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It is that time of year again! What time? The time within BASICALLY ANY NUMBER OF MONTHS OF code:AUGUST ~2, 3, 4, AND 5, 2018 THE BEST  Whether you are into boardgames, role-playing games, collectible trading card games, collectible deck-building games, uncollectable sorrow, the biggest room full of nerdy things to buy you will ever see, kosupure, vidja, terrible Apples to Apples knockoffs, foam weapon jousting, playing D&D in a football stadium, live-action dungeon-crawl-pretending, infinite food, tiny metal figurines, the animes, fursuits or whatever, human skulls, or just into THE BEST AUCTION IN THE UNIVERSE, you will have an amazing time at Gen-Con.    Whether you HATE THE IDEA OF TOUCHING OTHER PEOPLE or ARE LITERALLY EMPLOYED AS A PEOPLE-TOUCHER, you will have an amazing time at Gen-Con.    That right one is my favorite picture of Frank Mentzer ever Gen Con Indy posted:A consumer and trade experience dedicated to gaming culture and community. Gen Con Indy is the largest annual consumer fantasy, electronic, sci-fi, adventure and hobby game convention in North America. Each year gaming enthusiasts converge to share their love for all things gaming, from tournaments to guest appearances, exhibit hall booths to electronic games, workshops, seminars, anime, art shows, auctions and countless other activities. Q. WHEN IS IT? A. Officially, August 2 - 5, 2018. Events formally start Wednesday night in a very small number (I believe they cannot be paid events and are mostly just formalized gatherings) and then Thursday morning at 8 A.M. ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE and events run constantly until Sunday afternoon at 6 P.M. Or maybe it is only 5, but I feel like some things start at 4 and go 2 hours. Whatever, you will have lost the will to live by Sunday morning anyway. Fellis posted:
Let us give thanks that the event charts no longer look like this:  Android thing for maps and events and stuff: THE UNOFFICIAL GEN CON APP   Q. HOW DO I GET THERE? A. Trains? Planes? Automobiles? Not the bus, though. Oh man. Never the bus. Well, O.K., bus if you must. The Indianapolis airport is getting better every year (trust me, I have been watching this issue--particularly now that I am trying and thus far failing to move there), and the shuttle to downtown is (supposedly?) pretty good, if you wanted to stay at an airport hotel and roll that way, which would probably remain a viable choice up until right before the convention. Probably. Also our official GroupMe room can sometimes help to find lodging or travel options: Lawen posted:Go here to download the app for your iOS/Android/Windows Phone.  I can put whatever the hell I want here lolol    Q. SHOULD I BRING ANYTHING? A.
    Q. WHY DO I WANT TO GO? A. Because... well first off if none of what has already been said interests you then I LITERALLY DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY OR HOW, but furthermore, Gen-Con is somehow even more than the sum of its parts, and its parts are so amazing on their own that they are sufficient on their own to draw a crowd as well. But some sort of magical exponential joy-growth occurs within a 1-mile radius of downtown Indianapolis during Gen-Con, and it is like everyone everywhere has a good time no matter how hard they try to be unhappy (and we know some nerds do try very hard). What I am saying is, even as someone who is pretty happy most of the time, I am never otherwise so excited for an extended period as when at Gen-Con.  Actually Indianapolis' Cat Café but you could go to this during Gen-Con if you like, though Captain Rat and I cheated and went on the Monday before last year Q. WHAT IS FOOD A. PLACES EVERYONE SEEMS TO SUGGEST YOU EAT IN THE AREA: Firstly, a map showing all the places to eat close to the Convention center. The closest food to the convention itself is likely in the form of food trucks on Georgia Street (right outside the uhh East entrance I think). I have heard basically only good things about all of those trucks though I have not tried them myself yet.
