Gen Con - Good bad and ugly

[romp]

as a note, I took a large water bottle and a whole bunch of Power Bar/Cliff's Bars ...

Very wise decision, they saved my tush once when I had no breakfast and schedules got in the way of food and I got really hungry. (I need to eat regularly to keep my blood sugar up or I get really moody)

 

[der_kluge]

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

I don't think that was _ever_ in question. She was totally hittable. I wonder if anyone got any pics?

 

[der_kluge]

Eh? I have absolutely no recollection of any of this. Of course I also have no recollection of the majority of Sunday. Do tell?

You wouldn't, because we didn't bother you. You were running your PS game. Ethernaut had left his badge at the hotel, and the security guy came in, and made him run back to get it. After he left, I had the bright idea to borrow your badge (since we knew you) and have the guard thing he'd gone back to get it. We figured he wouldn't be smart enough to think to recheck everyone's badge in the entire room again. But we didn't do it.

 

[der_kluge]

Actually, Tim wasn't there that night, but Psion/Alan was.

D'oh! You're right.

Sorry, Psion.

 

[Rel]

I don't think that was _ever_ in question. She was totally hittable. I wonder if anyone got any pics?

I tried to get one from the front but only managed to catch her walking away. I posted in in the picture gallery.

She has a tatoo visible even in uniform, which I'm pretty sure is a violation of the Imperial UCMJ.

 

[romp]

BTW, speaking of GenCon good: is that our Xath in costume over in the Gaming Report photo album? Go to the costume section and dig a ways back ...

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Come for the free breakfast at the Embassy Suites -- they don't check to see if you're actually a guest. By the time I left, half of Gencon was eating breakfast there. Yeah -- the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I need to run a Gamma World Escape From the Embassy Suites scenario at next year's con.

someone mentioned in another thread

While all the details remain to be ironed out, the Colts are getting a new retractable roof stadium south of the current RCA dome. After the Colts move, the RCA dome will be demolished and the convention center will expand. In addition, a new Conrad hotel is being built northeast of the Hyatt. When finished it'll be connected to everything else via skywalks.

1/2 demolished or 1/2 built stuff would certinly add to the challenge

 

[MulhorandSage]

The Good:

- Picking up the silver ENnie for Villainy Amok. It was a very classy presentation, and the judges were all extremely cordial, friendly folks.
- Purchasing Pulp Hero, Mutants and Masterminds 2e, and Dogs in the Vineyard 2nd edition. In fact, I found the energy at the Forge booth quite refreshing, and could kick myself for walking away from a chance to play in a Polaris demo.
- Meeting lots of old friends and fans.
- The registration process. Well done guys.
- The WOTC booth design.
- The CGG service on Sunday.
- Several good games.

The Bad:

- Hot humid weather. Forget all those jokes about smelly gamers; one needed to shower every five minutes to stay dry in *that* humidity.
- Not visiting the Canadiana suite. Stupid, stupid me.
- Not crossing paths with Monte or Ed and several others I wanted to say "hi".
- Con parties. I'm just getting too old to stand around for hours in noisy, smelly rooms where I can't even hold a decent conversation.
- Depressing conversations about the state of the industry.
- People at other tables shouting "bansai! bansai! bansai!" when I'm in the middle of an intense game.
- Cigarettes in hotels and bars.

The Ugly

- Seas of shambling people clad in hideous worn, faded, black T-shirts. Invest in a polo shirt guys!

 

[der_kluge]

I remembered an "ugly"

On Sunday, I had my two little manilla envelopes for the two official games that I ran. I had to collect the cards, fill out the game info on the packet, and then give them to someone at a booth.

This is how the conversation went:

me: *hands him the two envelopes*
guy: "thanks"
me: "So, will they reimburse my account, or how does that work?"
guy: "Did you just run the two games?" ( I ran others, but they were pick-up games)
me: "Yes"
guy: "You didn't run enough games to get reimbursed. You need to run more games."
me: "So, what you're saying is that I wasted my time filling these out?"
guy: "No, we use the information to see how many players showed up for the games."
me: "So, Gen Con gets some use out of it, but it was a waste of my time, because I get nothing?"
guy: "No, we use it see how successfull your games are, and we give you preference when booking tables in the future."
me: "I've never had a problem getting a table for any game I've ever ran."
guy: ...
me: "whatever" *leaves*


So, the game process is totally whack IMO. I think from now on I'll just run pick-up games. Or, I could run like one game, take a bunch of generics for the game, and then just keep them, and use them myself. Stupid.

What irks me about this was that I made two guys from Thursday's game go and buy generics for the game. They didn't know they needed them to play, and since I thought I was going to get some reimbursement for the game, I figured I'd take them. Had I known that, I would have just let them play for free, since I got nothing out of it.

The system is broken.

 

[IronWolf]

So, the game process is totally whack IMO. I think from now on I'll just run pick-up games. Or, I could run like one game, take a bunch of generics for the game, and then just keep them, and use them myself. Stupid.

The system is broken.

I don't see anything wrong running games independant of the Con, it seems many of the non-convention EN World games were some of the more fun ones played by many. But the guidelines for getting reimbursement for running games is pretty clearly outlined here (PDF). So I am not sure I would go as far to say the system is broken.