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A buddy of mine is planning on running Apocalypse World games that include character creation, which I don't think would be too bad since chargen takes about 15 minutes in AW.
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Feb 8, 2015 02:15
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The insane thing is that those were the official "introduction to Shadowrun" events. I know that spending forever on super-fiddly character creation is a big Shadowrun tradition, but man did that not work well for a six hour session. I ended up doing what they should have done, and just plain copied an example character directly from the corebook.
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Feb 8, 2015 02:33
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Rhandhali posted:They were some reenactment outfit. They had a working MP44 too apparently, I've got a picture posing with it somewhere. Finding the abject failures is indeed a good time, though only when they are going all-out to show you how awesome they are. When there is some unassuming company peddling a boring-looking product or service or something, that is what makes me sad. And makes me walk faster and hope the salesperson does not notice me. Every year it seems to get harder to do a Google look-and-laugh for Battle T.A.G.S. At this point I can barely even find the cancelled trademark filing. Oh there we go, looking through that helped me discover the company that made it was called "Timestream Games" and that led me to a few more results. Oh, and then I found that I joined BoardGameGeek in 2006 just so I could post about this very subject. http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/123322/battle-tgs-world-war-ii Apparently it never actually came out. That makes it even worse than BreaKey! Or better? Deathlove posted:Has anyone actually run an event? I'm thinking I might run a cribbage thing or something, but I don't know! Just bring some cribbage boards and play some cribbage with what will likely be the oldest people at GenCon. Rhandhali posted:Well, I'm roomless now. The Conrad charged me an 750 dollar room deposit, well over the cost of one night's stay. Not a pre-authorization, a full on charge that I have to pay off or pay interest on. I reserved through Hilton Honors and there are no mentions of deposits in the reservation paperwork I made. They refused to refund it so I canceled the room. Maybe it wasn't supposed to happen this year.  Well now. Yeah. That is interesting, particularly as I booked the Conrad myself for my emergency reservation that I assumed I would not actually need. As far as I know I was never charged $750, but then I also booked it in August last year before Gen-Con even started and maybe they are trying to screw over people who do exactly what I am doing? Seems like it goes against Hilton's terms of service, honestly. Is it possible that the only room types they kept listed were the """discounted""" kind you have to pay up front? I kind of assume you would have noticed if that were the case but I have had nothing but good experiences with Hilton Honors for years so I am intrigued. I even got them to cancel two reservations after the cancellation deadline just by calling and asking nicely (admittedly one was to attend a funeral). Which makes me wonder what kind of jerks might be running this particular Conrad. nesbit37 posted:I hope the Gary Con event registration today wasn't a preview of Gen Con event registration. It went up at 4pm, was up for less than 5 minutes and then their ISP took the site down and blocked everyone's IPs because they thought they were under a DDOS attack. They worked for like an hour with the host to fix it, got it back up, people registered for a minute before they took it down again and now event registration isn't starting back up again until Tuesday night.
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Feb 9, 2015 03:50
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My friends and I found a big thing of BreaKey in the trash the year it came out and spent the better part of an afternoon just burning through the bag. One of the keys managed to win like 35 matches before breaking, poo poo was hype as hell.
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Feb 9, 2015 04:07
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How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? The past couple years I've mostly stuck to Games on Demand, the open boardgaming library, and pick up games with goons or IRL friends. This year I actually want to put a few formal events on my schedule but I'm kinda worried about a) wasting 6 hours to get one turn of play (ShadowRun clusterfuck discussed above) b) ending up in a game with half-cat wizards who use rape magic (or something equally ludicrous/repulsive) c) no-fun rules lawyers who are going to be antagonistic because I haven't memorized the underwater light radius table from page 443 of the out of print Atlantis supplement or whatever. Should I just roll the dice (sorry, pun) and sign up for whatever sounds interesting with the expectation that there's a chance it will be weird and unfun but I may get a good story out of it?
