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Auntie Lisa’s Story Hour: Gen Con Reminiscences—The Paizo Years

Thursday, July 19, 2012

With PaizoCon 2012 now in the rear view mirror, my attentions turn toward Gen Con in Indianapolis, August 16–19. I’ve personally gone to every Gen Con since it was held at UW Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin, but since this is Paizo’s tenth anniversary year—and Paizo’s tenth Gen Con—I figured I’d limit this blog to stories from the last decade. Gen Con is and always has been our biggest show of the year and the convention where we release our biggest products, so many seminal events in Paizo’s history take place at this granddaddy of all gaming conventions.

Our trip down memory lane begins in August 2002. Paizo was a newly minted company, having started business just one month prior, so we hadn’t lined up our own booth at Gen Con. Our friends at Wizards of the Coast had already allocated a part of their booth for the periodicals department that we’d taken over, so they allowed us to set up camp in their castle for the show. Paizo’s owners and a small team of editors spent the weekend talking to thousands of gamers who were wondering what the future held in store for their favorite magazines with Paizo at the helm.

Gen Con 2003 was all about the Paizo exclusive silver Boba Fett action figure we’d organized as part of running the Official Star Wars Fan Club and Star Wars Insider magazine. Vic and I knew what kind of excitement an exclusive figure would generate, but I don’t think Gen Con had a clue. So imagine their surprise when a huge storm of fans rushed the small Paizo booth and started a long line that stretched past and even through other vendors’ booths! We sold a ton of this action figure, but there was a little consternation among the employees who worked on Dragon and Dungeon: Gen Con was the D&D show, and they were used to taking the limelight at the booth. It was hard to argue with the fact that Boba Fett paid a lot of bills, though, and all in all, it was a really good Gen Con for Paizo.

2004 was the year we launched Amazing Stories and Undefeated, and relaunched Dragon and Dungeon. We put free copies of all four magazines into each attendee’s gift bag, which cost us a pretty penny. It didn’t ultimately make much of an impact on sales, so it was probably not the best marketing decision we ever made, but we were excited about what we were doing and we enjoyed giving potential customers issues to read at their leisure. To celebrate the relaunches of Dragon and Dungeon, we created T-shirts that customers could get for free by starting a new subscription or renewing an existing one. The Dragon T-shirt had Wayne Reynolds’ iconic dragon bursting through the cover page, while the Dungeon tee had a picture of Warduke, an homage to the D&D cartoon series and action figure line from the early 1980s. But the most controversial thing we did at the show that year was bring the Undefeated cheerleaders. Jenny Bendel, our marketing manager, wanted to create a stir and drive traffic to the booth, so we bought cheerleader costumes with the Undefeated logo on them and hired some local models who dressed in the cheerleader costumes and decorated passersby with Undefeated temporary tattoos bearing Johnny Wilson’s slogan for the magazine, “Nobody Likes a Loser.” Again, I’m not sure it helped sales all that much, but it sure did drive traffic to our booth, including a couple of local television crews!

By Gen Con 2005, we were already working toward making Paizo about more than magazines. Our big release was the Shackled City hardcover, and we decided to create a huge tower of books in the middle of the booth. We planned for hordes of customers to snatch up their copies, making the tower disappear throughout the course of the convention. Unfortunately, we brought way too many books, so even though sales were brisk, much of the tower was still standing at the end of the con.

My favorite memory from Gen Con 2005 was the ENnie Awards ceremony. Paizo had taken home our first ENnie—a gold award for Dungeon—in 2002, though all of the work that was being recognized had been done by our employees when they were still part of Wizards of the Coast. 2005 was the first year that the accolades were truly our own. All in all, we won 4 gold awards and one silver—but for me, the silver was the most exciting: it was for Best Publisher! Since its inception, Paizo had been struggling to gain an identity in the gamer community. If we were lucky, we were known as “the Dragon and Dungeon company”; many, many readers hadn’t yet figured out that we weren’t actually part of Wizards of the Coast. In industry surveys, retailers often reported Paizo sales as Wizards’ sales, and distributors still gave our magazines TSR product codes! So that silver ENnie was validation that we were finally stepping out from the shadow of Wizards and forging our own identity. It was a very sweet moment.

