Gen Con Reports?

[Psion]

Breif summary of GenCon:

Highlights:

Roomies... Crothian and Cthulhu's Librarian are an old part of the posse, cool as always. But Diaglo... not only did we not kill each other , he turned out to be rather cool as well.

Rel's party: The cool "big party". Got to meet lots of new folks like Queenie and Direwolf, Bella, Grith and Cathix, Belen and Alenda, & lots others. Good times.

Escape from the Embassy Suites: What a twisted little adventure. If someone was setting out to write twisted social commentary in SF novel format, they could have done better. I died. It was glorious. I'll never think of the term "turn down service" in the same way.

Dinner at the Buca: A GenCon tradition. The Caesar Slaad... er, SALAD was great. It was killing me setting next to the Dog Soul folks they got a gold ENnie and showing my poker face.

D20 Dwarf's Broken Isles game with Teflon Billy & others, was the quintessential beer & pretzels gaming experience. And I got some cool artwork out of it.

Spycraft session 1, went a little slow due to 1 book and all neophytes, but was still fun.

The ENnies, of course, a rush. Some funny outtakes already posted elsewhere. A little sad I missed the after party. Still, the short after party chat in the hall was cool. (Compared to room, literally.)

One fun Ennies outtake... Dextra had people with spare chairs accomodate a few folks standing in the hall... Diaglo ended sitting with Paizo. The didn't realize who he was until he stood up to announce the Grognard award.

Dealer hall... I managed to constrain myself a bit, but still took away some sweet stuff.

Picnic... nice casual little get together, and good food that didn't cost an arm and a leg. Thank you Fick and the Mrs!

Spellslinger... we missed some connections and it didn't happen. But had a nice chat with Grith about spellslinger and may participate in some online action.

Klaus drew a cool new avatar pic for me, which has been posted elsewhere. Will start using it when it's colored.

Spycraft session 2 with Diehard, Kiznit, Rodrigo, and Alex Flag and Scott Gearin... simply

We had cool gadgets, cool cars, exploding houses, chases... all that stuff. It became obvious they weren't going to reach the final scene, so with about 45 minutes to go, I decided to cap the game off with the rough equivalent of "Screw it! Ninjas attack!" It was fun.

The Saturday night party... was a smaller party by the time I got there, which was more to my taste.

Fawning fanboy moment... got a signed pic by Gigi Edgely (AKA Chiana on Farscape.)

Can't wait to hang with you all again!!!! "Let's do this again next year."

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Klaus drew a cool new avatar pic for me, which has been posted elsewhere. Will start using it when it's colored.

I went to get a 'Rodrigo' picture done, but he was temporarily absent from the booth :\

 

[fett527]

I went to get a 'Rodrigo' picture done, but he was temporarily absent from the booth :\

We'll just call it....fatigue.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I don't go to Gen Con to game.

I go to buy stuff and hear what's coming out.

In terms of news, I must've missed the big announcements. "Kane for Savage Worlds!" Yeah, heard that before I went to the convention. "Lankhimar for Runequest!" Heard that months ago. I think the internet has spoiled me as far as news is concerned.

Did the paint and take a few times. Good stuff there.

As I noted when people asked me about Gen Con, at least one dealer, that for Wyrd Miniatures, had no credit card capabilities and I had already spent my cash at the time. Better luck next year.

Spent a lot of time in the anime/manga section. It's free and it's something I enjoy. Saw some weird live action movies. Definatly not the main stream stuff. Heck, I don't know if I'd even see that type of stuff at the indie type booths.

Let's see...

Great Cthulhu $85 bones but man he looks bad ass.

Rappan Athuk #889 $75 bones. It's okay but I bought it more as a 'completist' than anything.

Flipmatt City $10 I love these things. I've got the one for the wilderness and now city.

Deluxe Initiative Tracker: Mine was lost when my bag of old was lost.

Burning Empire $40: Uses the Burning Wheel System and is for the Iron Empire comics/graphic novels. Hate the size format but love the design, layout, and art. Looks very intense and has gotten me interested in the cmoics.

