When is Enough is Enough (GenCon Rant)?

 

I've mentioned, probably far too often, that in a previous life I served as a tournament/convention organizer for a game company. In that capacity I used to travel to the Origins Game Fair every year and I tried to go to GenCon, but only went 2 or 3 times.

The difference between the two, from an organizer's perspective, was night and day.

Origins would have convention staff come by and make sure the GMs were happy. They'd give us, as a group, convention money that could be doled out as needed for food, drinks (the best bang-for-convention-buck), con badges, and even hotel space (worst bang-for-the-buck). The staff would make sure our tables/room had what was needed and if there was an issue, they made sure we/I knew where to go for assistance. One time, before my tenure, we had a problem player we ejected from our games and the convention just straight-up banned him for a few years. We didn't care if he played elsewhere, just not with us. The convention just figured that if an attendee was an issue with one group, he'd probably be a problem with other groups and didn't want to subject other attendees to the hassle.

GenCon.....ugh. In all the games I organized there I saw the staff away from their designated table once.....ONCE. They clearly didn't care about anything other than getting their paid tickets for events. When I approached the staff table, they literally held out their hand for tickets before I said anything. Our games were scattered all over the place in different buildings, but usually the majority were relatively close and in the same building. I do clearly remember having problems once when they double-booked one of our tables. The other GM showed up early and was rather obstinate about moving.....honestly I think he was bitter because he rarely had players as it was. The convention staff did come by, that one time, to talk to him, but their answer was to have us "work it out" on our own. Really?

I'm sure I've bitched about this before, 'cause these experiences have been seared into my brain. The thing is everybody knows that GenCon is the "big boy" in the room that is gaming conventions, and they have been getting bigger and bigger. I'd argue too big at that, and clearly this growth ....in my opinion... has come at the expense of customer service.....if.

IF you think that the "customer" primarily GenCon attendees. I don't think that GenCon is there to cater to attendees, but to gaming companies/vendors. What I saw seemed to me that it was all about the vendors and I recall far-too-many vendors telling me that they've got resource restrictions, most notably time, and it's getting to the point where they need to pick one summer convention and if they can only do one, it's going to be GenCon.

Now most of my favorite companies do attend both GenCon and Origins, as well as some smaller cons during other times of the year, but in the summer? Well I doubt I'll see any of these guys at NTRPG. 

Photo Courtesy WDW News Today

Now there is a LOT more than just OSR games, hell I'd argue that GenCon is lacking OSR in general, but that's a different argument. I'm just saying there are a lot of non-gaming vendors at the big cons...well non RPG gaming vendors. Cards & cosplay come to mind immediately. So we get a lot of vendors, some/many that only do GenCon in the summer. Because of this they tend to bring out their new and/or limited offers to that dealer room (why not, a huge audience) which just dials up the crush of people trying to get into the dealer's room ASAP to recockulous levels.

Organizational Failures Lead to Dangerous Mob at Opening of Gen Con 2023 and Disney Lorcana Release

GenCon is reporting they've set a new record for attendance at 70,000 unique attendees, and that is a metric shit-ton of people in not that big of an area. That isn't counting vendors and staff! GenCon is saying that their convention is bringing $75M to Indy..........wait, what? That's a bit more than $1K per attendee. That isn't counting money actually spent at the con, getting to the con, or attendance fees.

Now I realize I'm biased, but what I see is a con that is growing to an absurd size and growing away from the core that established it decades ago. It's definitely no longer a RPG con and barely a gaming con these days. If you want to attend you need to get your hotel room in the first 10-15 seconds that the hotel blocks open up (no shit), have a lot of money to burn, and we willing to be crushed to death in the throng of other attendees. Good luck getting assistance if you need any (seriously, you should see those lines!)

Yes, you can literally suffer if you want to get some GenCon dealer's room exclusive (read the WDW News Today article), but you might be too late and doing so undoubtedly will come at the cost of some gaming time.

You're best off supporting a local gaming con, but that's my 2cp. Better bang for the buck. If you want a "big con" experience that has more upside than downside, go to Origins Game Fair.

I Think GenCon is Not Worth It (Attend Your Local Con!)

 

If you didn't already know, this weekend is GenCon 2021..and Origins 2021 is (roughly) in a couple weeks. Now I've been seeing pictures and gamer observations on Facebook and the like and it seems a bit like GenCon 2021 is a bit of a ghost town. Evidently attendance is capped at "half".....never felt like there was an attendance limit in the past, so half of "standing room only" is still a metric-buttload of people walking around.

