Gen Con: Day 2 (Friday for those keeping track of such things)

Right from the start, days at GenCon bled one into the other. I'd only gotten a few hours of sleep when it was time to wake up and take care of my dogs again. 5 bells found me getting showered and then heading back to my house for the dog feeding/walking ritual. Needless to say, I was tired. I figured it was prudent to get some more sleep, so I grabbed a few more hours and headed out at about 11 AM for some food. I skipped my morning Pathfinder game. One thing I've certainly learned this year is to only schedule things at 8 AM if you know you just can't bear to miss them.

My initial plan was to spend some time in the dealer hall and see if I could find a pick-up game. Thankfully I checked twitter that morning. I'd scheduled a Hollow Earth Expedition game at 4 PM on Saturday, but I knew there was absolutely no way I could play in it now with my dog care duties. HEX is one of the games I was really looking forward to trying a GenCon, and I knew one of my only real chances was a rumor that @KJBauman was going to be GMing a pick-up game sometime during the con. I'd gotten this info from @d20Blonde, and she'd recommended him as the best HEX GM she'd played with. Sure enough, today was the day. There was one spot left in @KJBauman's "Danger in the Arctic" game in the Embassy Suites' lobby at noon. I responded (as soon as I saw the tweet) that I would really like to play in the game, and managed to be lucky enough to get the last spot. See how useful social media (Twitter in particular) is at a con? I grabbed a quick sub at Subway in the food court at the mall, and headed to the game. After a little trouble in finding the group, they found me and we sat down to play.

This game was an absolute blast. Without spoiling this for anyone that might get the opportunity to play it in the future, the pre-gens form a shameless rip off of the Johnny Quest team with the same interactions built in to your motives. I played the brilliant scientist who can't quite get everything from paper to reality without some issue. There were rockets and Nazis and zeppelins and snowmobile chases and dogfights and portals to the moon and Hitler in a jar. The game was over-the-top pulp at its best. While we didn't play strictly rules-as-written, @KJBauman's modifications worked wonderfully for this scenario with new players and experienced. In my last post I talked briefly about being able to tell a good game by looking at the players. Our GM was up on his feet constantly, animated, and made every situation (bad and good) into something fun. The players were smiling most of the game, and grinning a good portion of it too. There was at least one good full belly laugh every 10 minutes (honestly, I'm surprised we didn't get asked to calm down). As you can probably tell, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. If you EVER get the chance to play in one of @KJBauman's HEX games, just make the time and do it. He gets nervous about GMing it seems, but I think that's because he puts a lot of pressure on himself to make sure everyone has fun. No need to worry, he's brilliant at what he does and it was again educational for me to watch such a good GM in action (when I managed to briefly break my immersion with the specific intent of trying to learn some techniques). This was absolutely one of the best twitter tips I got all con. So glad I was able to be a part of this.

As for the game, the Ubiquity system really plays smoothly. Sure, you need a GM who can come up with good numbers for target successes on the fly, but the skill and combat resolution is fast and smooth, keeping the game moving and exciting. The HEX system of rewards for playing built in motivations and flaws, even when doing so might cause a temporarily bad outcome, really adds roleplaying depth to the game. Yes, this system absolutely encourages RP. Even if you just don't RP, you're still going to gain significant advantages for staying in character because you're going to get rewarded with extra dice when you want them for doing so. This is a game I'm really glad I got a chance to play, and I am happy to have purchased the core rulebook in advance. I'd play a full campaign if the opportunity ever came up, and I'll probably look for another HEX game at GenCon next year.

I got out of this game at about 4 pm, and had a little bit of free time, but not a lot. I knew I wasn't going to my scheduled HEX game on Saturday, and I'd made plans for the night so I wasn't going to the Pathfinder GenCon special at 7 PM. Armed with this, I stopped by GenCon customer service and returned these tickets so they would know there were places for generics. I also got some money back (I think there was a 5% return fee...it was something small and very reasonable). At this point I didn't have to wait long in line, and everything went very smoothly again. The GenCon staff really has this down.

I think I may have wandered the halls a bit, but soon I headed back to my car to drive home and take care of the dogs. I was also picking up my girlfriend so we could walk around and admire the cosplayers. She likes seeing what people have come up with, so this was a great way to show her some fun at the con. We were also going to go to the Goth/Industrial night at the Ugly Monkey though we weren't planning on staying long. I had to be up early on Saturday and she couldn't be out very long with her back injury.

