Myself and about 49,000 other people went to this little shindig in Indianapolis last week. It's called GenCon and you should try it out sometime...
I’m still adjusting to that well known phenomenon: Life after GenCon. I have to contend with coming down from a literal high each year I attend “The Best Four Days in Gaming” (for the crew I roll with it’s more like the best six days in gaming). But it is well worth the price considering what an absolute blast I have every time.
Every time I go, I have a slightly different experience. You can always count on the unexpected to happen at GenCon. I figured today I’d revel in the coolest of the cool GenCon had to offer this year.
3) The ENnies - Honestly, it had been a few years since I attended the ENnies. For a while I wasn’t enthralled by the flavor and atmosphere of the event as it was held in a rather sterile room at the convention center. I’m not saying the ENnies was ever “bad.” There is a ton of really cool stuff for me to do at GenCon, and for a while the ENnies didn’t win out against the competition. It felt in some ways like just another seminar at the Con, a far cry from the gala that was held in the Indiana Roof Ballroom.
This year I was back and found the ENnies had regained all of its former stature and then some. The production values are high and the pre-event entertainment was hilarious. You just haven’t lived until you’ve seen a guy dressed as a Vulcan sing “I’ll Spock your world and meld with you,” complete with backup dancers.
I attended with my wife and other friends and got the chance to sit right next to Morrus and his lovely wife. I got to see friends receive awards for their hard work. I got to see games be recognized for their alchemical awesomeness. I got to be the proud father of the cute little girl handing out certificates to the award winners. And there were some pretty witty acceptance speeches too.
All in all I’d say the ENnies are back in my rotation of “must see” events at GenCon.
2) The Games - Speaking of the ENnies, one of the games which got some love was Pelgrane’s Night’s Black Agents. It uses Robin Laws’ Gumshoe system, which I’ve found to be easy, fast, and cinematic. The premise, basically, is the PCs think they are in a James Bond movie and find out about half way through they’re in a Vampire movie. It sounded good enough for me to go ahead and buy it at the Pelgrane booth, but my friend Kennon Bauman (the ENnie Award winning Kennon Bauman) made this thing sing! Give it a try. You will not be disappointed.
I also both ran and played some Old School Hack, a game by my friend Kirin Robinson (the ENnie Award winning Kirin Robinson). It’s still awesome. It’s still free. A group of us also played Fiasco using the “Holly Jolly” playset, which emulates some of the magic of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Except, you know, vastly horribler. It was easily in the top three Fiasco games I’ve ever played.
But probably the standout game of my GenCon was one I didn’t play while I was there: 13th Age. I was in on the playtest last year and had fun with it. But it was clearly still being tweaked and having the kinks worked out, so you never know. I purchased it from Pelgrane my first day at GenCon and finally got a chance to browse the finished product. Wow! It is one of the coolest games I’ve seen in years! Every page is dripping with the kinds of stuff I want in my gaming books. It’s got cool, innovative rules. It’s got great insight and advice from those who wrote them. It’s got me excited! I’m going to be running this game very soon; I can already smell the greatness.
1) The People - I’m an unabashed extrovert, so seeing old friends and meeting new ones is always the best part of GenCon for me. This year was no exception. It’s also really interesting to me to see the patterns develop amid these relationships over the course of the Con.
This year, for example, there were lots of people I know locally who attended, including my best friend, attending his first GenCon ever. And I barely saw those people. I literally saw my best friend one time for two minutes when we accidentally crossed paths at the dealer hall. Luckily, I know this is because he was joyfully attending GenCon in his own way, mostly by doing some serious father-son time with his teenager.
On the other side of things, I got to see the usual ENWorld/CM crowd who were friendly and awesome as always. They throw great parties and run amazing, fun, hilarious games. These people fill my days with games you hate to see end, except you have another awesome game to attend. They fill the nights with great conversation you hate to see end, except you absolutely must get some sleep so you can do it all again the next day.
Then there are the people you randomly bump into who put a smile on your face. My roommate was walking into the Embassy Suites one evening and found the door being held open for him by Wil Wheaton. I sat down to help Kirin do a quick demo of Old School Hack and discovered I was sitting next to Harley Stroh, one of the best dungeon creators of all time. While we were playing, we found people peering over our shoulders to observe the fun and discovered it was the guys who created Dungeon World. Cool people are thick on the ground at GenCon and you find yourself bumping into them often.
But the coolest part of the coolest part of my GenCon was sharing it with my wife and daughter who came along for the first time. If you really want to recognize the neatest parts of something you love, give a guided tour to somebody you really care about. Seeing it through fresh eyes made me appreciate GenCon in ways that are all too easy to take for granted.
I’ll be back next year for sure and I hope to see you there!
