Wall Pieces

[narrativedilettante]

When/where/how were they manufactured? When were they placed in their hidden locations? (At Counterpoint Records & Books they said they'd had it for about a month.) When did you decide where to put them, and where did you keep them until then?

[BlackWolfe]

Did you make duplicates?
My shipping address is
[mailing address removed by Ed]

[Connor Fallon]

Rick can answer the questions about manufacturing them the best.

As for when and how they were placed, that was spread out. Some we had an easier time with than others. The one in Seattle was placed first by necessity, as both Raikes and I would be out of the city for college and thus we would have no point of contact there. (Did anyone actually remove that one? I think GuestUser17 just took pictures) The Pittsburgh one was placed last, as I could pretty much make that drop any time -- it was actually only a block away from where I was staying. Don't quite remember the logistics of the other two -- I know that Dana had some trouble with the LA one.

Our plans for the Sydney brick actually changed the most dramatically out of all of them. Bill was in charge of securing that one, though.

[Rick Healey]

Well, the Fourth Wall really first began when the first storyteller sat down to relate what happened at that day's hunt...

Oh, wait, you mean the bricks that were made specifically for this game.

Well, first off, I can see that you haven't watched the video "Hacking the Void" enough. It's the denouement; important questions are answered there!

I mostly kid, but you can actually figure out a ton about the wall pieces by watching that video. I'm half-tempted to just ask everyone to do that again. But considering I already sent folks scrambling to read all of the Experiments in Food Preparation blog posts to find the hidden message I snuck in there, it'd be a little too cruel to send everyone on a chase to dissect the credits further, then start making phone calls to various businesses to start figuring out the specifics. So I'll give the rundown on their origin... even though it would be remarkably funny to send folks on a further wild goose chase.

Okay, first, the actual genesis of the idea - I'm throwing this in here because thinking back on it gives me the warm and fuzzies. In one of the earliest chats when the team had been convened, the subject of feelies came up. We knew, based on our own organization and the playerbase that we'd be likely to acquire, that most of what we'd be dealing with would be purely electronic. But we wanted to have the opportunity to have some physical objects that players could get - some really sweet prize that they'd be able to keep on their mantle and say that it was proof that they were a key participant in this ARG.

I was new to the team, and I barely knew anyone else at the time (I knew Dana and Eddie from the previous attempt at the ARG, and that was it). And since I had seen that there were others that did know each other, it was a little intimidating at first participating. Anyhow, as folks were starting to brainstorm for ideas, I kept going back to the basic conceit of the ARG - the Fourth Wall was breaking. I thought - what would it be like to actually have pieces of it break off and land in the real world? Players could then "restore" it by scanning it somehow, which would have the essence return to the Fourth Wall, and players could keep the "shell" as a trophy. So I suggested it, expecting to have folks debate the ups and downs of the idea and how it could be fit into the story.

What actually happened was the whole chat basically screeched to a halt and everyone immediately got on board with the idea. I mention this part of the story because that's the first time I felt "I'm a valued member of this team, and people take my ideas seriously." To me, it was pivotal in the game's development for both how it would proceed as well as my own place in it.

Anyhow, actual physical construction of the bricks. Since I was the one who had the idea of the bricks, I took it upon myself to go over the various ways we could make them. It quickly became obvious that acrylic plastic (the reinforced version of this is commonly known as Plexiglass; we used the non-reinforced version) was the only sensible material for them. Everything else was either too expensive, too fragile, or too difficult to engrave (though the idea of getting bricks of titanium and using that was intriguing... but that probably would have doubled the ARG's budget, and either Eddie or Janitor would have personally come to Boston to hunt me down with an elephant gun for wasting that much money). So I went to Altec Plastics, a nearby business that specializes in many different plastic compounds, and had the bricks molded.

(Side note, that I bet only Eddie and I will fully appreciate - the Fourth Wall was made by Southies. Heh.)

One thing I had wished was that I had arranged transportation to the next step, engraving. See, I didn't actually get bricks just for the game. I pointed out to the rest of the team that I could make copies for the rest of us while I was at it, and I went and made several extras that several of us (myself included) could keep as souvenirs for our efforts. But over a dozen bricks of plexiglass? That's heavy, and I stupidly went to the engraving place, on the other side of Boston, on public transit... and no, I didn't get lucky and get a seat.

