Gen Con Reports?
obiwanchunn
Explorer
Gencon stories
I'm not sure if people are still interrested in Gencon reports, but I have the first two days blogged with pictures, a brief discussion on food establishments, hotels, and of course the oodles of games I played (DnD mostly with some True Dungeon thrown in). For those that are interrested:
Day 1: http://obiwanchunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/gencon-2006-day-1_115570768209586431.html
Day 2: http://obiwanchunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/gencon-2006-day-2_17.html
I'm not sure if people are still interrested in Gencon reports, but I have the first two days blogged with pictures, a brief discussion on food establishments, hotels, and of course the oodles of games I played (DnD mostly with some True Dungeon thrown in). For those that are interrested:
Day 1: http://obiwanchunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/gencon-2006-day-1_115570768209586431.html
Day 2: http://obiwanchunn.blogspot.com/2006/08/gencon-2006-day-2_17.html
Last edited:
Rystil Arden
First Post
Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
d20Dwarf said:
I know. That flip-mat really tied the room together.
Where is the friggin' posrep button here?!NascragMan
First Post
I had an absolute blast (as usual) at GenCon.
Most of my time was spent running Nascrag events, but I did manage to get in some time in the dealer room and one True Dungeon run.
True Dungeon really has to drop the reliance on spoken riddles. They're just too hard to hear and work on. And it's impossible to read your darn tokens in that lighting. That said the whole concept is marvelous, the setting is wonderfully detailed and some of the NPC roleplaying simply rocked.
Between our two D+D tournamants Nascrag managed to run over 450 people this year. We get the best roleplayers. Sometimes the person just disappears and the character seems to be sitting with you. I know I wrote stuff into this years event based on what some of last years players did!
If you played Nascrag, I'd love to hear your feedback. We've been doing this for 27 years but there's always room for improvement.
Check out www.nascrag.org for more info.
Most of my time was spent running Nascrag events, but I did manage to get in some time in the dealer room and one True Dungeon run.
True Dungeon really has to drop the reliance on spoken riddles. They're just too hard to hear and work on. And it's impossible to read your darn tokens in that lighting. That said the whole concept is marvelous, the setting is wonderfully detailed and some of the NPC roleplaying simply rocked.
Between our two D+D tournamants Nascrag managed to run over 450 people this year. We get the best roleplayers. Sometimes the person just disappears and the character seems to be sitting with you. I know I wrote stuff into this years event based on what some of last years players did!
If you played Nascrag, I'd love to hear your feedback. We've been doing this for 27 years but there's always room for improvement.
Check out www.nascrag.org for more info.
TracerBullet42
First Post
Well, I may not be one of the "cool kids" from Gen Con, but here's my ridiculously long write up:
WEDNESDAY
I'll start with wednesday, also known as Departure Day. In what was surely a sign of how pefectly this trip would play out, Kent and I arrived at Floyd's house at almost exactly the same time. Surely, fate was intervening and everything would be perfect for this whole trip, right? RIGHT?
So we load up the car and prepare to head on our way. It is at this time, that I remember Gen Con '04. What happened at Gen Con '04 was that I forgot to bring my badge. I realized that I had forgot it when, upon arriving, I saw lots of people walking around wearing badges. I was appropriately mocked and laughed at by just about everyone I know, and thusly I (hopefully) will never forget my badge again.
In an attempt to beat Floyd to the inevitable, "Did you remember your badge?" as we were backing out of the driveway I said, "Look what I've got!" and brought out my badge. It was at this moment that the car suddenly stopped and Kent began spouting, "I forgot my badge! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot my freakin' badge!" This went on for several minutes. Eventually he was able to arrange for one of his friends, who was coming down later, to bring his badge and tickets with him. Crisis averted.
Smooth start, no?
So we commence with the driving. And we drive. And drive. Good times. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the good people who work on the highways in the great state of Illinois. Everyone loves construction! About an hour and a half into the trip, I said to Floyd, "Hey Floyd...remember when Kent forgot his badge? That was awesome."
Floyd and I were very amused. Kent...not so much. (He'd have his karmic revenge later, though, so fret not for him.)
