Disclaimer: The following description is limited to my own experiences and things I saw and heard. My apologies if something awesome or somebody notable got left out. – Kevin
The 2010 Palladium Open House has come and gone. As usual, it was a whirlwind of activity. I’m happy to report it was a complete success.
For the Palladium staff and I, the Palladium Open House starts months earlier with online hype, designing T-shirts, reserving the hotel, planning and organizing. Then the week or two before the Open House, things snap into high gear. We print the name badges, make sure the T-shirts are done, we get to work rearranging and reconfiguring the warehouse, plotting where tables and chairs go, and setting up displays, arrange for additional parking, bag T-shirts when they arrive (Kathy Simmons bagged 600 T-shirts all by herself), and so on. Besides coordinating it all with Kathy, some Kevin specific things include the business aspects of the T-shirts and other printing (like the Rifts® print by Mike Mumah), making sure the costume prizes are ordered, pizza delivery arranged, and so on. I also have to sign prints, dig out, price and display the items for auction, and a hundred other things.
By the time VIP Thursday rolls around we’re all pretty tuckered out and a bit frazzled. Hopefully that doesn’t show too badly.
Kathy Simmons is the workhorse who handles ALL the catering and food as well as skirting tables, much of the displays, hotel arrangements and much of the actual organizing and operations of the event. As much as we all do, Kathy easily does the work of three people and NEVER stops working throughout the entire weekend – she works the cash register, processes the credit card orders, makes sure shelves are stocked, dishes out food, keeps a steady stream of free coffee flowing, refills coolers with soda pop, does ALL the cooking, and handles a lot of the cleaning, answers questions, deals with problems, helps at every turn and makes sure the entire operation runs smoothly. Wow. Honestly, I don’t know how she does it. By the end of the show she’s exhausted.
Even though I seldom got home before 10 or 11 at night the week before, I managed to make sure I got some rest before the Open House; at least 6-7 hours a night. I also got 6 hours of sleep every night of the Open House, which kept me relatively fresh and alert throughout the event. It was a noticeable difference, because I had a number of people comment on my looking more rested than usual, especially by Sunday. Poor Kathy Simmons didn’t have that luxury, as the three days before VIP Thursday are very work intensive as she prepares food, seating and other aspects of the VIP dinner for about 115 people (including staff and freelancers). That’s a ton of work.
Friends and freelancers started showing up Wednesday. Tables and chairs arrived and got set up. Joe Bergmans, Doug Lamberson, and Becky Rudell helped the staff and me with set up. Carmen Bellaire arrived later that evening and spent the entire night setting up his epic Robotech game. Hendrick, a gamer from Germany and one heck of a player, arrived that evening as well and helped Carmen with his set up. Kathy Simmons was present during part of the day and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening preparing food.
Gamers started showing up around 3:00 PM, with the bulk of VIP guests arriving between 4:00-5:00 PM. We had a full house and excitement ran high. Most made a B-line for Rifts® Triax™ 2 – hot off the presses.
There were a lot of familiar faces, but we were happy to see a good number of new faces/first timers at this year’s Open House. We estimate at least 25% were “new” people.
Dinner was served at 5:40 PM and the food was fabulous. There were hot sauerkraut and kielbasa, meatballs, mostaccioli, noodle salad, potato salad, fried chicken, rolls, soda, coffee and cake.
Around 7:20 PM, I gave my welcome speech and general update. I usually open the talk up to questions and answers, but since I had a panel talk at 8:00 and we had a dozen games scheduled, I skipped the Q&A part this year.
At 8:00 people ran off to play games and a couple dozen folks hung around to chat, ask questions and get autographs. Everyone had a blast.
At 10:45 I started to make my way out of the building. By 11:35 I finally slipped away and was on my way home. Of course my brother called me the minute I got home and we talked till 12:30 AM. I got about six hours sleep.
Games continued till 1:00 AM.
I arrived at Palladium around 8:15 AM. Kathy had been there since 7:00 AM and volunteers like Colleen Bruning and Jon Bruning (both a big help), and a handful of others who arrived around 8:00 AM were already busy collecting and dumping garbage and straightening up gaming tables. Joe Bergmans made sure bathrooms were in order and had toilet paper (among many other helpful things), and Joseph Black Bear became Kathy’s procurer of ice for the coolers where soda pop and water were kept. Chris Guertin joined us that evening and all day Saturday to help at the cash register, as did Becky Rudell and Doug Lamberson.