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Feb 9, 2015 14:54
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Lawen posted:How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? I just randomly buy tickets for systems I'm interested in. My experiences have been kinda hit or miss though I've encountered A and B but also some fun games. One of my favorite sessions was a Vampire game. I'd never played WoD before so I got tickets to a couple systems. There were a couple players in the vampire game that played their vampires as the broody goths and they weren't much fun. The game took place in Egypt and they described themselves as wearing trench coats and all black. The malkavian (did I spell that right?) player was dressed as a stereotypical tourist. Hawaiian shirt, Bermuda shorts, giant camera and was really helpful explaining back story of the setting and not acting like I was a moron for not doing extensive research on the setting for a no experience required game. But then you have things like that Shadowrun game where your time is wasted, my Hunter game where the GM didn't show so the group used a sub who phoned it in, or the Atomic Robo game where I got near raped. You're gambling and the results aren't always good. It helps to drag a friend along.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:03
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I think I'm going to try for the All Access D&D thing this year. I roamed the Wizards hall last year and it looked fun. I'm a pretty casual pen and paper player.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:18
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Lawen posted:How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? Its all the above. Some GM's have a good reputation, so you can try and get games with them. Google some of them and see if anything, good or bad, comes up. Ask around as well. Michael Curtis, for instance, runs games for Metamorphosis Alpha and DCC and is a great GM. Otherwise, I just try to get into systems I want to play in to try out, or to get into events that sound unique or fun that I can't get into at home. The D&D All Access Pass was that for me last year, and the year before was the 1,000 player Settlers of Catan game. The important thing to remember is you can always just get up and walk. If it is really not fun at all for you just go. I am not recommending you screw over the other people at the table if they are having fun, but if the GM is that terrible they probably aren't having any fun either. Its only 96 hours of gen con, there is no reason to waste 4+ hours of it sitting at a table miserable because the person running the game is terrible at doing con games. Personaly, anyone running a con game that does character generation at the table doesn't know how to run a con game (exception being for sessions where people are there to learn how to make a character). I don't care if it normally takes 15 minutes, you are going to get people who don't know the system at all and everyone has to share 1 copy of the rules, and then there are people who come to games who just won't shut up talking about anything but the task at hand and drag it out to an hour. Come with pre-gens, crack that whip and get people moving and having fun.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:20
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Kaddish posted:I think I'm going to try for the All Access D&D thing this year. I roamed the Wizards hall last year and it looked fun. I'm a pretty casual pen and paper player. It was a lot of fun. I went with a group of 4 last year and we were all at the same D&D All Access Table and it was good. The Corruption of Kryptgarden event in particular was great. I don't know how good it would be if you are at a table by yourself, though the one single guy who joined our group seemed to enjoy it. It's a lot of D&D though, and I am glad we did the 8am games because there is almost nothing going on at the con before 10.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:21
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I've never paid attention to it what's the D&D All Access? It sounds like it's a pass to just walk into a place and find a random D&D game to play. I'm not a big fan of D&D but depending on the hours of it that could be worth it.
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Feb 9, 2015 15:51
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Len posted:I've never paid attention to it what's the D&D All Access? It sounds like it's a pass to just walk into a place and find a random D&D game to play. I'm not a big fan of D&D but depending on the hours of it that could be worth it. Its a guaranteed spot in all of the official D&D events run by Baldman Games on behalf of WotC for the con with the same DM and party for every game and at the same time slot each day. Last year it was $140 and for that you got a copy of the PHB, a copy of the Monster Manual signed by all of the D&D design staff (this was also 60 days before the MM was available at retail), and then a 4 hour game of D&D on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and for the Saturday night Kryptgarden event and D&D Celebration event.
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Feb 9, 2015 16:05
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nesbit37 posted:Its a guaranteed spot in all of the official D&D events run by Baldman Games on behalf of WotC for the con with the same DM and party for every game and at the same time slot each day. Last year it was $140 and for that you got a copy of the PHB, a copy of the Monster Manual signed by all of the D&D design staff (this was also 60 days before the MM was available at retail), and then a 4 hour game of D&D on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and for the Saturday night Kryptgarden event and D&D Celebration event. That doesn't seem too bad honestly. I'll look into that when the event list goes up. Does anyone know when that is off the top of your head?
