GenCon Wrap - the rest of the story
Slow day at work! WooHoo!
On Friday morning I was up early again, and this time was able to join both Ben and Bill for breakfast at Steak & Shake. Sadly, this time I opted for a steakburger patty melt, which … see, I normally eat a lot of organics, lentils, greens, lean protein, fish. Things like this. Friday breakfast was the meal I thought might end me, but a bit of Starbuck's and some floor wandering set that to rest.
I picked up the first booty of the Con - a t-shirt for my lovely wife with My Little Cthulhu on it, and a little Japanese bun-rab doll that she could add to her collection. (It's not really a collection. I give her rabbits and she accepts them. It's not like she's one of those weird doll ladies or something). Kerry was able to pick up another painting by Nigel Sade, a man of excellent talent and some renown. Met up with the lads for lunch at the food court and headed to Indie Games on Demand.
doogs19, Sean and myself were lucky enough to get into a game of Mouse Guard, which was one of the Con highlights for me. Sean RP'd the angry little mouse very well after I won an argument against his character and beheaded the weasel he had promised would be set free. I think Doogs could have been happier playing the older, wiser Guard captain rather than the healer, but that's more the fault of our choices on where to go and how to deal with the situation than any issues of his own. Sean and I borked the endscene with terrible die rolls and wound up being left for dead near the weasel fortress as Doogs' healer and the missing scientist high-tailed it back to Pebblebrook.
After that I met up with Dana and Lisa for our annual pre-LARP dinner and catch-up session, which is always a blast and a half. We wound up at Houlihan's and, recalling my breakfast woes, chose a very nice chicken dish for the evening along with several beers. We split and I returned for a quick shave and quick change.
Walking the streets of Indy in a full-on Reniassance coat and boots is always fun. Doing so among the hordes streaming toward Lucas Oil Stadium for the first pre-season game of the year is even moreso, but nothing untoward happened and I was able to get into Union Station without any problem.
First impressions: Oh my god, this is gonna be great. Huge ceilings! Stained glass windows! Polished brass everywhere! And … electric guitar being practiced at volume. Yep, the Station had booked local bands to play an adjascent room to the Con. Luckily, we were able to move back into a hall area with plenty of space for us to play.
I took the role of Prince Marco Vestini of Vodacce, which was a ton of fun. Two female attendants and one angry wife, uninvited and arriving on the arm of my so-called right hand man. Despite this, I spent most of the evening deep in plots with Bernoulli (Kerry's husband Dan) and Falisci (a gentleman whose name I did not get at the time, but who was awesome.) We had some great plotting scenes, we all gathered to screw Mondavi eight ways from Sunday, and in the end I'd accomplished NONE of my goals but could hardly bring myself to care. I love roleplay, and I got to do plenty of it.
We walked back for a quick change, then back to the hotel bar to meet Ben, Bill and Rett. We hung out a bit then headed to the Ram, as the hotel martinis were simply not cutting it. Back to the hotel and the end of another fine evening.
On Saturday I had the world's WORST breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Seriously, they were draining my omlette of oil while I stood there, and the bacon would have sent deer into blood pressure clinics. Coffee was okay, but the service was so slow I had to go to Starbucks' afterward to get my full allotment in.
Walked the floor a bit more with the full crowd (more or less), before discussing the afternoon's Adventure! Game with Bob Karsher, GM extraordinaire. Ben wasn't going to make it on his ticket, and I think it was Doogs who suggested torigirl84 take his ticket so we could play without any wet blankets on the team. This led to a comical twnety minutes of searching Ben's luggage (with his permission) before giving up and deciding to try for generics for her. Bob said that'd be fine, but in the end we had all six tickets … I'd been holding one for Ben, when I thought I was holding it for Joe. Ha ha! Silly idiot.
At any rate, the game was a stone riot. I think we played off each other better in this game than ever before as we hunted the Skunk Apes of St. Pierre, Quebec; as the redoubtable Frog Hall Gang. Doogs runs an excellent Mr. Enkidu, the world's formost botanical expert who is also a gorilla; and I had fun as always as Dr. Maximillian Berger, the world's most brilliant dentist!
This game also saw the return of the phrase "Nature's Pocket," which seemed ready to destroy us all.
