GenCon added an extra day for Trade-only and Media-only events. I did my best to attend, but the vagaries of travel and my own stupidity prevented me from doing so. Anecdotally, I think it had a demonstrable impact on the show overall. When I first attended GenCon almost twenty years ago a great many of the exhibitors chose to use Thursday as a travel day. As the show opened many were still setting up their booths and some even set up on Friday. Now with an additional day, as well as events like the Diana Jones Award, many companies are making Thursday a great time to jump in before the crush of the weekend and get the coolest stuff first. I think this combines with the general misunderstanding among much of the gaming public that GenCon’s recent reorganizational bankruptcy somehow signaled that this might be the last year of the show. As Peter Adkison said many times at the Ennie Awards and elsewhere, GenCon isn’t going anywhere, and the show may be healthier and in many ways better than ever. For these two reasons Thursday seemed to explode with commerce and traffic, but I think I’m getting ahead of myself. As I mentioned before, Wednesday night is the Diana Jones Party.
The Diana Jones Awards
For those unaware the Diana Jones Award recognizes excellence in gaming in almost any form and past awards have been given to people, ideas, and games all of which have been pretty excellent in this columnist’s opinion. The exact membership of the committee is unknown, but some members have chosen to make themselves known; like James Wallis, Peter Adkison, John Kovalic, and our host Matt Forbeck. In just seven years the award has made quite a stir in the industry. This year the Diana Jones award was awarded to two innovators in a tie. The surrounding party has grown from just a few people to several hundred it seemed. So when Matt Forbeck announced the award, he did so to enthusiastic applause for both of this year’s honorees. The block quotes are from this year’s official Diana Jones short list
Grey Ranks from Jason Morningstar, published by Bully Pulpit Games
“Jason Morningstar's roleplaying game of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, Grey Ranks, commands attention for many reasons—its fidelity to and evocation of historical detail, its unique and harrowing subject matter, its elegant mechanics of play, and its unflinching assessment of war and heroism—but it deserves highest marks for two factors. First, it is a game of inexorable tragedy, sacrifice, coming-of-age, mortality, and self-destruction. These truly mature literary themes are almost unexplored in gaming of any sort, and virtually unseen in roleplaying. If gaming is to approach the other arts in depth and richness, it will be games like Grey Ranks that make such an approach possible. Second, its emotional grid mechanic anchors a solid, powerful rules design that drives such themes home in play. Jason Morningstar has not created a game that lazily appropriates the historical horror at its heart, he has created rules that reveal that horror, rules that re-create that horror in its players’ hearts and minds. Aristotle said that all true tragedy must end in terror and pity. It’s hard to believe that Aristotle never played Grey Ranks.”
Open Design & Wolfgang Baur
“Open Design began as an experiment in funding the development of roleplaying game supplements. Wolfgang Baur—a highly respected, long-time Dungeons & Dragons editor and designer for TSR and then Wizards of the Coast—went back hundreds of years to dig up the concept of patronage, add a few modern twists to it, and apply it to the problem. He posts a project and publicizes it along with a monetary threshold. When the funding his patrons chip in reaches that threshold, he starts on the project in earnest. Baur supplements his exemplary work by letting his patrons suggest various directions for each project and then allowing them to look over this shoulder as he works. Each project becomes a master-level class on adventure design for those privileged to be a part of it.”
I am far from the first to do so, but I am happy to congratulate both of the winners for their amazing contributions to the hobby.
Wednesday night for me was also memorable because I finally got to meet Chad Underkoffler in the flesh. Those of you who’ve been reading this column for a while know how much I appreciate his amazing work on Dead Inside, Truth & Justice, and so many other of his “mad, beautiful ideas”. I accepted a couple of Ennies for Chad two years ago. The two of us have been digitally stalking each other for a couple of years, and through the magic of Adam Dray and Fred Hicks we were at the same place at the same time. Through the course of the show we had time to share a meal together and visit somewhat. It was a good time. It seems that both Chad and Adam Dray have both joined forces with Evil Hat Productions, whose Spirit of the Century I reviewed earlier. There’s no telling what might happen there, but suffice it to say that there will probably be some awards involved.