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Feb 9, 2015 17:14
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Lawen posted:How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? As others have mentioned, this is basically it. Occasionally authors of specific games will run sessions of that game; for instance, Greg Stolze did a Delta Green and a Better Angels game last year. You're pretty much guaranteed a solid game in that case. Of course, those spots are going to be pretty hotly contested. When I'm looking, I will go first for authors or gamemasters I've heard of, then systems I really want to play with good descriptions. quote:The past couple years I've mostly stuck to Games on Demand, the open boardgaming library, and pick up games with goons or IRL friends. This year I actually want to put a few formal events on my schedule but I'm kinda worried about a) wasting 6 hours to get one turn of play (ShadowRun clusterfuck discussed above) b) ending up in a game with half-cat wizards who use rape magic (or something equally ludicrous/repulsive) c) no-fun rules lawyers who are going to be antagonistic because I haven't memorized the underwater light radius table from page 443 of the out of print Atlantis supplement or whatever. I have never encountered B) or C) but others have, obviously. My perception is that C) is more common in rules-heavy games like D&D or Shadowrun. I did have a long unfun game with a GM who hardly said/did anything AND had us finish the characters at the table for second and third edition D&D characters without a book, but that was also by far the worst game I've played in. The only reason I didn't leave was because it was also my first con game ever and some friends were also playing. I did one Games on Demand game last year and thought it was great. This year I'm hoping to do some more Games on Demand, but I realize that's a bit of a gamble as well. In general, I like shorter time spots because it keeps people really focused and trying to move the plot forward. The first year I went to GenCon my friends got all the tickets, pretty much at random based on systems they knew or good descriptions. Many of the games weren't very good from what they said, including a near identical Shadowrun experience. (My friend actually gave up on building the character and offered the GM $5 for a pregen. I don't remember if the GM took it, but he got the pregen.) I generally like horror games like CoC because the rules are simple and nobody minds their character dying in a con-game. However, I always avoid descriptions that say "Experience Required" for the game. I often avoid ones that list "Mature and up" because it's hard to tell how well the GM will handle mature stuff. What I'm getting at is that there should be some flags in the event description, too. I had one phenemonal 13th Age game last year, but my friends had a disappointing one later that day, so it's kind of gamble. Pelgrane Press does do GM surveys to try and see who's doing a good job, though. quote:Should I just roll the dice (sorry, pun) and sign up for whatever sounds interesting with the expectation that there's a chance it will be weird and unfun but I may get a good story out of it? Yes, though something else that other people haven't mentioned is that last year they used a time-ticketing system similar to the housing block this year. So, I got an early space in line and got to play in the Greg Stolze game, but my wife got a later spot and wasn't able to sign up for much of what she wanted. I would recommend having 2-3 back-up options in case you don't get your first choice. And I will second the idea of leaving bad tables. Sometimes the story is just, "the game took a long time and didn't go anywhere." You don't have to make a huge deal of it if you don't want to; you can always just check your phone, say that something else has come up, and get out of there.
