GenCon 2007

Witch Hunter (ae194)

Lost Luggage (ae195)

Games on Demand: Primetime Adventures at speed (ae195)

Armageddon: The Rescue (ae195)

Full Light, Full Steam: Our Ship's a Saucy Beauty (ae196)

Last Night in Carcosa (ae196)

A Faery's Tale at GenCon 2007 (ae196)

GEN CON Write Up, Part I (ae 194)

Wednesday

Julian Lighton came over and crashed with us on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning, we got to La Guardia airport, and onto the tiniest plane we'd ever flown, smaller even than the usual small planes that go from NYC to Indianapolis. I'm fairly small, and I found the bathroom uncomfortable. It was far worse for Julian, who's tall. And, the bathroom door opened out, into the aisle, which meant that if anyone were standing between the seat and the door, that person would likely get bonked by the door.

We figure that about 75-80% of the people on the flight were heading for GenCon, and we wondered whether chartering a more comfortable plane might be viable. I've liked Northwest in the past, but I am getting tired of these cramped planes. Once we landed, we reclaimed our checked baggage, and we decided to splurge for a cab, rather than take the $1 bus. Well, it might be 2-3$. But, the bus stops at specific places, whereas the cab went right to our hotel, a Courtyard by Marriot, but not the nearer Courtyard by Marriot, rather, the one further from the convention center.

The woman at the front desk said that we were a bit too early to check into our rooms. We said that we could come back, and asked to check our bags. She said that there was no room to check it in the office behind the desk, but assured us that she'd keep an eye on it all. We agreed. I wasn't utterly thrilled when, shortly thereafter, she vanished for a couple of minutes, but I very much doubted anyone would take our stuff, nor did they.

We ate lunch. Then, we went back to the hotel, and checked in. Then, we went out again, and walked several blocks to a local supermarket at New York and Alabama. We schlepped stuff home. I napped for a bit, then ate a donut peach, which revived me. We headed downstairs and discovered complimentary lemonade and cookies. Mm. We made our way over to the convention center and discovered that Indianapolis is actually on Eastern Standard Time. I'd assumed, that, like Milwaukee, it was one hour earlier. Actually, it just hadn't done Daylight Savings Time, until this year. So, having set our phones back, we now reset them to EST. I dropped my Thursday morning game, recognizing that I wouldn't want to be awake for it.

We grabbed food at the mall, iirc. Johnny Rockets was out of ice cream. This was due to a supply chain problem; the staff were well aware that they were going to get a lot of folks from the convention and had ordered accordingly. The supplies arrived the following day, as promised.

We went to the Hyatt, where Josh and Julian played fnap last night, and then a 3 way Shadowfist game with Daniel. It was very hard fought. Josh won. We went back to our hotel and crashed for the evening.

We were all quite sure that D&D 4th edition would be announced on Thursday. There had been much hinting about a Big Announcement. It was the 40th anniversary of GenCon. The hotel keys we had were promo electronic keys, advertising 4D on them. And so on.

Thursday

Thursday was primarily a shopping day for me. Josh, Julian, and I went over to the convention center. Lizard, aka Ian Harac, spotted me and Josh. Lizard was daytripping the convention, with an empty suitcase, intending to fill it in the dealer's room and head home.

Now, I had A Plan. This plan was to wait until 10:20. twenty minutes after I thought the dealer's room would open, then head to the auction store, which also opened at 10, shop there, then head for the dealer's room, confident that the first mad rush had died down. Alas, there was a slight flaw in my planning.

The dealer's room did indeed open at 10 am, but only for exhibitors and people who had paid extra money to be VIP guests and get Special Privileges, like getting into the dealer's room before mere attendees like myself who had only paid the asking price. This in itself, while annoying, would not have been so bad. However, the hallway in front of the dealer's room was crowded. Josh and I tried to get through. I explained that I was not trying to cut anyone, merely to get to the auction store. Folks explained patiently that I could not do this. It wasn't that they objected; rather, there was a rope across the hall. Josh came back and confirmed this. I let him know that my mild claustrophobia was kicking in, and he steered me outside.

