It's this week, you know.
May as well as some content to this thread: I'm definitely playing 5e (crossing my fingers on this one) and I hope to try Edge of the Empire and Torchbearer. I may or may not overspend on knickknacks and games.
We normally have a roving reporter there, so keep your hair on.
Technically, doesn't this already qualify as a Gen Con thread?
Well, I and my co-host will be there, and we do a special show during the Con to report on our findings.
I think we're going to get some interviews in and have a lot of content to add.
I'm super excited for several games coming out.
Quote from: joewolz;680349Well, I and my co-host will be there, and we do a special show during the Con to report on our findings.
I think we're going to get some interviews in and have a lot of content to add.
I'm super excited for several games coming out.
Just how blitzed are you planning on being during the show?
Quote from: One Horse Town;680200We normally have a roving reporter there, so keep your hair on.
Did Zach mention if he was going to be there?
Quote from: Libertad;680245Technically, doesn't this already qualify as a Gen Con thread?
Not at all! This is a thread about why we don't have a Gen Con thread, just like the post that's about someone wanting to discuss Numenara.
-clash
I'm greatly looking forward to this year's GenCon.
All of my Cold Steel Wardens events are sold out, and I'm getting to see some friends from halfway across the country. Both big plusses in my book!
Apathy.
D&D has been dead for some time, now. 5e playtests continue to confuse people, with no clear drive/goal/endgame in sight.
WW is dead.
GURPS and HERO are dead.
RPG industry is in the worst shape it's ever been in.
Not much to look forward to in RPGs these days.
Quote from: 1989;680432Apathy.
D&D has been dead for some time, now. 5e playtests continue to confuse people, with no clear drive/goal/endgame in sight.
WW is dead.
GURPS and HERO are dead.
RPG industry is in the worst shape it's ever been in.
Not much to look forward to in RPGs these days.
Weredoomed.jpg
Really, it's like clockwork, "Hobby is doomed!!1" at least once per month.
Well, really, what do we have nowadays.
It used to be (in terms of sales):
1. WotC
2. WW
3. GURPS
Those three big players are all gone. GURPS and WW are basically dead. WotC has done nothing for a couple of years.
What do we have?
Pathfinder.
Palladium.
That's not much to go to GenCon and get excited about.
What else?
A bunch of really, really small stuff.
There's still lots of great work being done. Don't mean to disparage those smaller operations.
It's just that, when you look at the RPG hobby today vs. even 2006 or something, it's really, really different.
Quote from: 1989;680432Apathy.
D&D has been dead for some time, now. 5e playtests continue to confuse people, with no clear drive/goal/endgame in sight.
WW is dead.
GURPS and HERO are dead.
RPG industry is in the worst shape it's ever been in.
Not much to look forward to in RPGs these days.
(http://static.tumblr.com/6nvvrw4/xBVlcwx4k/eeyore.jpg)
Quote from: flyerfan1991;680368Just how blitzed are you planning on being during the show?
I will drink after the show, as I have in the last couple of Gen Cons. I don't ever drink more than a beer or two when we record. Actually, since we switched studio locations and recording times, I haven't had a drink during recording at all.
After the show is recorded, I will get tipsy.
Quote from: 1989;680450What do we have?
Pathfinder.
Palladium.
Fantasy Flight is the new top tier company. Not #1 but certainly top 3.
Quote from: Piestrio;680517Fantasy Flight is the new top tier company. Not #1 but certainly top 3.
I'd agree with that even though I like none of their RPG products; if they are even true RPGs. You could possibly add Green Ronin too?
I'd also say that there has only ever been TSR/WOTC that have a large RPG present. In the UK Games Workshop too - but they haven't made or sold RPGs for a long time. White Wolf - huge for a time; but didn't last long!
Once 5th Edition gets going - I'm sure things will perk up! It is the only reason that I hope it does well. That, and it is bearable (enjoyable even) - at least compared to 3rd or 4th Edition. I recognise it as being Dungeons & Dragons unlike the last one.
Quote from: 1989;680432Apathy.
D&D has been dead for some time, now. 5e playtests continue to confuse people, with no clear drive/goal/endgame in sight.
WW is dead.
GURPS and HERO are dead.
RPG industry is in the worst shape it's ever been in.
Not much to look forward to in RPGs these days.
