GenCon thanks

[lumpley]

I'm finally home.

There's an intensity to our GenCon friendships that's hard to match out here in the day-to-day world.  I hope that the people there for the first time felt it too.

I missed Jake.

-Vincent

[Albert of Feh]

Dang, I didn't even make it to GenCon, and I'm already wishing I had something to sell, so that I could maybe join you guys next year. :D

Then again, if Hans ever gets me the materials to put together Musketeers!, and I ever figure out how to get a handle on that Japanese mythology game I'd love to write (or some other inspiration), I suppose it doesn't seem too far out that "Grim Brothers Andersen Games" might want to put in an appearence at Indy '05!

[jrs]

Coming back to work yesterday after 5 days of saturated GenCon goodness was such a surreal experience that I had little time to dwell on the events of the last week.  I'll join in the chorus and express my appreciation to everyone for making the booth such a huge success.  I'm not even a designer and I still find it such a thrill to be involved.  

It was also wonderful to see all the friends I met last year and meet new ones.   I am so happy that I had a chance to talk and eat and game with all of you.  It amazes me that so much can be packed into such a short span of time.   Special thanks to Vincent for running Dogs in the Vineyard, Ben for running Pagoda, Andy for describing Japanese role-playing materials, and to everyone (what was it, 8 of us?) who participated in the Sunday night F*ck This game.  

And I ran a demo.  I ran a demo.  Let me explain, up until very recently, I may play in a demo, I may set one up, I may talk up a game and even sell them.  Run a demo?  Uh-uh, not me.  Well, it was a blast!  I had such fun and I'm sitting here grinning with the memory of it.

Julie

[Nev the Deranged]

Whew. Glad I had that extra day off work to unwind, or I would be running on nothing but brain-pate right now.

Lots to say, but to sum up in three words: Best Con Ever!

I get to game maybe once every six months, if I'm lucky. Over the weekend, I got in about five years worth. I got to be a chubby kung-fu practitioner and learned the Path of the Cart. I got to be a disgraced knight and bash my Master's head in with his own marble bust. I got to beat the crap out of Calder. I got to be a mercenary supernatural investigator who got torn apart by cultists (dude, your game sucks! (you know I'm kidding, we may not have taken it seriously, but I've never had such a blast roleplaying)). I got to be Lothar the cross-dressing wannabe satanist. I got to help kill Kieth Taylor (did you survive even one demo, man?) I got to beat the crap out of Calder some more. I got to help write the pilot for a series where Shrek and Fiona's kids chew up every available inch of fairy tale real estate.

Did I mention I got to beat the crap out of Calder?

I'm loathe to even mention names for fear I'll slight someone, suffice to say everyone was awesome, special thanks to anyone who ran a game I played in. Luke was amazing, every time I saw him he was on FIRE with enthusiasm. Andy's otakujitsu was phenomenal. Thanks to Julie for not eating my spleen. Danielle- we NEED Angry Mob T-Shirts on Cafepress!! And of course "Location Six" Calder and Jasper the Mimbo (I know I took a pic of him with my friend Shannon, which I will try to get ahold of and post). I should note that Jasper, even though we all agree he was beefcake, was SO not about being beefcake. He was about selling the games, just like everyone else there. Sure, he got to talk to the cute women more than the rest of us, but he was still trying to sell them games. And he kept them around long enough for the rest of us to ogle, so no harm there, right? ^_^

I've read through the NPA now, and every game in it looks intriguing... I'm just pissed that I read Cell Gamma, because it means I can't PLAY it now... unless someone has some of that amnesia drug available?

Working the booth was way more fun than I expected. I figured on a lot more grunt work, but since all of you guys are used to doing your own grunt work, I ended up stuck with being Tall And Loud, pretty much the only things besides grunt work I'm good at. Speaking of which, thanks to the guys across from us who tried to give me advice, most of it was more or less good advice... unfortunately, being Tall And Loud is pretty much my schtick, so the advice wasn't all that useful to me personally. *shrug*

One of my favorite lines was overhearing a random passerby turn to his friend and point, saying "hey, that guy's wearing a t-shirt from Bob Goat Press!" to which I had the pleasure of adding "No, that guy IS Bob Goat Press." But my favorite of all was when I was talking to a couple who were interested in MLwM. I told them I was trying to get a game going in Chitown. They said they knew someone else was trying to get a game going in Chitown as well, and I said "oh yeah?" and they said "Yes, some guy named Nev the Deranged posted a 'Minions Wanted' ad at Games Plus." So after two months of getting no play from that ad, I now have players for my game ^_^ That was worth attending the Con all by itself.

Which leads me to another thing I wanted to mention. I had plenty of time to wander the con floor and check out everything there was to check out. And I can say with 100% conviction that NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY, had a booth with near the energy, comeraderie, and just plain kickass vibes, that the Forge booth had. 20+ companies crammed into one spot, it was like a mini-con within the con, and I know I'm not the only one who spent nearly all my cash right friggin' there. It was awesome to be able to tell people they could get a demo run BY THE AUTHOR of whatever game they were interested in. More than that, to tell them about the Forge and that they could get support from said authors ALL THE TIME. Nobody else even comes close, and I've been a part of playtesting and demo teams before. The Forge is something unique and something special. Not only were the gamers impressed, but other independent publishers I talked to were amazed to find that they weren't alone. I suspect and hope we will be seeing at least a small swell in the ranks of publishing members here in the coming months. I also tried to direct press people over as much as possible, I hope that worked out well.