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Feb 9, 2015 17:43
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Lawen posted:The past couple years I've mostly stuck to Games on Demand, the open boardgaming library, and pick up games with goons or IRL friends. This year I actually want to put a few formal events on my schedule but I'm kinda worried about a) wasting 6 hours to get one turn of play (ShadowRun clusterfuck discussed above) b) ending up in a game with half-cat wizards who use rape magic (or something equally ludicrous/repulsive) c) no-fun rules lawyers who are going to be antagonistic because I haven't memorized the underwater light radius table from page 443 of the out of print Atlantis supplement or whatever. I have only been in hmm maybe 20 games or so in all my years at Gen-Con (and many of those my first three years), but the only bad memories are the NASCRAG tournament (and it was not bad like I hated the people involved, just bad like I could not hear the GM and it relied a bit too much on LOL purple monkey cheese) and my then-girlfriend leaving a different game in tears because...nope I do not remember or care why, her crying at Gen-Con was not exactly uncommon. OH, SO I am going to return to my threat from last year of telling random stories from previous conventions. After my amazing 1997 experience, I somehow did not go again until 2002, and only then because it was leaving Milwaukee and I was like NO I NEED TO SEE IT THERE AGAIN I NEVER WENT TO THE SAFE HOUSE so away we went. That reminds me, Torrent, CaptainRat, and Chilly Bear; I apologize for having not gotten around to editing the our two group pictures together yet. I have been really busy since August 2002, but I am sure I will find time any day now.  GEN-CON 2002: ONE MORE TIME AROUND IN MILWAUKEE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5FT3IGXtAk&t=58s I finally visited the legendary Safe House in 2002--probably about the time they last refreshed their webpage design--and it was aesthetically and atmospherically well worth the visit and then some. Epicureanistically (not a word on at least two levels), not so much. That is one of only two times in my life I have had chicken with obviously undercooked sections. And while they did not make me pay for that dish, they did make me pay for whatever it was I ordered to replace it, which seemed a little odd to me. I definitely recommend only drinking if you go there. You know. For Gen-Con. Just take a little 4-hour detour for drinks. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONVENTION CITIES THOUGH FOR REAL For those of you who are Indianapolis-only attendees, it can be a little challenging to explain just how much better we are treated in Indianapolis than we were in Milwaukee. You know how pretty much no matter where you go, the waitstaff is excited to see you, and talks about how you are no bother at all if you apologize for the huge numbers of rowdy nerds, or says they wish every convention in town were like Gen-Con, or how you basically feel like the whole downtown area is Gamer Utopia? Well, the Milwaukee experience was roughly the opposite. Open scowls from the mall food court workers, only the base level acknowledgement or politeness from the staff at many restaurants (though the Safe House understood us it seemed), people getting yelled at by hotel employees for gaming in public areas (stay at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis sometime if you want a hint at the level of elitist-sneering involved all around)... and to top it all off, elated opinion pieces in the local newspapers once we moved to Indianapolis, laughing about how it was "their" problem now. Yes, I am sure Indianapolis is very sad that they have had this terrible problem foisted on them. O.K. BUT DID YOU ACTUALLY HAVE ANYTHING ABOUT THE CONVENTION TO TELL US  the best story from 2002 is one I likely also already told like eighty times here (and mentioned on the Team Übermensch show I linked earlier) meeting both Traci Lords and Sid Meier in the span of about a half hour. The take-away message from this encounter was that Traci Lords actually seemed far more interested in having a conversation with me. Though it could just be that Sid Meier did not expect random fans to pop up and be like OMG I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED ...COVERT ACTION Speaking of stories I already mentioned elsewhere, 2002 was also the year I had the good fortune to randomly meet Gary Gygax, though as this subforum generally seems to treat him as an unfortunate accident rather than someone worth appreciating that is probably not that exciting. One of my buddies was on the Dangerous Journeys STREET TEAM back in the early 1990s since Game Designers' Workshop was somehow a fixture of our hometown, and as a result he instantly recognized Gary (this being an era before every Google search was guaranteed to pull up a picture of the subject, I had probably never really seen a picture of him) and got us some autographs. Extremely polite man. I will always be happy that my 2002 badge has Sid Meier's signature on the front and Gary Gygax's on the back. Even if that