GenCon was fun — saw a lot of old friends and met a lot of new ones, and plenty of new customers discovered our store for the first time. Running the booth was a great learning experience and we learned a lot about how to run things from a logistical standpoint. Now that I know what to expect, things will go more smoothly next year.
Also, Star Wars Roleplaying Game: Saga Edition made out very well at the ENnies: We won the gold ENnies for Best Rules, Best d20/OGL Product, and Best Game, and we got the silver ENnie for Product of the Year. Yeah … we’re just that good.
Congrats to everyone else on the design team: Rodney Thompson, Owen K. C. Stephens, and especially Chris Perkins, who took on the roles of design manager, game designer, and managing editor at the same time. (Oh, and he was also the liaison with the D&D 4th edition team, bringing new ideas for us to play with as we went along.) Put simply, Chris is the iron man of the gaming world.
Alright, I have some pics to share after the jump, so click through if you’re interested!
Here’s a picture when we were first getting set up — we didn’t have the maps laid out or a banner on the curtain behind us yet:
Left to right: That’s Caitlin, dressed as Platt Okeefe (a smuggler created by West End Games, and instant geek street cred for anyone who recognized her); my wife, Allison (whose chair was invaluable for moving bags of goodies!); me, doing a bad Stephen Colbert impression; and Deni, dressed as Aayla Secura.
People loved their costumes.
We also made a small circular black base, like those the miniatures stand on, and the girls would pose on it doing the living statue thing. They were good. Every few minutes I’d see someone walk by and do a double-take when they realize that it’s a person standing there.
One guy’s reaction was particularly funny: He’d kneeled down to the ground to root through his backpack, and he completely bought that she was a statue … to to point that he leaned his backpack up against her leg! The rest of us were peeking over the table to see what he was doing, and, when we saw what was happening, we could just barely avoid breaking out laughing.
Finally, the guy realizes that everyone is staring at him … including, now, the “statue.” Now, it’s not too often you see an expression of utter confusion, surprise, and momentary terror on someone’s face: He yelped and flew backward about halfway across the aisle, apparently only using his butt for propulsion, and we all laughed until we cried.
It was a good day.
Finally, here are a couple of “miniatures-eye-view” pictures we took:
Some Rebel marines facing off against a squad of stormtroopers.

Some Hoth troopers and artillery defending against invading snowtroopers.
They really do look cool when they’re out of their package, don’t they?