So we finally arrive in Indy later that evening, and there was much rejoicing. (Yay!) We settle into our rooms and head our separate ways. Wednesday night, I had a game to run. I was planning to run the further adventures of the halfling twins and their companions. (Ok, so it was originally the adventures of Princess Buttercup, but things have changed over the years.) I give Fred a call and he says that they have grabbed a table at the Hyatt and that there will be eight players. Only having seven PCs, one of the players agrees to play Stor's familiar...the celestial monkey, Mon Kay. So we slap a couple of rogue levels on the monkey, and he (I believe his name was Brad) proceeds to begin making howling, screeching monkey noises. He was quite good at it. So the adventure goes off without a hitch, other than the fact that I, again, ran late and only got them halfway through what I had planned. And for the first time ever, the group did not interrogate a plant or squirrel. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I didn't lose my voice, so I consider wednesday night a complete success.
THURSDAY
I sleep in and miss the complimentary breakfast. Kent must have some ninja-like sneaking abilities because I never even heard him leave in the morning. Racing out the door, I barely make it to my 10:00 game to find that the GM is not there. It's scheduled to be a True20 game with a horror theme. For a solid 20 minutes, I think about the breakfast I'm missing and the fact that this GM is still not there. As I get up to leave, he finally arrives and fervently apologizes for his lateness. Due to the fact that I'm such a nice guy, I forgive him and quickly jump into the role of a spanish military operative who was dishonorably discharged for running drills with live rounds and "accidentally" killing five recruits. The game revolved around recovering a missing satellite and dealing with a "swamp thing" type creature that I tackling into a lake. (Who knew that water would heal it? Oops!) It ended up being a fun game, despite the fact that True20 is still a clunky system, in my opinion.
Next on my schedule was a good ol' Lord of the Rings game. I had played in a game last year in which the party was comprised completely of hobbits and was an absolute blast (except for that one loud guy at the table, but that's another story). I was very much looking forward to another journey in Middle Earth. I had no idea that I was about to play "The Worst Game Ever." I use capital letters because I believe that this should be the definitive "Worst Game Ever" to which all other bad games should be compared. Yeah, it was that bad. I'll choose my words carefully, so that you might experience my pain without having to physically endure it.
Again, the GM is late. Not as late as the first game, but still a good ten minutes late. When he does arrive, he ignores our table for a bit and apologizes profusely to the table next to us, for there is a full group of people waiting to play in a Star Trek game that his company is responsible for and will have no GM at all. When he eventually gets over to our table, he asks if any of us have brought our own characters. Nobody did. The GM is not pleased at this. He only has one copy of some sample PCs that he begrudgingly allows us to use. It is at this time that I would like to cite part of the official game description:
"Bring your own Middle-Earth Campaign Setting character to play, or use any of the available pre-made characters."
Now, why is this part of the description if they intend for us to bring our own PCs? Oh well, the GM begrudgingly gives us each a pre-made character to play, but says, "Do not write on these. I'll be needing them back. Please don't smudge them." (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt with the word "please." I do not recall if that word was actually used or not.) So I look over the character that I am handed. At the top of the sheet is written "Dwarven Weaponsmith." He does not have a name. The GM goes around the table asking everyone to name their characters. Nice touch, I thought. Nice touch, until he tells one of the players that their suggested name wasn't "elvish" enough for their elf character. He then told the player a new name to use.
Yes, folks, he was one of those guys. He was a self-proclaimed Tolkein-ista. I prefer the term Tolkein-nazi. As the adventure went along, he repeatedly (and proudly) pointed out things within the adventure that were inconsistent with the LotR books or the Silmarillion. (He claims to read them all three times every year.) He also took every opportunity to remind us that the books were FAR superior to the movies, and seemed insulted that one of the players at the table had " never even read the books."
At the start of the adventure, our travelling party came upon two groups of non-friendlies fighting over the rights to a large steer that had been slain. I suggested to the group that we leave them to settle the difference between themselves, since it is none of our business. The GM informs me otherwise, however. He says something to the effect of "You're a dwarf...you're not fond of either of these groups and would want to get involved." I relentingly agree. (I should've walked away from the game at this point.)
So the game goes on...and on...and on. And even then it goes on a little more, complete with more references to the superiority of the books to the movies. Anytime there is something that needs to be "learned" in the game, one of the elf PCs "figures it out" because "you're an elf...you would know that." Yes, this DM was an elf fan-boy...big time. Elves can do just about anything. There was even a time when a group of wandering elves wandered past the group singing a dirge, and the entire party had to roll Will saves to resist their charms and follow them...forever. When asked about what would happen if our whole group failed, he said something like, "The adventure would be over." Only two PCs saved, by the way...I'll leave it to you to figure out if they were elves or not.
