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Bruxism posted:I've heard about your auctioneering! Hope to see it in action. What sort of things are sold? 9-Noon: Family board games Noon-2: RPGs 2-4: Collectible card games/miniatures 4-5: Unpainted miniatures 5-5:30: Railroad games or some poo poo 5:30-7: Wargames 7-8: 18XX/Euro Boardgames 8-Close: Crème de la crème of every genre Thursday night's last session is "the most valuable stuff other than what we are selling Friday night," and Saturday evening usually goes T.O.V.A. (Toys, Oddities, Videos [/Video Games], Art" from 4-7 and the big Charity Auction either right afterwards or after a 30-60 minute break if we are actually putting things up quickly enough to get through everything. The Charity Auction is the only place you [should] find new-release things being listed, since most items come from current stock from vendors in attendance. Sometimes stuff actually sells for under retail price there but often people just add $50 for the charity's sake instead of letting it go cheap (which, well, why not?).
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Mar 1, 2022 02:53
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Dr. Quarex posted:Pretty much everything nerd-related in some sense. In lieu of posting an actual schedule from previous years, which I probably will soon anyway, categories usually go something like this on, say, Friday (this is not an actual schedule, as those are never finalized until the Wednesday of the convention): come to the charity auction and watch me shout down a neckbeard!
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Mar 1, 2022 02:59
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Bruxism posted:What will you have a booth for? Are you selling something or running games? I own a small board game publishing business, Hit em with a Shoe. Its not something I do to actually make money but rather to see some games out there in certain areas I am interested in and often also have some overlap with education. I started exhibiting in 2018 and this might be my last year, my release schedule just isn't high enough to really be worshipped as part of the cult of the new each year. Well be debuting our third game at this Gen Con, The Red Burnoose: Algeria 1857, which was my attempt to create a wargame with some feminist design principles and turn colonial games on their head a little.
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Mar 1, 2022 04:07
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nesbit37 posted:I own a small board game publishing business, Hit em with a Shoe. Its not something I do to actually make money but rather to see some games out there in certain areas I am interested in and often also have some overlap with education. I started exhibiting in 2018 and this might be my last year, my release schedule just isn't high enough to really be worshipped as part of the cult of the new each year. Well be debuting our third game at this Gen Con, The Red Burnoose: Algeria 1857, which was my attempt to create a wargame with some feminist design principles and turn colonial games on their head a little. Ah, I remember that one from Kickstarter. I eyed it, but didn't end up kicking in because I was afraid I'd never get it on the table. I really liked the look of it though. I'll be sure to swing by your booth.
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Mar 1, 2022 04:59
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Deviant posted:come to the charity auction and watch me shout down a neckbeard! Tova first
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Mar 2, 2022 00:57
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Gate 10 was essential for the years we stayed further out. Shuttles run fairly late and early. The last thing I wanted to worry about was finding reliable parking that didn't cost an arm and a leg every single day.
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Mar 2, 2022 06:05
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TOVA TOVA TOVA
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Mar 2, 2022 14:35
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Ego Trip posted:Tova first it was implied
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Mar 2, 2022 14:57
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I am playing in David Wesely's Braunstein IV: Banania at Gary Con and I cannot get over how similar being the general of the marine corps feels to being, like, the Keeper of Elysium or some other official position in a live-action Vampire game. I suppose it makes sense that D&D was inspired by "half live-action role-playing, half wargame" but I never thought about how it would feel to actually be doing it. This really feels like the game that the National Strategic Decision Making game wishes it could be, based on what Goons reported about trying to have fun there. The three generals in the game immediately decided there was a Marxist conspiracy infiltrating literally every other sector of the country and it has been hilarious watching it unspool since Also he told a story early on about how he was like the only army officer who did not smoke in Vietnam (or afterward), which may be related to why he is actually still around running his games
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Mar 27, 2022 19:46
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Yeah playing the Braunstein games is wild. It wasn't anything like I thought it was going to be when I first did it. Should make time at Gary Con next year to do it again if I can.
