Gen Con - Good bad and ugly

[Keeper of Secrets]

Next year, I'm just bringing stuff from hoime. Since I drive I have room in my truck for extras like food.

One of the greatest 'pros' you can put on the list is this: bring lots of food and drinks. Invest in a cooler. Put ice in the cooler. You will leave the con having felt so proud of yourself for being able to get a cheap drink at midnight if you so chose.

 

[Crothian]

One of the greatest 'pros' you can put on the list is this: bring lots of food and drinks. Invest in a cooler. Put ice in the cooler. You will leave the con having felt so proud of yourself for being able to get a cheap drink at midnight if you so chose.

Cheap drinks at midnight? I'm saleing them to all my friends for the low price of a buck a piece!! I have to be able to afford these new books someway.......

 

[Ethernaut]

Clearly I need to go exploring next year. I've been to Indy perhaps 10 times and yet I've not seen this canal.

I stumbled on it by accident last year while running. It's a great place to run because you don't have to deal with all the cars and such. And if the conditions are just right (no wind and a little fog), the canal looks like a haunted, deserted street.

 

[Sidereal Knight]

The Ugly:
Made it until saturday night without getting blasted by some inconsiderate slob who apparantly managed to not use any soap or deoderant despite all the jokes, postings, chatter and everything else said about it. Even Peter Adkison himself put big plug for soap and deoderant every day into the gencon program.

Ugh. Although I passed a few people with gamer-stereotype-validating B.O. during the course of the weekend, my worst encounter had to be at the Chessex booth. On Sunday I was trapped between the display table and an escape by someone who probably hadn't bathed in days. Honestly, it was worse than I imagined possible.

Just thinking about it makes me want to bathe.

 

[Ghostwind]

The Good
* Meeting two d20 MR staff reviewers for the first time and having dinner with them at Champions.
* Seeing all of my EN World friends and meeting new ones (like Queen D, Rel and Truth Seeker).
* Meeting new publishers like Justin Jacobsen and getting hugs from publishers who are practically family (like Renae Chambers of Sovereign Press).
* A business lunch with Ed Greenwood that stretched into 2 hours of chit chatting and idea shaping.
* Scoring a SWAG trade for a Dark Phoenix heroclix for my son and getting a starter deck of Teen Titans GO cards for my daughter.
* Coming home with several very cool books thanks to generous publishers and friends.
* Being able to go to Maureen Yates of AEG anytime I needed Advil for my wrist (which was often).
* Having an artist feel that it was important enough to meet with myself and a publisher to fly into Indy from Toronto (just long enough to have lunch and talk business) and then fly out again.
* Finally formally meeting Erik Mona even though we've both been well acquainted with each other's work long before then.
* Watching the documentary on The Gamers' sequel and realizing that it could actually be quite funny.
* Buying both of Rich Burlew's Order of the Stick books.

The Bad
* Eating at Steak N Shake on Thursday morning and realizing that even after 3 years they still haven't learned a darned thing about how busy it gets at Gen Con.
* Being first in line at Subway on Friday and Saturday mornings and still waiting forever for them to get the store ready and make a sandwich.
* Watching the person who won the Mongoose Ennies Ebay auction become very disappointed when they didn't bother to show at the ceremony. (The guy even runs the d20 Conan fan site hoping to meet with them and Mongoose couldn't take the time to acknowledge him.)
* Having our booth moved to a terrible location at the last minute only to watch hordes of gamers walk right by practically oblivious.
* Not being able to get time to socialize with old friends and fellow game designers like Will Hindmarch, Wil Upchurch, Ari Marmell (who remained hidden the whole convention), and Michelle Lyons or EN World members like Cthulu's Librarian, Psion, Crothian, Mark CMG, Hellhound and Dextra.
* Having to cancel the Spycraft game and then drop out of Rel's Sky Galleons game because of business matters and regretting both.
* Not getting a chance to meet Piratecat and a few other EN Worlders that remain on my list.

