GenCon report

2038-01-19T03:14:07Z

Here's the report from GenCon 2009!

Wednesday: Up bright and early to the airport for the trip. I was amazed by a TSA employee that acted friendly! It really threw me for a loop. The plane rides to Indianapolis were uneventful. We arrived around 6pm, checked into the Westin, and got a free upgrade to a corner suite! After settling in, we went to the convention center, got our bags of swag. The swag was nearly non-existent, kind of depressing really.

Thursday: I decided to skip my 10am painting class in favor of checking out the opening ceremonies and the dealer room. The opening was the usual, but once in the dealer room, I headed over to the Paizo booth and saw a mad rush for the new Pathfinder RPG. The line was around the booth and extended beyond over to the end of the hall. Longest line in the dealer room, in fact.

After that madhouse, I went to the Call of Cthulhu Masters Tournament. It was a different format this year, only 2 rounds, 6 hours each, so I'm guaranteed 6 hours of game play. In past years, they'd have three rounds of 4 hours each. Anyway, the game was set in 1817 Quebec, and the investigators are fur traders, taking canoes up the river where we find many terrible things going on. Great fun, the Chaosium crew know a thing or two about running a good game.

After the tournament, we had dinner at White Castle (note: never do this), and went to a couple seminars, notably one on medeival cooking.

Friday: First thing was a short but informative seminar on improvisational game mastering, then a Runequest/Elric RPG. The game wasn't all that great, I thought the story was too open-ended for a 2-hour game. We spent a lot of time just discussing our course of action, having too many choices. Still, it was fun to learn the rules and I had never played this before. After that, I had a speed-painting competition (doing very poorly, I might add), and some more time in the dealer room. After dinner, we got suited up and went to a Steampunk Cthulhu LARP. Pretty good game, even if there wasn't a lot of steampunk in it, aside from our costumes. I got eaten by Atlach-Nacha, in its great web, after falling into a pit. About as well as could be expected.

Saturday: I find out I didn't advance in the Call of Cthulhu tourny, so my afternoon is light. First thing: True Dungeon with Barb. I think our group this year just wasn't that bright, because we consistently failed to solve puzzles, and several of us died before the final room. We managed to win, but since I got fried by a troll wizard, I didn't get a "True Dungeon Survivor" button. I think we're done with True Dungeon, it didn't seem that different from last year, and costs a lot to go. After that, I had an introductory Settlers of Catan game, where a helper showed us how to play. I was winning for about half the game, but failed to hold onto it, and came in third by the end. Great game, though, and I'll get myself a copy soon.

After that, I went back to my room and changed into my Masque of the Red Death costume, and went over to the Pathfinder RPG seminar. I told bigfootcountry I would be there in costume, but he must have forgotten and was properly creeped out by it, along with iuztheevil and lemuriapress. Always fun to freak one's friends out. After that, met with Barb (also in costume), got dinner and went on a walking tour of downtown Indy's most "haunted" areas. In roughly 1100 degree weather. Then: the GenCon dance, where it's time to be seen in costume, and even danced some.

Sunday: Final day of the Con is usually pretty mellow. I skipped another painting class, so I could spend all my time in the dealer room, and did some game demos, searched (and failed) to find some new t-shirts, and bought some games. From there, we went home via thunderstormy Chicago, which kept us an extra two hours. I actually managed to sleep most of the way home on the plane, amazingly enough.

And that's it! This is my first GenCon where I didn't take any painting classes. I think I'm done with those, and with True Dungeon, which should make next time's scheduling much easier. It's always a lot of fun, and every year is different. I'm spending more and more time now learning new games, and playing games. And costuming, now that Barb is with me.

And here is this year's photo album, enjoy....

The Redmond Menace

GenCon report