How do I love GenCon? Let me count the ways!

[Buttercup]

I got back a few hours ago, and after celebrating my return to husband, hearth, home and dog, I thought I'd start a thread where we can all recount the highlights of "the best four days in gaming" for our EN World friends who couldn't be with us. I took about 50 pictures, but I'm not sure how many of them are viable. I'll look them over tomorrow and post the good ones.

So, in no particular order, on with the highlights:

• Rel was as excited as a blushing bride about losing his GenCon virginity. He's a really charming guy, and his enthusiasm was delightful.
• Crothian's Paranoia Orc & Pie game was hysterical. Fickle GM was our Team Leader, and at one point he said "I'm a traitor, just shoot me now!" So of course we obliged him. I was the Morale Officer, and it was my pleasure to sing happy songs while killing as many people as I could get a way with. I laughed so hard during this game that I was hoarse the next day.
• Keeper of Secrets ran a Call of Cthulhu game that bore bizarre resemblences to Gilligan's Island...except for the "sexy actuary" serial killer played by Teflon Billy. My character, an ex porn star, (think Ginger with a tainted past) ended up getting her throat slit by him, but considering that nearly everyone else got eaten by a horrible, tentacled thing, I guess I can't complain.
• I played in a Round Robin GM game of Der Kluge's and I was, shall we say, not at my best. I hadn't read the rules, because I was really just passing by the booth when he invited me to join in, so I was totally clueless. In spite of my lackluster attempt at GMing off the top of my head, the rest of the session was fun, becuase everyone else was *much* better at it.
• The ENnies were in a totally cool location. The Gelflings were charming presenters in their matching powder blue gowns, and I think Monte Cook had his heart stolen by Genevieve when she spontaneously gave him a hug when he came up to collect one of Paizo's awards.
• The Wilderlands Boxed Set! Oh. My. God. This thing is so awesome that when I opened it in my room after buying it and started going through it, the hair on the back of my head stood on end. I'm not kidding. I've never seen anything like it. There hasn't ever been anything like it. At $70 it's a budget buster, but worth every single penny. It's so wonderful it practically makes me weep.
• Lunch with Suzi Yee. She's awesome, and we had a great time. We also ended up getting a whole shopping bag of food to take back to Joe at the exhibitor's hall, because the restaurant screwed up our order. I wish we didn't live 2000 miles apart so we could game together.
• Queen D and Xath. I love both of these women! I think next year all the EN World women need to spend a few hours together eating chocolate while discussing the joys of annihilating our foes.
• All the other wonderful, totally cool EN World members I met for the first time or saw again for the second or third year in a row. I regret that I didn't get to spend more time with a number of people. I'll have to remedy that next year!

I had a wonderful time, and I'm completely worn out. (So is my bank account, but we won't talk about that, ok? )

 

[Crothian]

Yes, Gen Con rocks. This year has been the best of the three I've gone to. With so many EN WQorlders there and so many friends, I was never at a loss for something to do. I played in my first game there, ran a game, and even got to do a Gen Con event.

