Gen Con - Good bad and ugly

[Clueless]

* 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.)

Awww I wish we'd spotted that - we'd have invited him to sit with us! We're not Mongoose - but we're friendly enough folks. I feel bad for him now.

 

[Crothian]

Ya, so do I. If I'd have seen that I would have tried to include him on some EN World things. We are very thankful to all the people that helped by buying the auctions.

 

[Ghostwind]

Awww I wish we'd spotted that - we'd have invited him to sit with us! We're not Mongoose - but we're friendly enough folks. I feel bad for him now.

He was sitting with us at the Black Industries table, so the BI folks just told him that he was now with us. He enjoyed himself, but really wanted to talk to the Mongoose guys because of all of the effort he puts into the Conan site. He was also hoping to talk to them so he could get a foot into the door to do some writing. I wound up talking to him for about an hour after the show, giving him advice on what he should and shouldn't do in order to "break into" the industry.

Oh yeah, another major high point for myself was finally meeting Scott Bennie.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

He was sitting with us at the Black Industries table, so the BI folks just told him that he was now with us. He enjoyed himself, but really wanted to talk to the Mongoose guys because of all of the effort he puts into the Conan site. He was also hoping to talk to them so he could get a foot into the door to do some writing. I wound up talking to him for about an hour after the show, giving him advice on what he should and shouldn't do in order to "break into" the industry.

Steve, thanks for stepping up to the plate and taking over after Mongoose stood up their dream date. I appreciate it, and I'm sure the other ENnies folks do too. I wish we had known about it, as Crothian said, we could have certainly included him in some ENWorld stuff to make up for it.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

*Getting to meet Morris while he discussed servers at the WotC booth.

That would have been Michael Morris of the tech side of ENWorld, not Morrus, of the UK and owner of ENWorld. Just making sure you know they are different people. Both cool, but different people. One's a big guy from the south, the others a skinny guy with a British accent (and wasn't at GenCon).

 

[WhimsyTheFae]

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.

I thought that I recognized you at the register as the nice lady who played that Canadian board game with my wife, Angus and Gelfling Chrystine (although I didn't remember you as Xath and I didn't recognize Archon at that time, and only later realized who he was). Cindy and I were having breakfast at the table right near where the waiting to be seated line started. We knew they were understaffed, but did not know the reasons (I thought it was poor planning on Steak-n-Shake's part).

That would also explain the horrific wait. I do feel bad for them if it wasn't completely their fault, but I also think that the gentleman who volunteered to bus his own table should have been allowed to.

I really like their strawberry french toast, so I do hope they are able to improve their service for future GenCons.

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

The Good
* Meeting new publishers like Justin Jacobsen and getting hugs from publishers who are practically family (like Renae Chambers of Sovereign Press).

Back at you. (And glad I was savvy enough not to shake your hand.)

I'll add:

* My first year as an exhibitor was exhilirating. Basically a big adrenaline rush from start to finish. Can't wait to do it again next year--even better.
* Meeting and hanging out with Lee Hammock, lead writer for Dawning Star. He was a real trooper, camping out at the booth and taking all of the DS demo games. I know the players really appreciated.
* Meeting up with all the other folks from the boards and workign with them.
* The Heavenly Bed at the Westin.

The Bad
* Forgetting to bring my flash drive with the characters and adventure for my Passages True20 demos. The first one didn't go off, but the others went off pretty well anyway.
* Not getting the blue rubber bracelets for my big giveaway. But we ended up giving away the "Man's Best Fiend" t-shirts for free, which went in about an hour.
* Getting sick. Seems to happen every year.
* Not getting to actually game either in events (which I knew I had no hope of doing) or just some after-hours pick-up games. Tried to get started on a late-night AE game with Frank Carr and the other "regulars" but I just couldn't do it. (See above entry)

The Ugly
* Rapid POD. I'm truly pissed. They were supposed to have Shadow Falling, our DS adventure module, at the con. They did not arrive. You've probably heard this story from some others. However, my particular tale of woe is exacerbated by three factors: (1) it was my only new release for the show, (2) I had actually paid them a deposit to ensure it would be delivered, and (3) I still have heard nothing from them, and it's now been over a week.

 

[Mark CMG]

The Ugly
* Rapid POD. (etc.)

Sorry to hear but thanks for the info. It might come in handy.

 

[romp]

The Good
-ENWorld pickup games (the best!)
-meeting more ENWorlders than I can remember
-getting Dogs in the Vineyard from the Forge booth
-finding an artprint to give as a Christmas present for my gf (Origins art show is totally sucky, GC's is much much better)
-finally going to see Tracy and Laura Hickman's Killer Breakfast
-Ars Magica winning ENnies! YAY!

The Bad
-No ShadowRun 4th for me
-Very crowded exhibit hall on Saturday including a couple of funky gamers ...
-getting a dirty look from TV host Adam Sessler as he almost ran me down in the exhibit hall on Saturday (I would have enjoyed being run into by Morgan Webb OTOH)
-missing the ENnies after party in the Canadiana

The Ugly
-Lines (I hate lines of people especially in restauraunts)
-boy wearing a dress, and no, he was not "in costume" (not as bad as the legendary Sailor Dude, but still)

 

[der_kluge]

The Round Robin DND game I played was pretty ugly. The idea was good, but the implementation was pretty off-kilter.

You were in a round-robin game? Did I run it? How come you didn't introduce yourself?