My time at Origins, and a subdued Old Viking Rant

0:00 Here's my Hey everybody. Uh, so I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and making these videos. Uh, I did do a video last week that talked about the most my D and D campaign with the um with the Grognards, my old friends that I've been playing with forever. We did have another session uh this past weekend which had um some excellent stuff happen and uh and some good laughs. Um, we almost had a couple of uh uh party kills uh in the game which came down to a a die roll or two, but I'll I'll talk about those in a little bit uh in another video. I want to talk about Origins. Uh I want to talk about the fact that I attended Origins as a member of Gray Fox Games. And I wanted to talk a little bit, this is going to be a not a rant. It isn't going to be an angry rant at all. Um, but it is something that like made me reflect a lot uh on the flight home uh from Columbus back to uh Morehead, Minnesota where I live. So, uh, Origins was great.

1:19 Um, which is weird because the last couple years I've my feelings coming out of Origins were like I don't know why we attend this convention. Um, and that's from a publisher standpoint. Uh, so it's one of those things where they they have thousands and thousands of people show up, but you don't really see that many people. Um, if you've ever been to Gen Con, you know that certain times in the day, like it is impossible to like walk through some of the areas of Gen Con just because of the sheer number of people. It feels very congested. It feels very difficult uh to be there. Um, but with Origins, it it never felt like that. Um, and it hasn't felt like that. And I don't think it ever has felt like that. Uh, it could be the way that they set up um the booth structure. It could be just the way that the gaming convention is in general. I do think that Origins is much more a players convention um as opposed to an exhibitor convention. Uh, that isn't to say that exhibitors can't do well. Uh, I mean, we ended up selling uh almost all of our product that we brought. Uh, we we and we which is really cool because we didn't have um anything new. Usually at a convention, you're like, "Oh, check out this new game we just released kind of thing."

2:45 And we don't have that. Uh, with Great Fox Games, we're right now working through the production of the new Champions of Midgard that that's going to be coming out next year. And so it's just one of those things where, you know, we we could show off some of our excellent games. We could show off Last Light. We could show off After the Empire. Uh but we weren't able to do like as far as um something uh you know, brand new and shiny. We didn't have that. But regardless, we had people that were very interested in our games, very interested in purchasing our games. Um, and one thing that I did realize is that, um, you know, like when we did our last light crowdfunding, it, you know, made a big splash. Um, we did very well.

3:31 We were very successful. And then it's one of those things where in this board game world, you just kind of have like this 1% chance of having a game show up and everybody talks about it and then it stays in the the the mindset. uh uh if you will of of the gamers. It it just maintains that spot. Um but even with that, like you still have people that won't recognize games. Um so one of the things that's cool about Last Light, if you've ever seen it, is that, you know, it is a 4X space game, but it actually has little standandy planets that that kind of poke up and and uh you know, when you set up on a table, people see it and they're like, "Oh my gosh, what is this?" it has a great factor for far as far as drawing people in. And in lots of situations, we have people that are like, I've never heard about this. I've never seen this. And that's kind of weird, you know, because of the fact that, you know, since I'm so close to the project and since I'm so close to that game, it feels odd to me when people have never heard of it. Um, so I have to realize that we're constantly getting new blood into the board game hobby and we're constantly getting new people in and and recognize the fact that, you know, um maybe maybe publishers, you know, shouldn't just I don't think publishers give up on games that they published years ago, but I do think that obviously as publishers also

5:02 we go to on to the next thing and we kind of forget about, you know, making sure people realize that our older stuff exists. I'm not saying that's something that needs to change or anything like that. I don't know if it needs to change. I don't know what the answer there is. But I did find it very interesting that um games like something like Last Light, something that was is very popular with people that like really hit hit home with a lot of people, uh now is reaching that point where people don't know it exists. like they're they're they're in they're like where is this game coming from or how did this game even you know come out you know did I had somebody because it has a revolving board um say oh did you take the revolving board from STI which is a Euro game from Czech games great game by the way uh that has a revolving board yet our game came out first so it's just something to think about something that's interesting but like I said Origins was great uh the people were great. Um the mood was great. Uh you know, we had a lot of fun there. Um I didn't play any games. It just when you sit in a booth, um you know, for 8 hours, uh talking to people, showing games off to people for 8 hours, uh my whole intent after that is get something to eat and then get back to my hotel room so I can rest up uh take a shower and get ready for the next day. Uh it so

