GenCon Highlights
I have the best intentions to keep this short and only focus on those things that stand out as the highlights of my trip to Indianapolis. I seriously doubt this will be a short post, though.
Mr. Verge
Wednesday evening, after an exhausting, cramped flight with a quick layover at LaGuardia, I finally get to the Embassy Suites. People recognize me. I can't remember who anymore, but someone says, "Hey, Mr. Verge." My reaction: Great, I am known primarily for a game I have not finished in three years. I really have to finish that fucker.
Diana Jones Award
I enjoyed some free drinks courtesy of Mr. Forbeck and the other sponsors of the party at Jillians. Two cool people accepted the top award, which was tied for first place. The Diana Jones award went to two indie publishers: Jason Morningstar for Grey Ranks and Wolfgang Bauer for Open Design.
Best of all, I reconnected with a lot of people I see only once or twice a year, personally met some people I'd known only from the Internet, and made some new friends. Lenny Balsera explained why being from Vegas made him invincible when drinking in Indiana (something to do with humidity and dehydration). Joshua Roby and I finally shook hands. I got to introduce Chad Underkoffler and Ross Winn in person, and their "first RL reunion" was pretty cool. I had a great conversation with Chris and Angus from Cubicle 7 about their Starblazers game and other projects. On the sidewalk a block from the party, I ran into the Evil Hat guys chatting about 4E with Mike Mearls, whom I've known casually and Internetly for a long time but had never met in person. Good to shake hands with people.
Games on Demand
I spent most of Thursday down in the GOD room, sadly tucked into a corner of one of the adjoining hotels where no one could find it. Still, people came. I ran Dogs in the Vineyard and Shock: for four players each. The Dogs game was pretty typical (which means loads of fun). I need to write up a new Town though, cuz I'm getting sick of running the same one over and over. I took the opportunity to remind people what indie game design was all about: one dude wrote and published this game, and you can do the same thing if you want.
The Shock: game was strange but good. I don't want to get into all the details because there's a kid involved, but the essence is that, despite some serious issues, a great time was had by all.
I am sad that, yet again, I missed my chance to play Universalis with Mike Holmes. I ended up napping instead.
Indie Publishing Panels
Luke Crane sponsored a series of one-hour panels that discussed self-published games: philosophy, design, writing, editing, layout, printing, distribution, marketing, and so on. I attended most of the panels but didn't make the last two. Though I consider myself an old hand at some of these things, I found new information in every seminar. The editing panel was especially helpful to me.
Chad set up a lunch meeting between me and Amanda and Clark Valentine, both of whom are working on The Dresden Files RPG. Amanda is my managing editor and I was eager to find out her perspectives on the project and her expectations of me. She is totally cool and sweet and I can't wait to work with her.
Annalise
Nathan Paoletta invited me to sit in on a private game of Annalise. They already had four players (Nathan, Don, JoAnna, Alli), and Nathan offered to let me play instead of him, but I was fine just watching and they didn't mind me being a voyeur and occasionally tossing in evil ideas. I hadn't played the game or seen it played before; I'd only edited it. The game seriously rocks. The mechanics are fucking subtle in how they sneak up and create mood and theme. It was one of the darkest games I'd ever seen, barring a particular My Life with Master game I ran at GenCon 2006 (and don't like to talk about publicly).
It was a good reminder about how actual play is more important for understanding a game than just reading it. It was also a good reminder to work harder at making game text adequately demonstrate how play will feel. I don't think the book does that well enough, and part of the blame is mine as editor.
ENnie Awards
Evil Hat got me one of "the good seats" at the ENnies. These awards are judged by people who are elected by fans. The judges limit the category to the best nominees in each category, then the fans vote on the nominees. Yes, it's a popularity contest, but so is any judged event (like the Diana Jones Award or the Indie RPG Award). The ENnies just cast a wider net. There were indie game products nominated and selected by the judges. That certain indie game designers poo-poo the ENnies annoys me.
