Back from GenCon
We got back from the convention Monday evening, but I've been too fried and sleep-deprived to have the energy to post anything. GenCon was amazing, as usual, with a few down spots, again as usual.
This year's GenCon trip started out badly health-wise, when Laurie and I decided to get takeout sushi the Friday before the trip. We had just cleaned the kitchen and didn't want to leave dirty silverware or dishes there while we were gone. In retrospect I should have held out for the less-healthy Italian catering place that was our second choice. We both tried the crab salad from Ichiban. Laurie didn't like it much. I thought it tasted off, not quite as good as I remembered it. She spent the early morning violently throwing up. I spend the weekend making emergency shopping trips for ginger ale and rye bread, trying to settle both our stomachs. We were both feeling better Tuesday when it was time to leave for the convention, but her health still isn't back to normal. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow just to make sure there's not permanent damage done.
We drove this year, again, this time with just Laurie and I in the car. SArudy shared the hotel room in Indy with us, but she chose to fly out rather than drive. We might do that next year, depending on how we decide to prioritize money, annoyance, and vacation days. And time spent together. On both the trip out and the trip back we had a room with a hot tub to ourselves.
The convention itself was, as usual, crowded and far to busy. I can't blame GenCon for my signing up for too many events as usual, but it did seem to me that the dealer's room and hallways are getting more packed every year. I signed up for two True Dungeon events this year. Laurie had signed up for one with me, but we canceled her ticket as she wasn't feeling well enough at the convention to attend an event with potential physical exertion. We'll try again next year. True Dungeon this year wasn't terribly physically demanding, but they did turn the difficulty up to the point that very few teams completed every room. The last room in both adventures they ran had an amazing animatronic dragon, which one adventure track had to fight while the other tried to work a fairly difficult puzzle. I tried both adventures over the weekend. The team I was with on the "Dragonward" adventure did well up until we fought the dragon, at which point we were all promptly killed. I did manage to score a critical hit on the dragon in the last round of the combat, but unlike Wil Wheaton, I didn't have a +2 Spear of Dragonslaying and it survived the hit. The "Evading Hilt" (the non-dragon-fighting adventure) team I was on muddled through most of the adventure but wasn't able to figure out the puzzle in the last room. Still it was fun, and I'll be doing it again next year.
I also tried out three of the custom RoboRally games run by Zipse/Dustbunny Games, as well as one session of "RallyCross", a new game they're developing. I also attended several assorted seminars, though not as many as I'd optimistically originally planned. Spent most of the weekend eating jerky, homemade granola bars, and fast food, as I didn't leave enough time for eating in actual restaurants. Didn't end up buying anything in the dealer's room this year. I didn't have the time to really search it, I have all the exotic dice I need for now, there weren't any new Hero Games books out I needed, and the few games and things I did look at weren't quite what I was looking for. I did seriously consider buying the XDM (Extreme Dungeon Master) book, but decided after some research that the GM techniques recommended in that book were precisely the opposite of good GM practice. So, no good loot from this year (and not even any good free swag, they're getting stingy).
So now we're back. Despite health problems, we had fun, and will be going to next year's GenCon. We'll probably take a week for both of us to recover and unpack. Next big event coming up for me is MakerFaire NYC in late September. Not sure yet if I'll have anything to show off at that faire, but I do have a few ideas for new project I'll start working on soon.
This year's GenCon trip started out badly health-wise, when Laurie and I decided to get takeout sushi the Friday before the trip. We had just cleaned the kitchen and didn't want to leave dirty silverware or dishes there while we were gone. In retrospect I should have held out for the less-healthy Italian catering place that was our second choice. We both tried the crab salad from Ichiban. Laurie didn't like it much. I thought it tasted off, not quite as good as I remembered it. She spent the early morning violently throwing up. I spend the weekend making emergency shopping trips for ginger ale and rye bread, trying to settle both our stomachs. We were both feeling better Tuesday when it was time to leave for the convention, but her health still isn't back to normal. She has a doctor's appointment tomorrow just to make sure there's not permanent damage done.
We drove this year, again, this time with just Laurie and I in the car. SArudy shared the hotel room in Indy with us, but she chose to fly out rather than drive. We might do that next year, depending on how we decide to prioritize money, annoyance, and vacation days. And time spent together. On both the trip out and the trip back we had a room with a hot tub to ourselves.
The convention itself was, as usual, crowded and far to busy. I can't blame GenCon for my signing up for too many events as usual, but it did seem to me that the dealer's room and hallways are getting more packed every year. I signed up for two True Dungeon events this year. Laurie had signed up for one with me, but we canceled her ticket as she wasn't feeling well enough at the convention to attend an event with potential physical exertion. We'll try again next year. True Dungeon this year wasn't terribly physically demanding, but they did turn the difficulty up to the point that very few teams completed every room. The last room in both adventures they ran had an amazing animatronic dragon, which one adventure track had to fight while the other tried to work a fairly difficult puzzle. I tried both adventures over the weekend. The team I was with on the "Dragonward" adventure did well up until we fought the dragon, at which point we were all promptly killed. I did manage to score a critical hit on the dragon in the last round of the combat, but unlike Wil Wheaton, I didn't have a +2 Spear of Dragonslaying and it survived the hit. The "Evading Hilt" (the non-dragon-fighting adventure) team I was on muddled through most of the adventure but wasn't able to figure out the puzzle in the last room. Still it was fun, and I'll be doing it again next year.
I also tried out three of the custom RoboRally games run by Zipse/Dustbunny Games, as well as one session of "RallyCross", a new game they're developing. I also attended several assorted seminars, though not as many as I'd optimistically originally planned. Spent most of the weekend eating jerky, homemade granola bars, and fast food, as I didn't leave enough time for eating in actual restaurants. Didn't end up buying anything in the dealer's room this year. I didn't have the time to really search it, I have all the exotic dice I need for now, there weren't any new Hero Games books out I needed, and the few games and things I did look at weren't quite what I was looking for. I did seriously consider buying the XDM (Extreme Dungeon Master) book, but decided after some research that the GM techniques recommended in that book were precisely the opposite of good GM practice. So, no good loot from this year (and not even any good free swag, they're getting stingy).
So now we're back. Despite health problems, we had fun, and will be going to next year's GenCon. We'll probably take a week for both of us to recover and unpack. Next big event coming up for me is MakerFaire NYC in late September. Not sure yet if I'll have anything to show off at that faire, but I do have a few ideas for new project I'll start working on soon.