My name is Andrew Zorowitz and I've been to over 150 anime, gaming, furry and comic conventions in the last 5 years selling boardgames and accessories. You name it, I've seen it. AMA

What's the weirdest thing you've seen happen at one of these conventions?

The weirdest thing I've ever had happen to me personally was at a show a few years ago. For some reason (which I can't recall) I was annoyed with the show management, and was waiting to talk to the convention chair, when the head of operations walked up and told me that I looked stressed it and then offered me poppers in an attempt to fix the situation.

The weirdest thing that happened at a show I was at, which I only caught a bit of, involved about 150 teenage girls dressed up as Nazis (well, the Germany character from Hetalia) gathering on the lawn outside a church on Easter Sunday for a photo shoot...

hahaha! And I imagine the church people had no idea what was going on!

They were probably less than pleased....

poppers? like, those things that make your butthole loose?

Yes - those. I have no idea why he thought that would fix the situation....

How different is a Furry convention from a regular Anime convention?

In some ways they're not all that different - we set up, we sell things, we leave :) Furries tend to be a bit older than anime con attendees and also friendlier. Their vendor room does have somewhat of a higher undercurrent of adult material (though it's all well shielded from minors)

Do you prefer working at larger conventions, or smaller conventions?

I prefer the thrill of larger conventions - I love the never ending masses of people. Smaller conventions can get kind of boring when we're spending 10 hours behind a table with limited waves of customers.

I found that I've had more fun at afterparties of smaller conventions. Barfleet parties has always been a blast.

barfleet is awesome!

Best convention? Worst convention? (Not name so much as types/reasons)

Also how do you find and selectgood cons? Is there a process you have developed?

Best convention is probably PAX - there's something unique and happy about the PAX culture that is not replicated anywhere else. For us the worst are steampunk events - while there's a lot of overlap between every genre and gaming, steampunk is so much about the look (and people buying things to develop their steampunk look) that it's hard for other vendors to do decently at them.

Honestly, a lot of it is just by the numbers - bigger shows and fewer vendors both mean a show will do better for us. We do a lot of trial and error though, we've definitely lost bucket loads of money on events I've miscalled.

We do a lot of trial and error though, we've definitely lost bucket loads of money on events I've miscalled.

Is the loss that high? Certainly, booth fees, travel, and hotel expenses add up but they are typically aren't in the "bucket loads" range alone. What are the factors that turn a small loss into "bucket loads"? Or is this many small losses over time?

The most we've ever lost on a show is $7000 - I guess that's like 1 bucket load :) A combination of super pricey booths and a bad plan

Have you ever had anyone offer you sexual favors so that you would promote their product at one of the big conventions?

No, but I've had plenty of customers try (unsuccessfully) to trade sexual favors for product...

How do you feel about the game Tanto-Cuore?

And: favorite game?

I think Tanto Cuore is an improvement on Dominion - changing the price of the silver equivalent from 3 to 4 opens up the game options a ton. It's super super fan servicey tho.

I'd say my favorite game is Tichu, though lately King of New York is the thing I've been playing the most of.

As a fellow board game seller, I love playing games. Is there a game that you absolutely love but you have not sold to others? (Whether it's out of print or just too obscure for general public)

My absolute favorite unappreciated game is Tichu. At one point I was joking about stopping selling every other game and just selling that... but then I realized doing about $50 in sales each year was probably not a great choice.

And is the answer Bunny Bunny Moose Moose?

ROFL I am very sad Bunny Bunny Moose Moose didn't get a US release - I genuinely think we could have sold most of a print run to congoers. They love goofy stuff like that!

Didn't they announce that it would be coming stateside now that Czech Games is no longer working with Z-Man?

If they did, I missed it. And awesome! :)

What games/accessories do furries like to buy?

Light casual games - Red Dragon Inn is our number one seller. And dice, but everyone likes dice....

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of the job is getting to spend much of my time looking for the cool and hot new thing and then (with any luck) make tons of money showing people something they didn't know existed and couldn't live without.

What do you prefer to see at cons from the staff/venue?

The thing that makes me happiest is when a staff is organized and knows the plan for move-in and opening and closing each day. It sucks when we're finishing a 10 hour shift and noone knows what the plan for getting attendees to leave so we can close is....

