While I'm admit that every independent RPG game had a boom market when 4th edition D&D came out and and its producers were a bunch of dicks, I'll not cede to designers of its 5th Edition anything but more sales for me.
Back in 'o6 somebody at Origins decided that people running independent games should share a room with folks of Hackmaster. There was no problem with that for us. PeryPub was used to sharing rooms with other independent game producers since like 'o2 at various other places, and we were friends with most. What we did not know that Kenzer & Company had a strategy. The strategy was to pay for stand-in audiences of up to twelve people at tables with eight chairs and be loud and boisterous for about ten minutes every time slot to scare everyone out of the room. They'd come back around minutes before the end of any slot and pretend to be cheering about a game about to wrap up. There'd be a lot of disorganized noise, a speaker-projected dice-roll sequence, and then forced applause, leading to an artificial standing ovation.
How do I know that? Because my games were in the same room. For one then two slots over two years, I, with three to six players at my assigned table, would be a little too busy with my idiosyncratic games rulings to be offended or, perhaps, scared out of the room. No really, we were busy with Character Sheets and game rule Perks long enough not to notice the ballyhoo. I bet it was because of my voice forged from years of experience with street noise in the real world. The GMs, three in total, would come over after their initial performance and the absence of any of their players to ask me about when could they have the room. I did not know this at the time, but me being me ( wanting to know "what' he was talking about and "who" said he could do this"), would foil their efforts by players remaining during the other GMs' interruption and actually continuing my game.
Failing kicking me out of the room, two out of the three GMs tried to say that the something called "the Hackmaster World Championship" was going to take place in the evening and the room was going to be swarmed with their event. In o6, I complied and noticed that the requesting-GM ended up at a table near me in the "Open Gaming" area begging for players while looking hateful at me for amusing three players. In 'o7, I came back to the room which was empty except for 20 Hackmaster whatever Event cards littered across the room. My game would have five, then seven, players and was pretty good given the quiet room around us.
A little wiser than before in 'o8-'o9, I'd say to other event coordinators at real gaming conventions, "I don't want to be in the same room as Hackmaster events." To which they'd reply, (I paraphrase) "I've heard about Kenzer last year. Lemme give you your own room this year." The key here is that of the peoples I said this to, I had not shared my Origins Game "festival" experiences involving Kenzer & Company with them.
Coming back to Origins, when I submitted games over following years I still did great. Even when, I'd have to share a Quiet Room (that means "Breast-feeding") with my Crawlspace scenarios and then I've done better than my indie friends in room 1,967 on the Arte-Potte' Shack at the 3rd Slope next to the expresso machine and diaper-changing station, at least attendance-wise, every time. Some slots sucked but that is Origins, I still covered my expenses in sales.
I know about my sales versus others because we irreparable small game makers talk BTW. We just gossip like fiends. Like little old ladies without much else to do. Yeah, we're awful about being professional according to standards imposed on idiots by corporations that would like to make a few worth hours of wages based off of our years-long worth of works. Why I'd love to complain about the going rate at an average convention for an indie table, but WAIT! There is that one GYN, err GUY that said this or that left (or right)wing thing about stuff that you cannot fix by playing a role-playing game! Quick repost all of my T&T scenarios links. When I reach 1 million dollars, I'll try to fix things. It's like I talk to people.
I might just need MORE money, but hey... .
Now about roleplaying games being dependent on D&D. Done with fake scandals and fake outlets. Do a CREATIVE product and then complain.
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