2006 was all about trying to fill the gap where Undefeated and Amazing Stories had been. Our GameMastery Map Packs and Item Cards were front and center in our booth, along with our Compleat Encounters line. It was a bit of a transition year for us, so we filled the booth with anything we think we could sell to gamers, including a big bin of Toy Vault plush right in front of the register. We partnered with Looney Labs that year to bring in a little more traffic and a little more sales; Looney also partnered with us in 2007.

2007 marks the launch of the Paizo that everybody knows today. We were sad to release the final print issues of Dragon and Dungeon at Gen Con, but we were very excited about the debut of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, with James Jacobs’ now classic “Burnt Offerings” adventure kicking off Rise of the Runelords. Our booth was decked out in large Pathfinder banners showing off Wayne Reynolds’ new iconic character artwork. Our line of GameMastery Modules was also a recent addition, and Nick Logue’s “Crown of the Kobold King” was being played delve-style in the booth using Dwarven Forge terrain. It was super impressive!

Gen Con 2007 was also exciting for our Titanic Games board game line. We’d already released our first board game, Kill Doctor Lucky, and at this show, we were debuting Stonehenge, a board game that I thought could change the way folks looked at games. Stonehenge consisted of a board, cards, and other pieces that were designed as a flexible toolkit that budding game designers could use to create their own board games, sold in a package with rules for five different Stonehenge games from the world’s best game designers. Our booth was abuzz with constant demos of both Kill Doctor Lucky and Stonehenge, with game designers Richard Garfield, Mike Selinker, and James Ernest stopping by the booth to show off their games.

A personal memory from 2007 was having Gary Gygax in our booth to sign autographs. We had just released Gary’s The Anubis Murders novel in our Planet Stories line, and the father of RPGs took the time to interact with our fans and sign their books. I’d first met Gary way back at my first Gen Con, when I was a fan myself, and we had become friends through the years. I am honored that Paizo was part of his last Gen Con.

The Pathfinder campaign setting saw its release at Gen Con 2008 with our 256-page hardcover book. For the previous year, fans of our modules and Adventure Paths had been clamoring for us to flesh out the world of Golarion, and this book was our answer. We ended up selling out of our Gen Con allocation on Saturday and having to turn away potential buyers the rest of the weekend. Another big Gen Con success for us was the Pathfinder RPG Beta. This softcover printing of our Beta playtest rules was something we weren’t 100% sure people would want to buy, but since we wanted to get folks excited about next year’s release Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, we brought a lot of copies of the Beta along, figuring we could always ship the extras back home after the convention was done. Little did we know that they would be gone by the end of the second day! The response was incredibly uplifting. The weekend culminated with Paizo winning our first gold ENnie for Best Publisher, a true honor, along with six other golds and a silver.

Gen Con 2008 was also memorable for the launch of our Pathfinder Society Organized Play program. Season 0 was our playtest season, and our smallish room was packed with gamers from the start of the con to the finish. Four hundred characters were made and six hundred registration cards handed out. Kicking off each new Pathfinder Society season at Gen Con is now a PFS tradition.

Of course, at Gen Con 2009, the Pathfinder RPG launch took center stage. The night before the show started, Paizo had our first contributor party for staff, freelancers and top Pathfinder Society GMs. It was the first opportunity any of them had to see the Core Rulebook, and I remember watching proudly as they devoured each page.

We again built a huge pile of the books in the middle of our booth, reminiscent of 2005’s Shackled City tower. But this time, selling out was a real possibility: the first print run of the Core Rulebook had sold out before the show even began, and as news circulated that Gen Con might be the only place customers might be able to buy the book for months, a large crowd of folks gathered outside the dealer hall, waiting to rush in to buy it. When the doors opened, our booth was inundated by hundreds upon hundreds of gamers hungry to grab a copy. The line soon spread into the artist area across the way, and we had to marshal every employee available to keep it from devolving into chaos. Erik and I quickly hatched a plan—I grabbed a box of books and headed down the line, offering people who just wanted the rulebook the ability to quickly hand over some cash and get out of line. Hundreds took us up on this offer, and we were able to get the line under control by the end of the first day.

