GenCon Indy 05 - Day One
Man, today was one big, busy day! Got the last of the booth set up and ready in the nick of time before the hall opened, with the guys from Human Head and The Game Mechanics setting up products and props specific to their product lines this morning. Dozens of fellow exhibitors were stopping by and trying to pry copies of Mutants & Masterminds Second Edition and Thieves' World away from us before the hall opened and they would have to be at their booths. I was quite short tempered about the chaos in the booth area as we were trying to handle our last minute prep, especially when we had a period of about 30 minutes (about 40 minutes before the hall opened) when we thought our cash register was going to be tempermental and not work (despite my diligent programming and reprogramming). Fixed in the nick of time! The mood seems to me to be pretty upbeat and enthusiastic here, and the crowds are thick. I'm enjoying myself far more than I should be, considering what a brutal summer it's been.
Lynn Abbey has been a wonderful person to hang around. She's been a gem through the entire development process of the Thieves' World game and was extremely gracious when the throng of people waiting to buy Mutants & Masterminds distracted from the fact that she was on hand to meet fans and sign books for the Thieves' World launch at the same time. Happily we were able to guide the TW fans to her after the initial complete chaos of Opening Day subsided a bit.
I ran my first Blue Rose game of the con today, overcoming a decade of nerves and atrophy, but it all seemed to go alright and I think most of the people had at least an ok time of it. It was hard to tell with one person, and I definitely made some pacing mistakes (taking too long at the start to try and explain the peculiarities of the setting and specific abilities and other flavor, as well as how True20 works, etc, but it went along well enough and tomorrow will be better, as I've learned from my mistakes.
The rest of the gang are out playing a game of TW with Lynn and Rob tonight, but I passed in order to attend a seminar about Game Expo 2007, the Mark Simmons/Matthew Simmons Marketing trade show endeavor that is set to compete with the GAMA Trade Show for game industry dollars and attention in a two week period in March 2007. Curiosity got the better of me and I was mildly entertained. Not able to form a coherent analysis for the blog at the moment, but I may return to musing on it later.
I'm back in the room now, feeling a summer convention cold coming on. Amazingly, this is the first time this con season that I've been sick. At first I thought it was a sore throat from talking for 9 hours straight, but I'm now feeling a bit of congestion, too. I've ordered myself $10 worth of tea/lemon (and a thermal carafe) from room service and will be tucking in for a good night's sleep as soon as I finish this entry, lest I waste myself before the con is even half done!
Lynn Abbey has been a wonderful person to hang around. She's been a gem through the entire development process of the Thieves' World game and was extremely gracious when the throng of people waiting to buy Mutants & Masterminds distracted from the fact that she was on hand to meet fans and sign books for the Thieves' World launch at the same time. Happily we were able to guide the TW fans to her after the initial complete chaos of Opening Day subsided a bit.
I ran my first Blue Rose game of the con today, overcoming a decade of nerves and atrophy, but it all seemed to go alright and I think most of the people had at least an ok time of it. It was hard to tell with one person, and I definitely made some pacing mistakes (taking too long at the start to try and explain the peculiarities of the setting and specific abilities and other flavor, as well as how True20 works, etc, but it went along well enough and tomorrow will be better, as I've learned from my mistakes.
The rest of the gang are out playing a game of TW with Lynn and Rob tonight, but I passed in order to attend a seminar about Game Expo 2007, the Mark Simmons/Matthew Simmons Marketing trade show endeavor that is set to compete with the GAMA Trade Show for game industry dollars and attention in a two week period in March 2007. Curiosity got the better of me and I was mildly entertained. Not able to form a coherent analysis for the blog at the moment, but I may return to musing on it later.
I'm back in the room now, feeling a summer convention cold coming on. Amazingly, this is the first time this con season that I've been sick. At first I thought it was a sore throat from talking for 9 hours straight, but I'm now feeling a bit of congestion, too. I've ordered myself $10 worth of tea/lemon (and a thermal carafe) from room service and will be tucking in for a good night's sleep as soon as I finish this entry, lest I waste myself before the con is even half done!
I hope your cold turns out to be a combination of sore-throatedness from talking all day and congestion from the air conditioning. Good call with the tea, lemon, and sleep, though.
I also hope that you are able to keep up the daily blogging, so I can at least feel informed, if not like I am there. Maybe next year I'll make it out there... :)
Feel better!