So now, I’ve chronicled the three days that I attended at Gencon, but haven’t really discussed a few features that really should be touched on.
Dealers’ Hall
I was fully prepared to be disappointed with this one. The manager at Napoleon’s is a good friend, and he said that the fee for a standard 3x3m booth would have negated any profits he could have made. This seemed to be the general sentiment, since when I registered there were only 6 exhibitors, which included the major sponsors, Wizards of the Coast and Madman Entertainment.
There must have been a major policy shift in the intervening weeks, because when I checked just before leaving Sydney, there were over 25 exhibitors including the self-publishing Ratkins Games and the Garrison of the 501st Legion, a Storm Trooper re-enactment group who were only fund raising for the Starlight foundation. Maybe I underestimate some of these groups, but I don’t actually see them being able to fund the daily fee that Napoleon’s was quoted.
The stores themselves seemed to consist mainly of local traders, with a few publishers like WotC, AEG, Croftminster and Madman, and a couple miscellaneous thrown in. There was some pretty neat stuff that I haven’t really seen in many places in Sydney, so it was fun to browse. Nonetheless, there didn’t seem to be enough interesting stuff to buy, and certainly not at “con special†prices I had been anticipating. My experience at the Cancon traders’ hall obviously set high expectations.
Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition
Ok, so the official launch was last month. So obviously, WotC is going to be pushing it hard at any Gencon in the near future. There were plenty of preview modules to play (I’ve heard they were fair to average) but didn’t have time myself, and every store was selling the core rulebooks for $40, or all three for $105. Much cheaper than the 3e release.
Anyway, what I did find time for was using D&D4e to introduce my youngest siblings to tabletop roleplaying. They showed up on the last day of the con, and I ditched my last seminars to hang out with them. WotC’s contribution to the trader’s hall was a large demo area. There were rock-up-and-learn-to-play games of Magic, Heroscape and D&D. As a reward for playing, you got a showbag full of product relating to the game you learned. The D&D games took longer, so we got in a couple games of Magic and reaped some pretty cool rewards (one of our cousins scored a table mat and copy of the Magic computer game).
When our turn for D&D came around, my brother and sister were surprised how fun it could be. And I was surprised with how natural the two of them made the game seem. I approached 4e from the point of view that cool powers are earned (often through excruciating pain). Wizards have obviously figured out that unless you make all characters equally useful from level 1, you’re going to lose new players very quickly.
My siblings learned the base mechanics very quickly and were able to start making tactical decisions in combat that utilised synergies between character powers. Obviously the demo game used a very streamlined ruleset, but nevertheless everybody had a good time and it was suggested that they might like to play the game if I brought the rules. Very gratifying, given that I have five siblings and while some have dabbled in it, none have really gone in for roleplaying. I donated the D&D Miniatures that came in my showbag, as well as the vast bulk of a booster of War of the Dragon Queen to their fledgling collection. Nothing like plastic crack to keep the younguns interested.
Cosplayers
Gah! My eyes!
I don’t really know how else to put it. I have never seen so much concentrated use of hairspray, hair dye, false wings and papier mâche weapons. It’s good to see people enthusiastic about their favourite intellectual property, and I generally appreciate the amount of effort people went to.
Just a couple things (and yes, I do know that it’s all been said before):
- Would it be at all possible for you to not wear the same costume four days in a row?
- Could the girl dressed up in the Princess Leia bikini please put some goddamn clothes on?
I mean really, unless your secret agenda is to cause Great Old One levels of SAN loss, nobody wants to see so much of your pasty skin. I keep my clothes on in public, and so should you.
Wrap up
Since returning home, I’ve talked a bit about the con with people who did and did not go. Overall, the consensus is the same. It was pretty good in spite of itself. The organisers have plenty to learn about being organised, but it came together well enough and there was enough interesting fun to keep me entertained. I’ll certainly go again, but how many days I dedicate to it will depend entirely on how much of an improvement seems to have been made.