Once out of doors, we were able to enter from behind the roped off area and get to the auction store, passing the cardhalla area en route. The roped off area had to do with opening ceremonies, held near the dealer's room. You know, the place where folks are going to mass. But, hey, if you're at GenCon, you want to see opening ceremonies, right? You don't?

Well, I, at least, do not. Nor do I appreciate being trapped and having opening ceremonies inflicted upon me. Fortunately, I was able to hide inside the room with the auction store, and I was just fine waiting on line for that. The staff allow a limited number of people into the auction store at a time, letting people in as others leave. Josh joined a little later, reporting that, from where we were, he could hear the ear-splitting music and announcements at a much more reasonable volume, even if he couldn't quite see what was going on.

Josh actually bought more than I did in the auction store. I contented myself with White Wolf's 1st edition Mummy for $6. I'd read Stephen Tihor's copy, and discovered, as he said, that 1st edition was a delightful little supplement about a group of odd supernatural creatures playing their own game, one which had nothing to do with the vampires and werewolves, let alone the other races who had yet to get their own games. I don't know what 2nd edition Mummy is like. I've got 3rd edition, and have yet to read it, but a quick skim seems to indicate it's got much more cruft and is tied into the by-then developed WoD cycle of history, with all the flaws that entails.

We headed into the dealer's room around 11:30, and started with the various indie booths. Instead of one Forge table, there were several booths. The idea was that one could pick up a "passport", get it stamped at the various booths, then turn it in for a raffle drawing. I had no intention of doing that last, as I wanted my passport as a souvenir. I gather that one was supposed to have to do something for each stamp, but only one booth actually enforced that for Josh and me. One stop on the passport was the Art Show, which meant that this was the first year I saw the Art Show for more than 2 minutes. Another was Games on Demand, which I decided to save until last, to ensure I'd visit the Art Show.

As Doc Cross noted, the dealer's room was bigger than ever. Josh and I were boggled by the map's claim that many of the indie booths were in the Quiet Zone. How could any area of the dealer's room be considered quiet?

Well, in comparison to the area for electronic gaming and the area next to -that-, the Quiet Zone was, indeed, blessedly quiet. Josh and I visited the booths listed on the passports. I picked up a lot of loot at the main Forge booth, including Greg Stolze's Reign. In another of the indie friendly booths, I got Richard Iorio's American Gothic.

The one booth where we actually had to do something to get a stamp was the booth selling the Hollow Earth rpg. There, we were shown a series of character templates, complete with pictures, and asked which we thought would be the most enjoyable to play.

Josh: All of them, I'd hope.

They wouldn't take that answer, so Josh chose the Scion of Atlantis, and I chose the movie director.

After a while, Josh headed off to a game while I continued shopping. When I was done, I managed to get to my hotel, several blocks from the convention center, with all the loot, and without tripping down a flight of stairs, like I did at Origins. I'd taken the precaution of bringing my large knapsack, which helped a bit.

I headed back in a light drizzle that was still heavy enough for me to use my umbrella, got dinner, and looked for a game to generic my way into. I got into one of the many sections of Witch Hunter running in the evening slot.

(WRITE UP LINKED TO ABOVE)

After the game, I hooked up with Josh and Julian, and we all eventually got back to our hotel and crashed out until morning.

GEN CON Write Up, Part II (ae195)

Friday

(VICTORIANA GAME LINKED TO ABOVE)

After the game, I went back to the dealers' hall. I talked with Judd Karlmann about the game he's working on, 1st Quest. He's going to have to come up with a new name for it, I gather. Josh, Beth, Julian, and I tried a playtest which crashed and burned in some interesting ways, and, as I expected, Judd found the information useful. He was also very good at asking the right questions to remind me of parts of the playtest that I had forgotten.

I also found Greg Stolze and asked if he'd autograph my copy of Reign. "Just try to stop me!" he said.

I did the art show, carefully plotting a path that took me past all the other artists before getting to Keith Senkowski who had the Indie passport stamp.

(GAMES ON DEMAND PTA LINKED TO ABOVE)

I grabbed dinner and did not manage to generic into Runepunk, which may have been just as well, as the air conditioning for that room wasn't working well.