means Traci Lords' signature is relegated to her WONDERFUL ELECTRONIC MUSIC COMPACT DISC Probably the best thing about Gen-Con 2002 was that if you were a D20 player, and it seemed 99% of the RPG fans in attendance were, the tipping point where "everything your heart can desire to make your game more fun" leading to "literally every idea ever has been made into a D20 book and most are terrible" had not yet really struck. I think that was 2003. And uh ... the Simpsons card game that never actually came out was demoed? Holy poo poo, apparently it came out ONE YEAR LATER but was evidently so incredibly unpopular that we never found it despite fairly serious efforts to do so. Well, you learn something new all the time in this hobby I guess. All in all, 2002 would have to rank near the bottom of my Gens-Con if I were ranking them, as since the city was glad to see us leave it is not like it had a "grand send-off" feel so much as a "drat, I hope it is not even worse in Indianapolis" feel. Were any of you there in 2002!? I WANT YOUR STORIES TOOOOO O KKKKKKKKKK
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Feb 9, 2015 19:40
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Quarex posted:Were any of you there in 2002!? I WANT YOUR STORIES TOOOOO O KKKKKKKKKK I was there, but don't remember anything specific from that Gen Con. As someone who lived in a Milwaukee suburb at the time, I was very sad to see the convention go. I went with my family so we could all soak up as much Gen Con as we could before it left the land of beer and cheese, possibly forever. Since I was a local I didn't experience any grumpy hotel staff, and in those days I just brought food for lunch so generally didn't interact with any vendors that were not in the Gen Con vendor hall. It was lots of fun, and I was very sad to see it go especially since I didn't know how I could ever justify going to Indianapolis for it. At the time I was mystified that anyone would spend money on the hotel for Gen Con let alone the money to fly into the convention. After going to 10 or 12 Gen Con's in Milwaukee I wouldn't be back until the bug bit me out of no where and I drove down to Indianapolis with my at-the-time girlfriend to attend in 2008. I had to take a couple of years off after that from being broke from grad school and moving 1,000 miles away to start a new career but made it back in 2012 and, so far, every year since then. My most memorable year was 1994. It was just when the big card game craze really took off. I loved playing Magic, which I just discovered myself at the 1994 Gen Con, and started to get into it a lot there. My sister's and I really liked Spellfire at the con though because TSR was giving you a free deck of cards for trying the game. We spent the majority of the con playing Spellfire, leaving for a few minutes, then coming back to a different person running the Spellfire demos to get a new deck of cards and play some more. We must have picked up at least 75 Spellfire decks between the 3 of us doing that until they finally got wise on Sunday. Ah, good times. I also remember just getting more excited for magic because of the art. My 14 year old self was flipping through a dealer's card book and saw a "Wall of Flesh" card and thought any game with such crazy art must be awesome and I must have that card! Luckily that addiction didn't survive for me much past 1998.
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Feb 9, 2015 19:59
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I've been fairly lucky in selecting games so far, since the ones I really wanted to get into were fairly obscure ones run by the game/setting authors. Even the badly planned Shadowrun game wasn't too bad, since we actually spent the last three hours playing (through a kind of boring scenario, but whatevs).Quarex posted:(stay at the Columbia Club in Indianapolis sometime if you want a hint at the level of elitist-sneering involved all around) To be fair, the Columbia Club is less elitist-sneering, and more... elitist LARPing. They like dressing up and being fancy, and get a bit scowly when people don't play along in their big fancy playhouse. I mean, they enthusiastically host the local steampunk masquerade ball/con thing (which is this weekend, actually), so they can't be that nerd unfriendly.
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Feb 9, 2015 21:19
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Quarex posted:Were any of you there in 2002!? I WANT YOUR STORIES TOOOOO O KKKKKKKKKK Only time I was at GC Milwaukee was 97/98. I don't recall much about the experience beyond it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. I was still dumb and ate crappy food from vendors in the building so no commentary there, except the local mall has gone even more downhill and is sort of a ghost town these days. There's another game/larp convention starting up in the area though, Midwinter - which is in January. Still very small and having a lot of growing pains. It's located in the hotel right next to the Midwest Center where Gencon moved to in '98. Milwaukee is not a good city for cons though, not enough hotels, food places etc.
