I have been invited to travel to Newcastle in the UK to present a workshop at the "In the Regions of Utopia" conference organized by the Imaginaries of the Future group.  We will be exploring how to use roleplaying games to test imagined social systems, and as a means of creative speculation in their own right.  

I was given the largest travel stipend that the conference offers, but the $1500 stipend doesn't cover the entire cost of the trip.  Here I am, hat in hand, trying to scrape together funds to cover the difference.

An expense breakdown looks something like this:

• $1800  Air ticket and other transportation
  
• $140     Child care back home
  
• $225     Accomodations for three nights
  
• $125      Food and drink
  
• $30       The conference outing
  
• $45       Communications (this mostly means internet access)
• $2365  TOTAL

As a very underemployed father I can't pay for this out of my own pocket and hope to raise the difference of $865 from folks like you (with fees and unexpected charges I'm rounding up to $1000).  I have to confirm my participation in the conference by March 31st, so my goal is to have at least half of that amount pledged by then.

What will I be doing?

I will be running a one hour workshop which will introduce the tools and concepts used in contemporary RPGs, with a focus on freeform and story gaming methods.  The workshop will select an especially interesting or contentious paper presented at the conference and crash together a game which can be used to play in the speculative space of that paper.  Because, seriously, nothing breaks an imaginary social system faster than gamers occupying that shared imagined space and running amok.  

A potentially useful game will be roughed out during the workshop.  Afterwards I will finish the project up and run it for interested conference participants after hours.  

I've run hands-on workshops for schools and the like before, but this will be the most ambitious instance yet.  

What will come of this?

The objective of the workshop is to give academics who might not be familiar with these sorts of game tools an introduction to their usefulness.  An interesting, playable game that can be enjoyed by folks outside of the conference would be gravy.  

Who am I?

I'm an artist and games enthusiast living in Portland, Oregon.  I've shown my art at galleries and museums around the world, you can see some of my work at this website.  I've run games workshops at the California College of Art and the Bruce High Quality Foundation University, and presented game talks at a handful of conferences and schools.

I founded the Play Generated Map and Document Archive, a project dedicating to preserving and interpreting the documents that people create for and during game play.  The archive is partnered with The Strong Museum of Play in Rochester, New York and all PlaGMaDA materials are stored in the museum's world class archives.  The archive has printed two books related to the collection, and should have two more out by the end of 2015.  

As so many gamers do, I also write games and I've had a piece published by Chaosium and received an honorable mention in the Golden Cobra game design competition in 2014.  I'm over the moon with excitement to have contributed to a book that will be released at the North Texas RPG Con in June.  

I play all sorts of games, but am most interested in story games, freeform, and old-school tabletop.  I almost fainted after talking to Erol Otus on the telephone.  Here's an animation which will be used to promote a tabletop game I hope to release later this year.  Recently I had my mind blown by Before and After Silence and by Jason Morningstar running The Prison.  

FAQ

Q:  Can I get both of the books?  

A:  Yes, on Indiegogo you can make two separate pledges from the same account to get two different perks from the same campaign.  If you double up on any of the perks I'll throw in some sort of bonus gift.  Or contact me separately and we can work out something through paypal.  

Q:  When did you need this funding by?

A:  I need to confirm my participation by March 31st.  If I don't have at least half of the money in by then I will cancel the fundraiser.

Q:  Is shipping included in the perk cost?

A:  Yes, shipping in the USA is including in the perk pricing.  If you are outside the US and get anything more than a postcard please be ready to shoot me some extra for the overseas shipping.