Gen Con 2007 Report, Part 5: Sunday

Last month I attended a gaming convention known as Gen Con. The following is my recap what happened on Sunday, my last day there.

:: SUNDAY

After I settled the bill with the hotel I had breakfast with BYOV guys. I really appreciate the effort Jay put into letting us share the room with a BYOV game master. Everybody was tired. I was a little sad that it was over.

Squash and I headed back to the vendor hall for one last pass and to say our goodbyes. I talked to folks at Kayuda Maps. They are producing a advertisement-driven map editing web site for fantasy gamers. When they mentioned that they told me they planned to add icons to represent items on their maps, I asked them if they considered using icons that professionals working the logistics industry use. They had not considered it, but seemed open to the idea.

I watched a patron demo a MMORPG called Age of Conan. The game was gorgeous. But it is definitely for mature players. I wonder if this will limit the success of the game when it hits the market in late October.

I bought a copy of Kill Dr Lucky from the Paizo Publishing booth. I have not yet played this game but I look forward it.

Signgirl and I love to play Fluxx. I noted that Looney Labs plans to publish Zombie Fluxx in early October.

That wraps up my recap of Gen Con. Once again I had a good time. It was over too quickly. If you enjoy gaming, you and your family should consider attending next year's convention which will be held August 14-17, 2008. Watch the Gen Con website for information on how to register for games early next year. Or better yet, check out the Gen Con Community Forums.

Gen Con 2007 Report, Part 4: Saturday

Gen Con Indy happens every year sometime in August. This is my recap of Saturday, my fourth day there and the last full day of this year's convention.

:: SATURDAY

I completed the Mayfair Games Ribbon Quest. It worked like this. For every Mayfair Game you demoed in the vendor hall or attended in one of the game halls they gave you a badge ribbon. The badge ribbons were different colors and read "Ore", "Wood", "Sheep", "Clay" and "Grain", one each of the resources found in the Settlers of Catan game. When you collected all five you received a Knight of Catan ribbon, a Catan-related goodie and a coupon good for 50% off of a Mayfair Game of your choice. I bought the Kids of Catan game to play with Signgirl and her son D, who loves the game.

While I was there I also picked up a copy of Patrician. It is a well-balanced game of tower building that I enjoyed playing with Squash, Brian and Mike.

I helped Squash with his ribbon quest by demoing another game. We played Shear Panic. It is a cute game that involved maneuvering sheep for the most points while preventing your neighbor from getting his points.

Cpt Squash and I went to our next event, the Amazons LARP. Once again I crossed gender lines to play a Amazon magic user. The character who really the actress Lucy Lawless in disguise and did not have any magical abilities. So my goal was to keep my disguise and not to draw attention to myself. A ceremony was planned at which my character was supposed to perform real magic. Fortunately events unfolded so that I was able to meet my goals.

My last game was Crafty Games' Ten Thousand Bullets LARP. I was a little apprehensive that a LARP set in a prison would not be very much fun. They did some interesting things with the game. To start with they put us in "cells" which were a series of chairs arranged in small groups. If you wanted to talk to a prisoner in another cell, you have to go to imaginative lengths to keep the conversation private. One player wrote messages on paper and threw it when the players playing the guards had their backs turned. My character had an escape plan that kept me engaged in the game until the very end. I enjoyed this game a lot more than I thought I would.

Squash and I met up with another gamer buddy and his female friend and went back to the RAM. We hung out at the RAM for a while talking about the past week. We discovered that our buddy's friend had her Masters in Mathematics. When I told her I had considered going back for a Master degree, she encouraged me to pursue it. It really made me consider my decision not to commit myself to getting an advanced degree.

I dropped by Mike B's room party. It was hot and cramped in there. I met a gamer who lives not more than twenty miles from the town in which I grew up. Small world! I didn't stay long and left to get some sleep.

Gen Con 2007 Report, Part 3: Friday

Every year for the past six years I have attended Gen Con. What follows is my recap of Friday, my third day there.

:: FRIDAY

I had lunch with Jay of BYOV, Cpt Squash and other members of the Atomic Squash gaming club. We went to an Italian place named Buca Di Beppo. I recommend it highly. We got a laugh when Brian made a big deal about his serving of lasagna was smaller than his buddy's lasagna. So somebody mentioned it to the waitress who in turn summoned the manager. Brian was very embarrassed. Of course we gave him a hard time about it.

I found myself with time to kill before my next game. So I went to the convention center and checked out the Gen Con Auction. I bought an auction card and watched for a bit. They were auctioning off items from some obscure role playing systems and later cards from collectible card games. I walked over to an area they had set up with used games and related items at a fixed price. It can best be described as a garage sale for gamer stuff. I found and bought A Merry Kobold Christmas, a campaign I did not have for the Kobolds Ate My Baby roleplaying game.

Next I walked though the miniature painting area. I keep meaning to try the paint and take when I am there. Ah well, another time. I went to the vendor and demo some games at the Mayfair booth. First I tried Age of Discovery. The game had a lot of little pieces and took a long time. The worst part of the game was at the very end you could affect your score with a multiplier that was not easy to understand.

There was a giant-sized Kragmortha board game set up. I was pleased to see another Atomic Squash gamer and his family join the game. While the game was interesting, it quickly became boring. In a way it reminded me of the late Gregory Horror Show game.

I played a quick game of Elk Fest. Do not call it Elk Hunt. Shame on you. The game has a simple mechanic. Your elk must pass from one ice shelf to another by using stones that you flick into place on your turn. If you fall off the stones you must start back from the beginning. It plays quickly and can be entertaining, especially if somebody else is bumping the table.

The last game I demoed was Hey! That's My Fish!. In this game players are penguins was move around a grid of cards. The trick is that once you land on a card it is removed when you move off of it. In this way you can strand other players on their own ice floes. This is a type of game where you get to mess with the other players. The rules were easy to learn. I really enjoyed this game.

