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Games Entertainment

Gen Con 2000 Report 97

Posted by emmett from the gary-gygax dept.
zuluwarrior writes "That Beatdown Reporter braved the sea of smelly geeks and visited this year's Gen Con in Milwaukee WI. for the latest computer game news, RPG and board game info and to see if he rolls a natural 20. Top stuff."
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Gen Con 2000 Report More

Gen Con 2000 Report

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  • Fox is running it Saturday mornings around 10.

  • A GM's Report of GenCOn (Score:4)

    by Zulfiya ( 44302 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @02:24PM (#839149) Homepage

    Things I liked

    I have a lot of negative things to say about the way Wizards of the Coast (WotC) ran parts of the con this year, so I wanted to start on a positive note. And I did, in fact, have a good time. Here are some things I liked, in no particular order.

    All the Gamers

    According to the news report I saw, there were twenty thousand of us in town for the con. Let me repeat that - twenty thousand! There's just something great about having that many like-minded folk around. Very cool.

    The new Badges

    Badges this year were of the hang-around-your-neck instead of the pin-to-your-shirt variety. They were sturdier, unlikely to lose the paper insert, and easy to put on and remove. They must have been especially nice for people in costume, who wouldn't have to worry about sticking a pin through their art (or, for the very scantily costumed, finding a place to pin it in the first place).

    The Anime Room

    As with last year, the Anime Room was in the Hilton, across the street and caddy-corner to the convention center. While directions could have been a bit clearer, that is more a flaw with the onsite booklet than with the Anime Room Itself. I only made it there once, and rather late, but they were playing something I wanted to see and the staff (even for the late hour) was enthusiastic. I can't speak for crowding, as I was there late, but the room seemed spacious enough, and the video/sound quality was good, even from the back of the room.

    Game Locations Listed in the Onsite Book

    Last year, the onsite book did not have locations listed, causing all manner of confusion. Kudos to WotC for listening to attendees' complaints and acting on them.

    The Safe House

    I love this place. Everybody loves this place. It's the one think I really will miss about Milwaukee when the convention moves to Indianapolis in 2003. And the password is... [DELETED].


    Now... the problems...

    Running as a Tabletop GM

    Last year, I left the con with the distinct impression that they were *trying* to make pencil-and-paper GMing so unpleasant that the tabletop players would just go away.

    This year removed all doubt.

    I arrived bright and early Thursday morning and was able to pick up my pre-reg packet smoothly. At least, I thought so until I opened it. There were my player tickets, the onsite booklet, my Pez(tm), my 4-Day player badge... Hey! I quickly checked the rest of my materials. Nothing anywhere indicated that they had any idea that I had registered as a GM, nor was there anything about the games I was running. I was a bit worried - I knew I hadn't made the pre-reg book deadline, but I had specifically telephoned two weeks earlier to make sure they got my events (they never sent me a confirmation).

    I found the Information booth and asked what was going on. I was told to go to "GM HQ" on the third floor. Now, having been through this runaround last year, I knew that there was no such thing as GM HQ. I went to the third floor and found the booth marked "Tournament Registration" (which was not then, nor at any time during the con, labeled "GM HQ").

    I stood in line behind three or four other disgruntled folk and was handed a sealed manila envelope from a pile of similar envelopes. This, apparently, was my GMs packet. I asked about my events. The man behind the counter told me that if I told him my event numbers, he could look up whether I had sold any tickets. How, I asked, was I supposed to know what my events number were? They're listed in the on-site book.

    I obtained a GMs badge at the point by sounding like I was about to lose my last shreds of patience and make a scene.

    I wandered off and looked through my packet. It was so generic, the introductory letter inside welcomed me to Origins (another convention entirely). Notably lacking were GMs instructions or any other useful information. There were event proposal forms for Origins 2001 and Gencon 2001, and a time sheet.

    It was at this point that I remembered why I did not bother to get a reimbursement last year.

    The time sheet, I should add, needed to be initialed by a "manager". Out of the four games I ran over a cumulative sixteen hours, I was checked in on by a manager exactly once (five minutes before game time, and so could not initial my sheet) and was able track one down once (and it took some doing). Fortunately, the second one was kind enough to initial all of my events for me, without checking.

    By Friday midnight, I had run all of my games, so on Saturday, I checked in on Tournament Registration. The person there couldn't help me, but we eventually found someone who initialed my form and told me to come back Sunday. All reimbursements would be done Sunday, regardless of when the events were finished.

    Sunday I showed up to a very slow line and watched two GMs in front of me give up in disgust. I made it to the front of the line and got my reimbursement. I felt like I'd GMed for free and earned the money for putting up with WotC.

    I'm going back next year, and I'll even GM again, but if you're wondering why the number of games run keeps dropping, even as the people who want to play keeps increasing, here's your answer.

  • That's who it was.. FOX bought the series for Saterday morning..

  • I object to TSR's names. (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:27PM (#839151)
    You follow the PHB's rules all day at work, then you go play D&D and end up following another PHB's rules.
  • Just go to your local Renaissance Faire. There are usually hundreds of women like that and better running around.
    --
  • Wow ... Call of Cthulhu as a PC game (hint, it won't run on Linux, only BSD) and some news about DW's Wizards and Warriors - you don't mean Mike William's Wizards and Warriors do you? Just wondering, cause he and SJ and I used to have great fun developing stuff back in the days.

