I am heading to the Aussie franchise of GenCon in Brisbane tomorrow (Saturday) with my wife and a couple other local fuckers.

Any of you local down under dodgy bastards want me to check out/take photos of something? Any of you going to be there? Anyone you want me to pelt fruit at?

I am prepared to be underwhelmed this year as the guest list and exhibitors aren't looking too flash, but I will be happy to swing by and guzzle a beer with any of you.

If there is enough interest, I'll take a few photos of the gaming event (and mildly schizophrenic event this year, lots of anime and pop-culture stuff seems to be thrown in to fill the hall).

Take lots of pictures!   Should be interesting to compare to GenCon SoCal.   Never seen any pics from GenConOz.

I want shots of dice on the barbie.  With shrimp.  And Fosters.

Consider it done .. except for the Fosters. I don't like it

So we went to GenConOz and conquered. To be honest we weren't expecting much after trying to use their awful website, but as promised (probably to little care to most), here is how it went down.

It was at the Brisbane Convention Centre, which is super huge (by our standards). This initially got my hopes up, but when we got there, they had only one section of the 4 exhibition halls booked (typically I had parked as far as possible in the opposite direction).


(way off into the distance was the entry point)

Closing in on the main entrance, we entered the realms of the anime cosplayers, only the rare one actually any decent. They were out in force and they pretty much dominated inside the hall. Even so, my wife and I picked up our pre-paid tickets (from the confusingly unsigned, hard to locate pre-paid ticket booth) and entered in.

Our first aim was to catch Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw of Zero Punctuation fame (local lad made good), who was due on with some other computer game reviewer guys on the main stage. While none of my photos turned out (it was very dark at the stage), he was still quite funny though not as rapid fire as his game reviews. They lost their way towards the end when they were told that had an extra half hour for their show, which they weren't prepared for.

Once that was done, he hit the floor to take in the sights. I was itching to see how much actual gaming (in an RPG sense) was going on since the first stalls and displays through the door were all computer/console gaming related (Microsoft had about 20 or so XBOX 360 first in). Weaving our way towards the back of the hall, we hit the CCG Arena, that was pretty solidly packed with plenty of people playing (predominantly) M:tG.


(Off to the right was a large contingent of BYO Computer LAN party and far off in the distance were the wargamers)

We decided to follow the tables and pass by the exhibitors for now, so that took us down to the wargamers. The wargamers were dominated by Warhammer (both sorts) but there were a bunch of Napoleonics and WWI/WWII clubs battling it out. The wife and I were rather impressed by some of the scenery they had on the tables, but once again it was too dark for any decent photos.


(these guys were loud, happy and very friendly, happy to let us check out their scenery)

We then found a section were about 100 board games were lumped on a table for anyone to pick up and play. Needless to say this was very well attended and bucket loads of people playing many board games here. We were distracted here for a while but our main intent was to check out some actual roleplaying, since this was a roleplaying convention. Finally, we found them, those elusive roleplayers, tucked away in a (large) corner. They had split themselves between standard RPG's and RPGA. We were ignored while we wandered around to look in the RPGA section. The opposite happened when we were in the standard RPG section though. We got plenty of offers to play stuff in the standard RPG's (Pathfinder, 4e, 3.5, couple of old school games and one Rolemaster (RMSS)). So we messed around there for a while, looking at what people were doing and how they were doing it.


(standard RPG Arena, though I couldn't get all the tables in frame, another 15 or so were to the left and behind me)


(RPGA Arena. It was a bit sparse .. too many empty tables. Even though they were much more serious than the standard RPG's they were having fun. My wife said it reminded her of tournament poker, had to agree)

Once we had said hello to a couple people we knew, we went to check out the rest on offer. Sadly, there weren't as many roleplaying related merchants as I hoped. No dice store!!! That made me cry a little inside. Just some d6 wargaming cubes at one of the board game stores (of which there were a bunch). We picked up some miniatures from Privateer Press/Warmachine that were display. My wife, bemoaning the lack of nice female mini's, dug through the specials to find some decent looking ones at good prices.

