View From the Bushes

Well, my long meandering report on GenCon has finally reached the final day. After spending a ton of time playing D&D, it was finally time to spend some quality time in the exhibitor hall. One of my many goals for the con was to find a copy of Dungeon 104. I was sure that someone at the con would have it, and indeed many vendors had Dungeon back issues, but for some reason most of them stopped in the 80's somewhere ('82 was the first 3rd Edition Dungeon so maybe they're all a bunch of 2E purists). One vendor went as high as 101, argh! After I finally gave up on that, I turned my attention to getting gifts for the wife and kids, which is always one of the most difficult parts of the convention for me, since I'm not looking for a specific item, but rather I have some vague notion that maybe I'll see the perfect gift if I just wander around enough.

While wandering I had a chance to trade out some of my shirts for merchandise (very few people can resist the saying on the back) and to sort of reflect on the convention as a whole. I noticed the Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE), once a giant of the RPG industry, was down to half a booth. I also saw what, to my mind, was one of the saddest sights of the whole week. Having been an exhibitor last year, I certainly feel for the first time exhibitor in the lonely booth trying to break into the biz. I saw just such a gentleman with a board game. He had it set up on a table waiting to demo it, but it was obvious from his expression and the stacks and stacks of unsold games behind him that he hadn't had much luck, and by Sunday his whole attitude was that of someone who had been broken. I feel for the guy.

After I finally found gifts for all the members of my family, I was able to get some last minute shopping in for myself, which mostly consisted of topping off my dice collection. I also managed to check out the display they had set up for the 30th anniversary of D&D, which presented a blow-by-blow of the game every year since its inception. While I was checking out the display describing the release of 2nd Edition, I started wondering whatever happened to David "Zeb" Cook, the author of the 2E Players' Handbook. Shortly after that, I was having lunch across the street from the convention center and found that I needed to use the bathroom. While I was standing there at the urinal, who should emerge from the stall, but Zeb Cook! Turns out he's working for a game company, which is I guess where the money really is if you're a game designer.

The trip home went about how you expect it to go when you're traveling on a Sunday Night. Basically you're just grateful when you arrive home and you can still walk under your own power. We do have pictures from GenCon which hopefully will be up within the next few days. At this point, while I'm still in the afterglow of GenCon Indy I'm seriously considering going to GenCon SoCal. When you live in Salt Lake and you have friends in LA, on a certain level it just doesn't make sense for someone to go to GenCon Indy, but not GenCon SoCal. In any event, we'll see.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero
Ross