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ARCHIVED
TOPIC:
[ Line of Sight ]
DATE:
August 17, 2001
Mr.
Cook Goes to Gen Con
 Where
was everybody?
Now,
I don't mean fans and players. Because there
were lots of you guys there, and it was
great to meet and talk.
And
I don't mean readers of this website, because
I was bowled over by how many of you great
people came up and commented on or complimented
the site. It was particularly cool to meet
some of you who post on the message
boards, because as good as the Internet
is, it's much nicer to put a face with a
screen name.
Nope.
What I'm talking about here is d20 publishers.
Before I went to Gen Con I put my forecaster
hat on and tried to sound all intelligent
and thoughtful by saying, "This is
going to be the d20 Gen Con. This is going
to be the year when fans of D&D and
D&D-style mechanics will spread throughout
the massive dealers room to look for products
for their game instead of just the big castle
in the middle (the Wizards booth, for those
of you who've never been)." In past
years, I've observed, this huge segment
of the audience only went to Wizards --
or TSR before them -- to make their big
purchases, and then some of them wandered
into the rest of the hall out of curiosity,
or to buy something like a T-shirt or miniatures.
Now, I'd thought, they'd go everywhere,
finding great new material (and some not
so great) that applied directly to their
D&D game because of d20. And that's
good for everyone, because if more people
walk over to the Atlas booth, for example,
to pick up their latest d20 product (Maiden
Voyage, for those of you playing at home),
they might also get interested in Atlas'
other products -- or some Steve Jackson
Games products at the booth next door --
that they otherwise would never have noticed.
But
in part, I was proved wrong. Not that D&D
fans at Gen Con weren't wandering, but they
did not have the plethora of options to
choose from that I thought they would. The
big guys were there, of course (Atlas, whom
I already mentioned, Sword & Sorcery,
Green Ronin, AEG, Fantasy Flight, and now
Pinnacle), and a few others (I talked to
a guy from Paradigm Press, I saw the Troll
Lords there, I met the very nice people
from Mongoose, and I understand that Hammerdog
was there, although I missed them entirely).
But it wasn't the d20 Gen Con I was expecting.
With a couple of exceptions -- like the
new Star Wars Dark Side Sourcebook
-- there were no big Gen Con releases, and
not a single big d20 game debut.
Very
disappointing.
So
here's what I did see of d20 interest at
Gen Con, in scattershot approach:
-
Fantasy
Flight's Traps and Treachery book
came out. The material looks cool (but
I only skimmed it). The cover looks a
lot like the D&D Player's Handbook.
A lot. This turned a few heads, and I
happen to know a few of those heads belonged
to displeased Wizards people.
-
As
always, there are fewer and fewer non-RPGA
D&D games being run at Gen Con. What
that means, exactly, I don't know.
-
The
first thing you see walking into the Wizards
of the Coast "store" portion
of their gigantic booth is a display Hasbro
products. You have to hunt for the D&D
stuff, and they didn't bring nearly as
many copies of the books (particularly
something as basic as the Player's
Handbook) as they should have. Why
is Wizards always the one to forget how
popular D&D is at Gen Con? Disappointing.
-
Pinnacle
had both d20 Deadlands (magic in
the American West) and Weird Wars
(magic in World War II) out on their shelves.
These looked very interesting. However,
even though I only skimmed, I have mixed
feelings about the mechanics.
-
Fantasy
Flight is coming out with a mixed-genre
science fantasy game called Dragonstar.
With +3 holy blasters and spell-driven
cybernetics. Very cool ideas, although
the flyer they were handing out suggests
an only moderate grasp of the rules, unfortunately.
-
Otherworld
Creations, the people who make Diomin,
are going to come out with Forbidden
Kingdoms, a pulp game. Looks interesting.
With Synister Creative, however, this
makes at least two d20 pulp games. And
what, really, is Call of Cthulhu
d20 if not a little pulpy? I'm not sure
where this surprising trend will take
us.
-
Tim
Brown and Lester Smith have started Fast
Forward Entertainment, and put out a d20
module called Fortress of the Ogre
Chieftain. This first adventure is
less interesting than the fact that these
D&D veterans are throwing their hats
into the d20 ring. I'll be paying attention
to what they do in the future (and since
they're friends of mine, I wish them the
best).
-
Lots
of companies (like Reaper miniatures,
Gold Rush, and more) have d20 plans for
the future. I heard about all sorts of
new adventures and worlds and supplements
coming out at the end of this year. In
fact, it appears more that the d20 glut
many were expecting this summer is actually
going to be an end-of-the-year glut. Are
these people just far too late to catch
the boat? Will the glut drag everyone
down, or will the cream rise to the top?
Or is there a big enough audience for
everyone? We'll see.
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