GenCon 2011

The Laundry: Case Goblin Willow (ae246)

Games on Demand: House of Cards Playtest (ae246)

Games on Demand: Love in the Time of Seid (ae246)

Amaranthine Demo (ae246)

Kerberos Club, Fate: In for a Penny Dreadful (ae248)

Call of Cthulhu: The Vengeful Dead (ae249)

Dresden Files: Minor Talents, Major Problems (ae249)

(from ae241)

Wednesday:

At 9 am, we got into a cab to La Guardia. At the airport, we decide to agree to pay an extra $50 apiece to do the airline (Delta, but I suspect all are this way) a favor by allowing it to move us from our crowded flight to an earlier, uncrowded flight. This, as Josh noted, is silly because we wouldn't have paid that extra money up front. But, we did like the idea of arriving earlier.

Despite my concern about timing, the airline and airport staff had things well in hand, moving those with earlier flights to a separate line. We landed and saw a ceiling sculpture that I declared was a Flumph Party! Then, we reclaimed our luggage and found the bus stop where we met Gail Gygax (Gary's widow) and were told that the bus was $7.50. This seemed a large jump from the last time we took the bus, but that turned out to be what the express bus cost. As the local came first, we took it, for $2.25 apiece, which was more in line with my memories from four or five years ago. (Last year, we took a cab because I insisted, having weaker knees.)

The bus trip did not take long, maybe forty minutes, and the bus let us off a longish block from the convention center. The heat was powerful, and the convention center a bit tricky to reach due to street crossing and construction interactions. But, the new JW Marriott was easy to reach, and it had a skywalk to the convention center. This let us walk the area from one end to the other, as we were staying in the Crowne Plaza. I was glad to have looked at the online video "walk through" of the Exhibit Hall, as most things were in a completely new part of the convention center.

The Will Call line was fairly short and well managed (although I gather that this was not always true during the convention). We soon had badges and tickets. Next, we checked into the Crowne Plaza. Our room had a view of the Pullman sleeper cars available as rooms for about twice what we were paying for a regular room.

We went to Steak and Shake, where we were joined by John, whose last name I forget, but he's been a booth rabbit for Looney Labs. He wasn't exactly sure where his hotel was, and it was the same one we stayed at last year. So, we walked him there. Then, we got bottled smart and vitamin water from CVS and searched for bread. Josh had the bright idea of checking Panera Bread in the mall, and we got a small sourdough and a honey wheat loaf. We then retired to our hotel and more or less crashed for the night, albeit with a couple of hours of being awake in between. Josh wasn't feeling great, but a night's sleep proved to be the cure.

Thursday:

We did breakfast at Steak and Shake, as it was not yet mobbed. The line moved oddly slowly, despite several empty tables, but we didn't have long to wait. Once at the convention center, Josh went to the video game room, while I got on the line for the auction store so as to avoid being too close to the Exhibit Hall at opening. I heard Peter Atkinson make the opening die roll of the convention. At the auction store, I did not find any copies of the Amber DRPG< but I located a copy of the Grindhouse edition of Lamentations of the Flame Princess and fanned a couple of sweating staff volunteers.

Then, I went into the Exhibit Hall. I had done research ahead of time, and, as is my new SOP for Gen Con and Origins, I went to specific booths, rather than attempting to do the entire hall first.

I started with Cubicle 7, Pagan Publishing, and ArcDream. All of these were in the same booth. Greg Stolze was there, and he took a picture of me as one of his Satisfied Stolze Customers. Cubicle 7's staff said that fifty copies of Airship Pirates would arrive on Friday, and that perhaps Shadows Over Scotland for Cthulhu Britannica / Call of Cthulhu would arrive on Sunday. Adam Scott Glancy was hoping that Pagan Publishing's collection of adventures for Call of Cthulhu, Bumps in the Night, would be out soon, and I did a sort of pre-order, which means that my card will not be charged until Pagan _knows_ the book is on its way.

I was restrained at the Adventure Retail booth, picking up The River Terror and Others (a monograph for BRPS with an adventure by Oscar Rios), Once Men (a CoC monograph), and two cool pairs of steampunk goggles that fit over my glasses. Well, okay, not both at once, but the other pair was for Josh. I picked up the Smallville High School Yearbook from the Margaret Weiss booth, and I got a free t-shirt.