The award ceremony itself was, at different times, brilliant and stupid. The lifetime achievement awards given to Gygax, Wujcik, and Arneson were touching. As you probably know, Gygax and Wujcik died this year. The ENnies team managed to arrange award ceremonies for them before they died, and that's pretty brilliant. Dave Arneson accepted his award in person and he was a delightful and funny speaker. Paizo surprised no one by running just about every category -- they have some serious talent there and their products are very good. (Also, their fans are rabid beasts, but that's a separate issue.) The stupid ranged from mild to gross. Mildly stupid: make the ribbons on the prize medallions larger so you don't strangle people or rip off their glasses (or noses). More stupid: Why give industry insiders the good seats up front and make the fans sit in the back? Let people sit wherever. Grossly stupid: One of the more important industry people made some pretty arrogant comments as he accepted his team's many awards. Show some grace and don't act like you expected it, geez. I doubt he meant the worst when he said, "You get used to it," but it came off pretty badly, and that wasn't the only comment like that.
Oh, and whoever outbid me on the indie game bundle in the silent auction: CURSE YOU! $75 for those six games (one of which was Trail of Cthulhu, by itself worth about half that price) is a steal. I should have bid higher, as I ended up buying a lot of those games anyway.
Exhibition Hall
I spent most of Saturday in the hall, looking at all the crazy stuff for sale. I bought too much (see my GenCon Loot post) but it makes me happy.
Most amazing to me was the number of "Forge diaspora" booths. Nearby the usual Adept Press / Forge / IPR booth were the Ashcan Front booth, Design Matters booth, and the Play Collective booth. If you walked around the dealer's hall, you could find other small-press and creator-owned games, too: Maid, Hellas, Houses of the Blooded, Starblazers, Trail of Cthulhu, and Exquisite Replicas were a handful of examples I saw.
The indie game demos were the highlight of the Hall for me. In 10-15 minutes, one could play a quick demo of a game and discuss it with someone knowledgeable (often the designer). I discussed and demoed It's Complicated, Spione, Solar System, Tales of the Fisherman's Wife, and a half dozen other games.
D&D 4E
I've run this game a half dozen times but I had never played it. Rob Donoghue ran us through a two-encounter dungeon crawl and it was a blast. My halfling rogue "Spanner" teamed up with Clark's tiefling rogue to take out the first encounter's Big Bad Priest Guy in the first round. Both of us rolled natural 20's on our backstabby attacks (I did 31 points of damage and Clark did 30). I also got my halfling knocked unconscious by running into the room when the rest of the group Leeroy Jenkins'ed me despite my cryptic warnings in the form of scout-sign hand gestures. The cleric rescued me later. I pulled off some feats of heroism by protecting our breach despite being severely injured and using combinations of tumbling and other roguish power goodness to take out some nasty monsters when it was sorely needed. I had a blast.
It was good to see the game from the other end of the table. It's totally a different experience and it reminded me what is fun for the players.
Overall
GenCon is awesome. Gah, I used that word again. GenCon is... brilliant. It's also exhausting.
Naps are good. If you have the chance, make time for a short 1-2 hour nap in the middle of the afternoon. I did this twice and was much the better for it.
I didn't get to talk to people in any depth! The most notable exception is that I had a great dinner conversation with Phil and Rachel Walton in the food court at the mall. I wished they lived closer to me so I could game with them and get to know them better. I had some casual conversations with Ross Winn, Chad Underkoffler, Ron Edwards, Nathan Paoletta, Matt Gandy, and Andy Kitkowski. I'd love to have more time to talk to them more. There are many too people with whom I want to sit with and have long, extended conversations. For example, Vincent Baker and I have never exchanged more than a few dozen words at a time. This must be corrected.
I didn't play enough games! Geez! I spent a lot of time in demos and running games and watching games, but I only played one game (D&D) fer-realz. Next GenCon, I pledge I will play more games.
I already miss people. Is it time for MACE yet? Dreamation?
Note: I don't look anything like my "manga" icon -- in fact, I think it looks more like Justin Timberlake than me -- but it's the best I could do, and it amused me.
