GenCon thanks

[Michael S. Miller]

Had a great time at the booth, many thanks to all. Wish I could have played more games--PTA and Conspiracy of Shadows, particularly. I greatly appreciate all the validation, support, and good word-of-mouth everyone provided about With Great Power. The game sold better when I wasn't at the booth than when I was. Heck, Andy Kitowski was pitching it in a thread on RPG.net before I even left Indiana! Any and all criticisms, comments and suggestions are invited. The preview edition is a good start, but I want the full edition to blow the doors off!

Many extra thanks to the Michigan folks--Paul, Danielle, Scott & Tom--for a great game on Saturday and generosity above & beyond the call of duty. Anyone who talks about wanting to make games that are more "mainstream" or that appeal to nongamers needs to play with Danielle Hall. One scene set up by her showed me more about what games can be than a dozen theory posts. Thanks, Danielle.

Lots of goodness went on, too much to thank or remember at the moment.

Ron, you're right about Jasper. If I end up writing that romance novel RPG, he needs to pose for the cover. With the contacts.

[Matt-M-McElroy]

Hey folks,

I just wanted to say thanks and great job to everyone at the Forge booth this year. It was great to meet folks in-person and experience some great games. We've got lots of reviews to write and several interviews to do over at Flames Rising.

We ran out of Obsidian LARP Quickstarts on Saturday, and we'll have a downloadable version up on the Twilight Games website this weekend. Let us know what you think, we have an Obsidian forum on the TG site.

Regards,

Matt M McElroy
http://www.flamesrising.com
http://www.twilight-games.com

[Ben Lehman]

Hi all.

Calder and Jasper would probably be replying to this, but they are stuck in infinite holding trying to get to our small, fog-bound, NoCal town.  In short: I agree.  They were awesome.

It was an amazing thrill to be part of the ritual environment/gaming therapy group/sales team that is the Forge booth.  It was amazing to meet all of my favorite game designers (yes, including Jon Tweet, who I gave a free copy of the No-Press, so sorry Ron.)  It was amazing to make more money on my writing than I have in many years.

Oh and, by the way, you'll be hearing more out of Calder, Jasper and I very soon.  We sort of accidentally started a gaming company on the way home.

yrs--
--Ben

[GaryTP]

Hi, My name is Gary Pratt and I visited your booth three time during the show. Met some very nice people. Your booth was very well organized and run, even with all the different creators exhibiting. Good job.

I stopped by and bought Burning Wheel and My Life With Master. Got through My Life on the airplane and got some very funny looks and snickers from the people sitting beside me (all good.)

It was my first time as a vendor at the con (sold Code of Unaris - Chat Roleplaying) and was astounded at the number of people who came by to look at and buy an unknown game. I wanted to thank you all on the Forge for the past year and a half or so, as many of your thread discussions helped me refine my own game.

Gary
www.goldleafgames.com

[Tav_Behemoth]

It was my first time as a vendor at the con (sold Code of Unaris - Chat Roleplaying) and was astounded at the number of people who came by to look at and buy an unknown game. I wanted to thank you all on the Forge for the past year and a half or so, as many of your thread discussions helped me refine my own game.

Hi and welcome, Gary! I was initially astounded at how many people I've met who play RPGs via chat, since I had no inkling that was out there, but now I'm not at all surprised that folks flocked to see Code of Unaris, esp. when it was being presented as well as you did. (Did I hear correctly that the Unaris setting had been a semi-finalist in the Wizards setting search? That piqued my interest as well, being one of the gazillions of other entrants.)

I'd love to hear you, AFAIK the pioneer in this area, discuss the design process for a chat-optimized RPG - problems you encountered, solutions you developed, approaches you considered but didn't try, remaining issues for this field. I'll look forward to checking out any threads you might feel inspired to start!

[Paul's Girl]

I have just two things:

1- Michael, I was suprised and flattered by your very nice comment about out game of With Great Power. Perhaps in another forum you could say exactly what it was that I did? Cause I'm not really sure myself...  Much thanks anyway, and your game was great.

2- Since everyone else is saying it, it was a great year, congrats to all the sellers on record setting sales (yeah I know its only the second time, but it still set records), and to have that many guys in a relatively small area that produces such positive vibes is fantastic! The aggression must have been let out every night where the foam swords were being swong around.

-Danielle

[O. Rodriguez]

I just thought I would add, as a consumer,  that the energy surrounding the booth was remarkable. I'm just a humble gamer who happens to lurk here on the forums. I'll say as I said on another board, it's always great to meet the people you whom you know their online person but not their real person. The Forge can be awful intimidating to people, but in person everyone in the booth was incredibly easy going and approachable. The love of gaming just came off everyone in waves.

