con. But we had a problem. Until now, Jolly had been printing in a local shop, on a Xerox machine. We needed a real press. Something that could handle big print runs and help us look like we belonged. #1TBZ
Jolly was still working at a print shop and with issue 7 and 8 we went to 8.5x11, it was finally big enough for ads, but the readership was still small. We looked at White Wolf and heard they gave away 10K issues at Gencon. We decided to go for it, that became the goal. Gencon or Bust #1TBZ
After I brought Shadis back to LA, there was a stretch before we made any big decisions. I moved back in with my parents, worked on a golf map in Palm Springs, and started becoming friends with Jolly. Dave and I had ideas, but it wasn’t “the plan” yet. The pieces were starting to move. #1TBZ
So I asked, if it were bigger, in size and readership, would you advertise? And they said yes. #1TBZ
At the time, I was publishing golf maps. That’s actually how I first met Jolly, in Myrtle Beach. Curious how much potential Shadis really had, I started calling game companies I asked why they weren’t advertising in the magazine They all said the same thing, we like it, but it’s too small #1TBZ
I brought that first copy of Shadis back to LA and showed it to some of my old gaming buddies Dave Seay, who had become a police officer in the City of Bell, took an interest. We started talking about how much fun it would be to help Jolly with the magazine. #1TBZ
