On the Road with the Dead Gentlemen

What? Could it really happen? Were we finally on the last day of our GenCon Indy 2004 Adventure?!?! Both relieved and disappointed, the Gentlemen stumbled out of bed to prepare for one final day of total Con goodness.

Sunday was similar to Day 3 and Day 2, except that it was Sunday, Day 4. The booth was (again) constantly surrounded by a throng of smiling, chuckling, and sometimes even boisterously laughing, gamers, all enjoying Dead Camper Lake and/or The Gamers that we had playing on the tv at the booth. Many fans were quoting whole sections of The Gamers, and we could tell they couldn’t wait to pick up all the quotes from Dead Camper Lake and quote those too.

In the morning, Phil went wandering around the Hall in search of dice. Not just any dice, however, but the impressive dice from Crystal Caste. Finally finding the Crystal Caste booth, Phil cuaght up with Michael Bowling, the main force behind the crystalline dice company. Michael’s wares are really impressive. Check out their stuff at their website: http://www.crystalcaste.com

Despite a few great drop-ins by interestingly costumed individuals (the characters are apparantly from Sailor Moon. Yeah, I don’t know either), the day eventually came to a close. Needing to whisk away for a filght a few hours away, the Gentlemen broke down the DGP booth in an hour and fifteen minutes, setting a new DG record (yes, we have lame contests). Although sad, we were sent off with a fine fairwell from our favorite Aaron and Cristi Williams, as well as Mike Stackpole, renowned game designer and author. It was a beautiful and fitting goodbye.

The trip to the airport was a sleep-deprived and hunger-filled blur, as was the wait for our delayed flight (awesome!). The trip home was filled with sleep, talking about the Con, and spacing out. We arrived at SeaTac airport at 12:30am Monday morning and were gone by 1:30am. It was an exhausting end to an exhausting, but truly excellent, Con.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the booth, ran into us on the floor, played games with us, or just simply supported us with their presence. We really appreciate it!

Wow, talk about tired. The Dead Gentlemen arose Saturday morning early (7am), which was, to say the least, painful. But the reason was noble. Or at least that’s Steve tried to reassure us. Why were we up so early? To attend Tracy and Laura Hickman’s Killer Breakfast, that’s why! Silly. The Killer Breakfast was packed. None of the Gents got a chance to work their magic with the Hickmans, but it was a fun time nonetheless. Margaret Weiss helped the Hickmans kick off the role-playing, sing-a-long event. Good fun, good fun.

The Dead Gents rushed off from the Killer Breakfast to prep the booth before the (theoretically) busy day to follow. After the premiere of Dead Camper Lake and the encore performance of The Gamers, we were expecting a big rush at the booth. And holy business cards, we were right. On at least five different occasions, there was a line from our table. And Chris wasn’t even naked. Yet. At one point, we even stopped traffic along the walkway, which, considering our corner position, was a great feat indeed. I mean, it’s no Power Attack, but it’s still a great feat. Haha…yeah, I’m stretching here.

We had many…er…interesting characters stop by the booth throughout the day. Most notable was Boba Fett (a really cool costume, actually) and a chainmail bikini woman (by all the pictures taken of her, I guess it was a really cool costume, too). During one of their breaks, Phil and David stumbled upon Dead Camper Lake and The Gamers being sold at another booth in the exhibition hall. Other people selling your stuff: that’s a good sign. They also ran into a female Stormtrooper. Again, judging by the amount of photos taken, her costume must’ve been cool too.

After a long, hard-fought day of selling and chatting, the Gents went out to the Ram with Aaron and Cristi Williams, two of the most fantastic people you will ever, ever meet. They are absolutely fabulous. Aaron is the creator of Nodwick, the popular gaming comic. They are great. We love them. Steve ordered a burger that weighed about as much as he did, and Phil bet him he couldn’t eat it all. Steve agreed. Yeah, rather anticlimactic, but understandable. After dinner, the Gents plus Shoe and Cooks participated in the destruction of Card City, the impressive card skyline that had been created to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation. If only we could have Godzillaed it instead of hucking coins at the structures. Ah well, a boy can hope, can’t he?

The night wrapped up with another game of D&D Minis and Hex Hex with the Cooks and Shoe, followed by beautiful, precious sleep (not with the Cooks and Shoe).

Ah, Day 2. Day 2 was a good day. It was a good day for many reasons. Chief among them is the fact that the DG booth was busier than Day 1. Take that Day 1!

But in all seriousness, Day 2 was quite hectic. Matt (Rogar from the Gamers) entered into a Legends of the Five Rings tournament (the L5R tourney of the year), and joined the massive throng of other L5Rers to test their individual deck’s might. Although he only lasted a few rounds (due to the fact that he was playing with a put-together-at-the-last-minute deck), he still had a great time.

Day 2 also saw a significant increase in the amount of Gamers fans (and you thought it wasn’t possible). Countless times, people would walk past the booth and stop, motioning to their companions, saying, “Yo, dude, this is the movie I was telling you about!”

“The one you laughed your ass off at and won’t stop quoting in our gaming sessoins?” the other would inquire.

“Yeah, that one,” the first would confirm, “Buy 6 copies.”

Ok, so it didn’t go exactly like that every time, but many a Gamers fan stopped to share in their favorite Gamers moments with DG and other GenCon attendees. There were numerous requests for autographs and pictures with the company, as well as many special requests for “Rogar only.” Of note, a ten year old boy asked if Matt would sign his foam swords (one was his, the other was his sister’s) and pose for a picture with him. Wow, the cutest moment of the Con, by far!