My friends and I likely had our best 15 minutes of Gen Con sitting at a kpfs demo. That's saying a lot when I think about where we were as a group about a year or so ago. They may not want to read or talk GNS but they could see the energy and love of gaming. So kudos to everyone involved.

[Claymore]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the help given to Don, Allan, and myself throughout Gen Con. It been a whirlwind the last month with the purchase of Driftwood Publishing and getting ready to go to the Con on about three weeks notice, and we COULD NOT OF DONE IT WITHOUT YOUR SUPPORT!

A special shout out needs to go out to Ben, Jasper and Calder. Ben ran demo after demo for us at the booth and really generated a lot of interest in the game, with Calder as a living "Hit Location Man", allowing complete strangers to hit him time and time again (not the six!), with boffer weapons to demonstrate the way different zones of the body were targeted. The three of you really really went above and beyond the call of duty, and everyone here at Driftwood really appreciated it.

[Lxndr]

First I'd like to give a public apology to all those who shared a room with me and my freakish snoring, which is NOT a part of my standard repertoire of quirks.  Luke, Drozdal, Vincent, Drew, Matt and Toby, thanks for dealing with it.  I blame the congestion that seemed to dog me all weekend.  I'm glad it wasn't bad enough to drive any of you away from possibly rooming with me next year (or so I hope!)

Second - my unofficial count seems to suggest 15 copies of Fastlane sold to individuals, plus two sold to that game store that came on by to snatch things up, for 17 total.  A small number in the larger scheme of things, I believe, but I generally consider it my lucky number, so rather auspicious.  Then six to Eero (yay for European distribution!) brings it to 23, another auspicious number, as all those Discordians out there know.  

I brought 80 copies of Fastlane to the convention, but that's only 'cause I was too lazy to open up a box of games and bring less.  As I've put it before, I sold more than I expected, and less than I hoped, and I've walked out of it feeling proud (and with a backache from carrying the other books - next time, I will be lazy enough to open the box of games).  Even more copies of the NPA sold (40!!), many at least in part on the merits of Snowball, which was a blast to sell.

Selling to total strangers was very nice, and a great buzz (especially in light of Fastlane's dismal sales prior - I released it in April, and sold more during the con than I did before it).  I'm hoping more might come by the site and buy later on.  But I got more of a buzz from people like Ron and Paul and Andy, who'd played (and in some cases created) all these cool games that I adore, going "dude, Fastlane's tight.  That's one pimpin' game you got there!"  (Obviously, a paraphrase)  Ron enjoying my teensy demo enough to insist on sitting in the sequel was just too cool.  So, thanks for all y'all who felt that my game was more than just a gimmick (even if it started as one).  Nobody walked away from a Fastlane demo saying "you know, that game sucked", which was really cool, and hopefully that buzz will help sell more copies down the line.

It was great, meeting all of you that I haven't met before, and meeting again those of you that I have met before.  It was really good meeting people whose names I'd seen on the boards, but who I didn't know had a game attached (93 games' Swing, for instance).  Next year I'm going to try to stay for both wednesday AND sunday nights (that Buca di Beppo palaver was mind-blowing).  I get the feeling that's gonna zonk me right out of the day job, though.

This is really the first time I've felt anything that could be classified as work (that is, the booth) was fun.  I have no illusions that Twisted Confessions will let me quit my day job, but it's definitely more promising than it was before.  As last year, GenCon has spurred me to try harder, and I'd love to have another game (or two) ready for next year.  But I'll yammer about that more in my own forum.  Either way, the atmosphere of the booth - the attitude created by the rest of y'all - I think is one of the big reasons it was as fun and good as it was.

Thanks again to Ralph for simply supplying the cash register.  I never got the chance to sit down and use it, even though I wanted to - was too busy running around trying to get people to play Fastlane.  Maybe next year I will, although by then I'll probably be bullying people into buying even more of my own games (not to mention others).  Also thanks to Ralph for letting me sit in that Shrek-Universalis demo that I hope you write up really soon.  

Special props to Calder (or as he should now be known forever to a small group of us, MOOOOOOOSE) for his duty as whipping boy, to Ben (the Omega to my Alpha) for his TRoS (and more general) enthusiasm, to Andy Kitkowski for so many things, and to the booth monkeys in general (names are dribbling through my brain like swiss cheese).  Thanks to Mike Miller for running a very cool With Great Power game, and to Ron for running Prime Time Adventures while exhausted (and to Jasper for supplying the materials for that excellent F*ck This game that I so rocked at - not to mention his duty as booth Mimbo).  More than that, I wish I could've cloned myself for all that after-hours gaming goodness (not to mention to sit in the demos being run).

Thanks also to, well, everyone else I haven't mentioned yet.  I mean, wow.  And, well, wow.  Booth monkeys, other salesfolk, and just everyone else who stopped by.

