Things I Learned/Did at Gen Con
So, I'm back from Gen Con 2008.
I have a Red Bull to hand, wine chilling in the fridge, and two loads of laundry percolating sudsily.
Here's my attempt to offload some of the awesome so MAI BRANE can cool off a bit.
If I don't mention you by name/LJ userid, please do not be offended -- I was overwhelmed by meeting so many people.
ALSO, if you have amusing, enlightening, or terrifying Chad-necdotes from Gen Con, post them in the comments section for the edification of all (and possibly me!).
Hey, ho: let's go!
* semioticity is a hoopy frood. (on drive back, got a master-class in anime. Rock on!)
* drivingblind and I designed a new PDQ# (underlying system of S7S, second ed. of PDQ) on the ride to Indianapolis. Got to test it with Amanda (what's yer LJ, woomaan?), clarkvalentine, and necanthrope at the con -- and it's pretty damned hot.
* EVIL HATS:
** I now think of lcdarkwood as my crazy Cuban little brother.
** I should never try to teach drivingblind to suck (business-related) eggs. He's already a step ahead. Bastard.
** The Valentines are my valentines. You guys rock. (I need to hook you two up with my buddy Mike in State College, for reals.)
** rob_donoghue is a repository of awesome... but I already knew that.
** adamdray is a sweetheart, and really dedicated to RPG editing. (You RPG editors should fricking join rpgeditors now!)
* Booth set-up was pretty fun.
* Ron Edwards is somewhat different, somewhat the same, from how I expected him in person. Nice guy, ultimately -- gave me some of the absolute best advice on the ZoZ demo, which paid off bigtime over the rest of the con. Alas, we never got to talk extensively about bat penises. (But we will in the future. [Not a joke; SRS BISNIS.])
* Phil Reed is half the man he used to be... and looks great! (JEALOUS!)
* My mind was blown before the close of the floor on Wednesday. I finally met a vast number of virtual friends I've known close on a decade face-to-face. This had ramifications.
* I have a mutant ability to inadvertently collect many, many drink tickets, despite distributing the ones I received liberally. This had ramifications.
* While drinking, when princeofcairo tells you to "go home," you should frickin' listen, or else...
* ...iamnikchick will try to kill you with an Irish Car-bomb. (She almost succeeded. [I will have my revenge, I swear to you!])
* The Weber Grill (restaurant) is a place of beauty and horror (they give you a crapload of FANTASTIC eats! [Plus, two words: pretzel rolls!]).
* I got to shake hands with -- and share a smoke outside with -- CHEWBACCA (and his lovely wife)!!11!!!!eleventy-one!
* Did not get to hang with the superheroes, other than a brief meeting with Hygena (melodymuse).
* Hangover + soup = not ded.
* The Indie seminar track on Friday was full of awesome.
* Got to spend more time (but not enough!!!) with D. Vincent Baker, Emily Care Boss, and Joshua AC Newman, and Julia Bond Ellingboe. I MUST go to Dreamation -- or JiffyCon -- to hang with them.
* I learned how to demo! The ZoZ one really worked, and I had numerous wonderful portrayals of Kitty Princess Dinah, Pix Spritely (Apprentice Fairy Godmother), Lion-Boy, and Harry Dustbin (Living Construct Wizard). [The T&J demos kind of sucked, because the guy who wrote them is a fricking idiot.]
* I got to tell (again, but this time in person) robin_d_laws how important GURPS Fantasy II: the Madlands was to me as a writer and game designer.
* The ENnie Awards were fantastic. Very nice, quick, fun awards show. If I never hear that Paizo musical sting again, I will be happy mans. On the other hand, I now see what a big goddamn deal my ENnies for T&J were ("Wait, I have one of those glass thingies!"), and am sorry I wasn't there back in tha day.
* "Strippers, hookers, and blow" -- while intriguing in the theoretical -- are probably not the best practical use of my Gen Con dollars, ross_winn. Just sayin'.
* Along with the rest of Evil Hat, turned lemons into not just lemonade, but Mike's Hard Lemonade. Woo-frickin'-hoo!
* I played D&D 4e... and I liked it! I am fascinated by the fact that the game design is so damned tight that I could figure out about 85% of how stuff worked from the frickin' character sheet (props to rob_donoghue!).
