I just listened to the ‘Not-going to Gen Con’ edition of the RPG Haven Podcast, and now I feel bad of not liveblogging the whole thing… since one of the host pointed toward my blog as a Gen Con source… It was a lot harder this year!
Ohhh I forgot
My good friend Wil kindly reminded me that I left out a very important thing out of my re-telling of the Ennies. And that was a hilarious sketch by The Polyhedrals… He was right, that was very funny. Have a look here, the video is grainy but it’s a verbal sketch anyway.
Hanging out with the cool kids
After the ceremony, I sauntered over to the Wizards crowd to extend my congratulations for having won so many Ennies. After a few minutes of handshakes and smiles, the PR representative of the company invited us (a few bloggers who’ve been known to hang together a lot) to join them after dinner for drinks.
Then, right after that, I got invited to dinner with them by Chris Sims. After a few seconds of stammering and stuttering, much to Chris’s mirth (he’s seen that before), I recovered and followed them. I finally got to meet Shelly Mazzanoble (she’s nice, and fun to talk to, and cute!) and I learned that pretty much everyone in the office knew about the blog, especially the series I made about playing with my son and the Open Letter to Wizards I wrote last year.
What followed were a series of funny adventures I won’t recount as this slowly drifts into personal life territory… not so much mine, as I share that freely, but that of others. Suffice it to say that I had a great time hanging out with Chris, Bruce, Miranda and the D&D insider gang. I was soon joined by my blogger friends and a great evening was had.
I did get from all this that my D&D for kids idea was taken more seriously than I originally expected. It so happens that people have been asking Wizards about their plans of making D&D material for the 6-12 market, a lot more than expected apparently. I was told that what was supposed to be a one shot deal (my adventure proposal) could become so much more as the company is revising it’s strategy.
What does it mean for me? I honestly don’t know. All I can hope for is that being the first in line at Wizards door, I’ll get first pick at whatever they want to outsource to freelancers.
I am however pumped about having been the one to pitch it first! (Or to have pitched an idea they liked!)
The Exhibit Hall
I hit the hall for shorts periods on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I never got around to walking it calmly and scope the place. As always, it was crowded and full of cool stuff. I walked to the Goodman Games booth and thanked Joe for letting me judge in the tournament.
I visited the Wizards booth and was happily surprised to see that were handing out cards for my #AboutmyPC Twitter contest (I’m almost done doing my first sweep through entries) with my Twitter alias and this website! Woo!
Here’s a short list opf the cool things I picked up at Gen Con:
Dark-platypus: I was blown away with their magnetic Status flags and Area Effect markers. I bought a Magnetic battle mat, 2 sets of flags, 1 set of flag markers, and 2 sets of area effect markers! Weee! I’m so looking forward to trying them tomorrow!
Indie Press Revolution: I picked up a copy of Mouse Guard at the IPR booth and I spoke with Monster creator Ben Baugh about role playing games for children. We both agreed that there was a deep trend building up about having games that gamer parents could share with their kids. We also agreed that this trend had, up to now, mostly been ignored by the industry giants. He pointed me to various games already available that were child-friendly.
I also dropped by the Campaign Cartography booth to chat up with Robin Laws (whom I’d talk to at the Chicago airport). I also saw his Epic subtle selling skills. When my friend Dave: The Game picked up a copy of Trails of Cthulhu, Robin slowly put the plastic display stand on the pile of books, leaving no space for Dave to put it back down.
Epic!
Robin also managed to flub my name at the airport… little does he know that I didn’t hear him flub it… 🙂
So we’re even man.
Q-Workshop: I love me some dice… oh yes I do. The dice that Q-workshop do are unbelievably awesome. So I dropped by and bought 5 sets!!!! (some for my friends). Fortunately, I was able to deal them for 14$ each instead of the original 18$. I didn’t know you could haggle at Gen Con… you totally can. And I ended up doing it for the rest of my stay at the Hall.
Gaming Paper: The runaway hit of the Con, this parchment-colored treated paper is great with colored markers. You can make incredible battle maps and keep them for later. We’re not sure if Dry-erase markers can be wiped off (they said it didn’t) but I got myself a trial roll and I ask them to land a Canadian distributor pronto so we could get them without the full shipping cost!
Original D&D (Sword and Wizardry)
I’ll write a separate post about the whole thing, but on Saturday night, Chgowiz organized a Sword & Wizardry game for a large group of us (most of us bloggers or industry writers):
- Dave the Game
- Bartoneus
- Quinn
- Milambus
- Graham
- Christine
- Greg
- Tavis
We started with rolling for level 1 characters (3d6, in order, no switch) and we played from there. The adventure was insane and the PCs were silly as hell. Still it was one of the high points of my whole Con experience. I must say that I could not find any fault with the game, Mythmere did a great job of making the old game playable. I also finally ‘got’ what all the old schoolers have been saying about making the game your own. S&W has as many versions as there are players… I think the game is supposed to have more houserules than actual rules.
I’ll write a full report soon.
Interview with Andy Collins
On the last day of the con, sleep deprived and famished, I sat down with Andy Collins with my friend Graham for a 2 part interview. It was really interesting and I got to say a few ‘stupid funny’ things as Graham tactfully put it.
The interview will be up shortly.
And with that, I returned home happy and tired.
Next Year
I want to play more next year. I also want to hold my own events. I’m already brainstorming for a few ‘ChattyDM presents” games. Stay Tuned!
Thanks for reading.
It’s a bit sad reading these Gen Con wrap-ups. I was there and hardly had a spare moment, but there was so much I missed. There’s just not enough time in the day to do all the cool things at Gen Con!
