Hullo, folks,

Well, since GenCon Indy 2009 is coming up this Thursday through the weekend, I figured that those who are going to the convention must be getting ready to leave for Indianapolis, or may even be on your way or have arrived there.

I just want to wish you all a safe, good trip to the convention, hope that everybody going to GenCon has a good time, and that you all make sure to *POST STUFF* here so that those of us who aren't there can live vicariously, and perhaps find out what the status is with the game, with the games being run there, and all that good stuff.

Look forward to hearing everyone's thoughts and impressions, and am envious that I won't be there!

My thoughts so far....

GAH! There's so much to do...

Still writing, playtesting and tweaking adventures.

T-Shirts have arrived and look good (IMO).

I feel a bit more relaxed this year than last.

Hullo, Matt,



I really am looking forward to the t-shirt, gotta tell ya! Of course, won't be at GenCon, but got a promise from Jamie.

Besides, you should be looking forward to the convention, and being more relaxed. The game is out, Survivors will be sold there, and all you've gotta do is keep the hype going about the game, run the fun adventures, and that's it!

Just bear in mind, I do expect a convention report and all.

Just in from Gen Con -- very tired, but lots of good times. Quick highlights:

* Interviewed by three podcasts: Game On Podcast, The Gamemaster Show and The Wandering Geek Podcast. Check 'em out when they're posted and see how many times we say "um."
* Got to talk with our industry friends and made some new ones.
* Attended the DrivethruRPG party with many friends of GMD.
* GMD ran 15 games at the show, which were well-attended and well-received. Special thanks to John Newman and (forum member) Nestor for their help running some of them.
* Ran dozens of short demos at the booth.
* Met our sales expectations at the con and spread the word of Desolation and Ubiquity to a lot of people.
* Saw some great costumes.
* Gave the Desolation booth sales pitch so many times, I am literally hoarse from talking so much.
* Met some of our artists face to face.
* Had a half-page-plus writeup about GMD in the Gen Con catalog because we were listed as a Premier Event Host.
* Had a relatively small room pretty much to ourselves for running games, which allowed us to talk through the scenarios instead of shouting through them.
* Double foam padding on the booth floor -- best thing ever.

Sounds like a good time was had! If I'd had to talk as much as I'm sure y'all did, I'd have lost my voice during the second day for sure.

Gen Con came and went in a blur, but here are some personal highs and lows... overall I have a pretty darn good time and my legs/feet feel 1000 times better than last year

* Ran 5 games and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves - I will post more details later this week.
- Fontier Justice (x1): Player got to use Oruskans (orcs, goblins, kobolds) as characters. People got into it and enjoyed being able to cut loose with a some uncivilized role-playing
- After the Storm (x3): Its always neat to see how different groups do things totallty different and exactly the same. Apparently the best way to incite hatred is to use the phrase, "Woman, bring us some lemonade!"
- Escape from Pigpimples (x1): Kinda fun and tongue and cheek. Probably too complicated from a two-hour game due to all the magic, but the Harry Potter enthusiasts seemed to enjoy it.

* Had 2 games cancelled due to no shows. I wasn't surpised the other Pigpimples was closed, as no one pre-signed up, but was disappointed about the second Frontier Justice no being run... the group apparently made it to the second level of NASCRAG.

* Got to hand out with the DriveThu RPG and Goodman Games people. 1/2 price shots and Long Islands are always good. Plus we made a new buddy named Chaz (at least to us).

* The booth seemed much busier this year than last... when not running games I was giving the spiel. "Have you ever heard of Desolation? Well, imagine that old sterotype of an ancient civilization that falls to some kind of cataclysm - except instead of two thousand years later, its 18 months..."

*Started creating some buzz about our next setting - The Nearside Project.

* My refrigerator (at home) died during the trip... returned home to a stinky house and 4 hours of cleaning.

* Went to the White Wolf party - too hot, too crowded

* Hung out with lots of old friend and saw lots of familiar faces.

* Didn't actually get to play in any games or buy anything new... too busy.

Chaz!

*big grin*

I had a lot of fun as well.

Somehow managed to leave w/o buying Survivors, I'll be remedying that soon. Next paycheck, methinks. I was down to my pennies.

I got the bug really bad to run Desolation on my collaborative fiction site. I think it'll be a definite go. I wanna talk to Matty first though, about a bigger thought I'm having and hear his thoughts before I get to the casting stage. I'm waiting for him to shake the stink of his refrigerator out of his head first.

