Sloe Times
A journal of my adventures in learning and growing personally and professionallyTuesday, December 07, 2004
General: Gen Con SoCal 2004 Trip Report
So I survived SoCal and in general it was fun. The Con itself was pretty weak when compared to Indy but I suspect that is to be expected. No real eye candy and the way we ran DMs for True Dungeon didn't make participating in many (any) of the gaming events a real possibility. Not that I couldn't have had my schedule made a little more flexible, but the reality of it was, after thumbing through the schedule of events there wasn't much I was interested in doing.
The highlights:
Thanks to what I would consider some hard work on my part and stepping up to do whatever needed to be done (not to mention being in the right place at the right time) I was promoted to a Head DM role for the event. Mostly that just meant being there a couple of hours early for previous day review and current day adjustment meetings and then being responsible for making sure that the other DMs were comfortable running my room that they were assigned to for the day. My room was the Training room which at first blush doesn't appear to be that big of a deal, but in reality I think it's one of the most important since you're introducing game mechanics and concepts to the players as well as answering all kinds of questions so that they can try and be successful in the dungeon. I also got to run the Split Decision (Treasure/Oracle & Zombie Crypt) room and the Handbook room (Final room). A real upside to the one DM per room was that it allowed us to really focus on exactly what happened in a specific room and be really intimate with making adjustments and making the room run consistently throughout the whole event.
As for the con itself, SoCal is tiny. I think attendance was projected to be at 5,000 (as opposed to Indy's 30,000). Just to put it in perspective for you, take all of the gaming (minis, CCG, board, etc), the art show, and the dealer room. Now put all of this in a hall the size, if not a little smaller, of the dealer room at Indy. Chairs out-numbered the people in the hall greatly so it looked like a lot of wasted space. While touring the dealer room I got to spend a lot of time talking to the Lucas Arts PR folks that were there showing off SWG: JtL (As well as other LA games) and since I helped introduce/demo the JtL expansion to interested folks I got a couple of free books as schwag which I appreciated much more than some of the schwag I've gotten in the past like posters or card packs. Hopefully the contact that I made there will also get me in on the Combat Upgrade Beta Test for SWG. I met up with the folks that ran the poker tournament at Indy. It sounds like things are going to be bigger and better in 2005 so I'm looking forward to playing in it again and hopefully this time taking my rightful place at the top of the heap.
Things I found interesting:
There was a booth in the dealer room with a Porn star hawking her vids and pics. One the one hand this seems somewhat in-appropriate (young audience for many things) but on the other hand, it's probably the right demographic market for her product. Not my type, but more power to her.
I did find at least a couple of new games that were worth playing and at least one I'll buy before Indy. The first was Anachronism by TriKing in cooperation with the History Channel. Imagine "Celebrity Death Match" with historical figures. It's a pretty cool concept and the game can be played in 5 - 10 minutes (if you really drag it out). Anachronism is due to be released sometime in early 2005.
The other game which apparently has been out for awhile but I've just been introduced to is "Munchkin" by Steve Jackson Games. Promoting the best(worst) combination of power-gaming and rules-lawyering this was a great game to play. I got to play the standard Munchkin which parodies D&D and like genre games, movies, etc. I also played Munchkin Bites! which parodies the Vampire and like genre games, movies, etc. There's apparently also a version called Star Munchkin which parodies Sci-Fi stuff, as well as Munchkin Fu which parodies kung fu movies and games, and in case that wasn't enough there's Munchkin Blender which allows you to combine all of the sets (Std, Star, Bites, and Fu) into one giant game. I'm currently hunting down on ebay a set of 8 of the games (4 games w/4 expansions) which I plan on bringing to Indy if I win them. Easy to play and great fun to win and lose so that basically meets all of my criteria for a good game. :)
The highlights:
Thanks to what I would consider some hard work on my part and stepping up to do whatever needed to be done (not to mention being in the right place at the right time) I was promoted to a Head DM role for the event. Mostly that just meant being there a couple of hours early for previous day review and current day adjustment meetings and then being responsible for making sure that the other DMs were comfortable running my room that they were assigned to for the day. My room was the Training room which at first blush doesn't appear to be that big of a deal, but in reality I think it's one of the most important since you're introducing game mechanics and concepts to the players as well as answering all kinds of questions so that they can try and be successful in the dungeon. I also got to run the Split Decision (Treasure/Oracle & Zombie Crypt) room and the Handbook room (Final room). A real upside to the one DM per room was that it allowed us to really focus on exactly what happened in a specific room and be really intimate with making adjustments and making the room run consistently throughout the whole event.
As for the con itself, SoCal is tiny. I think attendance was projected to be at 5,000 (as opposed to Indy's 30,000). Just to put it in perspective for you, take all of the gaming (minis, CCG, board, etc), the art show, and the dealer room. Now put all of this in a hall the size, if not a little smaller, of the dealer room at Indy. Chairs out-numbered the people in the hall greatly so it looked like a lot of wasted space. While touring the dealer room I got to spend a lot of time talking to the Lucas Arts PR folks that were there showing off SWG: JtL (As well as other LA games) and since I helped introduce/demo the JtL expansion to interested folks I got a couple of free books as schwag which I appreciated much more than some of the schwag I've gotten in the past like posters or card packs. Hopefully the contact that I made there will also get me in on the Combat Upgrade Beta Test for SWG. I met up with the folks that ran the poker tournament at Indy. It sounds like things are going to be bigger and better in 2005 so I'm looking forward to playing in it again and hopefully this time taking my rightful place at the top of the heap.
Things I found interesting:
There was a booth in the dealer room with a Porn star hawking her vids and pics. One the one hand this seems somewhat in-appropriate (young audience for many things) but on the other hand, it's probably the right demographic market for her product. Not my type, but more power to her.
I did find at least a couple of new games that were worth playing and at least one I'll buy before Indy. The first was Anachronism by TriKing in cooperation with the History Channel. Imagine "Celebrity Death Match" with historical figures. It's a pretty cool concept and the game can be played in 5 - 10 minutes (if you really drag it out). Anachronism is due to be released sometime in early 2005.
The other game which apparently has been out for awhile but I've just been introduced to is "Munchkin" by Steve Jackson Games. Promoting the best(worst) combination of power-gaming and rules-lawyering this was a great game to play. I got to play the standard Munchkin which parodies D&D and like genre games, movies, etc. I also played Munchkin Bites! which parodies the Vampire and like genre games, movies, etc. There's apparently also a version called Star Munchkin which parodies Sci-Fi stuff, as well as Munchkin Fu which parodies kung fu movies and games, and in case that wasn't enough there's Munchkin Blender which allows you to combine all of the sets (Std, Star, Bites, and Fu) into one giant game. I'm currently hunting down on ebay a set of 8 of the games (4 games w/4 expansions) which I plan on bringing to Indy if I win them. Easy to play and great fun to win and lose so that basically meets all of my criteria for a good game. :)
posted by Andres Silva # 12/07/2004 04:10:00 PM 
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