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Sadly the shadow of Covid stays, and so it was smart for Gen Con to insist on attendees being vaccinated. Masks as properly have been mandated and it was good to see most individuals following these easy guidelines. Before I went I used to be involved concerning the requirement to get a wristband to point out you had proven your vaccination report. Queues at will name might be enormous and I didn’t relish the concept of a second one. Luckily I went on the Wednesday and didn’t face any queues. While I used to be particularly fortunate, it appeared that even on the busy occasions the method was fairly swift. Unfortunately, the place to get the wristbands wasn’t particularly properly signposted, so in my case it took longer to seek out the room than get the wristband.
Once wristbanded, masked and badged up it was again to enterprise as standard. This yr I used to be working with Modiphius as I’m the lead on Dune. So, Wednesday was a protracted day of constructing the stand in a corridor with out the air-con turned on. Thankfully we survived and managed to get the stand in-built time to welcome the crowds on Thursday morning. It was fortunate we have been prepared because the opening was exceptionally busy. At one level I couldn’t even get onto the stand as there have been so many shoppers! It appears folks had come to Gen Con meaning to spend cash and all of the merchants I talked to appeared to be seeing excellent gross sales.
While Gen Con isn’t fairly again to what it was earlier than Covid by way of merchants or attendance, in some methods this was a bonus. The most up-to-date years had been so crowded it was good to have a bit more room, each by way of crowds and wider aisles within the commerce corridor. It was nonetheless spectacularly busy, however not fairly as swarmed because it had been. I’ve little doubt it’ll return to these numbers very swiftly, however the house to breathe was a lot appreciated.
The subsequent 4 days have been the standard blur of working the stand, networking, doing demos and progressively making an attempt to get around the commerce corridor. I nonetheless didn’t see everybody I wished to meet up with, or see all the things within the commerce corridor. But here’s a very private listing of what caught my eye. Please drop a observe within the feedback with what I missed, as a result of this barely scratches the floor!
- Spectre Board Game– shameless plug time as this was what I spent numerous time demoing for Modiphius. I’d not managed to get a have a look at a duplicate earlier than the con and so was glad to seek out it straightforward to choose up. You all play Bond villains making an attempt to serve the reason for Spectre, and your personal agenda, whereas making an attempt to keep away from the interference of 007.
- Renegade Hasbro – The Renegade stand was one of many largest this yr, and has the odd combination of creating each World of Darkness product traces and Hasbro’s animation traces. So Vampire and Hunter sit subsequent to My Little Pony, Power Rangers and G I Joe. It clearly provides them a broad viewers. It can be attention-grabbing to see if the Power Ranger gamers of at present grow to be the Vampire gamers of tomorrow.
- The Devil and the Darkest House – The first of many issues I missed. Monte Cook launched a gorgeously illustrated e-book for his or her latest laptop assisted sport ‘The Darkest House’. I made the error of pondering I’d pop again at lunch and choose one up, they usually have been all gone. The e-book is gorgeous, with all of the collected pictures from the pc model and particulars of operating it. It appears I missed out on numerous Monte Cook stuff this yr as a buddy of mine performed a demo of ‘Stealing Stories from the Devil’ the latest kickstarter. It’s type of a cross between Leverage the TV present and World of Darkness Mage. It’s obtained me pondering I ought to have elevated my pledge, so hopefully it’s an indication the sport isn’t too far-off now.
- Dice Everywhere – I promised myself to be sturdy this yr as I’d backed approach too many cube kickstarters. This yr it appeared these kickstarters had paid off with many new cube firms becoming a member of the standard Chessex, Level up and Q-Workshop groups. The two I particularly observed have been the beautiful Dispel Dice and the quirky Mystery Dice, each of which I’d backed as kickstarters and never been upset with.
- Doctor Who – While I used to be working with Modiphius I couldn’t neglect my Cubicle 7 household whose Warhammer traces have expanded exponentially. This yr additionally they introduced a brand new 5e setting and the return of the earlier Warhammer 40,000 function enjoying video games. But for me the principle draw was the brand new Doctor Who second version restricted version e-book it its TARDIS field. Sadly, print copies of the brand new 5e model of Doctor Who (Doctors and Daleks) weren’t fairly there, however it seems to be like there can be much more help for each methods within the coming months.
- The Ronin’s Rose – As I’m operating Blue Rose I needed to drop by the Green Ronin sales space, who had a swathe of recent releases. The Expanse RPG has seen a number of new books and there was a brand new journey e-book for Blue Rose known as Six of Cups. I primarily wished to catch Blue Rose designer Steve Kenson although as I had a query about wild magic. This is among the nice issues about Gen Con, you’ll typically discover the lead writers and designers of your favorite video games engaged on the stand. It’s an amazing alternative to choose their brains and discover out what else may be on the way in which in your favorite methods.
- Shard – In my group of associates the principle speak was of the Shard rpg, from Shard Studios. It’s a superbly illustrated Indian/Arabian themed rpg with a bunch of playable animal species. I used to be the one one among my associates who didn’t get to play it, however the workforce joined us for our annual meal at St Elmos Steak House (strive the shrimp cocktail) the place I obtained introduced up to the mark. They have been an amazing group of men, with an amazing sport that I’m trying ahead to making an attempt out quickly.
There have been additionally a load of issues I didn’t fairly get time to have a correct have a look at. Scented gaming candles, new expansions for Clank, a bunch of recent board video games being demoed, cardhalla, varied bards and singers, Chaosium having two stands, lot of hats and previews for the intriguing Wildsea RPGfrom Mythopoeia. We additionally received an ENnie for the Dune Corebook for Best Writing. So, all in all Gen Con again the place it must be, and 4 unspeakably packed days that by no means had a hope of becoming all the things in. Hopefully, I’ll see you there subsequent yr.
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