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Mar 27, 2022 21:36
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Another good analog for "NSDM, but fun" is mega games (and Braunstein is probably one of the inspirations for them). I did a few local variants of Watch the Skies that someone designed, and then I've done a few online as part of Gen Con 2020 and some other mid-pandemic online gaming. One was called Draft Night, where your group manages a sports team during the league draft, but the sport is Blaseball-esque in that you have no idea what the rules are or what the sport even really is, but you have a spreadsheet of players and their stats, but the stats are things like "% robot" and "BB" and "tibia diameter" and your team's Sabermetrician has to figure out what that all means, while your owner negotiates with the other owners on what the league rules will be (and tries to make more money) and your GM does the actual player picking (so you can be like "Player A is the best" but the GM can say "Yeah, but I don't want to pay them, I'm taking player D" and then when it's all said and done, they run a simulation and see how the teams actually do. I was the Saber for the Jakarta Tobacco Monopoly; our team was not good, but I believe we had the highest player performance per dollar spent, and we also had Performance Enhancing Cigars.
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Mar 28, 2022 16:06
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ok i'm extremely loving here for fantasy blaseball
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Mar 28, 2022 16:22
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Deviant posted:ok i'm extremely loving here for fantasy blaseball If it’s on the calendar again, I’ll keep you in mind for a ticket.
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Mar 28, 2022 20:03
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I try to weld my eyes shut every April 1 but I accidentally pried them open this year long enough to see Gen-Con's April Fool's press release which had better lead to them actually making that merchandise or we will all be very disappointed in them
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Apr 1, 2022 23:36
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We better get those shirts! I was doing some gen con research today and came across a few "lost" videos from gen con 2004. Enjoy! https://web.archive.org/web/20060508020023/http://www.breakfastofdemons.com/convention.htm
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Apr 2, 2022 00:51
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Wow, and underneath that is a set of videos from DRAGON*CON 2000 Edit: Hahaha, Marc Singer. I remember how excited my buddy was to get a picture with him. I had less than zero idea who that was. Probably still would not know if not for Gen-Con. GEN-COOONNNNNNNNN
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Apr 2, 2022 01:05
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I will spare Nesbit37 the agony of having to ask the annual "is anyone going to Origins?" question this year ... IS anyone going to Origins?!?! As once I found out they had implemented a VIG program of their own I immediately bought one. Well, O.K., the actual order of events was me messaging Torrent "oh my god, Origins has a VIG badge, why does Origins have a VIG badge? Who is going to buy this? Oh. Oh no, I am going to buy it, huh. *five minutes pass* Yep, O.K., VIG badge and across-the-street hotel paid for. Dammit." Gen-Con's unorthodox structure last year is really to blame. I remembered that I do, in fact, enjoy playing games sometimes, and so maybe attending the convention that is basically just for playing games is not a terrible idea. I had a downright great time at Gary Con doing that very thing, in fact!!! Though tragically their Diamond badges were sold out so I could only get a Gold Gary Con badge to go with my VIG Collector gimmick  Hmm does GameHoleCon have VIG yet
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Apr 6, 2022 03:21
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I for one am here for more hang time with Quarex, but I understand that the Auction is his first love and I don't want to get between them.
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Apr 6, 2022 07:08
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So looking at going to Gen Con after a good 5 year or so hiatus. Will it be "normal" Gen Con this year or an audibled version as was last year?
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Apr 6, 2022 14:35
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Dr. Quarex posted:IS anyone going to Origins?!?! Me! I've never been before. Looking forward to playing games with strangers.
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Apr 6, 2022 14:39
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Mr.Trifecta posted:So looking at going to Gen Con after a good 5 year or so hiatus. Will it be "normal" Gen Con this year or an audibled version as was last year? Last I heard masks are still required and attendance might still be slightly down for to COVID fears but the date being back to the regular time means more people returning. Not sure about big name companies but a lot were missing last year.
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Apr 6, 2022 14:54
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Dr. Quarex posted:Hmm does GameHoleCon have VIG yet In fact they do. There's usually only a handful available every year, so you have to get lucky and get in the nano-second registration opens to try and grab one.