At Pelgrane's booth, I saw Peter Hildreth, who was shopping, as well as Graham Walmsley, Ken Hite, Robin Laws, and Simon Rogers. I picked up Graham's Stealing Cthulhu and a collection of pulp Trail of Cthulhu Adventures, Out of Time. It has The Big Hoodoo and three others. I also asked about getting Robin Laws' ToC adventure, Repairer of Reputations, which currently only exists as a pdf, and Robin and Simon were happy to help.

I'd been told to visit TransNeptune and Outrider, two of the booths in Entrepreneur Alley. Outrider's games aren't to my taste, but I picked up Becoming Heroes from TransNeptune. Both TransNeptune and Margaret Weiss took customer edresses so that they could send pdfs of the game after the convention, at no additional cost to the customers. I have already gotten the one for Becoming Heroes. At the Green Ronin / Atomic Overmind booth, I got the revised edition of Unhallowed Metropolis, and I was told that Nicole could answer questions about it when she came to the booth.

At the Old School Renaissance booth, I donated to the Gary Gygax Memorial Fund for myself and Kevin Maroney, and picked up one copy of the book _Cheers Gary_. There were only two at the table, so I agreed to be put on the waitlist for a second copy. I spend more than I intended at the IPR booth, but I came away with a copy of Dungeon World for myself and one for a friend, as well as Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple, Dance of the Damned, and This Is a Dark Ride (a supplement for In Dark Alleys).

Then, I went to the Burning Wheel booth, where I bought Burning Wheel Gold, as I was astonished it was a mere $25. For some reason, I had thought it was $75.

Luke Crane: No, $25. It's not really made of gold. It isn't even gold plated.

I did look longingly after the boxed Mouse Guard, but I managed to resist both that and Freemarket.

At some point around here, I went to the UPS booth and shipped a package back to NYC. My body paid for all the heavy lifting I'd done up till then for the rest of the convention.

I dropped by the Machine Age booth to look at Amaranthine. This was a game that I'd heard about via email because I'd participated in the Haiti Relief Fund, where I'd gotten one of the company's other games. The email made the game sound right up my alley, but the online sample pages made it look like it was too much about powers and not enough about the interesting relationships between people and what one does when one knows one will live life after life, remembering previous lives.

By the time I reached the booth, though, I had to run after pricing the book, the flash drive of the book's rules, and the CD with a setting. It was time for my first scheduled game. I had only scheduled two, as we decided to go to Gen Con at the last minute, but I had twelve generic tickets and reasonable confidence that I could find games to use them on.

My 4 pm game was supposed to be Victoria (not to be confused with Victoriana), but the GM hadn't shown up fifteen minutes after start time, and, for me, this was something of a relief. The game was in the Crowne Plaza, so I went back to the hotel room where I met with Josh, and we went back into the Exhibit Hall and, among other places, back to the Machine Age booth.

There, we listened to the full sales pitch from the game's author. We both liked what we heard, so I bought the hard copy and the CD with the setting. After learning that the flash drive had the entire game on it, illustrations and all, I pondered buying it, but was told that there was no need. The company didn't exactly advertise this, but the CD with the setting also had the full rules. Machine Age believes in Creative Commons and thinks that the CD would not be terribly useful if the owner did not have the game rules, so the game rules are on the CD. And, if the owner does have the game rules, an extra pdf doesn't hurt. I like supporting companies with this attitude.

Josh headed off to a game, and I went to the Atomic Overmind / Green Ronin booth. I asked after Nicole and was told she was there. And, indeed, Nicole Lindroos was there, as was her daughter, and we had a pleasant chat. However, she did not know anything about Unhallowed Metropolis. That was co-authored by Nicole Vega, who really would be in the booth on Friday, no doubt causing much confusion among folks looking to talk to Nicole Lindroos.

I went to Games on Demand, where, as I understand it, there was a temporary lack of folks willing and available to run games. It was that point where at least two people who normally would have offered to do so really needed food. I went back to the room for a nap, and then I went to the Omni to try to get into a game.

The Airship Pirates game only had one free spot, and another gamer had arrived just before me. But, the Laundry game had a free spot, and I was quite happy to play that. The GM said it would likely run short, so he took one generic from me. If he had been wrong, he would have taken a second. I've decided that this would not have bugged me if I had a full price ticket for the event, as said ticket bought me the guarantee of a place (assuming the event went off).

"Case Green Willow" ran with a good blend of bureaucracy, potential backstabbing, and actual decent teamwork. A combination of insistence on avoiding danger where things could be done safely and good die rolls did indeed make things run early. It was a satisfying game.

Josh and I met up in the convention center and made an early night of things.