I had two games on Friday, one in the morning at 11:00 and another at 6:30 in the evening. Both were the same Palladium Fantasy® game with different players. Both were a blast. Both had 14 players. I enjoyed the players in both groups.
I was so busy before the event I did not have a game actually prepared. That’s okay, because I’m a master of improvisation and the characters are the same ones I use over and over (I love seeing how different players interpret the same characters). 15 minutes before game time I asked my pal, Doug Lamberson to give me an idea for a game. He said: “How about a villain who is more than he appears to be is taking over a town. Nearby is a volcano that has suddenly become active and maybe there’s something going on inside. Maybe some kind of demon or monster.”
I whipped that into a Minion War™ crossover adventure where a Rift inside the volcano would unleash “the legions of Hades” upon the Palladium World. The demons’ plan, to unite the monster races of the Old Kingdom and lead them against the civilized world, starting with the Empire of Sin. To stop this from happening, our heroes had to defeat the Straw Man (a Scarecrow) and Mayor who had been secretly replaced by a Raksasha. Fun ensued.
By Friday we were already getting raves about Rifts® Triax™ 2. Everyone was getting a copy and they were loving it!
There were lots and lots of fun games run by many wonderful and capable Game Masters. It would take too long to list and describe them all here, so let it suffice to say everyone had a great time. There were also numerous “pick-up” games in Open Gaming areas and a number of panel discussions. I did a lot of talking and signing books the weekend of Open House.
Carmen Bellaire’s epic Robotech® game using a 3-D display and Robotech® toys was pure anarchy and fun. Carmen, the maniac that he is, would continue to play games after Palladium closed its doors a little after Midnight every night, at the hotel in one of the two conference rooms available for Open Gaming – as did a number of other happy-go-lucky gamers.
I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about Scott’s Rifts® board game. It’s a player versus player game that I’m told is a lot of fun to play. I enjoyed chatting with Scott and he was one of the folks who helped Palladium set up and tear down tables and chairs. He also showed up Monday to help us clean up and was kind enough to sweep the floor, clean bathrooms and load and unload gear we had to haul back to Kathy’s and elsewhere. Thanks, Scott, I appreciated the help and good company. Scott Gibbons also joined me in one of my panel talks with writer Josh Sinsapaugh. If the name Scott Gibbons sounds familiar, it’s because he has contributed to The Rifter®.
Side Note: Yes, if you come to the Open House and offer to help, you could find yourself collecting garbage, moving tables, mopping floors and scrubbing toilets. So be warned. :)
Saturday was more games, more panel talks and more fun. I hosted several panel talks as well as the costume competition and live auction.
Due to a lousy economy, we had many fewer costumes this year than last – like two-thirds less. Folks cited a lack of money and/or time for not entering the contest this year. Still we had some pretty awesome costumes (see photos).
The Ley Line Walker (Dan Deluca) won First Place in the Rifts/Science Fiction category, a Zombie Police Officer (Dan Felkins) won the Horror/Modern category, and a Bard (Tom Nelson) won the Fantasy category. Each winner got an inscribed plaque with their photo and “Palladium Bucks” as a prize. As always it was very fun.
The auction is always fun and an opportunity to get rare and sometimes weird collectibles. There were plenty of bargains, items from Erick Wujcik’s personal collection and a few big ticket items.
A lot of people were smart this year, and made purchases at the “Buy it now” price, so some potentially hot items never made it to the auction, like a first printing, soft cover Palladium Crimson Edition Fantasy RPG, a Rifts® G.M.’s screen, a copy of Rifts® Manhunter, Erick’s Go set, and several other things. All items I think would have sold for much more if they had made it to auction.
There were more games, panel talks and fun.
I ran a Dead Reign™ zombie game with 15 players. It was fun, but ran long. Again, I had a bunch of excellent players who made it a worthwhile experience.
Dan Deluca presented me with a carved watermelon with the Rifts® logo. He did the best he could with the tools he had available, apologizing for it not being his best work. Are you kidding, Dan? It is awesome!!! What a surprise and a cool, unique gift. Thank you. Everyone loved it, and we all took plenty of photos. I haven’t had the heart to cut it open and eat the watermelon yet.
