I just flew back from Indianapolis and boy are my arms tired. Probably from carrying a couple of fairly heavy bags around all weekend. Sheesh, give me a little credit.
This was my first Gencon. We're fortunate in the San Francisco Bay Area to have three very good local conventions each year (Dundracon, Kublacon, and Conquest), but those are roughly one tenth the size of Gencon and it's twenty thousand plus attendees. Gencon is big.
The trip did not start out particularly well as I missed my flight out of San Francisco Thursday night. The flight was still there and still boarding when I arrived, but I had missed the airline's check in cutoff by 5 minutes. I wish I had an interesting excuse, but unfortunately, I was just late. I'm going to assume that the employees at the check-in were atheists and were personally offended by my appearance, since I look like Jesus Christ. Regardless of the spiritual well being of these people, I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the night in the terminal and wait for the next flight in the morning. And there was much rejoicing.
Friday morning's flight out went a little better than the previous night's attempt and we touched down in Detroit at around 2pm. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, however, I was supposed to be teaching a class in Indianapolis at that time. Fortunately Drew Williams was able to cover for me. I'm sure he was thrilled.
I did eventually make it to Gencon, just in time for my second class Friday. The class went very...OK. The time that I had allocated for organizing all of the supplies for the classes Friday morning had been spent sitting on the plane instead. Each class that I taught went a little better than the last, but there were some things that just didn't work and will be changed for next time. And even though it was billed as "Advanced", only three of the forty attendees had previously attempted to sculpt their own figures. A big thanks to Greg Mount, Jeff Wilhelm, and Joe Orteza for helping things run smoothly.
After the class I headed over to the sculptors' meeting at the Hyatt, across the street from Gencon and had a chance to meet with several excellent sculptors including Bobby Jackson, Sandra Garrity, Chaz Elliot, John Winter, Gene Van Horne and Tom Mason and other industry professionals like Ron Hawkins of Reaper Miniatures and Chris Clark of Magnificent Egos. All of them were very accommodating and friendly. I have to say that the meeting was the highlight of my trip. Getting first hand demonstrations from some of the best in the business was fantastic and I look forward to seeing everyone again next year. Sandra Garrity was working on a stunning new mounted figure for Magnificent Egos that should be available in a few months. Where else can you stay up until 4AM discussing industry strategy and how best to exploit French college students?
Saturday went a little more smoothly. I actually made it over to the dealer's room, which was absolutely massive. Saturday also featured an exhibition American football game between the Miami Dolphins and Indianapolis Colts in the adjacent RCA dome. The funniest thing I saw all weekend had to be Colts coach Tony Dungee wading his way through the costumed LARPers and others who were "new to town" on his way to the game. If ever there was a time for them to cross their arms...
With regards to the dealers' room, I stuck mostly to the miniatures area. Collectible/pre-painted plastic figures were everywhere, covering everything from Star Wars to Marvel Comics. Its all part of the US defense strategy of keeping the Chinese so busy painting plastic toys that they don't have time to build nukes. Not buying them is downright unpatriotic. That's what the republicans said anyway. Yet despite being threatened with treason, I somehow resisted.
The Magnificent Egos booth was busy as at anytime there were at least half a dozen sculptors or painters chained to, er, seated at their posts. Although much of their current line is uninspiring, they have some very ambitious plans for the company and have already made large strides in only their first few months of business. I generally made a nuisance of myself there. That's what happens when you ask for constructive criticism;).
Rackham also made an appearance. Their booth was huge and it was packed. Players received a t-shirt and miniature for playing in demos, in case they needed any extra incentive. The demo figures for Hybrid and Confrontation weren't painted particularly well, but Rackham did have the good stuff in a display cabinet. There were a number of Cadwallon figures for the new upcoming RPG. The figures were very well painted, but not exceptionally so. Better work could be seen in the painting contest.
Privateer Press seemed to be the big winner as far as miniatures are concerned. They released "Escalation", the first Warmachine expansion book, and sold out in approximately four seconds. They also had many of the new Iron Kingdoms RPG miniatures available as well as the normal stock of Warmachine figures. According to a very reliable source, Privateer pulled in over $38K in one day. Two grand more would have made for some real poetic justice..