Friday:

We went to the Exhibit Hall and asked about Airship Pirates. 50 copies were due at 1 pm, and Gareth Michael-Skarka suggested I follow Cubicle 7 on Twitter, so I did.

Many of the dealers were using an iPad or similar device with an odd little box at the top for credit card purchases. This meant that they could email receipts, which I like. All of the record keeping, but no loose scraps of paper. And, Darren at the IPR booth said it made his post-convention bookkeeping much simpler and quicker.

It was occasionally a bit spooky, as the receipts had my location as of purchase time on them, and I was very surprised that Luke Crane's machine had my information already. He explained that this was because he shared with the GPA / IPR booth.

But, as we all know, technology does not always work smoothly. Simon Rogers had emailed me Thursday evening because there'd been some trouble running my card through. As Pelgrane does not save credit card information, he asked that I either email the information, scrambled and in more than one email, or come by the booth. After confirming that this wasn't Chase flagging a Suspicious Purchase and that Simon wasn't currently in the Crowne, I told him I'd come to the booth.

So, Josh and I went to the Pelgrane booth. Simon thanked me for coming back, and, as the card was run again, asked if I wanted hard copy of any of Graham Walmsley's Purist scenarios that were available. I recognized that this was meant as a thank you, but I had already purchased those (and worth every penny, too). He offered me Skullduggery. I did some mental math, and asked if I could take the Trail of Cthulhu Keeper Screen instead, the only ToC product I didn't currently own, and priced in line with what he'd been offering.

Simon agreed, and, as Josh and I went back to the Machine Age booth to ask after Amaranthine demos (Saturday noon, when I could be free, but when Josh would be in the Shadowfist tournament) and then to meet Ian Harac (aka Lizard) and his wife Beth for lunch, I said, "I just scored free product for not being a dick, didn't I?"

Josh agreed. I started to be mildly boggled. As I told Ian, yes, intellectually, I comprehend some people wouldn't have come back, but, while I don't consider myself a paragon (I don't have enough levels yet), it really hadn't occurred to me not to complete the transaction to which I had already agreed. The stuff just didn't feel like mine until then.

Ian said that it wasn't only that it wouldn't occur to him or to me not to go back to pay because we have ethics. It was also that we _know_ these people. Pelgrane isn't some faceless company to me. It is Simon and Graham and Robin. I know them all. ArcDream is Shane and Benjamin and Greg. Cubicle 7 is Andrew and Sarah and Gareth. Pagan Publishing is Adam Scott Glancy. Adept is Ron. Burning Wheel is Luke and Jared. IPR is Darren and Jason.

It is not "these are my friends", not if one is using the term to describe a degree of closeness that one simply does not have for a large number of people. Some are, sure. Some are acquaintances or closer than acquaintances, but not as close as friends. But, I know them all. This is one of my clans.

After lunch, Josh and I returned to the Exhibit Hall in time to get on line for a copy of the Airship Pirates RPGS. While we waited, Josh wrote a filk about waiting for the game to the tune of the song of the same name. We got a copy and met William Reger.

Then, we tried to make sure to hit all of the parts of the Exhibit Hall we'd previously missed, including the authors and artists. The art show was in the middle of the hall, as opposed to the side. The artists were generally more relaxed than the authors, but even most of the authors were relaxed enough not to try a hard sell.

Nicole Vega was at the Atomic Overmind / Green Ronin booth, and she was able to answer my questions about Unhallowed Metropolis. Yes, it has new material, including an index. And, she gave me a hint about what is going on with the Blight. The Blight is probably the facet of the game world that most confused me, as it seemed to indicate that the world was doomed. The situation is more complicated than that, and I think I have an idea of where the game is going with it. I hope to find out for sure.

We looked at Geek Chic's lovely, but expensive game tables, including the seventeen thousand dollar one that acted like a touchscreen with magnification. I picked up one of the five hour energy drinks that were being given away by the company that makes them. I was told they had as much caffeine as a cup of coffee (true) and that there was no crash after effect (not true).

We left the Exhibit Hall and got into a playtest of House of Cards at Games on Demand. Mike Holmes played as well. The creator is Neal Stidham. (Confusingly, there's another game called House of Cards, by Eric J. Boyd.)

After, we chatted with Morgan Ellis about players who have no answer when asked, "So, what is your character doing?" even though it's clear that the GM is going around the table asking for actions. This is specifically a problem for convention games, where one doesn't usually have the luxury of enough time to coax someone out of a shell.

Josh said that the answer is for the GM to say, "Okay, I'll get back to you." This is not, he conceded, a Nice answer, but he thought it was the best available. He also noted that there are some players who enjoy being tourists. That is, they're quite happy until the GM asks them what their characters are doing, at which point, they become less happy.

