View From the Bushes

First, I guess based on the comments some people actually liked my Tour commentary so I guess a brief wrap up is in order. Lance won by 61 seconds (the peleton split on the final stage causing him to lose another 15 seconds). Ullrich crashed in the final time trial and ended up loosing 11 seconds to Armstrong though he still came in fourth on the stage. As a result of finishing second in the time trial (ahead of Armstrong and Ullrich, but behind David Millar) and a solo stage win earlier in the week, Tyler Hamilton managed to finish fourth. Hopefully that was long enough to appease those who care, but short enough to not drive away those who don't. Now, on with the GenCon report.

Tuesday, July 22nd

After staying up for 32 hours getting Wil's latest adventure out, putting together a voucher system, and packing I arrived at the airport in a fog of exhaustion. Fortunately, I actually managed to sleep a fair amount on the leg to Chicago (though I was not nearly so good at it as the guy in the seat next to me). Which meant that I was actually bearable company when my two assistants and I stopped to eat at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant. (Capsule review: not bad for either taste or price, but not spectacular either). The layover was hideously long and the chairs far too uncomfortable to even think of sleeping in, but I did manage to pass the time by reading the Midnight Setting Book, which I highly recommend.

As I recall, we arrived in Indianapolis sometime after ten, but since we were staying near the airport it didn't take long to get to our room (actually I guess it was technically a suite). SkeletonKey Ed, one of my faithful cartographers was arriving Tuesday night as well and didn't have a place to stay until Wednesday night, so I let him crash with us. It ended up with my friend Glenn on the floor, while Ed took the hide-a-bed. As anyone can tell you, I treat my freelancers very well. I was already asleep when Ed arrived, but I woke up long enough to stagger over and say "hi."

Wednesday, July 23rd

Obviously, given the sleep deprivation of Monday/Tuesday, we slept in today. We did manage to make it to the convention hall by around 11:00. When we got there we discovered that by a fortuitous accident we had ended up with a 10X20 booth instead of a 10x10. It took us awhile to confirm that it was okay for us to use the entire space, and we had to get an extra piece of carpet, but it was certainly one of those times when for a brief moment fortune smiles on you, before it goes back to kicking you in the nuts. With the extra room we had a really great set-up. I had hoped to get set-up fairly quickly and then go home and take an afternoon nap, but it took long enough to get the booth figured out that I didn't get the chance.

In addition to meeting Ed Bourelle (who is very cool, and having displayed before, immensely helpful) I got to met Doug and Hal from Mystic Eye Games while I was setting up. Both of them are insanely cool. I also picked up the Bluffside Bundles for the contest I had running. I've e-mailed the two people who won and once they've responded I'll announce who it was. In any case, after going to dinner at Champions (the second time that day) we headed up into Ed's room to play a little Midnight adventure that Wil had put together. My friend Glenn tagged along and we were also joined by a couple of guys from Bastion (Steve Creech and a guy whose name I forget).

I should mention that I really like Midnight, so much so that I think I may have to try and find the time to DM again. Though it will probably be a Play by Post campaign. I'm hoping that will be easier to squeeze in.

Thursday, July 24th

The first actual day of the con was kind of slow. I think other sites will probably have a better description of the horror that was the registration line, but suffice it to say, a lot of people were standing in line rather than in the exhibit hall. Right off the bat I talked to James Wyatt and Skip Williams. I think this is one of the things I like most about gaming. It's a really small community and everyone is, almost without exception, friendly to a fault. Both James and Skip really dug the concept and the system. I chatted both of them up about writing some adventures for me, so we'll have to see what happens but they seem receptive.

In general, Thursday was pretty slow, and the most common thing we heard was that people were still scouting the exhibit hall to get a feel for what they might want to buy. Despite this, the reaction was universally positive. Everyone thought that DireKobold was the coolest thing since sliced bread. That night was the legendary "Against the Giants" game. This year it was G2. Unfortunately, the pressures of being an exhibitor were weighing heavily on me (okay, I was still pretty tired) so I only stayed until about 10:30. I left right as Leopold used a monster he had cribbed from the DireKobold adventure Atonement, which by all accounts was the highlight of the evening.

Friday, July 25th

Friday morning, a guy by the name of Mark came straight to our booth as soon as the convention hall opened, and wanted to buy an annual subscription. I guess the night before he had signed up for an event, the DM hadn't shown up. He happened to have an internet connection so he counted the heads at the table, asked everyone what level they wanted to play, plugged in the number and spit out an adventure. What a story.

Friday was pretty busy, and is probably where the days start to blur. I think that it was on this day that Dave Noonan (see my July 12th blog entry) stopped by. He had been referred by James Wyatt. He loved the idea and the system. Obviously, one of the coolest things about all of the DireKobold stuff is getting some recognition from someone like Dave Noonan whom I have admired for many, many years.

Friday night I played El Grande and then went to the Ennies. I was very happy to see Midnight win the best campaign setting. For myself, I would have killed to win an Ennie, but some companies seemed to have only a single representative, who by his own admission had not had much to do with any of the awards. In any case the ENWorld gathering was after that. I talked to Maldur (who was singularly unimpressed with my Dutch), Teflon Billy, Monte Cook, Eric Noah and a whole bunch of other people.

Saturday, July 26th

Saturday was slower than I expected; perhaps I was tired of hearing myself say, "Please! Please! Subscribe to DireKobold! Otherwise my children will starve! My wife will leave me and other D20 publishers will laugh at me." Donavon-D Charlemagne (yes that is his actual name) or "Negative Zero" as he's know on the boards, had finally hit his stride and was doing pretty good. Despite the fact that it was a little bit slower on Friday it was becoming apparent that quite a few people were coming to the booth because they'd heard from other people about the system and how cool it was.

Saturday night was another meal at Champions, where I got the chance to discuss religion, politics, children, and the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World with Wil and Bree. We then went to this huge arcade which had the very latest games in addition to a virtual roller-coaster. Then we played a little Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers (we had played a little bit earlier, but had to end the game with the ShadowRun people kicked us out of the room). In general, the evening games really helped keep me sane. They also meant that I never quite caught up on my sleep.

Sunday, July 27th

Sunday was a great day. We sold memberships like crazy. I talked to Greg Benage of FFG, an insanely cool guy. We discussed some possible collaboration which I won't say anything more about, since it's still very ephemeral. I also talked to Erik Mona the editor of Dungeon. As mortal enemies, we first engaged in an epic battle that raged the length of the exhibit hall. When we finally realized that I couldn't compete with his color printing and he couldn't compete with my dynamic scaling we declared a truce, much to the relief of the other exhibitors. We had a very cool talk about stuff. I talked to probably a half a dozen other D20 publishers. I managed to get all my gifts, and to top the day off, Cthulhu Bob, the owner of the local FLGS stopped by and capped the day off.

We managed to get out in a fairly expeditious fashion after the hall closed (mostly by following Ed Bourelle's injunction to avoid the loading dock at all costs). Though the UPS store was bottle-necked with a broken scale and then just as we cleared that hurdle, the heavens opened and the rains came down like the last days of Noah. I almost figured that I would have to sacrifice one of the laptops and float down the gutters to get to the car. Fortunately, we managed to make it with only three gallons of water in each sandal. We ate at a quaint Irish Pub that night which was really, really excellent. I'm going to have to come back every year. The rest of the trip was fairly relaxing as I tried to make the most of the limited time I had before I was sent back to the salt mines.

I realize this has been long. I hope it hasn't be too insipid. I would like to thank everyone who came to the booth and checked out the product. It really was a great con, and I'll see everyone next year.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross