Envy

At Gamehole Con this year, I was fortunate to have had the opportunity to hang out for extended periods with several notables who work for or with Goodman Games, starting with the Dark Master himself, Joseph Goodman. Joe has long been a fan and supporter of Grognardia and, over the years, he's been kind enough to ask me to do a few small projects for his company, generally introductions or essays that touch on our shared passion for the authors and tales of Appendix N. It's always great to have the chance to catch up with him and hear his stories.

Alongside Joe, I also had the distinct pleasure of meeting several other Goodman stalwarts, like Harley Stroh. Harley's name has been known to me for years, long before I even started this blog. I remember seeing his byline on the 3e era Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures and being impressed by his work. We occasionally exchanged emails, but that was the extent of our interactions until recently. 

Fortunately, I was able to play in a session Harley ran. Entitled The Mind Prison of Shana Dahaka, it was an unusual DCC RPG scenario designed for ten players – five wizards and their five champions. I played one of the champions, a Buck Rogers-like space hero summoned from the future and who possessed a blaster pistol with which to protect his arcane charge. The scenario was challenging and a bit trippy at times, but Harley was a great Judge who made it fun for everyone. 

Interestingly, Harley was not the only Judge for the adventure. At ten players, the scenario was actually run at two separate tables with two separate Judges. Harley was one and artist Doug Kovacs was the other. If you've seen almost any Goodman Games product, you know Doug's work. His beautiful work, both black and white and color, has appeared in almost every DCC RPG product for nearly a decade and a half. To the extent that anyone is the aesthetic face of Goodman Games, it's Doug Kovacs.

But, as I learned, Doug's not just an amazing artist. He's also a great game Judge and creator of RPG materials. At one seminar I attended, he was described as "the best writer of all the artists working for Goodman Games." I can certainly believe it. I spent a fair bit of time chatting with Doug at his booth at Gamehole Con, located not far from Goodman's own large booth. He kindly gave me a copy of The Seventh Doom Quest of Delial Krroom, a beautiful artbook/sourcebook for the Purple Planet DCC setting that he and Harley worked on together. It's a great read and wonderful evocation of late 19th/early 20th century esoteric literature, a topic of mutual interest between the three of us.

Another Goodman employee whose company I enjoyed was Matt Hildebrand. I'd known Matt since the days of the late, lamented Google Plus. A talented graphic designer and layout artist, Matt helped me bring several of my projects to life, most significantly the thirteen issues of The Excellent Travelling Volume. However, like so many of my friends and colleagues, I'd never met Matt in person before this year's con. This fact led to an amusing situation in which I asked several people to point out Matt to me in a crowded room and, each time, being sent to someone who was not Matt but bore a superficial resemblance to him. We laughed about this later, when we finally did meet.

(I'd be remiss if I forgot to mention Michael Curtis, old school blogger who hit the big time as Goodman's Director of Product Development. I've known Michael for years and met him once before at Gamehole Con. Alas, this year, we didn't have much time to hang out. Maybe in the future!)

Since this year was the 25th anniversary of Goodman Games, the company had a large booth in the dealers' room, with lots of great stuff for sale at a discount in honor of its 25th anniversary. I proved myself a hypocrite by purchasing a DCC RPG t-shirt that is now a favorite sleep shirt of mine (I still don't wear these kinds of things out and about). What really impressed me, though, was how much third party DCC stuff was available for sale. There were lots of 'zines and adventures and even entire compatible games there, sitting right next to Goodman's own offerings.

I think that's incredible and I am deeply envious of the community Goodman has built up around DCC RPG. I'm normally quite reluctant to use the word "community," since it's all too frequently used as a marketing term of art rather than a descriptor for something real. In the case of DCC, though, I think it describes something genuine. I've been impressed with the way that Goodman interacts with the fans and players of DCC, as well as third party publishers supporting the game. There's a palpable sense of collaboration and, more importantly, fun surrounding DCC that reminds me a lot of the early days of the OSR itself. 

That's probably why I had such a great time at Gamehole Con this year. I played games and spent time with wonderfully imaginative people who obviously love this shared hobby of ours. Just as importantly, they were genuinely interested in sharing that love with others, whether through the stuff they publish, the events they run, or simply the conversations they have with fellow enthusiasts. It's easy to become cynical about the hobby sometimes, especially when so much of our interaction with one another takes place online. Spending time with the Goodman Games crew reminded me that, beneath all the arguments and disagreements, there are still plenty of people who simply enjoy playing games and encouraging others to do the same. That's something well worth celebrating.