Lessons from GenCon

This year’s Gencon yielded a number of lessons about the convention and its attendees. These are personal lessons.

Bringing food = good I brought myself enough food (bread, salami & Swiss cheese) to last me, two meals a day from Thursday to Saturday. This allowed me to lower my food costs significantly. I only had to eat at the overpriced burger place once. Good call, JP!

Attendees are mostly noobs By that, I mean new to NeoExodus or Legacies. Next year, I will only offer 2 adventures: one new and perhaps a special. Both should be definitely intro-level games. This has two benefits: first, I don’t have to blast events and rush them to production. I barely finished the special this year. I would rather leave myself more time to finish and play-test my adventures. With Origins just around the corner… 4 adventures during the summer is quite enough. Since people are exploring and discovering new campaign settings and new games, I would rather put forth elements that really rock and that will get them to love what we do.

Joining forces with the PCI organized play Was definitely a good idea. I was able to have a stable location for my banner. People got to see what I was doing. Plus, I wasn’t alone or in direct competition with them. I hope they will have me again next year with my little table in the corner.

Write something for another game As a change of pace, perhaps try to offer something for WitchHunter or another game system (White Star? Serial Pulp? Who knows!)

Keep an open mind not unique to Gencon, but through this, I got to meet and enjoy a game with the lads of the Fellowship of the White Star, just like previous cons had me meet the Rokugan folk. Always good advice. This also includes talking to GMs waiting for people. Without fail this will result in a very excited GM wanting to show you all the goodies.

I am so lucky to know so many great people!One such GM was JM-D (shout-out to Petries’ in Colorado Springs!) with whom I got to spend a too short period of time on Saturday. He was running 13th Age events, effectively next door and we crossed path by chance in the corridor. Always a delight! But also, Gar (from Ireland), Chris (from the Denver Savages), players like Dallas, Kirk and Orion. The PCI folk: James, Eric, and Henry. The Arcaniacs: Lindsay, Josh and Clint, but also those who played with me: Jay, John and all the other brave souls! And how can I forget Chad and Holly who turned me from a disappointed fatty to a jolly fat man on Sunday!

Haters will hate A strange thing happened during Friday. I was getting ready to welcome my players when I saw two ladies looking at the illustration of Widowmaker Scarlet. The disdain on their face was worth a lot. I just had to see what they were thinking. The two of them were bitching (there is no other to use here) about how she was not “anatomically correct” and that there would be no way for her to pee.

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Wait, what!?

Yes, they argued that “no real woman would ever wear that and that it was not anatomically correct”. I told them that “it” was not a man nor a woman, but an aberration and something very evil, taking as proof the Klingon-like salad forehead and the metal spike coming out of her shoulders.

But they kept at it. It was at that moment that I preferred to let them to their hate. Neither were playing, and I don’t think either would play. So I bid them a good day and returned into the room to address my eager players. When I next turned around a few minutes later, they were gone.

Haters gonna hate.

The Kids? I really wonder if/when I will be able to bring my kids to the con! Denver was a super environment for families. Gencon is a little too big for that. Still I would hope to see them come sooner rather than later.

JP