2009 will also be memorable for me because of the start of our relationship with Reaper Miniatures. We’d worked out a licensing deal with them a month or so earlier, but imagine my surprise when they showed up at the convention with greens of the first minis to show off! Even cooler, they had sculptors actually working on new sculpts during the convention. I think I spent as much time in the Reaper booth as I did in the Paizo booth that year, constantly checking to see if the sculptors had completed new figures.

We’re really proud of the Core Rulebook, but it’s nevertheless very much a revision of what had come before. In 2010, we were able to offer something uniquely our own in the form of the Advanced Player’s Guide. Jason had conceived of the APG at the previous Gen Con, and we were all super anxious to see what everybody thought of our new classes and new ideas such as the archetype mechanic. We needn’t have worried; the APG was the hot selling book of Gen Con, with hundreds and hundreds of copies sold over the course of the show. We also launched our Pathfinder Tales fiction line that Gen Con, and author Dave Gross spent his time at the booth autographing copies for eager fans. We proudly won our second gold ENnie for Best Publisher, part of a grand total of 11 golds and two silvers! Wow!

2011 was all about the Ultimates at our booth. Ultimate Magic and Ultimate Combat both made a splash at the convention, as well as the kickoff of our Jade Regent Adventure Path—the first time that an AP travelled outside the bounds of the Inner Sea. But what had me super excited was the unveiling of the Pathfinder Battles line, our new prepainted plastic miniatures partnership with WizKids. We had paint masters of Valeros, Seoni, Kyra and Merisiel at the booth for all to see, as well as an unpainted prototype of the black dragon incentive mini for the first set, Heroes and Monsters. At the ENnies, we brought home the gold for Best Publisher yet again, a truly mind-blowing feat, along with seven other gold ENnies.

Gen Con 2012 is just a month from now and my mind is racing. How will everyone like Ultimate Equipment? Will we have enough plush goblins to last the weekend? Even with our Pathfinder Society room almost three times as large as last year, will it be enough? I can’t wait to see people playing games with our Pathfinder Pawns for the first time. Oh—and wait until everyone sees WizKids’ Rise of the Runelords minis set for the first time in person—people are going to freak! It’s going to be great watching folks playtest the new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game for the first time at Gen Con. And this will be the first year that Goblinworks will be at the con, showing off some of our early visuals for Pathfinder Online. We’ll also have the first issue of the Pathfinder comic book at our booth, complete with a unique Gen Con variant cover! And we’re returning to Varisia in Shattered Star, the first-ever Adventure Path sequel. There’s so much going on I can’t even think of it all! But I do know that I’ll have another year of memories from the Best Four Days in Gaming!

Paizo at Gen Con through the years:

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Lisa Stevens
CEO

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Tags: Auntie Lisa's Story Hour Conventions Gen Con
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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I do love it when you do these, Lisa. The only problem I've got, really and truly Auntie Lisa, is this seems so short. I crave more!!! ;P
Grand Lodge

Q: Pathfinder Society room almost three times as large as last year, will it be enough?
A: There is never enough room for more PFS. But us fans will work with what is available. :)
Paizo Employee Director of Games

Ah Gencon, my favorite time of the year. This will, I believe, be my 25th consecutive Gencon and being with Paizo has made the show into some of the proudest moments of my career. Winning Best Game and Product of the Year in 2010 was truly special and locking up Product of the Year again in 2011 was amazing (thats me holding it in the 2011 photo).

I hope to see many of you, at what will surely be, a fantastic show again this year.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Very interesting read to see how things changed at Gencon over the years from Paizo's perspective.
Contributor

GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon, and despite having an emergency appendectomy only days before my flight, it was just as awesome as I anticipated. (Though thankfully I had a could sit down to demo Kill Doctor Lucky!)

That pic from 2009 remains one of my favorites. ^_^

Not to nerd out or anything, but I'd think it was Ezrin instead of Seoni last year.