The Ugly
* Spending the whole show with a soft cast/brace on my arm because of a cracked wrist and hand.
* Having an individual feel the need to give me a power handshake despite seeing it was in a soft cast (and then feeling the bones in my hand get rearranged).
* Not having Wildwood at the show to sell because the printer's hardcover machine broke down.

 

[Chaldfont]

Good:
* Playing the best poker I ever have at Thurs night's WSOG and making it to the 5th blind level.
* Running a dice poker tourney with 15 people (many of which were repeat players from last year) where the winner took home 300 dice.
* Running into an old friend who I haven't seen in 7 years.
* Evil Stevies Lego Pirate Game.
* Kiltlifter Immortal Ale.

Bad:
* Less swag this year. Maybe I just didn't work as hard for it, but I think there was less to be had.
* The losers who gamed the WSOG to get multiple rebuys and colluded to take my buddy out early.

Ugly:
* Going back to work on Monday.

 

[Rykion]

The Good

-The WotC staff found and opened a box of Axis & Allies Minaitures boosters just as I got to the register.
-Picked up Shadowrun 4th LE on Sunday.
-Getting to meet Rich Burlew and buy his new book.
-The Ram and its gamer friendly atmosphere.
-Shulas and its expensive but excellent steaks and service.
-The Colts home football game. Instead of complaining about the sports fans I just bought a ticket and watched the game.
-Getting to meet a lot of gamers.

The Bad

-My True Dungeon group rushed through without thinking.
-Hecatomb's "Destined to be blamed for something" tag line. Just seems tasteless.

The Ugly

-Nothing really.

 

[Mouseferatu]

* Not being able to get time to socialize with old friends and fellow game designers like Will Hindmarch, Wil Upchurch, Ari Marmell (who remained hidden the whole convention), and Michelle Lyons or EN World members like Cthulu's Librarian, Psion, Crothian, Mark CMG, Hellhound and Dextra.

Well, I wouldn't say "hidden," exactly. Tucked away in meetings for a good portion of the con, but I did spend a lot of time in the dealer's room. Guess we just never crossed paths.

Next year, we'll have to arrange a specific meet ahead of time.

 

[Xath]

I went to Steak and Shake on Thursday morning, attempting to get breakfast. Carryout took 45min, and that was only because I reminded them that they hadn't started to make my order yet, 30 minutes into it.

However, I wasn't entirely too upset for several reasons:
1. I overheard some waiters talking about how several of the staff had just quit, and how about 1/2 of their Thursday staff just didn't come into work.
2. The restaraunt manager was out there at the grill and bussing tables because they were short-staffed. That, to me, means that he at least tries to make his business run well.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Good:
*The irish restaurant (Claddagh?) It was a bit of a struggle to get seated on Wednesday but it was a nice meal.
*Getting a Mage book on Friday
*Making it to the 3rd and final round of the Mage tournament
*Played Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555 on Friday (Able Gnish is muy fun)
*Getting an SR4 book on Saturday
*The chili place in the Hyatt. The chili was a little bland but the burgers were huge and the prices much better than at the con.
*Props to the gyro place in Circle Center. That was a big ol' pile of lamb-spam.
*Getting to meet Morris while he discussed servers at the WotC booth.
*Meeting some Eden folks while criticizing Witchcraft. It was a good conversation; I'm glad the worst thing I said before I noticed him standing there was "I know they were going for simplicity but I'd rather roll 18d8 instead of 1d8 x18."


Bad:
*Not seeing any seminars due to the mage tourney
*No SR4 games on sunday!
*Not going to the SR party *OR* the WW party for free booze b/c of the mage tourney!
*The RAM's AC friday night! It was hotter inside than out!
*WtF GM who really didn't have a clue about the system despite being a White Wolf event. He had no idea werewolves healed bashing automatically, got the nWoD rules on Willpower expense wrong, gave away one player's secret while describing the character, the plot was a lame railroad, and the characters had gifts that they didn't have the skills to use and that in at least one case was defaulting to the character's lowest stat. Only the sheer joy in rolling 14 dice to slaughter something made up for it.
*Playing City of Heroes for free Sunday...and realizing I like it.


Ugly
*The Hyatt Subway. It was always uncomfortably warm and it poisoned me on Sunday.