Gen Con has always been a special pilgrimage for me every year, more so since 2017 when we were proud to take the helm on Doomtown and enter the gaming industry as a new company. This year we were proud to showcase our increased line of games and announce new projects. Here is a recap of this year’s adventures at the best 4 days of gaming.
Wednesday: Set Up & Social
Our first year with our own regular booth at the convention, we arrived bright and early to get set up in the exhibition room and event hall before the annual social at Kilroy’s.
7th Sea: City of Five Sails Project Developer Carl Matherly was the best ‘right hand man’ I could ever ask for, taking care of sales, logistics, and booth management while continuing to engage existing and brand-new members to our community.
Fans got to check out the Pendragon: Glory of the Round Table demo hosted by designer Chan Sterling for the Jellop Marketing Team while Carl and I met with Studio Agate after the announcement of their continuation of the 7th Sea role-playing game to link up our future plans. Players received this year’s social promo card (Soline, the El Gato) for Five Sails and the Nabbe family cards for Doomtown.
Thursday: Demos & Side Events
Demos started bright and early with our amazing team introducing new players while existing ones got to engage in variant events; for Doomtown, an Old Timer ‘Derringer’ format and 7th Sea attaching the First Mate variant multiplayer from Fate & Fortune.
Friday: Marshal & Charity
In our final Deadwood themed Marshal Badge Round-Up for Doomtown, Charles Penn and the Entrepreneurs (Smith & Robards Trade Show) were victorious over former Marshal DeVon Green’s Outlaws (Deadwood Miner’s Alliance). Antonio Calderon was undefeated in the swiss rounds with 108 Gracious Gifts while Joe James joined the semi-final rounds with the Miner’s Alliance as well. Charles will help the Design & Story Team bring in a special Experimental Gadget (per our Patreon vote) that will be the focus of the introductory fiction for the upcoming Dodge City expansion.
In the evening, we got back to our Legend of the Five Rings roots, hosting the community for a 30th Anniversary Shiro No Name Charity Event in honor of Case Kiyonaga. The players raised $350 for the Red Panda Network in an evening of comradery joined by staff from Asmodee that provided anniversary grab bags.
Saturday: Storyline Event & Casual Call Outs
7th Sea: City of Five Sails Story Lead Carmel Rechnitzer and Design Lead Brian Mazuroswki led players through the ‘Between Rock Bottom and Hard Steel’ storyline event with all players competing to average their faction score to help their district triumph. In the end, Eisen was victorious while failure of the Vodacce will have consequences for their leaders in the upcoming fiction and next expansion.
In the evening, our players engaged in the annual O’s Call Out event for casual games of Doomtown with a twist followed by the Don’s social for Five Sails.
Special Announcement
Our friends at Pinnacle Entertainment Group held a panel to present their future plans. When discussing the 30th Anniversary of Deadlands, they revealed our next project following Pendragon, which is the Deadlands: Legends of the Weird West co-operative card game! We look forward to sharing more of this project in the coming months and we have a dedicated channel to ask questions on our Discord server.
Sunday: Finals & Final Notes
Our Five Sails elimination rounds resulted in Jon Palmer, with Eisen using Kaspar, and Tom Sorenson with Castille using the new Sanjay Leader, facing off to a Castille victory. Jackson Chan had been undefeated in swiss round with the new Ussuran Leader, Ekaterina, joined in semi-finals by Stephen Holder, representing Soline.
Laura & Carter Hold Down the Fort
I need to issue a great deal of appreciation to Marshal Laura Marie Scott and Doomtown Lead Design Richard Carter. Without their help in handling the event center, we would not be able to attend business meetings, and everything needed to man the booth while they operated the event center flawlessly year after year.
Thank You
This year was different for me as I was stationed back and forth between the event hall and our booth. At both locations, many people came up to pick up the new expansions and thanked us for continuing these games. I want to extend my thanks to everyone; it always amazes me how much larger our community is outside of those that engage us, between the kitchen table players, game stores, and those I get to see in person, my sincerest thanks to you and our growing team. Without all of you, we wouldn’t still be around now after forming the company at Gen Con in 2016. We look forward to more years with you and celebrating the 30th anniversary of Doomtown.
