San Angelo Comic Con, Review

I managed to pull into my driveway at 4am - exhausted and zombified. To be honest, the show wasn't what we'd hoped for. It wasn't a bad show. It just didn't have the edge we typically book for a second time.

For those developers using shows as a means of promoting your product, the issue is this: shows have to entertain the attendees. Vendors, guests, and volunteers are there to make the event an experience. Young shows often cut corners by using available space to house vendors and skimp on the entertaining parts. Tea parties, game rooms, panel rooms, and viewing areas all require space and organization. To pull a good show off, it is often a collaborative effort among several volunteers willing to spend time and energy developing various aspects of the event.

When these factors are eliminated, the show becomes little more than a traveling shopping mall. And therein lies the problem - you can shop online without leaving home. A couple of years ago, Tortured Earth was part of a group trying to develop a show. The idea was to bring several independent game developers together, get them to host game demos of their product and showcase their projects, and get together in the evening to discuss business strategies, problems, and solutions.

For the developers, the project was a success. For the vendors, not so much. To sum it up, the event was a mess largely due to the venue not putting us on the city calendar, booking two related events within two weeks of one another, and not notifying either party until the hall had been paid. Without the civic planners knowing about the events, other events were booked by the city which pulled 20K+ potential attendees. From the attendee's perspective, their was not real reason to stress over coming to our show when there was a related show two weeks down the line. 

Developers and vendors have requested we make another attempt but the loss was simply too great on the part of the organizers to launch an additional attempt so soon.

-and that brings me back to our most recent show. The current political and pandemic conditions raise a degree of uncertainty in the attendee population. These factors are beyond the ability of the organizer to mitigate. Ensuring the attendees have ample activities to distract and "free" projects to engage in generates its own buzz and can actually lead to greater attendance for later shows. 

Despite the low attendance and lack of activities, the show did have an organizer who was interested in hearing what his vendors were thinking. This is always a good sign. It implies the show has the potential to evolve from year to year and become a new experience with each new booking. Although the first experience is something we usually don't return to, the organizer was impressive. He strikes me as a gentleman who is willing to change or alter course to improve his show. On that note alone, we will book San Angelo Comic Con for a second year. I feel the show deserves a second chance simply to test the adaptability of the organizer.

Despite the poor performance of the show, there were some bright spots within the experience. On Saturday night, we did have dinner with other vendors at a small, local restaurant called Senor Changs. The vendor organizing the dinner described it in the most unflattering way possible. "It's a hole-in-the wall restaurant. It's not all that impressive when you pull up. It's an old gas station and still has the pump awning up. There's limited parking and the line wrapped around the building. You'll love it. The food is really good."

We were not going to anyplace remotely fitting that description. However, I did want to spend time with this group of vendors and artists, so I gave it a try. He was right. Pulling up to the building was not a good first impression. Walking inside, my whole outlooked changed. The smells were amazing. The food was even better. There were basically two menu options and three meat choices which could be mixed and matched. Worth every penny!

During the meal, I sat next to four artists. Really good artists. I was in heaven. As I sat down at the table, one rule was made plain: We're here to talk shop. Not politics. I love these people! One of the upcoming projects I'm about to launch into is the production of Tortured Earth pins. Lapel pins. Bag pins. That sort of thing. To pull this project off, I need an artist capable of taking my existing artwork and converting it to a basic format. Turns out, I was sitting next to her.

Game developers reading this need to take note. Attending conventions - even poor performing conventions - can open doors if you take opportunities. You have to be willing to take a chance on people, mingle, and openly discuss your needs and resources. I am really pleased to recommend CyberKat Creations. She's super nice and willing to work with developers to illustrate.

Another surprising little find in San Angelo was a small Hispanic bakery located near an onramp. We were leaving for the convention center on Sunday morning grumbling about the hotel not having a breakfast of any sort. As we pulled off the loop, we immediately noticed this little bakery set in the front of a mechanic shop. *At this point, we no longer ask questions.* We walked in and immediately felt like we stepped into someone's home. There was a line of customers all super friendly and willing to show us the procedure to gather our pastries. There were so many items I had never seen before. We filled a tray with things that just looked good. In fact, when the lady put it all in the box, we'd filled an entire cake box with pastries.

As we were getting ready to check out, I made a quick glance at the register. No card reader. I sent one of my workers to get $40 from the van - that much sugary goodness was going to be expensive. The final total? $6! I almost went back and filled another box.

If you find yourself drifting into San Angelo, I strongly advise taking a moment and walking into Los Magueyes Bakery, 711 North Chadbourne St., San Angelo, TX 76903. And yes, I added the address so you can navigate directly to it. Well worth the effort!

Thanks again, guys! 

K. B. Kidder

If you are checking out this post for the first time, you may access our website by clicking here: Tortured Earth

Character species released for review: Allorn, Dwarf, Elf, Eoceph, and Goblin.

Combat Creatures released for review: Braunach, Faeda, Fetid Hound, Minotaur, and Wolf.

If you are interested in the creature development process, you may submit your own creatures by filling out the following form. We will review the forms before publishing the creatures to the website. Creature Creation Form

If you would like to see what Tortured Earth looks like, the GM portion of the rule book is available as a free download on the Tortured Earth Home Page. Tortured Earth Beta GM Guide  

And finally, I have created a Tavern Generator and Loot Generator. Both are free downloads and can be adapted to a wide range of story settings. Both are written in Excel. If you are using a tablet, you can download a free version of Excel and operate it live at the game table.