GenCon Day 1: Five hours in the box

Second day of GenCon. The crowds were amazing, and this was the first day.

Got up, skipped breakfast, did a bit of prep, and then headed over to the con. With the Exhibitor’s Badge courtesy of the IGDN, I got to go in early. It was amazing the transformation of the place, all the boxes gone, carpet laid in place, and row on row of stuff I love.

The Steve Jackson Games booth is more or less on the way to 2437, and who did I happen to run into but Sean Punch. A big hug and a quick chat later, I continued on. I walked the floor until bout 11am, bought a copy of Symbaroum, talked a lot about grappling, art, game design, and printers (including one that several folks used to make beautiful books based in Lithuania), and generally said Hi to folks I’ve interviewed. David Kenzer, Benjamin Loomes (Syrinscape), Ken Hite, and others. A lovely chat with an Irish lass from Pelgrane, who was great fun. Many others.

Then lunch, where I was joined with an avid Pathfinder dad and his son. They’d packed 7 people into a rented van and drove 16 hours cheek to jowl to get here. We talked about all sorts of stuff, I pitched both Dungeon Grappling and Dragon Heresy, and dad told son that this is networking, a soft-sell, and why it’s important. They took fliers.

Then booth day. Five hours in the IGDN booth, putting the sales pitch and Q&A on folks. Got to know the product in the booth better and better as the day went on. Moved some DG (maybe five copies, which is better than all of Origins; if that happens for 4 days or picks up it’s not crazy that the 20-30 copies here could sell out). Lots of other stuff moved, but it was interesting to see what. Some folks just bypass the booth; the Indie crowd isn’t their cup of tea, by definition. Others couldn’t be arsed to even mention 5e or Pathfinder.

In truth, there’s something for everyone in that booth somewhere, but definitely skewed to “not mainstream.” Mine and The Book of the Tarrasque were the only 5e products there. No Pathfinder. A few Powered by the Apocalypse. Maybe a Fate or two. Lots of new systems, lots of story games. Christopher Rice would bring folks by so I could say hi, since I couldn’t go to them. Met J Edward Tremlett for the first time. Introduced Christopher to some of the indie guys, which seemed fruitful.

Five hours of that and my injured heel was ready to kill me. Nonetheless, I walked over to the Munchkin Tavern and had dinner with Christopher and Joeseph Bravo. Then back, had a drink and finished up my prep for the Grappling Smackdown tomorrow.

Room 239, Table 10. 10am.

Here we go . . .