(ARMAGEDDON WRITE UP LINKED TO ABOVE)

On the way back to the convention center, I ran into Laura and Scott, a couple with whom I'd been in Delirium games at previous GenCon. Laura said that Changeling: The Lost, which we'd both bought, has a cool background and the usual WW problem: Anything could happen! Well, except it can't, because the character generation system produces cookie cutter results. What, you wanted effectiveness? Flexibility? Laura figures she'll lift what she likes and use the Deliria rules. I have now read Changeling. The background is even cooler that I'd though, but I agree that the mechanics aren't flexible enough.

Shortly after I reached the convention center, Josh won the Shadowfist Dueling Tournament. He earned the win, but I gather that the tournament suffered from being in the same room as players of the Austin Powers CCG. Part of the game apparently involves a lot of shouting lines from the movie, which is all well and good, but probably should not be in the same small room as something like Shadowfist. Julian moved the final duel out of the room, into the large, but much quieter, hallway. Josh and Braz King (really good Canadian Shadowfist player from Toronto) had to play all three games.

Julian noted that security was being annoying about checking for badges, and noted that the worst security job had to be the thankless task of guarding an out of the way roped off corridor that no one wanted to go down anyway.

GEN CON Write Up, Part III (ae 196)

Saturday

My morning game was Full Light, Full Steam.

(FULL LIGHT FULL STEAM WRITE UP LINKED TO ABOVE)

As I headed to the Dealer's Room, I heard jingling. Looking for the source, I saw a guy in medieval garb with bells on his leg. Later, I heard music and followed it to find a group called The Muses playing. One of them was this man, thus explaining the bells. They had a ton of instruments. I liked their music. A little girl was dancing to the music. The musicians said that they'd only play the clean songs they knew. GenCon special, I guess. On Sunday, I brought Josh over, and we started dancing. After they finished the song, the guy said that they'd play a dance tune, assuring us that what we'd danced to was not. So, we had to dance a second dance. Darn. Found their url: http://www.themusesmusic.com/

I asked Robin Laws for his pick of the convention, exclusive of his own stuff. Nothing had jumped out at him. He said it was a holding pattern this year, he and Ken Hite agreeing this was inevitable and sensible, given foreshadowings of D&D 4th. I also learned that Chaosium has not paid them for what they've done for the company in the past, so they aren't going to write for it again without cash on the barrel.

I cracked and got 2nd ed Victoriana. At some point, I picked up Esoterrorists, after chatting about it with Ken and Robin.

Julian told me that the Shadowfist players now had the first female winner of the multiplayer tournament.

The food court in the mall was giving bread away -- two loves of Sarah Lee bread to all takers. I don't know what the story was there, or why it was being given out to mallgoers, as opposed to, say, a homeless shelter, but I did take advantage of this. I headed to the Crowne, where the larp Last Night in Carcosa was scheduled. A woman on hotel staff was serving as food police to protect corkage. This was fairly unusual.

(LINK TO LAST NIGHT IN CARCOSA WRITE UP ABOVE)

I learned that the Crowne supposedly has Pullman car-like rooms, with themes. One of the gms who ran the larp told me that next year, 2008, half of convention center is being torn down, so there will be fewer events. By following year or so, the RCA dome will be torn down, and more meeting room space put in its place. In the interim, he said, the number of events at GenCon Indy will go down, and the gms less good about doing their paperwork will have their events cut first.

Sunday

When we'd arrived at the hotel on Wednesday, and the room was not yet ready, we were told to leave our stuff in the lobby, as the room in which stuff was checked was full. So, Sunday morning, I called and asked if there were indeed a room that locked in which we could check our stuff. I was told that there was.

However, when we actually went down, we were told that the room was too full, and that we should put our stuff in a meeting room. It was an unlocked meeting room. Josh and I squeaked very loudly about this and got the grease. That is, we loudly said that there was no way we were putting stuff in an unsecured room. The guy behind the front desk said okay, and he opened the locked room.

Lisa (startled): There -is- space?

Guy: Well, we have to put it there, since you insist, but as you see, there isn't much space. See, there is luggage here already and a lot of furniture, this being an office.

Nevertheless, our stuff fit in just fine, and it was still there when we returned. Not, of course, that putting a bag in an unsecured room mandates that it will be stolen But, it's not like putting a tag on a bag in an unlocked room magically prevents the bag from being stolen.

I played in A Faery's Tale, a short game that was just right for a low energy Sunday at GenCon.

