Jagarciao, did we cross paths? I was demoing for GtG in the room, often Spirit Island but also several other games. My name is Dylan, and I have long hair in a braid.
Hey dpt, yeah man... we talked for a bit and even joked about our matching birthmarks on our left forearms. You don't remember?!?!?
just kidding... I think I did see you in the room (or at least someone matching your description), but didn't get to actually interact this time around. I'll make sure to say hi next time.
It was great to meet folks! The con was crazy for me, with non-stop demos and helping out in other areas, plus hosting friends in town for the con who also had a booth I was helping with.
One thing I noticed: The expansion to the exhibitor's hall made a huge difference, with the crowds spread across a much larger area, allowing for more room to maneuver. It was wonderful!
Also at Gencon, got to play a few demo games of Oblivaeon, though I have no idea who all I might have run into. I was the awkward guy with multiple bags I was lugging around.
For the costumes, I wanted to add that I saw someone on Saturday who dressed up as Christopher and I thought it was brilliant.
Not sure what all is kosher to talk about with Oblivaeon, but here's what I think I can get away with.
-We didn't see any new heroes 
-
I missed the Q&A, but one of the answers posted helps clarify something I saw
-
The most important thing: It was long, each game I played ran 3-4 hours. There was a lot of talk about streamlining things, but the feel of the game is nearly pitch perfect. I think the reason is, at least partially, because of how much stuff is going on. Every single round something is happenning, something is triggering and you're making progress one way or another. I knew it was running long, I wasn't unaware of the time, but I never once got bored or frustrated (in a bad way, plenty of frustration from not being able to do all the everythings all the time) because there was always something constructive to do on the game board.
-
A theory? There is probably going to be a whole thread or two filled with rules questions that come up with strange iinteractions with the 2 zone set-up. Most of them are answered by the rule that nothing effects things across the battle zone border, but some oddball things will probably still come up.
The Prime War stuff I'll withhold an opinion until we hear more, but it doesn't surprise me per se. I just hope we still get Darkwatch characters, I love me some Expat.
The only negative surprise I got is the rumor of Spirit Island being pushed back yet again, to the spring I believe it was said. It isn't a crushing blow or anything, but I've been dying to get my hands on my own copy so I can kidnap people, tie them to chairs and force them to play… I mean, ask them to play… of course. 
It was Jodie Wren who dresses as Christopher per the GtG Twitter account.
In one of his questions at the Q&A, Andy was concerned about revealing playtester stuff. Christopher indicated that the material from the demos at GenCon was public.
There were indeed no new heroes there. (I'm sure part of the thinking was that the OblivAeon format is complicated enough that throwing new heroes into the mix would not help.) Christopher and Adam did say a little about them.
- Stuntman likes to steal the scene. Legacy might play a card, and then Stuntman jumps in: "That's great, Legacy. Now we'll do this and this and this..." It was also a fun deck to design because it uses lots of movie tropes.
- Benchmark has hardware cards and software cards, and needs a certain amount of hardware to keep his software in play.
This is great info for those of us who weren’t there - thanks to everybody who’s posting!
I ran demos for a lot fo games, I can tell you that Bottom of the Ninth went over extremely well at Gen-Con and we sold out of the Big League expansion and put a hurt into the supply of the base game. Finding out you get the whole game and 20 characters for $20 was a huge selling point.
First two games I ran went to bases loaded and 2 outs. One ended with a 2-2 Grand Slam, the other ended with a walk off walk on a full count.
Later in the Con I was explaining the Crush mechanic and stated we'd never had a first pitch Home Run, and it happened right then, batter rolled 2 sixes and that was it. They only knew a part of the game and it was over.
Best sales pitch ever: Couple walks up to me, "What's this game?" - "It's a baseball game, would you like to try a demo?" - "No, we're just going to buy it." That's Guise-level salesmanship right there folks.
Demoing SotM I ran into a situation I thought was rare, I had over a dozen people play the game for the first time, and quite a few bought the core game right away. Note that I ran SotM demoes for roughly 1 1/2 days of the con.