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Feb 9, 2015 22:23
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Lawen posted:How do you guys figure out which events to sign up for? Just pick a game system you like and blindly buy tickets for a session based on the day and time? Find GMs you like and sign up for whatever they're running? This is how we do it. We sign up for every Paranoia game, there's a guy who runs mashups in the Toon system that we love (Sesame StreetFighter 2 years ago, My Little Paranoia, Friend Computer is Magic was last year - we weren't bronies, it was hilarious), and the lady who runs the Aqua Teen game is just good friends with us at this point. Find things that sound cool, once you've done it once, sign up for those GMs again. Kobolds ate my Babies is also fun as hell you should do it. Even the 'bad' experiences I've had (one of the paranoia guys runs a weak paranoia /star trek game) are ridiculous fun.
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Feb 9, 2015 22:52
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Quarex posted:
I spoke with the sales manager whose only offer was to refund the deposit by cancelling the reservation; she specifically cited Gencon as the reason they were taking deposits for people who made direct bookings. I'd keep an eye out on your credit card statement for sure. I have never had a direct booking through Hilton Honors take a deposit before and every reservation I've made says "no deposit required" at the bottom when you complete the booking. I'll call corporate at some point and complain. I have managed to secure crash space at least so now I need to just beg/plead/bargain/whine for time off less than a month into my first year of residency. Apparently it's conceivable.
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Feb 9, 2015 23:27
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I am booked for Gencon. We decided not to go for the booth this year so it's going to be a business-vacation, and most the business will be drinking.
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Feb 11, 2015 17:33
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Looks like Tony DiTerlizzi is going to be the artist guest of honor this year. I'll have to dig up some of my old planescape stuff and see if I can get a signature.
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Feb 12, 2015 23:27
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You guys are all talking about gaming and I am always working! I wish I had the time to go do cool poo poo with you without the looming presence of my events and booth hanging over my head! It's so depressing! 
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Feb 19, 2015 17:35
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Len posted:"Slightly inappropriate" is better than what it could be. But then again I'm soured to ticketed rpg events since the Atomic Robo near rape game I played in. All of a sudden, I'm worried about running my silly, all-ages Costume Fairy Adventures game. Maybe if I talk about it here some good people would sign up for it instead of creepos. I've run demos in exchange for badges and while shilling my own indie heart-breaker, but I've never run a ticketed game before. It's a first! It's also the first year I'll be attending with someone with a more balanced approach to getting a good night's sleep. My graph-paper-and-highlighter schedule of interviews and games is going to be pretty jam-packed. I'm excited.
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Feb 22, 2015 05:36
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Mudcrab Merchant posted:You guys are all talking about gaming and I am always working! I wish I had the time to go do cool poo poo with you without the looming presence of my events and booth hanging over my head! It's so depressing! Just do it anyway. Doing events is lame and costs money, just play games with people after hours.
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Feb 22, 2015 05:55
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DNA Cowboys posted:All of a sudden, I'm worried about running my silly, all-ages Costume Fairy Adventures game. Maybe if I talk about it here some good people would sign up for it instead of creepos. My girlfriend is going with us this year and I bet she would gladly play a game where she can pretend to be Tinkerbell. I'll try to get us tickets.
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Feb 22, 2015 06:05
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Mudcrab Merchant posted:You guys are all talking about gaming and I am always working! I wish I had the time to go do cool poo poo with you without the looming presence of my events and booth hanging over my head! It's so depressing! Countblanc posted:Just do it anyway. Doing events is lame and costs money, just play games with people after hours. Yeah! I'm a total night owl and up for whatever after hours, and I could probably convince my friends to stay up as well. 