By the time the Exhibition Hall was closing, the Gentlemen were prepping for their big night. That’s right: The Dead Camper Lake World Premiere! Held in the spacious White River Ballroom, the Gentlemen set up for a night of profound comedy and exquisite cimena. And boy did they deliver! In attendance were approximately 200 eager gamers, ready to be entertained. Following the encore showing of The Gamers, said audience members sat back to enjoy a fine slice of Dead Gentlemen style comedy. The premiere went off without a hitch and was well received by the audience. Mark one (more) up for Dead Gentlemen Productions!

Meanwhile, Chris was hosting the Ennies, the award show organized, sponsered, and named after the popular gaming site, Enworld. Chris delivered his usual combination of wit and charisma, and even threw in a little sass for the audience. During his introduction, he mentioned that he was with “Dead Gentlemen Productions, the independent film company that brought you ‘The Gamers,’” at which point the audience erupted in applause and cheering. Note that this was a hall full of game developers and publicists, all cheering like kids at a baseball game for The Gamers. Chris beamed.

After a successful night of screenings and hostings, the Gentlemen retired early (read: 2:30am) to start anew the next day.

The morning arrived too early, though the excitement of the upcoming day’s events was palpable. The seven of us arrived at the booth (sans Rita who got her badge that morning), and finished setting up. The throngs of attendees massed at the exhibitor hall gates, and at 10 am sharp, they stampeded. The bulls of Pamplona have nothing on the Gamers of Gen Con.

What a day! Tracy and Laura Hickman dropped by and invited us to join them at their Killer Breakfast on Saturday–first level characters are handed to each attendee and their lifespans are determined by how long the player each player can entertain the Hickmans. Some of us attended this at GenCon SoCal - VERY entertaining! Rob Stewart from Paizo Publishing sauntered over to give his regards. It was rather easy since the Paizo booth is 10 feet from ours. And we made our first sale of Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake to Brian of Pandahead Games!

The booth remained flooded with fellow gamers the entire day. (Boy, are we exhausted). But when the exhibition hall closed at 6 pm there was no time to rest as we were off to the Epic Level Party: Dungeons and Dragons’ 30th anniversary extravaganza. Catered food from the Ram and a dance floor were among the entertainments provided. crowdDead Gentlemen Productions was one of FIVE vendors asked to share their respective talents at the party, with each company each chosen based on their contribution to the mythos of Dungeons and Dragons. Among the others honored with this selection were True Dungeon and Edhellen Armory, fine company to keep indeed. Chris, Dave, and Steve had experienced True Dungeon earlier that afternoon and were impressed with its quality and happy to survive to the end of the adventure. Edhellen had given us several of their high-quality foam weapons at GenCon SoCal (which we’ve happily been using to beat each other senseless ever since), and it was good to see them again.

The exquisite day ended with a late night run to the Ram (open 24 hours with a room only for gaming: booyah!), followed by another game of D&D Minis with Steve Schubert and a game of Hex Hex with Steve Cook. Like the saying goes: “late to bed, early to rise, makes a gamer sleepy, clumsy, and more prone to random laughter at otherwise not-funny things.” Or something like that.

The morning sunrise was beautiful, but unfortunately we wouldn’t see it for another couple hours. With a flight leaving for Chicago at 6:10am there was little time for sleep and even less for sunrises.

We reached SeaTac airport with time to spare (we thought) until it became apparent that the electronic check-in wasn’t an option and we’d need to check our luggage (and those beautiful Gamers and Dead Camper Lake DVDs) the old-fashioned way. The line was relatively quick, and we managed to keep the folks around us entertained with our banter, but by the time we checked in there were only minutes to spare before departure. Time to hussle!

Luck was with us as we climbed aboard our ambassador to the Midwest and buckled into our none-too-spacious coach accomodations. Turbulence was kept to a minimum, and Phil and Chris found themselves sitting in front of Chris Perkins as the flight sped to Chicago. A brief lay-over was accompanied by a pleasant talk with Mr. Perkins while we all waited for our connecting flight to Indianapolis and Gamer Mecca.

The intrepid Ben Dobyns was waiting for us at the airport and quickly shuttled us off to the convention center. Although being assured it was a pleasant Midwest afternoon, Steve was heard to say, “I’m sweating in places I didn’t know I could sweat from.” After receiving our exhibitor badges, we commenced to unload Ben’s van and setup the booth. We retrieved some of our merchandise from Steve Schubert and Steve and Rachel Cook, friends of ours who were kind enough to fly out with some boxes. Hats off to them!

On our way to dinner, we beheld the horredous glory that is the GenCon badge registration line. Damn. Disneyland lines are for lightweights. We gamers are a stalwart bunch.

We headed out to dinner with the Cooks and the Shoe at Buca di Beppos, a family style Italian restaurant of epic proportions. It was exactly what our famished bodies needed.

After dinner, we ran (waddled) into Rob Stewart of Paizo Publishing, a good friend. Rob rocks (Arrrr! See you in October, Rob!).

We closed out the evening learning and playing a thrilling game of D&D Miniatures. Phil and his bugbears swarmed their way to victory, defeating Chris’ gouth, Steve’s jolly blackguard, and Dave’s rakshasa. Lesson learned: never send dire rats to do a bugbear’s job. Unless you give them levels in monk.

Although exhausted and sweaty, we’re excited for tomorrow: the first of the four best days in gaming. And the first day for people to buy Dead Camper Lake on DVD!

All for now! Boo-*yawn*-yah!