Gen Con - Good bad and ugly

[der_kluge]

The good:
Meeting so many great ENWorlders

The Ennies were just incredible.

Getting to shake Chris Pramas' hand on the way back after winning best publisher.

Getting to sit at the ENWorld table at the Ennies.

Having PirateCat scream foul things at me in my Round Robin game at 3 am.

Gaming. Gaming. Gaming. OMG, did I game.

Picking up the Wilderlands. This thing is just awesome.

Eating lunch with Buttercup on Sunday at the Ram. Having dinner with Suzi and Joe, Rich, Tim, and Steve at Bucco Di Beppo even though I still think the food is awful there. (sorry!)

Soaking in the hot tub with CL, Ethernaut, and Rel on Saturday night.

Working an ENWorld shift with Buttercup and Teflon Billy. And TB and I picking out all the girls we'd "hit" during our shift.

Taking a limo back to the airport on Sunday. It was cheaper than the shuttle was going to be.


The bad:
Not getting to spend as much time as I wanted in the dealer room. I never even really made it through the art section.

Forgetting to bring copies of my official Round Robin rules. Oh well.

Bringing all my HARP crap even though I never ran my HARP game on Sunday. Oh well.

Seeing the bum trying to scalp a Gen Con badge he'd found.

The security guy making Ethernaut run back to the hotel since he'd forgotten his badge during Rel's Sky Galleon's game. Worse: coming up with a clever idea of having him borrow Shemeska's badge, but not mentioning it until after Ethernaut had already left.

The Ugly:
Nothing that I can recall. It was the best Gen Con ever.

 

[Buttercup]

I walked a good deal of its length Monday morning and took a few dozen pictures. It's dotted with landmarks, museums, and public art that impressed me quite a bit.

That picture looks peaceful. Might be a nice place to decompress.

 

[Teflon Billy]

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

Yeah, ditto on that

Scott has written some of my favorite Champions stuff over the years (Champions in 3D topping that list.)

I thought it was awesome that Villainy Amok won in its category.

 

[Teflon Billy]

...Working an ENWorld shift with Buttercup and Teflon Billy. And TB and I picking out all the girls we'd "hit" during our shift. ....

I still maintain that when it comes to that lady Stormtrooper...I would totally hit it

 

[Steve Jung]

Good:
Meeting all the ENworlders who I only knew by username.
Hagning out with everyone at the Canadia Suite. Dextra and Hellhound were wonderful hosts.
Playing in der_kluge's pick-up Round-robin DM game after the ENnies with Justinian, Crothian, Piratecat, and der_kluge, of course.
Playing Texas Hold 'em with d20Dwarf, Teflon Billy, John Crichton, and others I can't remember their names. Sorry.
Winning a copy of the DMG II and a hardcover novel at the WotC booth. Natural 20.
Playing in True Dungeon as a wizard. I cast a couple spells.
The ENnies award ceremony was great to see. Sitting at teh ENWorld booth with Ranger Wickett was cool, too.

Bad:
Not arranging meal times with people and missing out. Gotta remember that the Ram closes early Sunday.
Playing True Dungeon as a fighter. Not a whole lot to do. The True Tavern was not very good either.
Not bidding on the auction to sit with Dog House Rules. I really like their Sidewinder: Recoiled game. They didn't get any bids.

 

[Mark CMG]

That picture looks peaceful. Might be a nice place to decompress.

It sure was. Here's another one...

 

[Mark CMG]

BTW, my own experience with events was very good overall. I ran games from 8am to Noon and 2pm to 4pm Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and a 10am to 2pm (ran until 4pm though) on Sunday. The games were -

The Call of the Wilds (CMG-A 3rd-Level) - A local woodman is having more than the usual trouble with wolves. It's up to your group to find out why and put a stop to it!

Gone But Not Forgotten (CMG-B 5th-Level) - It's been a while since you've visited your hometown but rumors of burgeoning organized criminal activities there require the attention of your seasoned adventuring group.

Trading Faces (CMG-C 7th-Level) - The merchant's trail that passes near your hometown has been the raided many times in the past few months but whenever your group has been on guard, there's no trouble at all. You'll have to go under cover to unravel this mystery before too many lives and too much money is lost!

Codex from the Crypt (CMG-D 9th-Level) - A nobleman's daughter has fallen ill and legend says the tome in her ancestor's crypt is the key to her recovery. Your group is up against time to ensure she lives!

The Jagged Hills Mining Consortium's Finest (CMG-E 11th-Level) - Mining further into the Hills of Dissent, the Jagged Hills Mining Consortium has hired your group to explore a choice location prior to their sending in teams of exploitation miners and it looks promising...promising to be dangerous for the adventurers charged with making it safe!

What's Wrong with this Picture? (CMG-F 13th-Level) - People keep disappearing from the family portrait of the Duke, and each time it happens, they die! Hopefully, your group of adventurers are clever enough to discover the secret and save what is left of the noble family.

A King's Ransom (CMG-G 15th-Level) - Now they've gone too far, or at least you assume they have because no one in the kingdom can find the King or his kidnappers. It's up to your stalwart band once again to save the day, the kingdom, and your pensions which will otherwise need to be used for the ransom!

I used the same player characters throughout the weekend and progressed them to the appropriate levels, allowing some customization by the players (though I removed some that seemed a bit wonky, so as not to stick the next guy playing one). There were three humans (fighter, rogue, and sorcerer), two dwarves (barbarian and cleric), and an elf (ranger). I think it went very well, though I had to be on my toes the entire time as some of the players would be in more than one session, playing the same character they had previously played, and I wanted to be sure to tie things in nicely and observe continuity.

I plan to eventually release these half-adventure (7 encounters possible) vignettes, together as a bundle called a "Questing Trail (tm)" which allows a DM to build a campaign and use them as either the primary throughline or as a subplot. I'll package up the characters which I plan to release electronically as "e-Conic Characters (tm)"

Much fun was had by all involved, or so they told me.


Oh, and here's another shot of the Canal Walk...

 

[AelyaShade]

Good:
-Meeting a few of you wonderful people (though not as many as I hoped)
-Whose Line Was It Anyway seminar
-Getting killed at the Killer Breakfast
-Live Reading of the Knights of the Dinner Table
-COH RPG
-CoH/CoV LARP
-Amount of swag/purchases
-Efficient badge registration
-Acknowledgement of GenCon via banners in downtown Indianapolis

Bad:
-Overall cleanliness of the toilet facilities
-Overcrowding of the RPG rooms
-Demos of certain games in the CCG tourney areas
-Having the football and baseball game on a GenCon Saturday
-The prices for the drinks at the True Tavern
-Funnel every morning before the dealer hall opened

Ugly:
-Parking prices

 

[JediSoth]

Wow, I'm thinking next year I really need to offer free tours of downtown Indianapolis to EN Worlders. The canal is only a block away from the convention center and there's a nice little park just a few hundred yards further.

Hmmm....*begins formulating a plan for next year*

JediSoth

 

[Dextra]

The Bad
* 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.)

I spoke with Alex over at Mongoose about this. Apparently their rep didn't make it back from the Middle East on time, and everybody else was scheduled elsewhere. To try and make it up, they're going to send the guy their next Conan release(s), and the ENnies are offering to refund his money.

It saddens me greatly that this happened, and I hope that we can avoid such issues in the future. But it sounds to me as though the guy may have a new friend in Black Industries and Ghostwind!