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Post by Alexis on Feb 28, 2015 5:38:36 GMT
But first I want to talk about the sheer volume talent that this community has. The resources available are quite staggering when you actually think about it. I would like to paint a few scenarios (being very cavalier). There is at least one member here that is a writer. A WRITER! Maybe your players just saved the day and the town mayor is going to give a speech on their behalf. You decide that the mayor will have some sinister nature that you want to hint at during the speech but don't want it to be blatantly obvious. Just write up the gist of it and send it off to a writer who can "craft" the proper wording. BAM, super sinister mayor with an elegant speech that is sure to captivate your player. I would trade crafting materials for a custom retooling of a speech I need. Also, easily done though email...free! We have sculptors. Need I say more? Okay, maybe trade something for a custom sculpt....or maybe trade for a sculpting tutorial video. I cant sculpt to save my life. But I wish I could. If I could sculpt even some basic humanoids, I could do some serious damage. I would gladly trade stuff for a basic step-by-step sculpting tutorial. "This is how you unwrap your Sculpey package..." Map makers? I think so. Need an old looking map? Look no farther. Members that can draw. Yes, we have dozens. Need a custom picture? Maybe a local or NPC. Once again, with an email attachment...it's free! I think you get what I am saying... you don't have to dig deep to find all the special talents that members here posses. Custom Photoshopped character sheets? No Problem. Weird plant pods? Sure thing. Wood grain carved craft sticks? How many do you need? ....We have one of the best collection of talents out there... we just need a little nudge to elevate all of our games to the next level.... and beyond. "sharing" talents to help out others sounds like a wonderful idea! |
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Post by daveyjones on Feb 28, 2015 6:25:05 GMT
good idea, i will certainly try that, thanks  |
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Post by Erasmas on Feb 28, 2015 6:39:24 GMT
Writing and idea-generating are things that I can certainly supply plenty of!
I also like making digital maps (usually gridded, but there isn't any reason why they would have to be).
I'm not saying that I need anything sent to me, but if people are wanting that kind of stuff done... I'd be happy to help.
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Post by tauster on Feb 28, 2015 8:41:19 GMT
About what could be traded shared, here's some more examples - spare miniatures: I have hundreds of minis, literally. Some I bought cheaply in bulk, others have seen their use and won't probably be used on my gaming table for years. I put a few in each package, hoping that others find more use for them than me - cheap LEDs: especially around xmas, but around the year you can find cheap battery-driven LED chains in the home improvement parts of stores like dollarstore or micheals (or whatever those cheapo-shops are called). - some stuff you crafted yourself: I normally do not only craft one or two of something, but a dozen. for practice and because making twice as much does usually take only a little bit longer (economies of scale). so I usually have some stuff left over to share, which gives people - especially newbies - something to inspire I have been thinking about this too. I would like to add some things that I think are as good as craft materials but could cost far less to ship. But first I want to talk about the sheer volume talent that this community has. The resources available are quite staggering when you actually think about it. I would like to paint a few scenarios (being very cavalier). There is at least one member here that is a writer. A WRITER! Maybe your players just saved the day and the town mayor is going to give a speech on their behalf. You decide that the mayor will have some sinister nature that you want to hint at during the speech but don't want it to be blatantly obvious. Just write up the gist of it and send it off to a writer who can "craft" the proper wording. BAM, super sinister mayor with an elegant speech that is sure to captivate your player. I would trade crafting materials for a custom retooling of a speech I need. Also, easily done though email...free! We have sculptors. Need I say more? Okay, maybe trade something for a custom sculpt....or maybe trade for a sculpting tutorial video. I cant sculpt to save my life. But I wish I could. If I could sculpt even some basic humanoids, I could do some serious damage. I would gladly trade stuff for a basic step-by-step sculpting tutorial. "This is how you unwrap your Sculpey package..." Map makers? I think so. Need an old looking map? Look no farther. Members that can draw. Yes, we have dozens. Need a custom picture? Maybe a local or NPC. Once again, with an email attachment...it's free! I think you get what I am saying... you don't have to dig deep to find all the special talents that members here posses. Custom Photoshopped character sheets? No Problem. Weird plant pods? Sure thing. Wood grain carved craft sticks? How many do you need? ....We have one of the best collection of talents out there... we just need a little nudge to elevate all of our games to the next level.... and beyond. wow, this idea really grows!  