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Feb 22, 2015 07:32
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nesbit37 posted:I was there, but don't remember anything specific from that Gen Con. As someone who lived in a Milwaukee suburb at the time, I was very sad to see the convention go. I went with my family so we could all soak up as much Gen Con as we could before it left the land of beer and cheese, possibly forever. Since I was a local I didn't experience any grumpy hotel staff, and in those days I just brought food for lunch so generally didn't interact with any vendors that were not in the Gen Con vendor hall. Also man I totally wanted to get into Spellfire but between the cards feeling like cheap crap and the game seeming fairly boring (if I recall) compared to Magic: The Gathering, not even the allure of All That Artwork I Already Liked! could keep me interested. Haystack posted:To be fair, the Columbia Club is less elitist-sneering, and more... elitist LARPing. They like dressing up and being fancy, and get a bit scowly when people don't play along in their big fancy playhouse. I mean, they enthusiastically host the local steampunk masquerade ball/con thing (which is this weekend, actually), so they can't be that nerd unfriendly. Sloober posted:Only time I was at GC Milwaukee was 97/98. I don't recall much about the experience beyond it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. I was still dumb and ate crappy food from vendors in the building so no commentary there, except the local mall has gone even more downhill and is sort of a ghost town these days. There's another game/larp convention starting up in the area though, Midwinter - which is in January. Still very small and having a lot of growing pains. It's located in the hotel right next to the Midwest Center where Gencon moved to in '98. Though I did not attend in 1996*, my friend won the national Quake tournament they had there, which probably would have led to a lifetime of trying to actually be a competitive gamer had he not decided that drugs and rock'n'roll sounded more appealing. Probably sex, too, but being a Gen-Con thread starter I know nothing about that. Rhandhali posted:I spoke with the sales manager whose only offer was to refund the deposit by cancelling the reservation; she specifically cited Gencon as the reason they were taking deposits for people who made direct bookings. I'd keep an eye out on your credit card statement for sure. I have never had a direct booking through Hilton Honors take a deposit before and every reservation I've made says "no deposit required" at the bottom when you complete the booking. I'll call corporate at some point and complain. Mudcrab Merchant posted:You guys are all talking about gaming and I am always working! I wish I had the time to go do cool poo poo with you without the looming presence of my events and booth hanging over my head! It's so depressing! Though as CountBlanc says and BlackIronHeart seconds, clearly you can figure it out. Maybe. Maybe once. A half-time. Never. Oh, I mean, once. I am notoriously elusive at Gen-Con but every year I claim THIS IS THE YEAR I DO NOT JUST AUCTIONEER AND HIDE IN THE EXHIBIT HALL and maybe this is the year I will follow through??? Also this year's t-shirt will do BUT what is WAY MORE EXCITING is that they are re-releasing the awesome Deluxe Messenger Bag but in black** this time, which makes me wonder if they will just keep changing the color so that they artificially create collector value over the years   It just might work particularly as I kind of want to buy a second one now since that one looks great *Edited months later to fix this typo that I am pretty sure nobody could possibly ever have cared about but that I NOTICED O.K. **Is that really black? They said black, but it looks navy to me? Is it this monitor? Probably. Dr. Quarex fucked around with this message at 00:34 on May 16, 2015 |
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Feb 23, 2015 00:14
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I hate to be That Guy but does anyone know the dimensions of that bag? I've been looking for a new one and that looks pretty.
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Feb 23, 2015 00:27
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Len posted:I hate to be That Guy but does anyone know the dimensions of that bag? I've been looking for a new one and that looks pretty. I have last year's green bag. It's about 17-8ish X 10-11ish X 4ish inches. I'm at work and don't have access to a ruler right now. It'll hold one or two hardcover RPG books pretty comfortably, but it's not big enough to haul a lot of gaming stuff so I use it for my work bag. 8one6 fucked around with this message at 01:19 on Feb 23, 2015 |
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Feb 23, 2015 01:16
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Len posted:My girlfriend is going with us this year and I bet she would gladly play a game where she can pretend to be Tinkerbell. I'll try to get us tickets. That would be great! I'll post a link after it's scheduled.
