Geek Foundry Brings Secret Exclusives to GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Fall Mall
We're counting the days until GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Fall Mall, happening October 14 and 15 at the Madison Masonic Center! We had a chance to chat with Efrem R. Jasso of Geek Foundry LLC, maker of gaming accessories, about their unique items and the special secret exclusives they'll be bringing this year:
GeekCraft Expo: For newcomers to your work, can you describe the types of pieces you create? Efrem R. Jasso: We make gaming accessories used primarily for tabletop games like role playing games and dice games. We do a handmade Wisconsin knotty pine and a Wisconsin red oak dice box that's cut, assembled, stained, and embellished right here in Wisconsin. We make Gamer Emergency Kits and Game Master Emergency Kits. This show we've got some excellent studded armor dice pouches that come with a bonus—you'll have to come to the show to see what it is, though! GCE: What made you decide to start Geek Foundry? ERJ: I've been building businesses for other people for 30 years, so I finally decided to do it for myself by joining two things I have a lifelong love of: gaming and web development. It's exhilarating to be your own boss and to see the positive results of the hard work you've done. Madison has a wealth of brick-and-mortar game stores that I love, but I wanted to try to reach other markets that are under served or that don't have local game stores. I put a lot of attention and care into the products I make and the products I choose to sell online, and I always send a little something extra with each package that ships as a way to show my appreciation for the people who shop my store online. GCE: I'm intrigued by your Gamer Emergency Kits—can you tell us the story behind them? ERJ: Ha! Those always either get a huge grin or a litany of questions about what they're used for. For years at gaming conventions I watched people forget their dice, paper, pencils, notepads—all of the stuff that you should have with you as you plan for a four-day geek fest, but being human, we forget things from time to time. One year I showed up at a con with a first aid kit stuffed in my backpack. It was plastered with a home-printed label on it that consisted of a red cross and the words "Gamer Emergency Kit." I waited patiently for the inevitable and eventually somebody asked me if I had a pencil they could borrow because they "forgot" theirs. I reached into my backpack and pulled out the kit and set it on the table. The guy asked me, "What's that?" I said, "For $20 it's yours, and you're covered for the rest of the con." The rest of the table broke out in laughter, but then I opened the kit and laid the contents out on the table and the laughter turned into a lot of "That’s really cool!" responses. He didn't buy the kit, somebody else at the table wound up buying it, but I realized that with that kind of response I was onto something. They started as a kind of gag, and they are funny, but they're also a thoughtful, sensible package. They’re lightweight, priced reasonably, and make great gifts for your favorite gamers—and they're easy to stow in a backpack or the trunk of your car. The box is a genuine waterproof first aid box, and it comes with a set of seven polyhedral RPG dice, a velvet pouch to hold the dice, a mechanical pencil, refills for the pencil, and a spiral-bound flip notepad. We have another version for game masters that includes all of that, plus a set of six dry-erase MiniMat Battle Grids™ for drawing out dungeons and other mappy stuff.
GCE: How did you come up with the design for your wood dice trays? ERJ: I've had a love of wood boxes and other woodworking since I was a kid. When my grandfather came home from WWII he opened up a cabinetry shop in Detroit and spent his life working with wood. He pioneered the conversion van interior market in the '70s and was super innovative. He set up a special corner of his shop so my brother and I could tinker and make things. He taught me how to use hand tools and power tools, and it just got into my blood. With these dice boxes, I wanted something small and light but strong enough to hold up to getting banged around a game table. I'm not a huge fan of dice towers, and it seemed like a lot of the swankier stuff available online was priced so high it was shutting out a lot of people who wanted quality at an affordable price point. So I wanted make a simple, affordable solution to keep dice from flying off of the table, knocking over miniatures, cards, and tokens. Handmade wood items are always classic and classy, so it was a natural materialization. This show we’re bringing our Wisconsin knotty pine boxes back, and we’re going to debut our Wisconsin red oak boxes as well. They're reeeeeeally nice! When you rap your knuckle against the side it has a nice, succinct report, like the crack of a baseball bat connecting for a home run. I’m going to let the cat out of the box here—no pun intended—and share a secret with you: we have two very special styles this show, but they were produced in a limited run each, so get there early if you want to see them and add one to your collection of gaming goodies. GCE: What are your favorite games to play? ERJ: The kind that bring good people together around a table! I love role playing particularly. I play in a D&D game regularly, and I’ve been running a home-brewed RPG for the past 35 years. We also play a lot of Munchkin, Murder of Crows, Marrying Mr. Darcy—that’s a lot of alliteration!—Space Hulk, Zombies!, Poo, and a bunch of others. That's the great thing about selling games online: you get to be exposed to so many excellent games and talented game developers. GCE: What surprised you most about last spring's GeekCraft Expo Midwest? ERJ: The tremendously warm welcome my son and I received, as we set up shop for our very first show ever. The other vendors were amazingly helpful and genuinely friendly. The response from the attendees was overwhelming as well. We didn't know what to expect, being our first show, so when I realized that we had sold a little more than half of our stock before the first day was over, I told my son we’d better save some for the next day because we had to be there for another eight hours or so! GCE: What kinds of things will you be bringing to GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Fall Mall this year? ERJ: Well, I've mentioned some of the products above, like the Wisconsin knotty pine and red oak dice boxes. And I mentioned the cool studded armor dice pouches and the Gamer and Game Master Emergency Kits, but I want to keep a couple other fun things undercover until the show. We haven’t even put them on GeekFoundry.net yet, so these are genuine exclusives that are going to be available to GeekCraft Expo Midwest Fall Mall attendees first.
Make sure to RSVP for GeekCraft Expo Midwest's Fall Mall today. Geek Foundry LLC is also donating one of their fantastic dice boxes to the our kickoff party, October 13 at the Bodgery! We'll have complimentary beer from Karben4, snacks, and prizes from The Game Crafter, Geeks Mania Arcade, and many of our exceptional exhibitors.
Can’t wait to see you there!
