GenCon 2009 thread

[DeJaVu]

Hey there people!

In this thread I'll post some thoughts and what not on GenCon as it goes on, and I welcome anyone else to do the same. Day 0 went just fine, and I really love how Battletech and Shadowrun's presence have stepped up at the con. From being tucked away in a small booth a few years ago to having huge banners right in front of the main entrances is a very welcome change. I'll be eager to see how the crowds react to the new booth.

I was also thrilled to see print copies of Battlerun at the booth, with the special print-only short story--the one where I finally put in enough description to satisfy Loren.

There's other cool things at the booth that I'll have to inspect, but one of the coolest I saw today was the Eclipse Phase rulebook. I could have stared at it for a while, but then I would have drooled, and it wasn't my copy that I was holding, and I didn't want to make the owner mad.

So I got to see a number of people (and if you're someone from the boards, be sure to remind me of your online handle if you run into me!), play a round of Formula D that was won by Bryn Bills, and feel a little harried in the setup phase even though nothing has actually started yet. We're off to a good start!

Jason H.

Добавлено спустя 22 секунды:

Okay, first the bad news—due to the fact that I didn’t bring a cable for my camera, I won’t have pictures until I can get some place where I can download pictures from my SIM card. But I will do my best to describe and hope you can hold out for pictures.

Okay, the definite highlight of the day came at 10 AM. The Catalyst booth is in a prime location, right in front of the main entrance where the opening ceremonies were held, so when the doors opened there was a throng of con-goers looking eagerly ahead (some rhythmically clapping) and waiting for permission to launch themselves at what they saw. They gaped for a few moments, then they charged, and it was beautiful. Many of them jumped in line to snag the stuff that was there in very limited quantities, and at some points the line made a complete circle all the way around the tables at the center of the booth space. After attempting to help a little with the Balance of Power demos (which were held on a large, beautiful wooden table from Geek Chic), I was privileged to do line management. (At one point I was standing at the end of the line talking to Kevin Killiany and someone in line said “Look! Writers have been reduced to line management!” and I responded that we were honored to have the chance to do line management.)

So anyway, I got to spend a fair amount of time with Balance of Power and Leviathans. I still need some time to get my head around BoP’s subtleties, but I generally take that as a good challenge. Leviathans is beautiful, and listening in on the demos wasn’t always easy due to the crowds around the table. I’ll keep watching when I can over the weekend—with the relatively slow, lumbering speed of the boats, it will be interesting to see if people try to maneuver around each other or if they just say “What the hell” and plunge in for a slugfest.

Besides Catalyst games, I played a game called Arcane Legions that promised simple and easy large-scale combat. It largely delivered on that, but that didn’t make it entirely successful. It many ways it was too Risk-like—the hot hand with the dice has an enormous advantage. Additionally, the armies have very different capabilities—the one my son was playing had great archers, and I had very little ranged weaponry. And I loved ranged weapons! Give me range and speed and I’m a happy man. So while the dice gave me an early lead, the fact that my son could drop arrows on my while I was getting into position helped him finish me off. He enjoyed it, but I don’t think it’ll be a pickup for me this year. And not just because he beat me.

Other than that, there was lots of chat with friends and such, some time in the art show, and a fair amount of standing up. Tomorrow there will be the Battletech seminar, the ENnies and all sorts of other fun.

Jason H.

[Siberian-troll]

Actually, for the 25th anniversary we did a montage of 3 highly memorable scenes from canon literature:

(3025) Raid on Sian
(3050) Luthien
(3075) Stone's Lament raid on WoB PoW camp

[DeJaVu]

Quick update: Fox-59's news report on GenCon had several nice shots of the Catalyst booth (including the giant Catalyst sign), and if you looked fast you could see Vairdic!

Jason H.

[Stan]

Блог с фотками:

http://www.scrapyardarmory.com/2009/08/14/gencon-2009-day-1/

Презентационная модель пластиковой миньки:



И еще, Досье Старкорпс уже в продаже!!! Бумажная версия вышла раньше pdf!

[Hobbit]

In related news: Catalyst won three ENnies tonight. One for the BC Anthology, one for the CthuluTech Cover and one for Best Supplemental for CthuluTech also.