GW miniatures in alley this morning, tire tread on burst sprues. This convention is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The exhibitor hall is an extended gutter and the gutter is filled with catpiss, and when the drains finally scab over, all the swine will drown...The accumulated filth of all their storygames and murder-hobos will foam up about their waists and all the whores and WW fans will look up and shout "save us!"
They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or Gary Gygax. Decent men who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they followed the droppings of hipsters and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipe until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, a world without D&D, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth talkers...and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
Women's breasts draped across every RPG cover, every CCG, littering the sidewalk. Was offered Swedish games and French games...but not American games. American role-playing games; like Coke in green glass bottles...they don't make them anymore.
Quote from: Piestrio;680517Fantasy Flight is the new top tier company. Not #1 but certainly top 3.
Pinnacle seems to release a fair amount of stuff too.
Quote from: joewolz;680511I will drink after the show, as I have in the last couple of Gen Cons. I don't ever drink more than a beer or two when we record. Actually, since we switched studio locations and recording times, I haven't had a drink during recording at all.
After the show is recorded, I will get tipsy.
So last year's show was you just having that gaming rush going on? And I thought you'd been having a few beers with dinner beforehand.
Quote from: jadrax;680522Pinnacle seems to release a fair amount of stuff too.
I've been told Savage Saturday Night is a packed house.
Quote from: 1989;680450What do we have?
Pathfinder.
Palladium.
That's not much to go to GenCon and get excited about.
What has Palladium released this year? There's the Rifts Vampires Sourcebook, which is an update to and older book, and the new larger format Robotech Macross book, which I'm told has no changes to the text, it's just larger pages.
And a couple of issues of their Rifter magazine, but I've got to assume Kevin doesn't actually do anything much with that magazine, because it seems to actually come out on time. :)
Quote from: flyerfan1991;680369Did Zach mention if he was going to be there?
HELL YES! :)
Friday-Sunday this year, but I have reinforcements helping me out. I'll fire up a new thread for it!
Quote from: 1989;680432WW is dead.
The last time I checked, about a month ago when there was a thread on games run at cons, this year's Gen Con had 67 WoD events registered.
Hero is struggling, but not dead.
GURPS is NOT DEAD. You may not be paying attention, but the PDF stuff is still coming out, new books on the horizon, lots of stuff out there. They have a website. You could read it.
D&D will find it's bearings and continue to be the 800lb gorilla in the room next to the 900lb mutant gorilla otherwise known as Pathfinder. Saying shit like this is tantamount to saying "People are confused about oxygen so they stopped breathing".
Kickstarter is bringing us new stuff. Obviously not paying attention to that either. There's a website that shows you new RPG projects http://rpgkickstarters.tumblr.com/. Also, you could read Kickstarter. EDIT. WW has had several kickstarters recently for 20th anniversary WOD stuff and Exalted.
Sometimes I read these posts and I think to myself "fucking old people"...
There's no Gen Con thread because people GO THERE and then report on it OR (more likely) GO THERE, party, walk, play, scream like teen-addled hysteric fans and have geeky nerd fun to excess, spend a week recovering and then talk about all the cool shit you couldn't do because you spent too much fucking time searching the InterTubes for posts about Gen Con (natch).
You know? Just saying.
Quote from: trechriron;680539Hero is struggling, but not dead.
GURPS is NOT DEAD. You may not be paying attention, but the PDF stuff is still coming out, new books on the horizon, lots of stuff out there. They have a website. You could read it.
D&D will find it's bearings and continue to be the 800lb gorilla in the room next to the 900lb mutant gorilla otherwise known as Pathfinder. Saying shit like this is tantamount to saying "People are confused about oxygen so they stopped breathing".
Kickstarter is bringing us new stuff. Obviously not paying attention to that either. There's a website that shows you new RPG projects http://rpgkickstarters.tumblr.com/. Also, you could read Kickstarter. EDIT. WW has had several kickstarters recently for 20th anniversary WOD stuff and Exalted.
Sometimes I read these posts and I think to myself "fucking old people"...
There's no Gen Con thread because people GO THERE and then report on it OR (more likely) GO THERE, party, walk, play, scream like teen-addled hysteric fans and have geeky nerd fun to excess, spend a week recovering and then talk about all the cool shit you couldn't do because you spent too much fucking time searching the InterTubes for posts about Gen Con (natch).
You know? Just saying.
Well, you say they're not dead, but, compared to their former glories, they are basically dead.
