It’s been a couple years now since GenCon SoCal has closed it’s doors and I can’t help but shake the feeling that the venue should have just relocated instead of canceling. It seems like the latest trend of most companies, from any size and demographic, aren’t really looking for ways to expand, but to downsize. Perhaps it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but I would have liked to see GenCon SoCal moved to the Bay Area, perhaps in SF or at the SJ Convention Center where the Game Developers Conference is held. Of course, now that I am in Vegas, maybe they should think about having GenCon Vegas

That aside, it’s obvious from attendance and product releases that this market is shrinking. I’m not sure if it’s just due to the economy, or simply a lack of interest, or some other outside source. Large former-rpg companies seem to just be pumping out card games and licensing them for poorly written and constructed TV Shows and Video Games that tend to just be long advertisements for the card game.

Something needs to be done to grow the market, to get people interested in the social aspect of gaming again. For a long time now this culture has had the stigmata of nerds and geeks in their basement telling stories to each other. While this may still be the case in some instances, we desperately need a makeover, a new marketing campaign, one that shows people who go out on a Friday and Saturday night to the club, they can relax on Sunday afternoon with a few friends, several drinks, pizza and get their game on.

I changed some links on the main page as well as added some links that get missed often from the side bar below the archive section to the top of the page. Cheers.

Edit: also 2 double posts a day in a row…

MORBIDGAMES and YOURGAMESNOW are offering a back to school discount on Ave Molech Second Edition, a fantasy world featuring steampunk technology, magic, charismatic tiefling and a world being freshly discovered. Set sail for high adventure on an airship to the frozen east or battle your way through marshes to reclaim your blood heritage, perhaps see into the afterlife when you visit the mudlands, anything is possible in this d20 fantasy adventure. But hurry, this offer will only last from now until the end of August!

YourGamesNow

We’ve added a PayPal Donation button to the front page at MORBIDGAMES main page All proceeds from the donations from now until December go into our events and costs for GenCon and ComicCon. We have gone in the past, and although we were not able to go this year, we hope that with the help of our friends, family and great people like YOU, we can go for 2009. For ComicCon we have to have things locked in before December to get the spot we want and pay the early registration discounted rate.

I have joined up with   It’s like facebook or myspace for RPG’ers

Added a new page supporting OneBookShelf and their other non-rpg related book stores. You can check the out over —> there…in other news, my sister-in-law is in town this weekend and hosting a wine party tonight.

I’ve been asked numerous times, “So Mike, what is your world about?” And I typically give the same run down of how I have a world where gods no longer exist, magic and technology mingle and civilization was almost wiped out. But no one wants to hear that. At some point I’ll get asked about the genre and what other games Ave Molech is similar too, which leaves me with the following conundrum. If I say my game is Fantasy, people ask me about the guns, airships and petroxolin, but if I tell them its Steampunk they question me about the swords, magic and psionics. To which I reply, “Well. It’s Steampunk Fantasy.”

Now I know what you’re thinking, “So what in the flying fuck is Steampunk Fantasy?” Good question. Typically we know fantasy as a genre that uses magic among other supernatural aspects as a primary element plot, theme or setting. A common example of this would be some of the more popular books by Tolkien or Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman. On the other side we have Steampunk, where the world is set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used. However, when people think of steampunk they often associate it with speculative fiction, a style that explorers the nature of unproven entities or occurrences within a specific time period. Thus, they imagine a Victorian world where everyone is running around in top hats and speaking with English or Scottish accents. While much fiction is written around this particular, it shouldn’t by any means pigeonhole the genre.

So why make up the term Steampunk Fantasy? Simple. It works. I take a world populated by mostly humans, though other races exist to give flavor and let you know you’re not in Kansas anymore. Then we add in the monsters, which can be found in the less populated areas, which in Ave Molech is almost everywhere. Next we make weird technology predominant in the land, but it runs off of gas and steam. But we don’t stop there, for now we have magic, ruins and artifacts that past populace had and still use, though perhaps not as prevalent as the airship taking you across the sea.

To say thanks for helping grow our forums, we’re offering our Ave Molech Campaign Setting (Second Edition) for ONLY $5.00 when you join our forums. That’s $10.00 OFF the list price. But hurry, this offer will only last until September 4th. Direct links to RPGNow, Drivethrurpg and YourGamesNow Coupon code can be found under the “Coupons” section of our forums.

Due to significant problems with forum spam in the past, Morbidgames has purged its old forums, implemented some new features and is starting fresh. We’re hoping to find people interested in our product line that would like to contribute with ideas, suggestions and comments. Our goal is to continue to build on our relationship with existing and future customers and offer another outlet for feedback.

Please visit our forums at http://www.morbidgames.com/smf

So as Aimee, Joey, Stacy and Myself discuss plans for next years Comic Con excursion I’ve decided to place up a link to the CafePress Store I have up - some of the items you will probably see at our booth next year.