Well, here's my preliminary GenCon Report. Originally, I was planning to stay until Sunday, and come home after Clay's party, but I wasn't feeling so hot today, so I decided to come home a day early. I'm glad I did, because I've now got a raging sore throat and a fever. I hope I didn't infect everybody yesterday and this morning. If I did, I'm sorry! One final note. Because I feel like crap on a stick right now, I'm probably going to forget lots of stuff. I'll post more as I recall it.
Anyway, this was my first con, and I really didn't know what to expect. I got into Indy about 10:00 on Friday, and checked into my hotel, which was just across the street from the convention center. Surprisingly, my room was ready (usually if you show up that early, they'll hold your luggage until afternoon, but make you check in later) so I went on up, tossed my suitcase in a corner and went straight to the convention center.
Oh. My. God. The place was packed. I felt very sorry for the folks who didn't pre-register, because the line was horribly long. So I wandered around until I found the will-call desk, and picked up my event tickets. Next stop, the exhibit hall. The picture P-Kitty posted upthread doesn't even show a fraction of the place. It was huge, and filled with all sorts of stuff. Card games, board games, computer games, war games, role playing games, art, clothing trinkets, total crap, it was all there!
And the people! Lordy lordy. I saw this woman who was dressed as a fairy. She had a Pepto-bismol pink wig, with matching filmy wings, a wispy, bikini type thing made to look like leaves & flowers, and a pink flashing light in her navel. Then there was the two guys dressed like Samurai. An Ewok. Dozens of Robin-Hood and Marian look alikes. And some folks that Emergent called, um, Plastic Headed Pod People, I think. Eh, you had better ask him what he called them. All I remember is, he was darn funny.
Ok, so I wandered around gawking for a bit, until I found the ENWorld/Twin Rose booth. Dextra & Crothian were there, so we all introduced ourselves, and then I set out to shop in earnest. I had only a few hours until the Freeport game I signed up for, and I was determined to make the most of it. (Don't tell my husband how much I spent! He'll have a coronary.) I walked up and down each aisle, stopping at all the D20 booths to check out the wares. I saw lots of products that I had been wondering about, and many of them were really cool. So I bought them. I also met all sorts of folks that I had only known virtually.
Paladin and Paladinwife of The Gamer's Bag are just as nice in person as they are online. They seemed to be doing a booming business, so we just chatted for a few minutes, then I got out of the way of the paying customers. I had the pleasure of chatting with MEG Hal, who is a really charming guy, and the very pleasant Ed Cha, who wrote Hamlet of Thumble. I bought a copy of it, and Ed autographed it with a really nice note. Thanks, Ed! I also chatted with the wonderful Fiery Dragon folks. I picked up the new counter collection, which is really well done, just like all of Claudio's work. I stopped at the Green Ronin booth, and picked up a copy of Cartographia. Didn't have much time to chat with them, because they were pretty busy. Then I said hi to the fine folks at Bastion Press, including Steve Creech, of D20 Magazine Rack fame. It was truly a pleasure to meet so many of the folks who make the cool products I love to buy.
Long story short, I bought so much stuff that I was glad my hotel was close. I had just time to run back over there and put my booty in my room, then return for my Freeport demo game.
So this Freeport game, it was way cool. It was the first part of a new Freeport adventure that's coming out in October. I'm probably going to get the title wrong, but I think it's called Black Sands of Freeport. Or maybe not. Anyway, just remember October. They guy who DMed it was the author, and I had a blast. I played an evil dwarf cleric named Ham Foulbrew, who was in a party of good folks. I've never played an evil PC before, but it was fun to quietly backtrack and slit the throats of NPCs the party had just tied up or knocked out.
We met the BBEG, but were not able to kill her. I sooo want to play in a Freeport game on a regular basis.
Well, that's all for now, I think I'm about typed out for the moment. I'll report on the Ennies ceremony tomorrow.
