Happy Monday, gamers!

So many things to discuss today. First, we've broken $150k and added our 15th stretch goal! The goal is 25 entries to match back to the 25-sided die. Now's the time to add 25-sided glitter die if you haven't already done so. Look at this mesmerizing video - you too could have such a glitter die if you add it on now!

Over the last couple updates we've covered much of Goodman Games and DCC RPG early history. Now let's fast-forward ahead to a year we all remember: 2020. For us, it led us to online cons and a whole new way of engaging with fans. As Stu writes:

Joe was generally optimistic as he headed to the GAMA trade show in Reno the second week of March 2020. On the first day, Monday, March 9, coronavirus was in the news, and people were talking about it, but it didn’t seem serious and folks were mostly focused on business. But by Wednesday, some of the booths were empty and people were leaving early. Rumors swirled that the airport was going to shut down. The governor of Nevada declared a state of emergency on the 12th, the day the show wrapped up. Joe luckily had driven out, but many others were stranded in Reno for several days.

“I remember the drive home from Reno, it was all very pessimistic,” recalls Goodman, “I called Brendan and said we needed to run an online convention. Clearly, nobody was gonna be able to go near other humans for months.”

Joe was right. On March 14, Luke Gygax announced that Gary Con was canceled. GenCon held out hope that things would get better by August, but canceled the convention on May 19. All the other shows followed suit. Covid was bad news for an industry that generates a huge portion of its sales at the crowded conventions that were no longer possible in a new era of lockdowns and social distancing. At least, that’s how it seemed in the uncertainty of those first months.

Brendan LaSalle worked some event-organizing magic, though, and got Goodman Games’ first phlogiston (read: online) convention, Cyclops Con, up and running in a little over a month, beginning on April 17 and running through April 20. That’s a remarkable turnaround for a company that remains fairly analog in its approach to things!

Gaming sessions, social hours and seminars were run via the videoconferencing software Zoom, which enjoyed a massive influx of users during the initial months of the pandemic. Some Zooms were broadcast on a central Twitch stream throughout the convention weekend. Around 600 people attended. “It was huge for an online convention,” says Goodman, “We got all these messages from people saying that it was so mentally helpful after having been locked up for four weeks not talking to other humans.” 

It wasn’t perfect, and Zoom was a mess, but it somehow all worked out well enough. The social hours were open Zoom calls. Doug painted a special background for the Cyclops Bar on short notice for everyone to use. Brendan wore a cyclops mask. Other people happened to have cyclops masks, too. “We were all hanging out at the Cyclops bar,” says Goodman, “50 people, part of the DCC community, on Zoom, just hanging out. It was like a lifesaver for a lot of people.”

In its own weird way, Cyclops Con taught us a lot about ways to bring the community together. Eventually it led to the first Dungeon Con several years later, and the DCC Demo Con online event idea that premiered in 2026. Dungeon Con continues to evolve... but perhaps that's a topic for another day!

In the meantime, everyone, we are entering our final week. Please tell your friends about this campaign and make sure you've grabbed the 25-sided die and any other add-ons you need!