GenCon 2011 Day -1 Report
Here is the report of the second day of the trip to GenCon 2011. The report on the first day can be found in this journal entry.
August 3rd, 2011
The less said about my sleep last night, the better. Between the air conditioner blowing right across the head of the bed, the pain in my lower back and hip and my right leg, and spross's snoring (yes, you do!), I got between two and four hours sleep last night. I woke up in tears this morning, and actually thought of going home, but was talked out of this. Have an ear ache now, and the hearing in my right ear isn't good. We went down to the Omni Severin Bar & Grill for breakfast this morning, and it was pretty good. I had a veggie and cheese two egg omelette with whole wheat toast and coffee, and felt much better afterwards.
After going back to the room and finishing the unpacking and getting some of the gaming stuff ready and all, spross and I went out to check on the Haymarket room over at the Crowne Plaza. Damn, but it was warm, and there were too many stairs to negotiate. It's definitely going to be difficult to get to for the late Friday afternoon game of Desolation. (It turned out that there was an alternate route to take rather than the one we did, and that was the route of choice later during the convention, but it was still warm.) The heat got to me but I soldiered on, and around 11:30 am or so we went to the GenCon Registration area. The line was absolutely *huge* and just kept going.
After we got in line (see the two photos above for the view from the line), things went pretty quickly, and it took us about 3/4 of an hour to get our registration packets and badges. While in the line, we met up with waiwode who was heading for the back of the line, and he stopped a chatted a bit. The line for generic tickets for games was way tooooo long at this point, so instead we headed over to the Circle Center Food Court in the mall for some lunch. We ate a mediocre Asian meal of noodles, chicken and beef, with some vegetables which was...eh, not great. Oh, well, couldn't really expect too much from that sort of meal.
On the way back through the Food Court, spross and I saw simonrogers of Pelgrane Press and his mate, whose name I can't remember, from Profantasy Software having lunch, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Steve and I continued on back to the Omni Severin, where we changed clothes and washed up a bit, and then went down to the Omni lobby and where I planned to write in my journal. I sent spross to buy a paring knife for the cheese/apples/other foodstuffs we had bought the night before, figuring he would be gone for about a good half hour or so. While spross was gone on the errand, the meeting that I had scheduled for the Wednesday took place, and over in the Omni bar I signed the two game writing/editing contracts that I had come to the convention to take care of (among other reasons, of course). Yes, I used a bit of a subterfuge to get spross out of the way while I had the meeting, but to be honest, I wasn't really thinking straight at the time. When spross got back with a decent paring knife and a set of plastic cutlery, it was around 4:08 pm, and the hotel room still hadn't been cleaned yet. Probably because of the fact that we're on the 11th floor! Nuts! :( Just wanted to sit and lie back for an hour or two before heading over to the Crowne Plaza and the Pullman restaurant for dinner with the Cubicle 7 crew. spross said that he wanted to come along, as he was going to volunteer to work at the C7 booth for the convention, so I figured there was no harm in bringing him along. Finally got back into the clean hotel room around 5:24 pm, and had a snack of 1/2 a bagel, carrots, celery, and some Edam cheese. Yumm!
After having the snacks and getting ready to head out, spross and I headed over to the Crowne Plaza and the Union Station restaurant called Pullman's around 6:15 pm. I had left my Tylenols in the room, and while spross went back upstairs to the room to grab them for me, I scoped out a new water bottle; the one that I had brought with me was leaking all over the place! :( We went over to the Crowne Plaza, and discovered that Pullman's was pretty basic as restaurants go, but nice and open, with good window views and all. I realised I had forgotten to take the Primeval buttons that I had made up with me, so spross made another trip back to the Omni to grab that stuff. Bless him.