I don't remember what I did for dinner, but what does that matter? I know we headed back downtown and I changed into my goth clothes. We then walked around the convention center admiring the costumes. The Westin convention rooms are where all the film and anime events are held, so it's a great place if you want to see cosplay. We spent a significant amount of time there, and talked to a few folks about their costumes. We were heading back to the con center on the up escalator when I actually started listening to the performer who had set up his keyboard by said escalators. I heard Japanese, and it suddenly struck me that he was, for all intents and purposes, playing lounge versions of anime theme songs. Needless to say, we turned right around and headed back down to listen for a bit. Turns out he had a huge book of music, so when my girlfriend requested Gessekai by Buck Tick (the theme to Nightwalker, and one of the most goth sounding Japanese songs I've heard) he found it in no time and launched into a very respectable rendition. What a find. These are the cool little things you can see at GenCon by just being in the right place at the right time. The artist in question is Gavin Goska, and you can find out more at http://www.subtleinversion.com/gavin (unfortunately his page is locked behind some ridiculous login wall that even site registration doesn't seem to get you access too. Not the best marketing tool). I recommend catching some of his act if you ever get the chance and like anime themes or J-pop.

A really well done Hit Girl. Wish this
picture was better.

An orc...and a good one.

At about 10 PM we headed over to the Ugly Monkey for some dancing. As I should have expected, 10 to midnight was just too early, and very few people had shown up by the time we got there. The music was mediocre at best, so I'm not sure we missed much (though it may have improved later). Indy's goth/industrial scene leaves a lot to be desired, but it's nice to see them still trying. Maybe I'm just too old, but the music that gets played just isn't my thing for the most part. I got to dance to all of one song, so this part of the night felt like kind of a waste. We headed back towards my car at about midnight, and of all the flattering things, I got stopped by a bunch of much younger women so they could snap a picture and compliment my on my look. My girlfriend gets stopped a lot..she's significantly more attractive than I should be with, so it was a nice ego boost to be the one stopped for once.

I knew I had an 8 AM game, so we headed home and I got to sleep as soon as I could. Another great day of GenCon had passed, and I'd kept busy the whole time and had a blast.

Gen Con: Day 0

Wednesday was really the beginning of GenCon 2011 for me. I woke up early because I couldn't sleep (thanks to a somewhat rough Tuesday) loaded my van, and headed downtown. One of the great things about my job is that I get to use the Indiana State parking garages, so I pulled up within 20' of the door to the overpass (hereafter referred to as the gerbil tube) between the J. W. Marriott and the convention center. On a whim I walked over to the Westin and asked if they had a room, and they did. I was able to check in at 10 am and move all my stuff right away, which made the day a little more relaxing. The room key was a Neverwinter special, which I thought was pretty darn cool.

My roommate (David Flor, @BrainClouds) was scheduled to arrive at 11:20, so I had some time to explore the convention center and get some breakfast.  Seeing the banners and WotC's statues really increased the excitement level, as it was clear GenCon was finally here for me.

Trolls!

Love him or hate him, he was there

I dropped in to Scotty's for some brunch and to pick up my Wednesday die. I figured I wasn't going to get back there on Wednesday, so it was a good way to have a nice meal and check Daily Die Quest off my list. By that time it was time to head back to my car and drive to the airport. The airport featured more WotC advertising in the form of a huge 3D dragon display and Neverwinter ads on the monitors at the baggage claim. Yep, Wizards really spent some money to get their message out, and since the ads were cool I was really happy to see such a imposing presence. After picking up David, we headed back to the hotel and then out for some lunch at the food court. I also stopped by Will Call, since it was open at this point, and got my badge, tickets, and swag bag.

Scotty's Wednesday die

At this point there wasn't all that much to do in the remaining time for me, so I headed home for a bit to take care of the dogs and get some food. I had a significant amount of pizza left over from the previous night so that was a free meal I couldn't pass up. After that it was back down town and time for the fun to really start. Wednesday night is Critical-Hits Drinking Dungeons and Dragons (DD&D) night!

Airport GenCon Welcome from WotC

DD&D really set the tone for my GenCon experience. An amazing night all around. I met so many of my friends from twitter, I don't even feel like it would be right to attempt to name them all here. The night was like a who's who of the D&D world. In addition to many of the best bloggers and podcasters out there, a goodly number of the Wizards of the Coast employees responsible for the game and big name freelancers were there. Everyone was super nice, and it was great to just hang out and talk gaming. When the game itself got rolling, it was great to get to watch the masters in action (@Davethegame, @chattyDM, @Slyfourish and @SarahDarkMagic were the DMs). Without spoiling anything, the game consisted of 4 encounters/rounds. The first was relatively normal, and there didn't seem to be all that much drinking going on. The second round really took off when the roles of DM and player were effectively reversed and people really seem to enjoy this. By the time the third round rolled in, everyone was clearly having a great time. The final round was a sudden death round, but seemed to go well despite it being pretty late.