Anyhow, as you'll also note in the credits, the engraving happened at a laser-engraving specialist in Cambridge, MA called Danger!Awesome (they're near a ton of cool stuff, including Harmonix headquarters). They're the ones who made sure to specifically ensure that I got acrylic glass - several plastics send off toxic fumes when lased, so you have to pick carefully. They did incredible work on the bricks, and I've been pondering going back to have them lase something else.

Fun little fact - the artist who made the echo featuring a Fourth Wall brick and I never communicated, and we were never given instructions as to what they'd look like, or what shape they'd take. When I finally revealed the finished bricks, we were all amazed that the artist and I had pretty much the exact same idea of what they'd look like. We were all ready to say that there was variation in what each piece would look like, but it instead was yet another case of us looking like we were incredible planners.

Beyond that, it was simply a matter of sending the various bricks off to their final destinations. It wasn't cheap, admittedly, to ship those around (and there was worry about the Australia brick; that ended up taking almost an extra month), but it was certainly worth it to see folks' reaction to them. I hope that all four are appreciated.

[Tom]

Fun little fact - the artist who made the echo featuring a Fourth Wall brick and I never communicated, and we were never given instructions as to what they'd look like, or what shape they'd take. When I finally revealed the finished bricks, we were all amazed that the artist and I had pretty much the exact same idea of what they'd look like. We were all ready to say that there was variation in what each piece would look like, but it instead was yet another case of us looking like we were incredible planners.

o_O How did this happen?

I love how there's stuff I'm just learning now.

[Connor Fallon]

I thought we got the comics way before we manufactured the bricks? Is that not true?

[Dana]

I believe we described the way we wanted them to look to the artist.

[Rick Healey]

The comics were commissioned before the bricks were, yes. However, a few things.

First, while the comics were commissioned, we hadn't received them before I started the process of having them made.

Second, I wasn't given quite so much access to materials as I later got (in short, I had to earn that level of trust and work). So even though the ARG as a whole received the comics before we received the bricks, I hadn't actually seen any of the comics (or their scripts) until after I had the bricks made.

[narrativedilettante]

Well, first off, I can see that you haven't watched the video "Hacking the Void" enough. It's the denouement; important questions are answered there!

Every time I watch it I pause several times so that I can read things, and there's still a bunch of stuff I haven't caught!

Thank you for sharing all of that. I can't speak for the others, but I certainly appreciate mine.

[JRPictures]

Well I'm glad to read about all that including the Sydney brick and how the engravings were made.

I thought it would take a month or so for the Sydney brick to get here.

[Rick Healey]

For the record, it was nearly universal that the brick that ended up in Sydney was the coolest of them all. Nearly every puppet master who bought a brick for themselves, myself included, got a copy of that one. I hope you enjoy it.

[GuestUser17]

The one in Seattle was placed first by necessity, as both Raikes and I would be out of the city for college and thus we would have no point of contact there. (Did anyone actually remove that one? I think GuestUser17 just took pictures)

Funny you should ask if anyone took the Seattle brick. I have had multiple calls to the store manager over the last few weeks to get him to release it but he insists that the owner is under strict instructions not to let it leave the store. Apparently the person who left it did not leave their phone number for them to call and confirm so I am at an impass. I contacted Tom through twitter and he said he would follow up but my credit card has not yet been charged for the shipping. If the person who placed it there could contact the store owner at Zanadu and tell them it's ok to release it I would be very grateful. PM me for more details.

[GuestUser17]

Well I'm glad to read about all that including the Sydney brick and how the engravings were made.

I thought it would take a month or so for the Sydney brick to get here.

Just for the record it was me that gave you the scare about the brick already being taken. I had someone go to the store and take pictures of it in case you could not make it but I told them that the brick should remain for the next person to come in a few days later. I then called the store to try an add an extra little gift in there but there was a bad connection and I didn't have a chance to call them back. This is what you should have had there with a little Christmas greeting from me to you and your sister - http://www.gamesparadise.com.au/cthulhu-dice
It was good to see you finally get that piece.