Edit: Wujcik died, not Siembieda. My bad. Sorry, Kevin!
Mr. Verge
Wednesday evening, after an exhausting, cramped flight with a quick layover at LaGuardia, I finally get to the Embassy Suites. People recognize me. I can't remember who anymore, but someone says, "Hey, Mr. Verge." My reaction: Great, I am known primarily for a game I have not finished in three years. I really have to finish that fucker.
Diana Jones Award
I enjoyed some free drinks courtesy of Mr. Forbeck and the other sponsors of the party at Jillians. Two cool people accepted the top award, which was tied for first place. The Diana Jones award went to two indie publishers: Jason Morningstar for Grey Ranks and Wolfgang Bauer for Open Design.
Best of all, I reconnected with a lot of people I see only once or twice a year, personally met some people I'd known only from the Internet, and made some new friends. Lenny Balsera explained why being from Vegas made him invincible when drinking in Indiana (something to do with humidity and dehydration). Joshua Roby and I finally shook hands. I got to introduce Chad Underkoffler and Ross Winn in person, and their "first RL reunion" was pretty cool. I had a great conversation with Chris and Angus from Cubicle 7 about their Starblazers game and other projects. On the sidewalk a block from the party, I ran into the Evil Hat guys chatting about 4E with Mike Mearls, whom I've known casually and Internetly for a long time but had never met in person. Good to shake hands with people.
Games on Demand
I spent most of Thursday down in the GOD room, sadly tucked into a corner of one of the adjoining hotels where no one could find it. Still, people came. I ran Dogs in the Vineyard and Shock: for four players each. The Dogs game was pretty typical (which means loads of fun). I need to write up a new Town though, cuz I'm getting sick of running the same one over and over. I took the opportunity to remind people what indie game design was all about: one dude wrote and published this game, and you can do the same thing if you want.
The Shock: game was strange but good. I don't want to get into all the details because there's a kid involved, but the essence is that, despite some serious issues, a great time was had by all.
I am sad that, yet again, I missed my chance to play Universalis with Mike Holmes. I ended up napping instead.
Indie Publishing Panels
Luke Crane sponsored a series of one-hour panels that discussed self-published games: philosophy, design, writing, editing, layout, printing, distribution, marketing, and so on. I attended most of the panels but didn't make the last two. Though I consider myself an old hand at some of these things, I found new information in every seminar. The editing panel was especially helpful to me.
Chad set up a lunch meeting between me and Amanda and Clark Valentine, both of whom are working on The Dresden Files RPG. Amanda is my managing editor and I was eager to find out her perspectives on the project and her expectations of me. She is totally cool and sweet and I can't wait to work with her.
Annalise
Nathan Paoletta invited me to sit in on a private game of Annalise. They already had four players (Nathan, Don, JoAnna, Alli), and Nathan offered to let me play instead of him, but I was fine just watching and they didn't mind me being a voyeur and occasionally tossing in evil ideas. I hadn't played the game or seen it played before; I'd only edited it. The game seriously rocks. The mechanics are fucking subtle in how they sneak up and create mood and theme. It was one of the darkest games I'd ever seen, barring a particular My Life with Master game I ran at GenCon 2006 (and don't like to talk about publicly).
It was a good reminder about how actual play is more important for understanding a game than just reading it. It was also a good reminder to work harder at making game text adequately demonstrate how play will feel. I don't think the book does that well enough, and part of the blame is mine as editor.
ENnie Awards
Evil Hat got me one of "the good seats" at the ENnies. These awards are judged by people who are elected by fans. The judges limit the category to the best nominees in each category, then the fans vote on the nominees. Yes, it's a popularity contest, but so is any judged event (like the Diana Jones Award or the Indie RPG Award). The ENnies just cast a wider net. There were indie game products nominated and selected by the judges. That certain indie game designers poo-poo the ENnies annoys me.
