My Gen Con story is an odd mixture of extreme highs and lows. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but I still wound up having a really great time. Please accept my apologies for the initial negativity of this report - it gets much better later on! I've taken the liberty of linking to various photos taken by other people to illustrate things.
Our flight took us from Heathrow (London) to New York City, and then on to Indianapolis. It was at JFK airport in New York that the first problem arose: it turned out that the lady at the check-in desk at Heathrow had taken Janes NY-Indy ticket instead of her Heathrow-NY ticket, so we were standing at JFK airport with no means of travelling on to Heathrow. With some persuasion, we managed to solve this and were given seats on the plane, but were seated at opposite ends. Still, we struggled through, figuring that one little hitch wasn't too big a deal. Of course, that was before we arrived in Indy...
We made it safely to Indianapolis. Our luggage did not; for some reason, Delta Airlines figured that we probably wouldn't need clothes, toiletries, shoes or anything else, and decided that our luggage was best left at New York. Well, we assumed it was at New York - Delta didn't actually know where it was - it wasn't on their system anywhere. After speaking to the dreadfully unfriendly, unsympathetic girl at the lost luggage counter (hey, I'm sure the job must be dull, but it's 2am, we've just been travelling for nearly 20 hours and we stand in a foreign city with nothing but a pair of short trousers and a t-shirt - try not to treat us like we're stupid and interrupting your day, please!)
Our hotel room was a short car ride later. The hotel was great - a big suite with living room and bedroom, free breakfasts and and free drinks every evening. We checked in without undue problems and collapsed into bed - this was about 4am - and got up at 8am to eat breakfast, shower, don our now very smelly clothes and wander over to Gen Con. That's where problem number 3 was...
Imagine the scene. We've travelled halfway across the world to get to Gen Con; we're exhausted, we have no luggage - frankly, we just want to go home. Could things get worse? Yeah, of course they could! You see, we were supposed to have Gen Con badges waiting for us (because of the ENnies) - except that there were no badges, and nobody knew anything about them. We lined up in what we guessed was the most appropriate line for 30 minutes or so, only to be dismissed when we arrived at the front and told to join another. Biting back some really acidic comments, we patiently joined the line indicated. This one had us waiting for over an hour, and by the time we got to the head of the queue, I was ready to just go home -- "hey, I get the hint - tell Peter the ENnies won't be happening this year and that I'm going home". Jane was even worse, making loud disparaging remarks about Gen Con, about the people she could see and about anything else she could think of - she really was regretting agreeing to come.
Still, we finally got to the head of that line and, with a sigh of relief approached the desk. Oh dear. Apparently we're supposed to be at the original desk. I patiently explain that I'd already been to that desk, and that we had been sent here; the chap at the desk patiently explained that I was at the wrong desk and that I had to go back to the first. I patiently explainded that, frankly, that wasn't going to happen. I pointed out the ENnies in the program and politely inferred that my organisation and presentation of this event was somewhat contingent upon my being present at it. In the end we were sent to yet another desk.
We went to pretty much every desk possible, each in a different secret location of the convention centre. It was kind of like a treasure hunt, only not as much fun. Jane's feet were sore with blisters, I felt like collapsing, and every desk seemed the same - Event HQ, Exhibitor HQ, Event Registration, Will Call, Customer Services - the list went on, and we were sent from one to another. I peered around blearily for the secret candddid camera, wondering if this was some collossal joke. I spoke to a senior member of Gen Con staff who was well aware of what the ENnies were (she helped with some of the arrangements) and of our predicament but who just shrugged her shoulders saying "I don't book the badges, that's Johnny's job" - well, fantastic! Who the hell is Johnny? Why should I care which member of Gen Con staff is responsible for what? All I want is for Gen Con to give us our badges.
Finally - and this was after half a day of traipsing around talking to various people, we were blessed with our first smile since we left London. We stumbled across the first person who actually seemed concerned about our problem. That lady's name was Faith, I believe, and I'll be eternally grateful to her. She indicated that, while it wasn't really her job, she was happy to sort us out and, after a couple of calls and a visit to an office at the convention centre, we had our badges.
