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DECIPHER.com > DecipherCon
2003 > The Daily News
Chicken Impersonations and Watchful Nazgûl:
Day One Wrapup
DecipherCon 2003 is off to a great start. Over in the 7500-square
foot Decipher tournament area, past the life-size Nazgûl sentinel
on his black steed and under the watchful eyes of an enormous Gollum-at-Mount
Doom banner, World Championship hopefuls hit the ground running in five
Lord of the Rings TCG and two Star Trek CCG day one heats.
Booster drafts, the Star Trek First Edition championship, and other
events filled in the numerous tables.
 
  
On the Decipher booth, demos were hot. The six stations running
Lord of the Rings Online TCG demos were constantly in use ("I
could have used more computers!," says Worlds Apart's Luke Carruthers),
while a crew of volunteers ran non-stop tabletop demos of Lord of the
Rings TCG, Star Trek CCG Second Edition, and .hack//ENEMY.
  
In the store, Kendrick Summers, Tracey Halliday, and Michelle
Colson kept a stream of customers supplied with booster draft product, Fellowship
anthologies, Star Trek All Good Things, Ents of Fangorn boosters,
and Star Trek RPG books. Along with their products, customers got
their choice of an oversized collectible card for each $20 of purchase.
Meanwhile, strange eruptions of loud chicken-squawk imitations
and other odd behavior emanated intermittently from the Ultra-Pro booth
across the side aisle. Shortly thereafter, a customer would come up to the
Decipher counter and whisper a mysterious password to one of the staff in
exchange for a special Black Rider card. (If the staff member happened to
be one of Decipher's own "Black Riders," like Kendrick or Kevin
Reitzel, the lucky customer might even snag an autograph.) After one particularly
rousing chicken impersonation, Kevin gifted James Kirtley with two cards,
saying, "I witnessed your chicken, and it was worth two!"
Note to customers looking for a Black Rider card on Friday
and subsequent days: the "partner" booth where you may perform
in exchange for the day's password (and the performance requirements) will
change daily. Check at the Decipher booth to see where to go each day!
When the exhibit hall closed at 6 PM, we gently shooed out
the demo-ees reluctant to leave, with assurances they could come back at
10 AM on Friday. Then staff and volunteers went off to find dinner before
the 8 PM volunteer (product champion) summit, where the staff let out a
number of revelations about upcoming products and promotions before hosting
two sealed deck tournaments (LOTR and ST) for the volunteers (who don't
get to play in convention events while working the booth or tournament hall).
What, you want to know more about those revelations? Alas,
I will need to leave that for another article...
Related link:
More photos from Thursday
Kathy McCracken
Web Writer
July 24, 2003
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