Gen Con was good, but...
The organizers of Gen Con deserve big kudos for this year's show. I had zero organizational issues with the booth this year, part of which is certainly thanks to the GPA and Marcie Ganow who handling that bit for us this year. There were plenty of people roaming the aisles, many of whom proclaimed they were out of money and then proceeded to whip out their credit cards. Some customers seemed price sensitive, but on the whole it felt like people were spending more than last year.
I had some annoyances that had nothing to do with anybody else (my register had brain damage and was effectively a big, heavy calculator), but I actually had a good time at the show and played other people's games for the first time in years. Even with the best year (possibly ever) as far as the gross goes, we would have had to bump up our sales by another 50% to break even. Ladle on top of that the fact that the majority of our gross came from selling other people's stuff (pith helmets and HPLHS stuff), and I've got my doubts about whether we'll have a Gen Con booth next year. I will definitely attend the show and run events, but we'll probably let somebody else sell our stuff in the exhibit hall.
Who knows, though. That's what I thought last year, too, and I wound up getting a booth.
I asked booth visitors what the coolest thing at the show was, and the things I agreed with included:
The Savage Worlds Space 1889 book, Red Sands
I only got to glance through it (I didn't have time during exhibit hall hours to grab my copy, and by the time I was loose I heard it had sold out), but it certainly increased people's interests in the originals. Pinnacle very kindly allowed me to put an ad in the back for our reprints, folks definitely noticed the ad: more than one person mentioned it to me.
Arkham Horror Minis
Fantasy Flight Games had 48 nifty minis for the Arkham Horror board game, and sold out of swathes of them by Sunday. I bought the character from "Dead Man's Stomp," my favorite Call of Cthulhu adventure. They're unusual in that while they are 28mm minis, they're correctly proportioned and look just like the pix from the character artwork, so they don't have the odd proportions (ie giant heads, stocky limbs) that most minis seem to have.
Miniature Building Authority
Alas, they don't have plans to make more stuff for their pulp line right now, but their direct-only guard tower is super-nifty.
Sorcery & Super Science
Demented fun!
On a fanboy note, I saw Wil Wheaton in the exhibit hall and complimented him on his Wil Wheaton costume. He said he worked really hard on it. I have no doubt he gets that all the time, but I couldn't resist. The oddest thing was how short all the people from The Guild web show were. I was taller than all of them (including Wheaton) except Vork, and I'm not tall. The cliche is really true!
Finally, on the Zeppelin Age front, we released the "Oh The Humanity" version of Airship Troopers: Volcanic Dinosaur Island Of Doom at Gen Con, and I got encouraging feedback on it. I will make a post here next week for the official announcement. It is available on Drive Thru RPG now for early adopters and the folks that got the hard copy at the show, but I'll be adding some ready-to-print character sheets and challenge cards this weekend before I make a broader announcement on Monday. A game designer I admire described the rules as "Elegant" which pleased me to no end, and somebody had me sign their copy, which was the first time that's happened, ever, anywhere. As far as I can remember, anyway.
I had some annoyances that had nothing to do with anybody else (my register had brain damage and was effectively a big, heavy calculator), but I actually had a good time at the show and played other people's games for the first time in years. Even with the best year (possibly ever) as far as the gross goes, we would have had to bump up our sales by another 50% to break even. Ladle on top of that the fact that the majority of our gross came from selling other people's stuff (pith helmets and HPLHS stuff), and I've got my doubts about whether we'll have a Gen Con booth next year. I will definitely attend the show and run events, but we'll probably let somebody else sell our stuff in the exhibit hall.
Who knows, though. That's what I thought last year, too, and I wound up getting a booth.
I asked booth visitors what the coolest thing at the show was, and the things I agreed with included:
The Savage Worlds Space 1889 book, Red Sands
I only got to glance through it (I didn't have time during exhibit hall hours to grab my copy, and by the time I was loose I heard it had sold out), but it certainly increased people's interests in the originals. Pinnacle very kindly allowed me to put an ad in the back for our reprints, folks definitely noticed the ad: more than one person mentioned it to me.
Arkham Horror Minis
Fantasy Flight Games had 48 nifty minis for the Arkham Horror board game, and sold out of swathes of them by Sunday. I bought the character from "Dead Man's Stomp," my favorite Call of Cthulhu adventure. They're unusual in that while they are 28mm minis, they're correctly proportioned and look just like the pix from the character artwork, so they don't have the odd proportions (ie giant heads, stocky limbs) that most minis seem to have.
Miniature Building Authority
Alas, they don't have plans to make more stuff for their pulp line right now, but their direct-only guard tower is super-nifty.
Sorcery & Super Science
Demented fun!
On a fanboy note, I saw Wil Wheaton in the exhibit hall and complimented him on his Wil Wheaton costume. He said he worked really hard on it. I have no doubt he gets that all the time, but I couldn't resist. The oddest thing was how short all the people from The Guild web show were. I was taller than all of them (including Wheaton) except Vork, and I'm not tall. The cliche is really true!
Finally, on the Zeppelin Age front, we released the "Oh The Humanity" version of Airship Troopers: Volcanic Dinosaur Island Of Doom at Gen Con, and I got encouraging feedback on it. I will make a post here next week for the official announcement. It is available on Drive Thru RPG now for early adopters and the folks that got the hard copy at the show, but I'll be adding some ready-to-print character sheets and challenge cards this weekend before I make a broader announcement on Monday. A game designer I admire described the rules as "Elegant" which pleased me to no end, and somebody had me sign their copy, which was the first time that's happened, ever, anywhere. As far as I can remember, anyway.