Hi all, Got back from GENCON and it was interesting. Besides the main
convention center there were lectures and the auction going on at the
Marriott, Hyatt and Weston hotels across the street (covered walkways to
each). Lots and lots of room with very long walks to get anywhere.
The owners of GENCON were making every effort at a profit with convention
passes going at $70 for four days or $27 per day and event tickets going for
between $1.50 to up to $13.50. Many of the lectures and tha anime theater were
free.
I got over to Mongoose publishing and purchased two victory class Destroyers
(Excaliber) and the new rules "A Call to Arms". The ships were of a good
quality and detail. The rules were designed for fleet actions and were much
simpler then the Babylon 5 or fleet action rules. The only issue was that only
the ships in the Babylon 5 scale were covered in the fleet lists. I guess any
expansion in the future will cover any newer ships.
I hit the miniatures are but no FT gameres were going on at the time. I hadn't
planning on playing in any games but I was hoping to see some of the
People-of-the-Digest.
Hi, Scott. Hope you had a great time!
***
The owners of GENCON were making every effort at a profit with convention
passes going at $70 for four days or $27 per day and event tickets going for
between $1.50 to up to $13.50. Many of the lectures and tha anime theater were
free.
***
Either my memory from last year is whack, or I chose the right time, after
eight years in a row, to stay home! However, I suspect you didn't see ALL the
event tickets. I'm pretty sure they still have some LARPs going for $20 or
more.
The big question, and I'm sure others will have plenty of comments: Was the
miniatures game room worth the trip?
Having lost mine, a friend just gave me another of the yellow 'I found the
miniatures room at GenCon '98' buttons. And, each year thereafter, someone
said, 'wait til next year.'
***
..."A Call to Arms". The ships were of a good quality and detail. The rules
were designed for fleet actions and were much simpler then the Babylon 5 or
fleet action rules.
***
I saw the Excalibur at Origins, and hope to be getting one soon, but wasn't
sure we'd be seeing the ruleset. Well, my friend with the game shop should
be seeing them soon enough. ;->=
Thanks, Scott!
The_Beast
Subject: Re: Got back from GENCON
> Having lost mine, a friend just gave me another of
I was one of the inital members of HMGS midwest.
I had games with figures and terrain that took hundreds of hours to paint. I
playtested my game at local game stores and ironed out all of the bugs and
problems in the game before the convention. My game were "reviewed" by the
GENCON gamming committee and was allowed to be put on at the convention. I
then got pushed into some small room at GENCON where only the people playing
in the game could see my work. To add insult to injury I had to pay to get in
and it took two months before GENCON payed me back my entry fee.
HMGS unfortunately went the other way. I was only able to put on a SciFi game
at Little Wars because it was identified as future history. On the east coast
my game would have been burned at the stake (only HISTORICAL games allowed).
Fortunetly the war of the words (HISTORICAL vs Fantisy) has ended and all HMGS
conventions allow fantast or SciFi games.
> I saw the Excalibur at Origins, and hope to be
There were no limits placed on how many could be purchased and there were at
least six on the shelf when I left to go home on Friday. Would have offered to
purchase for others but I expected sales limits and didn't make the offer.
They were being sold for
$25 and I saw them going for $50+ (one got sold for
$100+) on Ebay, oh well.
> On 24 Aug 2004 at 23:00, The GZG Digest wrote:
> From: Scott Siebold <gamers@ameritech.net>
> My game were
Is this something new? When I was running games at GenCon for Geo-Hex
and GZG we never had anything "reviewed". And all the miniatures games were in
the miniatures hall (though they often did a lousy job of handling
tables). When did you submit your game to GenCon? Was it in the pre-reg
book?
> To add insult to injury
Okay, so this wasn't this year I take it? Did you try to get reimbursed at the
convention? That's how we always did it. You took your sheet and tickets to
one of the payment booths and they refunded your entrance fee
on the spot. I understand that things were different this year, though, as to
how much you had to do in order to get your badge fee back.
> HMGS unfortunately went the other way. I was only able
Considering how easy it would be for historical game conventions to be overrun
by "The Games Workshop Hobby", and the fact that while you get
sci-fi games at the big conventions and at sci-fi conventions while
there are precious few historical cons, I have no problems with historical
conventions limiting the number of sci-fi and fantasy games.
---
From: "Allan Goodall" <agoodall@worldnet.att.net>
> Considering how easy it would be for historical game conventions to be
> Got back from GENCON and it was interesting.
I got back on Monday but I'm still recovering from the con and the 14 hour
drive home.
> The owners of GENCON were making every effort at a
Pretty much the same prices as in past years though the passes have gone up a
bit. Registration was a lot smoother than last year. The worst problems I
heard of was for getting generic tickets until they finally realized they
didn't need to issue them to a specific person, just make lots of copies and
sell them.
> I got over to Mongoose publishing and purchased two
I got these too. The movement rules and special actions in this game are VERY
similar to Battlefleet Gothic. Combat is different. They list stats for most
of the ships in the series, but I have a few problems with what they did (the
size of the Primus is small, Drazi ships are real big and the Warbird Cruiser
is bigger and more capabile than the Sunhawk Battlecruiser,
etc).
> I hit the miniatures are but no FT gameres were going
We were there but we did take a few breaks ;-)
I ran 2 FT demo games Thursday night, a couple FT games of Sci-Fi
Crossover on Friday (control sheets should be posted on my website this
weekend), and a FT Xeno War game on Saturday with the Kra'Vak taking on UNSC
and ORC fleets. In addition there were some more FT demo games on Friday and
Saturday, a couple Dirtside games on Thursday and Saturday, and a Stargrunt
game on Saturday. The minis area was crowded with mostly the same games as in
the past, the Red Shirts running lots of Silent Death along with Injurious
Games products. Privateer had a large section for Warmachine. Attack Vector
was being played and demo'ed the whole time and always had people playing.
There were more historical games being run than I remember ever beeing seen,
including some massive 15mm tank games and even a few Napoleonics.
> My game were "reviewed"
> Is this something new? When I was running games at
I think you answered yourself. As a dealer sponsered game you didn't have to
go through the "review" process.
> When did you submit your game to GenCon? Was it in
Very early and yes. At one time I tried to put on at least one game a year and
it was at GENCON. I switched over to Little Wars after the above listed
incident.
> To add insult to injury
I guess I just followed the instructions included in the judges instructions
book.
> Considering how easy it would be for historical game
I suggest you go to Historicon or Little Wars web site and make a count of the
number of games. I have no problem with GW putting on games because one thing
I learned was that people over time will try new things as long as they have a
choice. GW will in its own time go the same route as TSR or SPI (it will grow
up and expand or die).
The year that GENCON had anti war protesters picketing they were invited in.
After there protest sort of fizzled it was called off and some of the
protesters stayed. I'm not sure but the next year the game Chicago Chicago
(game about the 1968 riots at the Chicago Democratic convention) came out and
I suspect that some of the ex protesters may have expanded their interest.
> the fact that while you get sci-fi games at the big