Hi guys,
Well, we have been back in Britain for nearly twelve hours now and we are still exhausted! However, we are tired but happy - GenCon was a blast!
First of all, let me say thank you one and all to those who swung by our booth to support the Mongoose - the GenCon crowd has to be amongst the friendliest in the world and your kind words were much appreciated.
Aside from myself, Alex and Alejandro on the stand, we also had guests in the form of artist Brent Chumley, writer Sam Witt and, last but by no means least, Mr Gary Gygax himself, who spent time with us on Saturday to sign copies of the Slayer's Guide to Dragons and answer any questions from fans. Cheers guys!
We managed to bring several new books with us that will be hitting the stores within the next few weeks. Apart from the metal bound Judge Dredd RPG (which caused some interesting problems with US Customs!), we had the Rookie's Guide to Block Wars, the Rookie's Guide to Psi-Talent, Cities of Fantasy: Highthrone, Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chronomancy, the Slayer's Guide to Medusas and the Quintessential Monk. Apologies to all of you who missed picking up these books at GenCon - we promise to bring more next year, but demand stripped all expectations. By far the best selling book on our stand over the week, however, was the (somewhat controversial) Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers. We very much appreciated the response from the gaming public on this book and seemed to permanently have small groups of gamers at either end of the stand giggling away at James Desborough's latest work! It perhaps is worth nothing that by far the majority of the Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers (about 75%!) were bought by female gamers, with the guys claiming they were being purchased for their girlfriends - don't worry guys, your secret is safe with us
The evenings revolving around GenCon were, as ever, jam-packed with cool and fun things to do, even if I had to duck out of a few events, due to extreme jet lag and self-inflicted over indulgence! The highlight, however, had to be Thursday evening's D20 Clan Wars Smackdown - a showdown between the d20 companies to demonstrate business acumen, financial savvy, and knowledge of the market. Or, at least, that was the intention. . .
It went something like this - Mongoose's own Alexander Fennell spent many a late night putting together a huge board and deck of event cards, as well as special rules for each company. Mongoose, for example, rolled two dice to move each turn, taking the highest to simulate our break neck release schedule. Our disadvantage was a special vulnerability to the Flame Table on the board (ahem). Troll Lord had the disadvantage of always being forced to take the 'long cuts' on the board (namely the Casino and Strip Joints), but had the benefit of never being forced to lose a resource (printer, artist or writer) due to them obviously being their sister's mother's cousin's uncle (hey, they are from Arkansas!). Bastion Press suffered from only being able to take colour artists, while Thunderhead Games was never allowed to actually pass Mystic Eye on the board - you get the idea!
Every company taking part had such pros and cons, and the object was to collect enough writers, fans, printers, artists and distributors to publish a d20 product, all represented on character sheets (company sheets?) with Jelly Beans. Sound easy? It might have been had companies not been able to effect one another with Secret Weapons, sabotage attempts and Hated Rival cards! Special thanks must go to Todd from Bastion who took the time and trouble to produce individual playing pieces for each company, and Hal from Thunderhead who made sure all ten companies knew where to be on Thursday evening. In the end we only had three no shows - Green Ronin (bottled), Paradigm, who were not sure where it was (Jimmy Hill) and Avalanche, who had entered the charity boxing match (actually a very cool excuse and something Alexander 'I have a black belt in Karate' Fennell may be looking to do next year). Fortunately, nothing went to waste and proxies were soon found to take the place of these companies and with Bastion's Todd threatening Thunderhead's Hal with having to touch his light sabre if he lost (fnarr), the game commenced, with Mongoose, Mystic Eye, Thunderhead, Bastion, FFG, Troll Lord and Necromancer each keen to show the others who is boss!
So how did it go? Well, secret weapons came out thick and furious in the first few minutes of the game, with each company trying to gain a vital edge over the others, amid curses, threats and promises of retaliation. Special sympathies must go to Mystic Eye who spent much of the game being forced to move only one square per turn due to a series of cunning cards played by a rival company, mentioning no FFG's - sorry, names. Also to Necromancer who, at the chance of every short cut on the board, was forced to 'ask permission' from their parent company to take them - and was constantly both denied and delayed!
Bastion, Paradigm and FFG all took very early leads in the game and it seemed, at one point that it was a three horse race - unfortunately, those secret weapons and Hated Rival cards came back to haunt all three, allowing the Mongoose to slip into the lead in the last few minutes (ahem), even though they were bogged down by the Red Troll.
Many thanks to all those who participated, as you certainly made it an evening to remember. It was extremely good-natured and, even with many of the events in the game being based on real life, everyone showed a remarkable ability to laugh at themselves - and each other. And the Mongoose. Especially the Mongoose
See you all next year guys - I just know you are spoiling for a re-match!