(LINK TO FAERY'S TALE WRITE UP ABOVE)

Josh and I met Peter Hildreth briefly in the Dealers' Room, bought a little more stuff, and hooked up with Julian, grabbing lunch, going back to the hotel, getting our luggage, and going to the airport. There, Julian pointed to the "Game Room", a small place which is an arcade. This made us giggle.

It's way long after the fact, but I should probably write a letter of complaint to Northwest Airlines. From my blog:

So, we check our bags. Smooth. None over were 50 pounds, and my heaviest was 35.

At the gate seating area, a woman walked around putting tickets on stuff she decided needed to be gate checked. The plane was extremely small, and, according to her, people were bringing overweight bags on board.

Some folks thought she was being a petty tyrant. A couple may have been on the edge of rude, and she did play the "I can keep you off the flight, if you prefer" card, which is pulling out a really big hammer, probably bigger than warranted. No one was cursing her out, although they thought this was crap. She emphasized that this was for everyone's safety.

I said to Josh that I hadn't seen anything in the gate area citing a weight limit, just "if your bag doesn't fit in this, we suggest you check it" bin. Josh said there were posted signs about a 40 pound carry on limit.

Hm. In that case, I don't feel at all safe on Northwest flights any more. This woman eyeballed bags. She did not heft them. More to the point, there was no scale in the gate area. No one weighed the bags.

My carry on, including the one I had to check? Definitely under 40 pounds.

One guy emptied his ticketed backpack into a plastic bag. I saw what he had, and it was far lee than the bag they let me carry on. I think he was allowed to take the plastic bag on board. It's obviously lighter than anything in a backpack. That's sarcasm.

And there was no such policy on the flight from New York, or, at least, no one trying to enforce it on backpacks.

And, on larger planes, this doesn't seem to be an issue. If it is, again -- get out a scale and weigh my bag, please. And everyone else's.

If a larger plane truly doesn't have this issue, I want a larger plane. I am tired of the tiny planes Northwest uses for short flights. The plane that took us to and from Indianapolis is the smallest plane I have ever been on. Taller folks could not stand up in the bathroom. Heck, I felt cramped in there, and I am small. And, the door to the bathroom opens out, right into anyone waiting to use the bathroom.

If the real issue is that the luggage won't physically fit under the seat or in the overhead, let us try before making us gate check. Or have us use the "if it doesn't fit here" box, which one guy used to check the bag he'd been told must be checked. It fit.

If it really is weight, get a scale. Weigh the bags. Weigh all the bags.

I suspect some of use could have taken stuff on anyway. To some who said, "I'm sorry, but this bag stays with me", the woman said, "I'm putting a claim ticket on anyway, in case they say it has to be gate checked."

I think "they" meant the loaders. If so, and if it is the weight issue, some of us probably could have brought stuff on by checking with the loaders. Some may have. I just gate checked my bag, as instructed.

We landed in the rain. The flight to Indianapolis, on the same kind of plane, required us to go outside to board. The plane was too small to hook up to the usual tubelike corridor. Sure enough, we walked through the rain to the airport.

I asked where to get the gate checked bags. The woman I asked pointed inside. Ah, I thought, then this will not be like a similar flight on a slightly larger plane where I had to gate check a far tinier backpack, collect it on an uncovered cart in the rain, and then discover the zipper was busted, rendering the bag useless after that trip, as replacing a zipper costs as much as replacing the bag, even if all that is missing is the thing you pull to zip and unzip the bag.

Well, this backpack had no zipper. It was damp, however, and was on the ground, just outside the entrance to the building. This was a sheltered are; the dampness came from the unloading process. Oh, no one checked my claim check against the ticket. I asked if they needed to, but the guy said no.

But, hey, when we collected the bags we checked before going through the security point, I saw that the gate checked stuff had not been treated worse than the other checked bags. All our bags were damp.

I liked the nice lady on the flight who was always willing to refill drinks and who said she had been delighted to see all of us GenCon attendees who were in costume on Sunday night. She might well have seen me walking with my mask on a stick.

But, I am not well pleased with Northwest. The gate check policy is enforced arbitrarily, and with no attempt to check for the stated safety issue. I am considering whether I want to fly that airline again.