* I got to play John Adams, in clockwork power armor, kicking the hell out of British redcoats. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
* I have met two of my three Pyramid editors -- sdharing and Steven Marsh. All I need is S. John Ross for the hat-trick.
* I made Regina Sutton scream so sweetly. (The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach demo -- Jason Morningstar, people... give him some love!)
* Only a few groupies, and even less so of the female persuasion. (Those female groupies I met get extra AWEZUM points, tho...).
* Playtest of S7S Vehicle Combat: FTW. I now can move forward on finalizing the damned game. W00T!
* Geek chicks in corsets = FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns = even more FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns that incorporate corsets = FLAWLESS VICTORY.
* Quotes:
** "I come from the desert, so I have the advantage." -- Leonard Balsera
** "I only have a +10?" -- Amanda Valentine
** CHAD: "So, Kitty Princess Dinah--"
LENNY: (pretending to be Ryan Macklin) "I've changed her name. It's Kitty Princess Dick Awesome now."
CHAD: (without a pause) "So, Kitty Princess Dick Awesome..."
** "Jet Black starts blazing away with Two Gun Mojo through the time distortion, ricocheting his bullets against a wall in AD 76, then into a plas-steel wall in AD 3030, and finally off of Abraham Lincoln's skull to destroy Doctor Methuselah's vile machine!" -- Chad Underkoffler
** (after blowing 6 pirate ships to hell) "Group hug, crew!" -- Josh Hoade (playing the capt)
** "I don't hug." -- Jerry Tidwell (playing the stoic first mate)
* My biggest regret is that I didn't get to spend more time with xomec, wickedthought, Luke Crane, and Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. This will be remedied in the future, I hope.
* People need to buy my stuff, so I can shunt cash from ASMP profits into a convention fund. I would love to go to Dreamation, Origins, and Gen Con in the coming year. So start buying product!!!
* .. and more STUFF -- and THINGS! -- that I haven't recalled yet.
Thanks for a great first Gen Con, folks. I'm coming back next year, if at all possible.
I have a Red Bull to hand, wine chilling in the fridge, and two loads of laundry percolating sudsily.
Here's my attempt to offload some of the awesome so MAI BRANE can cool off a bit.
If I don't mention you by name/LJ userid, please do not be offended -- I was overwhelmed by meeting so many people.
ALSO, if you have amusing, enlightening, or terrifying Chad-necdotes from Gen Con, post them in the comments section for the edification of all (and possibly me!).
Hey, ho: let's go!
* semioticity is a hoopy frood. (on drive back, got a master-class in anime. Rock on!)
* drivingblind and I designed a new PDQ# (underlying system of S7S, second ed. of PDQ) on the ride to Indianapolis. Got to test it with Amanda (what's yer LJ, woomaan?), clarkvalentine, and necanthrope at the con -- and it's pretty damned hot.
* EVIL HATS:
** I now think of lcdarkwood as my crazy Cuban little brother.
** I should never try to teach drivingblind to suck (business-related) eggs. He's already a step ahead. Bastard.
** The Valentines are my valentines. You guys rock. (I need to hook you two up with my buddy Mike in State College, for reals.)
** rob_donoghue is a repository of awesome... but I already knew that.
** adamdray is a sweetheart, and really dedicated to RPG editing. (You RPG editors should fricking join rpgeditors now!)
* Booth set-up was pretty fun.
* Ron Edwards is somewhat different, somewhat the same, from how I expected him in person. Nice guy, ultimately -- gave me some of the absolute best advice on the ZoZ demo, which paid off bigtime over the rest of the con. Alas, we never got to talk extensively about bat penises. (But we will in the future. [Not a joke; SRS BISNIS.])
* Phil Reed is half the man he used to be... and looks great! (JEALOUS!)
* My mind was blown before the close of the floor on Wednesday. I finally met a vast number of virtual friends I've known close on a decade face-to-face. This had ramifications.
* I have a mutant ability to inadvertently collect many, many drink tickets, despite distributing the ones I received liberally. This had ramifications.
* While drinking, when princeofcairo tells you to "go home," you should frickin' listen, or else...