Immediately afterwards I met up with jennifer_brozek for our Grants Pass book signing! This was my first book signing, though far from the last, and it was a very good experience overall! I got to booth babe it up, which is always fun, and I'm reasonably sure the sales went pretty well for a one-hour sitting.
After that Jenn and I ran to a business dinner, going over some future projects as well as lessons learned from this one. Had a remarkably pleasant walk back to the hotel room to pick up the one game I bought at the Con - A Touch of Evil, a colonial gothic boardgame from Flying Frog Productions. Doogs, Bill, Sean, Kerry and I ran through a full game in about two hours and I think it was the Con-Envy purchase of the year!
At the same time we were watching some dudes behind us work with the Master Mold miniatures casting stuff, which was great. They were very friendly and enthusiastic, sharing lots of tips and handing us stuff to play with and examine. Good, good times all around.
Everyone else got pretty tired by that point, but I'd only been to Nicky's once in the Con and that would not stand! Had a wonderful conversation on the nature of faith, politics, reality and history over a few well-placed drinks before being dropped back home to say good night to Indianapolis and all its manifold joys.
We left early Sunday, though not without some incidents at checkout - I'm not sure if we'll be returning to the Hyatt; I KNOW we will not be dining at the Ram any longer. The trip back was subdued as usual (well, subdued as we tend to get) and we were able to make it home before one in the afternoon despite the Air & Water show.
Leanne had me spin tales the whole way back to our house, which was nice; though it's always a little odd to come back to reality after four days away for both of us. We opted for Mexican for the last meal of my vacation. Some of the neighbors came by and are actually excited that I came back with a boardgame - who knew?
L delighted in the stories of Nature's Pocket, and I'm pretty sure she's already pulled that one on Doogs via telephone. I was so flustered I mailed out his check for the hotel without a stamp, and somehow, the letter and check came through to him in less than 24 hours even without postage.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I lead a very charmed life. I have wonderful friends whom I love and who love me, I have a knack for meeting the proper people in the proper places at the proper times. All of my wishes and occassional complaints mean very little stacked up against all the world does right for me, and I hope and pray I never grow cynical, ungrateful or unfeeling about it all.
Wish I'd seen more of you all there - wish I'd had more time with all of you who were there - but in the end, we'll do it all again the coming year.
Love, light, peace.
On Friday morning I was up early again, and this time was able to join both Ben and Bill for breakfast at Steak & Shake. Sadly, this time I opted for a steakburger patty melt, which … see, I normally eat a lot of organics, lentils, greens, lean protein, fish. Things like this. Friday breakfast was the meal I thought might end me, but a bit of Starbuck's and some floor wandering set that to rest.
I picked up the first booty of the Con - a t-shirt for my lovely wife with My Little Cthulhu on it, and a little Japanese bun-rab doll that she could add to her collection. (It's not really a collection. I give her rabbits and she accepts them. It's not like she's one of those weird doll ladies or something). Kerry was able to pick up another painting by Nigel Sade, a man of excellent talent and some renown. Met up with the lads for lunch at the food court and headed to Indie Games on Demand.
doogs19, Sean and myself were lucky enough to get into a game of Mouse Guard, which was one of the Con highlights for me. Sean RP'd the angry little mouse very well after I won an argument against his character and beheaded the weasel he had promised would be set free. I think Doogs could have been happier playing the older, wiser Guard captain rather than the healer, but that's more the fault of our choices on where to go and how to deal with the situation than any issues of his own. Sean and I borked the endscene with terrible die rolls and wound up being left for dead near the weasel fortress as Doogs' healer and the missing scientist high-tailed it back to Pebblebrook.
After that I met up with Dana and Lisa for our annual pre-LARP dinner and catch-up session, which is always a blast and a half. We wound up at Houlihan's and, recalling my breakfast woes, chose a very nice chicken dish for the evening along with several beers. We split and I returned for a quick shave and quick change.
Walking the streets of Indy in a full-on Reniassance coat and boots is always fun. Doing so among the hordes streaming toward Lucas Oil Stadium for the first pre-season game of the year is even moreso, but nothing untoward happened and I was able to get into Union Station without any problem.
First impressions: Oh my god, this is gonna be great. Huge ceilings! Stained glass windows! Polished brass everywhere! And … electric guitar being practiced at volume. Yep, the Station had booked local bands to play an adjascent room to the Con. Luckily, we were able to move back into a hall area with plenty of space for us to play.
