We had a lot of fun this year at the Con. We ran 5 games with an 87% attendance. A thanks goes out to everyone who came to play this year. It was interesting this year, because there were NO tweaks to be made to the game system. None. I can honestly say, the time has come to close this chapter in my life and get the damn game rule book done.
Canon Advancement
The game moved the story arc along very smoothly this year, and the endings were pretty consistent, across the various events, making the canon very easily written (Except for the cybernetic sharks, of course. That was just crazy!) The players killed several large Creatures from the Deep, saved the Transoceanic Rail from their menace in the future, and shut down/destroyed the META plants and distribution centers that were poisoning the world. Both “The Frenchman” and food chemist Paul Vanallman, sadly, met their demise while Dieter Kaufmann once again managed to slip away from the PCs. Ronin Johaansen was forced to file for an insurance claim to rebuild his “Shark Whisperer” attraction while Gene Simmons’ reopening of the KISS Coffee House was a wild success. A new chain of “Burger Yurt” restaurants was launched in Canyonside and the Backgammon Queen clothing store chain seems to be catching on across the nation. Dry Lavender Soda has also continued to rise but without its META additives brainwashing the American public, its popularity has stabilized (It is still the number one sold soda across the nation).
A Question of Genre for 2019
With the canon defined, the story arc and skeleton for the 2019 game is complete and development has already begun. With that being said and everything stabilized, I have begun toe get "that itch" to once again fiddle with the tried and true formula that has led to our GenCon success.
Over the past year, I obtained a membership to the Morton Arboretum. Visiting the Arboretum multiple times as well as having had the opportunity to visit the Coastal Maine Botancial Gardens while in the face of our country’s national resources being destroyed by our Federal Government inspired me to begin a new project: A post-apocalyptic setting featuring sentient plants and fungi saving America from itself. The Setting, entitled “And at Twilight, The Aspens Come”, takes place a scant 30 years from now in an America with no fresh water to drink, the collapse of the heathcare and educational infrastructure, massive decimation of the human and animal populations due to rampant biological vectors and human destruction of natural habitats, and a complete dismantling of the middle class. Racists, Antivaxxers, Alt-Right-Wing Christians and the GOP are now in control of a United States government that does nothing but try to maintain the hegemony while living their sheltered lives within arcologies surrounded by large concrete walls, barbed wire, and drone guns. The player characters are plants and fungi with telekinetic and psychic powers struggling to either help the humans save themselves from themselves or help the humans speed up their demise so they can take over and make things right.
Having played one game session, it seems fun and I am looking forward to playing a few more over the next few years to develop the world a bit more. The question I have is, is anyone interested in playing this rather than the standard 80s/90s action Canyonside events of years past? I have elicited input in the Facebookz and will make my decision accordingly. My plan is to offer 4 sessions of Canyonside Events and one session of the “Twilight” event if enough people are interested.
Will GenCon 2019 Be the Last GenCon Canyonside Event?
I took my oldest son to GenCon this year, as I have promised to do since he was very young and have promised to all my children to take them some day. But this year sucked BIG TIME. Statistically, GenCon has been growing every year since its move to Indy, and The 50th Year Anniversary may have been the reason it was so horrible or it may just have brought the real problem in sharp relief. The things that once simply annoyed me have become significantly more than just annoyances and have been getting worse every year I go. I do not see things getting better. While I have promised all my children I would take them, and I love my return players, I have to think of my spirit and goals as well, so, unless things get better, 2019 will be my last GenCon. My few West Coast and multiple East Coast friends and my obligations to my children are all that drive me to go to the back to the GenCon Indy hellhole in 2019; but, once I have said my good-byes to my many friends and players and fulfill my obligations to my family, my current plan is to move on to (a) different venue(s). My reasons:
Housing:
Attempting to get housing is getting worse and has been getting worse EVERY YEAR. Getting housing is a nightmare. I am SO sick of it. If you cannot house your attendees, you should not hold a convention that big. It is inefficient and flawed on so many levels, and the hotels (I am pointing at YOU Westin! And not just for GenCon) all lie to everyone’s faces whether you book online or through the convention, giving you disrespectful attitude when you try to hold them accountable for screwing you. Being a Platinum member of a chain makes no difference. I saw MANY frustrated people besides me who were lied to online and many more at the check-in desks. It is a horrible situation. Horrible. What makes it worse is the thought of taking my whole family and not getting housing. I can just see it-I shell out 5 4-day passes and have nowhere to stay. FORGET YOU GENCON!