I know that COVID-19/20/21D or whatever the current flu-scare is puts a dent in attendance, but moving the convention out of the summer (technically it is still summer...for like 3 days) and very much into the school year can't help with attendance either. It'll be harder for families to attend and moving this big con hurts other conventions. It's pretty obvious that Origins is trying to work around GenCon, and surely there are other conventions that are getting screwed over by the "Big Boys" moving their dates around.

Yes, I know that GenCon is a business and needs to make money, but it feels like...to me...that they are pushing their weight around a bit, to the detriment of others, something they've done for years to a lesser extent.

Now clearly I'm kind of biased against GenCon here, so I'm certain that I see a bit of the negative aspects of this move, but this bias has been earned, so bear with me.

Having spent a few years as a convention tournament organizer for both Origins and GenCon who also volunteered at a exhibitor booth, I got to see a little bit behind the curtain. From my experience, and perspective, Origins cares about gamers and GenCon cares about making money. 

Origins: Every year I'd have Origins staff check in on my group and make sure everything was going well. They helped me treat GMs a a valuable resource and the staff seemed to be passionate volunteers. Plenty of hotel space available unless you just had to have a room in one of the attached hotels, which I wouldn't recommend unless you want to wait forever on/in elevators for just an "ok" room.

GenCon: Having our tables double-booked was a regular event. The staff seemed to be employees and if I saw them it was for them to verify we all had badges and event tickets. Tickets and badges were all the seemed to care about. Good luck getting lodging at any nearby hotel and registering for games is an exercise in frustration.

As the years ticked by working the booth and talking to other vendors I saw a disturbing trend: many publishers have to make a decision between attending GenCon or Origins. Some of this was due to shifting dates, but lot was due to the expense of attending GenCon and since it was growing every year if you had to pick one, GenCon seemed to be it.

Now as far as the "big" cons go I'm clearly a fan of Origins, but really it's the smaller local conventions that have my attention these days. I'd rather spend a $1000 at North Texas RPG and have a great weekend experience than spend $1000 at GenCon which maybe gets me to Indy and a night or two of hotel (but no badge or event tickets!)

This year there are like 16 September conventions, not counting GenCon & Origins. Two events that would have been during GenCon were cancelled. In 2017 there were 21 conventions during Spetember. In 2018 & 2019 there were 27 conventions during September. Now some of the difference could be COVID related, but there were more cancelled events this year. Looking back over the last several years, no table-top gaming conventions shared time with GenCon.....until this year where there were two, with one being cancelled.

I know it isn't a deep-delve in the data and just a high-level pass, but anecdotally it seemed that GenCon moving to a later date is affecting smaller gaming conventions, and not for the better. Not a fan.....

GenCon 2021 had 1312 RPG games listed, while Origins 2021 has roughly half that at 616 RPG games listed. Now both sound like a lot, but in GenCon's case it looks like roughly half of those RPG events are D&D 5th Edition (Origins far less as a percentage). Since I'm guessing that the majority of the Tavern patrons are OSR fans, this info might be relevant.

TL;DR- If you "have" to attend a big con, check out Origins, but I'd rather go to a smaller local convention.

Zak S' Lawsuit Against Gen Con WAS Dismissed - Full Document Attatched

Thanks to JoetheLawyer, we got to see the original document from the King Count, Washington Court dismissing Zak S' lawsuit against Gen Con. It still needs to be filed - thus it is with Zoom court sessions in the world of Covid.

I did the attached video a few minutes before Joe got his hands on the original document, so now we know it was truly dismissed.

Last week's YouTube recap may be delayed ;)

edit - We should have access to all of the paperwork filed and generated for this case. I'll read through it tomorrow and share what I can.

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

Holy Crap! There was a Collectable Live Action Hygiene RolePlay Game at GenCon 2001

Sometimes a post just writes itself. THIS is one of those times :)

I received an email from a listener/viewer of the Talking Crit Cast (VidCast / PodCast). Actually, Glen and I did a follow up last night on Dungeons, Dragons & Discourse (VidCast / Podcast) After listening to either Bad Mike and I or Glen and I broach the topic of "gamer funk", he sent me the following pics of, as he put it: 

"something I picked up at GenCon 2001. They had lots of these laying around in common areas. It’s obvious that the gamer hygiene issue is not small is someone felt the need to make these."

If any others happen to have an original copy of the above, I'm sure Bad Mike would love the donation for the NTRPG Con Midnight Auction. 

