Highmoon's Ponderings

I had intended to write a more thorough post on the state of the company back in March, but things have continued to transpire which have both kept me from doing that and made anything I was going to write at the moment very much invalid at this point.

As we near the end of June, and thus the first half of 2009, Highmoon Games remains in, essentially, hiatus from publishing. It has not been a good year (so far) for Highmoon Games, partly due to slumping sales and partly due to personal issues dominating my time. We were able to publish Jeremy Puckett’s Ronin: Oriental Adventures in Tokugawa Japan in its d20-compatible format but that has been it on the game supplement front. We do have other projects caught in various stages of production, including other versions of Ronin (True20 and Savage Worlds have been explored), a couple more issues of Heroic Moments, Issue 5 of Targum Magazine, a FATE/Spirit of the Century-compatible mini-setting, and True20 Ancients: Rome (this last one is done and in layout). There is also a secret project being done in conjunction with another gaming company that has not been announced yet.

On the podcast side of things, The Digital Front remains on hiatus since the beginning of the year, and as much as I want to cover certain events happening in the field of tabletop e-distribution, it has not been possible to do so. The Gamer Traveler, however, has been going very well; since turning into a blog as well as a podcast, I have been able to ramp up the number of stories published significantly, mainly because I don’t have to wait for a chance to record an episode to get them out. Episodes of the podcast have been released, but now they form an audio companion rather than the sole medium for my travel & gaming niche.

So what does the second half of 2009 hold in store? Frankly, I don’t know. The personal issue that has kept things on hold so far continues to be a major factor, so effectively Highmoon Games is to remain on hiatus until further notice. As I am able to work on some projects and bring them to fruition I’ll release them, but take those, if/when they happen, as happy surprises, not something to be expected. I am, however, not closing the company nor declaring any of the podfading any of the podcasts; I very much want to return to this endeavor once life returns to normalcy, whenever that is.

To all our customers, colleagues, supporters and friends, thank you so much for caring and inquiring and sending many well wishes.

Upon returning from Puerto Rico, I eagerly picked up a package that had been waiting for me at the Post Office. The folks at Geeky Clean, makers of gamer- and geek-inspired soaps, sent me some sample bars for me to try out and review, and frankly, I could not wait to get to it.

I met the Geeky Clean crew on Twitter when they began following my @GamerTraveler profile. When I saw the name of the account/company, I had to go check it out. I immediately loved the idea, in no small part thanks to those pretty 20-sided dice floating in the middle of the multicolored bars of glycerin (though they do have other varieties with different things stuck inside). I immediately started a back-and-forth via Twitter and no later than an hour or two later, we had exchanged emails as we discussed ways to help them promote their product. These upcoming reviews are one of those ways.

My wife and I have already been using the Health bar and we’ll go through all three in order to offer both a male and female perspective on the soaps. So far we both quite like them.

In the meantime, go and check out GeekyClean.com and marvel at the selection of geek soaps they offer, then follow them on Twitter @GeekyClean for new product announcements and surprise sales on their merchandise.

Got a call this morning from my aunt: Mom went back into the hospital today.

Lord give me strength.

I return to Miami today and leave Mom fairly stable, but at least out of the hospital. She was discharged last Sunday, and by Wednesday morning we were back at the ER because she had not properly digested the food she ate on Tuesday and her stomach was destroyed. On Wednesday morning I was afraid she would be hospitalized again, but thank G-d she wasn’t. Then this morning there was another scare, but eventually she got better on her own and not only did she eat some crackers, we were able to take her to the beach, nearby.

I’m dead beat, and tired to the bone. Even now I am awake as I get ready to fly out to Miami, having just finished packing my suitcase. I know I’m gonna crash once I sit in the plane. I return worried but thankful for the few victories we had: hemoglobin stable and even increasing a bit after discharge; digestive system settling down and starting to work with Mom, not against her; not in the hospital.

Here’s hoping that my next trip is under far better circumstances.

A couple of weeks back, Michael Erb made a post on his blog entitled “I’m a little worried about Origins…” where he talks about some of the changes at Origins Game Fair over the last couple of years, and how that makes him worried about the future of the con. I replied in the comments the following:

Completely unfounded prophecy coming up:
Origins as we know it will cease to exist in the next 5 years. GAMA will drop it as it seeks to save itself. The game play part of it will continue–Origins is THE play event of the big con season for many–but it will morph into something else, while everything else that makes it one of the big shows will evaporate. In essence, it will become a very big local con.

