Orccon 2025: a brief wrap-up

Hanging with the refugees from Valentine's Day

Five-plus years after I did my first convention as a vendor, I feel like I can state this as a rule: People who wear D&D or Pathfinder t-shirts to a convention never look at my D&D and Pathfinder books, much less buy them. Weird.

Bless you, Strategicon. Ramen Sandwich Press loves you, too, even though we didn’t give you any Valentine’s candy.

That being said, Orccon 2025 surprised me. Far from being glum or listless, as I’d feared, the overall mood was enthusiastic — almost as if a lot of people were glad of the chance to have some fun with their friends, engaging in their preferred pastime, after a month filled with disaster and loss. Starting Friday night, sales were brisk and people were cheerful, and the energy tailed off just a little as the weekend progressed. As one would have hoped and expected, we got a steady trickle of “Dr. Who” fans from Gallifrey One next door at the LAX Marriott, and one of them bought a handful of Found by the Way modules from me.

Nor did it seem that Valentine’s Day had a negative impact on attendance. Having gone to Strategicon events for about 30 years now, I can say that I’ve never seen any real correlation between depressed attendance and Valentine’s Day. Insert your favorite quip about gamers and celibacy here, but it just strikes me as a bit of dealers room cope to be brought out whenever you need it to explain why attendance and sales are disappointing.

From our friends at Dice Envy (l to r): Valentine-themed d4s.

I got squeezed out of my accustomed spot between Dice Envy and Goodman Games and was displaced to the front of the dealers room, where I got to sit next to the Guest of Honor, Alan Bahr of Gallant Knight Games. Alan seemed a bit ambivalent about being at Orccon, largely on account of his compressed travel schedule between rural Wisconsin and Los Angeles. But he was a good neighbor, and I enjoyed sharing observations with him about our mutual acquaintances in the industry. If you’re not already familiar with it, Gallant Knight publishes all of Alan’s RPG work, which centers on his own rules-lite, d6-based system. Having spent an entire weekend overhearing his sales pitch, I will say that his work sounds interesting and if you’re interested in RPGs with a true indie spirit, it’s worth your attention.

Again, from Dice Envy: One of the most creative uses of a kiddie pool that you will see. Why didn’t we ever think of that in all the years that The Weekend Warrior had a booth at Strategicon shows?

As for Ramen Sandwich’s fortunes, I will say that our sales ended a bit north of what I normally expect to make at a Strategicon show. Our Gamer Philosophy tote bags sold particularly well. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that I placed them next to my neighbors on the other side from Gallant Knight Games — the family (I don’t think they have a business name) that regularly sells used board games, filling two tables and a bunch of bookcases with their show stock. No one came out and said, “I bought a bunch of games and now I need something for carrying them!” but I am confident that there was a good deal of subliminal suggestion going on.

Our next scheduled stop on this year’s convention trail is WonderCon, in Anaheim over Easter Weekend. We’re paid up and ready to go; we’re already penciled in for Table SP-19 in the small press section. Right now, it feels like a long time to go before I get to do another show, but that’s my fault. There are several shows out of state in the late February-March time frame to which I could have gone, but I didn’t make up my damned mind that it might be a good idea until it was too late and they sold out.