Mearls Does Milwaukee

This was my first GenCon, and only the fifth convention I've ever been to. I've been to Total Confusion in Massachusetts twice and DoverCon and Carnage at the Crossroads in New Hampshire once each. Considering I taught myself how to play D&D in 1982, that's not a very good year to con ration I'm working with.

I went to GenCon as Mearls the Gamer, not Mearls the Wannabe Game Designer or Mearls the Gaming Outpost columnist. This was my vacation, dammit! That being said, I tried to maintain a journal to record my thoughts and observations about GenCon and the gaming industry.

GenCon was an immersive experience. On the flight back to New York City, I felt like I was returning home from a visit to a completely different world. For four days we gamers carved a out a little corner of Milwaukee and claimed it as our own. The stock market could've crashed, hell could've froze over, and I never would have noticed. I was too busy buying and playing games. The only thing that comes close in my experience is when I went to Disney World as a kid. Everything over GenCon's four day stretch revolved around games and nothing but games. The real world didn't so much as poke its nose in.

It was strange seeing all these writers and industry people in the flesh that I've read, written, and heard so much about. I think anyone who wants to write anything about the industry has to come to grips with the fact that gaming authors and editors are real people. Of course, being the shy and reclusive person that I am, I only talked to John Tynes and Adam Scott Glancy from Pagan Publishing (and only then because Tynes recognized my name off my badge, which caught me a little off guard) and Dave Gross from Dragon Magazine. I was supposed to talk to a few other people, but I never caught sight of them. So GenCon could probably be a great place to meet people and network if you aren't a recluse (as am I). If you want to get into the industry, this is the place for you. Bring the business card and get ready to shake a lot of hands. Industry people are remarkably friendly. That's really refreshing in a world where talent seems too often to mean an all expense paid trip to Asshole Country.

Gamers aren't as geeky as I've been led to believe. Usually, when someone takes the time to paint a mental picture of the average gamer the first thing they draw are little wavy stink lines and a king sized belly. I didn't see (or smell) too many people who fit that bill. Every once in a while I had to stop and tell myself ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE GAMERS. I could've been at a mall from the looks of the crowd. I thought the guys sitting behind me on the plane to Milwaukee were typical frat guys until I overheard them arguing about AD&D rules. People, we aren't as freaky as we think. Maybe my freak tolerance has built up a bit, living in New York and all, but I didn't notice any hordes of morbidly obese fanboys rampaging about, mourning the passage of their beloved 1st edition AD&D and burning copies of the current Player's Handbook.

I didn't sign up for too many events ahead of time, so I ended up buying most of my event tickets on-site. There were a lot of AD&D games going on, probably more than all other RPGs combined. Why hasn't anyone tried to put together an industry-wide RPGA sort of thing, with players and GMs earning points and prizes for participating in events? Do companies outside of WotC make an effort to organize events, recruit GMs, and run games? I hope not, because it sure as heck didn't look like it.

I played in a total of three gaming events, a CoC game, a random AD&D game, and the AD&D Open. The CoC game had a good GM but a lousy scenario. I swear, for the first time ever the mythos came closer to boring me to death than scaring me. The adventure consisted of the PCs wandering around Rome asking uncooperative rubes about some Dutch sorcerer. Then a gang of animated statues pummeled one of the PCs to death. The End.

The AD&D game had a great DM, a half decent scenario, and two idiot players visiting us from Planet Asshole, which sucked not only because I hate gaming with morons but because the DM was probably the best one in any of the events I played. (She was also ridiculously cute, and I would have asked her out if she lived anywhere near me. Damn you, geography!) I've never gamed with two guys who were quite this terrible. They were probably munchkins, and they felt the need to criticize everything that anyone else did. Hey guys, the next time you want to accuse me of being an idiot, try spelling "character" correctly on your little nameplates. (Hint: two c's). I really wanted to just get up and leave the game (I got the feeling that at least one other player felt the same), but the DM was good enough to keep me interested. Keeping Mearls going in the company of idiots is an impressive feat to say the least.

The AD&D Open was great for the first two rounds. The DMs made the games fun, the team I was placed in was really great, and the first two rounds were challenging. The third round sucked. The adventure was idiotic, boring, and scripted. It was pretty annoying to work so hard to make it to the finals only to face such a poorly written adventure. I expected something more. Again, the DMs we had in the finals (we had a team of two DMs) were great but seriously hamstrung by the adventure.

The moral of the story is this: sign up for games with a friend or two. You'll have someone there to make the game more bearable if it sucks. If the game goes great, then everyone's a winner.

Now that I've talked gaming, we come to the most important part of GenCon: the dealer's room! Woo-hoo!

After wandering around the sales floor, it became pretty obvious to me who had a clue and who didn't. I'm not going to start pointing fingers, but here's what I saw:

If you're going to run demo games, I shouldn't have to work too hard to sign up for one. Why not set up an easily noticeable poster with sign-up sheets? A few companies actively tracked down people for demos. This is a Good Idea. Companies that asked me if I wanted to play a game when I walked past their booths had the right idea. Companies that made me hunt around for a sign-up sheet didn't.

Demos are a great way to sell your game to someone who has no clue what it's all about. I only bought one game at GenCon that I hadn't heard of before the con: Lance & Laser's War Chest. I invested $30 in the game because of (you guessed it) a demo game that I took part in. I didn't have to ask to play and I didn't have to track down a sign up sheet. An L&L guy noticed I was looking the game over, offered to run me through a short game, and got a $30 sale. It really is that easy, folks.

For that matter, it really helps to talk to potential customers. This should be obvious. Well then, why don't more companies do it? I swear, I could have stood in front of a few companies' booths staring at their products with covetous eyes and never had anyone deign to ask me if I was interested in the game. Ral Partha had the right idea: one of their employees asked me if I needed any help or if I was looking for a particular miniature every time I stopped by their booth to browse. Maybe the rest of the world is radically different, but I appreciate a sales staff that is outgoing and friendly.

What I don't like is getting a pitch while I'm cruising by a booth. I can be too polite for my own good, and it is always awkward trying to get out of a conversation I never wanted to get into. Look, if I walk by a booth and glance your way, that is not an invitation to sell me on your game. If I stop at your booth and look at your stuff, then you might want to talk to me. It's annoying to hear all about a game I have no interest in buying. It's much worse to pull teeth to get info about a game that I WANT to buy. War Chest was the only game that I bought at GenCon that I hadn't planned on purchasing.

Now, the big event at GenCon: WotC's announcement of third edition Dungeons and Dragons. Yup, the (I>Advanced has finally been dropped. 3E as it is referred to looks like a major step forward for D&D. More classes, no more racial class and level restrictions, much smoother moving combat, a unified skill and resolution system, and all sorts of advances that have passed D&D by in the past. I just hope that we don't have an idiot gamer/munchkin/get-a-lifer backlash that hurts the game. I mean, really, if you still prefer First Edition to Second Edition it might be time for you to move out of momma's basement. It's about time that D&D got a real update. For the first time in almost seven years, I'm excited about the D&D game. Who'd a thunk it?

The general feeling about the industry that I got from attending GenCon mirrors my feelings about Third Edition D&D. I'm cautiously optimistic. There were plenty of gamers, plenty of events, and no shortage of strong, young companies. Intelligent business sense seems to have finally infected the industry. Has the darkest hour passed us by? Are things finally on the way up? I can't answer those questions for sure, but it is comforting to know one thing. The industry won't fail for lack of enthusiasm, a lack of talent, or a lack of will. Coming out of GenCon, it's obvious that those bases are covered.