6:35 I my understanding is is that Origins had an increase in attendance this year which is awesome. Uh I don't know if they've reached I mean don't quote me on this I don't think they've reached their precoid um attendee level uh yet but I think that they're heading in that right direction and I think they're going to pull that off. And I should say this uh again, the people that run Origins, whenever I had a question or an issue or a problem, uh I was able to find somebody, get an answer, and get it taken care of. And that was awesome. So, uh thank you to everybody that like if you stopped by my booth, uh at Great Fox Games, I had several people, um and I don't say this to to brag, but I had a lot of people mention like uh oh, I remember watching your videos, you know, about board games, whatever. and I and I and I tell everything in another life, right? You know, that was that's that's uh that's just not what I do really anymore. But um so I didn't get a lot of time to wander around. Um I did reconnect with a few people that uh that publishers that I'm that I like to think of are really good friends. Um, you know, Clay over at Capstone Games, uh, Zev at Play to Z Games. Um, obviously he was with the Zman before. Uh, I ran into Stephen Bonor. I ran into I mean I this feels like I'm just name dropping at this point and I I just I've worked in the industry for a decade now. Um, so it's

8:06 really not you just you you see people, you meet people, you talk to people. Um I I mean I I had a booth um that was right next to Van Ryder Games. Uh which was great because I really really like Julie and AJ. They're they're two of the best friends I've ever made in the industry and we were able to sit down and chat and have a good conversation. Um so uh that part of it is excellent. I'm really looking forward to Gen Con because there's a lot of people that didn't make it to Origins that I'm going to see at Gen Con. Uh and that comes up here at the end of July. Uh which we're not quite in July yet. I'm recording this on the 30th of June. Tomorrow uh is is the beginning of July. But regardless, um yeah, I mean, it's it's just kind of um it's just kind of nice and it's just kind of uh for the first time in a while, I'm looking forward to a convention. Uh and and I don't know why that is. Maybe just cuz Origins went really well. Now, when I did get to wander around um Origins, uh you know, I there were um just a few places I wanted to check out. Uh usually I look to see if there's any new releases that are interesting me. Um you know, nothing really stood out. Uh you know, I I did know I was going to check out a couple of booths about um like role playing games. Uh, somebody told me I I still do some modeling. Um, uh, check out the Dirty Down booth. Um, I think it's like Goblin Hut or something like that, but like go go go Google this

9:38 Dirty Down Gore. Just Google that and go watch the videos of how people are using this stuff to make really really nice uh, blood effects. And they have one called Snot that's clear. Here, I'll just grab it and show you. Um, and that's dirty down snot. And the snot can actually since it's clear, you can actually put whatever color you want into it. And so you can mix that up. And it's um some really cool effects as far as u putting some goo on your minis. So I went and checked that guy out and checked out his stuff. Uh, and that was that that was pretty cool. Uh, I went to some RPG booths and checked things out. And um I'm not going to mention the name of the person here just because I don't want anybody saying anything or anything like that. Um but I ended up um talking to somebody that I knew uh not really closely, you know, by any means. Um but you know, knew of had had conversations with before. Um and we ended up talking about role playing games in general. And uh we talked about, you know, person was about the same age as I am, got into playing D and D about the same time I did. Uh and we started talking about, you know, just um the D and D we grew up with, how it has changed, how it is, you know, whatever it is.