I spun by the Mongoose Games booth. I learned that they did not yet have the Spycraft World on Fire. That was disappointing. This is the system on which we based this years Spycraft LARP

I bought a copy of Kobolds Ate My Baby Deluxe Hard Cover for Signgirl. She promised to help me write a new Kobolds LARP. I am so excited to have her assistance! She had some great ideas that helped me spice up the characters for the aforementioned Spycraft LARP.

Lastly I picked up Gloom, a card game from Atlas Games. Squash tells me it is fun game. I cannot wait to play it.

I went to my scheduled game, the Harry Potter LARP. This year's game focused on the students of the Slytherin house. A player or two took this game too seriously. C'mon now; it is a game. Lighten up and have a good time. If you feel you did not get the character you wanted, you should not make all of us listen to you whine about it.

Tom J, the game master, talked me into playing the game again this year after my sour experience last year. Mission successful! I enjoyed the game.

This video features Slate's take on gamers. There are quite a few scenes from the Harry Potter LARP including an interview with Tom J the Snape-looking game master and Henwy playing the evangelist.

Gen Con 2007 Report, Part 2: Thursday

During the third week of August I returned to Indianapolis for my sixth Gen Con. While not everything went off without a hitch, I am choosing not to dwell on those things. What follows is my recap the first full day at the convention.

:: THURSDAY

Thursday is the first full day of Gen Con and the official start. The vendor hall opens at 11 AM to the masses. I slept in this morning and had lunch so I missed the giant nerd herd of gamers who storm the vendors looking to be the first to get their hands on the shiny new games and demo this year's latest and greatest offerings.

The vendor hall was massive this year. There are thirty rows inside where in years past there were twenty two. Most noticeable for me are the companies that were absent. Chaosium was not at Gen Con this year.

The big news was the announcement by Wizards of the Coast of the long rumored Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition. That was more exciting than their sad attempt at social networking called Gleemax. Is this is their way to reach out to the role playing community after booting non-Wizards games from the RPGA?

Signgirl and I have been playing Magic: The Gathering lately. So I stopped at the Dave and Adam's Card World booth and bought two boxes of Magic cards. Come to find out they were in Chinese! Fortunately they later let me exchange the one unopened, sealed box of cards for credit toward the English version. Signgirl is selling the opened box on eBay for me. Any takers for Chinese Magic cards?

My first game was the Torchwood LARP. Torchwood is a British sci-fi series that is best described as a combination of X-Files and Angel. In our game I played a military leader who was illegally running a black market operation out of the Cardiff base of operations. I had the best time with this group of players. Everybody was played their parts superbly. I reveled in my role of troublemaker as I set up distractions for anyone who got to close to my operations.

Next Cpt Squash and I played in a Fey LARP loosely based on the writings of Laurell K. Hamilton. Fey are fairy folk. Theirs is a world of acrimony that rivals the Vampire: The Masquerade or the writings of Anne Rice.

I played a female assassin who was a human monk. My role was to assassinate the visiting Pope. This was not my last trans-gender roleplaying at the convention. Fortunately, the female players were terribly offended by the way I choose to play my character. I did get an education on the sisterhood of shared governance which I mistakenly called a cabal.

Here is my only picture from the Fey LARP. Mar was showing off the pirate puppet he bought earlier that day. This picture makes me smile.

Gen Con 2007 Report, Part 1: Wednesday

This year was my sixth year attending Gen Con. It is a large annual gaming convention attracting over 25,000 attendees. What follows is my recap of the first of the five days at the convention.

:: WEDNESDAY

I met my buddy Captain Squash at his place. We loaded into his vehicle and headed out. On the way we listened to several podcasts. The first was Fear the Boot. We listened to their recap of this year's Archon including coverage of the R-rated Furry panel. They ask an interesting question: who invited the anthropomorphic fetishists into the gaming subculture?

Next we listened to an episode of Diggnation, a show where two guys that used to be on TechTV talk about the top stories posted on the digg.com social bookmarking news site. Basically these guys sit around drinking beer and riff on new articles. It is pointless really but they did use the words "poon palace" which made Squash and I laugh.

Lastly we listened to an episode of This Week in Tech hosted by Leo Laporte, another TechTV refugee. I quickly got bored with the endless prattle about Apple's iPhone. I wonder what Laporte thinks of Apple announcing that they will cut the price of the iPhone by $200 just two months after introducing it to the market. Suckers!

Thanks to Jay of BYOV we stayed at The Hilton this year. The room was nice. Even though the hotel is not one of the ones attached to the convention center by the skywalks, or hamster tubes as we like to call them, it is decent place to stay during Gen Con.

Cpt Squash ran off to watch a minor league baseball game. I wandered down to the RAM to see if I could get into a session of Wednesday Gaming there. The meeting room was packed wall-to-wall. While I was bummed that I couldn't find a game, I was pleased to see that Wednesday gaming was popular. I bought a mug from the RAM while I was there and left for the convention center to pick up a swag bag.

Later Cpt Squash and I made our way to the Fourth Annual Gen Con Forum Stink, a gathering of regulars who frequent the Gen Con online community forum. When we arrived they gave us a bag of swag -- free promotional items and other stuff.

They had a passport game as an icebreaker. They had several categories such as "Veteran Stinker", "Attended 10+ Gen Cons" and "Played True Dungeon". When you found a player that matched a category you could ask them to place a sticker in your book. I ran into a bunch of old friends and met some new ones.

After the Stink several of us wandered over to the RAM. Since it was packed, we decided to trek to Rock Bottom instead. I have to say it was just as fun as the RAM. They had specials on drinks. Squash and I tried a sampler of their beers. They were good. The consensus was that Rock Bottom may become the new Wednesday Post-Stink place in the future.

We left there to go to a place that had karaoke. After listening to somebody massacre Creed's "Arms Wide Open" I had a massive headache. I took some Tylenol and hung out until our buddy Otter took her turn at the mike. She blew everyone away and ended up taking home a cash prize for placing in their karaoke contest.

The 100 Best Meme

Since I have been back from Gen Con real life obligations have colluded to prevent me from posting the planned Gen Con recap blog entries. Or, maybe it was the mullet I borrowed from Kentucky Fried Gamers. My IQ dropped the moment I put it on and has not yet recovered.