.-= Nicholas´s last blog ..The 10 Freakiest Facts You Never Knew about Gelatinous Cubes =-.
Really enjoying the reports, Chatty!
I thought we were jumping the gun a bit on the podcast mentioning that you might liveblog, but the main thing (which we should have emphasized a bit more clearly) was that your post on your gencon schedule was an excellent way to get a sense of how the weekend would be structured for a participant.
That D&D for kids stuff sounds promising.
.-= walkerp´s last blog ..episode 3.5 not going to GenCon special episode =-.
Gaming Paper did very well, by all accounts. I think it was a big hit (if not as big as Pathfinder, well, that’s to be excused).
I will admit, Q-Workshop dice are beautiful! I gave some away as the prize for surviving with the most loot in my M74 game! But what of Gamescience? Did you talk to Lou Zocchi? Did you watch the video? Has our constant online chatter on this topic yet to sway you to the glory of precision game dice?
Seriously, his youtube video and booth pitch are like “the best viral marketing ever”, as I believe Gnome Stew’s DNA Phil put it…
.-= Zachary´s last blog ..RPG Sci-Fi Magazine: Post-Gen Con Update =-.
During my early days of D&D in the 80s, I always had the geek dream of going to Gen Con. But it died in the hazing of the industry in the last decade or so. But dude, you really really made it sound exciting again. One question though; if one was not as connected as you are, would it be as fun?
I’m done with the Day’s ‘must do’ I can finally answer the comments here!
@Nick: Gen Con is like Paris, you can go every year for the rest of your life and still have new things to see. Don’t sweat it!
@walkerp: I must say that I was shocked to hear my alias uttered by Ryan as a ‘go to guy for Gen Con’. I was honored.
I’m really pumped about the D&D for kids project. I hope it gets greenlighted!
@Zach: You know man, I listened to Lou’s pitch and I loved is Colonel Sanders outfit at the Con but the fact of the matter is that I don’t want precise dice, I want beautiful dice that I can cherish and care for with all the wrongness that comes with a dice fetish like mine… I’m definitively Q-Workshops’ slave. Plus I got a free set!
@HermitDave: It would most likely be very fun, but I must say that the Gen Con I’ve been living these past 2 years is NOT the same Gen Con that the other 25k gamers live. I must say that our status of ‘RPG bloggers who’ve made it’ has opened doors not usually available to Joe Gamer.
We try real hard to no abuse this perk.
I’ve got glow in the dark game science dice! A whole different kind of beutiful.
I think you meant ‘Indie Press Revolution’ as the place to buy Mouse Guard:
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/ 🙂
Yes, that’s what I meant… At least I didn’t flub the link!
Gimme a chance, I’m new at all these Indie games. There was a time not so long ago that I insulted them all the time.
(Phil goes and corrects the post)
Well, free is good, and they are lovely.
I think Gamescience’s are, as well.
Two dice fetishes, two different directions. 🙂
.-= Zachary´s last blog ..RPG Sci-Fi Magazine: Post-Gen Con Update =-.
I don’t think it is fading at all, quite the opposite. Just look at how many games are based on D&D and some even use the traditional rule sets.
One day I’m gonna treat myself and go to Gencon.
Awesome report man! You make me want to go even more.
D
You mentioned “Mouse Guard” and “Monsters and Other Childish Things”. Those both look like interesting games to include the kids in. Where would you go FIRST (and are there others to look at as well)?
Personally, I loved your story of the game you played with your son in the theater. I’m starting there (LOVE the use of rock/paper/scissors)! Just thinking about expanding it to a small group of kids and wondering what would work best.
Thanks!
Mike
Isn’t it redundant to create additional material marketed at 6 to 12 year old children? This was, after all, the target demographic of 4e.
Thanks for sharing your Gen Con experience. The place was soo packed I think I’ll have to read a ton of posts like these before I even know what cool things I missed this year. Being a Con Virgin I had thought that four days would at least allow me to explore the Exhibit Hall thoroughly, but I didn’t find IPR till the last day and I never even noticed Dark-platypus, which saddens me because those sound like some great products.
As for your new Indie game love, I suggest trying out Penny for My Thoughts. I ran into Paul and had him run me through a demo…amazing game. I also picked up Spirit of the Century (the last copy, which saddened a few folk) and Fae Noir. SotC I’ve been reading a lot lately, and that game (a game of pulp pickup set in the 1920’s) has one of the most engaging and rewarding rule sets I think I’ve ever laid eyes on. Sadly I haven’t had a chance to look over Fae Noir mechanics, but the setting material alone was completely worth the purchase.
.-= Francis B´s last blog ..VG Meet DnD: The Peahat from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time =-.
Sorry folks, I took most of the weekend ‘off’ to spend time with the family before returning to work tomorrow.
@Zach: Actually the inked GS dice are very nice. I’d play with those… but lord do I like my newest set of runic dice.
@IMikefields: I’m not quite yet the expert in children-friendly RPGs. I know that Fearie Tales is once such game. I’d also put Marvel Super Heroes (the old basic version) in there as it’s very easy to master. I’l write more as my research in the field broaden.
@Nandreen: Actually D&D has been targeted to the 12+ demographic for quite some time. Pushing the range back to 6+ is the reason why I pitched the idea to Wizards in the 1st place.
@Francis: I’m only starting to touch on Indie game design. I’m having a blast reading Mouseguard and I can’t wait to run my family through the first mission.
I hope you get a chance to write up your OD&D character’s experiences – the “conversion” was the highlight of the game. Welcome to the order of the d30. 🙂
I’d love to… I just have to figure out how to squeeze that post in without making this whole site into Musings of the Chatty Old Schooler 🙂