Gen Con Indy 2007 Aftermath Report – August 23, 2007

By Kevin Siembieda

Gen Con Indy is always one of the highlights of Summer and loads of fun.

Wayne Smith, Brandon Aten and Todd Yoho ready to help customers.

Palladium saw a lot of last minute changes to its roster of helpers and guests. Kathy Simmons couldn’t make it, but she baked us a pile ‘o cookies, brownies, and cake to take on the road along with a cooler full of bottled water, soda pop and other essentials. (What a gal.) Jeff Hansen couldn’t make it this year either, but vows to be with us at Gen Con in 2008 . . . especially if Warpath: Urban Jungle comes out a month or two earlier or debuts at Gen Con. Apollo Okamura wanted to come and for awhile, was scheduled to come, and then wasn’t, and then was, and then I asked him not to so he could work on an upcoming art assignment. A similar course of events happened with volunteer sales guy Tony Falzon, who ended up sacrificing his slot so that others could go instead.

Brandon Aten and Taylor White.

Adam Withers and Comfort Deborah Love.

It all worked out in the end with guests and helpers that included artists Comfort Deborah Love and Adam Withers, and authors Todd Yoho (Rifts® Dinosaur Swamp™), Brandon Aten and Taylor White (Rifts® Madhaven™ and Triax™ 2 coming next year). Of course, Wayne Smith and I, Kevin Siembieda, were at Gen Con, and pals Paul Deckert and James Brown pitched in to help throughout the show (as did our writers and artists). This was Comfort and Adam’s first Gen Con and they had a blast as well as made some decent money selling original art and prints, and doing character sketches galore at the Palladium booth.

Tyson McBride and Kevin Siembieda.

Wayne and I tried to be handy to sign autographs and chat with fans, as well as participate in a lot of photo-ops. With the advent of the camera phone and tiny digital cameras, I find myself being asked with increasing frequency to pose in photos. I don’t mind at all, and smiled my way into a few dozen photos. Surprisingly, I didn’t sign as many books as usual – probably due to people not wanting to bother me while I was talking. Just for your future reference, signing books is no bother, I’m happy to do it, and I’m gifted, so I can talk and sign books at the same time. If you wait till I’m done talking, you’ll wait forever, as I enjoy chatting with anybody who comes my way. In fact, I talked so much this year that my voice went hoarse on Sunday and has only returned to full strength today!

Friends Teresa Mead and Paul Deckert.

My personal favorite part of Gen Con is chatting with fans and hanging with friends I only get to see face to face once or twice a year. That included Teresa Mead, Todd Yoho, Paul Deckert, Brandon Aten, Taylor White, Roger and Randi Cartier, Dennis Hughes, Lonnie Langston, Zachary Houghton, Jolly Blackburn, Dave Kenzer, Steve Wieck, Tyson McBride, and Robert Dubois (from Dream Pod Nine) among others. (Please don’t feel left out if I didn’t mention you.) I also got to meet with a good number of artists I hope to work with in the future. Unfortunately, there were a few fans and friends who made an appearance, like Larry Elmore, Peter Hartman, Chuck Knakal, and Mike Hummel, but I was busy with yapping and when I turned around to find them, they were gone . . . never to be seen for the rest of the show! Sorry guys.

Tyson McBride in his Coalition Special Forces Dead Boy Armor.

Tyson McBride was one of the show’s highlights for us at the Palladium booth. Tyson is a loooooong time fan of Palladium Books, has played most of our games, and is a big Rifts® fan. That inspired him to make a set of Dead Boy Special Ops armor that looked awesome even though it was unfinished (and heavy). The Dead Boy armor looked great and wowed fans at the booth. A lot of photos were taken by numerous people as Tyson posed and enjoyed the fruits of his labor. I took a pile of pictures myself, and had a few taken with him (some should appear with this report). Great work, but poor Tyson suffered a bit for his creation. The material he used was very heavy and the costume was very hot even without the spiked helmet. I don’t know what he made the rifle out of, but it felt heavy, like the real thing, and made a nice prop we all played with. Cool. I always get a kick seeing my RPG characters and creations brought to life in costume and other mediums. I hope Tyson had a blast, because it helped make Gen Con Indy 2007 fun and memorable for all of us at the convention. He must have, because he hopes to have a lighter, completed costume for Gen Con Indy 2008.