Добавлено спустя 6 часов 59 минут 58 секунд:

Day 2:

The days are getting busier, which is expected and not entirely a bad thing. We had the Battletech seminar today, and the fans asked the three questions most likely to make someone on the panel squirm: 1. What’s the deal with the whole Unseen/Reseen/Unreseen thing? 2. Where’s that House Liao Proliferation Cycle story? 3. Um, novels? Since none of those questions was directed at me, I enjoyed watching the squirming by others. (Answers: 1. Unexpected stuff sucks, but don’t give up hope—be ready, someday, for the Unseen/Reseen/Unreseen/Re-reseen! 2. As different odd things happened in the course of the year, something had to give, and it was the novels rather than the game product, in the interest of keeping the game moving ahead. Look for books in early 2010. 3. There once was a lovely House Liao proliferation story that was brutally murdered in continuity. Jason Schmetzer, who gave birth to that particular version, is building up his intestinal fortitude for another go at it.)

The real star of the seminar was the new, more detailed plastic mini that was on display—it was the source of much oohing and aahing. One of the coolest thing about the planned new minis is that the sizes of the ‘Mechs will be more accurate in relation to each other—an Assault ‘Mech will have a good height advantage on a Light. There are 500 of the new Loki minis available at the con, and I expect them to be snatched up. (I still don’t have pictures, but others seem to have taken care of that).

The other thing I liked from the seminar was the OmniMap—one game-board like group of hexes, then a bunch of other sturdy pieces that display different sorts of terrain you can place on the basic board. These pieces are reversible, so in a compact box you can have a huge number of different terrain options. Good looking and functional—that’s a combination I like.

Later in the day I attended the ENnies, and while Battlerun sadly didn’t win, seeing it listed as a nominee was an honor and also hilarious. CthuluTech managed to pull in two awards (Best Cover Art and Best Supplement), and in an announcement that left both Randall and me quite shocked, Battletech: The Corps pulled in the gold for Best Regalia! Randall did a fine job on the acceptance speech, being entertaining rather than reading through a list of names, and I was pleased he got to use the line he thought up for the occasion (“I’ve been up here twice before for the Best Free Product award—it’s nice to win for a product people actually paid for.”) Kevin Killiany and I jumped in with him on the photos of the winners, both to represent all the great writers who contributed to that book and to further inflate our already massive egos.

In non-Catalyst news, I demoed a pretty good game called Elfball, which is kind of a rugby game with miniatures. It was fun, though there was no real fantasy element to the game, despite the name—you could use miniatures of rugby players and it would play the same. Though there may be advanced rules that bring more of a fantasy element into it. My son’s reaction was predictable, as he has the same reaction to all the games we demo (“We should buy that!”)

As busy as yesterday was, today should be even crazier—up to three seminars to attend, Iron Writer Battletech, a late night freelancers meeting, and who knows what else. I slept decently, though, so I’m ready!

Jason H.

P.S. Almost forgot to mention the sculpted resin Leviathans model Randall was carrying with him. It’s one thing to have a beautiful model that you look at and say “Oh, I have to play that game.” It’s another to have a model that makes you say “I’m going to hug this to my chest all day and night and never let it go.” This model does both.

- BattleTech Seminar

There was a lot to discuss in the seminar. We started slightly late due to a room change and once we did start the panel took up the majority of the time discussing what was going on past, present, and future for BattleTech. Here are some of the notes I took as the seminar unfolded.

* The 25th Anniversary Box Set will be reshuffled due to the unseen licensing issue.
* New Jihad Hot Spots and TROs are in the pipeline.
* The RPG: Time of War is a whole 6 pages from completion.
* Jihad Turning Points: Hesperus II is next.
* Mock-ups were available to show what the MapPacks will look like. They will also include scenarios as part of the pack.
* Plastic ‘Mech Packs are indeed on the way. A sample Hellbringer (Loki) was on hand for purchase ($10).

The big news of course was the plastic ‘Mechs. From the seminar we know the following facts.

* High Impact Plastic.
* Slide Mold.
* Zero Shrinkage and no mold degradation during production.
* Based on CAD drawing so details are very accurate.
* They are being produced by a company called Ghost Studio? (I may have heard that wrong as I cannot find an online reference for such a company, I will try to confirm on Day 3)
* To be released as ‘Mech Lance Packs and are NOT designed with the intent of replacing metal miniatures.