Burning Wheel/Jihad/Paths of Spite: $25, $10, $5: figured while I was getting Burning Empire, I might as well see what Burning Wheel was. It's rare that I do this as 3.5 is pretty much my default fantasy campaign setting.

The guys who were running this booth by the quite zone, were really friendly and knew what they were talking about, but putting the register in the back seemed to be the stupidist thing you could do as you were funneled in and there could only be like one or two people in the booth at a time to even look at stuff much less buy it.

Miniatures: $50 Picked up some Lance & Laser and some Magnificent Egoes. The L&L stuff you simply can't find at any store in the Chicagoland area, including Games Plus. Their newer stuff is simply fantastic. The ME stuff Games Plus carries, but not all of it and not in a timely fashion outside like the latest releases some times so I figured while I was there...

But I didn't see anyone selling Fenryl miniatures. Privateer Press had a huge stage, but Games Plus gets them no problem. Same deal with Rackham and Confrontaiton. Buy that on the home front.

Crystal Caste 16mm steel/iron dice: $40 but I got a free bag with it to hold my other stuff. And the dice are nice and heavy.

Queen of Lies: $15. Little buyer's regret because it's okay, but I already have the original and well, it'll be a long time before I get around to this.

Silk Road by Expedious Press: Every time someone complains of price gouging by Wizards of the Coast, I have to wonder if they buy any 3rd party products. This is a nice book, b&w softcover format at 160 pages for $27. Compared to a WoTC 160 hardcover full cover book at $30, it would be overpriced. Good stuff.

Bought my girlfriend Squirrel Attack Boardgame for $30. If it wasn't for my g/f, I'd never have touched this thing for that much money. No box and a rolled up 'board'? Yeah, gotta love that small press touch. Also got her the cat shirt, "If you don't talk to your cat about catnip now, who will" for $21. And some home made chocolate on one of the many paths back to Chicago from the con for like $20.

Didn't take a single review product this year. Figured I'm still a little backed up on some of the material I'm working on already (Dragons of Faerun, Red Hand of Doom, Complete Psionicist, Artesia, etc....) and didn't want to try and sound like anything I'd take now would get done soon. So cash was paid and I'll be able to read the stuff at my own lesiure.

One thing I thought was funny was a game setting/mechanics with a poster of a dragon with chromatic and metallic colors with the phrase, "Color means nothing!" or something similiar and noted how it now uses the A/B system!

And I was thinking... "Man, the fear of d20 must be huge if people are using dragons and knights and other fantasy troupes and going to another game system." Or people honestly think that they've got the next system (TM) and that it's going to be the bomb! Honestly, if it's not d20, I tend to keep away from it. I may pick up Savage World (again!) when Solomen Kane comes out and I may pick up Runequest when Lankhimar and Conan 2nd ed come out but my days of buying multiple fantasy systems are over for the most part.

The only reason I bought Burning Wheel was that Burning Empire looked so good and I was curious to see how that transferred over to fantasy.

Because I was wearing bad shoes (semi-dress shoes that felt like a thousand daggers) and walking around a lot, I didn't stop in at a lot of booths and catch up with people, which I felt was bad. I was pretty much there to buy and get out and I know I missed a few booths like Goodman Games, Paradigm, and Green Ronin, but at the same time, I'd pretty much blown through what I was going to spend and since my feet were killing me and I didn't want to stand around talking... "Yeah, I bought all this stuff but I'm buying nothing from you and taking time away from other customers!"

One of the things I noticed thought is that there are some lazy dealers. I gotta tell you, if you're at a convention with a table with nothing on it but you're book, you're not doing your job. Get something to take up some space with images/details of your product. If you're sitting on your butt, you're not doing your job. How stupid is it to pay for a table, (not to mention the creation of product in the first place), and sit there reading your book or looking down at the ground instead of standing up and trying to get people interested in your product? If you can't do that and can only create the product, you need to hire someone else to come in and hawk your wares for you otherwise you're wasting time and taking up booth space!

