2026 Gen Con TTRPGs - What to Expect

Transcribed content from our recent YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmN4njpT3BQ

Transcription

[00:00:00] Hey, adventurers. We're back, and we are with the creator of Eternity and the page that we started, right? Um, this is my husband, Jacob, and I got dragged onto this- Thankfully, yeah. I got dragged onto this adventure about five years ago- Mm ... when we met, and just been with it ever since, but obviously he's been with it a lot longer.

So where did Eternity start? Well, first off, thank you for helping with the channel so much. As we've been growing, it's been really nice actually to be able to focus more on the gaming stuff- Mm ... and have you handle a lot of this, so. Mm-hmm. I'm glad I can. Yeah. So you're asking how did it start? Yes. Where did Eternity start?

Yes, like way, way back. Where did it start? Um, I've been making games since I was probably six years old as just a way to fill time and spend, you know- Mm-hmm ... fun afternoons with friends growing up. [00:01:00] Uh, so I think the first version of creating some kind of tabletop role play game, I was probably 12.

Goodness. Yeah. So 20-ish years. Yeah. Yeah, like 25 years. Yeah. Yeah. So it was really just everybody gets a notebook and some, you know, pens and different colors to highlight or whatever- ... draw on, stuff like that. Nothing was really formalized. Anything I did have was just printed off my parents' computer. And, uh, mostly we used Legos, so.

Oh, for, like, the terrain and stuff? Yeah, the terrain and your characters, and if your character got a new sword, you'd actually switch out their, what they were wielding, you know. That's fun. Um, it was really fun, and we'd build castles, and it was less about having a TTRPG system that was mathematically right or that made sense from a storytelling perspective.

It was just playing with friends. And whatever you want your [00:02:00] character to wear, they wear, and then you update your stats based on what you thought was cool to add to your Lego character, so. That's awesome. It was really fun. Yeah. Yeah. So 25 years, 30 years of making games, right? And now we're at the point of not just Eternity but Sparks of Eternity.

So where did the idea of the Sparks of Eternity come from when you had, like, Eternity going from 25, 30 years ago? So what does the Sparks mean? Yeah. S- Sparks of Eternity was really actually your idea- ... at Gen Con last year.

And basically- You went with it. Yeah. Well, it was a- You at least went with it ... it's a great-- You have great ideas. Mm. And basically what happened is we were, as visitors to the convention, walking around the aisles, looking at all the great games- Mm ... seeing everything from board games to card games to tabletop role-playing games.

It became apparent to us that it wasn't the [00:03:00] easiest for the tabletop role-play game vendors to show off their products. Mm-hmm. Uh, we'll talk about that a little bit more later, I'm sure. But- Yeah ... basically everybody else can game demo, but it's not very easy to game demo in about 15 minutes for a tabletop RPG.

Yeah, because you need, like, a character, right? Usually you wanna show people through, like, a series of encounters or do a quick adventure or something. Yeah. And that can take 45 minutes. You're talking about having a whole event with ticketing and stuff like that to- Yeah ... run at a convention. And so we wanted a way to be able to show off our game very quickly and get people into the world of Eternity, see if they like the races, the classes, the unique ideas that we have, uh, without needing more than five minutes, because, you know, you just don't have a lot of time at conventions like that.

And I also think it's important if we're gonna share the game with a lot of people, and the really, I think, great [00:04:00] ideas that we've come up with, um, not just at conventions, but if you're gonna share it with your friends or your family or- Mm ... you know, you wanna be able to show them something in just a couple minutes that either catches their attention or at least they know that it's not for them right away.

Mm-hmm. So you went to Gen Con, you had this happen, and then we had that car ride back, right? Yeah. And we were brainstorming how can we make a TTRPG accessible at this con. Mm-hmm. And that's where Emanation was created, right? Mm-hmm. What, what is Emanation? Yeah. So we're still probably figuring out the right way to say this, but Sparks of Eternity: Emanation is one of the games in the Eternity world, and it's supposed to be the introductory game.