  • All chainmail clothing is hand made, and so there's no surcharge for a custom piece - you'll just end up paying more for parts and labor if it's bigger.
    --
  • Anybody remember the kickass game Crossbows and Catapults

    I got everything in the set, even the dragon and the battering ram, for B-day when I was like 9. Sadly I only played it once, at my birthday party, b/c I didn't have any friends when I was a kid. :( If only online gaming existed when I was younger...

    Anyway, it sat in it's box for 5-6 more years and my mom sold it at tag sale with my ENTIRE set of Bantha Tracks newsletters!!! I was pissed for several years at that one.


    ---
    Unto the land of the dead shalt thou be sent at last.
    Surely thou shalt repent of thy cunning.
  • That's odd.

    I volunteered (and in fact did not sign up until I got to the convention), and although I had some issues with how they handled assignments (for example, not telling me I could leave my post at the Ball), I had no problems getting my time checked off or reimbursed. I got my work at the art show, the castle, and prereg signed off at the same time with no issues, showed up sunday morning, and got my money.

    It might be a bit different for GMs, but I had no major problems.

  • The fantasy artist Clyde Caldwell is always at the Con ... and always seems to have an entourage of interesting women helping him out at his booth...

    And then there was that "assistant" in the Art Gallery...

    I need a digital camera...

    BTW, yes, there are some gamers that take your breath away... And I don't mean that as a pleasing experience at all!!!


    --
  • "
    (Oh yes, I also got in a debate over whether the halfling female or gnomish female (As depicted in the 3rd ed. phb) would be better to have sex with. I, of course, chose the gnome. And stand by (above?) my decision. So take my opinion on women with 1cp worth of salt.)"

    At least you didn't put a write-in vote for the half-orc! (Shudder)

  • As much as I was worried about the effects of WotC buying up TSR, I have to say that the changes have been for the best.
    • Greyhawk lives!
    • Stupid kid-friendly language controls dropped. Devils, Demons, and Hell aren't forbidden words anymore.
    • Cut down on the over-production of stuff.
    Essentially, they fixed TSR's screwy policy of aiming products exclusively at 13 year old newbies, while producing enough product that only adults with good jobs could keep up anyhow.
  • Yeah, but I can only hear "Huzzah!" shouted so many times before going insane. I don't care how attractive the woman is who's shouting.
  • Just be happy that they've made it clear that female Dwarves don't have beards...
  • I assume we're refering to the page 13 drawings here... I'd have to say she's better looking than the gnome. The half-orc, with her "sexy" pose, is just disturbing though.

    This thread has me wondering, what kind of numbers has the new PHB sold already?
  • Hey! TSR has prior art on that acronym! Bitch to Scott Addams for tarnishing a fondly-remembered acronym of our youth!

    Besides, the DMG will have more of the rules anyhow.
  • I remember seeing ads for something like that last Christmas season. Don't remember what it was called, but I expect its still available.
  • While I _really_ like what WotC's did with TSR (especially after fearing the worst), I worry about what Hasbro might do with WotC. Not that WotC won't keep turning out good things, but I worry Hasbro will start firing off D&D action figures or the like, leaving WotC alone, but diluting the mindshare.

    On a totally unrelated note, I like Greyhawk, but I like my own campaign better. And unfortunately, the feeling I got from the 3rd Edition PHB was that they're doing a bit too much to integrate Greyhawk into the campaign world (I mean, a full pantheon that players are told is the right one. My older PCs aren't going to use it, but anyone who buys the PHB and comes into my campaign as a newbie is going to be quite shocked). It might just be me being overprotective, but some of my friends felt similarly.

  • I do dislike the world-specific content, but on the other hand, it allows the more casual groups to have the neccessary content without supplemental material. Wizards made a point of saying that Greyhawk is going to be the default game world again, so it wasn't a total surprise. (and justifies all the Bigby and Tenser spells being standard as well).

    I don't really care if Hasbro puts out a bunch of merchandise (with the movie, it's probably inevitable anyhow), I'm more worried about them playing editor like they've been doing a bit of with Microprose...
  • She reported that she felt quite flattered by the open stares from patrons.

    What she didn't know was that the patrons weren't really staring; after seeing one glimpse of her, they were blinded.

    =================================
  • Did anyone else here glue themselves to the old D&D cartoon when they where kids?

    When I was a kid? Damn I'm old.

  • ...ahhh....GenCon... (Score:3)

    by boinger ( 4618 ) <boinger@@@fuck-you...org> on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:29PM (#839169) Homepage
    The only place where I actually forget to pee for 8, 10, sometimes 12 hours at a time. All the while consuming endless two-liters of Mountain Dew to keep my malnourished body awake for the 18 hours of gaming.

    And, then, on the ride home any female seems to be a hottie. The "GenCon Goggles" (if I may coin a term) are certainly a phenomenon.

    Ah...If only it were the old days before Wizards of the Coast...

  • I do as well. Unfortionatly (Or fortunenatly), most of the players I used to play with don;t like to play any more. Mostly becouse they *KNOW* if we start playing again, the fact that we call it Crack; the Addiction will come to bear once again.. ;-P

    *OOhh, FOILIES!! GOTTA get the FOILIES!!*

  • I immediatly wonder where one gets a chainmail bikini sized for a 300 pound woman and whether the artisan was properly compensated for the incurred RSI.