Oh, the art was awesome too. They've got a whole section in the exhibit hall seperated from the main hall and man, the artists were out in force with art to sell and display pieces to own. If I had money and a place to put 'em...

WoTC... man, when you sell out of the Book of Nine Swords, you didn't bring enough. When you're selling products for prices that other dealers are killing you on, you might want to think about not bringing those products and bringing more of things you're selling out of. One of my friends bought a brick of Angelfire miniatures for under $100 and was like, "Man, what's WoTC thinking charing full retail when everyone else has 'em for $9 or less."

I spent way too much time in the Hotel room watching CNN. I don't get cable at home and CNN is like a car accident. I just couldn't turn away with all the stuff happening. Felt kinda weird but as it effected two of the guys in the room, it was something real and something I felt important to keep up to date on. It was like hypnotism. Anyone sharing a room with me can attest that anytime they walked in, if I wasn't asleep (don't drink, do bars, etc...) or wasn't out (woke up about 5:00 Am most days and walked around downtown in bad shoes), I was watching CNN.

Took two shifts in the Ennies both and had a chance to speak with some En Worlders. Great bunch of guys and gals out there.

If I go again next year, I'll try to actually get in some gaming.

 

[shaylon]

Well, it was an amazing time yet again. I played in three fantastic games, and played three very different roles in each.

It was my first time watching the costume contest this year and I was so impressed by the work that gets put into most of them. Congrats to Xath on 2nd place in the fantasy group and the the gelflings for the 1st prize in the talent portion!

The Ram was awesome, as always. I love a bar where they make their own beer and you can watch disc 3 of the Firefly complete series while getting tanked. I brought home 5 growlers for some friends the beer was so good.

The dealer hall didn't see as much of my money as it has in the past but I got to pick up my preorder of Ptolus so I feel satisfied that I came home with some great loot. I spent some cash at Green Ronin, Paizo, and at the OOTS booth.

The best part though was getting to know some fellow ENWorlders a little better. Diaglo is a great guy with some very funny stories. The same can be said for Fusangite, who is a remarkable person. Buttercup was fantastic to get to know. Everybody was just great. Except for Frater, that guy is just weird! (I have to post that on CM, he will never read this.) Oh and if you ever get a chance to game with Piratecat I suggest you do so.

I got to have lunch with Maldur, Romp, Fusangite, and Buttercup at an Indian restaurant. Basically my first Indian experience. It was pretty good!

GenCon is a fantastic experience but it is even made better by ENWorld. I got to meet 50+ people that I can see here everyday, and they were all great. If you come to GenCon make sure you make time for ENWorlders, and get in a game with them. I played three ENWorld games, and they were all fantastic!

To everyone I got to meet, thanks for another great experience!
-Shay

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

This year was great beyond words.

I'd love to go through and mention everyone I met, hung out with, etc... but there's just so many of you!

My highlights include:

(1) Phat Lewt.
The husband and I went totally nuts in the dealer hall this year. Completely insane. We had more stuff than we knew what to do with! I'd list it all, but I'm lazy. So, instead, you'll get my top 5 purchases (in no particular order):

Ultimate Power and Golden Age. They're just great and will add A LOT to our M&M game.

I got one of the crazy Zuca roller-bags and I love it. It's a little difficult to take on a plane, but it's totally awesome.

An awesome belt from Griffon Leather. It's beautiful. Will probably have to post pictures.

Five Fingers. I f'ing love Privateer Press. The Iron Kingdoms = my favorite non-home-brew setting.


(2) P-Cat's Mutants and Masterminds Game (Anti-Heroes).

Kiznit and The Universe were both just awesome. Between The Universe's ridiculous nerdy tax-accountant voice and Kiznit's quick wit and hilarious lines, the game was pretty much 4 hours of laughter.


(3) Old One's Arthurian Legends game.

This game just had a wonderful, magical feel. I absolutely loved it.


(4) "Nerds Killed in Roof Collapse While Watching Porn at Star Trek Convention."


(5) Diaglo.
The man's pretty awesome. I thought I would hate him, but I don't.