While I waited for Steve to return in the sort-of entry way of Pullman's on some comfy couches, I met WaltC Ciechanowski of Victoriana and All For One: Régime Diabolique fame. We chatted for quite some time about all sorts of subjects, and talked at length about his work for Wiggy over at Triple Ace Games and some of his other projects. He's a really nice guy, and was very friendly and chatty with me. spross returned and caught the last bit of the talk about stuff. By the time the rest of the Cubicle 7 folks showed up, it was about 7:15 pm, but corone showed up some time after that. It turned out that Dominic couldn't make it as he was somewhat under the weather after possibly suffering what might have been heatstroke while setting up the C7 booth in the Exhibit Hall (they don't air condition the hall on the day of set-up, so it can get exceedingly warm in there), and was resting in his room. Sad that :(, as I was really hoping to see him at dinner, before the hectic pace of the booth got underway the next day. I was somewhat worried about the situation with Dom, as were the others, but he was resting and according to corone seemed to be fine now. There were a whole bunch of folks present, including Walt, corone, Boomer, Nathaniel Torson, Joe Kushner, James Holman, and a few others that I don't remember. Sarah Newtwon and some of the others were still at the booth finishing the setting up, and I was sorry not to get a chance to eat and chat with them and Dominic. Over dinner - a lousy burger but with a decent salad - we talked about various subjects (Americans doing English accents and vice versa, the origins of the word "bugger", and a bunch of other eclectic topics), as well as the Cubicle 7 games that we were going to be running and some of the etiquette we were expected to deal with and handle. I was supposed to get a GM Badge from corone, but there had been a foul up with the badge, although corone told me that he would try and get this straightened out, but made no promises. Joe Kushner confirmed with me that I would run his Saturday 8:00 am slot of Primeval, and I got all the stuff that I needed to run the three (!!) Primeval games, and arrangements were made for the Story Point and Threat markers that I would need. I gave the folks at the table the buttons that I had had made up, and they were pleasantly surprised. Made a note to keep four buttons so that I could give them to Dom for himself and Angus, who was back in England manning the shoppe.
After dinner, corone led us all over to the Omni Severin :) to see the game room, the McClellan, that pretty much all of the Cubicle 7 games would be held in. He talked over some stuff with Boomer about the games he was going to run, and I was unable to get the gang to playtest the new Primeval scenario that I had written up the week before, tentatively titled "Dinos on a Zeppelin". Ah, well, perhaps later this weekend.
After saying our goodnights to everyone and making sure that corone would ensure that I had something to use for the Story Points and Threat markers the next night, spross and I went back upstairs to the hotel room. I had a bit of a snack, munching on some almonds and grapes, and then we crashed and chatted for a bit before turning out the lights. The last thing I remember before sleep was the time being 11:10 pm. It had been a long day.
Anyway, so that's the wrap-up on the second day of the trip to Indy, and the day right before the official start of GenCon 2011. Next up, the first day of GenCon, 2011!
August 3rd, 2011
The less said about my sleep last night, the better. Between the air conditioner blowing right across the head of the bed, the pain in my lower back and hip and my right leg, and spross's snoring (yes, you do!), I got between two and four hours sleep last night. I woke up in tears this morning, and actually thought of going home, but was talked out of this. Have an ear ache now, and the hearing in my right ear isn't good. We went down to the Omni Severin Bar & Grill for breakfast this morning, and it was pretty good. I had a veggie and cheese two egg omelette with whole wheat toast and coffee, and felt much better afterwards.
After going back to the room and finishing the unpacking and getting some of the gaming stuff ready and all, spross and I went out to check on the Haymarket room over at the Crowne Plaza. Damn, but it was warm, and there were too many stairs to negotiate. It's definitely going to be difficult to get to for the late Friday afternoon game of Desolation. (It turned out that there was an alternate route to take rather than the one we did, and that was the route of choice later during the convention, but it was still warm.) The heat got to me but I soldiered on, and around 11:30 am or so we went to the GenCon Registration area. The line was absolutely *huge* and just kept going.
After we got in line (see the two photos above for the view from the line), things went pretty quickly, and it took us about 3/4 of an hour to get our registration packets and badges. While in the line, we met up with waiwode who was heading for the back of the line, and he stopped a chatted a bit. The line for generic tickets for games was way tooooo long at this point, so instead we headed over to the Circle Center Food Court in the mall for some lunch. We ate a mediocre Asian meal of noodles, chicken and beef, with some vegetables which was...eh, not great. Oh, well, couldn't really expect too much from that sort of meal.