OK. Another question. What made you go the pure convention route first? It seems like most game stores start as storefronts and then move to online and convention. You went the reverse? How did this happen? Did it work well for you?

We originally started as a LARP running organization, and were going to a lot of conventions to run LARPs. Somewhere along the way I realized this was a good way to spend dumb amounts of money on my hobby (probably 3 or 4 thousand dollars a year), but I still wanted to do something with the same awesome people. I forget who, but someone came up with the idea of selling board games at conventions, and off we went!

Sadly none of the people from that time are still really around but I do talk to them fairly often (and I miss them tons!)

Win, Lose, or Banana?

BANANA!!!

Best and Worst thing about Troy? I know you are an RPI graduate, but you decided to stick around. Why?

Best thing is that, for it's price, it's a really nice city. My mortgage on a giant house is half what my rent for a studio in NYC was.

Worse is I wish the crime level was a bit lower....

What is your favorite giant board game? Are you planning any new ones in the near future?

My favorite is giant Kill Doctor Lucky. We're working with Iello on a new giant board game to hopefully premier at NYCC in a few weeks, but I don't think I'm allowed to announce it yet :/

What kinds of advertising, promoting...etc. do you use leading up to, and during, a Kickstarter campaign?

We usually run a round of Project Wonderful ads, sometimes Board Game Geek or Kicktraq ads, and we use our social media networks. The nice thing about having a bunch of successful campaigns is that each campaign gives us a bigger customer base to advertise to in the future.

Hi, Zoro. How does selling at cons compare to storefront income? I seem to remember hearing the con side brings in way more money, so is the store basically there because you feel like it or is it actually a significant revenue source?

Basically we do about 7 times the sales at cons as at our store front, tho the expenses are somewhat higher...

We have a store to appease Wizards of the Coast and because it's nice to have a home base to get work done in (and I even have an office in our new location, which is nice!)

How does having a store appease wizards of the coast?

It's a requirement to sell magic.

Do you have a packing kit of stuff you bring to each convention and what is the most surprising thing in that kit?

We do, though we've very bad at maintaining it. The weirdest thing is a rubber mallet, which we mostly use for putting together our shelving, but also comes in handy for an unlimited number of unexpected tasks. You never know when something is going to be out of place and need to be replaced....

Did you ever ask Fuzz Face? What did he say?

I think he accused me of some crimes I hadn't committed in states I hadn't been to, and then told one of my employees I never showered.

Whats your favorite game that you sell?

King of Tokyo soon to be replaced by King of New York

Where's the weirdest location you've been to for a convention?

Hmm, tough question. I once went to a convention that was on the outskirts of Triangle, VA (where Quantico is). We made a wrong turn and the next thing you know someone with a gun is asking us for ID in order to drive through the base (the town is on the other side...)

I live just down the street from your business. Is there a particular reason you choose the downtown Troy area?

I went to RPI and had strong connections so it's convenient to a lot of our customers

Do you ever cosplay while you're working at your booth? If not what's preventing you from doing so?

I don't - we try to make sure all of the staff are coordinated and easy to find :)

So HOW did you start up Foam Brain Games? What motivated you? What did you do prior to decided to do this? Have you ever regretted it? Is it hard to keep a balance of your personal life while attending all these conventions and traveling so much?

I started it up because I wanted to continue to do things with cool people and running LARPs at cons is expensive. I used to be a programmer.

It is super hard to keep a work\personal balance with the amount of travel I do and the stresses of being a small business owner. It's been the cause of much drama and breakups and angst, sadly....

Perhaps there is lady con sellers out there that you guys can date and travel together :)

Maybe - but it would be super awkward if we broke up!

Hey there, i got a group of friends. We all life far apart but we meet like once a year. We love playing games with easy rules not too much accessories and a lot of fun social interaction. Do you or does anyone else have nice ideas? I would like to buy some new games.

Can you name a few games that have gone over well in the past?

I generally recommend:

• Coup
• The Resistance
• Lords of Vegas
• Love Letter
• Cosmic Encounter

Do a youtube search for Concept and see if you think you'd like it, it's supposed to be amazing.

That's a good list :-)

What's the highest number of sides on a die you've sold or seen?