If you are one of the 1% of attendees able to walk under her/his own power, here are some of the best Indianapolis restaurants that are still technically walkable but are probably like a mile away or so:
camoseven posted:
Here is VISIT INDY'S list of all its restaurants that have appeared on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (a show on the Food Network here in The America). Oh and looking at the list in 2017 it appears they added/I never noticed the places featured on Man vs. Food, Eat Street, Top 5 Restaurants, and The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Repeat offenders from Goon recommendations on these these lists: St. Elmo Steakhouse and Milktooth. Guess those two really are awesome. And here we have VISIT INDY's list of its TOP 25 LOCAL RESTAURANTS! Several Gen-Con/this post favorites show up, including Café Patachou, Scotty's Brewhouse, Bazbeaux, and St. Elmo.     Q. DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER GENERIC TIPS FOR ME A. YES AND YES I DID STEAL THE IDEA FOR THIS SECTION FROM 2016'S EXCELLENT COMIC CON THREAD Oh but first LuiCypher wrote a GUIDE LuiCypher posted:Ugh. I don't know what compelled me to do this, but here's the quintessential GenCon Housing Guide based upon both my experiences and those of other goons in this thread for TYOOL 2017. Let me know if you think I missed anything major.
 Here we have Dave Megarry, creator of Dungeon!, running his original copy on the table he designed it on: Dave Arneson's Ping-Pong Table. I single-handedly pushed this table through the entirety of the Convention Center, from the parking lot under the J.W. Marriott to the Lucas Oil Arena. It took like 30 minutes. YOU ARE WELCOME -=`*~ FINAL NOTES ~*'=- THEY SOLD OUT LAST YEAR SO YOU (PROBABLY) DO ACTUALLY NEED TO GET A BADGE SOONER THAN LATER (Or get into the volunteering scene, lots of last-minute opportunities to attend that way)     As one last thing if you want to entertain yourself in a Gen-Con fashion, you can peruse Alan DeSmet's awesome page of last year's events to get an idea of what else you might find. I cannot believe nobody questioned me claiming that Gary Gygax's gaming setup from Gary Con belonged in this post As always... SEE. YOU. THERE.  (Thanks Nesbit37)  (Thanks Bottom Liner) Dr. Quarex fucked around with this message at 16:55 on May 8, 2018 |
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Jan 25, 2018 02:04
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GENERAL INDY BEER INFO 
. I also killed two birds with one stone and threw some things in there for my family, so just ignore any references to my mom's place or whatever.
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Reserved, as always, for a post that will probably never actually be made. Nah who knows man, 2018 is a year full of nerdy possibilities Edit: Greetings from 2019 thread research Dr. Quarex fucked around with this message at 04:09 on Jan 25, 2019 |
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Jan 25, 2018 02:04
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 Feb 10th is when you find out your spot in the housing line! Feb 11st is housing lottery day! E:holy poo poo good title my man Fellis fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Feb 7, 2018 |
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Jan 25, 2018 02:24
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Our group is planning on being in town on Wednesday this year, getting hyped.
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Jan 25, 2018 02:25
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Super pumped, especially since I'll have a booth this year! I'll be getting in on Tuesday and leaving Monday. Just the beginning of stretching Gen Con into an all year affair.
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Jan 25, 2018 02:30
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Someone in the GroupMe last year recommended the restaurant Punch Bowl Social and it was really good, so you know, add it to the list or whatever. Also entirely empty at peak meal times, so probably a safe choice. Yelp if you care. This year's goals include getting as drunk as I got last year without throwing up in the my friend's bathtub. Also, sneak into the Asmodee industry party again. That was my top achievement last year.
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Jan 25, 2018 02:37
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I might be rolling into town solo this year ): but instead of ignoring goons in favor of my group I'll try and get in on all the random games that pop up. If I get a good spot in the line I might look for roommates for downtown.
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Jan 25, 2018 02:39
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Gencon!
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Jan 25, 2018 03:10
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Gencon!!!!!
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Jan 25, 2018 03:20
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I have a few pics from last year's Gen Con Gary Gygax's sand table. Gary decided that some creatures should take longer to cross from one side of this thing to the other and that's why, to this day, your dwarf only moves 20 feet per round.  A bunch of original gaming stuff!   Prototype of the boardgame Dungeon.  Dave Arneson's ping pong table where he invented the modern RPG.  Stuff from the earliest Gen Cons    A recreation of the Lake Geneva Horticultural Hall where the first Gen Con took place.   A perfect RPGdotJPEG for you.  Dave from Monkeyfun Studios showing off Gruel Truck. 