On the way back through the Food Court, spross and I saw simonrogers of Pelgrane Press and his mate, whose name I can't remember, from Profantasy Software having lunch, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. Steve and I continued on back to the Omni Severin, where we changed clothes and washed up a bit, and then went down to the Omni lobby and where I planned to write in my journal. I sent spross to buy a paring knife for the cheese/apples/other foodstuffs we had bought the night before, figuring he would be gone for about a good half hour or so. While spross was gone on the errand, the meeting that I had scheduled for the Wednesday took place, and over in the Omni bar I signed the two game writing/editing contracts that I had come to the convention to take care of (among other reasons, of course). Yes, I used a bit of a subterfuge to get spross out of the way while I had the meeting, but to be honest, I wasn't really thinking straight at the time. When spross got back with a decent paring knife and a set of plastic cutlery, it was around 4:08 pm, and the hotel room still hadn't been cleaned yet. Probably because of the fact that we're on the 11th floor! Nuts! :( Just wanted to sit and lie back for an hour or two before heading over to the Crowne Plaza and the Pullman restaurant for dinner with the Cubicle 7 crew. spross said that he wanted to come along, as he was going to volunteer to work at the C7 booth for the convention, so I figured there was no harm in bringing him along. Finally got back into the clean hotel room around 5:24 pm, and had a snack of 1/2 a bagel, carrots, celery, and some Edam cheese. Yumm!
After having the snacks and getting ready to head out, spross and I headed over to the Crowne Plaza and the Union Station restaurant called Pullman's around 6:15 pm. I had left my Tylenols in the room, and while spross went back upstairs to the room to grab them for me, I scoped out a new water bottle; the one that I had brought with me was leaking all over the place! :( We went over to the Crowne Plaza, and discovered that Pullman's was pretty basic as restaurants go, but nice and open, with good window views and all. I realised I had forgotten to take the Primeval buttons that I had made up with me, so spross made another trip back to the Omni to grab that stuff. Bless him.
While I waited for Steve to return in the sort-of entry way of Pullman's on some comfy couches, I met WaltC Ciechanowski of Victoriana and All For One: Régime Diabolique fame. We chatted for quite some time about all sorts of subjects, and talked at length about his work for Wiggy over at Triple Ace Games and some of his other projects. He's a really nice guy, and was very friendly and chatty with me. spross returned and caught the last bit of the talk about stuff. By the time the rest of the Cubicle 7 folks showed up, it was about 7:15 pm, but corone showed up some time after that. It turned out that Dominic couldn't make it as he was somewhat under the weather after possibly suffering what might have been heatstroke while setting up the C7 booth in the Exhibit Hall (they don't air condition the hall on the day of set-up, so it can get exceedingly warm in there), and was resting in his room. Sad that :(, as I was really hoping to see him at dinner, before the hectic pace of the booth got underway the next day. I was somewhat worried about the situation with Dom, as were the others, but he was resting and according to corone seemed to be fine now. There were a whole bunch of folks present, including Walt, corone, Boomer, Nathaniel Torson, Joe Kushner, James Holman, and a few others that I don't remember. Sarah Newtwon and some of the others were still at the booth finishing the setting up, and I was sorry not to get a chance to eat and chat with them and Dominic. Over dinner - a lousy burger but with a decent salad - we talked about various subjects (Americans doing English accents and vice versa, the origins of the word "bugger", and a bunch of other eclectic topics), as well as the Cubicle 7 games that we were going to be running and some of the etiquette we were expected to deal with and handle. I was supposed to get a GM Badge from corone, but there had been a foul up with the badge, although corone told me that he would try and get this straightened out, but made no promises. Joe Kushner confirmed with me that I would run his Saturday 8:00 am slot of Primeval, and I got all the stuff that I needed to run the three (!!) Primeval games, and arrangements were made for the Story Point and Threat markers that I would need. I gave the folks at the table the buttons that I had had made up, and they were pleasantly surprised. Made a note to keep four buttons so that I could give them to Dom for himself and Angus, who was back in England manning the shoppe.
After dinner, corone led us all over to the Omni Severin :) to see the game room, the McClellan, that pretty much all of the Cubicle 7 games would be held in. He talked over some stuff with Boomer about the games he was going to run, and I was unable to get the gang to playtest the new Primeval scenario that I had written up the week before, tentatively titled "Dinos on a Zeppelin". Ah, well, perhaps later this weekend.
After saying our goodnights to everyone and making sure that corone would ensure that I had something to use for the Story Points and Threat markers the next night, spross and I went back upstairs to the hotel room. I had a bit of a snack, munching on some almonds and grapes, and then we crashed and chatted for a bit before turning out the lights. The last thing I remember before sleep was the time being 11:10 pm. It had been a long day.
Anyway, so that's the wrap-up on the second day of the trip to Indy, and the day right before the official start of GenCon 2011. Next up, the first day of GenCon, 2011!