So it's a card game battler, is the name that we've come up with at this time. And really what it takes is six of the game's classes, [00:05:00] puts them into a card game that each class has its own deck of about 15 cards. Mm-hmm. And those are just all the unique abilities for that class. So what you can do is pick a class, um, pull out some dice, pull out some trackers for hit points, that kind of thing, and you just start playing.

So I might attack, you might defend. Mm-hmm. And then after that round, which could literally take that fa- that fast, it might be a couple seconds- Mm-hmm ... our characters level up, and so we take the next card off our deck And then we have one more option to play that turn. So now I have maybe a more specific berserker ability, whereas you have a cryomancer ability.

Mm-hmm. And every round your characters level up until you've picked up your whole deck. And, uh, you just kinda battle each other until there's one left standing or the, the rounds run out. 'Cause we want [00:06:00] it- Yeah ... to be a fast game, so it's not necessarily about, you know, defeating your opponents. Maybe at the end you just have more hit points left than they do.

Yeah. But the whole game can be played a- anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, depending on how well you know the characters. Mm. Yeah. I think you and I are easily have our five-minute games now- Mm-hmm ... because we've been play testing so much. Yeah, we've tested a lot. But I know when we had both of our mothers try this game, and they're- Right

in their 50s and 60s, and they were able to pick up the game, and we went through two or three different rounds of games in a matter of 30, 40 minutes. Mm-hmm. So it wasn't just us as young people and the creators being able to play this game, it was our elderly family- Yeah ... could pick it up. So it was just showing like- Mm-hmm

hey, you can do this when you're young, you can do it when you're old. And, and it was a family game. It was nice. Mm-hmm. Um, you touched on it for a second, but what are the six classes in the, in like game that's being printed right [00:07:00] now? Well, I thought I'd touch really quick too on, on your point there as well.

That was the whole point is we wanted to be able to play with anybody. Mm-hmm. So my family- Yeah ... my parents have actually never played the tabletop role play game that we're- Same with mine ... generating, and they never would- Yeah ... because it's a tabletop role play game. My mom's not gonna play D&D. Yeah. She's just not.

But she was interested and able to play this card game. Mm-hmm. And she picked it up in a, just a couple minutes. And, you know, she didn't make the best choices every round. She didn't optimize, but she had fun, and that was the whole goal. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I think mission accomplished. Um- Yeah. But the six classes, so I, I mentioned one, and then I've actually mentioned an expansion class.

So berserker is one of the base game classes. There's assassin Druid, Judge, Oracle, and Summoner What's your favorite out of those six? I was gonna say really quick, Cryomancer, which I mentioned, is an expansion class. And that's the only one we're gonna talk about because we wanna keep those a secret for a little bit.

So we have a lot more coming. Yes. So [00:08:00] the, the plan with this is it is a base game, very easy entry point, not a whole lot of options. But if you like the game, there's a lot more that we have planned and, and it's already done, so. Uh, my favorite out of those first six? Mm-hmm. So I would say that a few of those are kind of fantasy staples: Assassin, Berserker, Druid.

Mm-hmm. Uh, and then a few you've probably heard of a couple times, Summoner, Oracle. I think one of the ones out of this base game that's most unique to Eternity is the Judge. Mm-hmm. Uh, so I guess for that reason I'll g- I'll say Judge is my favorite at this moment. It changes. Yeah. So out of those six, I, because we played it so much, I would say the Druid is the most fun to play because I can have like damage plus an additional turn during the round.

Mm-hmm. Um, so it's very fun to be able to hit someone multiple times and Yeah, the, the game i- is very simple to learn and pick up and play- Mm-hmm ... but they have very distinct [00:09:00] play styles. I think we've- Mm-hmm ... we've hit a good balance point of- There is some complexity if you wanna dive into it, but also at a face value, all the cards are very simple to read and- Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, we have spent countless nights over the last year at this point- Yeah, it's been a full year. Yeah. Yeah. I can't believe it. I know. Um, but we've been play testing all of these cards, right? And making sure the wording matters 'cause like- Mm-hmm ... I mean, you've been in this for 30 years, as we've just pointed out, making all these adjustments, and I come in and play and I've only been in this for five years, had no tabletop role playing, D&D, any of that beforehand.