Currently the internal network is down at work leaving me with a moment to crank out a quick entry.

One of the cool things I missed at this year's Gen Con was Green Ronin's Hobby Games: The 100 Best book. The following meme lists the hobby games found in the book and asks the blogger to indicate their level of personal experience.

Boldface if "I own this game."
Italics is "I have played this game."
Italic and Bold are "I both own and have played this game."

Bruce C. Shelley on Acquire
Nicole Lindroos on Amber Diceless
Ian Livingstone on Amun-Re
Stewart Wieck on Ars Magica
Thomas M. Reid on Axis & Allies
Tracy Hickman on Battle Cry
Philip Reed on BattleTech
Justin Achilli on Blood Bowl
Mike Selinker on Bohnanza
Tom Dalgliesh on Britannia
Greg Stolze on Button Men
Monte Cook on Call of Cthulhu
Steven E. Schend on Carcassonne
Jeff Tidball on Car Wars
Bill Bridges on Champions
Stan! on Circus Maximus
Tom Jolly on Citadels
Steven Savile on Civilization
Bruno Faidutti on Cosmic Encounter
Andrew Looney on Cosmic Wimpout
Skip Williams on Dawn Patrol
Alan R. Moon on Descent
Larry Harris on Diplomacy
Richard Garfield on Dungeons & Dragons
William W. Connors on Dynasty League Baseball
Christian T. Petersen on El Grande
Alessio Cavatore on Empires in Arms
Timothy Brown on Empires of the Middle Ages
Allen Varney on The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Phil Yates on Fire and Fury
William Jones on Flames of War
Rick Loomis on Fluxx
John Kovalic on Formula De
Anthony J. Gallela on The Fury of Dracula
Jesse Scoble on A Game of Thrones
Lou Zocchi on Gettysburg
James Wallis on Ghostbusters
James M. Ward on The Great Khan Game
Gav Thorpe on Hammer of the Scots
Uli Blennemann on Here I Stand
S. Craig Taylor, Jr. on A House Divided
Scott Haring on Illuminati
Dana Lombardy on Johnny Reb
Darren Watts on Junta
Greg Stafford on Kingmaker
Lester Smith on Kremlin
Wolfgang Baur on Legend of the Five Rings CCG
Marc W. Miller on Lensman
Ted S. Raicer on London's Burning
Teeuwynn Woodruff on Lord of the Rings (boardgame)
Mike Breault on Machiavelli
Jordan Weisman on Magic: The Gathering
Steve Kenson on Marvel Super Heroes (Jeff Grubb version)
Gary Gygax on Metamorphosis Alpha
Greg Costikyan on My Life with Master
John D. Rateliff on Mythos
Chris "Gerry" Klug on Napoleon's Last Battles
John Scott Tynes on Naval War
Erick Wujcik on Ogre
Marc Gascoigne on Once Upon a Time
Mike Bennighof on PanzerBlitz
Steve Jackson on Paranoia
Shannon Appelcline on Pendragon
JD Wiker on Pirate's Cove
Richard H. Berg on Plague!
Martin Wallace on Power Grid
Tom Wham on Puerto Rico
Joseph Miranda on Renaissance of Infantry
James Ernest on RoboRally
Paul Jaquays on RuneQuest
Richard Dansky on The Settlers of Catan
Ken St. Andre on Shadowfist
Steven S. Long on Shadowrun
Peter Corless on Shadows over Camelot
Dale Donovan on Silent Death: The Next Millennium
Matt Forbeck on Space Hulk
Ray Winninger on Squad Leader
Lewis Pulsipher on Stalingrad
Bruce Nesmith on Star Fleet Battles
Steve Winter on The Sword and the Flame
Jeff Grubb on Tales of the Arabian Nights
Shane Lacy Hensley on Talisman
Douglas Niles on Terrible Swift Sword
Ed Greenwood on Thurn and Taxis
Mike Fitzgerald on Ticket to Ride
Thomas Lehmann on Tigris & Euphrates
Warren Spector on Tikal
David "Zeb" Cook on Toon
Mike Pondsmith on Traveller
Zev Shlasinger on Twilight Struggle
Kenneth Hite on Unknown Armies
Sandy Petersen on Up Front
R. Hyrum Savage on Vampire: The Eternal Struggle
George Vasilakos on Vampire: The Masquerade
Kevin Wilson on Vinci
R.A. Salvatore on War and Peace
Jack Emmert on Warhammer 40,000
Chris Pramas on The Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Steve Jackson on The Warlord
John Wick on Wiz-War

Clearly I have more gaming to do! I will attempt to post the recap entries later this week.

Gen Con Indy 2007 Schedule

Friends, it is time for Gen Con. I will be there from sometime Wednesday afternoon to Sunday morning. As I type this I still don't know in which hotel I'll be staying or what time I'll be arriving.

So, who's going? Give me a shout out if you see me, even if I am zoned out in my own world. I *love* to hear the words: "I read your blog". If you'd like to join me for lunch, I plan to be at the RAM for lunch after Killer Breakfast on Saturday.

Those of you who have been to the Indy Convention Center know that cell phones do not get good reception and the ambient noise in most places make phone conversations impossible. If you try to call me, please leave me a voice mail message. Or, send me a text message.

Here is my schedule for this year's convention:

Wednesday, Aug 15

• ?? pm - Arrive and Check in to Hotel
  
• ?? pm - Grab Swag Bag from Indianapolis Convention Center
  
• ?? pm - Gen Con Forum Stink
  
• ?? pm - BYOV Room Party

Thursday, Aug 16

• 11 am - Vendor Hall Shopping and Swag Grab
  
• 5 pm - LRP00089 Torchwood: Remember The Time?

Friday, Aug 17

• 4:30 pm - LRP00087 A Holiday at Hogwarts: Slytherin House

Saturday, Aug 18

• 9 am - RPG00010 Hickman's Killer Breakfast
  
• 11 am - Lunch at the RAM
  
• 7 pm - LRP00056 Ten Thousand Bullets LARP: RIP

I hope to bump into each of ya there.