We came across another guy selling some awesome looking gaming coins. These looked especially sweet and they were on a really good special (at least for me) of 50c a coin, plus if you paid $60 you got an extra 10 coins free plus a few rare ones thrown in. They looked great, felt solid and I am a sucker for nifty props, so I picked a bunch up.

We wandered past a guy in a pretty freaking awesome alien suit, my wife decided she wanted a photo with him.


(wife is the one in the purple, not with the facehugger. She is also 7 months pregnant .. still its a nice action shot)

One of the big things we noticed was that there was no WotC stand there at GenCon, even though they were a major sponsor. Plenty of retailers were selling their stuff, but they had no presence of their own. A bit sad I thought. Paizo did though and even though we had wandered passed a couple times checking out other things, we didn't see anyone manning the stand until my wife told me it was time to go. I was pretty fucking surprised to see that Paizo had flown out Jason Bulmahn to our shitty little convention to man the tables. We were wandering passed during a lull in trade and we grabbed the chance to have a chat with him for about 10 or so minutes, which was pretty cool.

My wife peppered him with questions about the upcoming Bestiary, he was doing previews for it but it was for (about now as I am writing this actually) a time when we weren't going to be there. She also asked him what he was most proud of in the design, to which he replied the Combat Maneuver rules and explained how he had used it to great effect in his own gaming sessions. All in all, it was one of the most pleasant and adult chats we had at the entire show. He posed for a photo op and then we shot through with bags full of goodies.


(Pregnant wife wanted a silly hat. One does not argue with a pregnant wife)

All in all, it was fun, a lot smaller than I hoped but I really wish it had a stronger RPG focus. The hobby seemed swamped by other pop culture stuff.

Very nice, but frankly, it sure seems a poor substitute for the real thing (the one in the States).

With a hat like that, your wife must be a fan of Molly Hayes.

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;332518Very nice, but frankly, it sure seems a poor substitute for the real thing (the one in the States).

I am down with you there. It doesn't even come close for size or RPG'edness to the States. Though I suspect that is due more to the organisers than the desire for it over here. There are more down to earth conventions that they have locally with more RPG content, but this one just didn't cut the grade..

Good to see people playing though.

That's interesting that you were snobbed off by the RPGA guys, and welcomed by the others. I guess whenever you make something official it becomes less friendly.

That's a real pity, and against the whole point of any association - to grow that hobby or profession.

Fucking RPGA guys, forgotten the taste of real honey.....wtf does this even mean ?

Regards,
David R

Thanks for the thread, tellius. Cool stuff.

Quote from: Kyle Aaron;332590That's interesting that you were snobbed off by the RPGA guys, and welcomed by the others.

Sort of on this topic, one of the more interesting things that we (myself, wife and couple gamer mates we went with) noted was that the Roleplaying Arena's were missing ambassadors/spruikers/friendly helpful explain-y people.

First thing that happened to us at the CCG section was a happy lady appearing next to us asking if we wanted to try our hands, decks supplied, chairs available, please sit down. We obliged.

At the wargaming section, were the rules were more complex, they begged us to stay and watch. Even going so far that in the warhammer section some staff from their city store took the time out to tell us rules (as well as glad-handing catalogues and cards .. all cool).

More of the same at the board games and the same again outside the seminars.

Not so much at the roleplaying arenas. You had to ask/inject yourself into the area. A bit strange I thought at a roleplaying convention and for a novice, no doubt very intimidating. However, I don't think that this was the fault of the players there (they were pretty friendly and surprising clean for the most part), rather the convention organisers.

But that is just my personal opinion and I hope it was just due to the time/day I was there.

It's true of other conventions in Australia and NZ, too.

I think it's just that at a small con, you don't expect any newbies, just established gamers - who need no introduction. At a larger con, you expect curious newbies, who do need an introduction. It's just a different focus.

Plus, you know, gamers are insular and all that

I went last year (GenCon Oz) and played D&D e4 and enjoyed it and looked around and bought things. I had a great time. I did not go this year. There was very little on the offical site that got me excited enough to travel 600+ klm with my family. A few people from our club were volunteers and said that it was not being supported by as many venders this year.

I hope it improves for next year, because I would love to go again. It is great for the hobby. If I lived a little closer, I would have spent at least one day there, just for a look around.

TT.