A HUGE tip of the hat to Taverner JW for the above. You made my weekend as only a Taverner can ;)

The Tavern is supported by readers like you. The easiest way to support The Tavern is to shop via our affiliate links. DTRPG, Amazon, and Humble Bundle are affiliate programs that support The Tavern.  You can catch the daily Tavern Chat podcast on Anchor, YouTube,  or wherever you listen to your podcast collection. - Tenkar

 

 

 

Raggi is Such a Shock Jock! I'm so Shocked!

Wait, that's right - all the radio shock jocks are either off the air or no longer shocking. This is simply bad taste, but that IS Raggi's schtick:

Jeans, striped shirts, ballcaps, modern bikes - he doesn't even try to make the effort to have it fit his default setting. Because why make the effort when you can be "shocking".

I long for the days when Raggi was putting out usable stuff, like The Grinding Gear.

Ah well, I'm guessing this was one of his many inspirations:

Tip of the hat to Taverner Thad :)

Gen Con Bans Zak S

Yep. The final nail may have just been pounded into Zak S' RPG coffin. Here's the original link: https://www.gencon.com/attend/gencon_policies

Gen Con's Stance on Abuse & Harassment

Friends, 

At Gen Con we have a policy of not disclosing the names of individuals who have been sanctioned or banned from our events. However, our statements regarding a recent ban have caused confusion and more importantly, made people feel that Gen Con doesn’t care about attendee safety. To clarify, I want to state that Zak S has been banned from Gen Con and that we flat-out don’t tolerate harassers or abusers in our community or at our convention. 

As a gamer and con-goer myself, I believe that everyone deserves space in their lives for the fun, excitement, and community that tabletop gaming brings, and that action needs to be taken to make spaces safer and more inclusive, especially for marginalized communities and survivors of abuse.

We have and will continue to ban from attending those individuals who threaten the safety of our attendees or members of our community. Before, during, and after the show, we review incident reports and accusations, we investigate claims, we coordinate with local authorities, and we ban people who violate our policies regardless of their stature in the industry or their relationship to Gen Con. We ban people for actions that range from theft and counterfeiting all the way up to harassment and assault. We also ban people for actions that occur outside of Gen Con’s immediate control in accordance with our policies. When we decide to ban someone, we inform the individual they are no longer welcome to attend our show, we block them from buying a badge through our site, and if they show up anyway, we remove them from the convention center and event spaces. It’s a very important part of our regular process for managing the show and the community that surrounds it, and we are always looking for ways to improve. 

We admire the bravery of victims who report their abuse or harassment, and we’re here to support you. If you witness or experience abusive behavior or harassment at or around our event (or in online spaces), we want to know about it so we can take action. That said, reactive bans alone are insufficient and as an industry we need to do more. Earlier in the year we revised our Code of Conduct and Anti-Harassment policies and published them on our website under a Creative Commons license for anyone to use and improve upon. We’ve improved our on-site reporting procedures and developed a Policy Enforcement Team to review incidents and take actions, whenever they arise, anytime of year, and we will continue to focus on this going forward. You can email us confidentially at policyteam@gencon.com if you have any questions or need to report an incident or concern. We will continue to work to make Gen Con safer, more inclusive, and of course more fun. Please do reach out if you have further thoughts or questions. 

Sincerely,
Peter D. Adkison
Co-owner of Gen Con and Chairperson of the Board 

WotC Won't be at GenCon 50 - But Will be at GaryCon 2017 (and others)

It seems really strange that WotC's DnD division / staff / team / last men standing won't be at the 50th GenCon this year. I know they've been distancing themselves from GenCon for a while, but this is the 50th one after all and it has some significance (aside from being the largest gaming convention in the world)

Here's the list of the cons WotC WILL be officially attending:

PAX SOUTH
January 27-29
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center
900 E Market St.
San Antonio, TX

WINTER FANTASY
February 1-5
Grand Wayne Convention Center
120 West Jefferson Blvd
Fort Wayne, IN

PAX EAST
March 10 -12
Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
415 Summer Street
Boston, MA

GARY CON
March 23-26
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa
7036 Grand Geneva Way
Lake Geneva, WI

ORIGINS
June 14-18
Greater Columbus Convention Center
400 N High Street
Columbus, OH

PAX WEST
September 1-4
Washington State Convention Center
800 Convention Place
Seattle, WA

HASCON
September 9-10
Rhode Island Convention Center & Dunkin Donuts Center
1 La Salle Square & 1 Sabin St
Providence, RI

GAMEHOLE CON
November 2-5
Alliant Energy Center Exhibition Hall
1919 Alliant Energy Center Way
Madison, WI

I should be at two of these myself - Gary Con and Gamehole Con. Interestingly, HasCon is all about Hasbro properties. Time to play My Little Pony ;)

What were the Big Gen Con Releases this Year?

