"What the hell just happened here?" — Brian Cross.
Gen Con 2010 has come and gone, leaving us thrilled, overwhelmed, and exhausted.
The reception for
Eclipse Phase at the con was exceptionally positive. To our own amazement, the
Eclipse Phase Core Rulebook walked away with three ENnie Awards. We received a Gold for Best Writing, a sound testament to the great work and ideas put in by our talented authors (Jack Graham, John Snead, Rob Boyle, Brian Cross, Davidson Cole, Lars Blumenstein, and Tobias Wolter). We also received Silvers for Best Cover Art (thank you
Stephan Martiniere!) and Product of the Year. Considering that we were beaten by
Pathfinder -- an unstoppable behemoth given its large fan base -- in both of those categories, we consider both of those to be absolute victories.
Beyond the awards, we received a continual barrage of appreciation from fans who loved the
EP Core Rulebook and
Sunward and couldn't wait to see more. We also sold (metaphorically and literally) quite a few new people on the game, and our sales numbers indicate we did quite well. At the end, our totals were 128 copies of
Sunward, 89
Core Books, and 75
GM Packs sold. Thanks to our faithful booth volunteers for answering questions, explaining the game, and hooking new people!
Outside of the Exhibit Hall, we had 80 players participate in our scheduled games. Almost all of our games were full, even taking in extra interested players in many cases. We heard of a couple of players who finished one game only to jump in on another with a generic ticket. A huge thanks go out to Josh, Ryan, and Brandon for running these games and handling the overflow.
The five adventures we ran during the con will all be released as PDFs in the future, so if you were a player in one of these games, we'd appreciate your playtest feedback! Send any notes you might have on missing information, game flow, and suggested tweaks to info [at] posthumanstudios [dotcom].
The EP Seminar on Friday also had a good turnout, giving us an opportunity to answer some questions in-depth and provide some behind-the-scenes details to interested folks. We also took the opportunity to poll those present on their gaming habits, and were pleased to see that the majority gamed with a laptop, iPad, or netbook at the table, and over half used PDFs during game sessions and/or to prepare for them. A majority bought both books and PDFs, while next to none bought only PDFs.
We also held a productive freelancer meeting during the con, solidifying some of the ideas for future books. Likewise, Posthuman also had a session of pitching new game ideas (not just RPGs) to each other, most of which were quite good. In fact, it's going to be a challenge deciding which games to prioritize and pursue over the next year.
There is much more to tell, but too much to cover here. We gave numerous interviews, talked to a number of interested freelancers, socialized with old friends, made new ones, tore up a dance club, finalized some licensing deals, and over all had one of our best Gen Cons ever. We're sad it's over, but we're already looking forward to next year and future conventions!
Here are some Martian plot hooks I would have crammed into 