We thanked her and left. Now it was time to wander around Indianapolis to buy new clothes. This took a good couple of hours, but finally we had enough clothes for a few days and I had something suitable to wear at the ENnies. The girl in the store was really helpful and friendly, taking us around the shop from floor to floor as we gathered a few days' worth of new clothes. she told us that she was fascinated by all this "other country" stuff and would love to visit England but she thought that learning a new language would be a little difficult; her colleague nudged her politely and pointed out that the English speak... err... English.
The day was nearly over - I'd missed some of the events I'd planned on attending, especially the WotC press briefing and was somewhat disappointed. Still, we wandered into the exhibitor hall at the end of the day specifically to seek out the EN Publishing booth and meet up with some folks for a meal and a game of Spycraft. [Oh, I tell a lie -- we did pop into the exhibitor hall after getting our badges, but just to go see James of RPGshop and ask him for a couple of t-shirts so that we had something to wear for the rest of the day. Thanks, James!]
Anyway, things got much better from there on. We met up with Eric Noah, Piratecat, Henry, Eridanis and Creamsteak and went out for dinner. We all talked, laughed, and ate, and then headed back to my hotel room for a game of Spycraft run by PC - you can see a picture of us all here. The game was fantastic, and was Jane's first RPG - she took to it like a fish takes to water, whizzing around on her motorcycle, perforning spectacular stunts, causing mayhemm, whacking people with her crowbar and generally having a great time. Dinkeldog and Baron von Starblade turned up towards the end of the game, unfortunately too late to join in. I enjoyed the evening thoroughly, and am pleased to report that all of the moderators are wonderful people and great fun to game with! We retired at about midnight for some much needed sleep and were pleased to see our luggage turn up at the hotel just before we went to bed. Thank you, Kevin, for a fantastic evening, and thank you to Eric and the others for making it so enjoyable. From time to time I'm reminded why I'm friends with these great people!
The next day was Friday, the ENnies day. I hooked up with Michael Morris early in the day and we checked out the White River Ballroom (Psion came along with us too). After sorting out some final details with him, a spent an hour or so wandering the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall was so big that I must have missed many, many booths - so I really apologise if I didn't swing by to say hello! I did get to say hello to a few people, including Nicole Lindroos, Jason Parent, Denise Robinson, Paladin & Paladinwife, The RPGObjects crew, a guy who tried to convert me to RIFTS, Negative Zero, TwinRose and Fractalwave, Maldur (who I'd seen earlier in the year in London), and... oh, so many more! I bumped into Scott Greene - it was great to meet him at last; I also bumped into Claudio Pozas and his wife. I have to say that my impression of Claudio last year as one of my favourite people was certainly confirmed this year (and it was great hanging out with him at the White Wolf party later that night). I saw loads and loads of people at the EN Publishing booth, and it wouldn't be fair of me to try and list them all as I know I'll forget many - but it was great to see you guys, and I just wish I handn't been so rushed for time with the ENnies and all.
Later that day was the ENnies - for me, the big event of the convention. I was pretty excited, since this was to be the most professional ENnies ceremony yet (and because I knew already who the winners were and wanted to see the looks on their faces when they won!) The set-up was very cool - all the ENnies were lined up on stage (thanks to alish20 for making them all: they were fantastic! Now, of course, I owe you a whole pile of cash!) and we had a great slideshow by Michael Morris.
The ENnies were a blast. There are plenty of other reports, photos mp3 recordings, video downloads, winners lists etc., so I won't go into too much detail here. If you check various publisher sites, the messageboards here at EN World, news sites and so forth, you'll find a wealth of information. For me, the highlights were "That Privateer Press Guy", Genny and Christine Robinson's award presentation (they are 8 and 12 years old and won the Best Free Product award last year; they did a grand job of presenting the same award this year). There were one or two glitches, but they only served to make things more fun. The whole thing went remarkably smoothly, with guest presenters including Monte Cook, Ryan Dancey, Peter Adkison and others.
After the ENnies there was an informal EN World gathering. We milled about for a while before wandering in the direction of some nearby bars. We managed to lose Monte Cook and then find him again, and stayed out until the early hours of the morning. I think that next year we should organise something more firm, as there was quite a bit of aimless wandering about.