Games Workshop was conspicuously absent, although several staffers did attend. Evidently, the Midwest branch of Games Workshop US did not have the budget to attend both Origins and Gencon this year. As Ty Finocchiaro put it, "Why would we come? Everybody hates us here and we don't make any money." Still with Warhammer 40K V.4 set to release within a couple weeks of Gencon, it would have seemed the perfect opportunity for GW to capitalize, but GW seems to be content to preach to the choir at the ever-expanding schedule of Gamesdays. As it was, Privateer and Rackham happily stepped in as they continue to nibble away at GW's position.
Crocodile Games didn't seem to fair too well either. In their first official tourney they managed to attract a whopping five players and there were only half as many Crocodile figures in the painting contest compared to last year. Rumblings of concern were heard regarding the low turnout. I don't play Wargods of Aegytpus, but if I did, I'd be a little pissed that after four years, many basic troop models are still unavailable, yet Olympus and Hyborian figures continue to pop up. Business plans are a good thing.
Speaking of the painting events and contest, many top figure painters in the US (and even an import or two) were on hand to teach, help out, and of course, enter the painting contest. A big round of applause to Sue Wachowski for keeping the ship headed in the right direction. The painting contest was overall, very high quality. As well as the entries, many of the judges, like Jennifer Haley, Joe Orteza, and Dave Pauwels had some of their previous Golden Demon winners on display. Jeremie Bonamant also sent along some figures from the French miniatures company Le Retour Des Diux(The Return of the Gods) that were very impressive. There were some who were obviously a little more excited about them than others.
"Dude, that's the French style! Look at those skintones! Look at how subtle they are! No North American painter can do that!"
Sigh. Maybe some day I'll muster the skill to create smooth transitions from dark grey to slightly lighter grey. But that may require me to move to Europe. The real irony was that there were pieces from half a dozen American painters that were at least equal in quality. Some were in the very same case. The figures, not the painters. That would be cramped.
Mayne Thiele was one of the big winners at the contest. He had several solid entries. I've never met him, but he is now my personal hero, if for no other reason than he has the coolest name in the industry. Mayne Thiele, man of steel. If that doesn't say straight-to-video action hero, I don't know what does.
Victoria Lamb made it all the way up from Australia, which is approximately a six month flight. Good thing she didn't miss her plane. Her diorama was outstanding. It had a very strong Aliens "Game over man! Game over!" feel to it. Solid stuff. Hearing Dave Pauwels describe the piece as Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter was hilarious. If you happen to run into Victoria on her US tour this month, make sure you do your own Crocodile Hunter impression for her. She loves it.
Although there was no "Best of Show," the consensus seemed to be that Eric Louchard's first place diorama would have taken it. He's good.
So despite the usual crying, screaming obscenities, and hurling objects across the room, the contest went well. I didn't even hear anyone complain about the judging for once, which is very unusual. For coverage of the painting contest, check out Electric Ocean.
Saturday night was the infamous Crocodile Games Party. It really wasn't much different than the rest of the convention except it was dark, every oxygen molecule within a five block radius was being utilized keeping cigarettes lit, and there may have been just a tad of inebriation. Just a tad. Chris Fitzpatrick presented the tournament and painting awards for Croc. Ironically The Mayne Man Mayne Thiele could not attend because he was out saving the world. Or he was underage. Whatever works. I did leave convinced of one thing. Drunk gamers should never, ever dance. Ever.
After the Croc party Joe, Dave, Steve Strnad, and myself headed back to the hotel and sat around the lobby talking Miniature Philosophy until the wee hours of the morning before we fell asleep in each others' arms. Whoops! Wrong convention.
Eager to avoid my previous error, I arrived at Indianapolis International Airport two hours before my flight home Sunday afternoon. The reward for my punctuality was that my flight was delayed forty-five minutes. Where was that pilot when I needed him Thursday? On the bright side, I did have a chance to finish reading a biography of Albert Schweitzer.
All in all it was a good time. There were really only a couple of negatives. Bottled water at the con was $2.50 for a 17 oz bottle. This was an unfortunate necessity, since the tap water available tasted like it had taken a short cut to the convention center on the way to the water treatment plant. The only other problem is there was so much going on, that it didn't seem possible to do or see everything I'd have liked to. For me it was more about meeting people than it was games or miniatures. I'll take good friends over good figures any day of the week. I for one am looking forward to next year. I may even show up on time. Maybe.