    FJ!!

  • LOL, the first thought that crossed my mind was "well, I wasn't exactly a kid..."
    ----------
  • RMS and ESR are the same person; nobody cares

    That's my favourite.

    It's true.. isn't it?

    Isn't it?
  • On a 20 he slashes and dottes the site.

  • Re:Why I don't like RPGs (Score:3)

    by Snocone ( 158524 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @03:17PM (#839175) Homepage
    Feminism. For crying out loud, a female "warrior" is not going to be as effective as a male warrior in combat!

    No ... she'll be a more effective warrior because of her greater discipline. Historical examples of female warrior castes prove this every time; the reason there aren't more examples to draw from is that historically most cultures were not on a constant war footing and thus women could be relegated to babymaking and surplus male population to warmaking. In cultures where everyone had to fight, women were vital components of the order of battle in some position where their average lack of upper body strength wasn't particularly relevant.

    The overwhelmingly female Samartian horse archer corps are a striking example of this; another is the Viking shieldmaidens. Stabbing spears poking out from shieldwalls aren't particularly valiant or odeworthy ... but they are very effective. And female ninjas were actually more prevalent and dreaded than male ninjas, contrary to current movie mythology; there are several recorded instances of ninja geishas with their koshigatanas taking out multiple samurai. Ninja geishas. Mmmmmm. Mmmmm. :)

    (It's a troll, I know, but enough people are ignorant enough to agree that I thought it was worth correcting anyway...)
  • "None of the above. Apparently this was a costume contest. The costume featured Star Wars characters, trolls, orcs, vampires, wizards, elves, and other strangeness. No word yet on who won but I'm hoping it wasn't the guy with the giant horn sticking out of his crotch. That person does not need any more encouragement. "
    The guy with a horn in his crotch is Scroda, one of the villians of Gwar. Scroda is basically a crack-smoking phallus. He does not have to win ... Scroda will merely kill everyone in site if he does not. ...
    My life is now complete because Gwar has appeared on Slashdot.

    If you are not easily offended, not stupid, but not smart either, see http://www.gwar.net

  • Feminism. For crying out loud, a female "warrior" is not going to be as effective as a male warrior in combat!

    Ever since I bought T$R's AD&D's PHB (man, 3 TLAs in a row?), female PCs had a lower maximum STR than male PCs. The reason? "Males in real life are stronger than females". Or something like that.

    #def RANT
    Yeah, right. "Real life". As if battling dragons and demi-gods happened in real life. My guess is, they didn't want male PCs to be equalled by female PCs. Call it machismo, call it sexist, but that's the most logical reason I can think of.
    #undef RANT

    And I wondered why me and my friends couldn't meet any female players...
  • Eight year olds wouldn't be caught dead playing Magic anymore. It's all about Pokemon. And the Pokemon culture is different enough that Wizards of the Coast (publishers of Magic, Pokemon, and D&D, and organizers of Gen Con) wisely keeps it separate (for protection of all parties involved).

    If Origins was any indicator, collectable card games are a lot less prevalent at the big game conventions these days.

  • Hmmm, not to mention the fact that a woman wielding a sword might [confuse|distract] the hell out of any invading male warrior unaccustomed to fighting women.
    Er. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a koshigatana? Or don't I want to know? ;)
    -J
  • No one's stealing anyone else's fire. The same company (New Line Cinema) is releasing both films, and plans to use the lower-budget, first-time-directed D&D film to whet the public's appetite for, well, Liv Tyler in body armor. LOTR might have some halflings or wizards or something, too, but definitely Liv Tyler.

    -jpowers
  • What I don't understand is how it is that WotC can continue to run these conventions every year (and not just GenCon but Origins and Winter Fantasy as well) yet every time it's like they threw it together at the last minute.

    Nobody knows what's going on, necesary equipment goes AWOL for hours, the computers, network and the printers are always going down, none of the temps have been briefed on anything outside of how to operate the database front end (and half the time they need supervision to even do that), Microsoft products are always being used, etc. etc.

    This year's GenCon was different though -- not only did they hide a RANDOM ASSORTMENT of the tickets for the people who pre-registered at an understaffed table in a darkened hallway far away from the long row of lighted "PRE-REGISTERED" signs above the tables staffed with temps but they managed to keep it a SECRET from almost the ENTIRE STAFF including the WotC employees and volunteers assisting said temps! This fiasco is even more impressive than the missing cash register (and lack of network connectivity for said register once it was finally located) that caused a two hour wait at the GenCon gift shop last year.
  • I worked there. She wasn't too bad looking.
  • And if Orel Roberts doesn't live in a fantasy world, no one does.

    -jpowers
  • Eh.. if you believe that new fangled TSR/WotC/Hasbro stuff, it's now just a "PH". Of course, in my eyes, that's just a way to easily label the newbie punks.
  • Oh wow, this brings back some great memories of arguments I used to make flare up in rec.arts.sf.written...Especially fun there because of all the female-warrior-writing authors who hung out on it...