Gen Con 2006 Report, Part 5: Sunday

Just last week I was in Indianapolis for Gen Con. Sunday is the last and final day. It was also the day I spent the most time in the exhibitor hall. The exhibitor hall is Darwinism in action. Usually on Thursday everybody is anxious to promote their RPG/comic/game/dice. By Saturday some are despondent. By Sunday those with the weak ideas are suicidal.

:: SUNDAY

My buddy and I went to a Italian restaraunt called Buca di Beppo. They had huge portions. The small portion was intended to be shared by two people. Fortunately, they have a lunch menu. I had a terrific meatball sandwich.

As we were walking to the convention center we noticed a wedding party leaving a hotel. The car had the words Just Married written on it. The family and friends gave hugs and kisses and waved as the couple left. My buddy reminded me that Archon usually has a wedding party every year. Sadly, we have not witnessed a gamer wedding at Gen Con.

Let me give a rundown on the things I noticed in the Exhibitor Hall. First of all, Hecatomb is dead. Instead Wizards of the Coast was promoting a new collectible miniatures game called Dreamblade. At the Fantasy Flight Games booth I noticed that John Kovalik lended his art talent to MagBlast. Has anybody played it? There was hate, HATE for WizKids this year. Several of their former volunteers really felt betrayed. Not suprisingly MageKnight which had them lined up for blocks two years ago is dead. Their latest product HorrorClix has no gravitas. Monte Cook and Malhavoc Press were there with a 672 page game system named Ptolus. At $120 you have to be hardcore to even consider it.

There were a host of video games. Flying Lab Software showed off its Pirates of the Burning Sea, a pirate game meets MMORPG. It looked ok with nothing compelling about it. Next there was IIXII: The Continuum, a collectible online wargame. This is an interesting idea for a MMORPG. Basically you do not pay a monthly fee but instead pay for your characters. Their idea is to make a turn-based war game where the characters are collectible and can be traded. I think they are walking a fine line. Once you establish how much a character is worth, if a server ever crashes and the character is lost, then the company can be sued.

I also saw early versions Warhammer Online and Neverwinter Nights 2. Warhammer looked like a World of Warcraft clone. I have only played WoW briefly. But that is my first impression. Neverwinter Nights 2 is a great looking improvement over its predecessor. I understand that they updated the game to include Dungeon and Dragons 3.5 Rules. So, this is something I am going to be watching for in the future.

I was disappointed that Munchin Impossible by Steve Jackson Games was not available at Gen Con. But they just recently announced Munchkin Cthulhu. So, I have two more games to which to look forward.

Titanic Games had a full color version of Kill Doctor Lucky. This game is like Clue in reverse. Your goal is to kill Doctor Lucky. It looks like a lot of fun.

I demoed the City of Heroes collectible card game (CCG) at the AEG booth. It was ok. I am not a fan of theirs ever since they killed the Initial D CCG. Also, the Spycraft CCG is dead. They have killed off a few interesting games.

Captain Squash and I picked up copied of the Kobolds Ate My Baby LARP rules by 9th Level Games. We plan to run a game of it at Archon. Stay tuned for more details!

Lastly, I picked up a copy of A Great Disturbance by Aegis Films. They promised that their documentary, 20-Sided, would be completed soon. We shall see. I will try to post a review of A Great Disturbance if I like it.

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Gen Con 2006 Report, Part 4: Saturday

I was Indianapolis last week for Gen Con. On Saturday the convention run out of swag bags to give attendees. Swag, which stands for Stuff We All Get, is a collection of promotional items and coupons. I have seen folks get greedy and go back for bags four or five times. Tsk tsk.

:: SATURDAY

I was up early Saturday morning to buy more generic tickets before the Hickman's Killer Breakfast. Every year Tracy and Laura Hickman run an event that combines role playing with a sing-along. This year's theme was Southern Fried Breakfast. Imagine Lord of the Rings meets NASCAR. The sing-along were Johnny Cash tunes with lyrics about Hobbits and gamers with bad teeth. The breakfast is heavy on audience participation. Everyone is assigned a first level character who WILL DIE. How long a character survives depends on how entertaining a player is.

This year Henwy brought a cardboard cutout of himself. When confronted with a swarm of Girl Scouts, he cast Mirror Image, produced the cutout and promptly hid behind it. Too funny! In the history of the game his mirror image is the only character that has survived. Last year Henwy came as the Grim Reaper. I wonder how he is going to top himself next year.

After Killer Breakfast I met up with Mike B for lunch at the RAM. Mike was tired and looked like he wanted to fall asleep in his plate of pasta. He decided to flirt with the waitress and drew her pictures of Dungeons and Dragons creatures. He did some nice renderings of a Beholder, Ankeg and Gelatinous Cube. He told me that he was throwing another room party that night. I will give more details on that later.

I found Captain Squash playing a demo of Bang! in the exhibitor hall. It is a fast paced card game that looked like a lot of fun. The game only costs ten dollars. So, I picked up a copy to play later. I am thinking it will be fun for Archon.

Later that evening I joined the BYOV crew as players in Dave Collin's Courting Murder LARP: Enemy Within. My character was Lord De Morgen, part of Queen Marianna's court with eyes set on the throne. In the first ten minutes of the game a sorceress signed me to a blood oath. This meant that because spent the rest of the game trying to kill her, my character died at the end of the night. Oh well, death happens. Of note was the woman who played the Queen. She was near tears when she learned of double cross and the death of her sister. She was extremely convincing. I have never been so moved by a player.

We went to the RAM for post-game drinks and conversation. They had Serenity playing on the TV screens. I asked Dave Collins about his starship LARP. He told me that he usually only write 5-6 games in a series before he feels the story cannot go any further. I asked him if he wrote a game with a sequel in mind. He told me that he usually doesn't but that once a game finishes he has ideas on where it should go next.

Rennie, the event coordinator for Gen Con, was at the RAM. Around 3 AM the RAM was closing so Captain Squash and I left for Mike B's After Dark Room Party. We were joined by a couple BYOV guys, El Fire and her husband Chattan and Rennie. Mike threw another great party. We met a few more foks from the Gen Con Forum and had a great time.

