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Decipher Makes a Big Splash at Gen Con 2002

Gen Con 2002 will go down in history for Decipher as a benchmark for success. Three major things contributed to that success in a big way: the launch of The Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying Game (RPG) Core Book, the massive volume of demos we did for The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game (TCG), and the first ever demonstrations of the new Star Trek™ Customizable Card Game (CCG): 2nd Edition. But, honestly, I think our success can also be attributed to the efforts of our fantastic volunteers who made it happen.

In my San Diego Comic-Con report, I mentioned we had done about 500 demonstrations of The Lord of the Rings TCG. Well, at Gen Con, we eclipsed that number by Saturday by about 40 demos! By the end of the weekend, our volunteers had done nearly 700 demos! At most times on Saturday and Sunday, there was a line to get a demo of The Lord of the Rings TCG.

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Thursday, August 8

Day one of the show can be wrapped up with two questions... "Can I get a Faramir card?" and "Do you have The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game for sale?" Unfortunately, the shipments containing the Faramir cards and the RPG Core Book would not arrive until Saturday... more on that in a bit.

However, Star Trek CCG: 2nd Edition went on display this day and was a welcome surprise for many trading card game players. Personally, I heard many wonderful things about the new game. As a matter of fact, one of our volunteers who learned how to play on Thursday liked it so much that he decided to give up his entire weekend to help us at the booth teaching new players how to play. A big thank you to Scott Roszkowski for all your hard work and dedication throughout the weekend. I'm sure everyone will hear more about this game in the near future.

Thursday was capped off by the first annual Game Industry Celebrity Boxing Match. Decipher had two sluggers in the competition: "Killer" Kendrick Summers, Decipher Marketing Manager, and "Bad, Bad Brad" DeFruiter, TCG Game Designer. Brad was up first and managed to take second place for his weight class. Next up was Kendrick who also managed to take second for his weight class.

Friday, August 9

Decipher's 2002 North American Continental Championships kicked off on Friday for both The Lord of the Rings TCG and Star Trek CCG. Anticipation to see what kind of decks would be the major theme at the competition was extremely high. Players were also curious about what people would do for tech after San Diego. Only the top 16 players moved on from Day One to Day Two, where they met up with all the Territorial Champions and runner-ups. For complete coverage of all the North American Continental action, visit DGMA.com.

At noon, we received a special package at the booth. About 50 copies of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game Core Book arrived and went on sale. Now, this was not the entire shipment. This was just a rushed shipment so that we could get them on the floor as quickly as possible. All 50 copies sold out in about 30 minutes! Word-of-mouth spread throughout the hall like a wildfire, and we had people coming up to us for the rest of the day trying to get one.

Saturday, August 10

Wow! It was such an incredibly busy day at the booth. We received our shipment of The Lord of the Rings RPG and the Faramir promo cards for The Two Towers™. Because of this, three lines immediately formed on the booth: one for the Faramir card, one for the Roleplaying book, and one for The Lord of the Rings TCG demo. All of the volunteers were given copies of Faramir to insert in their demo decks for the rest of the weekend. Many of them said that Faramir was really strong. I for one had the chance to play against him with some Sauron Orcs, and each time I would send up one of my "exert-to-hurt" boys, Faramir would just shut them down... Good stuff.

The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game was a major hit of the show; players, retailers, and other exhibitors all lined up to get one (or some). Every single one of our Roleplaying events booked up solid for the entire weekend (for both The Lord of the Rings and Star Trek). Players sat down to learn the RPGs all weekend, then rolled up their first characters and took them for a spin. The Star Trek Live Action Roleplaying session was a massive hit as well. Over 50 people participated in creating a new orbital platform on Nimbus III, the planet of galactic peace. From what I was told, even Harry Mudd made an appearance :)

Day Two of the North American Continental Championships came to a close and when all the dust settled Hayes Hunter came out on top for The Lord of the Rings TCG and Dan Bell blasted the competition to take home the title for Star Trek CCG. For all the details, including deck lists of the winners, visit DGMA.com.

Sunday, August 11

Once again, the big story of the day was the RPG and the Faramir card. Many people turned in their petitions to get extra copies for all of you who were unable to attend the show. So, expect those soon. If you were unable to attend Gen Con or send a representative to pick one up for you, you can still get a copy of Faramir in the mail.

Toward the end of the day on the last day of the show, there was a big rush on the Decipher store. You see, many people had waited until the last minute to get their copy of the new RPG book. Happily, there was not a disappointed customer in the house, as we were able to take care of everyone and our Gen Con launch of our new LOTR RPG Core Book was a huge success.

What a great convention summer for Decipher! If we haven't yet had a chance to meet, we hope to see you at Dragon*Con for the Premier Series Atlanta, this October for Spiel in Essen, Germany, and of course at DecipherCon (October 31-November 3) in Virginia for the World Championships. Until then, may all your gaming be great!

Kyle Heuer
Decipher, Inc.
Promotions Coordinator
kyle.heuer@decipher.com

August 13, 2002