Preparing for the Jolt Cola Cup has consumed most of my free time for the past couple of weeks. Things are shaping up, and I am excited, but I am cutting things very close. I will get the rules packets printed up on time somehow. I’ve got a lot of work to do tonight, and will probably also need to work on it a bit during anime night, which sucks.
Because this is a Dewish Cup, the focus is on high fantasy, but there is a fair amount of material from other genres thrown in, too. As of this writing: templates, races, basic classes, advanced/prestige classes and feats are done; spells are 80% done; gear is 50% done; and skills are not done, but should not take much time. The character creation and combat rules are done, but not formally typed up. I have no idea how many pages all of this information is going to be. My target was 100, but I suspect it will end up being significantly larger. Either way, I have expanded the initial packet reading phase of the Cup to two hours, to give people enough time to scan through everything.
I ordered some flavored Jolt (Red, Blue and Cherry), but I found out this morning that it will not arrive on time. I will have cans of regular Jolt Cola during the event, though. The flavored Jolt will have to be distributed as a “thank you” for playing after the fact. I’ll think I’ll give the winner first pick, and the rest will be consolation prizes.
Things have been somewhat tight financially for me these past couple of months, and I am probably spending way too much on this event. The flavored Jolt cost me $50 including shipping. I will also have to buy regular Jolt Cola and other soda, which will probably come to another $20. I spent $60 at Pegasus Games on Jolt-specific supplies. The packets will probably cost $20 each to produce, times twelve players is ~$240. Theoretically I should be getting back $120 in admission fees, but I have a feeling at least one person will try to get in without paying. I was worried about how to handle that, but I think I will require advance payment no matter what. If someone wants to borrow money to play, he can borrow from another player, not the GM. For those not paying attention, that’s $250 remaining personal cost to me. I think I will graciously accept donations from the players…
I am enthusiastic about a lot of the weirdness the Jolt Cola Cup will present (particularly the voting element), and looking forward to people’s reactions and strategies. I am grateful to Kelsey, John and James for helping me concoct the rules, but also anxious that our rules will be unrecoverably broken in some way we haven’t predicted. I wish someone else would run something like this some time, because I know I would greatly enjoy participating as a player (and it would certainly be less work than the GMing side has been).
I am still planning to post the second part of my moral tenets. I should have time to do it shortly after spring break (until then, there’s the Jolt Cola Cup, then my business trip to Baltimore, then Suikofest).
”[It] was like finding some mythical, supposedly vicious quarry curled up adorably. One can certainly claim victory but one cannot feel victorious.”
—Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade