GenCon 2018

2018 GEN CON OVERVIEW

We flew in as scheduled, although we had been willing to take a bribe to be bumped to the next flight if necessary. Luckily, it wasn't necessary, and the weather held for us.

Alas, this wasn't true for everyone, including one of the folks at Reliquary Games, who wound up spending Wednesday night in the airport, which is even worse because it was her birthday. She'd arranged for a get together at Harry and Izzy's, which she couldn't make.

It was the first time Josh and I had tried that restaurant. The food was excellent, and the bread pudding was huge. I was nibbling on it for two days afterwards.

We had no problem checking in and letting our roommate in, and I went ahead to get my VIG Companion badge while she and Josh waited for the regular line.

Thursday, 2 August:

8am-Noon: Savage Worlds Kerberos Club: Anno Dracula

I almost missed this one as I wound up in the room next door, and it didn't occur to me to check the other room for about a quarter of an hour. The man who'd waited with me was an alternate, but the game was full, so he left, having figured that would be the case. As for me, the GM waved aside my apologies, saying that they'd only just begun to do in character introductions, so I was fine. He handed me a stack of characters, and I looked for something I could jump into quickly and not slow things down. I chose The Brute, a brick, and very much a Lisa Type when I'm either feeling either tired or need something I don't have to figure out. The game was delightful.

Noon-6pm: Shop, eat, prep for evening game, get to room for evening game.

That went as expected, and I showed up early to get my material, then headed to the VIG Lounge to refresh myself on the rules I'd need in play and to catch my breath. As Reliquary Games was running everything in the same room, all the material for all the games was in one place, so I was fine. I'm pretty sure this is when Peter Hildreth came in and we touched base briefly.

6pm-10pm: Run Clockwork: Dominion: In For a Penny

This went well enough, and I did another quick rules refresher for myself afterwards.

I think this was the night Josh and I did Games on Demand? It might have been Friday. We played Psi-Run, a game I had somehow never managed to play before. I now understand why folks like it. It's low prep and can be completed in a single session.

Friday, 3 August:

8am-Noon: I Was a Teenage Creature: A Wolf in Black Wool

This was my only game in the Lucas Oil stadium. While I'm glad I finally got there, I gather it was far more impressive last year when it was first used and so everyone decorated it. I was concerned about the noise, but as the GM assured me, it really wasn't a factor. The game pretty much does what it says on the tin, and I'm looking forward to the kickstarter.

Noon-1pm: Eat, prep for game, get to room for game.

Yep.

1pm-5pm: Run Clockwork: Dominion: In For a Penny

I skimmed the feedback forms from the two games I'd run. The worst anyone said was that occasionally, the rules weren't utterly clear, but they liked the pacing and someone in the second group loved the Downey Jr. Holmes-esque fight in the street, something for which I think the players deserve the credit. I did what all good GMs do: I got out of their way.

5pm-7pm: Maybe shop, eat.

7pm-9pm: Otherworldly Desires: Heartbreaks and Hard Choices

Josh joined us for this one, as we weren't sure if there were enough players. As it turned out, there were 7, counting him, from this game and another that got folded into it. It was a fun romp, and as a bonus, we got sent etext copies of both this scenario and characters and that of the one whose players got folded into this one.

Saturday, 4 August

8am-Noon: Night's Black Agents: Four Days of the Bat.

I got there on time, and discovered that one of the players was Justin Alexander, which was an extra bonus. We finished in roughly two hours, basically making no mistakes. I've got a better handle on it now, I think.

Noon-4pm: Grim War: A Tangled Web

Greg Stolze ran this one. We were chatting at the Arc Dream / Pagan Publishing booth, until he reminded me that I had a game shortly and asked me how that was for full service GMing.

This is the new edition of Grim War, and he's trying some interesting things. As a player, it was all fine; as a GM, I can't tell whether I'd like the rules because Greg runs a very smooth game. I rolled whatever dice were appropriate and looked for matches, and found my character reacting so strongly to the moral dilemma (at least, I considered it one; Greg indicated he hadn't been thinking of it that way) of the scenario that I'm wondering how much of that was it hitting a nerve, and just what nerve it hit. It's not the sort of thing likely to come up in anyone's real life.

4pm-8pm: King in Yellow: The Ghost of the Garnier

This was a scenario from the Paris 1890s era of Robin Laws's King in Yellow RPG, and it was delightful. And I assure you, we had a perfectly valid reason for tossing the corpse we'd stumbled over into the audience section of the theatre. Or at any rate, we had a reason. I'm sure whatever that reason was will come back to me at some point.

9pm-1am: Call of Cthulhu: The Gutter Bible Sunday, 5 August

This was an interesting one, with a modern setting and probably a lot more going on than I quite realized. I agree with the GM that the PCs' starting SAN scores are likely too high. I think some information needs to be more available at game start -- nothing plotty per se, just character information that I think most folks would know -- and I might tweak a few things to make the dominos start to fall faster and harder. But the core is solid, the game was fun, and the players were amazing.

Sunday, 5 August

9am-1pm: King in Yellow: The Night of Masks

Another Paris era KIY RPG game, this one run by Ruth Tillman. There were three players, and we were a tight group in a race against time to save Paris from the Pernicious Influence of a Certain Play. Instead of playing one of the artists, I played the muse -- not a magical creature, merely a woman whom artists tended to find inspiring.

Shop, eat, pack, sleep, and fly out in the wee hours of Monday.

Mostly good, though I had the foolish notion of trying to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant Ken Hite had said was good. This was foolish because it was far enough offsite to require a cab ride, and we compounded this folly by not phoning the restaurant. Had we done so, we'd have learned that it was hosting a private function. By the time we got back and had dinner, we knew we'd not get anyone for a pick up game.

What we should have done was kept Everdell set up in the lobby of our hotel, where it had been drawing folks' attention. Not sure how to merge that with dinner, but we'd have thought of something. That said, Josh noted we need to get a better idea of nearby inexpensive places to eat. We weren't sure food carts were still there on Sunday evening. Noodles & Co. was sadly closed, as there was some kind of issue with the water pipes. A nearby Thai place was closed on Sunday. Probably the thing to have done was takeout from Steak & Shake?

We did hang out in the Hyatt for a bit, but I kept falling asleep.

Monday, August 6

We got to the airport around 4am or so, and the Delta counter hadn't yet opened. I confirmed that curbside check in was available, and that there was no charge, just encouragement to tip, which we did.

We played games at the tables the airport set out for gamers. Josh roundly beat me and another man at Hey That's My Fish. I played particularly badly, though I'd likely have come in third regardless. We also played another game about trying not to get bug cards, and I was able to bluff Josh better than I'd expected.

I think we sat down in the plane, fell asleep, and woke up when we touched down.