GenCon 2007

Witch Hunter (ae194)

Lost Luggage (ae195)

Games on Demand: Primetime Adventures at speed (ae195)

Armageddon: The Rescue (ae195)

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.