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Apr 6, 2022 19:11
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I'm skipping origins this year. I went to sadder-origins last September and coupled with a trip to South africa this spring I had to cut vacation day spending somewhere. Might go to gamehole this year though! Haven't done that since 2017 or 2018. Not even going to try for their vig, though.
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Apr 6, 2022 21:27
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I got really lucky and got a Gamehole VIG last year. I will say that it's very much a D&D focused con. If you don't want to play Adventure League games, you may have spend some time hunting down events.
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Apr 6, 2022 22:07
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Yeah, last time I went to gamehole I just DMed AL games back to back all weekend. There was other stuff to do but not a ton that wasn't AL.
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Apr 7, 2022 00:11
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Carteret posted:I for one am here for more hang time with Quarex, but I understand that the Auction is his first love and I don't want to get between them. It will be interesting to see how the Auction goes this year, certainly. If it is normal, then yeah, I am sure I will be there plenty, though I DID have lots of fun actually hanging out with GOON so I will definitely try harder to make that happen from here on out. If it is somehow like a reduced schedule or whatever, that will make it even easier! And speaking of, Mr.Trifecta posted:So looking at going to Gen Con after a good 5 year or so hiatus. Will it be "normal" Gen Con this year or an audibled version as was last year? WerrWaaa posted:Me! I've never been before. Looking forward to playing games with strangers. I cannot stress enough to anyone who has not considered going to Origins how much fun it is to have access to the assortment of amazing places to eat at Central Market basically right across the street from where you do all your gaming. Way easier to get an amazing quick meal there than at Gen-Con, even if that might be the main thing I consider an advantage for Origins over Gen-Con. But Hot Chicken Takeover is so good I wore their sticker on my WORK BADGE everyone Funzo posted:In fact they do. There's usually only a handful available every year, so you have to get lucky and get in the nano-second registration opens to try and grab one. I definitely enjoyed my first (tabletop) 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons experience, so assuming Adventurers' League is not something you have to have already started doing before the convention I am definitely interested. I wanted to get into Pathfinder Society after having a great experience at Gen-Con 2019, but... something in 2020 came up and stopped me from gaming in public with strangers? Cannot remember what it was.
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Apr 7, 2022 02:14
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Adventurers League changed a little bit during the pandemic so this might not be the most up to date info. But if you are going to play in any tier 1 game (levels 1 thru 4) you are good to go. Just show up with a lvl 1 char or grab a pregen and start playing. If you wanted to play in a tier 2 thru 4 game though you would need an AL character you have previously leveled up. I believe now they also have pregens for tier 2 but someone else would need to verify that. You might like doing an epic. Its kind of like the grung game we played at gary con but more serious and less sleeping.a
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Apr 7, 2022 02:50
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Gen Con is doing something really cool this year, and I encourage anyone who knows someone who might qualify to share this link around: https://www.gencon.com/gen-con-indy/participation-grants They're offering free badges and stipends to people from underrepresented communities!
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Apr 7, 2022 02:53
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Dr. Quarex posted:I wanted to get into Pathfinder Society after having a great experience at Gen-Con 2019, but... something in 2020 came up and stopped me from gaming in public with strangers? Cannot remember what it was. I’m the thread Pathfinder apologist, but I’ve had good experiences with Pathfinder Society (both for PACG and the RPG). The website sucks and it makes tracking progress needlessly complicated and tied heavily to trusting your DM to have their poo poo together enough to submit the adventure info after the session, though. Even with all that, the worst experiences I’ve had have just been unimaginative or very by-the-Adventure-Path DMs, never anything like an actual super, very bad, uncomfortable table experience.