11:03 Very very uh good conversation. Um very very insightful. Uh not I'm not saying about me. I'm talking about the other person that I was speaking to and uh at one point, you know, we were talking about the the current state of things uh in in like Dn D and how, you know, we have the OSR movement that has, you know, and ultimately these conversations just seem to go here. We have the OSR movement that is growing to a uh has a little bit of a ground swell to it, right? I mean, uh I think uh OSE um Old School Essentials uh kind of put the base down and really gave a lot of other um publications a chance to to to also kind of fill in the cracks and the nooks as far as that is concerned. And then here comes Shadow Dark and Shadow Dark kind of just piles on top of that and it is like obviously very very successful and very very popular. Now I own Shadow Dark. Um I've implemented a few of the rules and and and put them into the games that I played. Uh my son uh ran a Shadow Dark campaign. Um that was the campaign that he ran before now I'm running the campaign for my son and his friends. Um but so what what I have in in those situations

12:34 is that um to a tea most people are like oh yeah I mean Shadow Dark it's just like you know congratulations to them glad they're bringing it up but I think a lot of people and I don't think I mean again I don't use any rule set other than the rule set that like we created I you know as friends um nearly 40 years ago now. Uh, and but we adopt stuff. We steal stuff constantly, which is I think what you're supposed to do. But I do believe that there is, and I'm not saying this person I spoke to felt this way. I'm just saying I do believe there is a certain level of resentment towards and not by everyone just a small percentage towards the success of Shadow Dark because it's almost too popular. It is situation where um it's kind of like the punk band I knew them before they were cool type of thing and how it's almost too mainstream because it adopt because because Shadow Dark does implement a a fair number of fifth edition Dn D mechanisms which is fine you know there's there's nothing wrong with that.

13:55 My my point is during this conversation uh we we started talking about that and I started talking about some of like the just the online turds that you deal with when you're talking about anything OSR and and I talked about how um the one thing I just can't stand about being an old school D and D player is the fact that I am associated with and I've done a rant about this for a bunch of old white men that that just don't want things to be different, don't want things to change, don't want and just these go woke go broke piece of tried I'm trying not to swear much here, but I mean these go woke go broke turds, these um uh uh you know just bigoted racist misogyny pieces of crap that just, you know, they're getting older and they're just cemented in their ways and you're never going to change their minds and never going to do anything.

15:02 And I said that and and then this person I was speaking to again, good 15, 20 minute conversation about DD, really really fun conversation, said the thing that just made me go. It wasn't as bad as you might think, but it was just like I got the well, there's bad people on both sides. And I'm actually kind of ashamed of myself because I felt like I should have at that point said, "Really, what's what's the bad on the other side?" I said, "I have we have people that are like really really vocal about, you know, like, you know, talking about how they don't want to have people that are trans in in in represented in their in their games or they don't want there to be, you know, dancing orcs or they don't want there to be um any sort of uh homosexuality uh in their in in their in their role playing games. Um and and because they think it it makes it bad. I said, "What's I I should have said, what's what's the bad on the other side? What what side over here that are these people that are saying, you know, actually, you know, just we want you just, you know, it's like we we want representation for people that don't have representation in in in in our games. We think that would be a good thing. We

16:33 think it would be a good thing for people um that are non-binary to to be represented in in in these things. What's what's the bad part over there? And I should have said that and I'm and I and like to this this moment I mean because it gives the person the moment to say oh well what I meant is this or whatever or what I meant is oh I don't really like how I mean I'm just trying to I don't want to put words in this person's mouth but I don't want I don't want to say I don't want to I want to I don't want to put I don't want to have people say oh well you know just because you don't like gay people that means you're a horrible [ __ ] and and and that you're a racist, bigoted, homophobic piece of crap, whatever. Those people are awful. And I'm and and I and I would like them to say something like that. And then I could say, yeah, I maybe there's a a bad actor that that that jumps to that conclusion. But I mean, and just like most people that like playing first edition AD and D aren't going out and and saying, "Oh my gosh, all this young people's D and D they're playing. It's just a bunch of garbage and they're horrible human beings for wanting to play it because of this that they're ruining Gary Gyax's legacy or or whatever, you know? I mean, ju there's a lot of people that just I just want to play my game and I'm going to sit down and I'm going to play my game at my table and I don't I'm not involved with this, right? But it's it's one of those things where it's like instead of just saying, "Well, there's bad actors on both sides." Okay, well,