    As for my (perhaps sexist) opinion, I think female warriors could be effective in combat, but their weapon of choice probably wouldn't be any of the heavier hand-to-hand weapons.
    --
  • The huge thing this year was D&D 3rd Edition, as it should be. There were some computer booths, but in both events and the exhibit hall, pen and paper still reigned supreme. CCGs weren't dead, luckily, but they're not longer "fad" material. The 100 person line waiting for PHBs blocked the Pokemon display for quite a while :)
  • I'll totally agree with you on this one. While I had the flu, totally spaced on pre-regging for events, I had a blast, and none of the rips that the article references. I didn't see a 300 lbs chainmail bikini, but I did see an incredibly hot one.. skipping the line for the 3e PHBs and getting it from a different vendor.. meeting a bunch of cool people, some great games.. 4 days away from family (grin). free games, free food. good times for all. This post is pretty damn pointless, but ah, hell, too bad. Anybody think a slashdot/gencon 2001 gathering might be fun?

  • ...Was not as good as the previous two I had been to, the last of which was the year before WOTC bought TSR.

    Firstly, I must admit I was not there to play games, I was there for info on starting a game company. Mission relatively accomplished.

    There were kids playing card games everywhere. They're like roaches that you just get used to and ignore, but if one gets in your way, you dispose of it.

    Third Edition D&D. Better rules, still isn't r-o-l-e playing.

    WOTC needs to get over themselves. Seriously. Does anyone else remember the press release circa 1995 that said, "We don't want to be the biggest game company in the world."

    It also seemed to me that even though the new convention hall is bigger now, the Con itself was smaller than three years ago.

    Comment Quickies:

    • New Star Wars RPG to be based on D20 system/D&D rules
    • Decipher [decipher.com] announced the CCG license to LOTR [lordoftherings.net]
    • The little blond running around in the chainmail bikini on Saturday was stunning
    • Even I could tell the smell was coming from the anime corner.
    • Rainbow-headed goths? The apocalypse is upon us.
    • I know the guy in the picture with the Mystery Machine.

    GenCon was still fun, but not as fun as it had been




    Dracos
    "Integer: a number that represents any valid floating-point value"
  • It sucked.
    Maybe I'm just a crotchety old man (at 20), but I remember when the gaming world wasn't summed up by the dark empire of the west. Magic:the Gathering, and Wizards of the Coast buying TSR ruined the gaming world. It used to be the case where TSR(D&D), FASA(Shadowrun/Battletech), White Wolf(Vampire/Werewolf/Mage/Wraith/Changling), Palladium(Rifts/Heroes Unlimited), Steve Jackson(GURPS/In Nomine), and West End(Star Wars) slowly revolved around each other in stately pace, releasing games that most people bought. Smaller companies hung around too, like Atlas and CheapAss. They released quality games that could compete on equal terms released by the big boys. Then Wizards of the Coast(WotC) came along with Magic. Gaming became the domain of creepy little kids whose parents could afford really expensive cards. Then, so they could keep the kids addicted to their products, WotC "saved" TSR by buying them out. D&D was now part of the WotC domain. Geek kids could now be hooked from about 6 or 7 until they died, to WotC products. Then Pokemon came out, adding even more people to their consumer base. Awful management on the part of West End Games resulted in them dying a slow, painful death. Lucas recently releaved the spasming corpse that was West End of the lucrative Star Wars license, and rewarded it to (guess who?) WotC. Now WotC owns two of the five major lines that used to drive the gaming world. The same company that now produces wrestling and baseball Collectable Card Games is making design decisions on one of the oldest gaming lines and on the RPG set in a place a long time ago and far far away. (sigh) And that's not all! An even greater evil has recently befallen the gaming world. WotC was bought out by Hasbro, Inc. As Wizards has done with TSR (those of you who bought 3rd Ed., check your books for a TSR logo or mention. You won't find one.), so Hasbro is planning to do with WotC, or so I'm told. Yes, that's right. D&D will soon by produced by Hasbro. Yuck.

    For the sake of honesty, I must confess that I'm part of a small gaming company [sanchogames.com], so I take these things kind of personal. But Jeez! This years Con was HALF the size of the 98' con. The Wizards Castle was HUGE! You know why? To cover up the fact that there were *very* few small companies there. Those who came rocked, natch, but still. Part of that might have had something to do with the now outrageous prices charged by Andon Unlimited (Guess who owns them?), the company that organizes Gen Con and Origins. Atlas Games [atlas-games.com] and Steve Jackson Games [sjgames.com] now share a booth because of the outrageous prices. These companies are middle sized fish in this particular pond! If they have to share a booth, what are small businesses supposed to do? So yeah, that's my opinion.

  • I haven't been to a convention even REMOTELY like this since I was a teenager and went to a local gaming/comic convention. It was great to be in a huge place full of people who were into stuff that I was but at the same time I couldn't help wondering just how dangerous this was considering how wierd they all must (also) be! :)

    --8<--

  • It's on FoxKids - the openning has been redone w/out the intro narrative, be sure to check local listings for times.
    In Akron,OH it's on Tu-We-Th at 6am...

  • Finally (Score:3)

    by StanSmith ( 100966 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:01PM (#839192) Homepage
    Now this is news for nerds. Censorship schmensorship.