Then, we decided to do the Crowne Plaza's restaurant for dinner. Morgan bowed out, which proved wise, since the restaurant seemed overcrowded and understaffed to the point where no one had time even to tell us whether we could expect to be able to eat there soon. I hit the "too hungry to process food options rationally" stage, so Josh steered us outside. We decided our goal was McCormick and Schmick, but we checked other places en route. St. Elmo's was too crowded, but Ruth Chris could seat us right away. We did shrimp and steak, with a fruit topped creme brulee for dessert.

Folks from Z-Man games also ate at Ruth Chris that night. I went over to Zev to congratulate him on his win. He sold Z-Man Games for a lot of money, and he still gets to do the design work he enjoys for it.

We had missed a rainstorm while eating. Josh went back to the convention center, and I returned to Games on Demand, where Jason Morningstar placed me into a game of Love in the Time of Seid, which he correctly figured I would like. When I started to doze, I sipped at the energy drink. I had about half of it, and was pleased to see that I was no longer sleepy.

I met Josh at the convention center, then went to cash in my refund for Victoria and return my ticket for a 10 am game I didn't plan to make (Ashen Stars). While doing that, I asked if Morgan Ellis's 2pm Saturday Kerberos Fate game had any openings, on the off chance someone had returned a ticket for this sold out game. It turned out there were two openings , so I took one. Josh finished demoing a game for Renee Alper, and we returned to our hotel.

Saturday

I felt hideous when I woke up, but gradually got back to what passes for normal on a Saturday at Gen Con. Ken Hite pointed out to me that a cup of coffee has more liquid than the energy drink, and thus dehydrates one less.

Josh went to his tournament and I returned to the Exhibit Hall. Shadow Over Scotland, a Cthulhu Britannica product for Call of Cthulhu, had arrived at Cubicle 7, so I picked up a copy. It's big! I congratulated various ENnie winners. As folks may already know:

Fiasco took the Diana Jones Award. Dresden Files took a Gold ENnie in all categories in which it was entered and Pathfinder was not. In categories where Pathfinder and Dresden Files were entered, Dresden Files took the Silver.

Pathfinder took Gold in every category in which it was entered except for one where it took both Gold and Silver.

Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity took a Silver for Best Writing (Dresden Files got the Gold) and Best Adventure (Pathfinder took the Gold). This is especially amusing because there are no adventures in Targets of Opportunity, as Adam Scott Glancy pointed out.

Me: Given some adventures I've read [not from Pagan products], I can see a situation where no adventure would be better.

Adam Scott Glancy (with both sympathy and empathy): I feel your pain.

I confirmed that the Call of Cthulhu adventure he'd be running that evening was indeed Generics Only, giving me a chance of getting into it. That had not been his intention, he said, but he'd misunderstood the guidelines, and was standing by / stuck with the results.

I talked to the folks at Eclipse Phase's company's booth. One of the two women I spoke to (and, yeah, it gives me a kick that both of the knowledgeable people at that booth were women like me) said that, just based on the short chat we had, she thought I should go to the Machine Age booth and ask about Amaranthine. I laughed and said I was heading that way for a demo of it.

I did tell the man running it that I could only do a brief demo, as I wanted to leave a full half hour to reach JW Marriott from where we were in the convention center. This left an hour for the demo by the time we found space. Apparently, that isn't enough for character generation -- but he had five pregens, and there were four players total (not counting him -- this is a game with a GM). The demo was fun, and I liked the mechanics I saw. I said not to stop just because I was leaving, and they were willing to take me up on that.

I was not being paranoid in leaving as much time as I did. I missed the optimal path and, after getting lost, managed to go the long way, which did not involve going outside in the rain, but did involve crossing a parking garage. Morgan arrived a couple of minutes later. He had a total of four players, one with generics. We'd started with five, but one wasn't feeling well, so bowed out.

It was good to play Kerberos Club after playtest nitpicking it. The adventure was delightful. Afterwards, I said a quick hello to Mike Olson, glad finally to meet him in the flesh. He was running a game, of course, so I headed back to the convention center. This took a little less time than before, as I didn't miss the passage that led directly to the convention center and didn't go through the parking garage.

I continued from there to the Crowne, where Adam Scott Glancy was getting set for his 7 pm game. He said that he could run for 7, and would do this on a first come, first serve basis. I was the eighth person to reach the room, but the person we thought was the sixth was actually there to set up recording equipment, so I got in. There were sixteen people when Adam Scott Glancy arrived, as we all figured we wanted to see the look on his face, even if we didn't get in.

