Convention Report: Gencon 2006: Wrap-Up

By Rick Thornquist
August 16, 2006

Gencon 2006 is now over and it’s time to look back and the experience.

The convention itself, from my perspective, was very well run.  I had no problems whatsoever and everything - the hotel, registration, the Exhibit Hall, etc, just went swimmingly.  I didn’t hear any complaints from anybody else, either.  Of course, things could have happened that I didn’t hear about, but from my perspective the convention ran like clockwork.  Kudos to the Gencon people for putting on a very well-run show.

I do have to reiterate my complaint about there not being an open boardgaming area, though.  The boardgame halls are fine, but there is still the problem getting kicked off of tables to make way for events (I saw it happen to a game I was watching and I’m sure it happened many other times).  Because of this, I know people who didn’t even bother with the boardgame hall and just played elsewhere (in their hotel rooms, etc).  This splits up everybody and isn’t a good thing.  I hope the Gencon people follow the lead of Origins and give us an open boardgaming area next year.  You can even charge for a ribbon and make money off of it!

The Exhibit Hall was good and pretty busy most of the time, especially on the weekend.  I’m not sure how well the boardgame publishers did, though, as this is mostly a RPG, TCG and Miniatures convention.  When the Exhibit Hall doors opened for the first time, the rush was for the RPG, TCG and miniatures publishers - the boardgame publishers were only mildly busy at the beginning.  As the day wore on and in subsequent days, the boardgame publishers did look busier (especially Mayfair, which was always jammed).

There were enough publishers and new games there to make it worthwhile for me, but just barely.  I did stay busy but not as busy as I’ve been at other conventions.  The presence of boardgames at Gencon is just not that large, especially as compared to the RPGs, TCGs, etc.

About the games themselves… the real standout games for me were Emira from Phalanx and Mayfair Games, which looks to be a very good gamer game (though I need more playings to be sure it doesn’t go on too long) and Marvel Heroes, which, while it is a dice-rolling game at it’s core, impressed me with the adherence to the superhero theme and nice story elements (that one also, is going to require more playing).

Pretty much all of the other games I played were solidly in the ‘good’ category.  There was only one possible exception and that was It’s Good To Be The King by 3am Games.  I played it with a group and it just didn’t seem to work.  We were sure that we must have gotten some rules wrong, but I talked to the designer and I don’t think we did.  The designer suggested was may have gotten a bad card deal, which is possible.  I have a copy and am going to give it another play to see how it goes.

I was just so busy with the boardgaming stuff that I really didn’t get to see much of the rest of the convention.  The number of costumes seemed to be way less than last year - there was a very noticeable dearth of Klingons, for some reason.  There was noticeably more of the funny game geek t-shirts, though - I could have spent a whole day just taking pictures of funny shirts (though the females may not have appreciated that).  I didn’t catch any events, though I heard the Mythbusters event ended up being quite good.  I didn’t catch any of the media guests either, save for my experience at the airport. 

All in all, a good convention.  It was great seeing the usual gaming crowd, as well as meeting a few new people.  Here’s hoping that Gencon gets together an open gaming room for next year.  If so, I should be back.

Pictures - Click the picture for a larger version
	Scenes from around Gencon - The auction room
	In one of the corridors - giant houses of cards
	Farther down the corridor - a painting event
	The Trading Card Game hall
	Another view of the Trading Card Game hall
	A couple marvels at a structure in the Trading Card Game hall
	The Miniatures hall
	Another view of the Miniatures hall
	Some boardgaming celebrities - Erik Arneson of About Board / Card Games
	Designer Kevin Wilson at the Fantasy Flight Games booth
	Designer Brian Yu at the Mattel booth
	Publisher Jay Tummelson of Rio Grande Games
	Scott Tepper teaches games at the Rio Grande Games booth
	Designer Max Michael
	Podcaster Paul Tevis teaches the coin game Pieces of Eight at Atlas Games booth
	Designer Simon Hunt at the Z-Man Games booth
	Artist Franz Vohwinkel
	Boardgame News columnist Valerie Putman at the Mattel booth
	Boardgame News columnist Dale Yu caught with his fingers in the till at the Mattel booth

© 2006 Rick Thornquist

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Comments:

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Wow, so there’s Franz Vohwinkel. I can almost see what he looks like. Is that a beard under there or chest hair? How many published games has he illustrated??? Just a quick glance at a shelf, and I see his name on such diverse stuff as Princes of Florence, Wyatt Earp, Blue Moon City, Hera & Zeus, Domaine, and Samurai! Posted by Joe Czapski on Aug 16, 2006 at 06:08 PM | #

Joe, I found a listing somewhere of all of the games Vohwinkel has worked on through 2004.  It shows well over 200 games!  By now, I’m sure the total exceeds 250.  His contributions to gaming are immense.  As much as I admire Doris Matthaus’ work, Vohwinkel is easily my favorite game illustrator. Just to give you an idea of how pervasive his efforts have been, here’s a *subset* of the games he illustrated in just one year (1999): Tikal, Samurai, Medieval Merchants Big City, Kontor, Evergreen Money, Mamma Mia!, Ra, Giganten Chinatown, Union Pacific, Ricochet Robots Zirkus Flohcati, Hornochsen, Krieg und Frieden Posted by Larry Levy on Aug 16, 2006 at 07:16 PM | #

Regarding the open gaming issue at GenCon there is some good news.  Unlike prior years where we come back and gripe in silence this year the conversations have pulled in the management of Game Base 7, and Boardgame Hall coordinator Lee Maile (there are several new user IDs on boardgamegeek, someplace they’ve never been before. see http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/121754 ).  GB7 is investigating this but has asked for interested parties to get in touch with them through their yahoogroup http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/GB7/ . Also Lee has committed to monitoring a complaint thread on boardgamegeek—and helping any group interested in running an open gaming area at GenCon get set up. see: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/121792 So let us welcome these folks to our part of the community and see how far we can take this, eh? Posted by Ray Petersen on Aug 17, 2006 at 06:46 AM | #

That’s amazing. Vohwinkel has a truly incredible capability for art and graphic design, and for the number of projects he can do in one year! A big part of why I love these games is the artwork. It really adds to my enjoyment of playing the game. Found a very interesting piece on Vohwinkel from Tom Vasel at http://www.thedicetower.com/interviews/int065.htm Posted by Joe Czapski on Aug 17, 2006 at 10:24 AM | #

I like Vohwinkel’s paperclip-chain earring! Posted by Doug Orleans on Aug 17, 2006 at 11:50 AM | #

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