    Martin

  • Nothing back from GenCon regarding the new D&D movie coming out in the next few months? I'd say *THAT* was one of the best things to come out of there.. For those interested, check out www.dndmovie.com [dndmovie.com].

  • Interesting (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    looks like Slashdot is "displaying" new stories to logged in users maybe 2 or 3 minutes prior to displaying them to non-logged in users. Me guesses to cut down on the Frist pSots.

  • The REAL URL (Score:3)

    by apirkle ( 40268 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:08PM (#839195)
    The site is really at sharkyEXTREME.com (not sharkygames)

    You want to be http://www.sharkyextr eme.com/games/columns/beatdown_gencon2k/ [sharkyextreme.com] - there.

    1. Obese Woman Wears Chainmail Bikini: Cutting quite the fetching figure was Lady Emory of Teasdile Dale, a 300-lb. pointy eared woman who optimistically donned a chainmail bikini for the Gen Con show. She reported that she felt quite flattered by the open stares from patrons.

    Well that's in my Top 10 Things I Hope I Never See.

    One can only imagine.

    *shudder*

  • Slashdotted after a measley 5 minutes? (I can't get the URL)

    They must be running IIS! {grin}

  • The game itself has gotten quite predictable. I mean, every few months, they release a new set. 6th was the latest big announcement. Not much more to it then that..

  • Did anyone else here glue themselves to the old D&D cartoon when they where kids? I would -love- to get that movie collection on DVD. :)

    I wonder if any TV networks still cary it... oh well. :)

    Memories......




    --------------------
  • I had forgotten about that already, tragic image as it was.. Thanks for reminding me, JUST what I needed.. ;-P

  • Failed his journalism roll. - 500 XP (Score:5)

    by darkbabbit ( 172002 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:14PM (#839201)
    Not a very accurate description of GenCon. Gaming Outpost (www.gamingoutpost.com/) and WoTC's Virtual Gencon (www.wizards.com) have much better highlights of the con.

    I only saw 2 women in chainmail bikinis and both of them were real good looking.

    Gencon also smelled better than the average Anime ,SF, or comicbook con this year.
  • It's just as interesting to some as reports on LinuxWorld or any other major convention. It's news for *NERDS*, not computer geeks.. ;-P Granted, it's usually hand and hand, so.. ;-P
  • They're bringing it back! I think it was on the cartoon network.. I'll look into it and post back..
  • So would you enjoy an RPG where you got the be an angel or a prophet or a messiah, and I got to be a demon, a feminist, a socialist, or a guy who reads Harry Potter?

    Or maybe that's just bad science.
  • +1 Informative.
    ----------
  • Anybody remember the kickass game Crossbows and Catapults? Same concept but it was all plastic, you get a bunch of plastic discs to fling at each others castles. A whole lot of fun, they had all kinds of silly addon weaponry like a battering ram (which would lay a huge path of destruction when it actually worked), a silly chip flinging dragon, catapult towers, and the super silly chip flinging giant and minotaur set.

    Ahh, the good old days. :)

  • Begin rambling:
    My wife and I have a booth in the art show every year. this year, there seemed to be a proliferation of kids (>20 yrs)wearing camoflauge with parts of motherboards and modems taped all over them. Don't know if it was shadowrun or what... looked stupid. the smell was better this year. New games looked pretty cool... Scooby Doo meets Magic:the gathering. sold a lot of stuff.
    End Rambling
  • You should take time to thank all the Gen Con volunteers.

    Why?

    • Because we packed your bags of Star Wars shit for the stupid passport game (350 of them, 6 hours straight. "Knife goes in, Darth Maul figurine comes out...").
    • Because we put the pretzels out on the table at the Bootlegger's Ball (Do you know how annoying drunk gamers are?!).
    • Because we made sure your stuff didn't get lost at the art show (at least I didn't).
    • Made sure your events were open (or tell you "I'm sorry, that was yesterday").
    • Made sure the 500 players handbooks were in place and on display Thursday.
    And that's just what my 8 friends and I did.

  • While I've got nothing against D&D, I really don't like how they're timing this whole revival thing just in time to have the D&D movie steal the fire from the first Lord of the Rings movie. There's real hardcore fantasy for you.
  • (Oh yes, I also got in a debate over whether the halfling female or gnomish female (As depicted in the 3rd ed. phb) would be better to have sex with. I, of course, chose the gnome. And stand by (above?) my decision. So take my opinion on women with 1cp worth of salt.)
  • This rule isn't in second edition, I'm pretty sure. I know it's not in third. I don't even think it's in first. You must have the original dungeons and dragons books.
  • You also said you'ld choose the dwarf female before the halfling female. So, i'd say that's worthy of about a truckload more of salt.
    ---
  • The halfling female is just really damned ugly.
  • Yeah, that site sucks. It just so happens I've been sort of surveying the (non-corp) RPG pages around the web, and this one [rpgplanet.com] sucks less. Deals with both kinds of RPGs (electronic and tabletop), news/rumors from all over, pretty nice. It hosts the best site around for specific information on the new D&D3E books, Eric Noah's [rpgplanet.com].

    If you're into White Wolf's [white-wolf.com] products (Mage, Vampire, Werewolf), their own site's pretty good, and Ex Libris Nocturnis [nocturnis.net] isn't bad, either.

