April Progress Report

Lightning Printing kept us jumping right up until the last minute. They kept forgetting exactly what was going on, and then spent several days trying to get a proof copy sent to the right address. To get a look at the proof in time, I had to talk a UPS clerk into searching through a truck in the warehouse to find the envelope with the proof, and envelope that didn't even have my name on it. This was twenty minutes after they closed...

After Lightning had confirmed that we actually wanted to print the book, they then sent it out overnight air due to a delay on their end. Keep in mind this is two days before the convention, and we still have no books. The package gets to Seattle fine, but then it just disappears... It turns out that UPS delivered all the books to the wrong office, and they were able to recover the books and get them to us with only 24 hours to spare before the convention. Talk about cutting it close!

The books came out looking great. There are a few things that Lisa (the layout person) feels are mistakes, but they're minor and don't detract from the overall look of the game. We packed all the copies up in the car, got the rest of our stuff ready, and set off for Norwescon.

Thursday

I had just picked up the new version of Illuminati. It's actually the old non-collectable version, with new art and stuff. Russ, Carisa, and Reverend Buttalove sat down with me to play, and we had a blast! INWO sucks royal ass, but the original Illuminati is a wonderful, wonderful game. It doesn't hurt that I won (I was playing the Gnomes of Zurich, so it wasn't hard). That's when Carisa suggested we try learning Kill Dr. Lucky.

What a blast! There's a reason this won an Origins award. We ran around the mansion beating on Dr. Lucky for an hour, until I cornered him in a side room and hit him with a shoe horn. Victory! Having won every game we played, I retired for the night, ready to face the worst Norwescon had to offer.

Friday

I began to get really depressed that no one was stopping by the table, until someone pointed out that most of the convention was still sleeping off the binging from the previous night's parties. Around noon, the traffic picked up, and that's when things got busy. The first wave of buyers were all the playtesters, one of whom actually waited outside the dealer's room until the doors opened, just so he could get the first copy (wrong, I got the first copy). Then quite a few people started stopping at the table, and that's when our ultra-preparedness helped out.

You see, I used to work conventions for Wizards of the Coast, and knew that trying to explain a game to every person who walked up would ruin my voice in an hour. Anticipating this, we'd come up with some small flyers about Purgatory, giving a quick rundown of the game concept, along with information on where to buy it. We also had a small pocket-sized sheet listing all the Purgatory events at the convention, along with a small form for entering our cool raffle. Every time someone would approach the table, we'd hand them the two sheets, and they'd read for a moment. To my surprise, quite a few people then took off to the dealer's room to buy a copy. Some people asked if we were a new company, and when we confirmed that yes, we were straight from the womb, they said they'd go buy a copy to support new game companies. Cool!

Over the course of the day, we hustled Purgatory like crazy. Around 8:00, I headed up to run the first Purgatory World Game, a two-hour intro for new players. We had thirty pre-made characters, thirty decks of playing cards, and most of the playtesters were there to help out. It took a few minutes to get started, but once it did, things were crazy. The players took off with the simple plot we had created, and ended up in a giant combat with two UNIPEC agents, all inside a vegetarian Asian restaraunt. There were Powers being used left and right, explosions, holes being blown in the walls, and more explosions. It was so chaotic, I couldn't tell whether people were having fun or just flailing around.

The highlight of the game was the giant combat that took a total of 15 minutes. The system worked! SCoRE was faster than anything I had seen in live-action before, with the possible exception of Live Wire's very simple guidelines. With brand-new players we had completed a combat in record time. The other nice part was that the combat looked like it was fun for most of the people involved.

At the end of two hours, we got everyone sat down and asked whether people had fun. The answer was an overwhelming "YES". Thank God. Soaked in sweat, I packed up and headed back to my room.

Saturday

TANGENT ALERT: It certainly feels weird that people want me to sign their copies of Purgatory. After all, am I so special? I know I wrote and published a game, but I still feel weird about it. I dunno, this probably makes no sense to anyone but me, and I'll still sign anyone's game that asks me to, but just try to understand why I look a little confused and startled when you ask for my signature.

Anyway, back to Saturday. 5:00 rolled around, so it was off to "Next Year In Games", a panel where various company reps were pressured to reveal secrets about future products, plans for the 99/00 year, etc. Highlights included:

• A discussion of red pixels and their ethicality as blood,
• Getting Jim Lin to twitch when I asked "So Wizards of the Coast is taking on Games Workshop for miniatures dominance?"
• Ranting about how I'd never cop out by doing historical versions of every Atomic Hyrax title, just to avoid creating new ideas.

• Next year we'll be publishing Purgatory: Year Two, which will be a year in the future of Purgatory.
• We'll also be putting out Purgatory II: Invincible Hong Kong, which will be exactly how it sounds. THat may be at Norwescon, or we may wait for Gencon.
• Next year, we're killing off at least one entire Purgatory faction. We won't say which one(s).

I raced from the "Next Year In Games" panel to dinner, and then raced back to run the second Purgatory World Game, concluding the convention plot. The pace was a little more relaxed, but there were a lot more players. Highlights included an 8 person combat of new players that was completed done in 10 minutes, a player asking "can my character go buy some qualudes?", and the ultimate moment of the game, which requires some explaining (keep in mind all the following is role-playing. There's a "non-touching other players" rule in Purgatory):

My character, Gabriel Stone, had walked into the gathering and pulled out a vial of Ambrosia. He handed it over to a very timid member of the Valkyries, telling her to guard it and try to sell it for a good price. She tucked it down her blouse, and was instantly jumped by four people. Luckily, she had the Power "Jump", and shot through the ceiling. Scared, she headed into Purgatory, with at least five people all looking for her. Later in the game, Gabriel went looking for her in Purgatory, and bumped into the other Valkyries right outside the women's bathroom. The four of us headed in (thinking she might be hiding in a stall), and were presented with a wonderful freeze-frame. The Valkyrie with the Ambrosia was trying to climb out the window, one guy was pulling her back in, one guy had grabbed her foot, and the third guy had his hand down her blouse. They all looked up in surprise, and the Valkyrie that had just walked in leaped forward, hitting the third guy with Flame Fists, which hurts a lot. So much for the Valkyries trusting men...

The game went really well, everyone was very jazzed about playing more, and I left the game very up-beat. There were all sorts of other crises and drama that night, but that's none of your business, so there.

Sunday

The Matrix

Anyway, we dragged ourselves to the local theater, and got our tickets. It looked like only four of us made it, until we noticed all the other people we knew who showed up. Strangely, they made a point of sitting ten aisle away from us, so I guess my fame isn't that radiant yet... Some late arrivals gave us a damn good turnout, and we settled back in our chairs to watch the show. The previews included Wild Wild West and Southpark, and I sat there wondering whether The Matrix would live up to the hype it had going. Then the movie started.

Damn! This is one good film. I won't say a thing about it, since I don't want to spoil the film for those who haven't seen it, but if you're reading this and haven't seen The Matrix, get off the damn computer and go see it!

In Summary...

Here's a bonus for the readers of the website. Anyone reading this that is not actually from Seattle, WA can e-mail me (use the subject line "JON, I CAN READ") and let me know why they should win something. Bribes and/or nude personal photos are acceptable as reasons for winning. The most inspiring and/or pathetic e-mail will win a free copy of Purgatory, signed by me. Your message of desperation and pleading will also be featured in a future Progress Report. Deadline for entries has been extended until May 26th.