Origins 2004

A gigantic set from 2004 created in conjunction with Cheapass Games and James Ernest. Cheapass advertised the cross-promotion in a forum for game publishers, inviting dealers at Origins 2004 to participate with little financial output. James Ernest worked with the dealers to create appropriate characters, and then charged to make the buttons if the dealer in question did not wish to make their own buttons. Cheapass handed out a list of dealers participating at the convention to aid fans in collecting the full set.

The original solicitation for the promotion in the Origins 2004 coordinator's email is as follows:

> "We have a unique advertising opportunity to announce. We are organizing a Dealer's Room-Wide Button Men tournament. James Ernest of Cheapass games has given permission for every participating manufacturer to produce their own Button Man button. Players will come to your booth and challenge you (or one of your volunteers) to combat. The players must visit at least three booths to win a limited edition button. This will drive gamers to your booth. Plus, if you want, you can sell your individual buttons. This opportunity is for Origins 2004 only. If you are interested in participating, contact Mark at [EDITED FOR PRIVACY] or Warren at [EDITED FOR PRIVACY]. If you have questions about Button Men itself, contact James at himself@cheapass.com [Probably defunct, left in tact].
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> ...(other programs described)...
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> Time is of the essence, especially for Button Men. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Mark or Warren."
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## Origins 2004 buttons

### Amara Wintersword

Amara Wintersword is a character from the Lost Worlds RPG by Flying Buffalo.
Amara Wintersword; woman in chainmail  She’s a barbarian, she’s beautiful, she carries a battle axe? Missed the axe didn’t you? While you ogle some of this barbarian’s finer qualities, she prepares to defeat you in battle. What her axe cannot handle alone, her dagger and fiery rage defeat. In addition to creating a distraction, the small pieces of chainmail she wears protect as a full suit of armor as well as deflect all lightening spells. ... Many years she spent escorting treasure or guarding the life of this wizard or noble. Unexpectedly, Amara found herself under attack; assassins hired by her own employer. Claiming to help her in this battle, she was left for dead by a trusted friend only to be nursed back to health by another. Amara now travels from place to place, sometimes realm to realm, seeking answers. Will you stand in her way? (Compatible with all the other Lost Worlds books. Book/game design by Alfred Leonardi. Storyline by C Calhoun. Model C Calhoun. Photography by Tim Calhoun.)

An original painting of Amara Wintersword by Clyde Caldwell sold for $7,500.00, and prints of the painting sell for $350.

### Beatnik Turtle

Beatnik Turtle

wHF(4) (8) (10) vz(20) vz(20)

   Beatnik Turtle is the mascot for the band of the same name.
According to Randy Chertkow,

> "We had made the Cheapass Album, and were at the conference releasing the new album, and we put together a button for it to promote it at Origins. We were avid players of both Cheapass Games as well as Button Men so we were excited to have a button for our band mascot. We are gamers and the origin of that album was pretty funny as well. The short version is that one day, after playing Deadwood, we got inspired by a card in the game and created a demo "Were All These Beer Cans Here Last Night". We sent it to James, and he liked it so much he posted it to cheapass.com. That got tens of thousands of downloads so we pitched doing an entire album inspired by the games. The best part was getting our cover art done by one of my favourite artists, Phil Foglio. We didn't have our own booth, but what we did do is create a "Cheapass Listening Booth" at the Cheapass table with a CD player and headphones, and people would come by the booth and listen. It was pretty funny, and people loved it and bought disks.
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> We Illustrated it ourselves as it's the same mascot we use on all of our websites and materials. Technically, Jason Feehan created it."
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### Billy Shakespeare

Made to promote the game "Hamlet" by Mike Young.

### Captain Bingo

Captain Bingo

(8) (6/12) (6/12) (12/20) (X)

    Cap'n Bingo is the "Animal Sidekick" featured on the cover of Panda Head Production's "Meddling Kids" RPG.

### Cheese Weasel

Cheese Weasel

(6) (8) (12) (16) (20)

Button Special Ability: Once per round, before taking his turn, the Cheese Weasel may re-roll one of his own dice that shows a value matching one of his opponent's dice, OR he may re-roll one of his opponent's dice that shows a value matching one of his own.

Flavor Text: The Cheese Weasel is a clever and cunning rodent, bent on quiet world domination. He likes cheese (duh!), any opportunity for eating cheese, stealing cheese...and beating people up if they attempt to come between him and his cheese.

Nicole Beach, Chief Weasel, tells of the creation of the Cheese Weasel.

> "The Cheese Weasel was created in response to James Earnest allowing companies to create an Origins Button Man for $200. The Button Men would only be allowed to be sold at the convention and there was in fact a contest was created where you could fight the other Button Men created that year.
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> As for the creation of the Button Men, I created it and play tested it against the Button Men in the base set. The special ability “The power of Cheese” was approved by James prior to the creation of the button.  The ability was added was because the button seemed plain without it. He needed a little bit of a kick to help him match up against the Button Men out there.
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> Another unique aspect was the use of a 16 sided die. This was implemented because I wanted something unique and difficult to obtain.
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> On a side note, Button Men were the inspiration for our Death by Dice game.
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> The Cheese Weasel image was really the creation of John Smith, who did all the art for all of our products.  We just told him the name of the company, and he took it from there and got it right on the first try,  lol."
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### Delt / Delt Rage

Delt

R(4) R(4) (10) (12) R(X)

    Delt is a playing card.