To be honest, I don't seem to recall any major RPG releases being mentioned leading up to Gen Con 2015 and I don't see anything being talked about post Gen Con.

Well, thats not true. Post Gen Con talk has focused on the embarrassing stunt Cam Banks and friends pulled at the ENnies and then there is the whole Ken Whitman fiasco with his assorted video releases that weren't released (and death threats!)

Was anything of note actually released at Gen Con this year?

Notes From GenCon 92 (As I get into Con Mode)

Last year's NTRPG Con was a 22 year gap between gaming cons, as my last was GenCon of 92. I remember filling every available moment with gaming goodness and seminars. Yes, plural for seminars, as I also attended the fiction seminar for TSR and have the notes to prove it (but I won't bore you with them unless requested.)

Remembering Pieces of Gen Con '93 - My Last Con before this Year's NTRPG Con

Ashley has no clue we are leaving in an hour or so and will be gone for day

Just some bits and pieces memories of Gen Con '93

- one meal a day, eaten at 1215 or so each night - beer and burgers, in that order

- folks waiting for a green light to cross downtown Milwaukee streets at 730 am when there was no traffic on the roads. Needless to say, New Yorkers didn't wait.

- sleep deprivation is a wonderful thing

- my introduction to Rifts and Dangerous Journeys

- leaving clothes behind to accommodate my purchases

- running the Spelljammer miniature game (complete with to scale Spellammer) for 30 minutes or so as Dale "Slade" Henson ran off to use the bathroom

- winning a $5 Mail Order Hobby Shop coupon for placing in an AD&D Tournament. I played a fallen Paladin

- sat in on but did not bid in the auction

- sat in on some gaming seminars - wish I could remember much about them

- overall an amazingly good time

looking forward to this weeks memories ;)

Quotes From Gary Gygax's Role-playing Mastery - The Creator - The... Kirk ;)

Another quote from Role-playing Mastery:

"The game master is the creator, organizer, and arbiter of all. His most important functions during play, though, are more mundane. He is nature. He provides sensory data, and finally he fills the roles of the living things the PCs interact with during the course of the session." Role-Playing Mastery, page 48, Gary Gygax

What sticks out to me is the "sensory data" part of the quote. This doesn't mean just sights and sounds, but even touch and smell.

Back in '93, at my one and only GenCon, one of the GMs we had for the tournament we went through was in a wheel chair. I never asked if it was a permanent or temporary situation for her, as the question would have been damn awkward, but I suspected it was the former.

In any case, she had a sense that she was hooked on describing - the sense of smell. Cooking, burning, blooming, rotting - she nailed them all with verbal descriptions that brought the actual smells to mind. Which was scary in a way, as they didn't seem to be integral to the plot (and I suspected she was filling these parts in on her own) but that sense of smell made the session she ran seem more real than any of the others I played in over those four days. Maybe the most real of any session I've ever played in.

Strange, we speak of "gamer funk" at cons and how it assails out nostrils, but we often forget to use that same sense of smell when describing events and such in our game sessions.

Haven't thought of that in a while. Interesting what a single quote from a book can dig up in one's memories.

Dungeons & Dragons the RPG - Alas, I Knew You Well (D&D GenCon 2013 Presentation)

Sadly, adter watching this video I now know what "Dungeons & Dragons" means - recycled fiction, 2 MMORPGS, lego like ugly ass crap with one recognizable character from the Drizzt series of books and it isnt even him, iOS Battlegames, iOS Boardgames, re-released 20+ year old computer games and if you are lucky there might be an RPG - but that's just to drive sales for all of the previously listed money makers.

Yes, I know this shit is a business, but WotC has gotten so corporate it's scary.

They will never sell the D&D trademark, but perhaps, one day, an RPG titled Dungeons & Dragons will live up to it's heritage in the hands of others.

GenCon 1993 - Looking Back 20 Years to My One and Only - I'm Spell Jammin! I Hope You Like Jammin' Too!

There are certain memories of my one and only GenCon that majorly stick out in my mind.

Meeting the guys at Palladium Games, buying Rifts and getting the core book by Kevin Siembeida and Kevin Llong signed is certainly one of them. They were very approachable guys (even if Kevin S has turned into the C&D Nazi in later years). GenCon lead to the infestation of Rifts in my group for a long time, even if I was never the one to run it.