    RPGnet [rpg.net] is sort of the USA Today of the industry. You know, slick and dumb. They do have a rather nice habit of posting more than one review per book, though, so you get to see multiple perspectives, even if their writers are high schoolers.

    -jpowers
  • Piman's right - a lot of people worked really hard at GenCon doing tedious things like guarding wrestlers, and being blamed for the slowness of Windows 2000. Some of us even got to keep drunk gamers away from good-smelling food.
  • They wouldn't say how many (being owned by Hasbro now, and being publicly traded), but I do know they had 3,900 in pre-orders from pre-registration.
  • I'm astounded at the negativism of this reporter... but one tends to see whatever one goes in expecting to see.

    I was assisting a charitable Jail and Bail program for Strive Media Institute [strivemediainstitute.com], helped by the Klingon Assault Group [kag.org], and the convention atmosphere was remarkably upbeat, cooperative, and rich with humor. And while I didn't spot the obese woman clad in chain mail, there was an oriental woman in a slit dress whose image is pleasantly burned onto the retinas of many attendants.

    STAR TREK GAMES
    When FASA stopped producing the Star Trek Role Play Game, many felt abandoned. Many new Star Trek games, both RPGs and starship combat simulations, are now being produced by Last Unicorn Games [lastunicorngames.com]... which it turns out was just bought up by the big ol' Wizards of the Coast [wizards.com]. Live demonstrations of their RED ALERT ship combat gave a nice taste of a rather fast-paced tactical game.

    When a reporter focuses on 'smelly teens' and he wigs out over costumed attendants, it seems he lacks a sense of adult fantasy and imagination. The T-Rex sized dragon skeleton and Wizards castle are just the beginning for a lengthy list of amazing production values.

  • Re:A GM's Report of GenCOn (Score:3)

    by Zulfiya ( 44302 ) on Tuesday August 22, 2000 @04:11AM (#839218) Homepage
    It might be a bit different for GMs, but I had no major problems.

    It is, in fact, different for GMs. That is, for tabletop GM's. Last year, we also had issues with card players being invited to cut in front of tabletop players in the registration line, as well. They also scheduled RPGs at the same table at the same time (this year) and moved Chaosium's area without notice. It's a lot of little things that add up.

    The issue with the time cards is that it works well enough for shift-based work, in areas where there are managers (like the tournaments rooms, the dealer's room, etc), but not so well for the gaming rooms, where you only ever see the redshirts running by.

  • The Con has been over for over a week and this is the first story?? Did everyone take their badges off yet??

    You failed to mention Starship Troopers also by Avalon Hill. Maybe you were too distracted by Squad Leader. It seemed to move much better than SL but still seemed kinda lame.

    And what ever happened to the BattleTech simulators?? Where was Yip^6?? Why was there only one game of Chill in the entire catalog?

    And to whoever made the comment that the smell was better this year only has to wait for 2003 when Hasbro moves the Con to Indianapolis.


    Viv
    -----------
  • ... quick game of Squad Leader?

    I love that line.

  • "I immediatly wonder where one
    gets a chainmail bikini sized for a 300 pound woman and whether the artisan was properly compensated for the incurred RSI."

    And I quote, from the sidebar on the top-right corner of page 105 of the D&D 3rd edition Player's Handbook:

    "The information on Table 7-5: Armor is for Medium-size creatures... Armor for Large characters costs double and weighs twice as much, and for Huge creatures it costs quadruple and weighs five times as much. Armor for even larger creatures must be specially made and has no standard price or weight."

  • Hmm - I would have to say WOTC never will be the biggest game company in the world since they were swallowed up by Hasbro.

    3rd Edition DnD - I disbelieve your illusion and cast magic missile at your head. Seriously, tho, some of the best role-playing I ever experienced was when I was a serious Rolemaster fan and had to be 'degraded' into playing D&D because nobody wanted to play anything else. I played a thief who, on a lark, spent all his options in ventriloquism and played a split personality with my shortsword. Oddly, everyone else in the game picked unusual skills and characters as well, which made for a very interesting party. Some of the other characters in the game included a half ogre who was so dumb he had to make rolls to see if he could remember if you were a friend or foe (among other things - often very funny), a dwarf who lived for battle and often needed to be talked out of charging into no-win situations (one which nearly got my character killed when our arguement got a little too heated and drew the attention of the enemy. It was a difficult arguement, too, because my sword was on his side...), a mage who specialized in cantrips and others I don't remember so well. I guess my point is anything can be role-played, so don't judge the people by the system.

    Wow - rainbow-headed goths! I was really starting to get depressed about the state of the whole goth thing.

    I rode in the Mystery Machine. About 12 years ago (really!). Maybe not the same one, tho.

    Blondes in chainmail bikinis...yawn... what else is new? I worked Ren fest in a booth with two of 'em a few years back (1 who usually only wore chain mail... and not much at that!). The ones I remember from GenCon were much more modest. Then again, a lot could have changed in the 10 years since I went last :)

    Star Wars RPG is back?!? That can only mean Space Opera and Spawn of Fashan can't be far behind! And even Star Frontiers, Gamma World, and 007! nah.