The Convention Floor:
I made 2 attempts to get onto the convention floor. Both were failures. The first time was with my son and my co-Director on Thursday after our first game. It was wall to wall people in the aisles. I literally could not move. I was 10-12 meters in when my son and I entered a fart cloud. Being trapped we could not even move out of it! My son said “Dad, this is too noisy and I am getting sick” so we left. We tried again Friday and were STILL not able to move around that day either. We were unable to mosey about and stumble upon game demos to try and play as a result of the crowds. We could not move to the booths we could find easily, as we were jostled around so badly as we tried to get to the various booths. When we got to the booths, they would be filled. I have been going to GenCon since 2001 and it has NEVER been that bad. Ever. The fun of going to the Con isn’t just the games we play and run, but wandering about the Convention and Demo areas and trying new things. That was impossible. I tried again one more time Friday night alone and it was STILL too crowded. I tried to play the demo of the Big Trouble in Little China game, the only one I was interested in prior to the convention, and the line was down the aisle, indiscernible from the crowds it meandered into. I wanted to preregister for it but it was $100. For a board game. They don’t have. With only 1 demo running. And nothing to buy. WTF? It was a horrible experience.
Cosplayers:
This may be an extension of the reason above, but it deserves mention. There used to be a costume day with a contest and it was fun. Now it is a costume Con. They were many and many were rude. And many smelled. Hey, cosplayers, it is a public space. If you don’t want me to take your picture, don’t be disrespectful to me when I do so or even if I said “please” and asked for a picture-A simple "please don't" will suffice. If you don’t want to be in the background of my picture, don’t get irritated with me-simply move. If you don’t want me to ask who you are supposed to be because I am unfamiliar with your genre, don’t dress up and march around in public in a general thoroughfare, and then be rude to me when I ask out of curiosity. A simple, polite response would be just fine. Being rude once, maybe twice, I understand. There were a LOT of people mulling about. But three cosplayers with disrespectful rude and inappropriate responses within 15 minutes? Really? Really? Learn some manners people. Or, go to your own Con. I am sure this has added to the congestion as well; though I have no statistics, just their strategic “look at me” chosen locations and showboating in the way of large numbers of people trying to move just has TO F**KING STOP!
Alternatives:
So then what are the other options? It comes down to accomplishing my goals:
1. Promote the HiBRiD Style of Play
2. Play with my veteran players, whom I consider family, in a way (My East-coasters
would be the hardest ones to accommodate by not going to GenCon).
3. Share my love of trying new games with my family
With these goals in mind, I considered the following:
Option 1: Quit
Yeah, this is NOT going to happen; I won’t be doing this. I may stop going to GenCon, but game development, Canyonside events, and all of my other projects will continue to advance; only my choice of venue for sharing them will change!
Option 2: Keep Going
Yeah, this is not likely to happen either if things do not get better after 2019. Doing the same thing and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, isn’t it?
Option 3: Go to a single alternate convention
I would most certainly choose Origins Game Fair in Columbus Ohio. (I like Columbus and have been wanting to attend this Convention for four 4 years or so). But it would make Goal #2 above difficult, so I am not completely committed to this option.
Option 4: Attend multiple smaller conventions
Instead of hitting one convention, I have been thinking about hitting several smaller local conventions instead. Specifically, I am targeting one of the many conventions in Milwaukee (Nexus, GaryCon, Midwinter, GameholeCon), a second convention in Indiana (Though I am unfamiliar with any-feel free to email me with suggestions), one somewhere on the East Coast, and finally one in Grand Rapids Michigan. I would be able to do 2 conventions a year, as most would within driving distance to my house and much less expensive to attend. I could then just fly out to whatever Con on the east coast for a day or two and cut down on expenses that way!
Currently, I am leaning towards Options 3 and 4, depending on the feedback I get. But one thing is for certain: GenCon 2019 will most likely be my last, but not HiBRiD's last convention.
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