Mm-hmm. So I can help you with the wording for someone that's- Yeah ... you know, not used to it. And that's really helpful actually. Sometimes for me, having played so many of these games, it's easy for me to look at something and say, "This makes sense." Mm-hmm. But then having you read it or our parents read it- Yeah

and they go, "I don't understand this," that's actually the best feedback. Mm-hmm. So. Yeah. [00:10:00] So to wrap things up a little bit, this game, Emanation, is... It's on a boat from China right now. Yeah. Right? Yeah. It, it's finished. It's gonna be... It's coming to the US. It's finished. Mm-hmm. It's in production. We have the box showcasing it, the videos anyway, right?

And we've been waiting for this since December, I think, is how quickly we got it to production. Um, kind of. The- Roughly. The, the whole production thing is its whole own story. This was our first time having a game professionally produced. Yeah. And so we had a lot to learn about file types- ... and even silly things like sizing and, uh...

Yeah, there was a lot of back and forth with the manufacturer. But it is all done and it is on the way. Yeah. So. So with it being on the way, we've created a pre-order page. Now, this page is not accepting payment at this time. It is just collecting- That's right ... your email, right? Mm-hmm. [00:11:00] And once we get it in and we're happy with it, we're gonna send out an email to you saying, "Hey, it's ready now.

If you wanna buy it, you can." So this one is just a notification pre-order, right? Mm-hmm. So. Yep, that's right. So, uh, we'll share the link to that page, but it's ettrpg.com/game, and all it does on that whole page is tell you everything you might wanna know. So maybe you're a big TTRPG fan, and you're looking for ways to get more of your friends involved, your family, show off sort of what the genre's about You can play Eternity Emanation and then get somebody to play D&D with you off that.

If they like Emanation, they're likely to enjoy D&D, and that was kind of the point. We don't just wanna get people into our world of games. We wanna have an easy access point to tabletop role play games in general. Mm-hmm. So yeah, go take a look at it. Uh, learn more about the game. See if you [00:12:00] like the idea of the classes.

Uh, we even have an About section for Shauna and myself- ... uh, John, who does the marketing. All of the art is human-made. It's beautiful. It's am- you know, we're really- It looks incredible ... happy with everything that's come together. Yeah. A lot of really amazing people, a lot of amazing skillsets involved to make this happen.

Uh, but yeah, you're right that, uh, if you want to get notified about when we have the product in hand, we are not accepting any payment info, any payment commitments at all until we actually have the products at our house ready to ship to you. So everything- Yeah ... at this point is just, you know, if you wanna know when that's up, then, um, just, yeah, drop us a line there.

Absolutely. Um, and just to wrap it up, if you have any further questions about the game, the world of Eternity, or even just our different takes on tabletop role playing and D&D related things, please drop it below, um, because we're always here, always watching. [00:13:00] And we, we enjoy this kind of stuff, so. Yeah.

For me, I'm, I'm sort of obsessed with it really. Um- Oh, you are obsessed with it. Yeah. So like- Like I... Go ahead ... the la- the last thing I was gonna say is that we do have the tabletop role play game version coming out as well. Mm-hmm. And that will expand a lot, and you'll actually be able to use the card game Battler Emanation as the combat system within that full tabletop role play game.

So you'll have options. You'll be able to do kind of the, uh, the battle grid style that you've seen from D&D and probably have always loved. But, uh, I always think that some combat is, is worth that, and then some combat maybe is a, a l- you just want to fight some- Something quick ... goblins really quick. Yeah.

Yeah. And so you just pull out the card game, and that can be a much faster system for your, your group. Mm-hmm. So when we have that available, we will be sharing that as well. But we're excited that this is the, uh, first step for this whole Sparks of Eternity world- ... we've been planning for [00:14:00] a very long time.

Yeah. It's just so exciting, and it's amazing seeing it come together. I mean, this is your life's work. Yeah, yeah. And I get to be along for the ride with it, and it's just so fun, you know? Well, at this point, you're doing more than just being along for the ride. I- At this point, you're, you're in it. You're making the videos.

You're- That's- Yeah ... it's not my creative mind at work here. But anyway- I don't know about that ... as always- Like, subscribe, comment, let us know what y'all think, and we will catch you next time. Thanks for watching. Bye.