Ran an OblivAeon demo for a group that had all played before, but only 2 were real hardcore players. They all loved the game, said the whole thing felt incredibly huge and epic. We're still working on improving it, but the overall feel to the fight is where we want it. Meeting a lot of playtesters and talking shop about OblivAeon was a fantastic experience.
My experience with Laser Ryders:
Saw it on the table being played, thought, "Wow that looks lame, why is that here?".
Next day found out GtG is making it, watched a game, thought "Hey, that could be kind of fun."
Next day sat down and played a demo. I was Laser Shark. I loved the game, and with real components (instead of cardstock) the game is going to be super fun. I will be backing it. Doesn't take itself seriously, but is well designed and both strategic and competetive in great ways. Not hard at all to learn either.
Ran a Fate of the Elder Gods demo, and because I got one major rule wrong the game lasted 2 hours. Once we found out what I was doing wrong the game ended that round. Everyone had fun, and agreed that the spells made more sense and the game would have been even better if I hadn't screwed up. It is a good game.
Meeting 2 members of the Adaptive Subroutines was really cool. Sadly we failed to get a game of tactics in, but it was great to meet and talk Tactics with one of the tournament teams when I play a much more casual game of tactics.
Not everyone appreciates constant Star Trek IV jokes when they are playing New Bedford or Nantucket. This is a sure sign that our society is heading in the wrong direction. (Seriously, if you use the right light filters you can see the shimmer of a Klingon cloaking device on one of the "empty sea" tokens)
Isle of Train puns is a good game, (don't play with eviltoon, he's not very helpful) as is Heartland Trucking company. Even if my trucking career ended with me and a bunch of pigs in the back of the truck eating our undelivered soy beans because we were broke and out of gas.
Spirit Island is a fantastic game. I really enjoyed finally getting a chance to play it, even if it was the demo and therefore a bit simplified.
One of my favorite moments was running a Villains of the Multiverse promo for a group that I found out part-way through had never played SotM before (up that total to 15 people) but had played Tactics. They won, and really liked the game. As a playtester, that meant a lot. We worked hard on that expansion and seeing people enjoy it like that was really cool.
Found out a few neat things in the meet and greet.
1. The new foil cards are gorgeous. I told Adam (only half-joking) that if they had advertised it as meet and greet the new foil cards they would have had a bigger crowd. People loved the new powers and the new heroes, but the work on the foil was the most impressive. I was expecting better foil work than you get with most CCGs, but this went far beyond even that. The Fanatic cards were my favorite, and the Extreme Prime Wardens were all breathtaking. I can't say enough about what a great job Adam and Jennifer (she did the foil design work) did on these cards.
2. The saddest art in the game is the Lifeline incap. Adam said that, and I agree.
3. Some of the characters in SotM are from an earler comic Adam drew, including Apostate, who was apparently based on Christopher at the time.
4. The secret to getting cool info about the characters is to talk to Adam when Christopher isn't around, Christopher like to be cryptic and leave you looking for answers, Adam will tell you a lot more about the characters. (that whole Apostate angle started to make sense there, Christopher really enjoys messing with people)
My experience with Laser Ryders: Saw it on the table being played, thought, "Wow that looks lame, why is that here?".
Next day found out GtG is making it, watched a game, thought "Hey, that could be kind of fun."
Next day sat down and played a demo. I was Laser Shark. I loved the game, and with real components (instead of cardstock) the game is going to be super fun. I will be backing it. Doesn't take itself seriously, but is well designed and both strategic and competetive in great ways. Not hard at all to learn either.
This was exactly my experience with this game at PAX!
It was great to see some old faces again and put new faces to the names I've seen on the forums. The week was really hectic and I'm still recovering from the post-con crash. The Spirit Island demos went really well - most of the groups were really into it and nearly all of the demos I ran came down to the wire.
There was a pretty constant stream of demos running at most of the tables; even in between the ticketed events, there was always someone around looking to play. Having our own room this year really helped; last year we had the same amount of space, but the wall between our side and Asmadi's side was gone, so it was louder and less cozy.
I didn't spend much time in the dealer hall, but the few times I passed by the booth, it was pretty packed.
The costume contest had a good turnout; some of them were really incredible. I was running a demo at the time, so couldn't give it the attention it deserved - does anyone have pictures posted?
