GenCon is over at the time of this writing, and I wasn;t there. Probably just as well as I would have been miserable with all that standing on an injured back. Nonetheless, I am very interested in finding out what happened there and how oit all went for the various Forge members who attended in whatever capacity they attended.

In short, GenCon was absolutely frickin' awesome.

I haven't collected my thoughts on the subject just yet. I need time to cool down and relax. And yes, there were issues that needed to be dealt with. But the bottom line is that we sold a fucking shitload of games, and played our fair share of them too.

- Scott

Scott is my freakin hero.


I never thought I'd say this, but:

Gencon rockethed.

-L

abzu wrote: Gencon rockethed.

Yup, I'll chime in with a quick "what everyone said" - the Forge rocketh, meeting folks was incredible, etc. and more freakin' etc.

A bit more "realistically," the convention itself had some snags dealing with badges (especially on Saturday) - at one point it seemed like there were as many people out in line as there were folks in the exhibit hall, which didn't thrill some of the vendors. But Indy (IMO) turns out to be a pretty good place for a convention, and from what I saw - as a first year, in a new place, with a somewhat new staff running the thing - things worked out. LOTS more space, and the hotels are convienent - though that "LOTS more space" sometimes means it's a bit farther from one place to another than you thought.

Not that I'm an expert on that stuff - I spent 90% of my time with Forge folks - but I thought I'd throw a little bit o' dry information out there.

Gordon

I did very well at GenCon, partly helped by an unexpected cancellation by Wizard's Attic who had rented a booth across from us, but didn't show. The con staff filled it with tables, so I brought my demo guys in to take advantage of the free space.

Sales were awesome the first two days and then slowed down (the opposite of what happened last year), but I was still way up from last year. I got lots of excellent responses from players and even had one guy start running demos just for the fun of it (though I threw a free T-shirt at him anyway). And, at least two extra people want to join our demo program to get us exposure in stores and local cons around the country.

I also met lots of store owners and distributors, which should pay off over the next few months. We got boatloads of information from people about the logistics on expanding my game into miniatures.

Hey guys,

Congrats to everyone who went to GenCon and had a great time. I'm also glad to hear that folks did some brisk business as well. Just a quick question- for those of you who sold products, did you accept payment other than cash or check? (e.g., credit cards) If so how did you process those sales?

Many thanks in advance!

At the Forge booth, only the big "sponsor" games (Sorcerer/Adept Press and Riddle of Steel/Driftwood) accepted credit cards. They had an old-fashioned imprinter, and I assume they will process the transactions like, today or something (no dial-up confirmation from the booth). A bit of a risk, I assume - as is accepting a check, which was up to each individual creator/owner to decide, on a case-by-case basis (look 'em in the eye and see if you trust their ink & paper to be worth somethin').

Other posters who had their own booths might have handled things differently . . .

Gordon

In my booth, I accept both check and credit card. For one thing, I've never had either go wrong due to customer fraud. In fact, in two years only one credit purchase went bad, and that was my fault (the imprinter missed two digits and I didn't double-check the imprint). Fortunately, it was only a $10 purchase.

I process the cards each night using my laptop and a modem, since I have a virtual terminal through my service. If I wanted to, I could call my card service provider and verify each card on the spot, but with no past problems I feel like it just slows things down. Still, it's a good way to be safe and only requires a cell phone.

In both cases, I check an ID, and often ask for a mailing address to go with credit cards.

This year, almost half of my Saturday/Sunday purchases came through credit cards, so I feel like it's a valuable service to offer.

Did they annoucne the dates for next year's GenCon Indy? This is a very important question for me as i have a prior committment the weekend of Jully 22nd-25th, 2004.

If Indy GenCon is too close to that date I may not be able to raise the moeny for both trips.

GenCon Indy was very kind to me as well, especially from a business perspective. Eddy and I ran a lot of demos for Cartoon Action Hour and it seemed to pay off, as many of the players went directly to the booth to purchase a copy. This was at least partly due to an idea Ron and I hashed out, where anyone playing in a demo got a free copy of After These Messages issue 1.

So, yeah, I think GC '03 was a success. Furthermore, I think it was yet another step in the evolution of the indie RPG market.

Michael Hopcroft wrote: Did they annoucne the dates for next year's GenCon Indy? This is a very important question for me as i have a prior committment the weekend of Jully 22nd-25th, 2004.

If Indy GenCon is too close to that date I may not be able to raise the moeny for both trips.

Hey Gordon and Justin,

Many thanks for your replies! I was curious how much of a hassle it was to process credit cards.

Cynthia Celeste Miller wrote:
If they did announce it, I didn't hear it. Right as the show was ending, they began plugging GenCon SoCal, but made no mention of next year's GenCon Indy.

They provided the dates for GenCon Indy and GenCon SoCal for the next four years in the ad in the on-site book.

I've got it:

GenCon Indy

August 5-8, 2004
July 28-31, 2005
August 10-13, 2006

GenCon SoCal

December 11-14, 2003
December 16-19, 2004
November 17-20, 2005

Paul

It should be noted that next year's GenCon coincides with the Brickyard 400. Not bad if you're a Nascar fan and want to hit the track for a day, but I'd highly recommend making hotel reservations early.