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Apr 7, 2022 02:56
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nesbit37 posted:Adventurers League changed a little bit during the pandemic so this might not be the most up to date info. But if you are going to play in any tier 1 game (levels 1 thru 4) you are good to go. Just show up with a lvl 1 char or grab a pregen and start playing. If you wanted to play in a tier 2 thru 4 game though you would need an AL character you have previously leveled up. I believe now they also have pregens for tier 2 but someone else would need to verify that. I will definitely take a look at my options for Origins. I imagine given I like to have downtime to just chill and wander and stare that I would be content playing in a series of low-level games, but I do sometimes decide something that might take 12 hours sounds just great too Going to South Africa also sounds like more fun than any of these options so I think you made the right call Tsilkani posted:Gen Con is doing something really cool this year, and I encourage anyone who knows someone who might qualify to share this link around: Agrias120 posted:I’m the thread Pathfinder apologist, but I’ve had good experiences with Pathfinder Society (both for PACG and the RPG). The website sucks and it makes tracking progress needlessly complicated and tied heavily to trusting your DM to have their poo poo together enough to submit the adventure info after the session, though. Even with all that, the worst experiences I’ve had have just been unimaginative or very by-the-Adventure-Path DMs, never anything like an actual super, very bad, uncomfortable table experience. I know how it feels to be the one defending the unpopular system, since in my group of friends I think no matter what game someone wants to play there is someone else who will categorically refuse to play it. Except Call of Cthulhu. Everyone likes Call of Cthulhu
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Apr 8, 2022 02:54
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Dr. Quarex posted:This IS extremely cool, and reminds me that I meant to ask BardicBroadcasts if he had any interest in attending Gen-Con because I feel like he would absolutely have a blast and undoubtedly get recognized enough that he would be showered with gifts and affection. I mean I have no previous relationship with him, but really this is just a response to say it REALLY IS an awesome thing, and maybe I should just ask if I can donate to this program instead of spending the surely $2,500+ it would take just to fly BardicBroadcasts here even if he thought my offer was not terrifying. Someone asked in the facebook comments of the announcement about donating and they responded to email marketing@gencon.com about it, so if you want to chip in, shoot them an email!
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Apr 8, 2022 03:02
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Dr. Quarex posted:
Can you have a Call of Cthulhu campaign? I've only played it at cons and it seems to lend itself to that very well, but also based on those experiences I can't imagine it as a campaign game, or really much of anything beyond one shots.
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Apr 8, 2022 03:43
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nesbit37 posted:Can you have a Call of Cthulhu campaign? I've only played it at cons and it seems to lend itself to that very well, but also based on those experiences I can't imagine it as a campaign game, or really much of anything beyond one shots. Yes. I refuse to offer more than that, but, yes.
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Apr 8, 2022 03:59
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Tsilkani posted:Someone asked in the facebook comments of the announcement about donating and they responded to email marketing@gencon.com about it, so if you want to chip in, shoot them an email! nesbit37 posted:Can you have a Call of Cthulhu campaign? I've only played it at cons and it seems to lend itself to that very well, but also based on those experiences I can't imagine it as a campaign game, or really much of anything beyond one shots. ... I have played in two things that I think qualify as Call of Cthulhu campaigns, and my far and away most successful campaign was technically a Call of Cthulhu campaign (though caveat that it was only my third campaign) One of the Cthulhu campaigns I played in fizzled out almost immediately; the other one went for three or four sessions and you could tell at least half the characters were already about to snap and get themselves killed one way or another. It was great. I think Call of Cthulhu is appealing precisely because the tone is such that you can actually recreate early Dungeons & Dragons' conceptual total-party-kill stylings and not have the players mad about losing a character or two/five. Oh and as for my campaign, I have arguably had the same gaming group since 1992 (or at least I was still playing tabletop games with half of the 1992 people before the pandemic), and one of our players started playing in I think 1979, back when it was still not hugely uncommon to be playing yourself as your Dungeons & Dragons character. I think as a result of that, games starting somewhat like "you, as in you, are sitting around shooting the poo poo together and suddenly MONSTERS OMG!" happened every year or two. We had not played such a crossover for a while when I ran a game intended to be a one-shot. I started by saying "the phone is ringing." They were like "uhh, are there phone-answering skills? What system is this? Did you actually make us characters?" and I said "oh yes, I must have forgotten to