GenCon 2000, Game Fair

A purely personal view by Chris Payne

This year, GenCon UK was in Manchester. I'd never been to Manchester before. I think we only found this out with about 2 or 3 months to go, and information seemed very scarce until the final few weeks. This is really useful for those of us with jobs, and work colleagues who have to schedule leave in advance and around each other. And before I commit 3 days of leave and my money to something I'd like to have an idea what I'm going to get in return. It must be said early on, that I don't do LARP, and have no interest in trying it and actively dislike the whole World of Darkness as non-positive roleplaying.

Now, I've been to all the Loughborough GenCons and none of the ones before at Camber Sands. I've always come away thinking that if this is the flagship of the hobby, then it's really rather sad. Perhaps I should pre-register, and thus confirm that I get to do something, rather than be the casual day visitor who then expects to do something / see something / get something in return for my effort and money.

After unfortunate advice and misinformation from the railtrack helpline and the local railway station, we ended up driving up to Manchester - about four and half hours from here, solid driving. In the end I made the decision to go up because of the chance to see some of the Clan War bounty hunters, with a vague notion that we might discuss how to further CW in Britain, and talk about tournaments etc (see my later article on tournaments).

Table space was provided courtesy of Esdevium wholesalers, Wizards I believe having said that there was no space for a CW tournament.

Once again, Wizards' marketing showed itself off, wanting a full £5 per day, even for Sunday which is a half day - a number of other conventions that offer less on the Sunday, offer a reduced weekend ticket. I was not alone in not being impressed with this, and only bought a Saturday ticket. If it was any good, I could always go back on the Sunday.

The things one hears of American GenCon - freebies, demonstrations, special show offers from the traders, special promotional items etc, just never seem to materialise at GenCon UK. Yes, I suppose I could have got various items signed by the Magic card artists, but I gave the cards a miss after Fallen Empires. I suppose things were better this year: as a casual visitor I did have the chance to join in some RPG sessions (instead I chose to stay on the CW stand), and I got to play L5R Diskwars and there were some new boardgames I could have tried. Outside of the Esdevium Hall though it seemed as dire as ever, except this year there were bits in buildings all over the place. Little in the way of show "specials" from the traders (except the Dune RPG book which I chose not to buy).

To return to the Esdevium Hall though. "Woody" and "Martin" seemed to be sterling work putting on the CW demo's and L5R Diskwars. The Fantasy Flight people had made the trip over, and were demonstrating normal and Doomtown diskwars. By the time I got there on Saturday afternoon I think lots of people were flagging - only having put something on now for a day, I can imagine after 3 days it's pretty tiring.

I ended up running a CW game for some people from High Wycombe - (there should have been a picture, but on my return from GenConUK I immediately went down with a bad cough and fever: ended up having two days off work, and thus haven't used the rest of the film up. I've had a few clues on how White Dwarf take army pictures, and whilst I haven't got the equipment, much of the secret, as always is in the positioning and the lighting. Should have the pictures next time) whilst Woody had a break. Whilst there were some figure catalogues to give out, it would have been nice to have had some "I've got your Warhammer posters, etc" (I understand there were problems this year; but as a paying attendee I expect better). Having some of my OniCrusher cards I gave them out, and they've made contact post convention - it may well be that we'll meet up at Dragonmeet (www.dragonmeet.com), or some other convention.

(nb. Disks not shown full size)

Diskwars was a new game to me and a couple of the disks are scanned in to the left. Plays in about 20/30 minutes and great fun. The Five Rings components also appear to be of good quality and finish (I have no idea on the others). With keeping the Clan war game going then I didn't chance to get back to the Trade Hall and see if my favourite trader could cut us a deal on multiple army boxes and boosters. We did get to keep however a promotional card with a couple of disks on it of Dairya and the Demon Bride of Fu Leng. And the demo worked - I've recently bought a Phoenix starter set!

The downside to L5R Diskwars would seem to be a poorly constructed rulebook (they seem to have forgot to alter a number of terms for the Five Rings version as they cut and pasted), rumours of poor distribution in the expansion packs and the cost of the expansion blisters - $5 in the States, £5 over here (although Leisure games have them for £4) - hence looking to buy a box with a gaming chum who had gone independently to the show. Perhaps next year I might join in a tourney... Still I liked the game so much I bought a Phoenix starter and one blister from Leisure Games.

He gave it 5 or 6/10 (same as previous years) for the day visitor. I tend to concur, and remain to be convinced that it's worth 3 days of leave, and around £150 to become residential. Given the extra distance from here, it remains to be seen if I go back as a casual visitor.