Walking the Edge of Reality

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Walking the Edge of Reality

A look behind the curtain to my world...

META - Geeks Bearing Gifts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:39 AM

I have an advantage over most "grass roots" puppetmasters: I have a budget. I'd rather not say how much that is per project, but to put it in perspective I have a tendency of spending more on postage and materials than I do on hosting at GoDaddy.

Why do I do it? Look at the typical player's reaction to receiving something in the mail. You could put a handful of lint in an envelope and send it to a player, and they would start screaming "Oh my God! OH MY GOD!!! I GOT LINT!!!" shortly before posting pictures of it on UnFiction.

People simply like the attention, I guess, and I love the reactions of people when they receive items. One person equated it to being as important and meaningful as receiving a college acceptance letter. That means a lot to me.

But, unfortunately, not everyone can be appeased in this regard. Lord knows I try, but I can't reach everyone.

In case you are wondering, here are the guidelines I follow when sending out a mass mailing:

- For cost and documentation reasons, I usually only ship items in the US. I made an exception once (sending a code wheel to London), but that was small enough to fit in an envelope and didn't require things like customs clearance and a packing slip.

- There are two types of people that are at the top of the list as far as who I send to:

1) People who haven't received anything before. Welcome to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming, kids!
2) People who have received things before and have done a good job of posting about it.

If you receive something, but keep it to yourself, you're usually no help. Don't get me wrong; that won't blacklist you, but your chances of getting something are inversely proportional to the importance of it.

Some players are *very* diligent about posting what they receive; in any mass mailing, ensure that you always have at least one of those, just in case the other recipients don't come through. In other words, plan it so that you can be sure that at least one person will post about the items in vivid detail.

- I cannot rely on a single item arriving at destination. So this means that I either:

1) Send out the same thing to multiple people, or
2) Ensure that it's not "mission critical"

Why? Law of averages, to some extent. I have no guarantee that the package will be delivered to the right person, the person will be home, etc... Take LGL for example: of the nine cubes I sent out, at least three disappeared in to the ether as far as I know. If any one of those was critical to game progression, the game stops dead.

- Do not base your timeline on the United States Postal Service. I usually send everything Priority Mail just because (it's a flat rate for the boxes), which means it could take "from 1-3 days" to arrive. If you're lucky, as was I, it will take a day (for the record, packages went out on Friday), but if you're not it could take a week. Do *not* plan your game with the expectation that packages will arrive before a certain date, because they might not.

Also, just because a package is received at a certain location doesn't mean it will be useful. People have to come home, open it, analyze it, photograph it, upload photos, etc... All in and around any social and family life they may have. That could tack a day or two on to the timeline.

- Over-postage wherever possible. This is the hardest sell for projects on a budget. I learned from LGL that the postage could end up being more than anticipated, and in cases like that the USPS will attempt to charge the RECIPIENT, which is a big no-no in the ARG world.

My guideline, unless it's a "flat rate" item (like the "USPS Small Flat Rate Box" I used), is to double or perhaps triple the amount of postage necessary. It ensures the package will reach destination, no questions asked.

I hope the above simple rules can help out anyone who seeks to be as crazy about this as I am.

Anyway... game on!

Posted by David "Nighthawk" Flor on Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:39 AM

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