Towards the end of the game (finally), the camel's back was broken. The final straw followed the only funny moment of the game. The party had discovered, in the distance, a man beaten, bruised, and restrained to a pole with ropes. The hobbit, being played by a 10 year old boy, sneaks over, away from the party, to the disheveled man. The man is inches from death, and pleads to the young hobbit to just put him out of his misery. The kid thinks about it for a bit and then utters the words, "Ok. I'll give him his mercy killing. I'll stab him in the face." The table erupts with laughter. It was kinda funny. But then, remember that final straw I was talking about? Yeah, here it comes...
The GM tells the boy that the hobbit would probably have a very hard time killing this man. That it is something his people are not used to doing. I mentioned that I thought we should try to save the man. The GM then says to me, "No, you wouldn't want to save him. You're a dwarf. He's just a man."
It was at that point that I pretty much tuned out the rest of the game. I'm not exactly sure what we were doing but the end result was that we flooded a valley, killing a bunch of bad guys...or something like that. I just rolled dice when asked, periodically looking at the clock. Yes, that's right, the game not only was bad, but LOOOOOONNNNNNG. When it was finally over, the GM asked if anybody would like to stick around for part three. (Apparently, it was part two of three.) I gave my answer by leaving my sheet (not smudged or written on, by the way) and just walking away from the table...not saying a word. The dealer hall beckoned.
And thus, my "Worst Game Ever" event was over...and there was MUCH rejoicing. (YAY!)
I made my way to the dealer hall...cruising over to the Margaret Weiss booth to vent at Floyd for a bit. The hall was closing soon, so we met up with some friends and went to The Rock Bottom for dinner. I had some sort of stuffed chicken. It was delicious. I shared my horror story about my bad game with everyone at the table, and quickly grew hostile with anyone who tried to challenge me on the subject.
My last game for the day was a system called Four Colors al Fresco. It's a Renaissance Superhero game, and I got to play a speedster with a short attention span. To help stay in character, I was constantly shifting in my seat throughout the game. This game was a blast! While I still do not understand it's complex resolution system, it's a fast-moving game that is very cinematic. Lots of fun to play, so long as someone at the table can interpret your dice rolls for you. This game involved a mysterious death in which a duke seemed have been literally "scared" to death. Our heroic investigators dug into the mystery and found that the culprit may have been the pope! There was one hilarious moment around the table when I declared, "Ok, ok, ok, ok...I'll go kill the pope" right as the room got quiet and all the other tables turned and looked at me. It was very funny. Good group of players, good GM, great game. Probably the best one all week for me.
After the game, I met up with Floyd, Lucas, and some other guy and we went to The Ram for something to drink. Inside, they're showing episodes of Firefly on all the televisions! Awesome! The crowd was really digging it, but was disappointed when they didn't play Jaynestown because we were looking forward to singing "The Hero of Canton." We did pull the manager aside and tell him that he should play it the next night, and he said he would, but we did not go back.
I quietly sneak back into my room, careful not to wake Kent. I sleep and probably have awesome dreams. (I never remember my dreams, though.)
FRIDAY
I sleep in too late for breakfast, again, but I have until noon to get to my first game, The Imp Game. It's a backwards game where you take on the role of the bad guys and design a dungeon and traps to keep out those pesky heroes. Since I have about an hour before noon, I decide to head to the dealer hall. On my way there, I have the passing thought, "Hey, I wonder when John and Curt will get here today." John, Curt, Meika, and Doug will be heading down just for friday to look for deals in the hall. It's just at that moment that I see them in the hallway. I quickly think to myself, "Hey, I wonder when a million dollars will fall into my hands." No luck. The money doesn't show up, but it was worth a shot. So we head to the hall and browse around. When noon approaches, I leave to hall to head to The Imp Game.
I get to the room and discover that this game was at 10:00...not 12:00. Oops. Back to the hall, where I meet up with the gang again. I show them some of the cool things that I've already bought and try to sell Doug on some markers, launching into a nearly perfect infomercial style complete with, "Watch me write on the battlemat with a permanent marker...but Rob, won't that ruin it? Of course not..." and so on. The people at the booth seemed amused, but did not give me any free stuff.