• Telflon Billy called this the Year of Rel. Everyone else talked about the fun they had in his games. I was not one of those, but with luck we'll have him back next year so I can see what all the talk is about. Rel is a treat and a great guy.
• My Orcan Pie Paranoia game went from little interest to way to much over night. I think I could have filled another two slots if I would have planed for it. It was a lot of fun, and efven with many player completely unfamilar with the game it went off very well. Next year it will be improved and much better.
• My highligh though was Chris Pramas personaly introducing my to Lynn Abbey, one of the creators of Thieves World. I spent about 30 minutes talking with her until other came to see her. Fabolous woman and great series of books.
• My experince with Round Robin with Curtis was 1am after the ENnies. Aside from the time being a mistake that game was great. It was really cool when 2 hours in piratecat stops by and we pull him in and he plays without any backstory of what happened before. I think I did a good job, and I had a lot of fun with that. I'll need to do that again.
• The ENnies just rocked. I and others put in a lot of hard work and it felt good to see the colmination of everything come off so well. PC and Mickael did a great job with the show and I was very pleased to have been a part of it.
• Each morning before the dealer room opnened I would find myself neat the White Wolf booth to watch the insane rush to get Mage. I picked up a copy on Sunday.
• Lunch with Suzi Yee. I, too, had a lunch with her (man she lunches with everyone). Its amazing to know someone only through gaming and sit down with them for an hour and talk about almost anything but gaming. Suzi is like the sister I never see, but eager look forward to catching up with when I can. Joe is also great and I talked to him each day at his booth.
• Universe and Fungasite (hope thats spelled right, Stewart). I didn';t get to hang with Universe as much as I would have liked, but I really had fun talking to him the few times we crossed paths. Fungsite rommed with me and I managed to have many great coinversations with him. I knew he was smart but didn't know just how smart. I was impressed with his knowledge oif many things.
• Denise, Hound, and the kids. What can I say other then they are some of the best people I know. One of these years we will game together. While everyone else is great, the Canadiana Suite and other things these people do really make Gen Con the best 4 days in gaming for me. It would not be Gen Con without them.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

[*]The Wilderlands Boxed Set! Oh. My. God. This thing is so awesome that when I opened it in my room after buying it and started going through it, the hair on the back of my head stood on end. I'm not kidding. I've never seen anything like it. There hasn't ever been anything like it. At $70 it's a budget buster, but worth every single penny. It's so wonderful it practically makes me weep.

Not to sidetrack the thread, but I did a tiny bit of helping out with this. I helped clean up and edit the Lenap sector early on, specifically the castles and towers. Not much of what I did survived until publication, I think, based on the previews Clark Peterson posted, but if you run across a tower with an orc who is a wonderful cook, then at least a little bit made it in...

Oh, by the way, I'm really proud of having the opportunity to help out, even if just an itty-bit.

 

[Michael Morris]

Too tired for a checklist - but posting to confim I'm safely home folks, and mulling over some projects discussed at the con.

 

[romp]

not enough time to do a full post, almost bedtime now, lost an hour coming back across the border and have to work tmw ... BTW both Rel and I were GenCon newbies, and I had a faaaabbbuulous time, full point-by-point post coming tmw night ...

 

[Buttercup]

OK, evidently I suck at photography. I just looked through the pics I took, and most of them aren't even worth cropping and fixing the red-eye. However, here are a few fun ones.

Sitting at the EN World booth, we have Fickle GM's lovely wife, Piratecat and Fickle GM. These folks busted their butts getting the booth set up. As you can see, it looked quite professional.

The second picture is of Gelfling 2. And yes, she certainly is adorable in her wizard outfit!

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

GenCon rocks my head off - that much is for sure. There are so many, many things that made this year incredible. Let's see if I can list some:

- Meeting ENWorlders. Really expansive, I know. But last year, The Universe and I really kind of kept to ourselves. We had really full schedules filled with all sorts of GenCon events so we met nearly no one. This year, we really wanted to change that... and we did. We were at the Canadiana suite a whole whole bunch and it was ***so*** much fun.

- The realization that if you switch the first letters in Ranger Wickett's name you get Wanger Rickett. I'm still laughing.

- Rel's Sky Galleons game. I only got to play for half of it (because I was working the booth for the first half of the game), but they were an incredibly entertaining and fun two hours.

- Rel's "Got Pumpkin?" shirt. I'm told he made it "just for me," and that makes me feel very special... and kind of dirty.

- Buttercup. 'Nuff said.

- Iron Kingdoms everything. I went a little crazy at the Privateer Press booth. Whoops.

- Third place in speed painting! Not good enough to put me through to the final round (not that I could have attended, anyway)... but restored my faith in my painting abilities.

- CarlZog and Glassjaw. Two of the coolest guys you'll *ever* meet!