On a few final notes, I heard Ron played in his first G rated game, Congratulations! This news may not bode well for the rest of us, however, as I understand that the Celestine Prophecies regard this event as one of the signs of Armageddon.

And lastly, I'm still trying to find people to play F*ck This! with who won't cut my throat in my sleep and burn my house down afterwards. Way to go, Greg ^_^

Thanks EVERYONE, I had the BEST time and I will be back next year if I have to perform human sacrifice to attend.

[smokewolf]

No I did not survive a single game. I even played in one Spycraft game, I did live during it, but got an email from the GC and he said I tripped on the way to the car after the mission was over. I fell down and smashed my skull in.

10 deaths by shotguns to the chest in The Swing
1 death from terror in Conspiracy of Shadows
1 death from head bash in Riddle of Steel
and 1 death from clumsiness in Spycraft

I even lost a game of F*ck This

[Nev the Deranged]

**LATE EDIT**

How could I forget? I also got to be a schizoid class-2 robot musketeer turbocharging a hovercarriage drawn by equine automatons. How cool is that? Ralph, you realize you never have to come up with game ideas from scratch again, right? You can make the rest of your career just spinning Universalis sessions into new game concepts. You da man! Now get those con-writeups on the Uni site so I can show off! ^_^

**/EDIT (stupid 60 minute limit)**

[saiene]

Posted my own topic on this by accident. It's called Thanks from the pretty maps guy, if you want to read it.

I just wanted to thank everybody who was helping out at the Forge booth. It was an educational and warm experience for me and the rest of the Behemoth3 crew.

It was great meeting everyone and getting to see all the great, inventive stuff they brought along. I hope to get to know all of you better through this site and, of course, future cons.

Congrats to Paul on the Diana Jones award! Don't remember doing it in person at the booth -- I was a bit too busy trying to duck Erin Grey. I think the she was stalking me!

Sang

[Keith Senkowski]

1 death from terror in Conspiracy of Shadows

Hey,

If I remember correctly you died via pew being hurled into your panicing cowardly form...

I have to say that the game session that night, though it didn't really capture the game, was the most fun I had the entire con.  Thanks for the fun.  Maybe I should just write a game about humiliating deaths of characters?  Oh wait, they just came out with Paranoia again...

Keith

[Ron Edwards]

The Flames Rising folks have posted a bunch of GenCon pictures!

In case anyone's interested, I'm fifth from the left in the top row of pics in a slightly disturbing moment. Keith Senkowski and Scott Knipe are second from the right in that row. And just for educational purposes, Matt Forbeck is in the rightmost picture in that row, with Matt McElroy (I think) - if you don't know who Matt Forbeck is, then find out soon. He's a very significant person, of the highest integrity, and all role-players owe him a serious debt.

In the bottom section, don't miss the Wicked Dead crowd (John Wick, Annie Rush, Jared A. Sorensen), far left in bottom row.

Best,
Ron

[Jasper the Mimbo]

The Mimbo speaks:

Holy Shit!! I might be speaking but I don't think I can put into words how much fun I had! I don't think I've ever felt so welcomed or appriciated. Wow. I still can't believe I let Ron convince me to wear that rediculous LARP getup for two extra days. (You bastard :) I really had no idea that other people thought It was that impressive until I had been standing around for a while and could judge people's reactions. Selling stuff is fun! At first I was embarrased and a little taken aback, but once I got used to the idea it was a lot of fun, and a great way to meet girls. Heh heh.
As great as the booth was the best part of the Con for me was the stuff that happened after the hall had closed in the evenings. Dinner with everybody at that italian place was great, and the game of Fuck This afterward was out of control. My entire face and chest hurt, and I had a headache by the time it was over, from laughing so hard for so long!
Special thanks to Ron for putting me on display like a piece of meat, and to Andy for being the medium through which I could break a bat over Ben's head.
I'll be back next year.
One last thing. I wasn't even in the Moose game, but hearing the part about the unicorn ripped my heart out of my chest. That game needs it's own post.
You all Rock!
- Jasper

[Nev the Deranged]

**transplanted from the "pretty map guy" thread at Ron's behest**

.... crap, my bad. I saw "pretty map guy" and didn't think any further. I do sincerely apologize. There were so many people there I had fun chattin with but didn't really get to know, and my face/name memory is blowtastic at best, so no hard feelings I hope.

*sheepish grin*

Oh yeah, and I found the pic of Jasper in full regalia I took... give me a while to figure out how to post it. Brr... those contacts creepy even in photographs.

[Calder_Johnson]

Hey, folks!  Glad to hear everybody made home safe and more or less sound.  GenCon was an incredible experience.  So many of you I consider good friends now.  And being part of the Forge crew gave a clarity of purpose that would have been totally lacking otherwise.  Thanks.  I wish all of you the the best, and much success in the coming year.  Oh, and feel free to beat the crap out of me anytime.

Just....um...not in the VI...?  please...

[Gordon C. Landis]

I want to add - I am not at ALL thankful for the miserable cold I (like Paul, from the sound of it) picked up at GenCon.

But if that's the price I have to pay for such a wonderful experience, so be it.

Gordon

[Matt Wilson]

I want to add - I am not at ALL thankful for the miserable cold I (like Paul, from the sound of it) picked up at GenCon.


Gordon

Sorry, that might have been a PtA promotion: get the game, and get a nasty-ass cold absolutely free. I've had a heinous cough all week that I can't seem to shake. If you did in fact get it from me, you have my sincere apologies.

[Jürgen Mayer]

Thanks for all the fun at GenCon! You all rock!

Here are my pictures: http://www.disastermachine.com/en_gallery_gencon2004.html