As 2:00 approached, I was getting ready for the game I was looking forward to playing more than any other...Toon Titans! It would be a cartoon-type of game in which the superheroes have been defeated. The sidekicks would have to save the day, win a prank war with a villain's orphanage, and try to win a cameo in a mini-series. Sounds like a great time, right? I pulled out my ticket to see which room I needed to find, and headed on over. Somehow, along the way, between the dealer hall and the game room, I lost track of my ticket. I approached the table to see it already filled with eight players, and four more people with generic tickets ahead of me. I dug into my pockets, but could not find my ticket. I slumped my shoulders and had to walk away...leaving a table full of props (included an inflatable mallet) behind. I should point out that I turned down a chance to run a Serenity event, and possibly get a much coveted Serenity Crew t-shirt, to play in this game. Such disappointment. Oh well...back to the hall.
I spend the rest of the afternoon cruising the hall with John, Doug, and Meika. Curt had mysteriously disappeared. I decided to skip my evening game so that we could all meet up for dinner. We went to The Ram. I stronly recommend the bread pudding dessert. It comes on a sizzling skillet with vanilla ice cream melting on top of it. It is then lovingly drenched with caramel sauce. My mouth waters just typing about it...
After dinner, we headed back to the convention center to check out the auction. It is there that I hatched a scheme so wicked that Kent will never be the same. In the area that I refer to as "the crap that nobody would even bid on section," I found two copies of Synnibar. I latched onto one of them the way a toddler latches onto a grown-ups leg. Yeah, I clutched it with both arms. The cashier looked at me quizzically. I had to explain, "No, it's for a joke." You see, Synnibar is pretty universally agreed to be the worst system ever made. I know that it has a special place in Kent's heart, so I bought a copy and put it on his pillow in our room.
When he arrived back at the room that night, I said, "There's something wrong in your part of the room. I think it's haunted or something. It's just giving me the heebie-jeebies." (I'll take any chance I can get to say "heebie-jeebies") When he went back into his part of the room, he screamed and was never seen again. Well, ok, maybe not. But he did say, "Why is that here????" We then proceeded to stay up until 3:00 a.m. reading selections from this hilarious book.
When I told him about my Toon Game experience, he said, "You need a badge holder so you don't lose your tickets." I showed him that I did have one, and just then I found my missing ticket. It was stuck to the back of another ticket inside the holder. (See, remember what I said about Kent's karmic revenge? I wasn't lying...)
SATURDAY
I actually made it to breakfast! It's very greasy, but the orange juice was quite good. I hustle to make it to my 10:00 game only to find out that it's a collectible card game. The guys around the table say, "No, it's an RPG, but it uses collectible cards to resolve conflicts." Having no cards, I said I'd just leave. One player offered to loan me some of his "commons," but was worried about smudges and bends. So I said, "No thanks." Back to the hall.
I decided to skip my noon game, too. Deb had just arrived and the game didn't sound all that interesting, so I cruised the hall with Deb. I believe it was during this afternoon that I was able to snap the most histerical picture. There was an old lady in a HUGE Pikachu costume making her way around the hall. I grabbed Pikachu by the hand and let her across to the hall to wear the was a chainmail bikini-clad beauty. I had them pose together, and the resulting picture will cause poor Vinny's head to explode. I still haven't figured out how to get it off of my phone, but I'll get it sooner or later.
At 4:00, I played in my second Cthulu game ever. It was a lot of fun. I didn't lose enough sanity to completely freak out, but I lost enough to scare the rest of the group into putting my into a containment unit, causing me to be the only survivor! And in the "It's A Small World, Afterall" category, it turns out that two of the players in this game live in Streamwood and they invited me to stop by for their Tuesday night D&D game. Pretty cool!
That night, we played a Serenity game that Floyd was running. Wow, what a fun game. I felt extremely outplayed by everyone at the table, as everyone was so great in their roles. It was hard, as Simon, to come up with things that were appropriately akward to say. Lucas, who was playing Mal, was simply great. The whole table was a blast.
Off to bed.
SUNDAY
Sleep in good and late again. The only thing on my schedule is a good ol' fashioned D&D game. I'm always a little concerned about D&D games at cons, because they can be pretty hit or miss. Turns out that this one was a big hit! There was only one other player at the table so we each played to PCs. He played a human fighter named Tiny and a halfling rogue named Sneaky. I played a dwarf cleric named Healy and an elf wizard named Shiny. Yeah, that's right, I played an elf wizard. I chose it. So if you saw some pieces of the sky falling around 12:15 that sunday, that'd be my fault. I chose the elf wizard. This game was a lot of fun. It was, very much so, a silly game. Before the adventure began, we were sent off by Elyan the Magnificent and Bob the Not-So-Bad. They were lawyers who read a huge disclaimer saying, "This kingdom is not responsible for any maimings, burnings, beheadings, etc..." It was rather funny. We fought a giant cake elemental, which I tried to bull rush through with the dwarf. It didn't work, but did get a frosting coated shield. At the end, we fought a dragon protecting its hoard. Turned out to be a jewish dragon. (Protecting the hoard...jewish...) It's dying words, "Oy veh...you should eat something."