A three hour panel talk. To end the event, I was asked by a few gamers to host a panel. I had missed my 1:00 panel because I forgot about it (sorry) and my Dead Reign™ game ran over by an hour and a half. (Hey, I was having fun.) So when a few guys asked me to talk around 2:00 PM, I said okay. Three or four guys quickly turned into a couple dozen, and at its peak, we had about thirty. It was questions and answers and the folks in the audience had great questions. Irvin Jackson participated until he had to leave, and so did Mike Leonard (another person I was glad to finally spend some time with). Anyone who knows me or has listened to a podcast knows I like to talk, and with one great question after another, we talked, and talked and talked. It was excellent. I think it was the best panel talk of the Open House. Of course because it was impromptu, it is the only one that was NOT videotaped. Oh well.
The next thing we knew it was 5:00 PM, the Open House was over, and volunteers and Palladium staffers were packing up the tables and chairs.
Ultimately, Sunday is a day of lots of photographs, hugs, handshakes, autographs and fond farewells. The end of the event is always a little bittersweet as a weekend of fun and camaraderie comes to an end. I’m happy to say I made a number of new acquaintances and had a lot of fun.
Goodbyes continued till about 6:30 PM, but games continued at the hotel into the wee hours. As for me, Joe, Kathy and I went to dinner and collapsed sometime around 9:00 PM. By the end of the weekend Kathy jokingly said she hates peeling potatoes, bagging T-shirts, washing dishes, making coffee and making signs. But we all enjoyed the event and all the fun and goodwill it brings.
Artists’ and Writers’ Area. The opportunity to meet Palladium’s wonderful freelance writers and artists is always a highlight of the Open House. The area is always a center of activity, laughs and fun. Everyone is always happy to share their time with the fans, talk, sign autographs and goof around. The artists bring original art and prints to display and sell, and many are willing to do character sketches. They share stories about Palladium Books, gaming and other adventures. They are all down to earth and wonderful people. My thanks to them for making the Open House that much more fun.
Tours of the Palladium offices. I gave a number of tours of the Palladium office. Depending on my fatigue level, the tour was longer or shorter, or more detailed and perky. I’m afraid the Sunday tour filmed by Mike Leonard was one of my less detailed or perky tours, but it was fun.
Greg Diazcyk is a freelance writer and one heck of a guy. He was on a panel talk with me and ran a bunch of games. Heck, his smiling face and good cheer seemed to be everywhere. I wish I had more time to spend with him. Heck, I wish I had more time with all my freelancers. I promised the Manning brothers we’d hang out and all I said was hello and goodbye!
It was nice seeing Andreas Decker (from Germany) again, and many other familiar faces. Andreas was there to help us clean up on Monday morning, and I teased him and Matthew Tremes (from England) that they could tell people they came to the Palladium Open House and Kevin Siembieda made them sweep floors and pick up trash. :)
An international event. We had more gamers from outside the USA than ever before. We had three blokes from England, two from Germany, and I thought someone said we had a gent from Scandinavia or the Netherlands, plus a bunch of gamers from Canada as far away as Calgary. Awesome.
I signed more than 500 books over the weekend. I know this, because one friend/fan brought more than 200 books and another brought more than 100. After that, I just had to keep count. It is my pleasure to sign books – even massive quantities – especially if they are divided into batches of 50 as the one gent did. Hey, that’s what I and the rest of the Palladium crew are there for, to visit with you, sign books and help you feel welcomed. I enjoy it.
I had a heck of a time signing books, and chatting with old friends and new POH attendees.
As I’ve said so many times before, gamers are the greatest fans in the world, and Palladium fans are the best of the best.
The Next Open House is tentatively targeted for April 2012. We figure that gives the economy time to recover, and gamers time to save up enough money to attend. A large number of friends, fans and freelancers could not make it this year due to lack of sufficient funds. We haven’t decided yet and will keep you posted as our plans firm up (or not).
Freelancer weekend, April 2011? Under the threat of several happy and motivated freelancer writers and artists, we’re thinking of hosting a freelancer weekend next year. A weekend in which a couple dozen writers and artists get together to trade stories, draw, brainstorm and maybe come up with several new projects. It’s an idea. I’ll think about it. Let me know how serious you are about coming down.
That’s it for now. I’m sure I’m forgetting stuff and overlooking funny occurrences and events. I invite everyone to post your own positive experiences, adventures and comments on the Palladium boards.
Thank you for joining the fun.
Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Game Designer and Gamer
For many more photos, see the 2010 Open House Photo Gallery.
© Copyright 2010 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Beyond the Supernatural™, Dead Reign, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Minion War, Mysteries of Magic, The Three Galaxies, Warpath, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.