Dragonmeet 09
Sunday, November 29th, 2009As it did last year, Dragonmeet provided a relaxed yet happy atmosphere for gamers to do what they do best – talk about games and refresh their sense of collective community. Attendees made the most of the day’s two game slots. An impressive array of games were seen in the gaming hall. Simon was as happy (as an Englishman is permitted to be in his homeland) with the sales at the Pelgrane stand and I assume from the general sense of chuffery in the air that the other vendors felt the same. I got to see lots of folks at the booth and sign the occasional book. Personally I consider it a victory that I felt considerably less jet-lagged this time around. Counter-evidence for this claim might yet surface in the photographic form. The fact that I have awoken in the middle of the night local time to type this blog entry might also undermine my overall point. Seminars were well-attended. I am told the trade hall visibly emptied as various afternoon panels began. A solid turn-out materialized for the HeroQuest panel with Jeff Richard. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that about a third of the room was comprised of interested gamers who were not already part of the hardcore HQ/Glorantha community. Accordingly I ran through the basic ideas behind the design. Jeff, flushed with Orlanthi pride at the successful arrival of the gorgeous and monumental Sartar book, lovingly described its contents and laid out upcoming plans for the revitalized line. Now yet another of the products promised in the pages of RQ2 has finally become a reality. Only a few years late when you look at as part of a great cosmic rhythm, right? The state of gaming panel, also featuring Paizo’s Erik Mona, IPR’s Brennan Taylor, and the multi-hatted Angus Abranson, filled the room. We covered that most perennial of topics, ways to bring new blood into the hobby. I took the contrarian position that there are still new people entering gaming the same viral way they always have. Much love was extended to the Frank Mentzer red D&D box as the sine qua non of intro products. As usual with this topic we concluded that the hobby was stubbornly refusing to enter the final death spiral we’ve been collectively predicting for ourselves throughout its approximately 40-year history. For the final free-for-all Q&A we swapped out Angus for Gregor Hutton and tackled a fine set of mixed queries. We named the new games currently winning our attention, shared proofreading horror stories, and confessed to our cruelest moments as GMs. The question I found most thought-provoking concerned ways for stores to get the most from their Facebook fan pages. I also enjoyed Gregor’s account of the crazy Traveller game that inspired 3:16. When asked which licenses we’d most like to tackle, assuming we were somehow given them for free, I managed to speak fastest and get my dibs on Twilight. I’m waiting for your call, Stephanie Meyer.
