First off thank you guys for the praise you gave Good Omens con and my game. It was awesome having you there. Second, the GM of our Office Dogs at the Water Cooler was Wilson Zom. Third, feel free to put up any embarrassing pictures you took of me or any one else at Good Omens Con (I’m sure Mike P. will love me giving you permission to put up pictures of him eating). Fourth, I heard about Wilderness of Mirrors (by John Wick from Paul Tevis on his excellet podcast Have Games Will Travel. Finally, yes we should post more but it comes in waves and as the Con season is over, you probably won’t see too much activity till we get close to DundraCon

For those who are not Kristen and Shaun, I highly recommend you head over to thismoderndeath.com and check them out. The have excellent taste in conventions and in irreverent sense of humor. Warning, their podcast may not have it yet, but it does deserve the explicit tag, keep the kids earmuffs on. Definitely check them out!

We received 101 completed surveys, which means that the % numbers noted below are also the number of people giving each response.

How did you find out about Good Omens?
66% O Went to a scheduled game and learned about GO there.
5% O Saw “A Good Omens Production” in the program and went to find out more.
18% O Heard about GO from another gamer.
1% O It’s written at the top of this survey.
10% O Other: Friend/S.O. of GO, Scheduled GO games

How many GO games do you remember playing (we started in 2001)?
Average 3.3 games, maximum 15

How many of these games would you rate as: ¼
78% Great 21% Typical Convention Game 2% Poor
Which local conventions do you attend? Average 2.1 conventions
80% O DunDraCon
78% O KublaCon
52% O ConQuest
4% O Other: 3DB, GenCon, Further ConFusion

What genres do you enjoy? (check one or more)
83% O Fantasy
43% O Space
63% O Sci-Fi
44% O Horror
48% O Supers
42% O Cyberpunk
20% O Other: Board games, card games, old west, historical, Changeling, Lots o’ action, steampunk, post-apocalyptic, ALL, non-horror supernatural, Storyboard, Buffy, 7th Sea, modern/spy, fantasy historical, Shadowrun, Anything new/fresh

What kinds of setting eras do you prefer? (check one or more)
39% O Classical/Ancient
62% O Medieval
40% O Renaissance
39% O Victorian/Steam
45% O Wild West
38% O Early 20th Century
31% O Mid 20th Century
54% O Contemporary
52% O Near Future
41% O Far Future
26% O Multi-Dimensional
44% O Space Travel
26% O Time Travel
10% O Other: Anything really, mixed elements, feudal Japan, supernatural, various

What attracts you to certain settings? (check one or more)
48% O Familiarity from TV/Movies.
49% O Familiarity from novels.
49% O Published game material available.
36% O The mystery of a complete but unpublished setting.
26% O The possibilities of an unfinished or open setting.
17% O Other: A sense of scope and depth, something new, unusual/mystical, rich setting, familiar from history, personal imagination, unhealthy obsession, any and all, homebrew GM mods, interesting premise, interesting concepts, coolness, roleplaying opportunities, original ideas, I don’t know why I like them

How do you pick which games to try at a convention? (check one or more)
30% O Anything by Good Omens. ¼
40% O I pick games by GMs I trust.
57% O If the title/description intrigues me, I’ll try it.
65% O I choose based on settings/genres I enjoy.
52% O The game system/rules influence my choice strongly.
7% O I stick to rules and settings I already know.
6% O I play games that let me bring/make my own character.
26% O I go where my friends go.
6% O Other: Avoid D&D, avoid “can provide characters”, tell me “beginners welcome” (and mean it), provide characters, dart board, try new things, my S.O. picks good games

What is your preference for convention games?
67% O I like to try new things.
38% O I prefer well-planned stand-alone adventures with familiar settings/rules.
22% O I enjoy continuing adventures with familiar characters – games with back-story and future.
5% O I like to bring/make my own character into a convention game.
11% O I really don’t have a preference like this. (or: None of these really describes what I like.)

How does Good Omens influence your convention experience?
1% O I only play Good Omens games.
55% O I seek Good Omens games, but I’ll play other things if they look good.
27% O I really don’t pay attention to the GO label. A game is a game.
0% O I usually avoid Good Omens, but I played one today.
2% – Tie breaker (write in)
6% – First time gamer, or first time at convention
9% O Other: GO often has something I want to play that collides with another game, I’ve tried to get into a GO game for several conventions, picked a bunch and found that 2/4 were AGOP, I will look for more GO, slight consideration

Is there some published game(s)/setting(s) that you want to play, but cannot find at conventions?
Note: Lots suggested, but I’m only listing those requested by more than one person.
Shadowrun (x5)
Deadlands (x4)
Iron Kingdoms (x3)
Paranoia (x3)
L5R (x3)
Space 1889 (x2)
Mummy (x2)
Hunters (x2)
Eternal Champion (x2)
Cyberpunk (x2)
Fates Worse Than Death (x2)
Adventure! (x2)
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (x2)
All Flesh Must be Eaten (x2)
Stargate (x2)
Firefly/Serenity (x2)
Unknown Armies (x2)
Mutants & Masterminds (x2)
Delta Green (x2)

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Here are three sites that could benefit any roleplayer:

1) I stumbled across a webzine called Daedalus that provides articles on gaming (building worlds, good settings, interesting systems, etc.). The good news is that there’s a decent amount of material there, the bad news is that the ‘zine has been discontinued (for reasons disclosed by the editor in the site’s “About” section). But there are two issues available as PDFs, and two more that are viewable on the site.

Here’s the link: http://www.chimera.info/daedalus/

2) Based on a recommendation by the astute Sean, I started listening to Have Games, Will Travel which is a weekly podcast by Paul Tevis a free lance writer in the gaming industry. His style is on the dry side for my tastes, but his shows are very informative. At 20-30 minutes on average, it’s not a lot to listen through to pick out the interesting bits. You don’t have to own an iPod or use iTunes to listen. Episdoes can be downloaded as MP3 files on the website.

If you want to sample some of the good stuff before you commit to listening to all the available podcasts, try episodes 32-34, in which he reviews the nominees for the Origin Awards for Card Games, RPGs and Boardgames.

Here’s the link: http://havegameswilltravel.libsyn.com/

3) The final item I have to share is Gamer: The Podcasting. It’s a group of three people who get together weekly to share their ideas, experiences and advice in gaming, primarily focusing on LARPs. Even though the podcast is mostly about LARPing, they do reviews of table top, board and card games as well. And their advice on LARPing can easily be transposed into table top settings. The only potential downside is that the episodes are long (which I don’t mind because it makes for great commute listening), averaging 1 hour and 15 minutes per episode.

They have a very fun, easy going style to their presentation which I enjoy. I find myself listening to sections that aren’t at all applicable to my own gaming interests because I’m fascinated by their discussion. What I find particularly cool is their F/X section where they talk about affordable special effects and costuming. Who knows, I may actually get back into LARPing thanks to their influence.

Here’s the link: http://www.somniturne.com/gtp/index.html

If anyone reading this list has recommendations of their own, please leave them as a comment or email them to me (otherdarkmeat@yahoo.com). I love discovering new resources for RPGs.