We sell 100 sided zochihedrons. They pretty much look like golf balls.

Got any good recommendations for board games that can easily be combined with drinking penalties?

We didn't playtest this at all is the best Imho :-)

LOL, the description sounds interesting but the user ratings are not so great.

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31016/we-didnt-playtest-all

It's a super light silly game. Perfect did drinking games but not as much what bgg tends to fall in love with.

Hi Andrew! What BG would you personally recommend that's been released in the last 2/3 years?

Depends - what other games do you like? King of Tokyo, Ogre (though you might need to build an addition to your house to store it) and Star Realms are probably the 3 recent releases I play most often

To be honest I've not got the biggest collection, a friend has started getting me in to them and I'm thinking about kick-starting my collection. So far I own;

Catan (basic)

Smallworld

Munchkin Cthulu

Cards Against Humanity (I know, not a proper BG)

King of Tokyo has caught my eye recently so maybe I'll go for that :)

All good choices! I think you'd like King of New York, Carcassonne, Dominion (or Tanto Cuore if you prefer fan service) and many others :)

Hey Andrew, would it make sense logistically for you to just give my kickstarter rewards to someone who is going to your place this weekend?

Sure thing. Any ideas who?

Do you have any employees or friends that come with you to conventions to man the booth? If not, how does it work when you want to leave your booth for a bit (say to get food or go to the bathroom)? As unattended merchandise may walk away (unless people are really good about policing others).

Any suggestions for con goers as to what to do, see, or how to behave?

I do - Foam Brain has 5 full time people and is hiring a few more in the next year as we expand.

Honestly, the single biggest rule about how to behave is to follow Wheaton's law and don't be a dick. There's lots to see, but don't let that stress you about what you're missing - enjoy all of the awesome stuff you do get to go to. At bigger cons, ask how long you should line up in advance for panels you really care about, too...

Is Risk the best (your favorite) strategy-based boardgame?

Nah - it's ok though

Speaking of strategy games, we have been playing game of thrones regularly for some time and are looking for something new. Do you have any recommendations for strategy games on the more deterministic side.

How many players? My favorite is sadly only 2 player :-(

Which one is that? Me and my friend have been looking for 2-player strategy games. So far we have Twilight Struggle and Memoir '44.

Ogre

were you here too? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cOzekvYZig

Assuming that's BronyCon some of my employees were.

Hey Andrew, I'm about to start developing an item to hopefully hey manufactured on a larger scale through Kickstarted and wanted to know if you had any ideas on how to proceed? How long does overseas shipping usually take? Have you ever used Alibaba? Have you ever had a bad experience with overseas manufacturing?

We have. Shipping takes 3 days by airmail or 8 weeks by sea. Yes we found most of the companies we work with on there. Yes, they miscolored thousands of earrings and then made us take them and pay (at a discount but still) and to redo them

Hey Zoro, when are you going to do a kickstarter for a full game instead of just accessories? Also, when can we expect to see you judging a GP again? :)

I believe we have more dice on tap for late 2014 or early 2015 and then a game for the end of first quarter 2015, so not that far from now :)

My schedule makes it hard to judge GPs and I might lose my L2 status with the recertification, so I'm not sure I will be :(

It would be unfortunate if you lost your L2 status (seeing as you cert'ed me for L1) but I am excited at the prospect of playing a game with the Foam Brain Games logo on it!

Technically you can already do that. We were a collaborator on Channel A by Asmadi Games and our logo is on the box :)

Do you ever make your way out to ACEN in Rosemont IL?

We do! I was at Anime Central 3 years ago, but Foam Brain has been there for 4 years running now :)

Will you be at NYCC this year and can I get the details on the secret handshake?

I will be at NYCC - stop by and say hi at booth 2155.

[deleted]

No, but there was a magic tournament where a guy ate his hat (well, about 3 bites of it....)

On the Sentinels merch kickstarter - is there any way that one of the earrings or pins could be repurposed as a tie tack? (at about 5'7", I'm short enough that if I were to do a tie bar the tie generally hangs obnoxiously low.)

Are there any other games you'd like to make licensed merch for?

The pins should be, though they'd be kind of giant. There are a bunch of other games I'd like to do licensed merch for assumign the details could be worked out :)

Games: Like what?

