Vericon Wrap Up

[Luke]

Vericon was a very interesting con for me. (alliteration/consonance intentional).

It was, from what I could tell, a lightly attended "school con". (It actually felt more like a movie set for a college drama than a location for a con.  Harvard is very picturesque. And it felt nearly exactly like Ucon at U Mich Ann Arbor.) From what I witnessed--via our constant room changes--it didn't seem terribly well organized. And I know this was a little frustrating for me, but it really wasn't so bad. Dev and co were incredibly accomodating. They really went out their collective way to make sure we "guests" were "ok". Which was nice (if a bit unnecessary; we were all very low maintenance).

I didn't run nearly as many games as intended to, which was somewhat disappointing. I consider it my job at cons to run games, whether people want me to or not! But I guess three big demos in one afternoon isn't too bad.

And I didn't sell a damn thing. Not on the sly at the con, and not at the store/signing. Not a damn copy.

But you know what? That didn't really bother me. Why? Because most folks who were there and interested in the BW already had the game. That was an eye opener for me!

The panels were a highlight, though, and as these were my first panels, I was a little giddy and a little nervous. Dev, who is very interested in and very supportive of "indie games", scheduled an "Indie Game Design panel" where "Innovators in gaming talk about the challenges and joys of RPG and game development," and an "Indie Game Design Workshop" where "Our guests help gamers turn their Big Ideas into Reality." The "guests" were me, Jared, Vincent (or Vicent, his demonic true name) and Ted Wadsworth of Jade/Ironclaw.

Such fun! For me, it was definitely more interesting to get up there in front of an audience and knock heads with the other designers and trade theory and practice. Ted was so honest and down to earth (and successful!), I felt like we all looked like college drop-out slackers next to him! Jared was in agent-provocateur mode. Vincent was just plain cool. Who knew this unassuming man is a lord of hell?!

The first panel had about 15 attendees, the second had about a half dozen (i think due to the fact that it was scheduled for 9a-fucking-m Sunday morning; i was relieved it wasn't just me and jared drawing on the chalk board screwing around).

We all indulged in some, "well my game does this!" But most of the discussion was constructive and informative. There were a lot of varying view points aired and I think there even were some minds tweaked by what we collectively had to say.

After the panels, we hung out at Pandemonium Books for a while. I think someone bought KPfS and Jared's stuff. But as I mentioned, no takers for BW. The best moment of the signing was, by far, a customer's reaction to Kill Puppies for Satan. We were seated in the atrium area just outside Pandemonium. Our wares for display on the table, while we kind of hung out and talked across the way. If anyone looked interested, we'd swoop in and shanghai them! Anyway, a middle-aged woman, headed for the store, walks past the table. Vincent's game catches her eye. She frowns, "Did that just say what I think it said?" She leans in for a closer look, and absolutely recoiled --lip curled and shaking her head in disgust. She walked into the store with her nose in the air. Vincent and I were beet red from trying not to laugh. Delicious!

The second best moment at Pandemonium was getting the store to carry: Pax Draconis, Universalis, My Life with Master, FVLMINATA, and Sorcerer's supplements. All of which I sneakily shipped to them in a box with my BW shipment. They were glad to see these wonderful, new and different games, and excited to put them up for sale. They also paid up front (at wholesale), so I owe you all a little more money. And of course they bought loads of KPfS, Octane and Inspectres.

After that Drozdal, Mike Mearls and others joined us for a great dinner downstairs at Pho Pasteur (Vietnamese food) where Jared regaled us with stories of all the gross shit he's eaten. Then we strong-armed Vicent, lord of hell, into showing us his Dogs in the Vineyard tricks. The game was meant to be run for three players, so the 7 of us were really a bit much for him. But he ran the character generation mechanics for us (remember, we out-numbered him 7 to 1.) It proved very interesting and enlightening. I hope to hear more of this in the future. The die mechanic was very engaging, and very much facilitated his concept/premise.