The award ceremony itself was, at different times, brilliant and stupid. The lifetime achievement awards given to Gygax, Wujcik, and Arneson were touching. As you probably know, Gygax and Wujcik died this year. The ENnies team managed to arrange award ceremonies for them before they died, and that's pretty brilliant. Dave Arneson accepted his award in person and he was a delightful and funny speaker. Paizo surprised no one by running just about every category -- they have some serious talent there and their products are very good. (Also, their fans are rabid beasts, but that's a separate issue.) The stupid ranged from mild to gross. Mildly stupid: make the ribbons on the prize medallions larger so you don't strangle people or rip off their glasses (or noses). More stupid: Why give industry insiders the good seats up front and make the fans sit in the back? Let people sit wherever. Grossly stupid: One of the more important industry people made some pretty arrogant comments as he accepted his team's many awards. Show some grace and don't act like you expected it, geez. I doubt he meant the worst when he said, "You get used to it," but it came off pretty badly, and that wasn't the only comment like that.
Oh, and whoever outbid me on the indie game bundle in the silent auction: CURSE YOU! $75 for those six games (one of which was Trail of Cthulhu, by itself worth about half that price) is a steal. I should have bid higher, as I ended up buying a lot of those games anyway.
Exhibition Hall
I spent most of Saturday in the hall, looking at all the crazy stuff for sale. I bought too much (see my GenCon Loot post) but it makes me happy.
Most amazing to me was the number of "Forge diaspora" booths. Nearby the usual Adept Press / Forge / IPR booth were the Ashcan Front booth, Design Matters booth, and the Play Collective booth. If you walked around the dealer's hall, you could find other small-press and creator-owned games, too: Maid, Hellas, Houses of the Blooded, Starblazers, Trail of Cthulhu, and Exquisite Replicas were a handful of examples I saw.
The indie game demos were the highlight of the Hall for me. In 10-15 minutes, one could play a quick demo of a game and discuss it with someone knowledgeable (often the designer). I discussed and demoed It's Complicated, Spione, Solar System, Tales of the Fisherman's Wife, and a half dozen other games.
D&D 4E
I've run this game a half dozen times but I had never played it. Rob Donoghue ran us through a two-encounter dungeon crawl and it was a blast. My halfling rogue "Spanner" teamed up with Clark's tiefling rogue to take out the first encounter's Big Bad Priest Guy in the first round. Both of us rolled natural 20's on our backstabby attacks (I did 31 points of damage and Clark did 30). I also got my halfling knocked unconscious by running into the room when the rest of the group Leeroy Jenkins'ed me despite my cryptic warnings in the form of scout-sign hand gestures. The cleric rescued me later. I pulled off some feats of heroism by protecting our breach despite being severely injured and using combinations of tumbling and other roguish power goodness to take out some nasty monsters when it was sorely needed. I had a blast.
It was good to see the game from the other end of the table. It's totally a different experience and it reminded me what is fun for the players.
Overall
GenCon is awesome. Gah, I used that word again. GenCon is... brilliant. It's also exhausting.
Naps are good. If you have the chance, make time for a short 1-2 hour nap in the middle of the afternoon. I did this twice and was much the better for it.
I didn't get to talk to people in any depth! The most notable exception is that I had a great dinner conversation with Phil and Rachel Walton in the food court at the mall. I wished they lived closer to me so I could game with them and get to know them better. I had some casual conversations with Ross Winn, Chad Underkoffler, Ron Edwards, Nathan Paoletta, Matt Gandy, and Andy Kitkowski. I'd love to have more time to talk to them more. There are many too people with whom I want to sit with and have long, extended conversations. For example, Vincent Baker and I have never exchanged more than a few dozen words at a time. This must be corrected.
I didn't play enough games! Geez! I spent a lot of time in demos and running games and watching games, but I only played one game (D&D) fer-realz. Next GenCon, I pledge I will play more games.
I already miss people. Is it time for MACE yet? Dreamation?
Note: I don't look anything like my "manga" icon -- in fact, I think it looks more like Justin Timberlake than me -- but it's the best I could do, and it amused me.
Edit: Wujcik died, not Siembieda. My bad. Sorry, Kevin!