The 40th Gen Con just ended yesterday and it was a landmark convention for the iconic gathering that spawned Dungeons & Dragons (see all the complaining about Fourth Edition). But 15 years ago, the 25th Gen Con began on this day and it was the most memorable one I had ever attended because it was my first time on the other side of the booth. Little did I know this convention would be GDW’s absolutely last hurrah in the roleplaying-game business. There had been other occasions it may have been according to Steve Bryant, Lester Smith and Tim & Kevin Brown yet they all ended up being close calls. Thanks to Frank Chadwick betting everything on Gary Gygax’s poorly designed and overcomplicated comeback, Mythus, GDW’s demise was sealed. It was released nationwide in July to a poor reception and the this made the near future cloudy. White Wolf handing out free copies of their boring rag at Gen Con with a scathing review of the game didn’t help.
There were at least a hundred things wrong with Mythus and I don’t want to get into it. History made its judgment long ago since most gamers today respond with “huh?” whenever Mythus is mentioned; a rather accurate summary of how much GDW really contributed to roleplaying games in general.
Anyway, I had been attending Gen Con ever since 1988, a small perk for living in Milwaukee; saved a small fortune on food and lodging. A couple years later I got in for free as a volunteer judge. A sweet deal too, just referee three events for RPGA (a D&D league) and I got a free four-day pass. In 1992, being on the other side of the booth was going to be exciting. I’m not sure what I was expecting though, definitely not signing autographs—I wasn’t “anybody” in the business, no people anticipating my appearance. My friends Neal and Deb were coming in from Iowa and I had plans to visit Nelson while I was there. I really looked forward to those visits. Sadly, numerous gamers quickly demonstrated those poor social and hygienic skills they’re ridiculed for in The Simpsons and SNL at the GDW booth; I was pretty tired of hearing why Mythus sucked by the third or fourth nerd who came by. They were generally correct, just not very tactful, skilled nor rational in their arguments. On the upside, I recall the time went by quickly as the vendor area was only open from 10 AM to 6 PM while the events raged on from 8 AM to midnight.
For all the criticism I have given Frank Chadwick (GDW’s President), he did show some glimmers of wisdom at one of the forums on Traveller, 2300 and Space 1889 (games suffering from neglect/respect for one reason or another). He pointed out one of the great difficulties Sci Fi games have versus Fantasy games—the accepted conventions from the audience. In Sci Fi games, there are numerous variables that affect the game’s popularity: How does FTL travel work?; How far into the future is it?; How often is intelligent life encountered?; and so on. Meanwhile, the majority of Fantasy games have elves, dragons, a castle on the hill, a haunted forest, etc.
Outside the convention, there were company parties, schmoozing and for me, catching up with those Marquette friends. I didn’t get the chance to look at the campus but I did enjoy a great meal with the Baedkes at Pizza Man on Milwaukee’s east side, the best side of the city. I also squeezed in some CD shopping since Central Illinois wasn’t a place known for a great selection, it’s one of the lands where Led Zeppelin never broke up.
When it ended, I was exhausted but I came home feeling awesome. I acquired great swag from other companies thanks to trading, especially the West End guys who owned the Star Wars license then. I had an enormous amount of fun behind the booth despite the social frigtards because most people were actually gracious, two of whom I ended up working with at Apple three years later (Heath and John). It was one of the greatest times I ever had at Gen Con and it prepared me for my only time at MacWorld in 2000.
I only went back two more times. It was a huge mistake to attend in 1993 since the wounds of being fired from GDW were still sensitive and just other ego issues. Then I attended again in 1998 with Steve Bryant as his assistant in the artists’ area, but that’s a story for another day. Somara has been bugging me for years to go and ever since it moved to Indianapolis (or India-No-Place as I call it), I just have no interest due to the costs of airfare, lodging and a car rental; it may be a geek convention yet the locals jack up everything as they would for any other convention a la Vegas. I love to play D&D, I just don’t want to be surrounded by it that much.