Sunday morning was the ill-timed second panel session which I discussed above. After that Jared, Dro and I had lunch and talked more game, then parted ways to head back to our respective holes.

All in all, a very different experience for me and very fun. I have to admit, though, that this was largely due to Vincent and Jared's presence. It wouldn't have been 1/4 as fun without them! (Vincent played in two BW demos, in which he killed children (and Dro)! Yay Vincent!)

But thanks goes to Dev and company, you deserve credit for organizing a good experience overall. And I would definitely return to Vericon. I think there is work to be done in Boston!

-Luke

edited because I am a forgetful and tired when i get home from cons and write after-action reports.

[lumpley]

It was a good time!

Ted was something.  And if you felt like a dropout, Luke, jeez.  Imagine how I felt.

We didn't really get to help anybody turn their game ideas into reality, though, did we?  At least I didn't.  I think that maybe my personal message of hope ("even without distribution, you too can sell literally several copies of your game!") wasn't quite what they were looking for.  I was happy when you and Ted got to talk about art and layout instead.

The best moment of the signing was, by far, a customer's reaction to Kill Puppies for Satan.

It was my first ever in-person hate mail!

There were three very interesting, very cool social things going on for me.  The first was the normal one: we game designers got to meet and hang out with each other and eat Vietnamese food and play each others' games.  That's always good.

The second was the Forge thing: Luke, Jared, me, Dev, my friend Tom (bluegargantua), and one other guy whose Forge handle I never got - we all have a social connection already, with shared vocab and some common experiences.  We didn't talk much about the Forge - especially, it surprised me that we didn't talk at all about Ron's new essay - but it was there.

And the third was the thing were the Forge interacts with RPG designers at large.  Some of the audience at the panels, Mike Mearls, maybe some other people (hell, maybe Jared, I dunno), know the Forge but aren't participants or don't "subscribe."  When I ran my game, was I representing "the Forge's precepts" to a critical audience, or was it just in my head?  It was a curious thing, and I'm glad it went well either way.

I'm interested how your experience matched or didn't match mine, Luke.

Dev!  Excellent con!  Thanks for having me!

-Vincent

[ks13]

I am extremely glad that I decided to drag my butt down to Vericon (considering that it's in my back yard, how could I not). It was awesome meeting these folks. Jared is one hell of a character, and his stories are priceless. Vincent seemed fairly well adjusted for someone advocating the slaughter of puppies, though maybe that was just what he wants people to think.  And the fact that he managed to offend someone while signing books next to a Tatoo/piercing parlour that likes to display their clients as they work on them, is a true testament to his creation.

Luke ran a very nice demo of the BW scripted combat, which works very well, though it does strain the GM when the action gets frantic and whacky. What was really impressive was how the demo worked for a couple of young kids. The scripting layout sheet (which btw I can't find on the web site - what's up with that?) and the very active and enthusiastic performance by Luke kept them engaged. This setup actually seems like a great tool for introducing young participants to the hobby, and as a bridge between RPGs and traditional board games. Overall, very cool.

The panel discussion was great, with a nice range of views being expressed and discussed. It sucks that I missed out on the workshop, but c'mon. Early Sunday morning....Superbowl Sunday....with Patriots in the game. That's just bad luck in terms of scheduling. But it would have been very cool to talk more game design stuff, which these guys were not at all shy about.

Yeah, the con itself was rather low key and could have used little more organization, but still worth the visit.

-Al

[Luke]

I'm interested how your experience matched or didn't match mine, Luke.

I am definitely a forge/game design neophyte when compared to Jared and Vincent. You two have a much better handle on the principles of the medium than I do; i'm still flailing to express my philosophy.

However, I did very much feel a sense of shared vision and value and i fucking loved it. Indeed it was spoken and unspoken between the designers (and very present as we absorbed Vincent's new game). (Don't forget that Dro was there, too, another big Forge lurker. Including Al (ks13), i think that only left one person out of 8 at the table not fluent in our lingua franca.)