hand them out" and as soon as they saw the Call of Cthulhu logo with their names in the character name slots, drat, I have rarely had more satisfying gaming moments than the "hahaha, oh poo poo" consensus that came immediately after. So yeah after several hours of them solving a murder mystery and getting jumped by cultists who turned out to be former players from our gaming group, I wrapped things up and everyone unanimously agreed I should absolutely make this a campaign, despite, well, Call of Cthulhu campaigns tending to go certain ways. I ended up converting the game to Savage Worlds' Cthulhu rules to make it slightly more plausible that the players/characters could have agency in this world and actually have some sort of chance at survival, and also realized some of my favorite horror was also funny and made sure for every scene of visceral nightmare gore there was also absurd slapstick visceral nightmare gore. Basically what I am saying is: Horror is all around us at all times, and we can never escape until the sweet release of death, so it is only natural that nightmares make the best campaigns  (I also sent the players this next video to clarify the balance of horror and comedy I was going for [sorry, this video is INCREDIBLY LOUD for some reason]) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c02TRLbwY_I
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Apr 8, 2022 06:25
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Today's excuse to post in the thread: Apparently news about what the Auction will be is coming very soon. Though I assume this being gamers that means "maybe this weekend" not "today" In other news, the Origins VIG hotel block opened up and the two hotels across the street, one of which I had already booked out-of-block, were not even available in the hotel block. This is precisely what we all love about attending Origins
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Apr 14, 2022 02:03
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I am really curious to see how origins vig goes. Based on my past experiences there and how origins tends to run things I saw no reason to join but one can hope.
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Apr 14, 2022 02:47
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nesbit37 posted:I am really curious to see how origins vig goes. Based on my past experiences there and how origins tends to run things I saw no reason to join but one can hope. I imagine they cannot mess up the concept of a VIG lounge, but it will be great when it is run on the honor system or something Glad to be the guinea pig anyway. Particularly since I will be right across the street so it is not like I am in as dire need of a cozy place to chill as the year I accidentally got a place 2 miles away instead of 2 blocks away because there were two iterations of the same hotel or something. My entire life is marked by wise, well-researched decisions.
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Apr 14, 2022 03:21
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Just sitting here listening to Gen Con interviews getting more pumped for Gen Con. GEN CON! Only about 3.5 months to go! I'm kind of bummed I am not going to Origins this year now. Means next convention for me is Gen Con. Quarex, do you have any idea of how to get a hold of Tom Wham? Or do you have anyone else to still involved with the auction I should talk to about Gen Con auction history? I want to be sure to capture that somehow. So many little bits and pieces to Gen Con history, its difficult to know what to cover and what I should just skip over. Event catalog should be out in a little over 2 weeks, so that's the next Gen Con thing to get excited about!
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Apr 15, 2022 15:38
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GEN-CONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!nesbit37 posted:Just sitting here listening to Gen Con interviews getting more pumped for Gen Con. GEN CON! nesbit37 posted:I'm kind of bummed I am not going to Origins this year now. Means next convention for me is Gen Con. Just show up anyway, they probably do not even check badges or anything, this is Origins nesbit37 posted:Quarex, do you have any idea of how to get a hold of Tom Wham? Or do you have anyone else to still involved with the auction I should talk to about Gen Con auction history? I want to be sure to capture that somehow. So many little bits and pieces to Gen Con history, its difficult to know what to cover and what I should just skip over. Edit: Oh duh, Tim Kask, but you probably knew that too Edit: Caroline says some mysterious-to-me people named "Jane and Larry" whose last names she does not know (since she probably has not seen them since she was, like, 10) sold the Auction to the Troll & Toad guys in the mid-2000s. Not sure who owned it before them, or how long they were involved. They used to take Caroline and her family to Disneyland after every Gen Con So Cal 
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Apr 15, 2022 17:01
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Dr. Quarex posted:
Awesome, thanks. Some of that I knew but not all of it. I didn't think Tom Wham would be opposed to talking, more just wasn't even sure of how to get a hold of him to ask. I can pry around, though, and these other avenues are also good. This project isn't meant to be an oral history but there is some stuff I just need to talk to people about. I hadn't considered talking to Caroline before but if you're serious I totally would!
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Apr 15, 2022 17:40
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