Sadly I can't say while we're in talks :-(

What is the thing you wish that you could sell, but either can't or won't?

What do you think of the folks who are going for the obvious consumer ripoffs/pure profit? My specific example would be seeing a vendor that is selling the CAH coreset for $50 on Friday Morning at PAXEast while the CAH guys are upstairs in the KS room.

I wish we could sell Cards Against Humanity :) But I don't want to be one of those stores who buys it on Amazon and marks it up. I think it hurts your reputation as a store in the long term and someday hopefully we'll be able to get CAH direct from the company.

Also, when I first read your question, I thought you asked about a CAH corset - that would be amazing and totally needs to happen.

As an indie game designer, what's the quickest way to get a card game with high production value, packaging, etc. into your vendor booth? i am not interested in selling my game, but maybe you can clue me into some distributors you order through.

We order through the bigger gaming distributors - ACD, Alliance and GTS, but we also buy a lot of stuff direct from manufacturers, especially if its something I'm really excited about.

How do you buy direct from manufacturer? I didn't know this was possible...

I just contact them.

What is the most expensive game you sell?

Kickstarter Edition Ogre, which we finally sold out of, at $225 is the most expensive board game we've ever sold

What did you think about the Bob's Burger episode about the Equestranauts?

http://bobs-burgers.wikia.com/wiki/The_Equestranauts

I didn't see it, I'll have to check it out. Honestly I find both the voice and animation style on bob's burgers annoying enough that I don't watch it.

So I wanted to ask you, as a merchant of games, what happened to Stupidduel?

I'm not sure - I think it's still available direct but for whatever reason they have chosen not to go through distribution or make it available to retailers

I've been thinking of going to Gen Con for awhile now but I don't know if it'd be worth it. I've gone to PAX East the last five years and loved it. How do the two compare to each other?

Gen Con is all games all the time - I like the PAX enviornment a bit better, but they're bot a lot of fun :)

Why?

Why not?

Wisconsin gaming hoopla is this weekend, you gonna be there?

Sadly not. Will be there for awesome con Milwaukee next month tho :-)

Date? Perhaps a sadistic reddit meet is in order

Weekend before Thanksgiving. We're running all of the tabletop gaming there :-)

I am going to my first convention later this year any tips for a newbie?

As I said below, look at the schedule but don't overplan. Don't stress about the things you miss, enjoy the things you go to. If there's something you MUST SEE, find out how long of a line it's expected to have and when you can line up (or if you can go in at the end of the prior panel and they're not doing a room clear.

Don't forget to bring money to buy awesome stuff :-)

Do you have any stories involving Homestuck fans?

Once I was on a date with a girl and I was trying to explain my life as we wandered through the Boston parks. Suddenly we come across about 100 homestuck trolls in a park, some hanging out some playing spin the bottle or just making out. Pretty much I said that was about it right there.

[deleted]

Decent though kind of sick today :-(

I have a friend who redoes board game art as a hobby. Do you think that could be at a profitable for him? What would be the most legal way to go about this kind of venture. As an offshoot of his personal art which is harder to market efficiently, I've thought his redesignes would be something he could share with other game enthusiasts.

Probably not unfortunately. There's not much you can do with derivatives unless you're deviating a lot from the game

Was it hard growing up with the name Zorowitz?

I spent college with the nickname Zorro, so I think it was ok

Are all the really hot women who dress up (cosplay) paid actresses? I have heard that, and wondered how true that is, and since you have a huge cross-section of Con's for comparison, I ask.

No, most of them are fans enjoying their hobby.

What's the best success story where a attendee hooked up with a show floor model? I want to believe

If you just mean with booth staff, it happens - booth staff are people too and a lot of us do a lot of shows.

If you mean the (very rare) paid models, I have no idea.

I've never been to a con, but I have this idea of a bunch of good-looking, nerdy, single girls running around and ready to "mingle".

How absurdly far from the truth am I?

It depends, there are often good-looking nerdy single girls, and there are often even events like speed dating if you're looking to meet people. HOWEVER I wouldn't go to a con just to get laid or assume that girls in general want to have sex with you. Just like anywhere else YMMV with your looks and personality.