maybe there should be a thread where people post only the skills they want to offer and what they would trade their time for. or something like that. indeed there is plenty of skill and talent here, and from the looks of it more then enough people who would be willing to participate. all we need is some way of organising things. I like that very much. It looks like something of a craft market emerges from our brainstorming... Carrying on the idea of a craft market : dedicated marketplace forumif it grows, it might get it's own sub-forum, I presume. each participant could have his own thread where he links to other his own posts in other parts of the forum that show what he did and is willing to craft for trading a craft currency while this seems to run counter to the lament of our culture I've stated recently, (everything has a price attached to it), having something like a common currency might vastly facilitate our trading. this isn't really about money, but about helping to facilitate the trading: I might be interested in someone's sculpted rock giants and would offer trade against my specialities (for example mushrooms and tentacles), but the sculptor doesn't need either. If his rock giants cost 10 crafties each and etsimate my tentacles are 1 crafty each (making a tentacle is much less work than sculpting a figure, I guess), we would be able to have an agreement - otherwise I would have to find someone who wants my tentacles and can offer something in return that the craft sculptor wants. Even if both the sculptor and me each want what the other offers, having a common currency would easily help us determine how many tentacles one giant is worth. One idea of how to determine how many crafties one giant and one tentacle is worth would be simply to count the time needed fo make one of each. Of course this works only if the materials are neglible. Otherwise we would have to find a conversion rate between craft time and dollars/euros, which would essentially mean that each of us had to determine what one hour of his/her crafting time is worth. Again: I know this runs totally counter to the idea of breaking/transcending the 'everything has a price' meme. And really, a marketplace is a different beast than the 'pay it forward parcel sharing scheme'. Maybe we should discuss the market in a different thread? Also, tracking and organizing a currency is probably too much work for our small community to stem, more than it's worth (currencies are something of a holy grail for economists for generations, so we're probably not gonna draw one out of our collective hats...). This is probably the main argument against a craft currency, but I figured I'd throw the idea in the ring nontheless.  [spontaneous idea] Oh wait, we don't have to organise such a market - there's already etsy ( dawanda is the main german marketplace). Hmmm... this would be the final steap to commercializing an idea that started as a non-commercial theme. Which makes me instantly feel bad...  advantages: - trading is much easier (although it's not bartering anymore) - it opens up our craft to a large crowd -> some of them might find their way to our community and join us as crafters disadvantages - I guess etsi will want a share of the revenues. However small that might be, it still means someone takes a small bite out of each transaction. - it practically kills the idea of this whole thing being non-commercial - I'd have to make your stuff in advance to offer it. or is it possible to just offer my skills or potential products there before I made them? Has anyone experience with these marketpaces? [/spontaneous idea] |
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Post by daveyjones on Feb 28, 2015 13:22:41 GMT
another issue might be how to value things.
some people might be of the opinion that their thing is worth more then 1 credit...
i had another thought:
perhaps we could model it on one of those rich people clubs where people walk around
with tags on them saying either 'got money' or 'want money'. that's a thing they do
so people who are looking for inverters can find the people looking to invest in something.
maybe we could organise it like a social club type thing purely focussed on people finding
each other based on what they offer and are looking for.
anyways perhaps we should begin by laying down a clear and concise definition of what we want
to achieve and then determine what the obstacles are.
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Post by DungeonMasterRandom on Feb 28, 2015 13:42:14 GMT
Wooh! I'll have to get a few packages ready to ship! PM sent! |
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Post by curufin on Feb 28, 2015 14:31:17 GMT
Concerning a Marketplace: I must confess it is an interesting idea... but I do feel like assigning any subjective worth (or any kind of worth) to projects immediately builds walls between crafters, basically nullifying the foundation of this community "anyone can craft cheap stuff for their game." Placing a "worth" on crafts brings skill level, time involved, and available materials into an impossible equation. Someone builds gorgeous looking giants in 5 hours. I spend 50 hours making one that looks like garbage. Who's is worth more? This should be a place where every single member has the same share. Skill level shouldn't matter. Time spent shouldn't matter..... That being said, if someone has some specialties that they would like to offer... we could add that to the name on page one. Please don't get me wrong. It is an interesting idea. However, before we jump off another bridge, we should see how landing from the first one goes... |
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Post by curufin on Feb 28, 2015 21:55:30 GMT
^ That may have sounded a little like a rant. It was not meant to be. It was also not meant to squash or belittle anyone's ideas. If that was the way it was taken, I do apologize. I just think we want to be carful assigning a value to stuff. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
On a happier note: over coffee this morning I made 200 DMG style closed books. Is anyone looking to fill up a library? I will be making more tonight. Im thinking of doing maybe doing a couple of sets of 300 books each if anyone is interested....