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Jan 25, 2018 03:24
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Quarex failed to mention the Gencon 2018... pre-game-a-palooza slash running-of-the-bulls slash seperate the adults with drinking problems from the children with drinking problems slash what do you mean you ordered 36 shots of fireball slash event that has grown beyond my ability to control:  Borne out of my inability to sit at a table with 12-20 goons at a chain restaurant without kicking things into a much stupider gear, we will likely return to the same German restaurant and drink our faces off. Location: TBD Time: Wednesday, TBD   This was the only aftermath photo of last year's nonsense I got. 
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Jan 25, 2018 03:26
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I'm so loving excited, 7 months out! I'm going to take a half day on Wednesday this year so I can arrive not at midnight.
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Jan 25, 2018 05:07
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I want to go to the cat cafe
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Jan 25, 2018 05:37
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Gencon? Gencon. Gencon!
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Jan 25, 2018 06:25
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Gencon! Maybe this year we can get through one god damned turn of that Mars game. Incidentally, I can't remember the name of the game itself.
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Jan 25, 2018 06:26
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Does anyone have pro tips for flying to Gen Con? We've always driven, but we're moving across the country this year and will have to fly to get to Gen Con. In particular, how do people handle buying big items? Do you just ship it back? Pack light and have some way of putting it in your suitcase while preventing baggage handlers from molesting your bag and dinging up your nice new stuff? Take your haul as carry-on? Employ quantum teleportation?
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Jan 25, 2018 07:40
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Countblanc posted:I want to go to the cat cafe Bonus points! If you go to the Cat Cafe there are some of the great food options nearby like Kuma's Corner.
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Jan 25, 2018 12:28
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Avenging Dentist posted:Does anyone have pro tips for flying to Gen Con? We've always driven, but we're moving across the country this year and will have to fly to get to Gen Con. In particular, how do people handle buying big items? Do you just ship it back? Pack light and have some way of putting it in your suitcase while preventing baggage handlers from molesting your bag and dinging up your nice new stuff? Take your haul as carry-on? Employ quantum teleportation? There's a place in the convention center where you can ship large items home. Alternately, you can take old clothes and donate them to a homeless guy when you leave and fill your luggage with awesome new game purchases. edit: you can always pack an empty backpack and use that as a carry on when you come home. In 2015 they gave away some neat satchel looking bags so I used that as a carry on and checked my suitcase when flying home Pez fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Jan 25, 2018 |
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Jan 25, 2018 14:34
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Awesome new thread Dr. Quarex, thanks for making it! I'm stoked for my...6th? 7th? consecutive GenCon but won't really be able to get excited until our JW room is secured in the lottery. Avenging Dentist posted:Does anyone have pro tips for flying to Gen Con? We've always driven, but we're moving across the country this year and will have to fly to get to Gen Con. In particular, how do people handle buying big items? Do you just ship it back? Pack light and have some way of putting it in your suitcase while preventing baggage handlers from molesting your bag and dinging up your nice new stuff? Take your haul as carry-on? Employ quantum teleportation? I've dealt with this a few different ways. The easiest but most expensive is to ship, there's a FedEx store in the JW by the Starbucks (just get there early on Sunday since there's usually a line by the time they open). Checking or carrying on a bag full of games works fine, baggage handlers and TSA don't care about or gently caress with games in my experience but taking an extra empty suitcase to fill for the return trip isn't ideal. Maybe you and your partner/GenCon buddy could pack light and consolidate into a clothes bag and a game bag for the return trip? I now have a friend who gets a booth every year and is cool about letting me throw poo poo in his van to haul home halfway across the country but that's not really an option for everyone. Honestly though, and I know this is blasphemy, I've bought a lot fewer games the past couple years. I used to buy every hot game and spend $70ish to ship a big box home and then not get around to playing them for a couple months, when they're already available on CSI/Amazon for cheaper with free shipping. Now I pretty much only buy stuff that I want to open and play at GenCon, stuff to get signed, or stuff that will never be available elsewhere.