My plane landed yesterday after quite a delay and being switched between airlines due to a cancellation, but I'm still flyin'.  And it's all your fault.  All of you!

So, one big fat "thanks!"  Now I'm off to read all the games I bought that I didn't play, and to start scheming for the stuff I want ready for next year.  

Whew.  Sorry for anyone or anything I missed.

[jamesdbr]

Big thanks to everyone at the Forge Booth for giving me a chance to finally PLAY some of the games that have been sitting on my shelf for a while (Riddle of Steel, specifically).  I've never experienced a more welcoming atmosphere at any con booth.  Played in some great demos, my girlfriend seemed to have decent luck shopping her art around, and I managed to fill some holes in my collection (MLWM, finally) as well as pick up some ones that were entirely new to me (Nine Worlds, and F*ck This, which turned into the party hit of the con among my friends).  Great job everyone, I had a fantastic time, and I hope to see you all next year.

[Luke]

and just because it has not explicitly been said by me: THANKS, RON!

Thanks for getting this all started, and keeping it going.

-L

[smokewolf]

I am sitting here reading all of the posts regarding GenCon and the Forge booth. At first, after I left I was tired and worn out. It had been along time since I had spent that much energy on one project. By Sunday I was ready for a long winters nap. I think I only spoke to one or two customers that day. Mostly I spent the day talking with Bob and the guys from B3. However, it wasn't until now that I realized what happened at GenCon. Especially from my view point.

Nobody knew who I was. Nobody knew anything about me or my game. Ron knew my name but only from the posts and emails regarding the GenCon trip. I literally came out of the woodwork at the last second. I had been lurking around for the last 4 or 5 months but even my involvment with the Forge was as limited as everyone's knowledge of me.

Did that mean anything? Appearantly not. Not once did I felt like an outsider. By Friday I felt like I had been a Forgite all along. My buddy and me were made to feel welcome from the moment we showed up. Whether it was the night playing in Luke's room (which we wish we had done more of) or the fact that people who did not know anything about the Swing took the time to learn it and try to sell it (hell I even started to use Greg's pitch, it was better than the one I was using), we were included.

I guess because of all the hussle and bussle I didn't notice it then, but I see it now. And I can read it through the number of posts from both the rest of you guys and from the customers that are posting too. There really is something here. I am sorry I haven't had the opportunity to be part of it until now, but I am here. No matter how exhausted I felt Sunday, that feeling of community made everything worthwhile.

The only regret is that I didn't get the chance to really get to know everyone like I was able to for some. No matter how corny it may sound, I have taken something away from GenCon that I can not even begin to describe. Like finding a lighthouse or something. Thanks everyone, everyone of you made me feel comfortable and no one treated me as an anything but a friend.

[Vaettyr]

Hey all,

I discovered this site shortly before GenCon, but hadn't really had a chance to check it out. Then I saw the booth in the exhibitor's hall and was simply amazed by the energy of all you guys. My friend and I went all four days and spent at least an hour in your booth each day, sometimes considerably more. The sense of community you guys (and gals) exude is simply amazing. By the third day I was answering questions for visitors and feeling pretty goofy about it, but I couldn't help it.

Anyway, enough of the mindless praise and on to the actual people I met, and why they are great people.

Ron Edwards. His enthusiasm and innovative design made me seriously regret  I hadn't found this community sooner. I also regret that I ran out of money before I got a chance to pick up a copy of Elfs (I will soon, I promise!). I did get a copy of Sorcerer however, and have enjoyed it thoroughly. I've already found about six people that are interested in playing it, and half of them aren't really into rpgs in the first place, so I'm very excited to try it out.

Andy K. Again, very cool and very helpful. Played in a demo of Elfs with him, which I thought was very neat. Seeing how supportive everyone was of each other's product was very cool.

Luke. I didn't actually get a chance to meet him, but simply being within about a 15' radius of the booth you couldn't help but notice him. Really wanted to get in on a demo of Burning Wheel, but sadly I ran out of time. Maybe next year.

Julie. She ran a demo of Kill Puppies for Satan for a few friends of mine which was also very cool. Everyone's enthusiasm all around was just amazing.

Anyway, enough ranting. I'm still new here and don't want to come off sounding all stary-eyed, but I have been thoroughly impressed by the community you guys have going. It's also very encouraging for anyone hoping to publish their own RPG, which hopefully I can pull off.

[Andy Kitkowski]

BTW, folks, here's Droz's pictures from the Con and the Booth. My pics will be up around Fri-Sat or so (tho Droz' are far, far better than mine turned out):

http://www.robo-christ.com/gallery

-Andy

[drozdal]

Thanx Andy. You're da man :)

Radek