My prediction was picked up by Fred Hicks and mentioned in the latest episode (Season 2, Episode 1) of That’s How We Roll podcast (at the 40-ish minute mark). Fred and Chris Hanrahan go on to talk about the future of Origins, going back to my line about it becoming “a very big local con” as they wrap up. I’d like to expand a bit on my “prophecy,” if I may.

Caveat #1: I have not been to Origins, so my impression of it is based solely on anecdotal data gleaned from a bunch of people over the years in person, on the internet and on podcasts.

Caveat #2: Speculation and punditry follow. Bring your own salt.

First of all, me saying that Origins will become a very big local con is not a negative remark. When I say “local con” I think of socialization, of a level of camaraderie and community usually exemplified by small groups, and especially of a show where play is THE thing; not sales, not hawking, not unveiling the latest doo-dah, Play. Local cons tend to feature these qualities because they serve small-ish geographic areas, so if there’s a dealer’s room, it’s usually a few local stores (maybe a local publisher as well?), with the rest being ruled by games, games, games. I know this is the case in my local con down in Miami, The Summoning: it’s all about games, of as many types as possible, with a couple of vendor tables at most. I know this is a model repeated in many geographic areas across the world because I constantly see/hear reports from these cons online. So this is what I conjure with the term “local con.”

Based on what I know of Origins, it already fulfills this function and displays these qualities. Over and over I read/hear how Origins is the place to go play (in contrast to Gen Con, the other big show) and socialize. Fred and Chris sing Origins’s praises in this respect in the very same episode, as a point of example. So Origins is already the “local con” (in terms of vibe) of the big summer shows. I don’t believe that will change.

That said, I do think that in the coming years, Origins as we know it now, the “other” big con, will change. Michael’s post summarizes well the various events of the last few years that already show that Origins is in a state of metamorphosis from what it used to be, say, a decade ago. I don’t see that trend changing. In many ways, that change will be fueled by whatever GAMA decides to do with Origins.

At this moment in time, I feel GAMA is struggling to find ways to remain relevant in the Hobby Gaming Industry. They run GTS, the sole industry trade show, but one which continues to see declining numbers in attendees and vendors exhibiting (I am honestly not qualified to speculate on the reasons, but to my untrained eyes it seems the show needs to decide which segment of the industry it really wants to cater to, or do a much better job of offering value and worth to all segments equally) and they run Origins, and I can’t help but hear Sesame Street’s “One of these things is not like the other things” song when I see those two shows listed under their banner. I’m just not gonna be surprised at all if I read that GAMA sells Origins away to concentrate solely on being the Hooby Gaming Industry Trade organization they profess to be.

Do I see Origins going away completely from the big summer con schedule? Not at all, not even if sold off by GAMA or if more and more vendors stop buying booth space. Origins has claimed its stake in the summer con lineup by being the play-first choice for a lot of dual-big-show attendees, as well as for many others that choose to only attend Origins and not Gen Con. If anything, I see this feature gaining strength in the coming years, becoming the main draw of the show. In essence, a very big local con.

Hope that explains my “completely unfounded prophecy” better.

My friends and I got to play the next episode of our Primetime Adventures game, Star Wars: The Sith Triumvirate. I will be writing a complete episode report in the next few days, but I wanted to put out this one tip for all Primetime Adventures players out there independent of the write-up (I know those go long and not everyone reads them).

When playing an episode where a player character(s) has a Screen Presence of 3, sit the player(s) immediately to the right of the Producer. Since game play in PTA goes clockwise from the Producer, when the last round of play comes about, this will leave the character(s) with the main spotlight to have their scene last, thus giving them the chance to end their spotlight episode with a bang!

We learned this the hard way. The character with SP 3 was sitting first to the left of the Producer. When he framed his scene, it turned out to be the climatic scene for that character, and in effect ended the episode, even though we went to the next scene and fought with it for almost 20 minutes before we truly realized the episode had already (organically) ended and we were, honestly, just messing things up. If this player had been sitting to my right, that scene could have properly closed the episode with the proper bang.

Consider it for your next PTA game.