Don't go giving away my big secret to everyone!
I'm so pleased to see everybody posting! The show is _way_ to big to get a feel for everything that's going on. It's great to hear what was happening elsewhere.
I was there on Saturday afternoon with my son (age 10, known in forums as the Grasshopper). He was so excited once we got our badges that once we figured out how to get into the dealer hall (we started out in the exhibit hall with all the empty demo tables & oversized King of Tokyo), he insisted on finding the GtG booth first. This would have been between 11:30 and noon or so on Sat. He got a punch card; we got the social media punch right away, and played a couple rounds of Nantucket before a combination of hungry and cross country practice caught up with him and we had to go take a break and eat. In the GtG room, he played the video game version on one of the iPad minis for a while, and I got to meet Dylan (I'm the chemistry teacher who was interested in Compounded) and look through some other stuff.
I have a picture of the awesome Fanatic costume, although I thought it was PW and not Redeemer. The Grasshopper was in the bathroom, or I would have helped model the photograph discussion we had before leaving home. (I did it anyway - the rule was "ask permission" - he just didn't see it.)
Got to wave hi to Rabit, and introduced the Grasshopper to Andy. I think I made him uncomfortable in describing him as one of the most important volunteers for GtG, although that's certainly the perception that the forums & my experience at Who's Yer Con have given me. Andy, if I did make you uncomfortable, I'm sorry - that wasn't my intent. The kiddo had just had to endure a few other instances of me greeting other people I knew and not having a perception of why I thought they were important. But, he was also wearing out at that point, so I'm sure his ability to cope was going away.
Seriously?! Ugh, that's super annoying to me. Too many irons in the fire at GtG to get me my game quickly. They projected October only a month ago…grr.
You're probably right about PW vs. Redeemer.
You didn't make me uncomfortable, I'm just keen to give credit where credit's due, and there are a lot of people who volunteered a LOT more time at this GenCon then I did -- about forty or so, I'd say. I do tend to help a bit for setup and breakdown at GenCon, but aside from that, the last con I volunteered for GtG was in 2013. As for Who's Yer Con, yes, I organized a thing, but it wasn't an official event, just something we did for fun that anyone who has a regional con nearby could do.
Well here's a pic from twitter of that cosplay EDIT: Apparently yours, jffdougan ;-): x.com
I think it’s fun to hear how other demo-runners have such a similar time to me running Bottom of the 9th. So many people come in intrigued yet skeptical…and then fifteen minutes later they buy it.
Phantaskippy: sounds like you did a little too much LDS.
Edit: correct silly typo. I didn’t have a tune, I had a time.
I'm guessing that's just a rumor. I talked about the production extensively with the GtG folks, and didn't get that vibe. I didn't ask directly, but did you get that directly from GtG?
[quote="jffdougan"] ...I got to meet Dylan (I'm the chemistry teacher who was interested in Compounded)... [/quote] Ah, that was you! I looked for you, but didn't get a chance to actually play Compounded with you and your son. It is a fun game, although it reflects some rather questionable safety procedures. (If you want a fire extinguisher, you have to build it during the game...)I got the impression that the Spring statement applied to new pre-orders and that Kickstarter orders would ship this year.
In that case let me see what I can remember, feel free to skip if you want minimal spoilers for Oblivaeon. Of course, no need to remind people that A) Tired minds forget and B) all playtest material
- Saw a bunch of the Scions. The was one called Nixious the Chosen, looked creepy and robed, what I find interesting is that he had the keyword "Master of the Flock". I'd place money that he was the revious owner fo the Mask of the Matriarch. This is worrying for Lillian, because when he flips he turns into a giant chaos worm looking thing. Also so one called Darkmind who looked an awful lot like the green thought form of the Dark Visionary, so I think we'll be able to confirm those theories as correct. By the way, no color on any of these, just "simple" line art, but thinking back I bet the one called Borr the Unstable is the red and green guy from the SW sentinels one shot and Tempest's Flash Flood. Faultless seems to be the one who is the heroic scion, when we flipped him he became a hero target and began healing us.