It was all I could do to roll back to the room and crash at that point. Technically the con hadn't even started yet, and I already had a great night. I hadn't even played a single game yet.

Construction in the hotels

Eight days...

I stopped by the Westin today to add my roommate to my room reservation so that he can get a key even if he arrives when I'm not there. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the lobby was mostly blocked off.  The business center too. They decided to start renovations this week. Not sure why, except that maybe they need to start now to make sure it's done before the Superbowl.  In any case, pick another hotel if you want to do some lobby gaming.

For those coming into town very early, expect some traffic and crowd at the airport.  The Brickyard 400 is this weekend, so there will be a lot of NASCAR fans in town. Downtown probably won't be too crowded, but be prepared for some possible minor delays.

Looks like they mean to finish the carpeting in the convention center. The new carpet line moved again last night, and there's only a day or two more of work left to complete the whole center.

Eight more days...

Yes, I'm going to Gen Con

It's all done.  While I handled it very poorly, I did get the final item in line to go to GenCon.  I will be there this year, and staying at the Westin. I'm going to take Wednesday thru Sunday off work, so I will probably be hanging out at the RAM with KFG on Wednesday, and stopping in to get my badge and check into my hotel at some point that day.  I've got 10 events in my wish list, and those are going to keep me plenty busy during the day, with time to socialize at night.  Looks like I'm not going to get a lot of time in the dealer's hall if I land tickets for everything, but that's probably for the best financially anyway.  I've got some D&D, Pathfinder, Hollow Earth, and Star Wars Saga lined up, as well as True Dungeon and TerrorWerks.  I guess I'll know if I'm overplanning in about 100 days. I'm really looking forward to meeting a lot of my gaming twitter friends there, and hopefully getting some game time in with you fine folks. While I've plotted this for 2/3 of a year now, it's hard for me to believe I'm actually going to do it.  Childhood dream, here I come....

It's January, time to think about Gen Con again.

The winter feels longer than it really is; the weather is bad and it's not a lot of fun to be outside. I've neglected this blog for a while, because reporting no news does not make for a very exciting read.  Now, however, we've reached January and that's Gen Con badge pre-order and housing time.

Yes...I have a 4 day badge for Gen Con 2011 and I have a room at the Westin downtown.  I really wanted to book the new J. W. Marriott, but it was a little more expensive and I can use the extra $40 or so to have more fun.  Ideally I'll just be in my room when it's time to sleep and clean up.  Overall cost for Gen Con should be about $1100.  I think I can swing that.  It'll be even cheaper for me if I can find a roommate, but I'm picky there.

D&D Encounters is almost at the end of the season.  I've been playing fairly regularly, and with one week to go in this season, I think I've had enough of the format for now.  It's served its purpose of getting me used to 4E while having a good time, but now I'm ready for full games with more than one encounter per session and more roleplaying opportunities between combat encounters.  Last week though, encounters did something for me that I didn't really expect...it gave my anti-D&D roommate a chance to see what the game was all about.

I've tried to describe how D&D plays to her in the past, but she just didn't really get the picture.  She kept wanting to pigeon hole the game in a boardgame shaped hole.  Out of nowhere last week, she announced that she would like to come watch me play.  After picking my jaw up off the floor, I gave her the address of the game store, and met her there.  Remember, this is the girl who is opposed to D&D for religious reasons.  I'd actually turned her to being open to at least checking the game out.

Naturally, it was the lamest session of the whole season.  The poor DM tried to make it fun, but the players were me, a 10 year old, his 13 year old sister and their mother.  None of them really wanted to be there that night, and play just suffered.  We had a TPK, which I felt was actually a merciful end to a bad session.  I thought that would probably end it for my roommate.  Fortunately, she picked up on the fact that the particular session sucked.  She got to see how the game plays from a mechanics point of view, and left with a much better understanding of the game.  Turns out it was still a positive thing for her to watch.  I think she accepts it a lot more now that she understands the game a little better, and this will make selling me spending money on Gen Con a lot easier.

Anyway, that's the news.  Now that we are moving back into con season and people are thinking about Gen Con again, I'll be posting a lot more I hope.  I've got a couple of  local eatery reviews lined up, and hope that will be valuable for those attending.