Hilarious game.
And then there was the drive home. Kent said he'd rather have company for the ride home, rather than a slighty shorter trip with no company, so I rode home with him. We passed the time by reading more hilariousness from the book of Synnibar, and I even tried to make up a character. I now understand why people hate this game so much. It's ridiculous. I spent a solid hour working on that character, and it's not even close to being done. I think. Maybe not. I don't know. It's just way too confusing to be sure either way.
Between dramatic readings from the book and the PC making, we were listening to the soundtrack from a musical called Avenue Q. It's pretty hilarious, with titles such as "The Internet is Great (for Porn)" and my favorite "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist." I'd encourage you to check it out.
And then we got home...and it was all over.
So as you can see, it was fun, despite playing in the "Worst Game Ever." I highly recommend that you attend next year. Rumor has it that Kent might even run a Synnibar event...
Much luv,
Rob
WEDNESDAY
I'll start with wednesday, also known as Departure Day. In what was surely a sign of how pefectly this trip would play out, Kent and I arrived at Floyd's house at almost exactly the same time. Surely, fate was intervening and everything would be perfect for this whole trip, right? RIGHT?
So we load up the car and prepare to head on our way. It is at this time, that I remember Gen Con '04. What happened at Gen Con '04 was that I forgot to bring my badge. I realized that I had forgot it when, upon arriving, I saw lots of people walking around wearing badges. I was appropriately mocked and laughed at by just about everyone I know, and thusly I (hopefully) will never forget my badge again.
In an attempt to beat Floyd to the inevitable, "Did you remember your badge?" as we were backing out of the driveway I said, "Look what I've got!" and brought out my badge. It was at this moment that the car suddenly stopped and Kent began spouting, "I forgot my badge! Oh my gosh, I can't believe I forgot my freakin' badge!" This went on for several minutes. Eventually he was able to arrange for one of his friends, who was coming down later, to bring his badge and tickets with him. Crisis averted.
Smooth start, no?
So we commence with the driving. And we drive. And drive. Good times. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the good people who work on the highways in the great state of Illinois. Everyone loves construction! About an hour and a half into the trip, I said to Floyd, "Hey Floyd...remember when Kent forgot his badge? That was awesome."
Floyd and I were very amused. Kent...not so much. (He'd have his karmic revenge later, though, so fret not for him.)
So we finally arrive in Indy later that evening, and there was much rejoicing. (Yay!) We settle into our rooms and head our separate ways. Wednesday night, I had a game to run. I was planning to run the further adventures of the halfling twins and their companions. (Ok, so it was originally the adventures of Princess Buttercup, but things have changed over the years.) I give Fred a call and he says that they have grabbed a table at the Hyatt and that there will be eight players. Only having seven PCs, one of the players agrees to play Stor's familiar...the celestial monkey, Mon Kay. So we slap a couple of rogue levels on the monkey, and he (I believe his name was Brad) proceeds to begin making howling, screeching monkey noises. He was quite good at it. So the adventure goes off without a hitch, other than the fact that I, again, ran late and only got them halfway through what I had planned. And for the first time ever, the group did not interrogate a plant or squirrel. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and I didn't lose my voice, so I consider wednesday night a complete success.
THURSDAY
I sleep in and miss the complimentary breakfast. Kent must have some ninja-like sneaking abilities because I never even heard him leave in the morning. Racing out the door, I barely make it to my 10:00 game to find that the GM is not there. It's scheduled to be a True20 game with a horror theme. For a solid 20 minutes, I think about the breakfast I'm missing and the fact that this GM is still not there. As I get up to leave, he finally arrives and fervently apologizes for his lateness. Due to the fact that I'm such a nice guy, I forgive him and quickly jump into the role of a spanish military operative who was dishonorably discharged for running drills with live rounds and "accidentally" killing five recruits. The game revolved around recovering a missing satellite and dealing with a "swamp thing" type creature that I tackling into a lake. (Who knew that water would heal it? Oops!) It ended up being a fun game, despite the fact that True20 is still a clunky system, in my opinion.