The panels were interesting because a notable minority of folks there were familar with the Forge and it's credos (for lack of a better term). Three out of four of the designers on the panel, the panel organizer, and a handful of the audience were all "in the know" even if some disagreed.

So yeah, I felt that there was a nice undercurrent of idea floating around.

can't wait to do it again.
-L

I think KPfS may be the only game aside from BW that I can run.

I also want to make my KPfS supplement/spin-off called, "I Fucking Kill Punks Like you For Breakfast." It would be the cop version of KPfS.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I also want to make my KPfS supplement/spin-off called, "I Fucking Kill Punks Like you For Breakfast." It would be the cop version of KPfS.

I want to play this so bad my teeth hurt.

- C

[DevP]

Yay. I get to talk about my convention.

The Experience

I liked the talk that came out of the Panel - there was (what I felt) was some smart creativity that got around. Of course, I was moderating and my heart skipped a beat when Jared tossed out the "Not A Game Designer" thing in the middle of the introductions, but hey, it worked out.

The workshop seemed to go well - essentially a more freeform (and more early) form of the panel-discussion, and we EVEN got talking for 2.5 hours before an acquaintance sunk the conversation into a religious argument. (Oh JT, why?) So advice to future con organizers, workshops necessarily risk capitalization by individuals or unwinnable debates, while you can exert a bit of push on a panel to keep things along. (I'm not the best at "push" either, but I'm just saying.)

My regret about the panel is that I did schedule it for 9am. I was under the impression that this was the ideal, most open spot, but who can be sure? Definitely future organizers should avoid very early events so that we can get all sorts of folks with questions to come by. And of course, I couldn't forsee the Pats in the Super Bowl.

But my jobs for this convention were largely (a) to somewhat follow around the guests, which was also an excuse for me to soak up Game Design Vibes by osmosis, but also (b) run some games, specifically games of Dust Devils and My Life With Master, resulting in some good games and interest in purchases; Actual-Play reports to come.

The best things that came out of this con? Pandemonium Books in Boston seemed to like the event, and they have a lot more indie titles stocked up now. (Yes!!) Moreover, minds were tweaked. A lot of folks I know got hooked on a New Game (be it KPfS or InSpectres). And I was surprised that BW didn't sell AT the convention, but there was definitely plenty of talk about it (and the other games they witnessed) amongst my friends later. Being a good citizen, I mentioned the copies lying in wait at Pandy's. <g>

But yes: the presence of a pack of friendly indy-gamers definitely enabled some needed subversion. Bless y'all for it.

The Future

As I'm graduating, I lose my ability to manipulate the VeriCon folks, and indeed we may be moving to skip next year ('05) so we can build up for ('06), but we're still going to have our Big Discussion this Sunday.

Nonetheless, our folks are friendly. For future reference, please note:

VeriCon (//www.vericon.org) is run by the Harvard-Radicliffe Science Fiction Association (HRSFA, www.hrsfa.org). They are often open to guests and panel appereances, and are even more open to letting folks you all come by and demo your wares. If you get in touch with them, I forsee the future staff being all too happy to let you in. And Pandemonium Books, an indy-friendly store, is nearby.

So, especially if you're local, VeriCon might be something to keep in mind. Best of luck therein.

The Movie Set

It actually felt more like a movie set for a college drama than a location for a con. Harvard is very picturesque.

Seriously, the freshman dining hall looks like a FRIGGIN' CATHEDRAL, with big halls, mahogany, echos, stained glass, dead-whitefolk on the walls... Totally Ridiculous. If any of you come by, I challenge you to take a look at Annenburg Hall if you dare.

[DevP]

And pictures!

http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/~ywang2/vericon/2004/view.php?event=2&id=17
http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/~ywang2/vericon/2004/view.php?event=2&id=18
http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/~ywang2/vericon/2004/view.php?event=2&id=19
http://lab.dce.harvard.edu/~ywang2/vericon/2004/view.php?event=2&id=20