Rogue Cthulhu's Origins '01

Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead!

As you should already know, Rogue Cthulhu was banned from running any events at Origins this year. However, that didn't stop us from making the weekend a profitable and productive one (it didn't completely stop us from running events either, but what they don't know won't hurt them). We took the opportunity this setback afforded us, to do some much needed networking and to talk to key industry people about the future of the Con. Something our hectic event schedule would not allow us to do previously. We met up with some of our old fans, recruited a few new prospective Game Masters for next year, and whored around for some new adventure submissions. We made the acquaintance of several members from other gaming groups, such as Nocturne Productions, What-The-Puck Productions, The Blue Hen Gamers, Yithians for a better Yesterday, and Big Daddy Thwack's Millennial Army. We talked to them about our plans for next year's Con as well as our desire to improve communication between each of the gaming clubs and with the convention organizers. Most agreed that a cooperative effort between the independent game clubs could go a long way toward improving the convention overall. We also talked with several noteworthy industry personalities, such as Sandy Antunes of RPG.net, "Super" Dave Radzik, Mark Simmons, and others from GAMA, and our old pal Wes Carpenter from TotalCon and formerly of WotC. We also bumped into Rob Bane just long enough to confront him about spreading misinformation about us (see News & Rumors). Robert Wiese, from the RPGA, was on our list of people to talk to but we never ran into him. We visited the RPGA area briefly to offer him a job (we hear Hasbro has targeted the RPGA for the chopping block) but we have since reconsidered that offer in light of stories that surfaced later in the weekend which cast a shadow over his character. I'm sorry I can't go into specifics (it's a really juicy piece of gossip and I'm dying to share it) but we promised our source that we would not spread the tale.

Attendance this year was lighter than usual. According to the WotC figures Radzik relayed to us, it was only down about 5% from last year, but it looked like a lot more than that. Lines at the registration desk were practically non-existent (a big improvement from last year's record breaking 4 hour long lines) which could account for thinner looking hallways. Personally, I'd trust my eyes before I'd trust any statistics WotC provided to me. Thursday and Friday morning looked THIN. It didn't start to look like normal until towards Friday early evening. Some of us believe that attendance dropped because people expected WotC to auger the con into the ground this year (this being their last year running it) and so people didn't bother coming. The rest of us don't think the average gamer is that politically minded when it comes to making their holiday travel plans. But what can't be denied is that "something" happened that, overnight, reverse the trend of increasing attendance that reportedly existed for the past several years. There definitely was some speculation/fear (even by less paranoid people than us) that there could be some potential sabotage on WotC's part this year. Fortunately for the convention and its attendees, and to the credit of WotC (who is now officially a competitor instead of an ally) no serious problems manifested that we are aware of. As a matter of fact, things seemed to run much smoother overall than had previously been the case. Of all the groups we interviewed this year, only one had any serious complaints about the administration's mistakes (compared to nearly all of those interviewed last year), and nearly all of the things we fought tooth and nail with the Events Management Staff about last year were SOP this year. Each gaming club's events were in one location (the rooms even had the names of the clubs posted on signs at the doors. Oooohh, cool). Most people we talked to had no complaints about errors in their event schedules. The Breezeway was back to being used for Open Gaming. The pre-reg and on-site books went back to their old format of being listed by time instead of by game. There were LOTS of temp workers at the registration booths to process attendees. Even the Dealers' Room looked like it was bigger (more of the available space used) than last year, and with more small-press independent publishers there than we have seen in quite a few years. It is difficult to say who is responsible for this miraculous turnaround, but given that WotC has shown so much resistance to change in the recent past, and that the improvements this year were so drastic, we are leaning toward the idea that there must have been an outside influence (possibly GAMA) responsible for the changes. It's just too out of character for WotC to have made this kind of reversal in a year that by all rights, we should expect them to coast through with a minimum of effort or money spent on the con.

For the first time in a long time we actually got a chance to play in some games this year, and there was certainly no lack of games to choose from. For the first time in years, the board game and miniatures area (which was nice and huge) actually looked crowded! Noticeably absent was the guy with the black beret who has been running the board games area since the beginning of time. We understand that he was prevented from showing up by some type of emergency at the last minuet (Hope things worked out OK for you, dude). We tried out some Starfarers of Catan which was pretty fun (needs more killin' though), and some Axis and Allies. We got bumped out of the A&A tournament because we had generic tickets, but we found some folks to play with on the side. Our first round knock out strategy stalled half way through, and our opponents rolled like Jesus Christ on roller skates, so needless to say we took a beating. As for RPGs, we did a Deadlands d20 demo that turned out to be run by an old friend who we shall not name (he's a little skittish and we wouldn't want to embarrass or frighten him by having his name appear in connection with ours). We played in a Phoenix Rising episode (V:TM) by the Blue Hen Gamers. The serialized plot left the scenario somewhat unresolved at the end but it was well thought out and well presented. Their innovative mini-warm-up adventure idea was interesting, but could take some getting used to. Overfilling the vacuum left by our ostracism, What-The-Puck scheduled an ambitious 80+ Cthulhu slots this year. Even if attendance had not been light, they would be hard pressed to find enough player support for that many offerings. As it was, I don't expect that they filled more than half of them. We played in two of their scenarios, and had planned on playing more, but we decided to diversify our interests after we gave the first two adventures mixed reviews. One of the highlights of the con for us was the Cthulhu Live presentation by Yithians for a Better Yesterday. It was their first time running a LARP, as well as our first time playing in one, and it was loads of fun. The story was a little complicated and hard to follow due to all the sub plots, but with giving everyone something to do in a cast of 40, you'll have that. Not enough GMs and having the GMs specialized in certain areas of story and mechanics were the only obvious problems we saw, but even still, things went pretty smoothly, especially for a first time production by a freshman group. The room was perfect. The atmosphere was superb. The story was engaging. The props were great. The costumes were fabulous and the acting was outstanding. Nominated for best Role Player were Jim Thorp (winner), Harry Houdini, Nicola Tesla, and Leslie Rossen. Although I didn't quite get an honorable mention for my portrayal of Aliester Crowley, I did get quite a few compliments after the game. J Incidentally, one of the organizers of YfaBY, is none other than Brian Milne, the Sole Survivor of our very first "And Then There Was One" adventure back in 1999.

After the con, we attended the feedback seminar and got to have a little face to face with next year's organizers (Super Dave and the gang at GAMA). We don't know why we never made it to one of these meetings before. It was a very good opportunity for us to discuss changes we would like to see in the future with the people who can make them happen and in a format that is much more convenient than running people down in the hallways or cornering them in their booths. We don't understand why more people don't come to this meeting (except that it is late on Sunday), but we highly recommend to everyone who cares about the future of this convention that they make an effort to show up to this meeting in the future. Rogue will no doubt be there from now on.

Now that WotC is gone, we are looking forward to a hassle free 2002. Oh, we know that GAMA will have problems of their own for the first few times out, but we are confident that they will be better handled than in the past, and we are willing to cut them some slack until they get their feet under them. So next year we will (theoretically) have nothing to bitch about. No more will we need to be baby eating Ogres. We will be all peace and love. Love Children, complete with flowers and beads. Just you wait and see. J