Whew, can't believe this weekend came and went so fast. BigCon 2010 was hit, at least from what I heard, saw and personally feel. From all indications it looks like the game convention will be even bigger and better next year. Outland Arts plans to be there in 2011, this time with finished books for sale of The Mutant Epoch RPG, Pitford: Gateway to the Ruins, the adventure Mall of Doom, plus the first 6 issues of our house magazine Excavator monthly, along with a few surprises.
This year was our first convention and I learned a heck of a lot from the experience, like don't where a white shirt, bring more snacks, don't volunteer to arrange an art show the same time one is also trying to get a 248 page RPG on the market, plus, have an assistant so one can go take a leak or grab a beer upstairs and take 5.
What follows are a few shots from the con. Although the pictures don't show it, there must have been a couple of hundred people in attendance at various times. The warhammer and magic cards people seemed to be on a time clock as suddenly their game session would end and they'd all clear out. Next thing you know they are back and throwing dice and whipping out measuring tapes... kinda noisy but I got a kick out of the banter they had going, and man do those guys know how to build and paint miniatures. My friend and fellow artist Pat Badminton was there with his orks and they looked great. He also did a minis painting demo and I learned a lot.. even though I thought I was a pretty well educated and experienced minis painter form my younger years. He should do a book on painting miniatures.
Here is Karim at the High Octane Comics and collectibles booth which was situated next to me. I had my son buy us the board game 'Zombies', which I have been dying to play with the older kids.
In this shot we have the extensive All Aboard Games booth, with the owner, Derek in the yellow shirt. I bought a round hundred sided dice and a set of gold colored, tiny brass dice from them.
And now we have our booth, with me giving demos on rolling up characters for a lot of great guys. Special thanks to Shawn, Eric, Cody, Danny, Darren, Daniel, Jon, and Karim for taking the time to roll up a character. I am still stunned at some of the cool, dangerous freaks these guys made. I can't figure out how when other people roll up characters in TME that they are such stunning, awesome player characters, while mine come out fine enough, just with more reasonable, anticipated rolls and traits. The characters other people seem to make their first time around turn out to be team leader material, with wicked implants, skills and mutations, as well as a few une
xpected lucky rolls allowing their PCs to acquire relics like pump f'n shotguns.
Tonight each of my older daughters rolled up a character as well, now that the con is over and they are excited to play mutants. Of course, they rolled high traits, excellent skills and excellent mutation combinations making them into impressive, fun and well rounded characters. I'll have to tone down the Post Apocalyptic, nightmarish scenarios that seem to erupt in every Mutant Epoch game when GMing for them. One of the things at my booth that drew all sorts of people to it was a chaingun, also called a mini-gun for some reason. This is an .223 caliber infantry variant, meant to be held by a very powerful person, android or robot, as well as mounted on vehicles and light aircraft. Of, course, it doesn't really exist , yet, but man did a lot of people ask if it was real. I think using real bolts, straps, metal fittings, a heavy duty tripod and real dummy rounds on an ammo belt contributed to that impression, although it is made of plywood, dowel, cardboard, paper and other common materials found at home depot.
Look out next year, I plan to have a life size manikin in body armor holding the chain gun along with a lot more gear. Maybe an area with a PA background so people can get into a photograph with various weapons and gear. Is this legal?
So I had my two copies of TheMutant Epoch, which made it here from lulu just in time. I used one as a display copy and the other as my demo copy. With Jon, Eric and Cody we played until almost midnight on the opening day, and had a great time GMing for these most excellent and creative fellows. Along with this three, I am planning to get together locally at both game stores and a private home to run ongoing campaigns and demo sessions.
If you're local to Kamloops and want to keep posted on this, either email us to get on the mailing list at info@outlandarts.com or sign
Tons of people wanted to buy a copy then and there, and sadly I was unable gratify them, but do feel confident that we will be releasing The Mutant Epoch by end of October, if not sooner depending on how well I can work with my editor on the last editing pass through, and complete the essential index and six or so full page digital painting for the section intros inside the book.
More coming to this blog soon! Time to get some much needed sleep,
Will
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