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Gen Con 2006 Report, Part 3: Friday

For the record Gen Con is not a Trekkie convention. Sure, there are Star Trek fans. But there are also fans of other science fiction series. There are also fans of fantasy novels, horror fiction and historical battles. The convention is best described as a gaming convention.

:: FRIDAY

Since we have no scheduled events, my roomie Captain Squash and I slept in. Hey, this was our vacation. Unfortunately, I discovered at lunch that I was missing the Firefly LARP. I had promised Solitude I would attempt to get into the game with generic tickets. Later I found out that she missed the game, too. I felt terrible about it for the rest of the convention.

After lunch we decided to play a board game. We found a Mayfair game called Elasund. The game involves players competing to build buildings and a church inside a walled city. It was pretty good. In fact I picked up a copy to play with friends later.

By playing the game we earned a ribbon. Mine had the word Clay on it. By collecting the remaining ribbons -- Grain, Ore, Wood and Sheep -- you earned a Knight of Catan ribbon and a coupon for fifty percent off one item in the Mayfair booth. I managed to acquire the Knight ribbon. I was given some ribbons and found a few on the ground outside the Crowne Plaza hotel! Oh, my lucky day!

This year marked the return of the Gamer Olympics. The concept was to have players do in the real world the physical feats that characters regularly do in the fantasy gaming world. Players were asked to throw a javelin, carefully maneuver through a “Passage of Death” and compete in an archery contest. There was also a room where players fight in padded weapon gladiator battles. They set up seats for spectators to watch and cheer their favorite gladiator. I did not attempt this but there is always next year. I would like to hear from anybody who did the Gamer Olympics this year.

Friday afternoon I played another BYOV LARP, A Holiday at Hogwarts. My character was Archibald Rummery, a 1st year Ravenclaw wizard with a "broken" camera. I did not enjoy the game. But first let me say I have not read the Harry Potter books. I have seen all of the movies and enjoyed them. Also, I was challenged by my character. Perhaps a better player could have done more and enjoyed the game more.

In order to help make the game better I want to give some constructive criticism. First of all, things were too spread out. The game took place in at least five different rooms. I only found three of them. I only knew where two house rooms were: Ravenclaw and Griffindor. The locations of other rooms were a mystery.

Secondly, the players were too angst ridden. This is a children's book, right? It is not the acrimonious world of Vampire: The Masquerade. I did not like how certain players played their Slytherin and Ravenclaw characters. I understand that the difference between the player and how a player portrays their character. I am saying that a couple players did a poor job with their characters. I truly don't want to play if some of the same people play the same characters next year.

Lastly, there were players who were new to LARPs that were given powerful characters. They were a little to eager to focus on specific goals and were not open to conversation with other players. I had three people tell me not to bother them and to go away. For a social LARP they did not have much motivation to interact with folks of their same house, much less outside of it. I have seen teams pull together better in other LARPs. I once rallied a group of twelve players to fight a powerful demon in a Vampire game. Before this game I was never told to shut up and go away.

I hope these comments improve the game. I appreciate the hard work that the BYOV team put into the game and its props. Most of the players were fine. A few bad apples spoiled my fun.

So, I left the LARP disappointed and upset. I trekked over to the Alcatraz Brewing Company to check out the Cthulu Live Party. I discovered the Party Hard Corps (PHC) elite including Ruckus, the General and the Colonel were playing their drinking game, Cult. Cult involves accumulating points while being a true believer and gaining favor with the Messiah. If you lose all your points, you must perform an act of humiliation. It is a strange game but loads of fun. Several members from the Ohio squad joined us. Unfortunately, the PHC did not have a good Gen Con. I noticed that they were particularly laid back from their typical rambunctious selves. Later the General told me that he lost his dice bag and some costume props at Gen Con. Ouch.

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Gen Con 2006 Report, Part 2: Thursday

Last week I attended Gen Con with 25,000 other attendees. I mostly played live action role playing (LARP) games this year. I played a couple board games, too. I noticed a decline in popularity of role playing games (RPGs) and a raise in interest of board games and Dungeon & Dragons miniatures.

:: THURSDAY

We slept in late Thursday morning. Once we got up and hit the street we discovered a new game. I call it Bum Dodging. We encountered a few panhandlers on our walk to the convention center. I wanted to sign them up for the Stuck Mojo Progressive Outreach Program. That's where you start by bringing the want ads section from the local newspaper to the bums' attention. Then you start kicking them and scream, "Get a job you bums! You make me sick!" This motivates the less fortunate citizens while providing a tension release for the over taxed population.

New this year was Segway Racing. You know Segways. They are those over-priced two-wheeled electric scooter things that you stand in. I agree with Tom J that the Segway racing would have been more appealing if they dressed them like chariots complete with spiked spokes like the movie Ben Hur.

We had some time to kill. So we wandered into the Board Game HQ. There we found a group called Alleged Enterprises. Actually we found out later that the judges were the husband and wife who comprised the company. I did not hate the game. A typical game usually lasted 10-15 minutes. After the fourth game though, the game started to lose its novelty. The game is basically this: players are playing in a bad game. The Game Master has ego points and the players have interest points. As you play you can reduce interest and ego points. The first player to eliminate the game master or a given number of players by removing their points wins.

The first LARP I played the BYOV LARP named The Skein: Midgaard. My character was Hashim ibn Ma'mun, a mysterious stranger and skilled assassin. His motivation was to kill a king named Ottar or to find out his plans and stop them. At one point the king is dead, lying on the floor, I am surrounded by about ten angry vikings, all of whom are pointing at me and saying "You killed the king!" I had to think fast to survive that one! I pleaded my innocence and drew attention to the smashed window in the room. As I was "examining" it, players left the room. Soon I walked out behind another player and fled to safety. Too much fun!