It's also where I bought Dangerous Journeys, EGG's first major RPG after getting the boot from TSR (Cyborg Commando is far from a "major" RPG).

Then there was the SpellJammer set up that was being run by Slade Henson when I found it. It was a large, space asteroid thing with dozens of miniatures and terrain elements. You chose a miniature and wandered around until you got killed - or something like that. It was impressive.

I observed for a few minutes before jumping in as another player died. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but Slade was really hamming it up, so whatever it was, it was fun.

Suddenly, Slade turned to me and said (I'm paraphrasing after 20 years): "You think you can handle running this for 5 minutes? I gotta take a leak!".

That shit-ton of panic hit. How the fuck am I going to run this? I don't even know what the rules are.

"It's simple - high roll on a D20 wins - one hit kills. Play it up, be descriptive. I really gotta hit the can. Just 5 minutes."

So I did it. I actually have no memories of how well I did. I think I was too damn nervous to be able to remember. I do recall Slade was gone for over 20 minutes. It apparently was a bit more than a piss break ;)

In any case, he thanked me and I moved on to the next shiny in the room. But I can say, for about 20 minutes, I ran a TSR event at a GenCon. I just wish I could remember the details ;)

GenCon 1993 - Looking Back 20 Years to My One and Only - Arrival and Breakfast and Badges, Oh My!

I remember arriving in Milwaukee the night before GenCon of 93. Paul (miss ya lad), Tony and myself apparently got robbed by the car service we used to get from the airport to the hotel (as we were told by a later driver who refused to take out cash).

Our hotel was no where near the venue, but that mattered little. The room was relatively cheap, although we had to remind the staff we had asked for a roll out bed. We were good friends, but not "that" good.

It was a restless sleep, knowing we wanted to get there early so we could get our badges and get inside to the Con goodness.

The next morning we learned something important - apparently New Yorkers are the rarity in ignoring "Don't Walk" traffic signals. The looks we got were interesting if nothing else. The homeless guy picking thru the trash can wished us "good morning" and didnt try to shake us down for pocket change. Truly we were in the midst of culture shock.

We hit a diner for a quick and cheap breakfast (especially compared to NYC pricing) and got on line for our badges. I had signed up for way too many events, including workshops and tournaments and lord knows what, but the biggest thrill was just to be there. We had never seen so many gamers together at one time, and that was just the line for the badges.

I have pictures of that line with us on it packed away somewhere, but the images are burned into my mind, especially the goofy smiles we all had.

The smiles just got bigger as the days went on.

Next - of Rifts and Dangerous Journeys...

Besides Frog God and Goodman Games, Are Any Other "OSR Companies" At GenCon 2013?

I know the OSR likes to punch above it's weight when it can, but off hand I can't think of anyone other than Frog God and Goodman Games seriously representing the OSR at GenCon this year.

Truth be told, I haven't been paying that close attention. It's been 20 years since my one and only GenCon (there is a post there for later) and I think it's even less about the game playing and more about the game selling these days then it was back then.

Still, I'd love to hear about the other companies / small press that are making their mark at this year's GenCon...

Isn't It a Bit Late to be Recruiting DM's For GenCon?

+Joe D , otherwise known as Joe the Lawyer, posted earlier today that WotC is apparently short DMs for the D&D Next events they are running at GenCon.

Talk about piss poor planning.

What are they offering to get folks to step up and run D&D Next? (I wonder if you have to agree to the NDA if you want to DM / play at GenCon?) (more thoughts but damn the blog I linked to here is monetized - holy shit - and here I dropped adsense because I thought it was tacky...)

Free rooms! (if you are lucky, you only share it with one sweaty gamer, but it may be two. Don't worry if you want to bring your wife, they'll find a different sweaty gamer for her to bunk with)

Free Badges! - We don't need no steenkin' badges! 'Cause we ain't going to GenCon.

Free Swag! - Unless that includes free airline tickets - it ain't happening.

4 weeks before GenCon opens and NOW they realize they're short? Makes me wonder about the behind the scenes activity with D&D Next.

It's a shame I can't be more positive about D&D Next, but what I've seen makes it feel like the Mongrelmen of AD&D have taken over the latest version's development, as there are what appears to be bits of different (A)D&D versions but lack of a coherent whole.

Now, if they were bribing folks to run DCC or S&W I'd put in for the emergency vacation days tomorrow. Alas, it doesn't appear to be the case...