Well, we have been back in Britain for nearly twelve hours now and we are still exhausted! However, we are tired but happy - GenCon was a blast!
First of all, let me say thank you one and all to those who swung by our booth to support the Mongoose - the GenCon crowd has to be amongst the friendliest in the world and your kind words were much appreciated.
Aside from myself, Alex and Alejandro on the stand, we also had guests in the form of artist Brent Chumley, writer Sam Witt and, last but by no means least, Mr Gary Gygax himself, who spent time with us on Saturday to sign copies of the Slayer's Guide to Dragons and answer any questions from fans. Cheers guys!
We managed to bring several new books with us that will be hitting the stores within the next few weeks. Apart from the metal bound Judge Dredd RPG (which caused some interesting problems with US Customs!), we had the Rookie's Guide to Block Wars, the Rookie's Guide to Psi-Talent, Cities of Fantasy: Highthrone, Encyclopaedia Arcane: Chronomancy, the Slayer's Guide to Medusas and the Quintessential Monk. Apologies to all of you who missed picking up these books at GenCon - we promise to bring more next year, but demand stripped all expectations. By far the best selling book on our stand over the week, however, was the (somewhat controversial) Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers. We very much appreciated the response from the gaming public on this book and seemed to permanently have small groups of gamers at either end of the stand giggling away at James Desborough's latest work! It perhaps is worth nothing that by far the majority of the Slayer's Guide to Female Gamers (about 75%!) were bought by female gamers, with the guys claiming they were being purchased for their girlfriends - don't worry guys, your secret is safe with us
The evenings revolving around GenCon were, as ever, jam-packed with cool and fun things to do, even if I had to duck out of a few events, due to extreme jet lag and self-inflicted over indulgence! The highlight, however, had to be Thursday evening's D20 Clan Wars Smackdown - a showdown between the d20 companies to demonstrate business acumen, financial savvy, and knowledge of the market. Or, at least, that was the intention. . .
It went something like this - Mongoose's own Alexander Fennell spent many a late night putting together a huge board and deck of event cards, as well as special rules for each company. Mongoose, for example, rolled two dice to move each turn, taking the highest to simulate our break neck release schedule. Our disadvantage was a special vulnerability to the Flame Table on the board (ahem). Troll Lord had the disadvantage of always being forced to take the 'long cuts' on the board (namely the Casino and Strip Joints), but had the benefit of never being forced to lose a resource (printer, artist or writer) due to them obviously being their sister's mother's cousin's uncle (hey, they are from Arkansas!). Bastion Press suffered from only being able to take colour artists, while Thunderhead Games was never allowed to actually pass Mystic Eye on the board - you get the idea!
Every company taking part had such pros and cons, and the object was to collect enough writers, fans, printers, artists and distributors to publish a d20 product, all represented on character sheets (company sheets?) with Jelly Beans. Sound easy? It might have been had companies not been able to effect one another with Secret Weapons, sabotage attempts and Hated Rival cards! Special thanks must go to Todd from Bastion who took the time and trouble to produce individual playing pieces for each company, and Hal from Thunderhead who made sure all ten companies knew where to be on Thursday evening. In the end we only had three no shows - Green Ronin (bottled), Paradigm, who were not sure where it was (Jimmy Hill) and Avalanche, who had entered the charity boxing match (actually a very cool excuse and something Alexander 'I have a black belt in Karate' Fennell may be looking to do next year). Fortunately, nothing went to waste and proxies were soon found to take the place of these companies and with Bastion's Todd threatening Thunderhead's Hal with having to touch his light sabre if he lost (fnarr), the game commenced, with Mongoose, Mystic Eye, Thunderhead, Bastion, FFG, Troll Lord and Necromancer each keen to show the others who is boss!
So how did it go? Well, secret weapons came out thick and furious in the first few minutes of the game, with each company trying to gain a vital edge over the others, amid curses, threats and promises of retaliation. Special sympathies must go to Mystic Eye who spent much of the game being forced to move only one square per turn due to a series of cunning cards played by a rival company, mentioning no FFG's - sorry, names. Also to Necromancer who, at the chance of every short cut on the board, was forced to 'ask permission' from their parent company to take them - and was constantly both denied and delayed!
Bastion, Paradigm and FFG all took very early leads in the game and it seemed, at one point that it was a three horse race - unfortunately, those secret weapons and Hated Rival cards came back to haunt all three, allowing the Mongoose to slip into the lead in the last few minutes (ahem), even though they were bogged down by the Red Troll.
Many thanks to all those who participated, as you certainly made it an evening to remember. It was extremely good-natured and, even with many of the events in the game being based on real life, everyone showed a remarkable ability to laugh at themselves - and each other. And the Mongoose. Especially the Mongoose
See you all next year guys - I just know you are spoiling for a re-match!
.
