Origions

[marchypes12]

Anyone who went were you angry to find no free things from Wizards and other tables? I mean Wizards just stoped this year giving free things and I mostly go for the free stuff so I was greatly disappointed

 

[shaylon]

I was thoroughly disappointed with Wizard's booth. It was not as good as last year's and certainly no where near what you see at GenCon.

-Shay

 

[Mark CMG]

That's bad news. The free goodies often make it feel like an expensive trip and convention fees are all worthwhile.

 

[IronWolf]

I agree, the Wizards booth was quite disappointing this year. Being small there just wasn't much going on at it this year. I am guessing they are saving their $$$ for GenCon. While I understand they probably don't think they get enough money from Origins, with a booth like theirs this year you have to wonder which is the reason they may not take in much money - the fact it is Origins or the fact they had a rather pathetic booth.

 

[Sammael]

So many people who wnet to Origins, yet STILL no pictures of Angelfire miniatures?

 

[Crothian]

Anyone who went were you angry to find no free things from Wizards and other tables? I mean Wizards just stoped this year giving free things and I mostly go for the free stuff so I was greatly disappointed

Not really, I don't expect to get free things from the puiblishers. I was happy Wizards didn't hjave a huge booth that took up too much space and attracted crawds. Made findinmg the other booths and getting around a lot better.

 

[Crothian]

Well, it was a great con. I finally meet up with Biggus Geekus, though I wisdh we had mor etime to talk. Ashockey got some great luck in the wizkids lottery thingy, I feel sorry for his players though if they have to face what he got. The mega Paranioa LARP was very interesting. The people running it were great, though the people playing it had many obnoxious people. The small EN World dinner gathering turned out to be mostly people I know and Ryan, Ryan is a lurker from here. Hound and Denise made great house guest and as always it was a lot of fun to be with them.

While there were many positives, there was one negative. We had a Blue Rose game with John Snead I believe that got canceled. I was really disappointed by that as it was 10am Sunday and we got up and missed sleep to specifically get there for this game.

However, the Thieves World game with Rob Schwalb was just great.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Sorry I missed the dinner. I was running Cthulhu and when it ended I had an offer to go to Schmidts which is something I have a hard time turning down. By the time I got back I realized I had no idea where the find the pub you guys were at.

As far as free stuff goes, well I kind of just stopped expecting it at this point. The old days showed Origins and GenCon giving lots of stuff but in the past 5 years it seems awfully thin.

 

[Crothian]

As far as free stuff goes, well I kind of just stopped expecting it at this point. The old days showed Origins and GenCon giving lots of stuff but in the past 5 years it seems awfully thin.

One of my friends found a gold mine. She played a lot of games and there was a card you get for the DMs to sign. Then you get it stamped y the publisher, turn it in somwhere and you have to be there for the drawing. There were 5 good sized piles of books and only 15 people that showed up so pretty good odds. She won about 10 RPG books of a variety of games but it was a couple hundred dollars worth of books.

There were a lot of good demis going on though. I played Apples to Apples for about an hour and basically was teavhing and helping to teach the game to a variety of people. The IPR guys were willing to demo any of their books and whiule I really wanted to do that I just never found the time.

 

[derbacher]

The con was great. As it was the first one I've been to, I didn't know what to expect. The pre-reg problems of Wednesday (and then continueing on into Thursday) had me extremly paranoid about the event. The problems were many, but to a person, the origins staff was great. They worked with everyone, got the lines through as quickly as possible, and were friendly and helpful to everyone.

I played nine official games over the course of the five days. I had a game cancelled on friday that was rescheduled to today at 1:00 (Myrick Games new line, Storming the Fire Giants Citadel, run by Andrew Shockney). I was looking forward to that game, as it was my only high-level game of the week, but I had to leave at noon today (the wife demanded it!). So I sit down last night to a six hour game with the great folks from Amorphous Blob Games, and who is sitting next to me but Andrew Shockney! And he plays a mean dwarven cleric with delusions of bard-hood!

My 8:00 am game today was cancelled, with a table full of players, because the GM just didn't show up, no explanation given. So I got to try out the new DragonMech from White Wolf (under the Sword and Sorcery label). Good concept, great looking books, but I'm not sure how well it would work for a role-play heavy game, as opposed to a "smash everything with our giant steam-powered mech" concept.

As for free stuff (which is where this thread started ) I have a stack of books sitting next to mee that is almost three feet high. Some where prizes from games, some were just real cheap, (the $1 and $3 tables kicked my butt) and 1 I especially treasure. Since I own all the first edition AD&D stuff, I was interested in checkimg out HackMaster. As I walked away from the Kenzer Co. booth, one of the reps called me back and said "If you promise to read it cover to cover, it's yours." I'm half-way through this behemouth, and it is a joy to experience the thrill of those early years again. This is one I'll be looking to play soon.

Last bit (for now ), if you have never played a game with the crazies from Amorphous Blob, go sign up for one right now! You will never have a better time or a better convention game experience. I played in four of their sessions, including a GURPS sytem game that I was able to walk in on after the Friday game was cancelled. I knew nothing about the GURPS system, it confused me trying to hunt for things in the books during the game, and I still had a great time because these people just know how to run and present games. Their D20 home-brew world was great, featuring characters with real backstories and motivations, great opportunities to role play, and lots of free dice for doing good things in character. Go play one at GenCon (wish I could... ). You will never regret it.