Next on my schedule was a good ol' Lord of the Rings game. I had played in a game last year in which the party was comprised completely of hobbits and was an absolute blast (except for that one loud guy at the table, but that's another story). I was very much looking forward to another journey in Middle Earth. I had no idea that I was about to play "The Worst Game Ever." I use capital letters because I believe that this should be the definitive "Worst Game Ever" to which all other bad games should be compared. Yeah, it was that bad. I'll choose my words carefully, so that you might experience my pain without having to physically endure it.
Again, the GM is late. Not as late as the first game, but still a good ten minutes late. When he does arrive, he ignores our table for a bit and apologizes profusely to the table next to us, for there is a full group of people waiting to play in a Star Trek game that his company is responsible for and will have no GM at all. When he eventually gets over to our table, he asks if any of us have brought our own characters. Nobody did. The GM is not pleased at this. He only has one copy of some sample PCs that he begrudgingly allows us to use. It is at this time that I would like to cite part of the official game description:
"Bring your own Middle-Earth Campaign Setting character to play, or use any of the available pre-made characters."
Now, why is this part of the description if they intend for us to bring our own PCs? Oh well, the GM begrudgingly gives us each a pre-made character to play, but says, "Do not write on these. I'll be needing them back. Please don't smudge them." (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt with the word "please." I do not recall if that word was actually used or not.) So I look over the character that I am handed. At the top of the sheet is written "Dwarven Weaponsmith." He does not have a name. The GM goes around the table asking everyone to name their characters. Nice touch, I thought. Nice touch, until he tells one of the players that their suggested name wasn't "elvish" enough for their elf character. He then told the player a new name to use.
Yes, folks, he was one of those guys. He was a self-proclaimed Tolkein-ista. I prefer the term Tolkein-nazi. As the adventure went along, he repeatedly (and proudly) pointed out things within the adventure that were inconsistent with the LotR books or the Silmarillion. (He claims to read them all three times every year.) He also took every opportunity to remind us that the books were FAR superior to the movies, and seemed insulted that one of the players at the table had " never even read the books."
At the start of the adventure, our travelling party came upon two groups of non-friendlies fighting over the rights to a large steer that had been slain. I suggested to the group that we leave them to settle the difference between themselves, since it is none of our business. The GM informs me otherwise, however. He says something to the effect of "You're a dwarf...you're not fond of either of these groups and would want to get involved." I relentingly agree. (I should've walked away from the game at this point.)
So the game goes on...and on...and on. And even then it goes on a little more, complete with more references to the superiority of the books to the movies. Anytime there is something that needs to be "learned" in the game, one of the elf PCs "figures it out" because "you're an elf...you would know that." Yes, this DM was an elf fan-boy...big time. Elves can do just about anything. There was even a time when a group of wandering elves wandered past the group singing a dirge, and the entire party had to roll Will saves to resist their charms and follow them...forever. When asked about what would happen if our whole group failed, he said something like, "The adventure would be over." Only two PCs saved, by the way...I'll leave it to you to figure out if they were elves or not.
Towards the end of the game (finally), the camel's back was broken. The final straw followed the only funny moment of the game. The party had discovered, in the distance, a man beaten, bruised, and restrained to a pole with ropes. The hobbit, being played by a 10 year old boy, sneaks over, away from the party, to the disheveled man. The man is inches from death, and pleads to the young hobbit to just put him out of his misery. The kid thinks about it for a bit and then utters the words, "Ok. I'll give him his mercy killing. I'll stab him in the face." The table erupts with laughter. It was kinda funny. But then, remember that final straw I was talking about? Yeah, here it comes...
The GM tells the boy that the hobbit would probably have a very hard time killing this man. That it is something his people are not used to doing. I mentioned that I thought we should try to save the man. The GM then says to me, "No, you wouldn't want to save him. You're a dwarf. He's just a man."
It was at that point that I pretty much tuned out the rest of the game. I'm not exactly sure what we were doing but the end result was that we flooded a valley, killing a bunch of bad guys...or something like that. I just rolled dice when asked, periodically looking at the clock. Yes, that's right, the game not only was bad, but LOOOOOONNNNNNG. When it was finally over, the GM asked if anybody would like to stick around for part three. (Apparently, it was part two of three.) I gave my answer by leaving my sheet (not smudged or written on, by the way) and just walking away from the table...not saying a word. The dealer hall beckoned.
And thus, my "Worst Game Ever" event was over...and there was MUCH rejoicing. (YAY!)