(6) "Don't get tough with me."
Ask Teflon Billy.


(7) The ladies.
It was SO awesome to just sit and chat with y'all. SO awesome.

... probably post more later.

 

[Farland]

GenCon was awesome! Let me just say that Teflon Billy is recognizable a mile away.

I posted a modest and personal blog over at my message board if you want to check it out here..

Of course the highlight for me was winning the silver ENnie for best fansite. Whoo hoo!

A good time was had by all, I can safely say that.

 

[Ghostwind]

Quite unexpectedly, it did work out so I got to go go Gen Con this year (even though I was in a hotel on the north side of Indy in Castleton). I didn't get there until 6:00 Thursday night, but here's a short rundown of my thoughts. This was the first time that my wife and kids have ever travelled with me to a convention and, while they never went to the con itself (did other things in Indy like museum and zoo), they were real troopers about driving me in to the convention centers in the mornings (sometimes as early as 8am) and picking me up late at night (11ish). My kids are only 8 and 6 so being up past 10 is a huge deal.

Thursday-
My wife dropped me off at the Westin (which became our usual drop-off/pick-up spot for the rest of the con) and I headed in. Made it to the press room at exactly 6pm just before they closed so I was able to pick up my press badge no problem. The press bag had a few goodies in it, but mostly flyers and stuff. Each year the amount of promo material declines (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but it also is a reflection of the state of the industry financially. Met up with the guys at Magnificent Egos, ate supper and headed over to the "industry invite only" screening of The Gamers: Dorkness Rising. It wasn't a technically perfect movie as the production team did say that some sound mixing and other tech stuff still needed to be finished but what was shown was not only hysterically funny, but actually quite good. This is now a film where you don't necessarily have to be a gamer to get every joke. During the wait before the show, I got to see a few close friends and had a great conversation with JD Wiker and his girlfriend.

Friday-
Met some of the members of my review staff at the Ram at 8am. Apparently, the Ram is no longer open 24 hours during Gen Con, so we had to wait until 8:30 before they would open for breakfast. Breakfast was actually quite good and reasonably priced. It was nice to met some of my reviews for the first time (Duane "Maransreth" Nutley and his wife - all the way from Australia, Dallas Parsons, Patrick Seymour) and see John Grigsby and his lovely wife again along with their friend "Schmoo". Headed over to the Dealer's Hall about 10:15 to work the Magnificent Egos booth. Sales were good and having two of the limited edition dragons painted really helped sales. People didn't seem to have a problem at all about dropping $250.00 for it. Queen_D and her husband, The Universe stopped in and bought a lot of minis. Thanks, guys!

Took a break and roamed the hall and noticed more RPGs that were independent systems than last year. I think with the decline in d20, publishers are moving towards doing non-d20 systems that better reflect what they want their game to convey. I'm not sure how they did in sales but many booths seemed to be busy. Got to see old friends among the dealers like Jamie and Renae Chambers (Margaret Weis Productions), Joe and Suzi (Exp. Retreat), Rob Reed (Code Monkey Publishing), Kevin Melka (Digital Adventures), James Bell (Fiery Dragon), John Zinser (AEG), and many more I am forgetting. I also slid out and grabbed my ENWorld i.d. and invite to the ENnies.

When ENnies time came, the room was very packed and loud due to the Westin deciding that half a room was all that was needed. Dextra did a remarkable job working with what she had. There were a few glitches in the ceremony including the failure to recognize nominees in some categories but overall, it was a good ceremony. I was a bit disappointed in that when I approached Paizo and told them I had won their Dream Date auction, they said they knew nothing about the auction other than "being asked to give some product for some auction." Personally, the elements about sitting with Paizo as an auction winner and going up on stage were not a big deal to me as I was also there representing Magnificent Egos and had my own Dream Date auction winner to attend too (who did have a great time and enjoyed himself) but I was a bit dismayed about the negative feeling I got when I approached them. But maybe my perception about what a publisher/manufacturer should do for their Dream Date auction winner is different than others. Once the ceremony was over, I had to leave since it was late and my wife still had to pick me up.