-Mechanically, An Aeon man is played from the Aeon Man deck every villain turn, in either battlezone (their are two different villain and environment turns, one for each battlezone, hero turn order is not effected by switching zones). There were thralls, locuses, warriors, and another type. Standard minion fare, hitting the highest, hitting the lowest, buffing, playing Oblivaeon cards, healing Aeon Men targets when destroyed. Scions only play cards from the Scion deck when their card says to, so maybe at the beginning of the turn, maybe only when they take damage. Oblivaeon plays cards from his deck, usually they are pretty terrible, and he can actually play things in other battlezones if the card says so and can move himself between zones with the right card. He also mills the environment deck, kind of similiar to Deadline.
- We played with 2 heroes per player, total of 10 heroes. H=5 though. The idea was that when one of your heroes died, which happened often enough, that you would immediately place your new hero into play (often getting faceblasted in the proccess) and then you could use the incap abilities of the old hero followed by the new heros turn. We had a total of 5 environment decks, though in neither game did we get anhywhere close to losing them all. Same concept, when an environment was destroyed, a new one took it's place.
- The mission deck was full of 2 sided cards, unfortuantely I did not see any art for them. We had two different ways to handle the top card of the mission deck, not sure which one would be correct, but a new mission would get played from the bottom of the deck every environment phase, into whichever environments turn it was. They were either a set of conditions (discard h+1 cards this turn, take 2 psychic damage 3 times, ect) or a target who washelping the villains. After being defeated they flip over and become either a hero character card on your side or an ongoing or equipment on field or in hand. Positive sides I remember: Citizen Storm, Devastating Aurora (only time I've ever been happy to see that card), Everyman (believe to be Prolotariat), Hellion (possibly the Apostate from the Gate [turns all artifacts indestructible, we gave him to Fanatic who had Aegis of Resurrection
]), Mechanical T-Rex, Chekov's Hairdryer (An awesome power granting equipment, that I really hope is the Wraith's Hairdryer), Oblivaeon Shard, Pinnacle of Humanity, A Brother's Sacrifice. Honestly, I don't remember most of the negative sides, but I do remember one we didn't get where the mission was to Summon the Colliseium, so Kaagra or her bloodsworn pop up. Also had a Raid on F.I.L.T.E.R. that we never completed.
- Oblivaeon started with a Shield Card and Infinite HP. Playing a scion into the Battlezone he was not in. He also destroys H hero cards and deals all hero targets H damage and all hs damage is irreducbile and unredirectable. BTW, my first hero choice was the SW Sentinels, they did not last long taking that much damage. After you take down the shield, per whatever rules the shield states, Oblivaeon flips to the next page in his booklet (not sure if that is playtest material or their plan for a multiple flip villain, but it was cool to realize he was a booklet instead of a card). Flip side has 200 hp, and the adaptive plating abilitiy to become immune to the last damage type he took, which is then also the damage type he deals on his turn to a single target, think Highest Hp. His damage is no longer always irreducible and it can again be redirected. This turns out to be the longest side in my experience and most groups finished the game due to time on this side from what I heard. After you take out those 200 hp, he flips again. On his final side he has 90 hp and deals multiple types of damage to multiple sets of targets. We never had him on this side for long, by this point a single turn was long enough to finish him with the game where we achieved victory. Whenever he deals energy damage, he heals back up by the amount of damage. We did see the 5,000 Infernal damage card, think of an End of Days but with damage, Oblivaeon is immune to this damage unfortuanetly, so even when you can redirect it, it doesn't hurt him, and it already hits all targets in that battlezone. Next Evolution and Lead from the Front allowed LEgacy to tank apporximately 70,000 infernal damage over one of the games though, which was amazing.
-Moing between battlezones requires skipping a play, power, or draw. In the first game we asssumed these were phases, like they always were, but over half way through the second game there was clarification that you could skip a play at the start of your turn to move as well, so it could be possble to only have to skip a single instance of any of those to move, which opens up many possibilities that could change the approaches we had, because our biggest problem was being able to move to the battlezone with Oblivaeon and do something useful before the large number of enemy targets we let build up tore us to pieces.
Can't think of anything else off the top of my head.