I made my way to the dealer hall...cruising over to the Margaret Weiss booth to vent at Floyd for a bit. The hall was closing soon, so we met up with some friends and went to The Rock Bottom for dinner. I had some sort of stuffed chicken. It was delicious. I shared my horror story about my bad game with everyone at the table, and quickly grew hostile with anyone who tried to challenge me on the subject.
My last game for the day was a system called Four Colors al Fresco. It's a Renaissance Superhero game, and I got to play a speedster with a short attention span. To help stay in character, I was constantly shifting in my seat throughout the game. This game was a blast! While I still do not understand it's complex resolution system, it's a fast-moving game that is very cinematic. Lots of fun to play, so long as someone at the table can interpret your dice rolls for you. This game involved a mysterious death in which a duke seemed have been literally "scared" to death. Our heroic investigators dug into the mystery and found that the culprit may have been the pope! There was one hilarious moment around the table when I declared, "Ok, ok, ok, ok...I'll go kill the pope" right as the room got quiet and all the other tables turned and looked at me. It was very funny. Good group of players, good GM, great game. Probably the best one all week for me.
After the game, I met up with Floyd, Lucas, and some other guy and we went to The Ram for something to drink. Inside, they're showing episodes of Firefly on all the televisions! Awesome! The crowd was really digging it, but was disappointed when they didn't play Jaynestown because we were looking forward to singing "The Hero of Canton." We did pull the manager aside and tell him that he should play it the next night, and he said he would, but we did not go back.
I quietly sneak back into my room, careful not to wake Kent. I sleep and probably have awesome dreams. (I never remember my dreams, though.)
FRIDAY
I sleep in too late for breakfast, again, but I have until noon to get to my first game, The Imp Game. It's a backwards game where you take on the role of the bad guys and design a dungeon and traps to keep out those pesky heroes. Since I have about an hour before noon, I decide to head to the dealer hall. On my way there, I have the passing thought, "Hey, I wonder when John and Curt will get here today." John, Curt, Meika, and Doug will be heading down just for friday to look for deals in the hall. It's just at that moment that I see them in the hallway. I quickly think to myself, "Hey, I wonder when a million dollars will fall into my hands." No luck. The money doesn't show up, but it was worth a shot. So we head to the hall and browse around. When noon approaches, I leave to hall to head to The Imp Game.
I get to the room and discover that this game was at 10:00...not 12:00. Oops. Back to the hall, where I meet up with the gang again. I show them some of the cool things that I've already bought and try to sell Doug on some markers, launching into a nearly perfect infomercial style complete with, "Watch me write on the battlemat with a permanent marker...but Rob, won't that ruin it? Of course not..." and so on. The people at the booth seemed amused, but did not give me any free stuff.
As 2:00 approached, I was getting ready for the game I was looking forward to playing more than any other...Toon Titans! It would be a cartoon-type of game in which the superheroes have been defeated. The sidekicks would have to save the day, win a prank war with a villain's orphanage, and try to win a cameo in a mini-series. Sounds like a great time, right? I pulled out my ticket to see which room I needed to find, and headed on over. Somehow, along the way, between the dealer hall and the game room, I lost track of my ticket. I approached the table to see it already filled with eight players, and four more people with generic tickets ahead of me. I dug into my pockets, but could not find my ticket. I slumped my shoulders and had to walk away...leaving a table full of props (included an inflatable mallet) behind. I should point out that I turned down a chance to run a Serenity event, and possibly get a much coveted Serenity Crew t-shirt, to play in this game. Such disappointment. Oh well...back to the hall.
I spend the rest of the afternoon cruising the hall with John, Doug, and Meika. Curt had mysteriously disappeared. I decided to skip my evening game so that we could all meet up for dinner. We went to The Ram. I stronly recommend the bread pudding dessert. It comes on a sizzling skillet with vanilla ice cream melting on top of it. It is then lovingly drenched with caramel sauce. My mouth waters just typing about it...
After dinner, we headed back to the convention center to check out the auction. It is there that I hatched a scheme so wicked that Kent will never be the same. In the area that I refer to as "the crap that nobody would even bid on section," I found two copies of Synnibar. I latched onto one of them the way a toddler latches onto a grown-ups leg. Yeah, I clutched it with both arms. The cashier looked at me quizzically. I had to explain, "No, it's for a joke." You see, Synnibar is pretty universally agreed to be the worst system ever made. I know that it has a special place in Kent's heart, so I bought a copy and put it on his pillow in our room.