Delt Rage

G(4) G(4) (10) (12) G(X)

    The "Rage" characters come from mistakes in implementation on the original Button Men Online site. Their "Gamer" dice were programmed as Rage dice by mistake. In tribute, homages were made for the characters.

### Drew's Truck

Drew's Truck

(5) (10) (15) (20) (X)

    Made to promote the game "You Need Drew's Truck" by Mike Young.

### Igor!

Igor

(8) (8) z(12) (20) (X)

    Made to promote the game "Igor!" by Mike Young.

Art by Alex Bradley

### Killer Christmas Tree

Killer Christmas Tree

(6) Z(6) (10) Z(12) (X)

This button was available at the "Blood and Cardstock" booth at Origins 2004. It is the only character currently to use Sleep Dice.

Blood and Cardstock's Joan Wendland tells about the origins of the Killer Christmas Tree:

> The Killer Christmas Tree is a card in my Counting Zzzzs card game. It’s a dream game and that’s a nightmare card. I personally have had a dream where a Christmas tree tried to kill me. It didn’t have teeth - that was my artist’s interpretation and  Lar deSouza did a great job of it. We still have the art and sell the occasional button. Counting Zzzzs is available and can come with a free copy of the Killer Christmas Tree. Single Killer Christmas Tree buttons can be ordered individually as well."
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### Mike Young, Insane Game Designer

Mike Young

(X) (X) (Y) (Y)

    Made to promote the game designer "Mike Young."

### Oni

Oni

(4) (10) f(12) f(12) (V)

    Oni is from XCrawl, a "Smash TV"-style dungeoneering cyberpunk fantasy RPG published by Goodman Games and Pandahead Productions. She is one of the marquee characters in the game and is featured on several covers of the books, as well as being an NPC in several books.

### Reggie/Reggie Rage

Reggie

(8) (10) R(12) (20) R(20)

Reggie is a Registration button for Origins.

    Reggie Rage

(8) (10) G(12) (20) G(20)

The "Rage" characters come from mistakes in implementation on the original Button Men Online site. Their "Gamer" dice were programmed as Rage dice by mistake. In tribute, homages were made for the characters.

### Rold/Rold Rage

Rold is a six-sided die.

Rold

(6) (6) R(6) R(6) R(6)

    Rold Rage

(6) (6) G(6) G(6) G(6)

    The "Rage" characters come from mistakes in implementation on the original Button Men Online site. Their "Gamer" dice were programmed as Rage dice by mistake. In tribute, homages were made for the characters.

### Spite

Spite

p(6) (6) (6) s(X) (X)

Spite was available from Smirk and Dagger games.

According to Curt Cover, Owner & Chief Instigator of Smirk and Dagger games,

> Yes, there was a time when Button Men, looking to increase buzz and penetration, offered open licensing. The thinking was that the more people making and selling buttons, the better for the game overall. Smirk and Dagger, at that time in their 4th year as a publisher, was excited to be involved. So we created our button and promoted it at Origins. After the Origins promotion, we did end up signing an official license to sell the buttons and make more.
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> SPITE is a monster encounter from our game Cutthroat Caverns, which had recently been released at that time. SPITE is a succubus and a particularly deadly encounter in that she would cancel the strongest attack against her, and then direct her attack at the player who swung the hardest. Super Intimidating. So we made her button with appropriately tough stats. I was a fan of the game and had a fun time devising ours. This was the approval we got from James, where he acknowledges the power of our button: "Looks great! I can't believe I didn't notice the "6 6 6" theme element. Mea culpa. The extra 6 does make her a little stronger, but there are far crazier buttons in this promotion. She can stay 6 6 6. Best wishes, and see you in (gulp) a week... -El Cheapo"
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### Supergerm

Supergerm

p(10) p(12) p(16) p(20) p(24) p(30) p(30) p(X)

    Supergerm is a character from Flying Buffalo's "Nuclear War" board game. According to Joe Kisenwether, designer of the Freaks expansion, Supergerm is likely the original recipe for Max.

### References:

1. ↑ Mike Young Interview, conducted via BoardGameGeekMail.
2. ↑ https://gamebooks.org/Series/49/Show
3. ↑ https://clydecaldwell.com/gallery/amara-wintersword/
4. ↑ https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/83837/Meddling-Kids
5. ↑ http://www.buttonweavers.com/ui/forum.html#!threadId=395
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 https://github.com/buttonmen-dev/buttonmen/pull/368
7. ↑ https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1588/Xcrawl-Core-Rulebook
8. ↑ https://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147734869/X-Crawl-Bookmark
9. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080703202901/http://www.smirkanddagger.com/spite.htm
10. ↑ http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/assort.html