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Jan 25, 2018 14:35
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Buyer's remorse is definitely something I've dealt with both times I've been. I get so excited to grab something early (I'm looking at you King of New York), buy it then realized I overpaid just to play something a month or 2 early. I was all excited to go this year and yesterday my daughter informed me she's due with my first grandkid not long after the Con so now I have to decide if I want to make plans that close to her big event. Kids 
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Jan 25, 2018 14:43
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Maybe worth adding (a shorter paraphrase) to the OP? Punch Bowl Social - I stumbled (literally) across this place last year and it was a high point of the trip. It's a big, nice bar at the other end of Georgia St near the basketball arena. It had good food and very good cocktails and is the only place in Indy I've found where I can do shots of Fernet-Branca. It also has 8 bowling lanes, 3 dart boards, 2 ping-pong tables, 2 bocce ball courts, 3 private karaoke rooms, a retro arcade, corn hole, a giant Scrabble game, and plenty of table space for board gaming. Best of all, it was completely loving empty last year -- they'd only opened a few months earlier and no one seemed to know about it. I apparently got drunkenly, annoyingly effusive about it in GroupMe and people were mean to me but don't hold that against Punch Bowl. I'm definitely planning to go back this year and imo it'd be a great venue for Shot Wednesday assuming nerd trivia is still dead.
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Jan 25, 2018 15:02
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I went to gencon for the first time in 2016, skipped 2017, and am going this year. I'm considering running a game or two of BSG because it's my favorite game and apparently there was a lot more interest than events for it last year. Am I totally nuts?
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Jan 25, 2018 16:05
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Admiral Joeslop posted:Maybe this year we can get through one god damned turn of that Mars game. Oh god I forgot about The Mars Game, I may still have the app installed
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Jan 25, 2018 17:18
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What is The Mars Game?
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Jan 25, 2018 17:21
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Oh god I forgot about The Mars Game, I may still have the app installed I hope so, my Googling leads to nothing recognizable. I swear it was Mars specific but none of the Mars games I've found have the thousands of pieces and require an app to play. Last year, my buddy bought a neat little journal from a booth. It had space on every page for board game info. Name, description, pros and cons, booth number etc. Designed for keeping track of games you try out in the dealer's hall. Anyone know which company that was, or know of something similar? I could just use my phone or a regular notebook sure but this was a cool thing made by one person.
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Jan 25, 2018 18:02
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Admiral Joeslop posted:I hope so, my Googling leads to nothing recognizable. I swear it was Mars specific but none of the Mars games I've found have the thousands of pieces and require an app to play. If their was an app involved then it was most likely Ignacy Trzewiczek's newest bad game: First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet. A "refinement" of the systems he first used in Robinson Crusoe. Coincidentally it is currently on sale at CSI for turdy dollars. Other mars games I can think off: Terraforming Mars Pocket Mars Mission: Red Planet
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Jan 25, 2018 18:11
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the mars game is where you run up to another attendee, scream MARS at them as loud as possible, and then punch them in face
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Jan 25, 2018 18:14
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Cat Face Joe posted:the mars game is where you run up to another attendee, scream MARS at them as loud as possible, and then punch them in face The app part of the game is that you only do this when people are looking at their phones.
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Jan 25, 2018 18:15
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ZachAttack posted:The app part of the game is that you only do this when people are looking at their phones. the element of surprise is key during the later days of the convention
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Jan 25, 2018 18:18
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ZachAttack posted:If their was an app involved then it was most likely Ignacy Trzewiczek's newest bad game: First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet. A "refinement" of the systems he first used in Robinson Crusoe. Coincidentally it is currently on sale at CSI for turdy dollars. It sure as poo poo was First Martians. Board Game Geeks gives it a 4.13/5 on the complexity rating and boy is that right. It's like someone tried to translate a video game to a board game without considering all the work the computer does behind the scenes. My buddy responded about those journals too: https://conquestjournal.com/product-category/gen-con/ $15 seems good for something you'll be able to use at many cons.
