I’M A TRAVELIN’ MAN
< July 4, 2008
Well, I’m back! Feels like I’ve been on the road forever even though it was just a week. ;) Memo to self: never, ever fly through O’Hare.
My first stop was the Origins Games Fair in Columbus, Ohio — the first of the two big summer conventions. I met up with Darren, Jason, and Tina, cleverly planning my arrival so that they would have done all the work setting up the booth already. Since we’re not going to have our own booth at GenCon (being as how we’re part of the massive Cryptic set-up), we opted not to ship the whole magilla out and went with a smaller, simpler arrangement. Sales at the show were pretty steady, leading to stronger earnings than anticipated. Traffic at the booth was steady, giving us lots of people to chat with. Many fans stopped by with questions about Champions Online, and Lead Designer Randy Mosiondz was on hand to talk with ’em about the game.
And to top it all off, we won the Origins Award for game-related fiction for Astounding Hero Tales! Congrats in particular to editor Jim Lowder, who did all the work. I like this “produce books that Steve doesn’t have to do any work on” thing; we’ll have to see if we can adopt it for other projects. ;)
I didn’t see a whole lot of new stuff at Origins that grabbed my attention; I think most RPG producers are either (a) waiting for GenCon, and/or (b) waiting to let the D&D4 furor die down a bit. Mostly I spent waaaay too much money on Osprey Books; one of the dealers was running a 15% off special I just couldn’t resist. I focused on books from the “Fortress” series — research fodder for The Ultimate Base. ;) Beyond that I bought a few things for Pulp-era gaming, primarily Ken Hite’s fascinating Trail Of Cthulhu, which I’m looking forward to reading.
I left Origins a few hours early to jet out to San Jose so I could attend one of Cryptic’s “media days” to showcase Champions Online for the gaming media — in this particular case, the international media. Along with Champions creator George MacDonald, I answered questions about the Champions RPG and our work with Cryptic. My printout of Monster Island attracted lots of attention (just as it did at Origins). I stayed on at Cryptic another day to meet more of the development team, attend some meetings, and oooh and ahhh over all the cool concept art that has not yet been revealed to the public. The Cryptic guys are doing some awesome stuff!
Now that I’m back it’s time to put my shoulder to the wheel once more. While waiting for Andy to send me the layouts on The Book Of The Destroyer, I’m going to do the formal write-up for the Champions two-hour booth demo we’ll be running at GenCon. Hopefully that won’t take too long; when it’s done I’ll start getting Shades Of Black ready for its print debut.
Fireworks, Etc.
And of course, happy Fourth of July! We hope all our American fans will enjoy the day with picnics, fireworks, trips to the beach... or perhaps some gaming on one’s day off. ;)
Product Highlight: The HERO System Vehicle Sourcebook
While writing about Dr. Destroyer’s tech I’ve found myself consulting several books frequently, and one of them is our awesome book of vehicles of all types. I figured the book definitely deserved a plug, so be sure to pick one up if you don’t have it already!
The HERO System Vehicle Sourcebook
Convention Calendar
Here’s Hero’s current confirmed schedule for the summer convention season:
Spocon (August 1-3, Spokane, WA; http://www.spocon.us): Steve will be a guest at this con.
GenCon (August 14-17, Indianapolis, IN; http://www.gencon.com/2008/indy/): The biggest show of the year. We’ll be sharing a booth with Cryptic, running demos, selling books, and debuting The Book Of The Destroyer.
Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) (August 29-31, Seattle, WA; http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/): One of the big annual events for computer gaming. Cryptic will be there in force, backed by Darren, Jason, Tina, Andy, and maaaaybe me.
Online Store Special
The Online Store is currently running another special! For a limited time, if you purchase $50 or more of books or other physical products from the Online Store, we will include a special item from the Hero Vaults, hand-picked by the Office Goddess herself, Tina. So act now before the vaults are emptied!
And that’s the week in review here at Hero Games. Come back in seven for the latest news, updates, and information. ;)—Steve Long
HERO System Line Developer