But regardless, thanks a million for these posts Lisa.

Ah yes...I remember the Boba Fett's...still have one!
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 16, 2012 Top 32
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Will we have enough plush goblins to last the weekend?

No, I don't think that's possible. :)

Silver Crusade

2009 was my first GenCon. Had an amazing time then! Moved out to Cali for a few years and was unable to go, but this year our gaming group are all going for at least one day. (Sat). Can't wait to see the Paizo guys and see all the cool stuff at the booth!
The Exchange Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16

Still don't have to capability to "Favorite" a blog post :(

Lisa. I have to say I LOVE these peeks behind the scenes. From the point of view of an outsider, Paizo seems like it is a very different kind of business even from other RPG companies, and it makes for fascinating and compelling reading when you (or any of the other insiders) pulls back the curtain and gives us a view of what goes on there. I know you're, like, busy and stuff, but give us more!
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Sovereign Court
Epic Meepo wrote:
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Will we have enough plush goblins to last the weekend?
No, I don't think that's possible. :)

DA FUQ? Did you say plush goblin? I'll have to set some cash aside for that. My wife won't leave the con without one.

Liberty's Edge

I will not be attending this year, having already attended my first PaizoCon. One con a year for me. I think.

My first con was last year's Gen Con. Meeting all the Paizo folk face to face was a treat. I still have to get Erik's sig in my 4th printing Core book...

Have a great one!
Paizo Employee Director of Narrative
Liz Courts wrote:

GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon, and despite having an emergency appendectomy only days before my flight, it was just as awesome as I anticipated. (Though thankfully I had a could sit down to demo Kill Doctor Lucky!)

That pic from 2009 remains one of my favorites. ^_^

Mine too! Also, GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon. I flew out there by myself to meet folks I've only interacted with on messageboards. Good times were had!

Liberty's Edge

One of the disappointing conflicts in the Gencon schedule is the fact that the ENnies are always held on Friday night, at the same time as the Pathfinder Society GenCon Special.

It's normal and entirely understandable that the ownership and creative talent at Paizo should be attending the ENnies and enjoying themselves. I'm not saying they should not be there. I'm saying they should be.

But for all that, the one omission from Lisa Stevens recounting of past GenCons is the incredible excitement and buzz from 400+ Pathfinder players all playing the same scenario at once -- and the thrill of being a Pathfinder Society GM at that Friday night event. When all the players cheer out their victory over the foe at the same time? It is awesome.

We were nominated for an ENnie last year (and won a Silver too!) so of course we had to go. We were not going to miss that moment for anything. But had we bothered to submit (and get nominated) again? I was not going to go to the ENnie Awards and miss out on the GenCon PFS Special again.

It's just too much fun.
Paizo Employee Director of Sales
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!

Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Also, the "half of Paizo is stuck in Texas and the locals are getting pitchforks ready" story....
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cosmo wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

What does this all mean?? Did Cosmo get a local lady pregnant or something?

EDIT: I mean, there's customer service, and then there's servicing customers.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Reckless wrote:
Cosmo wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

What does this all mean?? Did Cosmo get a local lady pregnant or something?

EDIT: I mean, there's customer service, and then there's servicing customers.

I believe that one Gencon when Cosmo arrived in Indy he had his Appendix explode and needed it removing.

Contributor
Adam Daigle wrote:
Liz Courts wrote:

GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon, and despite having an emergency appendectomy only days before my flight, it was just as awesome as I anticipated. (Though thankfully I had a could sit down to demo Kill Doctor Lucky!)

That pic from 2009 remains one of my favorites. ^_^

Mine too! Also, GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon. I flew out there by myself to meet folks I've only interacted with on messageboards. Good times were had!

You sure the highlight wasn't asking Gygax for his signature? :P

Contributor
Enlight_Bystand wrote:
Reckless wrote:
Cosmo wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

What does this all mean?? Did Cosmo get a local lady pregnant or something?

EDIT: I mean, there's customer service, and then there's servicing customers.