The following day, Saturday, was relatively free. I wandered the exhibit hall, bumped into various people and explored Indy a little. I was surprised when one chap asked Jane and I "Does England have something to do with Britain?". That evening we went along to the White Wolf party; Jane had to talk the bouncers into letting us in without ID - obviously we don't have US driving licences, and we had trouble explaining that we consider it rather stupid and dangerous to wander around in a foreign country with your passport in your pocket. However, the bouncers made Jane happy when they told her she looked about 26 years old, and she gave one of them a big hug which served to convince him to let us in.
We didn't know anyone at the party, although we bumped into a couple of EN Worlders who hung out with us for the evening. Actually, one of them spent the evening trying very hard to pick Jane up, but I won't go into that... I was delighted when Claudio Pozas showed up, and I spent a good 45 minutes chatting to him and James Bell. I was asked for my phone number by some girl, and I think she thought I was lying when I told her I was from England and that the phone number probably wouldn't do her much good. Jane just sat there and smirked!
I want to soend a moment talking about the EN Publishing booth. Twin Rose Software very kindly donated us half a booth, which was decked out with ENP products, banners, EN World t-shirts, ENnies stauettes (thank you, Mark!), EN World "identification badges" which made recognising each other so much easier (thank you, Negative Zero!) -- the booth really did end up as a little hub of activity in the middle of the exhibit hall's "dead zone" in the far corner. I hope to do something a little more extravagant next year, and create a real "EN World Central".
We got up the next morning and packed our bags. We headed out to the airport, only to find that there was a problem with our tickets; we had to pay for new tickets from Indy to New York. So far, Delta airlines had cost us about $300 in new clothes (hey, how were we supposed to know we were shopping in Indy's most expensive shop? I'd never heard of it!) and another $200 or so each in new tickets. Not impressed; especially not impressed by the staff who seem to lack any human emotion or empathy for another person's situation. I think they're androids set on inflitrating the world - they certainly don't resemble human beings in their behaviour. Some very angry letters will be on their way in the enxt day or so.
So, in summary - Gen Con was fantastic, except for the fact that they didn't want Jane and I to attend; the people were great and we both had a wonderful time. I only wish I'd seen a few more people, and that I'd been able to spend more time with the people I did see. I really hope that I didn't come across as too grumpy, but I think that some people may have caught me at some very stressful moments, and for that I truly aplogise.
Our flight took us from Heathrow (London) to New York City, and then on to Indianapolis. It was at JFK airport in New York that the first problem arose: it turned out that the lady at the check-in desk at Heathrow had taken Janes NY-Indy ticket instead of her Heathrow-NY ticket, so we were standing at JFK airport with no means of travelling on to Heathrow. With some persuasion, we managed to solve this and were given seats on the plane, but were seated at opposite ends. Still, we struggled through, figuring that one little hitch wasn't too big a deal. Of course, that was before we arrived in Indy...
We made it safely to Indianapolis. Our luggage did not; for some reason, Delta Airlines figured that we probably wouldn't need clothes, toiletries, shoes or anything else, and decided that our luggage was best left at New York. Well, we assumed it was at New York - Delta didn't actually know where it was - it wasn't on their system anywhere. After speaking to the dreadfully unfriendly, unsympathetic girl at the lost luggage counter (hey, I'm sure the job must be dull, but it's 2am, we've just been travelling for nearly 20 hours and we stand in a foreign city with nothing but a pair of short trousers and a t-shirt - try not to treat us like we're stupid and interrupting your day, please!)
Our hotel room was a short car ride later. The hotel was great - a big suite with living room and bedroom, free breakfasts and and free drinks every evening. We checked in without undue problems and collapsed into bed - this was about 4am - and got up at 8am to eat breakfast, shower, don our now very smelly clothes and wander over to Gen Con. That's where problem number 3 was...
Imagine the scene. We've travelled halfway across the world to get to Gen Con; we're exhausted, we have no luggage - frankly, we just want to go home. Could things get worse? Yeah, of course they could! You see, we were supposed to have Gen Con badges waiting for us (because of the ENnies) - except that there were no badges, and nobody knew anything about them. We lined up in what we guessed was the most appropriate line for 30 minutes or so, only to be dismissed when we arrived at the front and told to join another. Biting back some really acidic comments, we patiently joined the line indicated. This one had us waiting for over an hour, and by the time we got to the head of the queue, I was ready to just go home -- "hey, I get the hint - tell Peter the ENnies won't be happening this year and that I'm going home". Jane was even worse, making loud disparaging remarks about Gen Con, about the people she could see and about anything else she could think of - she really was regretting agreeing to come.
