Matt talks Classroom Deathmatch on Fist Full of Comics podcast

During Gencon Matt sat down with The Fist Full of Comics & Games guys to demo Classroom Deathmatch. They really dug the game! Afterward they recorded an interview for the Fist Full of Comics & games podcast. You can hear it here.

Matt’s Gencon Report

  GenCon 2007 was a blast. This was Atarashi Games second year at GenCon and our first year at the Forge/IPR booth. It was a successful event for us and I would like to thank all the other Forge/IPR people for their assistance and welcoming attitude. The crowds at GenCon this year as I’m sure you’ve read elsewhere were very friendly (for instance I wasn’t slapped, while Jake was slapped last year). Due to construction and the odd setup of the exhibit hall the event seemed more random and the attempts to group certain types of exhibitors made it for me more difficult to find things. Last year if I wanted to browse anime, movies, games, terrain, what have you, I just sort of wandered and there would be something like that. This year t-shirts, anime, movies and many of the used game sales people were all put off on the left hand side as you entered the hall. This was a bit confusing since the large Wizards of the Coast Booth was over in the far left hand back corner.
Anyways, enough about the con in general. This year we had Classroom Deathmatch and Panty Explosion… or rather we would have, except our Panty Explosion copies didn’t show up until early Friday and Classroom Deathmatch was sold out by early-mid Saturday. So for a day and a half we had both of our games for sale! (Remember we have free shipping through Atarashigames.com all August. Only a few days left) People wanted Classroom Death Match (CDM) demo’d all the time. Thursday I ran maybe two PE demos, same for Friday, Saturday and Sunday just one PE demo each. Thursday and to some extent Friday I also sat in on other Forge peoples demos as we were all curious about each other’s games. Personally I think having the industry Forge people finally play our game, even a fifteen minute demo, opened their eyes to what we’d created. I don’t mean to generalize, but from forum traffic or often lack there of it has seemed a lot of people have sort of written us off, not in a rude way, we just blipped on their radar with our name. Now I think they know us for our mechanics as well.
As I said, CDM was the game people wanted demo’d. In the demos I would point out the Special Techniques (individual powers each of the students have that allows them to do something awesome) and nobody would bite. I was getting frustrated pointing out this cool feature that people just kept ignoring, until late-ish Friday. I’m already part way through the demo and Alexis (she did an amazing job pulling in people for demos. Thanks.) asks if we have space for one more. I say sure, this guy sits down, we resort Best Friends and Rivals. Two people take their actions, then its his turn and he says, “I’m going to use my ‘Vertical Wall Run’ to run up the side of the building to shoot over the ring of fire to hit the guy with the crowbar with my airsoft pistol.” The other two players jaws drop and my GenCon demoing frustrations melted away. I thank you, random demo person. Later he explained when he sat down and looked at his sheet the first thing he saw was ‘Vertical Wall Run’ and all he knew was he wanted to do that.
Other demo highlights was one member of the FistFullOfComics.com guys killing one of his fellow players only to then have his fellow player use his ‘Wounds Can’t Stop Me’ to stand up, Jason like with third degree electrical burns all over his body. There was another demoer who understood, that while he rolled a lame weapon, it was okay to pick up every dropped weapon or any improvised weapon lying around. By the end of the fifteen minute demo (where most people only got two or three actions) his character had four weapons on him and had thrown a third at a member of the chess club. In PE we had a total Akira moment as one group of girls was badmouthing one of the players and the psychic told them to shut up, which led to a section of the hall and all of the glass imploding. Almost all of the demo people rolled some of the lamest weapons on the list. For instance matches and cigarettes was rolled in three separate games. To their credit they made very creative use of all of these items. There were many more great moments, and thanks to everyone who stopped by to demo our games.
          Speaking of the FistFullOfComics.com guys, I did an interview with two of them, Knight Ranger and I forget the other ones handle. The podcast of said interview should go up on their site at some point. When? We’ll keep you informed. They also said they are hoping to do a podcast of an actual play of CDM at some point. Again, we will let you know when we know.
Now, other Forge peoples games. I will start with Reign. Its fifty dollars and its a game intended to be played with another game, it can do stand alone, but it works well as offering the political system to say your White Wolf, Ars Magica or some sort of other game where people run organizations or kingdoms. Reign also has a dice mechanic that is awesome. It became instantly my favorite dice mechanic for what it does, when you just need information from dice, ever. So, yes, its an indie game that is built to supplement other games for fifty dollars. Now go buy it because it is awesome. Jason Morningstar and I used Reign as a monetary unit. “I’d like it if we went to a restaurant that will only cost around half a Reign.” Oh and no the stand alone game is not homoerotic Alexander the Great in a thong, that’s Reign the Conqueror, which is also awesome, but for entirely other reasons.
Blood and Bronze, is a very cool diplomacy resource strategy game. There’s no real role play in it. Its role play commitment is on the level of say a fun game of Clue. However it is a well designed resource strategy game and I wish I’d approached it as such. Its cool. Check it out. Bliss Stage, also cool. Its dream robots where you use your relationships as power ups to your dream robot. I like how you build up your relationships before they crumble around you. Steal Away Jordan is a game about slavery. Very awesome concept and story structure, I need to read up more on the mechanics. The Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries is an incredibly fun competitive bragging game. You play members of a society of adventures who have just come back from a mission and you are trying to one up your fellow adventurers in retelling the story. This was tons of fun even in the two person quick demo. Spirit of the Century was fun but I’m not a big Pulp person, however Kim, my wife, thoroughly enjoyed this one and played in two different demos of it, not even as a seat filler. The mechanics certainly help sell the genre and mood of the game. If you enjoy Pulp stuff then check it out.
Now there was a game at GenCon this year that was pretty close to being designed just for me. That game is Grey Ranks. Its the game where you play the teenage freedom fighters in Warsaw, Poland in 1944. Its similar to Morningstar’s other game, The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach. However the writing, formatting and content has matured, not only in genre but also in style. Its a much tighter game with a easy to follow set of examples. Its rough, its about heartbreak and loss, its Jason stealing my WWI Russian games thunder. Oh well. Anyways, if you are into historic roleplay or roleplay that mirrors tragic events that happen to normal people, about loss… I’m rambling, but this game is amazing. Its the first thing I bought and the first thing I read from GenCon. Its also the first game where I didn’t skim parts of it that I’ve read in a long time. Its not for everyone but its certainly for me.
People at the booth as I said earlier were extremely nice, welcoming and a pleasure to hang out with and chat when time allowed. Ron Edwards kept threatening to play in one of my demos, but every time I was getting people together to run one, he was always ducking off to a panel or demoing some classic indie game. There is always next year. Unfortunately I’m awful with names so I can’t thank all the people that I’d like to and since I can only remember a couple of names I don’t want to just thank them and leave everyone raging with jealousy. I will say that I met the guy who is working on some Japanese school girl miniatures (he’s not with the Forge or IPR) and he showed me images for the first one that is done and it looks amazing. It comes with three sets of hands, one carrying a school book case, one has a semi-automatic pistol and the third a Japanese styled sword. Looking forward to these coming out.
All in all GenCon was awesome and I look forward to next year. I hope Jake and I have more great games to show you all then and that we’ll see you where ever we end up landing at. Thanks again to all those who helped me out, that I got to chat with and all our demoers and fans. See you next year.