“The Indie Ghetto”
In between parties where nubile young groupies prostrated themselves at our feet while we lit cigars with $100 bills and rode about town in well-appointed limousines, we also played games. I played a lot of games this year. Probably more than I have played in some time. I want to talk about all of them. While I’ll talk about StarSiege, Hunter: The Vigil, Hellas, and more of the flashy more mainstream games over the next few months. I want to mention some of the Indie games right this minute, before they are stale in my head.
The first game I had to play was, of course, Grey Ranks by Jason Morningstar. I had read a lot about the game as online friends and colleagues took note of the game. After hearing the buzz at the Diana Jones party I just had to see for myself. Let me first say that I was not disappointed. Grey Ranks is like a perfect and macabre dance number performed by burn victims. You realize that the choreography is brilliant and as much as you want to look away you just can’t help but stare. Reading these words you may think I don’t like the game, and I do. However it is very hard to look at. Through the ten chapters one by one each of your comrades will fail, and if you are lucky your character may be the last to go. I couldn’t help thinking that this would be a great set of mechanics to use for Darth Vader’s inexcerable descent into the Dark Side. Of course I may have simply been looking for a less desolate setting than 1944 Poland. It’s brilliant, it’s ugly, and most people won’t get it.
After I nearly lost my mind on Grey Ranks I needed something completely different. So I found the cheesecake and played Space Rat. In Space Rat you play one of Jack’s impossibly cheesecake girlfriends. All of them are competing for Jack’s attention. Jack, who is loved and adored by all, is actually a rat and not just physically. The game was demoed for me by the incomparable Ron Edwards and my competitors and I spent our time looking pretty and awesomely defeating the foes Jack just doesn’t have time to deal with. The luck and attention mechanics are great and the game is fun. It was just what I needed after Grey Ranks, and I hope the game’s author, Nathan Russell, has a lot of success.
Next up was Black Cadillacs with Darcy Burgess, the game’s author, and Julia Bond Eliingboe of Steal Away Jordan, and The Fisherman’s Wife. More about her later, but first let’s talk about Black Cadillacs. The game revolves around the human face of war. That is, it isn’t a game about war, but about the soldiers who fight it. The game is not only excellent in its use of mechanics, but it is also a work of art in itself. The physical book is reminiscent of an officer’s notebook with a “steel toe” riveted to the masonite cover. The lack of a title on the cover was a little off-putting at first, but the overall aesthetic is dead on perfect. The game I played was pretty short, about twenty minutes, and the impression I came away with was awesome.
As I mentioned the lovely Julia Bond Ellingboe also joined me for the demo and after we were finished she invited Darcy and I to play her ashcan, called The Fisherman’s Wife. It’s a roleplaying game in the style of a Japanese pillow-book, about ghost stories and demons. The card mechanic was interesting and quick, and the play was great too. Some of you may know Julia from her previous work, including Steal Away Jordan. This is another game, like Black Cadillacs, where the manufacture of the game is as physically dead-on as it is fun to play. The Fisherman’s wife is definitely adult in theme and execution, as Julia takes the style of a Japanese pillow-book seriously. Though she was sold out of the more beautiful version, I did get to see one of them. When you play The Fisherman’s wife and feel her game in your hands it feels like Julia has given you a gift personally, and that she has made it just for you.
As I explained to Chad at dinner, there is so much of the “Indie” games movement that I do not get. I never would have considered that the idea of handmade art games could actually enhance the play experience. Now that I have seen two of them I think the idea is full of awesome. While GenCon will probably be more and more about big games and computer games for the foreseeable future, the vibrancy and excitement of the Ashcan Front, the Forge, and Indie Press Revolution; what I refer to as the “Indie Ghetto” really speaks to me as a writer and a creator. I can’t wait for next year!
See you soon!