Next came another BYOV LARP called The Fey: Winter Solstice Ball. The LARP was inspired by the fairy fantasy writings of St Louis native writer Laurell K. Hamilton. Here my character was Lorcan, a war minded Goblin King. I snapped pictures of a BYOV Doug who played a court jester named Tom Thumb and foXXtail who played a rumormonger named Sionnach. My goal was to incite fighting between the fairy factions. I decided to spread a couple rumors myself. I consulted that judges that I was having a hard time because Fey consider it bad form to lie. They allowed me to invent methods to detect and kill a creature called the "Nothing". I invented a potion that had to be consumed to increase paranoia between factions. Ultimately, the Nothing was exposed and the potion was found to be fake.

Captain Squash and I followed foXXtail to the Marriott where NZKnight was waiting. He led us up to Mike B's room for the MST3K Room Party. In the end we did not watch much of the movie but had a good time talking and laughing. I promised Mike a case of Ski soda which I had left back at my hotel room. It's ok I'll just have to figure out another way to get it to him.

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Gen Con 2006 Report, Part 1: Wednesday

This past week I attended Gen Con Indy. It is a large gaming convention with over 5,500 scheduled events.

:: WEDNESDAY

Right away my buddy and I noticed the time change. Every year before this one Indianapolis decided not to participate in Daylight Savings Time. My buddy Captain Squash decided he had to see a baseball game and asked me to drop him off at Victory Field as soon as we arrived downtown. Whatever! I navigated the one-way streets to our hotel, the Radisson.

Our hotel room was nice. It had a nice view of the War Memorial. The Rock Bottom, Qdoba, Penn Station and Hard Rock restaurants were all nearby. It was a short walk to the convention center. Unfortunately, it was not attached to the center by skywalk. But the weather cooperated and was nice most all week.

We made our way to the Third Annual Gen Con Forum Stink, a gathering of regulars who frequent the Gen Con online community forum. When we arrived they gave us a bag of swag -- free promotional items and other stuff.

They had a passport game as an icebreaker. They had several categories such as "Veteran Stinker", "Attended 10+ Gen Cons" and "Played True Dungeon". When you found a forumite that matched a category you could ask them to place a sticker in your book. I met several new folks this way including LadyFlame from nearby Belleville. There were familiar faces there, too. I saw Solitude, Mike B, foXXtail, Jirel and Kahvi. I also met a fella from my hometown of Centralia! He is two years younger than me. It has been many years but I remember we were on the same JETS team in high school. Of all the places to run into a fellow Orphan, I ran into him at Gen Con!

They gave out ribbons this year that attached to the convention badge. I know that other conventions such as SIGGRAPH did this, too. The ribbons helped identify forum members throughout the rest of the week.

We spotted Tommy Tallarico wandering around the registration area after we left the Stink. He was polite and chatted with us about his G4 TV show and game compositions. He even posed for a photo with Captain Squash. He told us to see him in the Video Games Live event.

After a short phone call we ended up having dinner with John Bancroft, the gaming coordinator for Archon. We talked at Archon and some interesting gaming talk. John mentioned that the Gen Con folks recently announced that the Indy show will have 47,000 more square feet of exhibit space next year. He also mentioned that Gen Con SoCal show will be moving to the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2007. That is the same location as the old E3. Word is that since E3 announced its downsizing, Gen Con is attempting to attract a number of video game companies to its exhibitor hall. Speaking of gaming rumors, there is buzz that Wizards of the Coast may be working on a 4th edition of Dungeon & Dragons. It focuses more on miniatures and may be released as early as late 2007.

We left John and crew to go to the RAM to pick up a mug I had pre-ordered. We ran into more forum folks who were there for a post-Stink dinner. Captain Squash and I found an empty table and relaxed a little bit before heading back to the hotel for the night.

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Gamers Invade Indy

I am leaving for Gen Con in the morning. Captain Squash and I will be staying at the Radisson. Right now I am waiting on my last load of laundry before I finish packing and turn in. To say I am looking forward to this vacation is to understate the situation. It has been a difficult year. I really need the away time. In a way it feels like a long weekend since Indianapolis is only a few hours away.

I was a slacker and did not jump into the registration frenzy when it opened earlier this year. This means I do not have any tickets to scheduled events. I have to purchase generic tickets and hope the games I want to play have no-shows. Sometimes you can barter with a player for their tickets. Clever, huh?

I'm packing my digital camera and camera phone. Between the two I hope to have a better selection of photos than I did last year.

I am looking forward to playing the BYOV's Cirkus Milvaukee LARP and seeing friends: Mike B, El Fire and Solitude. There are also some local folks into whom I wish to bump. Of course, I hope to meet new folks and have a great time playing new games.

Warming Up the Brain Farm

Gen Con 2005 Report

I attended Gen Con Indy again this year. Gen Con is a big gaming convention held each year. Word had it that there were 82000 people this year.

:: WEDNESDAY

My friends and I arrived early Wednesday afternoon. Well, he made the hotel reservations putting us at the Comfort Inn again this year. If you read my post about last year's Gen Con, you know I was not impressed with the place. Come to find out he fouled up and had booked our room at the Comfort Inn West which is located out by the airport. It is nowhere near the downtown convention center. Fortunately, the downtown Comfort Inn made accommodations for us every night except Thursday. It was a pain to have to pack, move and unpack multiple times during the convention. But I am grateful that the downtown hotel worked with us. I read that there are plans to tear down the hotel next year to expand the downtown stadium and convention center. So, this is thank you and goodbye.

Wednesday night was the Gen Con Forum Stink. It is a party for forum posters. They gave away a lot of free things, or swag in convention-goer speak. I got some Star Wars swag from Celebrations which is another convention put on by the folks who run Gen Con.

We ran dinner at the The Ram. I was severely disappointed with them this year. The food was poor. The waitress talked me into a BBQ meatloaf that came with a pineapple slaw. I was starving and ate it but it was horrible. The wait service was almost non-existent. Ever want to leap about of the booth and tackle the waitress so you can say, "I would like more iced tea please!"?

:: THURSDAY

The morning started with a game of Giant Settlers of Catan. It is a well-balanced game of players on an island. You manage resources to build entities that are worth points. The first player to ten points wins. During your turn you may trade your resources with other players. For example you may want to trade a wood resource for a brick resource. I wonder if anyone was passing by the room when I was shouting, "Wood for sheep! I've got wood for sheep!" Something wrong about that.

