Gen Con Indy!

July 30th, 2003

Everyone in the industry looks forward to the Gen Con Game Fair each year. It’s a time to see old friends, catch up on gossip in a more personalized manner than the mailing lists allow, and see the industry displayed in all of its glory.

This year’s Gen Con felt different, like a freshman at his first day of school. The move to Indiana was met with initial trepidation by some, cautious optimism by others, and forecasts of doom by the pessimists among us. But despite the anxiety—or perhaps in spite of it—this year’s Gen Con blossomed into a truly extraordinary event. For the highs and lows of the show, make sure to read Peter Adkison’s letter to the gaming community. I think he summed it up well, and gave us all reason to look forward to next year.

For Bastion’s part, the show went off without a hitch. Our tables and space were ready for us upon arrival, and even the phone line for the credit card machine was live. Nothing got damaged in shipping, and the demos and various Oathbound events all went as planned. The volunteers were enthusiastic and professional, and everyone had a great time (which is what Gen is all about, after all).

Here are some pics from the show, along with some commentary about what was happening in them.

Steve Creech & Kevin Ruesch work on setting up the Torn Asunder: Critical Hits demo. During the con, players worked hard at hiding the book from their DMs, but we had two full columns of books on both tables, so it was only a matter of time before their DMs spotted the book and started to grin with an almost Lawful Evil glow that would have made Asmodeus proud.

This is the Bastion Press booth just before the doors opened. Each book was set in its place, and the glow from the illuminated panel cast a serene hue over the exhibit (only to be shattered moments later as the doors were opened and thousands of gamers stormed the Exhibit Hall). Thomas Reid stopped by each day to sign copies of Forged for everyone (along with those that brought their Insurrection [from the War of the Spider Queen series] books with them).

At past Gen Cons, many computer game companies were kept out of the Exhibit Hall (essentially due to space; they would have bought all of it and left little room for small games publishers). With the new location in Indianapolis, there’s plenty of room for game companies like Electronic Arts, Atari, Sony Online, Microsoft, and others to come show their latest and greatest creations to gamers. I watched the D&D Heroes demonstration (run by former WotC employee Shawn Carnes), and was quite impressed with what I saw (though I think Shawn took too much glee in his gnome jump-climbing mountains). J

Oook! Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! The near-primates from Code Monkey Publishing had a great Gen Con, oogling everyone with their new release and having a swingingly good party at the top of the Hyatt Regency on Friday night. Here, we catch the dictator Mynex as he’s hurriedly typing out what will be some mischievous code for future versions of e-Tools.

Denise Robinson and children hold down the fort at the ENWorld publishing booth. I’m not certain how Denise’s children got wings, but I’m sure there were some dark sacrifices and offerings of gold-pressed latinum….

Speaking of demon spawn, Valar Project (headed by WotC alumni Anthony Valterra) debuted their sneak peak of the Book of Erotic Fantasy at Gen Con. Their booth was always swarmed with fans looking to see what all the fuss was about (and to get their pictures taken with the stunningly attractive booth babes).

Mystic Eye Games’ Hal Greenberg blessed us with his presence, announcing my arrival to the rest of the MEG staff. Note the rare picture of Hal with pants! Doug Herring tries hard not to notice my presence by fidgeting with a clipboard, but it does him no good. Bastion’s booth was 30 feet in front of MEG’s, so there was no escape for them…

Micah and Brad work hard at the Apophis Consortium booth. Their Obsidian world has been going for 3-4 years now, and I’ve had their Cruciform Injection CD for quite a while as well. Micah had a gig at Radio Radio (a Goth club) in Indianapolis during the convention, and while I didn’t make it to his show, I heard it was a blast.

The folks at White Wolf also seemed to have a banner year at the show, with Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed blowing off the shelves in the first few hours of the show on Thursday. They overnighted more in for the show, but still ran out on Sunday. Monte and Sue were glowing for the whole convention…

Of course, Wizards of the Coast had a banner year as well, releasing the 3.5 Edition books and showing off their new convention space. I miss the hulking presence of the old WotC castle and the parapets that looked out over the sales floor, but this is a good replacement. The booth was full most of the time, with signings from Bob Salvatore, Elaine Cunningham, Ed Greenwood, Richard Baker, Thomas Reid, and others.

So what’s next on our convention agenda? Well, there’s this little thing called Gen Con SoCal coming up in Anaheim, CA on December 11-14^th. Hopefully we’ll see you there!