[GenCon] EN World photos and stories - add your own!

[KingOfChaos]

I am disturbed by the fact that every picture with alsih2o in it looks like he is either looking at someone else's butt or using them as a human sock puppet -.-

 

[Droogie]

So this Freeport game, it was way cool. It was the first part of a new Freeport adventure that's coming out in October. I'm probably going to get the title wrong, but I think it's called Black Sands of Freeport. Or maybe not. Anyway, just remember October. They guy who DMed it was the author, and I had a blast. I played an evil dwarf cleric named Ham Foulbrew, who was in a party of good folks. I've never played an evil PC before, but it was fun to quietly backtrack and slit the throats of NPCs the party had just tied up or knocked out. We met the BBEG, but were not able to kill her. I sooo want to play in a Freeport game on a regular basis.

Don't forget who won the free Character Record Folio.

MEMEMEMEMEMEME!

I voted for you, BTW, since you were the only one to role-play your alignment correctly.

And I enjoyed the setting too. I felt like I was in a Scorcese flick.

Edit: Come to think of it, the sorcerer/rogue played well. And the female fighter. And the elf. Oh, and the half-orc was quite entertaining. Aw heck, we're all winners, ain't we?

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I am disturbed by the fact that every picture with alsih2o in it looks like he is either looking at someone else's butt or using them as a human sock puppet -.-

Ah, I see you've reached the third level of understanding about our dear Potter. That's not a coincidence, that's just how he is.

 

[mythusmage]

Um, correct me if I'm wrong, but that pic isn't of the convention. That's merely the dealer's room, which is only one small part of the convention.

Ah, 'small part'. That tells me a lot.

I suspect Adkison could run GenCon SoCal concurrently with Comic-con, and use only G and H halls for dealers. With gaming events at the Marriot and the new Hilton going up downtown.

It also means he gets the assist of the Comic-con convention staff and that of the convention center staff.

BTW, ask Chris Pramas and Phil Reed about the convention's dealers room.

 

[Buttercup]

More memories....

• Meeting Buttercup and Cthulhu's Librarian and discussing the library/information professions. It was like geeking out but in a whole new way! (And there was one other person there ... who was it??) Turns out Buttercup and I shared a library school professor!

• 
  
  It was Emergent.
  
  

  Originally posted by DroogieDon't forget who won the free Character Record Folio.
  
  MEMEMEMEMEMEME!
  
  I voted for you, BTW, since you were the only one to role-play your alignment correctly.
  
  And I enjoyed the setting too. I felt like I was in a Scorcese flick.
  
  Edit: Come to think of it, the sorcerer/rogue played well. And the female fighter. And the elf. Oh, and the half-orc was quite entertaining. Aw heck, we're all winners, ain't we?

  
  Wow, that was you? I didn't realize that we knew each other. I think I was already getting sick at that point, and so was a bit out of it. Heh. I voted for you. I liked your idea of sticking the scroll case down your pants leg. And I liked when you critted that guard and killed him with one shot. Yay us!

 

[FungiMuncher]

GenCon was a great time. I went with three other buddies from my long standing gaming group. The long lines were a shock. We had pre-registered for our badges, but didn't sign up for any games. Those lines convinced my one friend who suggested that we "wing it" to sign up early and often next year.

I GMed two RPGA events. I enjoyed running them and meeting the players. However, it was a lot of effort - not sure if I'll do it next year. The free WOTC figure and RPGA t-shirt helps, though.

Well, keeping in the tradition of lurking, I didn't meet too many other ENWorlders. Having three friends not involved in ENworld pulling you in random directions sure makes that hard. I did discover that I shared a room while DMing with ArthurQ - caught a glimpse of his tag as our games started (** Waves to Arthur **). His table was the first to finish, while my table took so long we were firmly reminded to wrap up.

Other than this, I met Monte Cook, Virginia Hey and Sean Astin.

The highlight was competing in the XCrawl tournament. Our team finished first place in the first round, and we think we did well in the finals. The Pandahead folks took some pictures, but will have to wait for them, and the final results, to be posted on their web page. I was always curious about XCrawl, but this has definitely converted me to a fan. Our GM, Brian, made it a lot of fun!

FM

 

[Pielorinho]

Wow! That was incredibly fun!

I got to run two games and play in two games. Near as I know, only BlackOmega played in either of my sessions (I ran the Gray Hunt, a Living campaign of some sort or another), and it was great fun.

I only got to meet Eric very briefly, but I did get to hang out with Alsih2o, Teflon Billy, Emergent, Piratecat, Storminator, and others from the boards. Great bunch of people!

Piratecat's game was a blast, of course; afterwards, Spider (my brother) and I sat outside watching the LARPers make funny hand signals and analyzed the elements of the game that made it uniquely fun. What we came up with:
-Camera angles: at certain moments of high drama, Kevin would describe the camera cutting to a wide shot, switching to slo-mo, or something like that, in order to give us the best possible view of the results of our actions. It was pretty funny, so it might not be a technique useful for a serious scene, but it was a great way to convey the cinematic joy of explosions.
-Funny voices: Kevin's fantastic at adopting accents and funny voices on the fly; his characters were all distinct and memorable, whether it was the naive breathy paramour of the bad guy, the surly brusque (and soon-to-be wounded, thanks to Teflon Billy's itchy trigger finger) fishing boat merchant, or the spineless sincere mercenary who bent over backwards to convince us to leave him alive.
-However, the biggest cool thing about the game: Kevin's default assumption seems to be that your character's actions succeed. Faced with a tough call (can X-ray glasses see through the wall of this reinforced vault?), my temptation would be to answer "nope." Kevin manages to answer "yep" most of the time, which keeps the game moving fast and gives folks the pleasure of getting to use their abilities and show off. Definitely something I'm gonna work on.

Thanks to everyone I got to hang out with at the Con; I look forward to seeing y'all there next year!
Daniel

 

[Ashy]

And then there was the Paranoia game! 20+ deaths in 2 hours... not too bad, even if they never made past to the actual mission briefing. From left to right:

War Golem, his friend May, coik, Crothian, Storminator, Ashy, and Brannon Hall. Be careful, guys - those fingers are loaded.

What an utterly awesome game! Pkitty was superb (as is to be expected, I guess) and Storminator is my new hero! We wound up in this and the Fiery Dragon game together and BOTH GAMES WERE A BLAST! May was really funny - she'd never played a game and before this one was over she was pounding folks in the skull with a truncheon! AH! True gamers are not made, folks, they are BORN!

What an awesome time! Thanks, Pkitty!!! (please note new sig, BTW - it came from THIS game!)

 

[buzzard]

The Saturday afternoon Spycraft game offered by the feline buccaneer was quite fun. I was probably most amused by the reactions of people who wandered by when Kevin was doing his rampaging elephant noise. But then, I am a little odd.

buzzard

 

[Psion]

Other than this, I met Monte Cook, Virginia Hey and Sean Astin.

I forgot to mention in my con report that I met (and got the requisite signed picture of) Virginia Hey. She's a very friendly, very chatty lady.