Next I played a game of the Exalted RPG. My nominee for the Gen Con fool was the bumpkin who tried to get into the game with generic tickets. There was a cute blonde that was also trying to get into the game. Ultimately the judge said there was room for one. This meant there was no room for the hawt player. So, the dude sat down. The judge asked for his generics. Come to find out he had none. Du-oh, fool! All was well with the universe when the flawless female then furnished the judge with her generic tickets and joined the game. By the way if you are the lovely woman, you are allowed to play with me anytime. I will even provide the generic tickets if you do not have them!

Thursday night was the AEG Party in Plaza. I can't explain why this event was so lame. The DJ they hired, aka Shawnta Claus, rocks the Klingon Dance Hall every year at Archon. He usually does a good job of taking requests, too. Of course Archon does have a free beer all weekend. Maybe next time buy the DJ a beer! His partner told me to my amusement, "I just set up the speakers." Ok then.

My buddy and I stayed for about a half-hour before we left for a scheduled game. We schmoozed with some AEG guys we know. I had a corn dog and played a game of Frisbee Clout. Then we left with no swag.

Finally we ended the night with a game of City of Heroes RPG. It was an entertaining game. I got bored with it pretty quickly though

:: FRIDAY

I started Friday morning with the Hickman's Killer Breakfast. I met two forumites in line: Mike B and El-Fire & Damnation. El-Fire was dressed as what can be described as rainbow goth. She was a cute Rainbow Brite. The Killer Breakfast had no breakfast but was two hours of first level characters dying in insanely fantastic ways. The players also bribed the judges with candy and trinkets in order to live to the next round. It was a good time.

My buddy and I met later for our first True Dungeon experience. True Dungeon was a huge disappointment. After shelling out $41 I feel I have the right to give some constructive criticism. The music was annoying. It just didn't change much. A loud cymbal crash would've been a great time warning.

I can't state what a poor first impression we had. The guys working the registration desk were inept. Next why did the guy handing out character sheets hand us the sheets and then disappear?

Once inside the training area the young woman gave a fine presentation. But she talked about things I had no idea to what character class they applied. She pointed to parts of the room I could not see. We were promised time to prepare but were shooed from the training area after 1 minute. Our trainer promised the opportunity to come back. But nobody let us know when it was appropriate to come back and train. My smile quickly faded as I was a little frustrated at this point.

Instead of just killing us for choosing the wrong door, why didn't they do any of these:

• take armor/weapon/random tokens from the group
• "respawn" the group in the room (now with double the monsters)
• maybe kill the last person to enter the door
• just allow us to reenter the room and try again but make the final room more challenging based on the number of failed attempts

I played Ship of Fools Thursday night. I played a character named Dale Patterson who was a neat freak and psycho killer. I "disappeared" one of the crew and set a tiny little fire. It helped make the "headaches" go away. Tom J, the judge, and I had a good laugh post-game about how messed up the character was.

After the Ship LARP Tom J and some of the other BYOV folks invited us to another LARP in which they were players. I played a nun named Sister Emanuella. So, I played roles I hadn't tried before. I played a nutcase and a woman in the same night. Everybody else in the game had secret identities. But my character was really a nun. I tried blessing people. They kept asking, "Is something bad going to happen?" Ah, paranoia!

:: SATURDAY

Slept in a bit Saturday. Then we prowled the dealer hall looking for gamer merchandise. I picked up some dice from Chessex, bought a copy of Super Munchkin, purchased starter decks for Hecatomb and Axis & Allies Miniatures and several expansions for Carcassonne.

We played the Spycraft LARP. I played a KGB agent. There was a family that played the game. The mom was also a KGB agent character in the game. She suprised me by talking about tying up the priest character and interrogating him. I could not help but think I could never play this game with my mother. Ha!

Gen Con Dealer Hall

More of the Dealer Hall

World of Warcraft Statue

Axis & Allies Miniatures Promotion

My Schedule for Gen Con 2005

Friday I received my badge and tickets for Gen Con Indy 2005. For the uninitiated Gen Con is the largest gaming convention in North America. It is five days of role playing and gaming. This is my summer vacation. I am counting the days until August 17th.

So far, here is my schedule.

Wed, 8/17
6:30 pm-10:00 pm 2nd Annual Forum Stink
10:00 pm-12:00 am Stink Dinner at the RAM (on waiting list)

Thu, 8/18
10:00 am-12:00 pm Giant Settlers of Catan
1:00 pm-5:00 pm Exalted RPG: Darkness to Light
8:00 pm-12:00 am City of Heroes RPG

Fri, 8/19
9:00 am-11:00 am Hickman's Killer Breakfast 2005
1:49 pm-3:49 pm True Dungeon
5:00 pm-9:00 pm Ship of Fools LARP

Sat, 8/20
7:00 pm-1:00 am Spycraft LARP

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Gen Con 2004 Report

For a third year I went to Gen Con. Gen Con is a big gaming convention held in Indianapolis each year. This is the second year in Indy. Previously it was held in Milwaukee where it had outgrown the space there. Indy is closer and bigger, a win/win situation for gamers in the southern IL/St Louis area.

Click on an image for a larger version.

Gen Con 2004 in Indy

:: WEDNESDAY

My friends and I arrived Wednesday night. For future reference do not stay at the Comfort Inn & Suites on Capitol Ave. I do not want to dwell on this, but the free parking did not make up for the green pool, non-existent breakfast and poor customer service. Next year we will spend more and stay at another place.

While this year's convention was the best I've attended, not everything was great. The following list is a gentle nod to other Gen Con gamers who had to filter through all the noise. Stuff that sucked: not spotting any mullets, fanboys who cut in front of me, fanboys who love FarScape, the Doom: the Board Game demo with no pieces?!, Gen Con's new and undocumented generic ticket refund policy, having the D&D Epic Level party moved indoors with no signage or rep to redirect people to Union Station, gamer funk, no tickets for sold-out True Dungeon, having a headache Friday night, the art dealer who charged me $2 for a bookmark I thought was free, not seeing a 9th Level Games booth this year, the vendor who was selling DVDs that were lame copies of old videotapes, AEG's lack of support for the Initial D Collectible Card Game (CCG), not finding my AEG role playing game in the location listed by the convention again this year and being accosted in the parking lot by a drunk, non-gamer football fan.