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Jan 25, 2018 18:33
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Cat Face Joe posted:the mars game is where you run up to another attendee, scream MARS at them as loud as possible, and then punch them in face In 2015 me and a friend brought our girlfriends to their first convention ever and we tried to convince them that people wearing tails were participating in a game where you had to grab the tail and run off. They did not believe us
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Jan 25, 2018 19:07
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Clanpot Shake posted:I went to gencon for the first time in 2016, skipped 2017, and am going this year. I'm considering running a game or two of BSG because it's my favorite game and apparently there was a lot more interest than events for it last year. Am I totally nuts? if Nemesis of Moles has taught me anything, it's that the only requirement to run an event at gencon is to show up on time and be reasonably sober. and these both seem like soft requirements.
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Jan 25, 2018 19:34
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Running events is super super easy, go here - https://www.gencon.com/event_registrations/new, submit the event, wait till they assign you a table. Then show up at that time and date and play the game. Its very chill. They don't even really give a poo poo if you forget to collect the tickets from people. I've always had a very pleasant time with randos at GenCon the 3 or 4 times I've run games.
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Jan 25, 2018 19:38
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:I've always had a very pleasant time with randos at GenCon the 3 or 4 times I've run games. 
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Jan 25, 2018 19:40
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I've had good times with the random players who show up but the guys running events have been hit or miss. My character got into a rapey situation in the Atomic Robo RPG for Christ's sake  And at the "learn to play shadowrun 5e" event the gm sat a single rulebook on the table and just let us go for almost two hours for character creation. Then we each got a single action in the scenario and without it ending he went "times up have a good night"
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Jan 25, 2018 19:48
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There are absolutely some godawful GMs out there. Every year I sign up for what appears to be a really cool concept for a session then find out its being run by The Worst Person and either suffer through 3 hours of Nothing Of Value or leave. The correct answer is always Leave. A year or two ago I sat down to play a 4e XCrawl game that was supposed to be a "Charity XCrawl Brawl" so I thought, cool, that sounds wacky and fun. Got there and it turned out to be a demo for a $2000 table with an IPad in it where we didn't even do anything particularly XCrawly
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Jan 25, 2018 20:07
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Make sure when you try to goonrush an awful sounding game that sounds like it’s going to encourage bad homosexual stereotypes, its not actually being run by a lbgtq-friendly organization trying to run inclusive games in a positive environment
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Jan 25, 2018 20:25
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Fellis posted:Make sure when you try to goonrush an awful sounding game that sounds like it’s going to encourage bad homosexual stereotypes, its not actually being run by a lbgtq-friendly organization trying to run inclusive games in a positive environment But definitely take a big steaming dump on the NSDM game
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Jan 25, 2018 21:18
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Deviant posted:But definitely take a big steaming dump on the NSDM game Look man, the rose-tinted glasses I wear RELIGIOUSLY tell me I had an OK time, and I got a sweet book out of it because I was the ROCKET MAN and got bonus points for ROCKETS and we as the USSR flew a man to the Moon TWICE before the US did (okay, actually once but the fact that they allowed us to stage a fake moon landing was awesome.) I don't think I'd do an NSDM game at GENCON again tho. Avenging Dentist posted:Does anyone have pro tips for flying to Gen Con? I've flown in twice, and my Lifehack(tm) is to have a duffel bag rolled up in my carry-on, and then just check my bag filled with nerd poo poo on the return trip. Checked-bag fees < Postage fees (especially considering the Convention Price Hike)
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Jan 25, 2018 21:30
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Deviant posted:But definitely take a big steaming dump on the NSDM game I have literally never been able to read this as anything but National Socialist Death Metal.  Carteret posted:I've flown in twice, and my Lifehack(tm) is to have a duffel bag rolled up in my carry-on, and then just check my bag filled with nerd poo poo on the return trip. Checked-bag fees < Postage fees (especially considering the Convention Price Hike) That's not a bad idea, especially since I flew enough last year that I have status on Delta, so we'll get a free checked bag each. Maybe if I just wrap shirts and stuff around my precious board game boxes, they won't get dinged up by the baggage handlers.
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Jan 25, 2018 22:15
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