Saturday-
Got to the show just before 10am and headed straight to the miniatures hall to play in a Wargods of Aegyptus miniature tournament. Wargods is a new game for me and I fully expacted to get slaughtered every round. The first round I faced an opponent who had an army of Sobeki (crocodile warriors) complete with 3 Beloveds (think of a super croc on steroids). It was bloody and quite brutal with my Basti (cat people) army getting eaten in near record time. The second round I faired a little better. My opponent had an army of Heru (followers of Horus) and the mission objective was more sustainable. He made a couple of key strategic mistakes that allowed me to win the objective at the last minute. Had there been five more minutes in the game, the outcome would have been much different. It was very close. The third round, I faced a new opponent with, you guessed it, a Sobeki army. (I really am starting to hate those crocs.) I did better and very nearly won. It came down to a single die roll for initiative. Had I won the initiative by a larger margin, I would have been able to activate both unitsof my archers instead of one and would have likely defeated his Harbinger instead of his Beloved eating mine. All in all, a very fun day. Since Saturday was also my 17th wedding anniversay, I chose to spend the rest of the night with my family and went out to eat dinner.

Sunday-
Unfortunately, Saturday night was spent without any sleep as my Crohn's decided to flare up in a big way. So not only was I exhausted on Sunday, but I think it showed too. I had a meeting with Wotc concerning press-related stuff. Contrary to rumor, there is no 4th edition forthcoming in the near future (I still predict a 2008 release, but that is just my prediction). I did get to demo Dreamblade with the brand manager for the line and found the game to be highly enjoyable. I don't think it will be sustainable in the long term but I've been proven wrong before. After my Wotc meeting I wandered the hall a bit until it was time for my yearly lunch with Ed Greenwood. Ed and I always get together at Gen Con for a couple of hours of eating and relaxing from the rigors of a convention. It is always good and entertaining fun (as anyone who knows Ed can tell you) and is something we both look forward to every year. I spent the rest of the afternoon roaming the dealer hall and buying a few things plus picking up a couple of review copies to assign to my staff. At 4pm, I got the heck out of there with my newly bought stuff (which included a Mag. Egos LE dragon) and headed for home after my wife picked me up.

Overall, I thought it was a good convention. I talked to a lot of dealers and the universal opinion was that this year's con was much better financially than last year. Everyone I talked to had better if not record or near-record sales. Many times there were booths too crowded to apporach in my walks around the hall.

I also enjoyed meeting new faces. Several EN Worlders who have been reading my Live Journal or following my medical problems here on EN World made a point of giving me well wishes. I also got to meet a few folks that help out with the Heroforge Project. This is one of the things I truly enjoy about the cons and is a major reason why I attend. In many ways, it is like attending a family reunion where you only get to see your favorite cousins once a year.

There were two innovative products that really suprised and impressed me. The Slip-Mat is a hobby mat that works very well in protecting your kitchen table from things like paint, glue, markers, etc. I bought the largest size so both myself and my kids could make use of it. The second thing was the Combat Pad from Open Mind Games. This is an initiative/combat tracker that is wet/dry erase and magnetic. It is one of those products that is so simple that you literally slap yourself and think "Why did I think of this first?". It's that damn good and should be a real contender for an ENnies Award next year if it is submitted.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Queen_D and her husband, The Universe stopped in and bought a lot of minis. Thanks, guys!

Hey - we should really be thanking YOU! We got home last night and started unloading our minis from y'all and I just smiled. Magnificant Egos does such great, unique work.

Funny thing is, when we stopped at the booth, we were only going to look...

 

[Piratecat]

There were a few glitches in the ceremony including the failure to recognize nominees in some categories but overall, it was a good ceremony.

This is an excellent point. We had some organizational problems that resulted in the honorable mention nominees being omitted (ie, they weren't on my sheet and sure as heck should have been.) We'll be taking steps to make sure that nothing like this happens again. It shouldn't have happened this time.

Today's watchword? Constant improvement!