Like now is probably not a bad idea.

Dangit.

Greetings!

Oh wow, GenCon and the Brickyard at the same time. Make your hotel reservations now folks. Seriously. I'm from Indiana, and I remember when the NBA Playoffs and the Indy 500 coincided. Downtown traffic was scary. Also, hotels booked up real fast. GenCon and the Brickyard will be worse.

I was told by several business owners this year that they were dreading GenCon because it promised to be the biggest convention at Indy this year. It surpassed their expectations. Which is a good thing IMO.

But next year, whew, it will be something. Looking forward to it!

Peace,

-Troy

Whyingodsname would they schedule it on that weekend? Why not the same weekend (last in July)? Why does it hop around like that? Anybody have an idea?

Mike

The only thing I can think of is that there's scheduling conflicts due to other events already booking up the convention center. What's driving me batty is the schedule for 2006; Indy in August and then SoCal in November? Yikes!

Anyone planning on heading to Anaheim this December to put in a Forge presence (even if there's no booth)?

-jeffrey-

Jeffrey Miller wrote:
Anyone planning on heading to Anaheim this December to put in a Forge presence (even if there's no booth)?

My GenCon report's up on my site:
http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/opine.html#gencon

Pictures to come, or maybe I left my little disposable camera on the floor of my brother's van, in which case who knows.

-Vincent

Although clashing with Brickyard will suck, at least next year I'll be able to make my local con (which is the last week of July). I'm hoping to talk them into having the foresight to schedule differently the next time they clash with GenCon (where did people find the schedules for years past 2003, btw?).

Meanwhile, yes, I am going to GenCon SoCal. That's tentative until I reserve the hotel (which won't happen until I see the "special GenCon prices" like they had for Indy) but it's "Pretty Darned Sure(tm)". By next year, if I succeed in my current whimsical dream and have an indie publication worth speaking of, I'd be willing to shell out the money to host the "SoCal Forge Booth." Not this year, though.

"They turned out to be Jeffrey Miller and Matt"...Wilson? Snyder was at some family thing.

Cool summary.

Paul

My plan for next year: bring a tent. Just hope it'll be possible to find parking nearby.

Yep, I made the same mistake all through the con. It's fixed. Sorry, Matt.

You weren't there, Jonathan, were you? Cause if you were I wanted to meet you.

-Vincent

If you weren't there, of course, then he didn't want to meet you after all. ;)

I'm looking forward to next year.

I was, indeed, conspiciously absent. My deal with myself is that I can't go to one of the major cons (Origins or GenCon, mainly) until I have something to sell. How's that for an incentive? So, for the next 11 months, it's Argonauts, Ever-After, and Vespertine, baby!

That's very cool, Johnathan. You've just inspired me.

Mike

Yeah, I think we should committ to seeing Ever-After, Sorcerer in Space, and Robots and Rapiers at next years GenCon. No excuses allowed.

Hey Jonathan,

My deal with myself is that I can't go to one of the major cons (Origins or GenCon, mainly) until I have something to sell. How's that for an incentive?

It sounds like a recipe for writer's block to me.

I think Scott McCloud's 24 hour "Dare," and the Forge's "Iron Game Chef" incarnation of it show a keen awareness of how and why people get and stay creatively blocked...and have the potential on some level to be an effective counter-agent. You get blocked when you can't keep your brain from focusing on needing to be brilliant/perfect/impressive in your creative efforts, for whatever reason. The "Dare" attaches a different objective to the creative endeavor, one of completion and effort, and in so doing works to melt away at the paralysis mode.

But a twelve month "Dare" isn't the same thing. At that point you're just flogging yourself. My advice to you would be the same that I gave to Dave here: a crash course in actual play. It absolutely does pay you back tenfold in energy and enthusiasm.

Paul

What Paul said. My best setting design ever was in Mike's Iron Game Chef Sim thread. There's nothing like an impending deadline to get yourself writing.

This thread is soaring rapidly off-course, but what the hay...

Thanks for the advice guys but, with all due respect, I'm not a moron. I realize it's going to take a bunch of smaller steps to get me to the point that I have something to sell by next GenCon. Also, I have come to a fairly decent understanding over the years about what can keep me working on a project, which is critical to getting me to the end. I have an annoying tendency to jump from half-finished project to idea-of-the-week, which is really what this deal with myself is supposed to help with. I'm going to devote some time here and there to side projects, but I'm not taking on anything major until Argonauts, Ever-After, and Vespertine get in a finished form (whatever that means). This is not an 11-month deadline. This just means that I'm not going to go to GenCon before I'm ready. The 24-hour game and Iron Chef stuff rocked (heck, that's what Vespertine and Argonauts both started out as), but at some point you have to sit down and really work the idea to its full potential. And, since I have a life and still have a year of college to get through, that's going to take time.

I'm am way late in posting a reponse here in this thread, but I wanted to say that it was great to meet the Forge folks at GenCon! I had a great time at the show. I hope everyone else did, too.