As previously mentioned I have never been to a gaming con until this weekend. As a complete rookie, I didnt play any games. Thats not why, however. My company, Spiff and Swag, had a booth at the show. Charles and I manned this area for 3 days starting Friday.
I have done a lot of cons in the past, both card and comic related. I had any idea what it might be like in the dealer room, but still was a bit apprehensive. Close though they may be, comics are not games, or vice versa.
I am a former Overstreet Advisor. I wrote an article that was published in the 2002 Overstreet Price Guide market report section, and contributed to 2 other issues. Yet, when it comes to comics, I am pretty much a newb compared to a lot of those people. I never read a thousand obscure titles or memorized every little thing. I know Valiant pretty well, have an eye for value, and am an accurate grader. I also have a solid business foundation for the shows.
That leads directly into the gaming show. Charles and I have had a plan from the beginning. We split the work in a way that makes sense: he does the online marketing and auction listings and I buy and advertise for buying. Nothing else would actually work.
At a comic, or magic card, show I can talk a bit about the product. I know how hard they are to find, what the condition is, and things like this. My knowledge of the deeper aspects is often less than it should be. With games that is not the case.
I should have known it would be very different when on the first day, one of our first customers bought a Space Opera book, and we were able to discuss files we downloaded from the fumble.org Space Opera mailing list from the late 90's. My suggestions for streamlining the game and using the supplements had value for him. These people could use my information, and this was not just info on how to buy something or get a good deal.
All three days I got to use the sales skills from my old retail days, and I really got a chance to remember how much I like working with games. Its a tough business, but I hope to find my way back into it.
On Saturday a guy I recognized came in and I struck up a conversation with him. This led to him mentioning that he wanted to sell his collection. So, I offered to take a look. Twenty minutes later we had a deal and I was placing his stuff out to sell.
The Secret at work: He brought in my #1 and #2 items on my want list in his collection.
On Sunday I spent the first few hours at the auction. It was my first live auction. I won about 4 lots, and was in on many others. If I am more prepared next time Ill do even better.
Beyond the buying, I think I made some good relationships with local business people, some who I had seen a bunch of times previously. This is going to be a big help.
On to the review:
Space Opera
This RPG was published in 1979 by FGU. The writers all lived in different parts of the world, and coordinated their work remotely, which in the time before real internet access must have been ridiculous. Its clear from the finished product that this is the case.
The game tried to be the most complete science fiction RPG on the market, and given its time the only competition was Traveller. For my money, Space Opera blows Traveller away. At least you cant die during character generation...
Traveller has Space Opera trumped in the 'lots of stuff to buy' area, but in terms of quality, Space Opera made some pretty good supplements. The Star Sector Atlases are great, and I love the space navy supplements, Seldons Compendium of Starcraft 1-3. I have been trying to create a spaceship combat game based on this for years.
The Good: Rich theme. Its clear they tried to find a way to simulate all of the popular literature and film in the genre. The character generation, though clunky, adds something to the game.
Great ships. The ship books are awesome, and many have scale maps of the ships, which can easily be blown up to any scale and used in whatever game you want to run.
Varied equipment. You can buy anything from Immortality Alpha (which does pretty much what it says) to Power Assisted Personal Armor, if you want to be in Starship Troopers.
The Bad: Editing. There is no coherent theme in the writing or presentation.
Editing. These books really poory edited. Typos, no tables to reference important things but too many tables for minor stuff, and generally unprofessional looking layouts.
Character Generation. This is one place where a single table would save you an hour every time you make a character. It only took me an hour or so to make it, and its a godsend. But this isnt the only shortcoming. It completely needs an overhaul.
Editing. Seriously, this book is not well edited.
The Verdict: If you love sci-fi, read the Star Sector Atlases and Seldons books. If you want a game to actually play, look elsewhere unless you like taking a slim framework and doing many hours of customization work.
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