What did you see this year which stood out as particularly cool? If you’ve never made the trip, what is stopping you?
I’m still adjusting to that well known phenomenon: Life after GenCon. I have to contend with coming down from a literal high each year I attend “The Best Four Days in Gaming” (for the crew I roll with it’s more like the best six days in gaming). But it is well worth the price considering what an absolute blast I have every time.
Every time I go, I have a slightly different experience. You can always count on the unexpected to happen at GenCon. I figured today I’d revel in the coolest of the cool GenCon had to offer this year.
3) The ENnies - Honestly, it had been a few years since I attended the ENnies. For a while I wasn’t enthralled by the flavor and atmosphere of the event as it was held in a rather sterile room at the convention center. I’m not saying the ENnies was ever “bad.” There is a ton of really cool stuff for me to do at GenCon, and for a while the ENnies didn’t win out against the competition. It felt in some ways like just another seminar at the Con, a far cry from the gala that was held in the Indiana Roof Ballroom.
This year I was back and found the ENnies had regained all of its former stature and then some. The production values are high and the pre-event entertainment was hilarious. You just haven’t lived until you’ve seen a guy dressed as a Vulcan sing “I’ll Spock your world and meld with you,” complete with backup dancers.
I attended with my wife and other friends and got the chance to sit right next to Morrus and his lovely wife. I got to see friends receive awards for their hard work. I got to see games be recognized for their alchemical awesomeness. I got to be the proud father of the cute little girl handing out certificates to the award winners. And there were some pretty witty acceptance speeches too.
All in all I’d say the ENnies are back in my rotation of “must see” events at GenCon.
2) The Games - Speaking of the ENnies, one of the games which got some love was Pelgrane’s Night’s Black Agents. It uses Robin Laws’ Gumshoe system, which I’ve found to be easy, fast, and cinematic. The premise, basically, is the PCs think they are in a James Bond movie and find out about half way through they’re in a Vampire movie. It sounded good enough for me to go ahead and buy it at the Pelgrane booth, but my friend Kennon Bauman (the ENnie Award winning Kennon Bauman) made this thing sing! Give it a try. You will not be disappointed.
I also both ran and played some Old School Hack, a game by my friend Kirin Robinson (the ENnie Award winning Kirin Robinson). It’s still awesome. It’s still free. A group of us also played Fiasco using the “Holly Jolly” playset, which emulates some of the magic of the Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. Except, you know, vastly horribler. It was easily in the top three Fiasco games I’ve ever played.
But probably the standout game of my GenCon was one I didn’t play while I was there: 13th Age. I was in on the playtest last year and had fun with it. But it was clearly still being tweaked and having the kinks worked out, so you never know. I purchased it from Pelgrane my first day at GenCon and finally got a chance to browse the finished product. Wow! It is one of the coolest games I’ve seen in years! Every page is dripping with the kinds of stuff I want in my gaming books. It’s got cool, innovative rules. It’s got great insight and advice from those who wrote them. It’s got me excited! I’m going to be running this game very soon; I can already smell the greatness.
1) The People - I’m an unabashed extrovert, so seeing old friends and meeting new ones is always the best part of GenCon for me. This year was no exception. It’s also really interesting to me to see the patterns develop amid these relationships over the course of the Con.
This year, for example, there were lots of people I know locally who attended, including my best friend, attending his first GenCon ever. And I barely saw those people. I literally saw my best friend one time for two minutes when we accidentally crossed paths at the dealer hall. Luckily, I know this is because he was joyfully attending GenCon in his own way, mostly by doing some serious father-son time with his teenager.
On the other side of things, I got to see the usual ENWorld/CM crowd who were friendly and awesome as always. They throw great parties and run amazing, fun, hilarious games. These people fill my days with games you hate to see end, except you have another awesome game to attend. They fill the nights with great conversation you hate to see end, except you absolutely must get some sleep so you can do it all again the next day.
Then there are the people you randomly bump into who put a smile on your face. My roommate was walking into the Embassy Suites one evening and found the door being held open for him by Wil Wheaton. I sat down to help Kirin do a quick demo of Old School Hack and discovered I was sitting next to Harley Stroh, one of the best dungeon creators of all time. While we were playing, we found people peering over our shoulders to observe the fun and discovered it was the guys who created Dungeon World. Cool people are thick on the ground at GenCon and you find yourself bumping into them often.
But the coolest part of the coolest part of my GenCon was sharing it with my wife and daughter who came along for the first time. If you really want to recognize the neatest parts of something you love, give a guided tour to somebody you really care about. Seeing it through fresh eyes made me appreciate GenCon in ways that are all too easy to take for granted.
I’ll be back next year for sure and I hope to see you there!
What did you see this year which stood out as particularly cool? If you’ve never made the trip, what is stopping you?
