Thoughts After Gen Con

After some time to recover from our recent Gen Con attendance, we had our post-convention wrap-up a few days ago. We had a good time swapping our experiences from the show. We can't share all our secrets, though we can reveal a few of the more-interesting tidbits as far as our booth presence was concerned.

• Folks like our games! This isn't surprising, of course, but it's always gratifying to see that you all love our games as much as we do. More to the point, a fair number of items we brought sold out over the best four days in gaming. I noted previously how Purrfect Potions and We Love Cats leapt off the shelves. Some others that sold out include Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar and Munchkin Warm Fuzzies; the pretty-dice Gelatinous set; the ever-classic Illuminati; and the GURPS Basic Set: Characters hardcover.

• Folks really liked Munchkin Big Box! This was the first time we'd taken the crimson behemoth to sell to folks directly, so (as expected) there was a lot of interest in this amazing collection. We packed enough to satisfy everyone who wanted one, but it was pretty close! (If it was the best five days in gaming, I suspect we would've sold out completely.) It's no surprise that this one was a hit, so it was great to get it into people's hands . . . and perhaps more gratifying to hear from everyone who already had a copy from the successful BackerKit campaign.

• The future is cashless (at cons)? We only took cards this year, which greatly sped things up and led to a very small number of folks not getting what they wanted. ("Small number of folks" as in "two people," I think?) And it's safer for us, since we don't need to cart sacks of money to and from the hotel.

• We miss our friends at Possum Creek! Because we each had our own convention-hall spots before we all came together, the Steve Jackson Games and Possum Creek booths were a ways away from each other. Next year we'll do what we can to bring the teams closer together.

• It's still great to talk to fans. While obviously Gen Con is an ideal spot to show off new games, a lot of folks who stopped by the booth just loved to talk about their favorite Steve Jackson Games items in general: Ogre, The Fantasy Trip, GURPS, and more. Even though this year we primarily focused on items that had been released in the past year or so, it's still so heartwarming to know that there are folks who like talking about everything in our legacy.

In all, it was a great convention for us, and we look forward to being back in 2026!

-- Steven Marsh