Thunderfoot said:
For those of you that didn't stick around for the after-party you missed a lot of fun. If nothing else you missed seeing Ranger Wickett dancing and me doing "the worm".
The first thing I need to do now that I'm back home and recovered is make a list of all the people I met at the con, so I can keep faces and screen names connected in my mind. Man, you doing the worm was awesome. And I need to track down that last song DJ Achilles played, because anything that gets Dextra grooving enough that she dances back to back with me has to have some sort of magical party.
So yeah, geek dancing was fun.
I hope this is not a sign of me being jaded, but in past years when I got to meet people like Monte Cook or Peter Adkison or Keith Baker, I was thrilled just by getting to hang out with them. Which is how it should be for any good geeky fanboy. I'd been very lucky in past years to be able to hold a few brief conversations with each of them and more, but this year they were busy whenever I ran into them. I still got to meet these great and awesome people, but circumstances just didn't work out as well as in past years, so I came away feeling a bit disappointed.
I know, it's silly. Plus, I ended up running into and having friendly chats with industry power-houses whom I hadn't had a chance to talk to before, like Chris Pramas, Nicole . . . wish-I-could-remember-her-last-name of Green Ronin, and Mike Pondsmith of Cyberpunk fame. Man was he cool.
After the particular wonder I experienced last year at Gen Con, I wasn't surprised that this year wasn't
quite as great, but I still had a good time.
Tons of random stuff:
I remember meeting Eosin the Red, and having him explain his name means 'Red the red,' because of something medical or chemical.
I realized Gertie (Xath) is a kind, cool person, especially in the face of a half-dozen blitzed gamers.
I saw a side of David (Diaglo) that I had missed before -- the vulgarly, cheerily drunk side that is a hell of a friend to party with. He's amazingly candid, and it was fun to see lots of people meet him and realize they would actually like him. I came to call him D.
I got to chat with Scott (Rel), who I still called Rel because there was another Scott somewhere in the group, and I didn't want to get them confused. At least I think his name was Scott. Where Jeff (Teflon Billy) is the smoldering cool of a bad-ass, Rel is the laid-back cool of a billionaire playboy who wants you to hang out with him on his beachfront mansion.
Kevin (Piratecat) and I never really had a chance to hang out, in large part because I was hung over from drinking with Diaglo, Hellhound, and others when I should have been playing in Kevin's game. However, I got to slide into Alenda's game -- what's her real name? -- along with Peggy (Kid Cthulhu) and FickleGM and others who sadly I remember by face but can't recall their names. I got transformed into a woman, and Peggy and I had a sudsy grapple with a sorceress in a bath robe, which is a unique way to defeat the main villain. It was a fun game, and a good way to get over a hangover.
Ken (The Universe)'s M&M game Wednesday was great. My Thursday 20th level steampunk D&D game was not quite as successful -- I mean, the game was fun, and the players had a good time, but 20th level games
take so long! I'd spent most of the evening before leaving for Gen Con trying to prep stats for three fights we didn't have time for. I wish we'd had more time for it.
Stu (fusangite) is a bad man for convincing me to start drinking that wretched whiskey. But he's great fun to listen to. I need to meet more crazy people, so I'll be able to tell stories like his. In fact, about the only thing I remember clearly from Saturday evening was that politician/conspiracy theorist nexus from Canada. The rest was washed away by whiskey.
If I forgot you, well, next year, do a better job of telling me your name multiple times. *grin*
Uff da, what else? The ENnies dance was awesome, but it was the rest of the evening -- from the indoor rainstorm at the Westin to LARPing space Jesus to seeing Justin Achilli's friends shouting "NO FUMAR" -- that were some of the best memories of the con, just because they were so f***in' weird.
There were some events that occured that were personal and pleasant, and a few that were unpleasant, and neither shall be shared, but overall I was pleased with the con, though I'll take a page from my Canadian friends and apologize to folks for being bitchy once or twice. I had a few regrets, like being hung-over more often than was wise, but I'll know better next Con.
I look forward next year to planning a few more games, keeping my lunches free so I can hook up with random EN Worlders, and making an effort to spend every evening with a group outside of my hotel room.
In the meanwhile, I need to set up a GameDay so I can hang with D.