I believe that one Gencon when Cosmo arrived in Indy he had his Appendix explode and needed it removing.

Gallbladder, actually.

Paizo Employee Director of Narrative
Liz Courts wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
Liz Courts wrote:

GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon, and despite having an emergency appendectomy only days before my flight, it was just as awesome as I anticipated. (Though thankfully I had a could sit down to demo Kill Doctor Lucky!)

That pic from 2009 remains one of my favorites. ^_^

Mine too! Also, GenCon 2007 was my first GenCon. I flew out there by myself to meet folks I've only interacted with on messageboards. Good times were had!
You sure the highlight wasn't asking Gygax for his signature? :P

Yeah, that was pretty cool too. :)

Paizo Employee Director of Sales
Enlight_Bystand wrote:
Reckless wrote:
Cosmo wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

What does this all mean?? Did Cosmo get a local lady pregnant or something?

EDIT: I mean, there's customer service, and then there's servicing customers.

I believe that one Gencon when Cosmo arrived in Indy he had his Appendix explode and needed it removing.

Close, but it was my gall bladder.

In 2010, while we were still at the airport and waiting to get our bags off the plane after first arriving in Indianapolis, I started feeling ill. By the time we got the hotel, it was bad. Jeff Alvarez, Josh Frost, and Chris Self took me to the hospital that evening and my gall bladder was removed shortly thereafter. I spent the first half of the week in the hospital and the second in bed at the hotel. I didn't show my face at Gen Con 2010 until the Ennies.

In the photograph above, you'll see me peeking out from behind Josh. Not pictured is how gingerly I was moving about at the time, the tiny amount of food I was able to eat at that dinner, and the powerful pain meds I was on. Good times. :D
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Cosmo wrote:
Enlight_Bystand wrote:
Reckless wrote:
Cosmo wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
D'oh! We totally forgot to mention Cosmo's little issue in the blog!
Heh... part of me will always be in Indy...

What does this all mean?? Did Cosmo get a local lady pregnant or something?

EDIT: I mean, there's customer service, and then there's servicing customers.

I believe that one Gencon when Cosmo arrived in Indy he had his Appendix explode and needed it removing.

Close, but it was my gall bladder.

Oh, c'mon. You know that was served up as a Pathfinder special at one of the local restaurants. "What is this Cosmic Haggis made of, anyway?"

Liz Courts wrote:
That pic from 2009 remains one of my favorites. ^_^

That pic makes me giggle, so cute!

Lantern Lodge
2 people marked this as a favorite.

2011 was my favorite GenCon year, possibly because it was my first and only GenCon (so far) and possibly because I went for fun, didn't have to work, and got to enjoy the show.

It was also where Gary and I announced to our coworkers that we were expecting. Admittedly I was a bit nervous, Paizo is not exactly baby prolific and I wasn't sure what the reaction was going to be. I needn't have worried, as the response was overwhelmingly happy. It made me realize how much I love my Paizo-family.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Due to my deployment to the middle east, I am unable to attend GenCon this year. Last year I wasn't able to play in any PFS scenarios without previously registering. If your room is three times the size of last year, I hope this means players won't be turned away from playing because they didn't schedule their entire weekend with events. I think it would bring in a larger draw of players if anyone can walk off the street, pick up an pregen, and get roped into the game. Being told, "You'll have to wait to see if there are any slots" was very disheartening.
Scarab Sages

Damn it, why can't I go...?
*sob*

Thanks for the blog, Lisa. I always love the ‘Auntie Lisa’ stories.

I’ve known of Paizo for awhile now, but they didn’t become my focus when I became aware of the PFRPG line, which was early 2010. My DM said “There is this new system being labeled as 3.75, and it’s designed by Paizo. I’ve heard some good things on it.” So my interest was piqued, I looked more into it, and that was all she wrote.