I'm talking real books on real shelves . . . not pod, pdf, and kickstarter bs.
Where are the GURPS books? No more. PDFs only. lol.
Where are the WW books? POD/kickstarters. lol.
Face it; the hobby is not what it once was.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;680521GW miniatures in alley this morning, tire tread on burst sprues. This convention is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The exhibitor hall is an extended gutter and the gutter is filled with catpiss, and when the drains finally scab over, all the swine will drown...The accumulated filth of all their storygames and murder-hobos will foam up about their waists and all the whores and WW fans will look up and shout "save us!"
They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or Gary Gygax. Decent men who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they followed the droppings of hipsters and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipe until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, a world without D&D, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth talkers...and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
Women's breasts draped across every RPG cover, every CCG, littering the sidewalk. Was offered Swedish games and French games...but not American games. American role-playing games; like Coke in green glass bottles...they don't make them anymore.
Not yet, but don't worry, you and yours will get us there I'm sure, well except for the part about the breasts.
That's what you wanted, right?:D
Maybe all the people who actually like roleplaying should take a vacation and let the SJW's brawl with the storygamers then like Tucker's Kobolds, we can come up and just finish off who won.
Quote from: CRKrueger;680581Not yet, but don't worry, you and yours will get us there I'm sure, well except for the part about the breasts.
That's what you wanted, right?:D
Maybe all the people who actually like roleplaying should take a vacation and let the SJW's brawl with the storygamers then like Tucker's Kobolds, we can come up and just finish off who won.
That won't happen. I mean I like(d) Levi, he had some mean setting riffs, but look how everyone's cool with his artistic "RPG statement". If you'd draft the same scenario as part of a D&D campaign dealing with medium level domain play (PCs, being lords of the lands, are asked to pass judgement on the rapist, who's a nobleman and took advantage of a merchant's daughter, to take an example out of Crusader Kings), there'd be blood.
I've read some that bemoan the lack of books or other paper products being produced. Some have pointed out that this not strictly true. That aside, I do not get the desire for the "golden age" of RPG books galore. RPGs are a niche market and the publishing costs must be expensive for relatively few printings. Thus, PDFs and other less expensive forms of getting the rpgs into the consumer's hands is really saving the hobby and allowing for great independent work. Thus, I see not reason to despair, the medium of the hobbies primary format might change but this allows more variety, less dominance centered in any one location and vastly more accessibility.
Quote from: Future Villain Band;680521GW miniatures in alley this morning, tire tread on burst sprues. This convention is afraid of me. I have seen it's true face. The exhibitor hall is an extended gutter and the gutter is filled with catpiss, and when the drains finally scab over, all the swine will drown...The accumulated filth of all their storygames and murder-hobos will foam up about their waists and all the whores and WW fans will look up and shout "save us!"
They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like my father, or Gary Gygax. Decent men who believed in a day's work for a day's pay. Instead they followed the droppings of hipsters and communists and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipe until it was too late. Don't tell me they didn't have a choice. Now the whole world stands on the brink, staring down into bloody Hell, a world without D&D, all those liberals and intellectuals and smooth talkers...and all of a sudden nobody can think of anything to say.
Women's breasts draped across every RPG cover, every CCG, littering the sidewalk. Was offered Swedish games and French games...but not American games. American role-playing games; like Coke in green glass bottles...they don't make them anymore.
'What happened to the roleplaying hobby dream?'
'It came true. You're lookin' at it.'
Quote from: flyerfan1991;680524So last year's show was you just having that gaming rush going on? And I thought you'd been having a few beers with dinner beforehand.
We recorded before dinner on Saturday. I talk a big game but I try to maintain some modicum of professionalism before recording...not that I don't say a bunch of crazy stuff.
I am usually pretty aped during the entire weekend of GenCon. I'm typically a very high energy guy, so yeah: gaming rush!
Quote from: joewolz;680349I'm super excited for several games coming out.
What are people looking forward to?
I've got a list consisting of
Eldritch Horror (demo),
7 Card Slugfest, and
Level 7: Omega Protocol on my list for boardgames.
For roleplaying games the big releases on my list are
Numenera and
Eclipse Phase: Transhuman (although I kickstarted both of them, so I don't actually have to wait for Gencon).
Are there any other RPGs coming out that have people interested?
Quote from: Archangel Fascist;680199It's this week, you know.