[Diamond]

По просьбе Клика выкладываю перевод первого поста топика.

Всем привет!

В этом треде я буду писать свои мысли и всё такое прочее по поводу того, как проходит GenCon, и было бы неплохо, если кто-нибудь ещё составит мне компанию. День 0 прошел просто замечательно. Мне по-настоящему понравилось то, как усилилось присутствие BattleTech и ShadowRun на конвенте: раньше это был маленький стенд где-то там, теперь это большие баннеры прямо у главного входа. Жду-не дождусь посмотреть, как народ отреагирует на наш новый стенд.

Ещё я был очень рад увидеть на нашем стенде печатные копии Battlerun [помните первоапрельскую поместь BT и ShR? - прим. перев.]. В комплекте шла эксклюзивная версия вступительного рассказа - я её отредактировал, добавив туда достаточно описаний, чтобы Лорен был доволен.

На нашем стенде есть ещё некоторые прикольные штуковины, которые я хотел бы изучить по-внимательнее, но самая клёвая из них - это книга правил Eclipse Phase. Я мог бы смотреть на неё долго, но она практически вводит меня в ступор; книга не моя, и я не хочу, чтобы её хозяин беспокоился по этому поводу.

Я увиделся с кучей разных людей (если вы крутитесь на форумах - обязательно напомните мне свой никнейм при встрече), сыграл один раз в Formula D (победил Брин Биллз [по тексту не установить пол; если вдруг окажется, что это жена Рендалла - извините - прим. перев.]), и чувствую себя очень взвознованным перед "фазой расстановки", хотя у нас тут ещё ничего не началось. Хорошенькое начало обещается!

-----

Ладно, вот вам первые плохие новости: я забыл кабель от камеры, поэтому фоток не будет до тех пор, пока я не найду место, где смогу слить фотки с карты памяти. Но я постараюсь всё пересказать и надеюсь, что вы способны дождаться картинок.

Определенно важное событие произошло в 10 утра. Стенд CGL - на престижном месте, прямо перед главным ходом, где проходила церемония открытия. Поэтому, когда двери открылись, из них хлынула толпа фанатов, жадно смотрящих вперёд (некоторые из них поддерживали ритм хлопками в ладоши) и жаждущих возможности наконец посмотреть, что для них заготовлено. Они на какое-то время застыли, а потом рванули вперёд, и это было прекрасно. Они впрыгивали в очередь, чтобы ухватить эксклюзивные экземпляры. В какой-то момент очередь образовала полный круг вокруг стендов в центре зала. После того, как я немного подсобил с организацией демонстрационной игры по Balance of Power (она проходила на замечательном деревянном столе от Geek Chic), мне была предоставлена привилегия надзора за очередью. (В какой-то момент меня застали разговаривающим с Кевино Киллиани, и кто-то сказал: "Смотрите! Писателей понизили до менеджеров по очередям!", а я ответил, что нам была предоставлена большая честь).

Как бы то ни было, я провёл достаточно времени над Balance of Power и Leviathans. На то, чтобы вникнуть в тонкости Balance of Power, мне потребуется ещё некоторое время, но в целом мне понравилось. Leviathans прекрасны, иногда во время демо было трудно что-либо расслышать, поскольку вокруг было очень много народу. Посмотрим, как оно пойдёт - относительная скорость кораблей весьма мала, и не совсем понятно, будут ли игроки пытаться как-то маневрировать, или пошлют всё к чертям и ломанутся в мясорубку.

Помимо игр от CGL, я также поиграл в Arcane Legions - игрушку, авторы которой анонсировали простой и быстрый крупномасштабный бой. Авторы всё время упирали на это, но не сказал бы, что она была очень успешной. Очень напоминала Risk: везение на кубах давало огромное преимущество. Кроме этого, возможности армий были мало сопоставимы: в армии, за которую играл мой сыл, были отличные лучники, а в моей практически не было дальнобойного вооружения. А я люблю бой на дальней дистанции! Дайте мне дальнобойное оружие и скорость, и я счастлив. Поэтому, хотя мне и подфартило с кубами в начале, тот факт, что пока я полз до подходящей позиции, мой сын мог меня спокойно обстреливать, решил исход боя. Сыну понравилось, а я, похоже, вряд ли куплю Arcane Legions в этом году. И не только из-за того, что мой сын у меня выиграл.