  • Re:Maybe it's just me... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Well the report was biased toward the Computer Game part of the con since it WAS for a Computer Game website. :) The CCG's had a large hall on the first floor of the Convention Center right next to the regestration lines it was usualy fairly full of gamers of all ages playing a wide variaty of CCGs. The miniture gamers had the large hall on the 3rd floor right next to the HUGE dealer's hall. The RPG events where spread throughout the convention center in numorous smaller rooms as well as in the older Arena building. Seminars where held in two diffent Hotels next to the con to make room for the ten or so seminars going on at any one time. So no the Con was not focused on Computer games, just the report linked to. :)
  • Me guesses to cut down on the Frist pSots.


    Bzzzt! Try again. Logged in users get dynamically generated story lists (which are up-to-the-minute), while non-logged in users get a cached page that updates every so often.

  • The problem is that for the past 3-4 years it is basically a different group of people in charge of the con each year. First TSR in it's death throws, then Andon, then WOTC disbands Andon, etc.

    When it was purely a TSR show they had their own problems, but at least the problems, and the staff, were the same every year.

    The biggest change staff wise is that TSR's headquarters are no longer a 30 minute drive away. TSR basically shut down during Gen COn and 90% of their employees worked the con. WOTC now relies on mostly vonluteers and temp services. Most of these folks haven't worked the con year after year and thus are not up to speed on how things are and should be.
  • I stopped her outside and took several digital pics of her :) Several others were pretty impressive, too.
  • I've been going since 1993...

    I just got really bored with it last year, and I blame it all on WOTC. I can only hate them so much though, because Mike Selinker is a god to me.

    The National Security Decision Making game is the best thing in the world, for anyone who hasn't discovered it.

    If you're seriously starting another gaming company, you're welcome to email me. I profited on an invisible booth at GenCon in 1999, I've run two conventions myself, and my GM has run 2 more. I've helped debug Kenzer and Companies games and worked for them: I'm credited in Fairy Meat (along with everyone else in my group, we all helped write it)

    And 2 years ago I got Shane Hensley (PEG) quite drunk just a few hours before their company planning meeting. But I've learned he was probably drunk already :)

    And if anyone ever got really mad because Chthutlutulululu hit them in the head in the Hyatt Atrium, blame me.

    Was there still a Succubus club?

    I'm definitely going to go the last year it is in Milwaukee, and I'm going to make it seem just that much more of a letdown when they move it to nowhere.
  • The site is already slashdotted... anyone got a copy?

    -Earthling
  • Hey no problem. Anytime. :)

  • natural 20? (Score:3)

    by Gothmolly ( 148874 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:21PM (#839230)
    But if he rolls a natural 20, to whom does he do double damage???
  • ...but I didn't see a single mention of a collectible card game in that article. I pray it's because parents kept their 8 year-old kids from flooding the place and playing MTG on the floors (and tables AND halls AND in bathrooms) like they were when I went in 1996. Perhaps the CCG fad has finally officially died. But then I wouldn't have expected anything else after WoTC began focusing on AD&D after they bought it. Seems to me that the big focus on GenCon was all computers and how paper games are becoming electronic. Does that make them more or less of a geek for playing their games on computers?
  • That report wasn't really news. It was more of a slam on Gamers everywhere. I went to Gencon and had a blast. Not only is there every time of gaming going on 24 hours a day, but it's also where you can preview the newest projects coming out or just released. Several highlights not referenced in the article: the D&D movie preview: I got to see the preview and it seriously rocked. Several of the actors were there and also very psyched about the movie. Dune RPG: This RPG system is not available anywhere but Gencon, and rumor has it that it's not going to be available anywhere else. I believe they are going to be updating it with a new mechanics for later in the year. So, if you wanted to play Dune and you weren't at Gencon, tough luck. The Star Trek FPS was awesome! I kept getting fragged but I didn't care. Come on, admit it, you've always wanted to shoot aliens with your phaser... and that Mr. Spock needs a good smackdown! As for the smelly gamers and fat women in chain mail -- forget it. I didn't see anything remotely like that. I did see a very large portion of Gen Y's dressed in black and skulking around the Hyatt, pretending to be vampires. That was amusing to watch. Rani
  • Did he roll a natural 20 or not?

    All that buildup, and the question never even
    gets answered! What a ripoff!
  • This is news for nerds.
    I am glad to see this article posted here, because a nerds life is more then CPU cycles and linux.
  • A has nothing to do with B nor C. D&D3 has been in the works for 2 years. They have tried to produce the D&D movie for the last 10 years. And the Lord of the Rings movies has been in the works for a long time. Maybe the 'time has come' for all these things to happen at once. Though for the most part, it is pure happenstance.
  • this is why I stopped going to those things. Worse still were the 300 pound GUYS wearing mail bikinis - (shudder!)

    if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
  • Which really annoyed the person in our campaign who plays a dwarven female :) She's keeping her beard, last I heard.
  • ?Er. Pardon my ignorance, but what is a koshigatana?

    Koshigatana are Japanese twin swords. Generally a little shorter and rather wider than a wakizashi, they are used for trapping parries, redirections, and blocks as well as the typical kenjutsu slashing attacks.