May as well as some content to this thread: I'm definitely playing 5e (crossing my fingers on this one) and I hope to try Edge of the Empire and Torchbearer. I may or may not overspend on knickknacks and games.
No Thread?
Probably because GEN CON charges too damn much just to go in and shop in the vendor's room.
At least ORIGINS has had a bargain entry price the past 3 or 4 years.
ONLY way that GEN CON is affordable - is if someone else is paying for the trip or ticket (Business you're working for, the con itself...etc)
- Ed C.
Quote from: 1989;680432Apathy.
D&D has been dead for some time, now. 5e playtests continue to confuse people, with no clear drive/goal/endgame in sight.
WW is dead.
GURPS and HERO are dead.
Well, HERO is dead but refuses to admit it. GURPS is not dead, but no one can tell the difference.
JG
I'm not going. I might be going to GDC though in San Francisco in March. Anyone here been to GDC?
Quote from: Koltar;680650No Thread?
Probably because GEN CON charges too damn much just to go in and shop in the vendor's room.
At least ORIGINS has had a bargain entry price the past 3 or 4 years.
ONLY way that GEN CON is affordable - is if someone else is paying for the trip or ticket (Business you're working for, the con itself...etc)
- Ed C.
Get a job, Hippy!
The most expensive part of Gencon is the hotel.
Quote from: Archangel Fascist;680805The most expensive part of Gencon is the hotel.
Very true. Dining can be done cheaply. They are countless ways to get a badge for the show--granted, most of them involve putting in some hours, but it's usually doing something at least somewhat fun.
But the hotel....Indianapolis, in order to pay for its admittedly awesome football stadium and make other downtown upgrades to increase the likelihood of hosting large events, has one of the highest hotel taxes in the nation.
Three or four of us are starting a fund right after Gen Con towards buying a hotel room for next year. If we want to stay in a hotel connected to Gen Con, it'll be around $200/night. That's not much to some folks, but added up over 4 days...it's hard to justify when you have a family. That's why folks bundle into hotels at Gen Con 7, 8, 10 people deep.
The room can be expensive. I usually try to stay by the airport or a little south of town. Driving in every day sucks, but $50 a night is awesome.
I'm staying downtown this time, packed a few deep. I'm not sure if I'm going to like that since I usually room with one or two people.
Quote from: Zachary The First;680533HELL YES! :)
Friday-Sunday this year, but I have reinforcements helping me out. I'll fire up a new thread for it!
Excellent!
One of these years I'll need to launch a fundraiser titled "Inflict the Pundit on Gencon".
Quote from: RPGPundit;681961One of these years I'll need to launch a fundraiser titled "Inflict the Pundit on Gencon".
Let me know. I'll throw in.
Be sure to wear back armor, Pundit! :D
-clash
Quote from: Koltar;680650ONLY way that GEN CON is affordable - is if someone else is paying for the trip or ticket (Business you're working for, the con itself...etc)
- Ed C.
30,000-40,000 people disagree with you every year.
Quote from: Archangel Fascist;680805The most expensive part of Gencon is the hotel.
Not necessarily true. I live on the west coast. Travel alone is between $600-$800. I can find a place to stay cheaper than that.
Quote from: Brasidas;68208330,000-40,000 people disagree with you every year.
Just because someone buys something, doesn't mean they can afford it. Just look at credit card debt in the US.
Granted, it is affordable to a lot of folks who aren't sponsored, but it's just as dubious to say that everyone who goes can afford it.
Quote from: Sacrosanct;682085Not necessarily true. I live on the west coast. Travel alone is between $600-$800. I can find a place to stay cheaper than that.
It's a shame Gencon Socal didn't work out. I sympathise. Similar reasons keep me out of the West Coast conventions.
QuoteJust because someone buys something, doesn't mean they can afford it. Just look at credit card debt in the US.
I agree with this.
Quote...but it's just as dubious to say that everyone who goes can afford it.
I don't think I've claimed otherwise (yet). I would say that whether or not someone can actually afford to go to gencon, the fact that they're there means they've disagreed with Koltar's statement. I concede that some spend more than they should.
I also dispute the statement that the "ONLY" way to afford Gencon is for someone else to foot the bill for the trip and/or ticket.
Quote from: Zachary The First;682067Let me know. I'll throw in.
Well, that's a grand total of 1 backer so far!