I took the role of Prince Marco Vestini of Vodacce, which was a ton of fun. Two female attendants and one angry wife, uninvited and arriving on the arm of my so-called right hand man. Despite this, I spent most of the evening deep in plots with Bernoulli (Kerry's husband Dan) and Falisci (a gentleman whose name I did not get at the time, but who was awesome.) We had some great plotting scenes, we all gathered to screw Mondavi eight ways from Sunday, and in the end I'd accomplished NONE of my goals but could hardly bring myself to care. I love roleplay, and I got to do plenty of it.
We walked back for a quick change, then back to the hotel bar to meet Ben, Bill and Rett. We hung out a bit then headed to the Ram, as the hotel martinis were simply not cutting it. Back to the hotel and the end of another fine evening.
On Saturday I had the world's WORST breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Seriously, they were draining my omlette of oil while I stood there, and the bacon would have sent deer into blood pressure clinics. Coffee was okay, but the service was so slow I had to go to Starbucks' afterward to get my full allotment in.
Walked the floor a bit more with the full crowd (more or less), before discussing the afternoon's Adventure! Game with Bob Karsher, GM extraordinaire. Ben wasn't going to make it on his ticket, and I think it was Doogs who suggested torigirl84 take his ticket so we could play without any wet blankets on the team. This led to a comical twnety minutes of searching Ben's luggage (with his permission) before giving up and deciding to try for generics for her. Bob said that'd be fine, but in the end we had all six tickets … I'd been holding one for Ben, when I thought I was holding it for Joe. Ha ha! Silly idiot.
At any rate, the game was a stone riot. I think we played off each other better in this game than ever before as we hunted the Skunk Apes of St. Pierre, Quebec; as the redoubtable Frog Hall Gang. Doogs runs an excellent Mr. Enkidu, the world's formost botanical expert who is also a gorilla; and I had fun as always as Dr. Maximillian Berger, the world's most brilliant dentist!
This game also saw the return of the phrase "Nature's Pocket," which seemed ready to destroy us all.
Immediately afterwards I met up with jennifer_brozek for our Grants Pass book signing! This was my first book signing, though far from the last, and it was a very good experience overall! I got to booth babe it up, which is always fun, and I'm reasonably sure the sales went pretty well for a one-hour sitting.
After that Jenn and I ran to a business dinner, going over some future projects as well as lessons learned from this one. Had a remarkably pleasant walk back to the hotel room to pick up the one game I bought at the Con - A Touch of Evil, a colonial gothic boardgame from Flying Frog Productions. Doogs, Bill, Sean, Kerry and I ran through a full game in about two hours and I think it was the Con-Envy purchase of the year!
At the same time we were watching some dudes behind us work with the Master Mold miniatures casting stuff, which was great. They were very friendly and enthusiastic, sharing lots of tips and handing us stuff to play with and examine. Good, good times all around.
Everyone else got pretty tired by that point, but I'd only been to Nicky's once in the Con and that would not stand! Had a wonderful conversation on the nature of faith, politics, reality and history over a few well-placed drinks before being dropped back home to say good night to Indianapolis and all its manifold joys.
We left early Sunday, though not without some incidents at checkout - I'm not sure if we'll be returning to the Hyatt; I KNOW we will not be dining at the Ram any longer. The trip back was subdued as usual (well, subdued as we tend to get) and we were able to make it home before one in the afternoon despite the Air & Water show.
Leanne had me spin tales the whole way back to our house, which was nice; though it's always a little odd to come back to reality after four days away for both of us. We opted for Mexican for the last meal of my vacation. Some of the neighbors came by and are actually excited that I came back with a boardgame - who knew?
L delighted in the stories of Nature's Pocket, and I'm pretty sure she's already pulled that one on Doogs via telephone. I was so flustered I mailed out his check for the hotel without a stamp, and somehow, the letter and check came through to him in less than 24 hours even without postage.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: I lead a very charmed life. I have wonderful friends whom I love and who love me, I have a knack for meeting the proper people in the proper places at the proper times. All of my wishes and occassional complaints mean very little stacked up against all the world does right for me, and I hope and pray I never grow cynical, ungrateful or unfeeling about it all.
Wish I'd seen more of you all there - wish I'd had more time with all of you who were there - but in the end, we'll do it all again the coming year.
Love, light, peace.