Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ghostwind" data-source="post: 3006179" data-attributes="member: 3060">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! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />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.</blockquote>

Verification