The scenario he ran, "Vengeful Dead", will appear in the hopefully forthcoming Bumps in the Night, from Pagan Publishing. We didn't finish the scenario, despite running as over as folks were willing. This was no fault of Glancy or the scenario; we simply spent a lot of time on character interactions, many of them hilarious to the players, if not to the PCs. Okay, part of it was Glancy's fault, as he did make sure to point out the comedic potential of a closet that was shared between two rooms. Sure, it could be locked from either side, but it could also be left unlocked, accidentally or on purpose.

I also learned that it's harder to keep from bursting into inappropriate laughter in a tabletop than in a larp. In a larp, folks are more committed to staying in character the whole time, but in a table top, they're quite likely to laugh or praise scenes they're not in.

Josh and I met up in our room, then went to meet folks at the Ram. Alas, we'd missed both the deadline for ordering food and the email asking what the others should order for us. We went to Oriental Noodles to rectify the food situation, then back to the Ram, arriving in time for last call. I stuck to water, as, by then, I was feeling generally crappy, likely due to being run down. A bath and some sleep did help.

Sunday:

Josh went to play more Shadowfist. I went to Games on Demand to play a Fate game. Morgan Ellis, who was running it, had not planned to make it Dresden Files, unless someone Really wanted it, and one of the others did. This player also needed to leave around noon, so Morgan ran "Major Problem, Minor Talents" at speed. While I'm sure I would have enjoyed the four hour version, there was something to be said for the two and a half hour concentrated version. We also had good group chemistry -- before we'd even started the first scene, as we were just figuring out group dynamics, Morgan said, "Thank you all for being awesome."

I made my way to the Exhibit Hall, and Josh and I made our last minute purchases and said our goodbyes. We got into a cab and made our way to the airport.

We noticed that the TSA staff seem to have gotten additional training. The last couple of trips, we were each addressed by name, and the TSA person seemed to be paying attention to how we reacted. Josh was a bit disgruntled that he was "Mr. Kronengold" and I was "Lisa" this time, but did not feel the need to complain about it, and neither did I.

We finally had the choice between the insufficiently tested machines and the pat down. Now, the machines might well be safe -- the walls were clear, which I'm told means it's not using X-rays -- but we weren't sure, so opted out.

The people patting us down were polite and professional. Our possessions were never out of our sight. Heck, thanks to the way the public pat down areas were set up in this airport, we were never out of each other's sight. We were told exactly what would happen, and there were no unpleasant surprises. The most disturbing aspect of the situation was that I am already getting used to this level of security.

On the airplane, someone decided to give the stewardess a hard time about the instruction to turn off his laptop. She stayed polite and at no time attempted to touch him or his laptop. Indeed, she said that if he wanted to use the laptop, the plane would go back to the gate where he could use it to his heart's content. But, the plane isn't allowed to take off until all the electronic devices are off.

I suppose he must have turned it off, as the plane did take off. The stewardess asked her male coworker if she'd been rude, and those of us overhearing this assured her that she had not. I have seen airport staff on a power trip, and she was not such a staff member.

It is possible that the rule about electronics is unnecessary. But, this is not for the stewardess to decide, and this is not a Nuremberg situation. And, given that this was not a Cry to Action from the passenger (ignoring whether such would be at all appropriate), all it accomplished was slowing down the flight a bit and making a woman who seemed to be a decent person and a professional feel shitty. This is Not Cool.

On the brighter side, we were sitting across the aisle from Tom Doherty of Tor Books. I know him slightly, and was vaguely wondering if I should say hello. Instead, he said hello to me. He confirmed that he'd been at Gen Con, and said that he had some authors involved in projects with RPG tie ins. I don't know who all of them are, but I do know that one is Brandon Sanderson, author of the Mistborn books.

When the plane landed, we retrieved our luggage. I didn't love the idea of going up and down stairs in the subway, but we started by taking a bus to where both our subway line and a bus that paralleled it ran. We decided to make a detour to a Korean restaurant we'd never tried. Then, we waited for the bus for about twenty minutes before deciding we'd be better off walking the mile or so home. My knees were still bothering me from the initial run to the Exhibit Hall, but they were fine on a straight walk.

One woman asked if she could walk with us, as she was uncomfortable walking home alone. We agreed, and we walked with her for the five or so blocks before she reached her neighborhood. I'm mildly amused that we look normal enough to be considered a good escort.