18:04 fine. Here here's what I'm saying is the bad actors on this side, the racists, the bigots, the homophobes. What's the bad over here? Tell me what that is. And I and I feel like I missed a golden opportunity and I left that conversation like feeling because I hate that both sides argument. And I learned something in that moment. The next time somebody says to me, "Well, I think there's bad things." Yeah, it's both sides or whatever, I would ask, explain to me what what what side both sides are in your your impression and give them the moment to explain that and explain how they feel. and then have a meaningful conversation about that and about the combination there and and and maybe come away from that conversation with a better idea of where that person's viewpoint is. But I was left with a feeling of hope actually after I thought about it and I thought about it and I thought about on the on the plane ride home. Yeah. And this totally did leave live as as the kids say rentree in my brain. Um, as I was flying home, I applied it to myself and I applied it to my memories of myself growing up and like every once in a while I'll get a Facebook me Facebook memory that'll pop up where I'm saying 10, 11, 12 years ago

19:34 where I'm saying, well, both sides are the same. There's bad actors. I used to be a very moderate individual as far as my feelings about the way the world worked, about the way the world acts. Um I I I know and I remember saying and doing like yeah not not anything racist or anything like that but basically very insensitive things very intolerant things I guess I would say because and but I felt justified in saying what I had to say and because of what I what I felt but I still remember the day that like and I don't remember it was it was several years ago where finally like when you had to when people were I don't even remember the exact issue it was but a light bulb went off in my head and I said why are you people arguing against this like like it just seemed and and when I really started moving to the left and I really started moving towards my present mentality and if you've never if you if you don't know what my uh political spectrum is. I am I'm I'm very liberal. I I I I vote Democratic. Um I

21:05 think there are absolutely horrendous problems with the way our political system works right now and I think there are horrendous problems with the de Democratic party. Um, but I think that the right-wing part, the Republican party is is horrible, is way more horrible than the Democrats are. And that's that's my option really. That's that's that's my I believe in in far more left-wing principles than what the Democratic Party uh presents. But this is my that's my option uh as a as a citizen of the United States. I'm sure you all knew that already, but just getting it on getting out there. But I remember I was I was very I was very moderate. I was very like I I you know I would say things like you know all politicians lie, all politicians are horrible. All politicians are bought in the soul.

22:03 And when you take that centric mentality, I feel like it is a safety net. It is a in in almost every case when I've talked to somebody that has has that mentality that feels that way, it's always like, well, it's not my fault because I see that everything's [ __ ] and everything's stupid and I'm the one with my eyes that are open and I see what's going on. not the rest of you you sheep that just follow along with whatever whatever platform is being presented to you. You know, I get it. And it is it's a very arrogant spot to hold.

22:59 It is only when you actually start confronting those situations and confronting the way you feel about them that that you really start growing and you really start realizing, oh my gosh, you know, maybe maybe I'm I I maybe this this this middle of the road mentality isn't for me. And you have a light bulb moment and you realize that you need to go all in. on one side or the other. And that's why when I say I had hope, um here I had somebody about the same age as me, white male, and they were still holding on to this everything is bad on either side.

23:48 And what that means is is I hadn't lost that person to the right, which means that the next time I see them and and I will see them again, um I know they'll be at a convention that I will be attending probably gone. I'm going to find them. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to ask them. I'm going to ask them that question that I should have asked. I'm going to have a good conversation and uh I look forward to that and I look forward to that conversation that I can have. So um it's a situation where slowly but surely this world that I live in um one person at a time we can get them thinking the right way.

24:36 And I do say the right way. And I I and and and I I I guess yeah, I mean, there might be one or two of you still left out there that that that listen to me and watch my videos that uh aren't going to agree with my political ideas. And if you want to leave me alone and not listen to what I have to say, I guess that's your right. And see you later. Um take care. God bless. But uh but one person at a time, have a meaningful conversation. have that light bulb go off and uh and get them to realize what needs to be done to make this country we live in, you know, a place of caring, a place of empathy, a place of love, a place of acceptance, place of kindness and not to end this video on a zinger, but actually make it great.

25:39 Anyway, that's Origins. That's my thoughts. Love to hear your thoughts. If I saw it, Origins, love to see you post down below. Um, yeah, I'll have another video later this week. Take care, everyone.