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Post by daveyjones on Feb 28, 2015 22:30:32 GMT
i tend to agree about assigning value to things but i would say there are
a number of alternatives.
i think the thing that needs to be organised here is that the right people have to
be brought together and express want they want to give and receive to each other.
i feel the issue is one of communication, not regulation.
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Post by leeinwashington on Feb 28, 2015 22:37:27 GMT
I think if a new thread were created, where everyone listed the areas of crafting where they feel they could be contribute, we could come up with a "directory" of skills. Everyone posts a couple examples of their work, where they are located and what they are interested in trading for. Then you just see if your supply meets their demand and vice versa.
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Post by quinntheviking on Feb 28, 2015 22:47:16 GMT
This has been a fun thread.
And of course we have a bit of everything here. D&D people are every kind of people. Crafters are crazy mixed with talent. Makes for a good time, and some cool stuff. Scotty just gave us all a place to melt together.
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Post by leeinwashington on Mar 1, 2015 8:15:30 GMT
Ok, if you are on Facebook I created a group specifically to take this thread to the next level...look up The Skills Exchange. The group pic is a lighthouse. Have fun sharing your skills and bartering those skills with like-minded others.
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Post by tauster on Mar 1, 2015 8:58:57 GMT
honestly, I would prefer concentrating the action here and not on facebook.
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Post by Alexis on Mar 1, 2015 9:11:57 GMT
honestly, I would prefer concentrating the action here and not on facebook. I agree. I don't even have a facebook account anymore. I think the forum is the better option. |
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Post by leeinwashington on Mar 1, 2015 17:24:50 GMT
It may be, but this way people who use Facebook more simply have another option...and I'm all about options
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Post by daveyjones on Mar 1, 2015 18:47:56 GMT
i would favour a board with some conventions for the titles of threads.
depending on what people want to do they should start the title of their thread with
specific terms in all caps. like for instance somebody who wants to pass on stuff to noobs
would make a thread with a title like "[FREE STUFF] crafting surplus" and someone looking for
something specific would post a thread with a title like: "[WANTED]surprise eggs inner containers"
etc etc.
and some rules could be added like: posts with "[FREE STUFF]" in the title get stickied for 3 weeks,
stuff like that.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2015 22:51:21 GMT
I think the "General Crafting" board is the perfect place for these topics, we can make threads for different aspects and sticky them here.
I propose that we use both Facebook and the DM's Craft forum to facilitate communication (you will find Facebook attracts a wider membership and word spreads quickly from Likes and Shares).
I also propose we establish the currency to be the "Cardboard Currency" or CC. One cc being equivalent to a 10x10 inch square of double layer Cardboard.
The cc is equivalent to approximately one minute of skilled effort, or one found object, or one tenth of a hot glue stick (gs).
Due to the wide international variation in real labour and supply values, the cc or gs are intended only to determine a standard language of equivalent exchange values.
What do you think?
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Post by quinntheviking on Mar 2, 2015 1:14:43 GMT
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Mar 2, 2015 1:24:06 GMT
I am most decidedly IN!
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Post by tauster on Mar 2, 2015 19:54:51 GMT
Just received my package from curufin. *happy dance* Sharing a pic not to show off (...ok, a teensy weensy bit  ) but to show you what different kinds of stuff you can give away:  Plastic pipes and fittings, manual pumps (the green and orange parts) interesting bits and pieces, wooden squares (4.5 cm), a giant pin curler (beggin to become a pair of rusted cages!) and these great white gadgets (left of the curler) - no idea what I'll do with them, but they got the creative neurons of my brain firing the moment I saw them! So, a big THANK YOU! to curufin. I still haven't send out my three parcels because I have some pretty packed weeks job- and otherwise, but I'll try to get two of them out this week. For the third I still need to find someone... |
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) but to show you what different kinds of stuff you can give away:
Cheers!