One Week Ago: Thursday at Gen Con 2008
Gen Con was awe-inspiring, intimidating, confusing, friendly, and at least 90% fun. My previous convention experience consisted of running through the Dungeon Delve, shaking Mike Mearls hand, and responding to Ed Greenwood that, "I read Spellfire in 5th grade... does that count?" when asked whether I was "another fan" at the D&D Experience. Maybe playing Dread at an EN World Game Day counts. In other words, I'd seen nothing like it before. And now I'm totally addicted.
My gracious host, Jen (one of my dad's old Marine Corps buddies), dropped me off at the convention center on her way to work a little before 7 AM. I immediately got in line for a four day event badge, and picked up an event catalog thing and a bag of free convention goodies shortly after that. I sat down with the catalog and started planning out my Thursday and Friday. There were hundreds upon hundreds of events listed. I could easily have kept myself out of the Exhibition Hall until Saturday, especially with 10 hours of back-to-back "Small Press Game Design & Publishing Crash Course" seminars on Friday. Luckily, I remained sane and only availed myself of three hours of this programming, though I had planned on attending four and seriously considered attending two others.
I'm getting ahead of myself!
My first seminar was with Mike Gray, game designer and Senior Director of Product Acquisition at Hasbro, and freelancers Matt Forbeck (yeah, that Matt Forbeck), and Richard Borg (check him out on BoardGameGeek). The panel was supposed to be about "10 No-Nos" in game design, but it mostly consisted of Mike Gray geeking out about Agricola and other games. Okay, "mostly" isn't quite right. There was actually a lot of advice, though it was almost all 'positive' advice as opposed what not to do.
Next, Jack Emmert (Chief Creative Officer of Cryptic Studios) and Z-Man Games' Andrew Parks showed up to talk more of the same. Some of it was more geared toward the business side of things, and they had some great things to say about playtesting (like find mean people who'll tell you exactly what they think!).
I signed up to play Monsters and Other Childish Things, but the GM was a no-show. Luckily, Allan Goodall was there to take us in. He had a murder mystery set in Union-occupied New Orleans, and it was quite possibly the highlight of the whole convention. He had prints of the city from the period, historically accurate maps, a well designed scenario, encyclopaedic knowledge, and a great attitude. The system was Wild Talents, with additional material from the soon to be published This Favored Land Civil War supplement that Mr. Goodall is writing. I played Robert Chagnard, a cat burglar who can hide his ill-gotten goods and equipment in a space outside of space. I ran into a charming couple from the Wild Talents game again on Sunday and got an email address. I should tell them that I'm writing about them...
Next, I spent 2 hours listening to Lou Zocchi: former GAMA VP, designer of The Battle of Britain and Luftwaffe, inventor of the ten- and hundred-sided die, and so much more. He seemed like a hilarious, shameless self-promoter, and even if none of his advice helps me out (which doesn't seem likely), I was thoroughly entertained. Near the end of the seminar, David Wesely sat behind me! More about him when I get to Saturday!
On the way out of the Embassy Suites, I got to shake Fred Hicks' (drivingblind) hand!
It was only 8 O'clock, I managed to avoid the heart of the convention, the exhibition hall, for a whole day, and I was exhausted. My first event on Friday was scheduled at 8 AM, and it was time to crash.
Next: Demos at the IPR both, and slouching toward LARPing
My gracious host, Jen (one of my dad's old Marine Corps buddies), dropped me off at the convention center on her way to work a little before 7 AM. I immediately got in line for a four day event badge, and picked up an event catalog thing and a bag of free convention goodies shortly after that. I sat down with the catalog and started planning out my Thursday and Friday. There were hundreds upon hundreds of events listed. I could easily have kept myself out of the Exhibition Hall until Saturday, especially with 10 hours of back-to-back "Small Press Game Design & Publishing Crash Course" seminars on Friday. Luckily, I remained sane and only availed myself of three hours of this programming, though I had planned on attending four and seriously considered attending two others.
I'm getting ahead of myself!
My first seminar was with Mike Gray, game designer and Senior Director of Product Acquisition at Hasbro, and freelancers Matt Forbeck (yeah, that Matt Forbeck), and Richard Borg (check him out on BoardGameGeek). The panel was supposed to be about "10 No-Nos" in game design, but it mostly consisted of Mike Gray geeking out about Agricola and other games. Okay, "mostly" isn't quite right. There was actually a lot of advice, though it was almost all 'positive' advice as opposed what not to do.
Next, Jack Emmert (Chief Creative Officer of Cryptic Studios) and Z-Man Games' Andrew Parks showed up to talk more of the same. Some of it was more geared toward the business side of things, and they had some great things to say about playtesting (like find mean people who'll tell you exactly what they think!).
I signed up to play Monsters and Other Childish Things, but the GM was a no-show. Luckily, Allan Goodall was there to take us in. He had a murder mystery set in Union-occupied New Orleans, and it was quite possibly the highlight of the whole convention. He had prints of the city from the period, historically accurate maps, a well designed scenario, encyclopaedic knowledge, and a great attitude. The system was Wild Talents, with additional material from the soon to be published This Favored Land Civil War supplement that Mr. Goodall is writing. I played Robert Chagnard, a cat burglar who can hide his ill-gotten goods and equipment in a space outside of space. I ran into a charming couple from the Wild Talents game again on Sunday and got an email address. I should tell them that I'm writing about them...
Next, I spent 2 hours listening to Lou Zocchi: former GAMA VP, designer of The Battle of Britain and Luftwaffe, inventor of the ten- and hundred-sided die, and so much more. He seemed like a hilarious, shameless self-promoter, and even if none of his advice helps me out (which doesn't seem likely), I was thoroughly entertained. Near the end of the seminar, David Wesely sat behind me! More about him when I get to Saturday!
On the way out of the Embassy Suites, I got to shake Fred Hicks' (drivingblind) hand!
It was only 8 O'clock, I managed to avoid the heart of the convention, the exhibition hall, for a whole day, and I was exhausted. My first event on Friday was scheduled at 8 AM, and it was time to crash.
Next: Demos at the IPR both, and slouching toward LARPing