* ...iamnikchick will try to kill you with an Irish Car-bomb. (She almost succeeded. [I will have my revenge, I swear to you!])
* The Weber Grill (restaurant) is a place of beauty and horror (they give you a crapload of FANTASTIC eats! [Plus, two words: pretzel rolls!]).
* I got to shake hands with -- and share a smoke outside with -- CHEWBACCA (and his lovely wife)!!11!!!!eleventy-one!
* Did not get to hang with the superheroes, other than a brief meeting with Hygena (melodymuse).
* Hangover + soup = not ded.
* The Indie seminar track on Friday was full of awesome.
* Got to spend more time (but not enough!!!) with D. Vincent Baker, Emily Care Boss, and Joshua AC Newman, and Julia Bond Ellingboe. I MUST go to Dreamation -- or JiffyCon -- to hang with them.
* I learned how to demo! The ZoZ one really worked, and I had numerous wonderful portrayals of Kitty Princess Dinah, Pix Spritely (Apprentice Fairy Godmother), Lion-Boy, and Harry Dustbin (Living Construct Wizard). [The T&J demos kind of sucked, because the guy who wrote them is a fricking idiot.]
* I got to tell (again, but this time in person) robin_d_laws how important GURPS Fantasy II: the Madlands was to me as a writer and game designer.
* The ENnie Awards were fantastic. Very nice, quick, fun awards show. If I never hear that Paizo musical sting again, I will be happy mans. On the other hand, I now see what a big goddamn deal my ENnies for T&J were ("Wait, I have one of those glass thingies!"), and am sorry I wasn't there back in tha day.
* "Strippers, hookers, and blow" -- while intriguing in the theoretical -- are probably not the best practical use of my Gen Con dollars, ross_winn. Just sayin'.
* Along with the rest of Evil Hat, turned lemons into not just lemonade, but Mike's Hard Lemonade. Woo-frickin'-hoo!
* I played D&D 4e... and I liked it! I am fascinated by the fact that the game design is so damned tight that I could figure out about 85% of how stuff worked from the frickin' character sheet (props to rob_donoghue!).
* I got to play John Adams, in clockwork power armor, kicking the hell out of British redcoats. HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
* I have met two of my three Pyramid editors -- sdharing and Steven Marsh. All I need is S. John Ross for the hat-trick.
* I made Regina Sutton scream so sweetly. (The Shab-Al-Hiri Roach demo -- Jason Morningstar, people... give him some love!)
* Only a few groupies, and even less so of the female persuasion. (Those female groupies I met get extra AWEZUM points, tho...).
* Playtest of S7S Vehicle Combat: FTW. I now can move forward on finalizing the damned game. W00T!
* Geek chicks in corsets = FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns = even more FTW. Geek chicks in evening gowns that incorporate corsets = FLAWLESS VICTORY.
* Quotes:
** "I come from the desert, so I have the advantage." -- Leonard Balsera
** "I only have a +10?" -- Amanda Valentine
** CHAD: "So, Kitty Princess Dinah--"
LENNY: (pretending to be Ryan Macklin) "I've changed her name. It's Kitty Princess Dick Awesome now."
CHAD: (without a pause) "So, Kitty Princess Dick Awesome..."
** "Jet Black starts blazing away with Two Gun Mojo through the time distortion, ricocheting his bullets against a wall in AD 76, then into a plas-steel wall in AD 3030, and finally off of Abraham Lincoln's skull to destroy Doctor Methuselah's vile machine!" -- Chad Underkoffler
** (after blowing 6 pirate ships to hell) "Group hug, crew!" -- Josh Hoade (playing the capt)
** "I don't hug." -- Jerry Tidwell (playing the stoic first mate)
* My biggest regret is that I didn't get to spend more time with xomec, wickedthought, Luke Crane, and Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch. This will be remedied in the future, I hope.
* People need to buy my stuff, so I can shunt cash from ASMP profits into a convention fund. I would love to go to Dreamation, Origins, and Gen Con in the coming year. So start buying product!!!
* .. and more STUFF -- and THINGS! -- that I haven't recalled yet.
Thanks for a great first Gen Con, folks. I'm coming back next year, if at all possible.