April 11, 2014: ITTD: We Came, We Saw, We Gamed

Did you guys have fun on International TableTop Day? We sure did! The Steve Jackson Games staff participated in game events in a bunch of Austin establishments; you can see the pictures of our fun-having right here! 

If you didn't get a chance to go to ITTD this year, consider going next year. ITTD is a chance for you to act as an ambassador to get new blood into the hobby and share the games you love. The more people we bring into the gaming fold, the better it is for all of us; more gamers equals more gamers to play with, and the more people who are out there buying games, the more games get made! It's a win-win all around.

-- Brian Engard

I spent three hours at the Emerald Tavern, here in Austin, teaching people to play Zombie Dice, Castellan, and Revolution!, including a couple of new Austin residents and two friends visiting from Houston. I also talked to a bunch of people about Munchkin (go figure!) and SJ Games in general. The shop was full from about 2:00 on, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. Erich and Marshall, the owners of the Emerald Tavern, said it was one of their best days since opening last fall. Success!

-- Andrew Hackard

At one point while I was at Rogues Gallery, I had two little girls come with their mom to a Munchkin demo. One of them was still too young to read.  When presented with two sets of armor -- one covered in slime, with a small bonus, and the other on fire, with a bigger bonus -- the little girl grinned and chose the better armor.  It was the cutest thing!

-- Max Clontz

After all the last minute crises that turned into a very successful International TableTop Day last year, we vowed to have a different experience at Wonko's this year. We focused on putting out calendar events in as many online locations as we could.  We did two local board game meetup groups, Facebook, Google+, our web page, and the ITTD website.  Interestingly enough, we got very different feedback from each source, and different level of RSVPs. It was a lot of work updating each of those calendars with the updates to the door prizes, pictures of cake, and confirming guests, but it was worth it.  In the end, we gave out over 120 raffle tickets, which is how we tracked attendance. Considering those numbers approach our normal Saturday Pre-Release for Magic The Gathering, we are VERY happy with the turnout.

We had several guests, including Steve Jackson, Scott Morris, and later in the day Justin and Anne-Marie DeWitt.  Steve taught some kids how to play Ogre, ran a playtest of the up and coming Mars Attacks -- The Dice Game, took some lucky folks for a spin in the Tesla, and gave a talk on Kickstarter and game design, while Scott taught Mage Wars continuously and Justin and Anne-Marie signed copies of their games.

Everyone loved our drawings! With one of the premium kits, two of the smaller kits, and a great big box of goodies from Steve Jackson Games, everyone got something cool.

-- Eric Dow

My time running demos at Dragon's Lair for TableTop Day was an outstanding success! Ogre battles rocked the table all day while several rousing games of Chupacabra took place on the side. Many wonderful people learned to play Munchkin, which the store quickly sold out of!

A number of other game companies were in attendance, several of whom are just starting out. Anne-Marie and Justin De Witt of Fireside Games were on hand to teach Castle Panic! and Bears, and to run several rambunctious rounds of Munchkin Panic!

The turnout was great and I'd like to thank our Friendly Local Dragon's Lair for hosting!

-- Devin Lewis