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Feb 23, 2015 08:58
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BlackIronHeart posted:Yeah! I'm a total night owl and up for whatever after hours, and I could probably convince my friends to stay up as well. Countblanc posted:Just do it anyway. Doing events is lame and costs money, just play games with people after hours. I.. my event's make me a lot of money, and they ARE the late night events. I don't normally set foot to freedom until about 3-4AM and then I just keep thinking how I have to be the next morning to open my booth in the exhibitor hall, and stay up AGAIN for my next event. Plus I'm a girl so add in make-up, hair, and all that stupid poo poo that makes people take me seriously in a professional setting.  My walks after my events are quiet ones, normally only one werewolf circle is left!Quarex posted:Whatever Double-M, you had that whole hour free last year where we hung out and did all those exciting things like ... oh god, we just went to your booth so you could check in. I am so sorry. You really do have no time for anything. EDIT: Also, exhibitor room block goes live in about 30m at noon EST! It's my turn to fight in the arena! Mudcrab Merchant fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Feb 24, 2015 |
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Feb 24, 2015 17:26
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Speaking of events, in the spirit of doing the exact opposite of what I did last time I went to GenCon, I'm going to run a single session of a Dungeon World game. I'm a pretty good GM and it should be fun and you're all invited as my new best friends
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Feb 24, 2015 17:31
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So, I didn't have the best housing lottery luck. I heard that once VIG is officially done they'll throw the remaining scraps back into the pool. Anyone have an idea what the timeline on that is?
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Feb 24, 2015 18:33
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Well, they're cutting back on rooms for exhibitors so I can't get a room through the exhibitor I work with (I don't have the exhibitor badge myself) so what are my options for getting a room within walking distance of the con center?
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Feb 24, 2015 19:32
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Seriously barely got in, even with my exhibitor log-in. poo poo is loving bananas this year.
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Feb 24, 2015 20:02
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You would think them getting almost all exhibitors a room would be easy since they know exactly how many vendors will be attending. There are only a limited number of booths, right, so why don't they just guarantee 1 room per floor space number you are buying (with the option to decline it) or something else like that?
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Feb 24, 2015 21:50
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clockworkjoe posted:Well, they're cutting back on rooms for exhibitors so I can't get a room through the exhibitor I work with (I don't have the exhibitor badge myself) so what are my options for getting a room within walking distance of the con center? I would say virtually none unless you find someone with a room already that wants another roommate. There will probably be some rooms that magically open up in late June through early July as people's plans are really solidified but they will be few and probably get snatched up fast. Its crazy how much these cons are growing and no one seems to know what to do about it. Even though it has 1/100th the attendance of Gen Con, Gary Con is running into the same issues and having a public discussion on what to do about it. Some of the responses just seem ludicrous (lets charge $500 for a badge so you only go if you really really want to and don't have to fly in or want to eat for the week!). http://garycon.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1430
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Feb 24, 2015 21:54
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nesbit37 posted:I would say virtually none unless you find someone with a room already that wants another roommate. There will probably be some rooms that magically open up in late June through early July as people's plans are really solidified but they will be few and probably get snatched up fast. I'm seriously wondering if GenCon West is going to rise from the grave now. Mad Fnorder posted:So, I didn't have the best housing lottery luck. I heard that once VIG is officially done they'll throw the remaining scraps back into the pool. Anyone have an idea what the timeline on that is? Don't quote me on this, but I think that ship has sailed. Normally how VIG works is they approach all of the VIG holders from the previous year and ask them if they want to buy again. Whatever they don't buy goes into the limited pool of VIG passes that go on sale... Maybe around the same time regular badges do? There are so few of them that they inevitably sell out in less than a minute. I don't think they ever release more into the wild after passes initially go on sale (but I could be wrong). That's the only way it would make sense with the priority housing purchases since that's the main reason why you would probably want a VIG pass in the first place (and the swag/privileges at the con second).
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Feb 24, 2015 22:21
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You could always do what my friend does and sleep in your car every night! (do not do this)
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Feb 24, 2015 22:41
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At this point, you should seriously consider renting a car and driving in from one of the many hotels that ring the city.
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Feb 24, 2015 22:44
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