-Matt

Panty Explosion and the Origins Awards

Chad Underkoffler posted this interesting bit of info on his blog. This was apparently the results of the Jury selection for tis years Origins Awards. Looks like Panty Explosion tied for 4th place with Zorcerer of Zo (Chads game), both being just narrowly beat out by Spirit of the Century and Burning Empires. Wow. I had no idea.

This is the page that lists the 33rd Annual Origins Awards Nominees, plus the selectees’ Jury Counts vs. Retailer Counts (retailer voting being a new thing this year).

Here’s the top five (six, actually) from the Jury slate, which in past years would have been the nom slate, and their vote counts:
Hollow Earth Expedition: 32
Burning Empires: 25
Spirit of the Century: 24
Panty Explosion: 21 (tie)
Zorcerer of Zo: 21 (tie)
Esoterrorists: 20

Here’s the vote counts for those six from the Retailers (whose involvement generated the nom slate for this year):
Hollow Earth Expedition: 22
Burning Empires: 19
Spirit of the Century: 7
Panty Explosion: 13
Zorcerer of Zo: 7
Esoterrorists: 7

So I’m not sure what this means exactly. I know retailer voting was new this year. Does this mean that if Retailer voting hadn’t been in place, Panty Explosion would have been an official nominee? Hmm? Oh well. It’s nice to know that the jury liked us that much. Shit, the retailers too.

You can read the full article on Chad’s blog here.

Jake

Classroom Deathmatch sells out at Gencon!

Classroom Deathmatch sold out on the second day of Gencon! Matt called from the convention to report that he even sold the beat up copy he was using to run demos. Way to go, man! Panty Explosion is also dangerously close to selling out. If you’re at Gencon and you want a copy of Panty Explosion make sure to get to the Forge booth before they’re gone!

If you missed out on either game at Gencon, you can still order them through the Atarashi Games store and receive free shipping! This deal is good for the rest of August!

Panty Explosion at the Forge booth!

Panty Explosion has arrived at Gencon! If you went by the Forge booth on Weds looking for Panty Explosion, you might have been disappointed. We sold out of books almost right away! Luckily a new box of books just arrived at the con, and Panty Explosion is now back in stock at the Forge booth along side Classroom Deathmatch (which itself is dangerously close to selling out)!

Remember, if you can’t make it to Gencon, we’re offering free shipping on our games all month, to anywhere in the world!

Matt Schlotte is at the Forge booth all week demoing both Panty explosion and Classroom Deathmatch and giving away The year We All Died ashcans! Pay him a visit! Tell him Jake sent you!

Jake

The Year We All Died Ashcan at Gencon

Want a free copy of the copy-bon edition of The Year We All Died? Track down Matt at the Forge booth and ask him for one. Be fast, I’m only sending 15 copies of this ashcan with Matt to Gencon!

Jake

Atarashi Games at Gencon

Atarashi Games returns to Gencon this week! Matt Schlotte will be at Gencon all week. You can find him at the Forge booth, giving demos, selling books and having fun! We launched Panty Explosion exactly one year ago at Gencon. Just like last time, we expect to sell out really fast. If you plan on buying either Panty Explosion or Classroom Deathmatch at Gencon try to get the Forge booth as soon as possible!

For those of you who can’t make it to the show, remember that we’re offering free shipping when you order Panty Explosion or Classroom Deathmatch this month! Take advantage of this offer!

FREE SHIPPING THIS AUGUST!

That’s right, for the month of August we’re offering free shipping on all of our games! This means you can order both Panty Explosion and Classroom Deathmatch without having to shell out that few extra bucks for shipping! Even better, save more money by ordering the Atrarashi Games Double Pack, which includes both of our critically acclaimed games for just $35.00! With free shipping, that’s like a $10 savings!

Why are we offering free shipping? Gencon! We’re looking forward to meeting as many people as we can at Gencon, but we also know that not everyone can make it to the big show. We also suspect that we’ll sell out of the limited number of books that we can actually take to Gencon before everybody who wants one can get a copy. So to help solve both of these problems we’re making sure that we can give you the best deal possible by offering free shipping on our games for the rest of the month!

Head over to the Atarashi Games store to order!