Where's the News from Gencon?

[DMZ2112]

For what it's worth, I was there, and I'm glad I went, but I have to agree with the sentiment that it was not the big year I was expecting.
[MENTION=70]Nellisir[/MENTION] is right -- Wizards released the D&D5 PHB two weeks ago, regardless of what the ad copy states. They stole a lot of their own thunder. What I remember MOST from Gen Con 2000 was picking up my PHB and spending all night making characters.

This year, every fan I spoke to already had a copy and were weirded out by Wizards giving them out as prizes. My fellow judges who ran enough slots to earn a copy were kind of annoyed that they had to /not buy/ the PHB for a week because they knew they were getting a copy at the con. Even more odd was giving the Starter Set as a prize, because if you're already a player in the Adventurers League what the heck do you need a newbie DM product for? And again, if you're anything like me, /you probably already owned it anyway/.

The Tyranny of Dragons launch party was /bizarre/; a bit like trying to LARP at a high school dance. The 40th anniversary "celebration" basically amounted to three inaudible speeches from Wizards staffers I didn't recognize.

Now, I had a truly enormous amount of fun. I chose to run four slots of Adventurers' League content, met four great tables of players, and am coming away with stories I will never forget. I got an awesome D&D branded judge's dashiki that goes perfectly with my brand new critical-miss fez. I also played my first game of Legend of the Five Rings and participated in my first L5R court LARP. I played a game of Carcassone with coaster-tiles and shot glass-meeples filled with Dragon's Milk. I scored a copy of the highly sought after Dead of Winter as a gift for my sister. I shook Mike Mearls' hand and asked him to please fix the halfling (he laughed, pantomimed having a huge head, and said, 'We'll see').

But in terms of wow factor? Yeah, I was expecting more from Gen Con 2014. I bought my badge in January because of D&D5 and the 40th anniversary, and "nothing to write home about" pretty much covers that.

Oh, and if you're ever tempted in future I would not bother with trying to get a VIG badge. It's nice, but it's nowhere near $500 nice.

 

[Nellisir]

What I remember MOST from Gen Con 2000 was picking up my PHB and spending all night making characters.

I went in 1999, when they announced 3e. I got a t-shirt from the announcement seminar; WE spent all night dissecting the checklist on the back of rules 3e would or wouldn't have. Plus the Dragon magazine with my article in it was on sale that month, so that was cool.

 

[amerigoV]

Probably the biggest thing you missed: Con Crud.

Seems like every blog I follow where someone went to GenCon they got it. Must be a really hot item to pick up!

 

[dm4hire]

It's just been perplexing that there hasn't been any real wide spread news about it beyond what's been mentioned here. Normally several blogs and even the forums here have something going on that people could follow. That was one of the highlights I like when I'm not able to attend in that I can count on someone somewhere posting reports on a constant basis. I'm not sure if everyone has moved over to Facebook and so people need to be following the right pages over there or more likely as it seems most people just didn't care. Worse come to worse I am getting a sense that maybe it was a case of people thinking that someone else would write something and then no one did.

The Pinnacle news about Lankhmar I would think is huge since it is a return of a classic setting, based on a popular book series. If I had not asked I probably wouldn't have heard about it, assuming I didn't miss the announcement before Gencon if it was done.

 

[amerigoV]

I'm not sure if everyone has moved over to Facebook and so people need to be following the right pages over there or more likely as it seems most people just didn't care. Worse come to worse I am getting a sense that maybe it was a case of people thinking that someone else would write something and then no one did.

I have seen more "noise" on FB and G+ about GenCon than here so far.

The Pinnacle news about Lankhmar I would think is huge since it is a return of a classic setting, based on a popular book series. If I had not asked I probably wouldn't have heard about it, assuming I didn't miss the announcement before Gencon if it was done.

I did an actual double take when I was listening to the Savage World podcast when this was announced. Two people that did work on it back in the TSR days -Shane Hensley, creator of Savage Worlds and Tim Brown (of Dark Sun and the new Dragon Gods) - are back in the saddle on this one. Just take my money now.

 

[Nellisir]

Maybe we're all supposed to be twitting or something?

I will say, I like the recent front pages of EN World. Maybe we're just on a 5-day delay.

I heard something about Lankhmar and Savage Worlds, but no details.

 

[Janx]

Maybe we're all supposed to be twitting or something?

I will say, I like the recent front pages of EN World. Maybe we're just on a 5-day delay.

I heard something about Lankhmar and Savage Worlds, but no details.

I don't use twitter (the whole idea of followers sounds narcissist and cult-like).

I don't like things on FB generally, as I use it primarily to stay in contact with people I actually know.

I get the sense that I am using all of these technologies wrong....

 

[Morrus]

I don't use twitter (the whole idea of followers sounds narcissist and cult-like).

I don't like things on FB generally, as I use it primarily to stay in contact with people I actually know.

I get the sense that I am using all of these technologies wrong....

I was pretty resistant to it, too. But sadly, I don't think we have much choice. It's where the internet is going, whether we like it or not. I think our choice is to join in or get left behind.

 

[Nellisir]

I was pretty resistant to it, too. But sadly, I don't think we have much choice. It's where the internet is going, whether we like it or not.

Yeah, at the moment. I agree that in the business you're in, it's necessary. I'm not convinced there won't be another big thing in a few years - in fact, I'm positive there will be (although we seem to be in a slow period right now; Google Glass was the last big thing and it basically flopped). I have a twitter account but it's just another webpage to check with ephemeral updates that are rarely relevant 12 hours later...so I don't check it. It'd get more use if I could find some kind of aggregate setup that showed me twitter, facebook, G+, and gmail all on one page. (There might be such out there, but I haven't looked recently.)

I think our choice is to join in or get left behind.

More and more I'm enjoying the peace and quiet towards the back of the line.

 

[dm4hire]

Friend of mine actually stumbled onto some news over at RPG Geek. It has some good info about Onyx Path which I hadn't heard as well as mentions a few other games in addition to the stuff we've already discussed in this thread.

New edition of World of Darkness and all its variant titles coming out. Feng Shui is getting a new edition. FFG released the beta for the last of their Star Wars core books. So some decent news.