So when I went to GenCon in 2010, I had the pleasure to meet the Paizo crew, including Jason, James, Sean and Lisa. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to meet Vic, but I did get to the following year. But what I am getting at is everyone I met was very friendly, helpful and willing to just talk. Paizo has always been very personable with their consumers, and I hope that never changes.
Sovereign Court

One of the more amusing moments I had at Gen Con was in 2009. The look of "oh holy crap!" on Jasons face as the doors to the dealer hall opened and the people started beelining towards the core rulebooks was priceless.
Contributor
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
Also, the "half of Paizo is stuck in Texas and the locals are getting pitchforks ready" story....

You're close actually, on two counts.

There was a year that we flew to Indy by way of Texas and got hat intimidation.

There was also the year (2010? 2009?) That James, Sarah, Sutter, Sean, and I (am I missing someone?) got stranded. (You could say ABANDONED as Erik and Jason managed to escape on the, literal, last plane out of Indy.) So we got a hotel airport with adjoining rooms and a lovely view of nothing. Well, adjoining, except for Sean who met a CERTAIN SOMEONE that year with the old ring and monkey item card trick. (That's all a story for him to tell.) On the kids-only side of Hotel Romance, we ended up watching standup on YouTube, reading all the sexy parts of the complementary Bible, having dinner in the hotel restaurant (that had a not so secret secret room), and not too much else as our escape was stupid early. Ultimately we got out okay the next morning, and the only cost was everyone (except me as the cameraman and Sean, because, well, duh) getting their bed-head coiffures well documented.

Weirdest Gen Con trip to date.
Contributor
6 people marked this as a favorite.

Wha, you mean this certain someone? :)
Paizo Employee Director of Games
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Cylyria wrote:
One of the more amusing moments I had at Gen Con was in 2009. The look of "oh holy crap!" on Jasons face as the doors to the dealer hall opened and the people started beelining towards the core rulebooks was priceless.

That moment will undoubtedly stand out as one of the most exciting, breathtaking moments of my entire career.

Jason
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Lisa Stevens wrote:
Of course, at Gen Con 2009, the Pathfinder RPG launch took center stage. The night before the show started, Paizo had our first contributor party for staff, freelancers and top Pathfinder Society GMs. It was the first opportunity any of them had to see the Core Rulebook, and I remember watching proudly as they devoured each page

2009 was my first US based Gen Con (Prior year 2008 I went to Gen Con UK) and I got to go to that party, it is still one of the best memories I have from Gen Con!

Grand Lodge

Aunt Lisa? That kind of makes it sound like it's time to put a rocking chair at her desk.

Lisa, Were you at Gencon at the original Lion Rampant booth? The one that was kind of just made out of cardboard or looked like it? You kind of look like the woman I bought my original black book Ars Magica from.
Paizo Employee CEO
LazarX wrote:
Aunt Lisa? That kind of makes it sound like it's time to put a rocking chair at her desk.

Not exactly that old yet, but when you start saying things like "when I went to my first GenCon 29 years ago..." it makes you feel just a wee bit old. :)

Quote:
Lisa, Were you at Gencon at the original Lion Rampant booth? The one that was kind of just made out of cardboard or looked like it? You kind of look like the woman I bought my original black book Ars Magica from.

I sure was! There would have been three women at that booth: myself, Nicole Lindroos and Kirsten Swingle. My hair was very dark brown back then. You can see a picture of me from 1992 here. The first Lion Rampant booth was actually in 1987, but was just a table with Whimsey Cards on it. In 1988, we had a full end-cap and were selling the first Ars Magica edition. Btw, I can't find any pictures of myself in the Lion Rampant booth—just pictures I took of the rest of the team.

It would be pretty neat if you had bought your ArM book from me way back then!

-Lisa

Dammit Paizo! You just want to take all of my Gen Con money!

Besides that, I love these retrospectives. My first Gencon was in 2010. This year I hope to wander the halls on my own (I always seem to have one tag-along or another)
Grand Lodge

2009 was great! I was one of those "hundreds" who took you up on paying cash in line to get the core rulebook. My daughter and I went right to the Paizo booth when the doors opened, but there were still probably 100 people in line ahead of us. It was a great idea that allowed us to get out of there quick. I didn't realize I was buying it from the owner of the company. My 11 year old daughter got a kick out of that, and she still remembered when I showed her the pictures.
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