An artist works on a painting

:: THURSDAY

I had lunch at The Ram. This place is my favorite Indy restaurant. They had a gamer-oriented menu for Gen Con, kept a meeting room open for gaming and had a 24-hour showing of anime. The food is America pub fare. Everything is tasty. The service is great! If you visit Indy, it is worthwhile to check this place out.

Next I played a game of the Warlords of the Accordlands RPG. Everyone at the table grumbled that the reference books for the game still aren't available. They have been promised for over year. The AEG rep that ran the game was non-committal on a delivery date. Overall, the game seems interesting. I was not impressed with either the Game Master or the scenario that he chose to run. So, I'm undecided if this game will be fun when it is finally released.

Thursday night was the Wizards of the Coast Epic Level Dungeons & Dragons Party. There were free T-Shirts, bags, posters and food. Ever watch gamers dance? The scene summons the words "controlled spasms" to my mind. Heh. Did I mention the freebies?

Murder and mystery on a train

Also, Thursday night I joined a Live Action Role Playing (LARP) game called "The Train of Lost Souls". Two guys from a group named BYOV organized the LARP. Basically, they rented seven train cars and hosted a live action murder mystery on them. The story had several "threads" including a haunting by ghosts, time travel, a Kennedy meets phony-Moon-landing filmers conspiracy and guest appearances by Nostradamus and Heisenberg. There were also some very attractive women in costume that played the game. It was a fun game in an unique and beautiful atmosphere. I had a blast. Pray that they are allowed to host it there again next year.

:: FRIDAY

On Friday morning I played the Ninja Burger Card Game. It is a tongue-in-cheek game of fast food delivery combined with ninja skills. We had six people play the game. The closest neighboring player to me decided to mess with me early on. So, I spent the game giving him challenge after challenge. I lost but, wow, was that therapeutic! I have a copy of the game and, now that I know the rules, can't wait to play it with friends.

AEG ran several card tournaments

Upper Deck heavily promoted its Vs card game

On Friday afternoon I played in an Initial D CCG Tournament with Jason, the buddy with whom I traveled to Gen Con. I had to leave early to get to another game. So, I ceded third place. Jason took home a first place trophy. Good job!

I rushed off to play the Gangs of Chicago LARP. During the course of the game I developed a huge headache. I spent the rest of the night relaxing in the hotel room. As a result I missed the White Wolf party. If it was anything like last year's party, I probably didn't miss much.

On Friday the New York Jets were in town to play the Colts in the RCA dome attached to the convention center. The news media reported that the Jets were upset because they couldn't get a hotel room downtown. Gamer Geeks 1, Football Dorks 0.

:: SATURDAY

Saturday morning I had not signed up for any games. Jason and I roamed around the vendor area. I bought a game called Power Grid. It is a game where you manage power plants in competition to supply the most cities with electricity. One side of the game board has American cities, the other side German cities. I tried to get a demo of this game later on in the day. Rio Grande had sold completely out of the game including the demo copy!

While in the vendor area we walked by the area in which the celebrities were sitting. Every year Gen Con draws a number of actors and actresses from science fiction and fantasy movies. This year we saw Erin Gray, David Carradine, Gil Gerard, Marc Singer, Virginia Hey and Linda Blair. Sorry no pictures. They were charging for autographs and pictures.

Several video game companies had booths in the vendor area. There were several I had a chance to observe and play. First of all, Bioware's Jade Empire is impressive. It shows the Bioware still can make an awesome game even after losing the D&D license. Stormfront Studios gave us a monster beat-em'up in their LOTR: The Two Towers game. Demon Stone married the Stormfront Studio technology with a D&D story written by R.A. Salvatore. Sadly, there is not much innovation there. Perhaps I'll buy Demon Stone if I ever finish the LOTR games. Sid Meier's Pirates is a modern remake of a 80s classic. My buddy waxed nostalgic and shared stories of playing the original game as a young man. He is looking forward to a November release of the remake.

We lunched at a place called the Slippery Noodle Inn. We enjoyed the sunlight in the atrium. My sandwich was good and reasonably priced. The group agreed that the place was on our must-visit-again list for next year.

After lunch I sit in a Q&A seminar with author R.A. Salvatore. Salvatore is best known for his dark elf ranger character named Drizzt. Even though I haven't read any of his books, I wanted to hear anecdotes from the accomplished author of over thirty-six novels. He shared stories from his career like "I didn't quit my day job until my second successful novel" and "my original idea for Drizzt was as a sidekick for another character". When asked about the "Dungeon and Dragons" movie, he responded that he hadn't seen the movie and won't criticize other people's creative efforts. He then shared a story of hate mail he's received. He said, "I don't write books for people who hate my work. I write books for the fans of my work." I left of the seminar with respect for the author and plan to read at least one set of his trilogies before next year's Gen Con.

Cardhalla means making houses out of cards

There was an event known as Cardhalla. People made a large series of houses out of cards. I suppose this is what gamers geeks do when they're bored with their card games.

A dragon sculpture built on site

A woman poses on the dragon

During the course of the convention a team of artists sculpted a dragon. On the last day you could have your picture taken on it for a fee. I snapped a picture of an attractive woman posing for pictures.

On Saturday night, our last night, we ran into a group of gamers who had rented a ballroom in the hotel. They were gaming by candlelight. They had set up a dungeon with miniature figures. In combat they would turn off the lights and check the line of sight with the light of a tea candle. It added an element of realism to the game because it also showed that some monsters where hidden in the silhouette of other monsters.

The last game we played was Strange Synergy. It is an interesting game where you start with a team of three warriors and endue them with a combination of strange powers. The kicker is that you decide the combination making each game play out differently.