Troll Lord Games -- Gen Con -- Moving Forward
Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:43 pm
Greetings All,
I posted a Gencon report yesterday, but can't seem to find it anywhere, so I either did it in my sleep or didn't click the submit button and lost my musings. Either way, now that we brought the web page up to speed a bit, I'll recast my thoughts.
Gencon went very well. We had an excellent crew, top location, a bunch of new product (12 titles including reprints, it would have been 13 had the advance copies of Gord arrived), Peter Bradley merged his art booth with ours and of course, Gary Gygax stopped by the booth multiple times.
Crew: I cant express enough the advantages that the size and motivation of our crew gave to the shows success. Everyone was motivated. Breakdaddy, Huds0n, Mark, Ghul (Jeffrey T from Zagyg fame), Casey, James M, Davis and myself comprised the sales team and we hammered the floor. Even after Davis lost his voice he kept at it, though a number of customers told him to stop. Hudson ran the register and kept track of the mountain of pre-orders we got, crusader subs, money and the like. He also kept the shelves stocked as a goodly portion of the stock was beneath his working tables. Ashley did the booth babe and helped restock and Gary signed autographs until his fingers bled I think. The size of the team allowed us to take advantage of two things we have never been able to before. It allowed me the flexibility to leave the booth and acquire those things we left behind or needed (ie sales receipts THANKS KENZER, pole extenders for the banners, subscriptions fliers and the like). And the teams size allowed Todd the freedom to run 4 back to back games on Friday and Saturday, all filled with C&C goodness. All his games went very well and garnered a number of interested parties coming to the booth, despite his flash drive freezing up and him having to run the games without notes.
Location: We had our best location yet. We were close to the side entrance and on the main avenue that led to it, so we had a constant flood of traffic from this hall. This entrance was near the gaming halls I believe so we reaped a great deal of folks from it. Pitch in the sales team hollering at them to come in the booth and we were golden.
Releases: We had a bunch of new releases. A little bit for everybody I suppose. But the best seller bar none was the East Mark Folio as we sold out of the limited copies we brought. But the Airhde Folio did surprisingly well as did the PHB and MT. Now, what few are going to register in the hullabaloo of the con is Lejendary Adventure. We had the Essentials box set and they were being constantly restocked.
Peter Bradley closed his booth in the Art exhibit this year and merged with us. His eye stopping art slowed many passer bys. Next year well make a better draftsman area for him so people can watch him work (and I can irritate him with my comments).
And last but certainly not least, Gary Gygaxs presence in the booth was a HUGE boon. The line wrapped around the booth, down the aisle and on. He was pleasant as always and spent time with each fan. And EVERYONE was patient and cool when I insisted that people with infants go to the front of the line. So my hats off to all you fans of Gygax for being as cool as Gygax.
Ill give a full-blown report for the Convention Blog in Crusader 8 in the coming days.
With all that in mind we are gearing up for what's next on the agenda. The number one project is the Castle Keepers Guide and the Basic set for C&C. For LA the core book reprints. For GFW (my favorite project right now) Lejendary Pantheons. There's even more, too much more for me to get a grasp on today, but I'll post in coming days.
To note, Mark Sandy has joined us full time to help me in the office with shipping, inventory etc. So welcome aboard Mark (he has no internet or phone connection and thrives on turnip stew, so don't look for a response from him haha...no really)!!!
Steve
_________________
The High Lord, Coburg the Undying
He who sits on the elephants back
Castle and Crusade Society
troll@trolllord.com
I posted a Gencon report yesterday, but can't seem to find it anywhere, so I either did it in my sleep or didn't click the submit button and lost my musings. Either way, now that we brought the web page up to speed a bit, I'll recast my thoughts.
Gencon went very well. We had an excellent crew, top location, a bunch of new product (12 titles including reprints, it would have been 13 had the advance copies of Gord arrived), Peter Bradley merged his art booth with ours and of course, Gary Gygax stopped by the booth multiple times.
Crew: I cant express enough the advantages that the size and motivation of our crew gave to the shows success. Everyone was motivated. Breakdaddy, Huds0n, Mark, Ghul (Jeffrey T from Zagyg fame), Casey, James M, Davis and myself comprised the sales team and we hammered the floor. Even after Davis lost his voice he kept at it, though a number of customers told him to stop. Hudson ran the register and kept track of the mountain of pre-orders we got, crusader subs, money and the like. He also kept the shelves stocked as a goodly portion of the stock was beneath his working tables. Ashley did the booth babe and helped restock and Gary signed autographs until his fingers bled I think. The size of the team allowed us to take advantage of two things we have never been able to before. It allowed me the flexibility to leave the booth and acquire those things we left behind or needed (ie sales receipts THANKS KENZER, pole extenders for the banners, subscriptions fliers and the like). And the teams size allowed Todd the freedom to run 4 back to back games on Friday and Saturday, all filled with C&C goodness. All his games went very well and garnered a number of interested parties coming to the booth, despite his flash drive freezing up and him having to run the games without notes.
Location: We had our best location yet. We were close to the side entrance and on the main avenue that led to it, so we had a constant flood of traffic from this hall. This entrance was near the gaming halls I believe so we reaped a great deal of folks from it. Pitch in the sales team hollering at them to come in the booth and we were golden.
Releases: We had a bunch of new releases. A little bit for everybody I suppose. But the best seller bar none was the East Mark Folio as we sold out of the limited copies we brought. But the Airhde Folio did surprisingly well as did the PHB and MT. Now, what few are going to register in the hullabaloo of the con is Lejendary Adventure. We had the Essentials box set and they were being constantly restocked.
Peter Bradley closed his booth in the Art exhibit this year and merged with us. His eye stopping art slowed many passer bys. Next year well make a better draftsman area for him so people can watch him work (and I can irritate him with my comments).
And last but certainly not least, Gary Gygaxs presence in the booth was a HUGE boon. The line wrapped around the booth, down the aisle and on. He was pleasant as always and spent time with each fan. And EVERYONE was patient and cool when I insisted that people with infants go to the front of the line. So my hats off to all you fans of Gygax for being as cool as Gygax.
Ill give a full-blown report for the Convention Blog in Crusader 8 in the coming days.
With all that in mind we are gearing up for what's next on the agenda. The number one project is the Castle Keepers Guide and the Basic set for C&C. For LA the core book reprints. For GFW (my favorite project right now) Lejendary Pantheons. There's even more, too much more for me to get a grasp on today, but I'll post in coming days.
To note, Mark Sandy has joined us full time to help me in the office with shipping, inventory etc. So welcome aboard Mark (he has no internet or phone connection and thrives on turnip stew, so don't look for a response from him haha...no really)!!!
Steve
_________________
The High Lord, Coburg the Undying
He who sits on the elephants back
Castle and Crusade Society
troll@trolllord.com