- Totally geeking out because I ate dinner at St. Elmo's at the same time as Monte. *blushes* I'm such a ridiculous fan-girl.

... there are about a million other things and I'll probably post more later/reply to everyone's posts with a "Yeah! That was awesome!"... but for now it's time for me to shuffle The Universe off to bed, he starts his new job tomorrow! Everyone wish him luck!

 

[wingsandsword]

I posted a thread like this in Off Topic, but I guess it really is on topic. I'll repost my bit here, and mods can delete, merge, close, fold, spindle, mutlilate or whatever they please.

And yes, Wanger Rickett is going to stick in my head.

I should have been around the booth more, try to get in on some of the pickup games, that's a lesson for next year. As-is I ran into a good number of ENWorlders at the Canadiana Suite and just wandering around the convention.

----
This was my first time of being able to go to all of Gen Con, the past two years I simply went up with a friend for a day (it only being ~3 hours from home). Now that I've gotten a chance to have a real Gen Con experience, meet some folks from the boards here, and see more and do more, just some things I've got to say.

Resturants: The Ram is excellent (especially at 3 AM when it's filled with nothing but gamers, but not so much right after the Colts game on Sat. night), Hard Times has some great chili. Some other places weren't quite as memorable, a place or two were downright forgettable, but I'd rather focus on the positives.

The ENnies were a pretty nice show, I wasn't expecting something quite that formal (the waiters in tuxedos kinda stunned me there for a moment when I walked in), but it was cool. Maybe next year we can do some kind of webcast, so we're broadcasting it to people who couldn't make it to Gen Con.

Those dang little Star Wars minis. They release a new set, and I actually draw the rare AT-ST I want on the first pack, and thanks to being able to buy loose commons for relatively cheap means I don't have to gamble $20 on any more packs.

It was good to meet some of my fellow ENWorlders. RangerWicket, Queen_Dopplepopolis, Truth Seeker, Mark, FickleGM, John Crichton and a few others I saw at least in passing, it was great to meet you all. Y'all gave me some of the high points of the Con, to hats off to you.

Mage: I got my copy, yay! Part of me wonders if only having 300 copies was an artificial shortage created to drive up interest. Either way, I like what they've done with it so far from what I can tell. Of course, crashing through the doors, jockeying for position as part of some twisted gamer Race to fall in line to get a copy one morning was quite a memory.

The D&D Movie 2 Preview: It looks like it has hope of not sucking horribly. I'm not expecting high cinema, but this time it looks like they actually bothered to make it be a movie about D&D, instead of a generic fantasy movie which vaguely resembled D&D. The lines to see the preview were incredible.

A game of Munchkin that lasts until after 3 AM can get brutal, and silly.

The idea which came up (don't recall who first suggested it) of ENWorld taking up a PayPal collection to rent one of the rooms on the top floor of the Embassy Suites for parties/gathering is a neat one, so we can have more space and time, instead of piling into a tiny room and leaving at midnight so our nice hosts can get some rest.

Sunday Morning in the Exhibit Hall: I think that's the first time I hauled away bulk tonnage of books. Everything I'd heard about ridiculous sales at the end was true. Titan Games must have moved a truckload of books with their deals.

 

[Buttercup]

First pic is Queen Dopplepopolis and The Universe. You can see why I named the pic "lovebirds" eh?

Second pic is Cthulhu's Librarian, looking stylish and handsome at the Ennies. From now on, I'll think of him as Rico Suave.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

GenCon rocks my head off - that much is for sure. There are so many, many things that made this year incredible. Let's see if I can list some:

- Meeting ENWorlders. Really expansive, I know. But last year, The Universe and I really kind of kept to ourselves. We had really full schedules filled with all sorts of GenCon events so we met nearly no one. This year, we really wanted to change that... and we did. We were at the Canadiana suite a whole whole bunch and it was ***so*** much fun.

It was only after my first SF convention (Worldcon) that I fully understood the lyric

"There's not a word yet,
For old friends who just met."