Apparently, as the story goes, if you visit the TLG booth at GenCon, tell Steve Chenault a "story" (I'm not entirely sure what kind of story needs to be told, whether a gaming story, a story of the campaign, or some tale of drunken revelry at your step-sister's wedding) and buy the latest copy of the C&C Player's Handbook you are presented with an official TLG boon. Steve will write a special bonus you get for your character inside the front cover on the title page of the newly acquired PHB. This bonus can be a simple +1 to this or that, a +2 to something, perhaps trivial, +XP, or depending on the whim of He Who Sits Upon The Elephant's Back, something friggin' amazing!
Let me put it to you in this way, I play with a bunch of players who use to be (eh?) to be 3tards (players who love the 3E rules of the D&D game). They take special boons, privileges, and one-time rulings to the extreme, and need precise rulings on EVERYTHING! So let me say that some of TLG Steve's boons presented to my players this past GenCon were OK at best... until you dive into the punctuation and clarity of that boon.
This past Saturday, due to punctuation and clarity of said boon, we have players who want to quit their current characters and make all new ones under the, what we are now calling RULES BOON! present in one of my player's books. You think that might be the end of it, well no it wasn't. Some of the players who could not attend GenCon 2014 started asking me questions on how they could contact TLG Steve and where they should mail their check to when buying a new PHB. I told those lucky few, "alas, this boon is only presented at conventions like GenCon." Yeah, that argument didn't hold a lot of water with some of them. A few heightened words were said of Steve, GenCon, myself, and of the players that actually went to GenCon and got their PHB upgrades.
The players demanded a ruling and I spoke that He Who Sits On The Elephant's Back cannot be counter-dicted (is that even a word?) and the word was law. Oh, let me tell you the ensuing shit storm continued to pound my table like the God of Thunder himself laying low the myriad of chips, sodas, and craft beers placed upon the playing surface.
At the end of the tirades, when cooler heads prevailed and the beer was consumed, we all had a great laugh about the boons presented to the my players at GenCon 2014 this year. The arguments were a strengthening factor to the game, the players, and the system. In fact, I think that now we may have a 3-4 new GenCon attendees next year ready to plunk down their hard-earned (and hard-fought) gold pieces for a few new PHBs.
Forewarning to TLG Steve, that some of these players are already scheming on buying multiple PHBs with multiple different boons. And should Steve recognize the multiple-boon PHB buyers and refuse to give them additional bonuses, they have discussed having undercover buyers go in and get more boons.
Steve Chenault DESTROYED my C&C campaign.
~O
PS: This story is true, but a tad bit embellished. There were discussions, and some arguements, but everybody loved the idea, and I seriously think we have a few more GenCon attendees because of it. Fun stuff TLG.