    There's no way a koshigatana wielder can trade blows straight up with someone with a full size weapon, or go for a single crippling stroke -- the key to their use is extreme speed and dexterity to deflect blows while giving the opponent the death of a thousand cuts. In other words, upper body strength is not that relevant, which is why this a weapon a geisha girl ("kunoichi", as "kunoichijutsu" is the technical term for female ninjutsu) can take out armored samurai with.

    At this point, I'm sure, all the EverQuest fanboys are getting ready to claim I don't know what I'm talking about and that a koshigatana is a one-handed piercing weapon because their databases say so. Well, yes, anything small and pointy can be used as that, but that is historically inaccurate and stupid besides. It is a two-handed weapon, one in each hand, and to model combat with it properly in an RPG you should give the wielder a full parry defensive bonus plus a gladius/cutlass caliber slashing attack each round, or no defensive bonus and two separate attacks, with none of whatever penalties usually apply for using a weapon in each hand. However, since speed and dexterity are so important, if the wielder has any armor heavier than a leather vest, none of this applies -- then they just have a rather light shortsword in each hand :)

    In European terms I suppose koshigatana style would be closest to the swordbreaker/rapier combo used by Renaissance-era thiefcatchers, but with the intent to leave the target looking like they were worked over with straight razors, not just disarmed, and swordbreakers are dependent on the wielder having comparable arm strength to their attacker to work well. As koshigatanas are meant to parry and deflect rather than trap or block, raw strength is much less important. A chick weapon, in other words. Which brings us back to where we started :)
  • As for my (perhaps sexist) opinion, I think female warriors could be effective in combat, but their weapon of choice probably wouldn't be any of the heavier hand-to-hand weapons.

    You should go through the Norse sagas to find some striking counterexamples. However, Teutonic women are a special case, as any of you who have visited Nordic countries probably know already :)

    Valkryies aside, effective women warriors have historically been archers, as any reasonably strong woman can pull a bow of the rather pathetic draws that historical bows were capable of handling. Also, being a good archer requires a lot more training and discipline than a footsoldier while being less individually glorious, which traits are more often to be found acceptable by women than macho male warriors, oddly enough :) The Amazons were foot archers, as much as what Amazons actually were can be pulled out of the myths; many of the Central Asian steppe tribes used women (and children) as horse archers; Chinese had women crossbow regiments; it seems the Incans had women sling corps, but we don't really know enough about them to be sure of that. Et cetera.
  • because the masses are where the money is.
  • Renfaire, shmenfaire. For viewing women in chainmail and bunny-fur bikinis, go to Pennsic [pennsic.org] and check out the Tuchux encampment and/or the "classic" swimming hole. They may not be playing the same game as the rest of the SCA, but you've got to admit that the occasional gal running around in a bunny-fur bikini is an essential part of the Pennsic experience. Remember, it's not too early to pre-register for Pennsic XXX :-)
    "The axiom 'An honest man has nothing to fear from the police'

  • I pre-registered for GenCon, and spent all four days there. I also spent about two thirds of my total time at the Con volunteering at the front Help Desk.

    I can understand and appreciate all the complaints and problems people had with this years GenCon. Events were double booked into rooms, moved, and rescheduled... often without telling the person who was running the event! Game Masters and other exhibitors were given no extra help at all, in large part because there was no extra help to give. Changes and reschedulings were done ad-hoc, with no central reporting at all. The only vaguely reliable method for determining what was going on where was the Event Team walkie talkies.

    Another immense problem was housing. There was NO documentation on the availability of transportation to the various hotels. To compound matters, the housing situation was fubar, with people getting shuffled left and right, people who were promised housing that was not provided... the list is endless.

    Events were another problem. On the second day, the event database started hosing itself... it got corrupted, and I don't know what they did to fix it, but I wouldn't be surprised if they had to restore from an earlier backup. I talked for a while with a couple who had had all their events simply 'lost'... listed nowhere, and with no method available to announce unlisted events.

    Overall, this years GenCon was a disorganized mess. The GenCon webpage was a discrace, with poor information, and complete lack of updates. I'm hoping they do better next year... I still had fun, but the people who do all the work... the exhibitors, the game masters, etc... are being royally screwed over. Hell... volunteers were treated better than the people who make the Con happen... I was able to get my ticket refund Saturday afternoon.

    I had fun. I enjoyed it, and so did most of the people who went there. But WotC is very quickly alienating the people who create the content that brings people back every year. Not smart.

    Raven




    And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

  • One word: (Score:4)

    by generic-man ( 33649 ) on Monday August 21, 2000 @12:24PM (#839243) Homepage Journal
    Damn. [gamingoutpost.com] I gotta start going to these conventions.
  • From the end of the article, under "Best of Show:"
    The "game" in question involves a series of wooden blocks stacked to look like battlements. Small soldiers are optional and can be arranged any way on these blocks you see fit. Star Wars figures can be used to give it a "futuristic" theme. Walk back 10 paces and man a small, wooden, ingeniously crafted catapult...

    Well, tanj. I read that while downloading the latest AllegroHack [pinn.net] binary. I came this close (scrunches up fingers real small) to just turning off the computer right there and going to get my blocks out of the attic and my legomen from the closet. I mean, really, who needs HP and MP snd Str and Int and Exp Pts and all that when you can just destroy stuff with reckless abandon (while maintaining that fantasy setting)?
    I think I need to go lie down...
    -J

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