Shucks, that reminds me, a lady called way back in May or June looking to acquire permission to make and sell “Dead Boy Armor.” After seeing Joe Bergmans’ armor at the Palladium Open House and Tyson McBride’s armor at Gen Con, I need to find her telephone number and call her back to see if we can reach an agreement. I hope she’s not put off by the long delay, I’ve just been swamped with a million other things. Wow, wouldn’t it be cool to have a legion of Coalition Dead Boys walking around conventions like Storm Troopers?! Wow. Don’t get your hopes up, but wow! I will have to look into this. Heather, keep the faith, I will call you back soon!!!

I want to say thank you to the many gamers who came to the booth to ask how Palladium Books was doing in regard to the Crisis of Treachery. I am always touched by the warmth and caring of our fans and enjoyed talking with each and every one of them. I told these caring people what I hope most of you already know: Palladium isn’t out of the woods yet, but we’ve made tremendous strides thanks to YOU, our fans. Palladium is doing pretty darn good (fantastic compared to a year and a half ago!) and while we still have rough patches and loans to repay, Palladium is getting stronger and healthier with every passing day. We expect to be completely back on our feet by Gen Con 2008, and have ideas for all kinds of great new product in the years to come. It’s all part of our five year plan and you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.

We did a little wheeling and dealing, too, and are considering a couple of new business propositions. I also met with Harmony Gold’s marketing and promotions guy, also named Kevin, and had a nice chat.

Sales were good, but we had hoped to do a bit better. Being located by Wizards of the Coast ended up working against us, as it put us on the far side of the hall away from the entrance. Ironically, if we had kept the location we had the last three years, we’d have been in the heart of the RPG area and a great deal of activity and warm bodies. Oh well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

We sold a lot of Rifts® Machinations of Doom™ – our convention special – as well as a good number of the Rifts® Ultimate Edition (thank goodness we brought that extra case), and Rifts® and the Megaverse®, the Art of John Zeleznik (including 3 Masterwork editions!). We sold out of all the Rifts® D-Bees™ of North America and Madhaven™ we brought with us, and almost sold out of Rifts® Sourcebook One and the Palladium Fantasy RPG®.

A shot of Palladium's booth (with a giant brain in the background).

Being next to Wizards of the Coast and the “Gleemax” brain was both fun and annoying. Gleemax was represented by a giant, animatronic brain in a plastic bubble. It moved, was interactive with the crowd and spoke to fans in a loud, deep voice. Wayne suggested Palladium should do “Gleba-Max” to promote our Minion War/Hell series, reasoning that Carl “Gleba” is maxing out his imagination to create these exciting sourcebooks. Hmmm . . . Gleba-Max . . . I like it. :)

Overall, Gen Con was fun and successful. The addition of the videogame companies did not take away from the event (as I had feared), and I think most people walked away feeling that the game industry and role-playing games were alive and well. In fact, I hope other RPG companies did so well that other companies release more role-playing games next year. Yep, fun and games. Of course, for us, the event was also work, with the worst of it being tearing down and loading up the truck to go home. Packing up wouldn’t have been so bad if we didn’t have to WAIT FOREVER. Palladium’s booth is easy to set up and prep for shipping, complete with rolling shelves. Thus, we were completely packed up in 30 minutes and dreamed of hitting the road. Unfortunately, while the show ended at 4:00 PM, we sat around in the rising temperatures of the exhibitor hall, while poor Wayne sweltered in the truck at the marshaling yard for the next two and a half hours! Wayne didn’t get a slot for the truck till about 6:20 PM. We loaded up in 40 minutes, hitting the road some time after 7:00 PM. Didn’t get home till after one in the morning and Wayne and I were both zombies at work on Monday. Oh well, such is the price of a big convention like Gen Con Indy.

For a few additional Gen Con tidbits, like the cart delivering Hades on Friday being surrounded by fans anxious to get their hands on the book (wish I had a photo of that), and other mentions, take a peek at my latest Murmur from the Megaverse.

We’ll be back in Indiana – September 22, 2007