(This is kind of long but it runs down the gist of my experience with it.)

I had the chance to head over to Origins a couple of weekends ago and I had a blast! At first the money I shelled out for my son and I to go seemed to be way too much.

Cons:
The organization of the event wasn't the best. I certainly would have done it differently, but hindsight is 20/20 (honestly I don't even know what that means) right?

The D&D games were all way off on a different floor and a whole room by themselves. First day I was there I didn't even know they had anything at the show at all. When I did finally find them I was perusing the books. Some gentleman came behind me and I was told to step aside while the gentleman behind the counter helped the other men behind me. What the heck is that about? UGh! I was livid. Anyway we left there and didn't even sit to play a game.

Pros:
Their LARP dungeon adventure based on D&D 3.5 was very cool. In fact every day they expanded the adventure from the day before. And after you have gone through the adventure you were allowed to be an NPC for the adventure. All and all it was very nicely done. The cute little Dark Elf lady wasn't bad either. And no I didn't even mind that when she healed me behind enemy (zombie) lines that she hit me in the head with the heal spell (Gadzooks, that smarts!) Anyway I digress, it was a lot of fun. My son and his friends stayed the rest of the day NPC'ing for them.

I started out early in the morning wanting to get in a RPG game of a different sort. It was a HERO System 6th Edition Champions game. The GM made it a lot of fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Basically we went from making characters to a full on partial adventure (with completion) in four hours.

Then my buddy and I walked around and enjoyed many of the sites (pretty scantily clad dressed women {not just women mind you women that knew the stuff that most of us there did!}). These places knew who their market audience was and really knew how to push the envelope.

My buddy was there to GM a new release of the RPG The Dresden Files (Which is an awesome game that Odyson and I are now playing, well character created anyway). His game was a wonderful success, and we got to watch some of the other Dresden games as we walked about.

In the halls later I saw the guy who GM'd the Champions game I went on earlier. He asked us to come sit in on another game he was GM'ing in the HERO System world called Fantasy Hero (similar to D&D but magic system was way better). His world of Fantasy Hero was called Narosia: Sea Of Tears. It was a nicely done world and he had every base covered in his game. Here we played pre-generated characters to make things go quicker. It was quite a blast and we ended at 12am.

With a long 2+ hour ride back from Origins I was ecstatic. It was quite a good time, my son had a lot of fun, my buddy had fun, and his sons had fun. All and all it was a great weekend, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Maybe then Odyson can get a weekend to go as well.

I wanted to make Origins this year because of the pending release of my Campaign Setting. Alas, it was not to be. I WILL be at GenCon though... even though I couldn't afford a booth this year. Hopefully I'll be able to make Origins next year. Even more hopefully, maybe I'll be able to sell me book there!

Thanks for the review of it. It gives me a better idea what i'll be dealing with if I go next year.

I won't be able to make it to GenCon too soon not enough money type of thing. And with other things going on in my life it just isn't in the cards.

The exhibit hall was a lot of fun. I did end up buying a 6th edition HERO System Basic book. And my buddy bought a bunch of stuff as well. So people do buy there! Especially if you are putting your game out there in the RPG area. I know that Evil Hat Productions sold around 200 copies or so of their books for The Dresden Files. And those things aren't cheap either. And they use FUDGE dice so they were selling them as well.

There was also the other rooms that I didn't mention (as I am more involved with the RPG aspect). They had a board game room that was huge with any game you would ever want to play. They had a Card Game room. A miniature game room. And of course they had LARP events as well. It was definitely an eye opener. I thought it was very well attended (although people said it wasn't as many as last year). I think last year everything was shoved closer together, maybe they spread it farther apart to get more things in but didn't quite make there goal? I don't know.

Anyway I hope you have a good time at GenCon. I would like to hear something about it when you come back!

August 5-8th... I rally am looking forward to it. And even if I don't have a booth this year I'm still using it as a business trip (gotta love having my own publishing company ya know?). I'm going to be bringing a camera and a digital recorder to get a feel for how people present their products, booth decor, etc. in order to help me when I )hopefully) have my booth next year. But beyond that I'm already signed up for a number of RPG events, including a pair of Pathfinder Society games (like the RPGA except for the Pathfinder RPG by Paizo) which I think will be fun.

My hotel bill however... will not be fun. I reserved the room in March and am still paying almost $1,000 for the weekend for a single room. Given the hotel only opened in February and is 2 blocks from the convention center... but still!

Anyway, I have every intention of posting about it when I get back. Maybe next year we can get a bunch of people from the Inn to go (and buy my books!). Alright, enough of the shameless self-promotion.

I'm glad you enjoyed Origins. And I hope to have as much or more fun at GenCon in August.

Hindsight The future is unknown, the presents is unfolding. The past is done cause and effects are know. Hindsight is the ability to see what has already happened. and therefore, what was done and the outcomes of any event are known.

Is you knew in the future what would be the outcome of what you did is foresight. That would be wonderful--you could figure out how to change things to change the outcome.

It means that I can see the past clearly now!