It was so great seeing Steven, Jamie, Matt and Nestor (and their respective beauties) at GenCon.

Hullo, Jamie,



Glad to hear you made it back home safe and sound. Hope you're doing well, other than the fatigue and all.



That's *terrific* news! Don't forget to keep us all updated about the podcasts, and when we can catch them. Look forward to this!



Excellent! That's a good number of scnearios. Glad to hear the DESOLATION was well-represented scenario-wise.



Ooh, what sort of stuff were you guys running as the short booth demos? Single encounters or something else?



I remember this feeling all too well from GenCon '08. And you can now recite the sales pitch in your sleep, right?



Oooh, that must have been lovely. The hoarseness came from the booth work, right? given what I heard about the hoards of people in the Dealer's Room...

Anyway, glad to hear it was a good experience. Hopefully someone will have photos and the like to show us somewhere or other. At some point. Or not.

Hullo, Matt,



Yeah, I remember in 2008 how my legs felt after the first couple of days. Felt better towards the end of the convention after that, but I think that taking care of one's feet and shoe stuff is always important at GenCon. Glad to hear you had a great time.



Now that surprises me that there were some cancelled games. Sad to hear. Especially about the "Frontier Justice" one.



That's a good spiel. Happy to hear the booth was very busy. Trust sales were good?



Looking forward to hearing more about this.



Ooh, bummer.

Thanks for the convention brief report. Look forward to more detail on some of the game runnings.

I dropped by the booth to pick up Survivors but didn't get a chance to demo.

Had I realized there would be openings for one of the slots I would have shown up with two of my player's in tow. Desolation is next on my list to try, it's on the short list of games that may become the regular campaign and I would have liked to got some experience in

Any plans to make available the scenarios and pregens from the con games (The Broken Menagerie sounds like a nice short one shot)? One thing that always helps me get a new game in front of my players is a well put together one shot. Not just an adventure but a set of pregens with some built in relationships/conflicts with the others. "The Murderer of Thomas Crown" for Trail of Cthulhu is my go to example for that sort of thing.

Anyways, I love the setting and hopefully I'll get it in front of my players soon. We'll see if there's enough bite to the system to draw them in.

Hullo, jgerman,

Welcome to the GMD and DESOLATION forums! Always terrific to see a new face here! You'll find the folks around here are quite friendly, pretty knowledgeable about the game, and will be willing to answer any questions that you might have about the game. Just watch out for the two carrion reapers that are circling...oh, oh, here they come! <ducking for cover>



Sorry to hear that you didn't get to play in any of the DESOLATION games being run at the convention. I am surprised to hear that there weren't a lot of spaces/slots open, but perhaps I shouldn't be; the game has a lot of fans these days, hopefully with new folks coming aboard the DESOLATION wagon all the time.



I can't speak for the folks at GMD, but it's my understanding that one or more of the scenarios will be going up and on-line somewhere in the (hopefully near) future. There is also the scenario that I ran this year at CanGames, "Shadow of the Wolf", in Jamie's hands, and something may get done with that as well.



I suspect that "bite" was the wrong word to use about the setting and the game. The simplicity of the game mechanics and rules is one of the real strength of DESOLATION, as they don't get in the way of a good time, but the real great aspect of DESOLATION is the different "feel" that this game has compared to other fantasy rpgs.

Let us know, in the appropriate forum section of course, how the recruiting and gaming with the group goes!

Will do.

By 'bite' I mean crunch. Some games don't have quite enough, some too much. I'm looking for that sweet spot for this particular group. Simplicity is great, but too much simplicity falls flat for us I think.

Thanks for the reply

Hullo, jgerman,



Frankly, there are a lot of fantasy game systems out there that have a large amount of crunch these days that to be honest, is a turn-off for me. If half the rulebook for the game in question is mechanics and crunch, then that's too much crunch for my taste. When it comes right down to it, I often feel these days that a lot of games have mechanics that get in the way of roleplaying and the actual gaming experience. One of the reasons I like both HEX and its sister game, DESOLATION, to be honest. The Ubiquity system has variable crunch.

Well this year was my first Gen Con... It was overwhelming both by the number of events going on as well as the financial woe inflicted by the dealers room

Of course this is another game (Starblazer Adventures being the other) that I didn't find out about until AFTER the con...

You guys planning on being there in 2010?

Yes indeed. We're planning on being there next year.