[JRPictures]

Well I'm glad to read about all that including the Sydney brick and how the engravings were made.

I thought it would take a month or so for the Sydney brick to get here.

Just for the record it was me that gave you the scare about the brick already being taken. I had someone go to the store and take pictures of it in case you could not make it but I told them that the brick should remain for the next person to come in a few days later. I then called the store to try an add an extra little gift in there but there was a bad connection and I didn't have a chance to call them back. This is what you should have had there with a little Christmas greeting from me to you and your sister - http://www.gamesparadise.com.au/cthulhu-dice
It was good to see you finally get that piece.

Thanks and I figured it was you that did the whole scare since you were the only person I knew that had someone to get the piece.

Anyways it's all pretty cool. I have the piece up in my room and I intend to make an unboxing video of it and the spam packages soon.

[Rick Healey]

Oh, another thing that I just remembered about them:

At one point earlier on, we actually discussed the prospect of getting one huge brick made, cutting it up like a puzzle, and then having those puzzle pieces engraved. We even considered having some secret message that could be composed by having the pieces reunited.

The problem with that is that you actually need a really specialized jigsaw in order to actually pull that off, and none of us had one. I found out where I would be allowed to use one, but the price to actually use it was well beyond our means (plus, I would have needed to take a safety course on using it because of how dangerous it was). It was decided, after that, to simply do bricks, because it'd require less headache.

[Tom]

Guestbatman: I followed up today about the stores. I had my hands pretty full until now, and I'm a few degrees of separation away from the owners. We'll make sure they get sent out, one way or another.

(If you're a GM who placed a brick, and it's not in a player's possession, get on that!)

[Connor Fallon]

Guestbatman: I followed up today about the stores. I had my hands pretty full until now, and I'm a few degrees of separation away from the owners. We'll make sure they get sent out, one way or another.

(If you're a GM who placed a brick, and it's not in a player's possession, get on that!)

I don't know how that happened. That was also an assumption that was held by Caliban, even though I know for a fact I said the players would be taking it.

So much so that when I went back myself to tell them that it was supposed to be retrievable, they had to call the managers to make sure I was the one who had given it to them and this wasn't some mad player ploy.

[Tom]

It was also an issue in Sydney! I don't know what we explained wrong...

Lesson to take away, I think, is even genre-savvy folks who run video game stores don't generally play ARG's, and even if they do, their whole staff might not. It's hard to know that a place is entirely foolproofed unless you own and run it yourself.

Drops are tough.

[Connor Fallon]

Well, I think they could have been Genre Savvy. I think the fact that there was only one, and it clearly had a QR code, would lead someone to believe it was something for multiple players to come by and scan.

[narrativedilettante]

For the record, the people at the LA location didn't hesitate to give me the piece and let me take it away. Other than the confusion of calling ahead about The Masked Fool and hearing that they didn't have it, picking that one up was easy.

[Dana]

For the record, the people at the LA location didn't hesitate to give me the piece and let me take it away. Other than the confusion of calling ahead about The Masked Fool and hearing that they didn't have it, picking that one up was easy.

I called them the minute they opened on the day you said you were going there and was like LET HER LEAVE WITH IT OR I WILL CALL AGAIN LATER AND SOB INTO THE PHONE. At this point, two locations had not let people leave with the wall pieces.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

After Enlil said they wouldn't let him leave with it, I was sure that it was a plot point for people to not be allowed to take the pieces away, and more proof that THE CABAL HAD LIED TO US. Uhh... I get carried away easily.

[narrativedilettante]

For the record, the people at the LA location didn't hesitate to give me the piece and let me take it away. Other than the confusion of calling ahead about The Masked Fool and hearing that they didn't have it, picking that one up was easy.

I called them the minute they opened on the day you said you were going there and was like LET HER LEAVE WITH IT OR I WILL CALL AGAIN LATER AND SOB INTO THE PHONE. At this point, two locations had not let people leave with the wall pieces.

Well then, thank you. I guess I benefited from being one of the later attempts. Also, it turns out that the phone I had on me at the time just wouldn't scan the QR code (I only scanned it once I'd got home and borrowed another phone) so if they hadn't let me take it then it probably wouldn't have been scanned that night.