Still, we finally got to the head of that line and, with a sigh of relief approached the desk. Oh dear. Apparently we're supposed to be at the original desk. I patiently explain that I'd already been to that desk, and that we had been sent here; the chap at the desk patiently explained that I was at the wrong desk and that I had to go back to the first. I patiently explainded that, frankly, that wasn't going to happen. I pointed out the ENnies in the program and politely inferred that my organisation and presentation of this event was somewhat contingent upon my being present at it. In the end we were sent to yet another desk.
We went to pretty much every desk possible, each in a different secret location of the convention centre. It was kind of like a treasure hunt, only not as much fun. Jane's feet were sore with blisters, I felt like collapsing, and every desk seemed the same - Event HQ, Exhibitor HQ, Event Registration, Will Call, Customer Services - the list went on, and we were sent from one to another. I peered around blearily for the secret candddid camera, wondering if this was some collossal joke. I spoke to a senior member of Gen Con staff who was well aware of what the ENnies were (she helped with some of the arrangements) and of our predicament but who just shrugged her shoulders saying "I don't book the badges, that's Johnny's job" - well, fantastic! Who the hell is Johnny? Why should I care which member of Gen Con staff is responsible for what? All I want is for Gen Con to give us our badges.
Finally - and this was after half a day of traipsing around talking to various people, we were blessed with our first smile since we left London. We stumbled across the first person who actually seemed concerned about our problem. That lady's name was Faith, I believe, and I'll be eternally grateful to her. She indicated that, while it wasn't really her job, she was happy to sort us out and, after a couple of calls and a visit to an office at the convention centre, we had our badges.
We thanked her and left. Now it was time to wander around Indianapolis to buy new clothes. This took a good couple of hours, but finally we had enough clothes for a few days and I had something suitable to wear at the ENnies. The girl in the store was really helpful and friendly, taking us around the shop from floor to floor as we gathered a few days' worth of new clothes. she told us that she was fascinated by all this "other country" stuff and would love to visit England but she thought that learning a new language would be a little difficult; her colleague nudged her politely and pointed out that the English speak... err... English.
The day was nearly over - I'd missed some of the events I'd planned on attending, especially the WotC press briefing and was somewhat disappointed. Still, we wandered into the exhibitor hall at the end of the day specifically to seek out the EN Publishing booth and meet up with some folks for a meal and a game of Spycraft. [Oh, I tell a lie -- we did pop into the exhibitor hall after getting our badges, but just to go see James of RPGshop and ask him for a couple of t-shirts so that we had something to wear for the rest of the day. Thanks, James!]
Anyway, things got much better from there on. We met up with Eric Noah, Piratecat, Henry, Eridanis and Creamsteak and went out for dinner. We all talked, laughed, and ate, and then headed back to my hotel room for a game of Spycraft run by PC - you can see a picture of us all here. The game was fantastic, and was Jane's first RPG - she took to it like a fish takes to water, whizzing around on her motorcycle, perforning spectacular stunts, causing mayhemm, whacking people with her crowbar and generally having a great time. Dinkeldog and Baron von Starblade turned up towards the end of the game, unfortunately too late to join in. I enjoyed the evening thoroughly, and am pleased to report that all of the moderators are wonderful people and great fun to game with! We retired at about midnight for some much needed sleep and were pleased to see our luggage turn up at the hotel just before we went to bed. Thank you, Kevin, for a fantastic evening, and thank you to Eric and the others for making it so enjoyable. From time to time I'm reminded why I'm friends with these great people!