When he arrived back at the room that night, I said, "There's something wrong in your part of the room. I think it's haunted or something. It's just giving me the heebie-jeebies." (I'll take any chance I can get to say "heebie-jeebies") When he went back into his part of the room, he screamed and was never seen again. Well, ok, maybe not. But he did say, "Why is that here????" We then proceeded to stay up until 3:00 a.m. reading selections from this hilarious book.
When I told him about my Toon Game experience, he said, "You need a badge holder so you don't lose your tickets." I showed him that I did have one, and just then I found my missing ticket. It was stuck to the back of another ticket inside the holder. (See, remember what I said about Kent's karmic revenge? I wasn't lying...)
SATURDAY
I actually made it to breakfast! It's very greasy, but the orange juice was quite good. I hustle to make it to my 10:00 game only to find out that it's a collectible card game. The guys around the table say, "No, it's an RPG, but it uses collectible cards to resolve conflicts." Having no cards, I said I'd just leave. One player offered to loan me some of his "commons," but was worried about smudges and bends. So I said, "No thanks." Back to the hall.
I decided to skip my noon game, too. Deb had just arrived and the game didn't sound all that interesting, so I cruised the hall with Deb. I believe it was during this afternoon that I was able to snap the most histerical picture. There was an old lady in a HUGE Pikachu costume making her way around the hall. I grabbed Pikachu by the hand and let her across to the hall to wear the was a chainmail bikini-clad beauty. I had them pose together, and the resulting picture will cause poor Vinny's head to explode. I still haven't figured out how to get it off of my phone, but I'll get it sooner or later.
At 4:00, I played in my second Cthulu game ever. It was a lot of fun. I didn't lose enough sanity to completely freak out, but I lost enough to scare the rest of the group into putting my into a containment unit, causing me to be the only survivor! And in the "It's A Small World, Afterall" category, it turns out that two of the players in this game live in Streamwood and they invited me to stop by for their Tuesday night D&D game. Pretty cool!
That night, we played a Serenity game that Floyd was running. Wow, what a fun game. I felt extremely outplayed by everyone at the table, as everyone was so great in their roles. It was hard, as Simon, to come up with things that were appropriately akward to say. Lucas, who was playing Mal, was simply great. The whole table was a blast.
Off to bed.
SUNDAY
Sleep in good and late again. The only thing on my schedule is a good ol' fashioned D&D game. I'm always a little concerned about D&D games at cons, because they can be pretty hit or miss. Turns out that this one was a big hit! There was only one other player at the table so we each played to PCs. He played a human fighter named Tiny and a halfling rogue named Sneaky. I played a dwarf cleric named Healy and an elf wizard named Shiny. Yeah, that's right, I played an elf wizard. I chose it. So if you saw some pieces of the sky falling around 12:15 that sunday, that'd be my fault. I chose the elf wizard. This game was a lot of fun. It was, very much so, a silly game. Before the adventure began, we were sent off by Elyan the Magnificent and Bob the Not-So-Bad. They were lawyers who read a huge disclaimer saying, "This kingdom is not responsible for any maimings, burnings, beheadings, etc..." It was rather funny. We fought a giant cake elemental, which I tried to bull rush through with the dwarf. It didn't work, but did get a frosting coated shield. At the end, we fought a dragon protecting its hoard. Turned out to be a jewish dragon. (Protecting the hoard...jewish...) It's dying words, "Oy veh...you should eat something."
Hilarious game.
And then there was the drive home. Kent said he'd rather have company for the ride home, rather than a slighty shorter trip with no company, so I rode home with him. We passed the time by reading more hilariousness from the book of Synnibar, and I even tried to make up a character. I now understand why people hate this game so much. It's ridiculous. I spent a solid hour working on that character, and it's not even close to being done. I think. Maybe not. I don't know. It's just way too confusing to be sure either way.
Between dramatic readings from the book and the PC making, we were listening to the soundtrack from a musical called Avenue Q. It's pretty hilarious, with titles such as "The Internet is Great (for Porn)" and my favorite "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist." I'd encourage you to check it out.
And then we got home...and it was all over.
So as you can see, it was fun, despite playing in the "Worst Game Ever." I highly recommend that you attend next year. Rumor has it that Kent might even run a Synnibar event...
Much luv,
Rob
daemonchild
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Hi,
I wrote an article about GenCon in review. You can read it here...
GenCon Indy 2006 In Review
Hi,
I wrote an article about GenCon in review. You can read it here...
GenCon Indy 2006 In Review
daemonchild
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