Помимо этого, было очень много встреч с друзьями и всего такого прочего, арт-шоу и много-много времени на ногах. Завтра будет семинар по BattleTech, награды и ещё много всего интересного.

[Stan]

Questions
• 1. What about Historical: Operation Klondike?
⁃ It is being worked on and WILL come out.
• 2. Who owns the Battletech IP?
⁃ Topps still owns it, minus electronic game rights which lie with Microsoft. VWE has minor rights which they decided not to bog the seminar down with.
• 3. Will the Bloodname list include Wolverines?
⁃ Yes.
• 4. How are the plastic mechs going to be sold?
⁃ "For money." Here at the show, they'll be booth available, in parts. The 900 available this weekend are it until they figure out the question. They're not going to do anything that would gut IWM.
• 5. Are the plastics new sculpts?
⁃ Because of what they are, plastic, they'll be new.
• 6. Will the Founders Trilogy and Proliferation: House Liao come out?
⁃ When Randall finishes the last two Founders Trilogy books. The Proliferation is still on the radar. They will be, guaranteed, out in the next 12 months.
• 7. The "12 un/re/unseen." What's up?
⁃ Loren will NOT rest until they're all back. The company is working with Catalyst. They do have their own legal issues to resolve first.
• 8. What will the Grand Strategic Game be based on?
⁃ It will be based on ISiF, but torn down and rebuilt.
• 9. When will the novels be released?
⁃ They had hoped to have some for GenCon. The novels are quoted for the first of the year. They'll probably be all branded under Battletech.

[ShadowBlade]

Эм, я правильно понимаю, что нас ожидают совершенно новые пластиковые модели?

[Siberian-troll]

Известные факты:
* Единственная известная/виденная "новая" пластиковая минька это "Локи".
* Цена на ГенКоне 10 баксов, сколько будет стоит конечный блистер неизвестно
* Будет вместе с подставками.
* Пластик высокопрочный.
* Разъемная форма (как у моделей самолетов)
* Нулевая усадка и никакой эрозии форм.
* Сделано по 3D моделям, хорошая проработка деталей.
* Кажется, они производятся компанией, называющейся Ghost Studio?
* Предназначены для продажи коробками с лэнсами а НЕ ДЛЯ ЗАМЕНЫ металлических минек.
* Более точны в масштабе (размер выдерживается)
* Вариаций конфигураций в итоговых блистерах будет больше.

[Leonid]

Симпотично. Полагаю, без грузика в ноги или подставку будет не обойтись.

[Siberian-troll]

Симпотично. Полагаю, без грузика в ноги или подставку будет не обойтись.

Исходя из личного опыта *wink* необязательно.
Можно, впрочем, прикупить металлических подставок.

[DeJaVu]

Day After:

Sorry to have not posted until now, but the last few days were, um, yeah. Meetings, seminars, meetings, Iron Writer, a wee bit of sleep, and assorted stuff that kept me away from the internet. But much of it was fun, especially Iron Writer, where I took up the challenge to type with my toe and my nose, and Ken and I threw paper at each other, and my wife got a table of ‘Mech jockeys to yell in the middle of the competition (thanks, guys!). There was also a fire alarm, but that bit of obnoxiousness at least was not my doing.

I wish I had more news to report—it seems there should be more based on the amount of time I spent running around, but nothing is coming to mind. Bought a few games, but they’re known quantities (Kingsburg and a Pillars of the Earth expansion), so there’s not much to report on. But I had fun, wore myself out, and finished Sunday at a table in the Marriott lobby playing Poo with my family, Randall, Tara, Bryn, and Loren, and nearly bringing my son to tears when I heaped enough poo on him to eliminate him from the game. Yes, I’m a good father.

It was great to see many people there, even those of you who didn’t introduce yourselves. I had lots of good conversations, and am only sorry it’s over because I need sleep. Good night!

Jason H.