The next day was Friday, the ENnies day. I hooked up with Michael Morris early in the day and we checked out the White River Ballroom (Psion came along with us too). After sorting out some final details with him, a spent an hour or so wandering the exhibit hall. The exhibit hall was so big that I must have missed many, many booths - so I really apologise if I didn't swing by to say hello! I did get to say hello to a few people, including Nicole Lindroos, Jason Parent, Denise Robinson, Paladin & Paladinwife, The RPGObjects crew, a guy who tried to convert me to RIFTS, Negative Zero, TwinRose and Fractalwave, Maldur (who I'd seen earlier in the year in London), and... oh, so many more! I bumped into Scott Greene - it was great to meet him at last; I also bumped into Claudio Pozas and his wife. I have to say that my impression of Claudio last year as one of my favourite people was certainly confirmed this year (and it was great hanging out with him at the White Wolf party later that night). I saw loads and loads of people at the EN Publishing booth, and it wouldn't be fair of me to try and list them all as I know I'll forget many - but it was great to see you guys, and I just wish I handn't been so rushed for time with the ENnies and all.
Later that day was the ENnies - for me, the big event of the convention. I was pretty excited, since this was to be the most professional ENnies ceremony yet (and because I knew already who the winners were and wanted to see the looks on their faces when they won!) The set-up was very cool - all the ENnies were lined up on stage (thanks to alish20 for making them all: they were fantastic! Now, of course, I owe you a whole pile of cash!) and we had a great slideshow by Michael Morris.
The ENnies were a blast. There are plenty of other reports, photos mp3 recordings, video downloads, winners lists etc., so I won't go into too much detail here. If you check various publisher sites, the messageboards here at EN World, news sites and so forth, you'll find a wealth of information. For me, the highlights were "That Privateer Press Guy", Genny and Christine Robinson's award presentation (they are 8 and 12 years old and won the Best Free Product award last year; they did a grand job of presenting the same award this year). There were one or two glitches, but they only served to make things more fun. The whole thing went remarkably smoothly, with guest presenters including Monte Cook, Ryan Dancey, Peter Adkison and others.
After the ENnies there was an informal EN World gathering. We milled about for a while before wandering in the direction of some nearby bars. We managed to lose Monte Cook and then find him again, and stayed out until the early hours of the morning. I think that next year we should organise something more firm, as there was quite a bit of aimless wandering about.
The following day, Saturday, was relatively free. I wandered the exhibit hall, bumped into various people and explored Indy a little. I was surprised when one chap asked Jane and I "Does England have something to do with Britain?". That evening we went along to the White Wolf party; Jane had to talk the bouncers into letting us in without ID - obviously we don't have US driving licences, and we had trouble explaining that we consider it rather stupid and dangerous to wander around in a foreign country with your passport in your pocket. However, the bouncers made Jane happy when they told her she looked about 26 years old, and she gave one of them a big hug which served to convince him to let us in.
We didn't know anyone at the party, although we bumped into a couple of EN Worlders who hung out with us for the evening. Actually, one of them spent the evening trying very hard to pick Jane up, but I won't go into that... I was delighted when Claudio Pozas showed up, and I spent a good 45 minutes chatting to him and James Bell. I was asked for my phone number by some girl, and I think she thought I was lying when I told her I was from England and that the phone number probably wouldn't do her much good. Jane just sat there and smirked!
I want to soend a moment talking about the EN Publishing booth. Twin Rose Software very kindly donated us half a booth, which was decked out with ENP products, banners, EN World t-shirts, ENnies stauettes (thank you, Mark!), EN World "identification badges" which made recognising each other so much easier (thank you, Negative Zero!) -- the booth really did end up as a little hub of activity in the middle of the exhibit hall's "dead zone" in the far corner. I hope to do something a little more extravagant next year, and create a real "EN World Central".
We got up the next morning and packed our bags. We headed out to the airport, only to find that there was a problem with our tickets; we had to pay for new tickets from Indy to New York. So far, Delta airlines had cost us about $300 in new clothes (hey, how were we supposed to know we were shopping in Indy's most expensive shop? I'd never heard of it!) and another $200 or so each in new tickets. Not impressed; especially not impressed by the staff who seem to lack any human emotion or empathy for another person's situation. I think they're androids set on inflitrating the world - they certainly don't resemble human beings in their behaviour. Some very angry letters will be on their way in the enxt day or so.
So, in summary - Gen Con was fantastic, except for the fact that they didn't want Jane and I to attend; the people were great and we both had a wonderful time. I only wish I'd seen a few more people, and that I'd been able to spend more time with the people I did see. I really hope that I didn't come across as too grumpy, but I think that some people may have caught me at some very stressful moments, and for that I truly aplogise.
