GenCon Report: Thursday
GenCon this week was a lot of fun. On Thursday icespark and I headed to the convention a little early so we could check out the dealer room before our first seminar. Years past icespark and I have gone and just spent money in the dealers room - this year we wanted to go to actual events, so we signed up for a bunch of things and planned to spend money in between. I was broke on Thursday, so aside from $1.90 in dice all I did was window-shop the first day.
At noon icespark and I went to a lecture called “First Time Game Master.” icespark has been thinking of running a game, so we thought it might be a good class to start our GenCon activities.
The speaker was a lot of fun, and you can tell he must be a very entertaining storyteller. He illustrated his points with amusing tales from games past, and I really enjoyed his talk. icespark seemed to get some good first-time storyteller advice, so the free lecture was time well spent. We’re thinking about seeking out his lectures again next year, and maybe his games if he’s running any.
After the “First Time Game Master” class, icespark and I went to an activity called “Belly Dance for LARPers.” It was run by d_c_m of different_drum, and although I signed up mostly to support icespark, I wound up having a great time myself as well. The teachers were great, and I felt much less self-conscious than I thought I’d be.
After the belly dance class icespark and I had dinner and rested a while, and then went to the Dark Providence Premier, which was supposed to introduce an interesting new gaming system. However, either the event was cancelled without notice, or it was moved to where none of us could find it (including other lost potential players). After wasting a lot of time looking and waiting around, we finally got our money back for our tickets, and decided to call it a night for GenCon.
On our way out, however, we decided to take a closer look at the dragon puzzles posted around the convention center. Each placard had a different gaming or pop culture dragon (Puff, Lockheed, Tiamat, etc) and a different puzzle to solve. For each five puzzles solved, you got an entry to win free passes to next year’s con. We solved a few at the convention (which wound up taking several hours - most of them were complicated or difficult) and copied more to work later.
We went back to my apartment and went through our swag, and made plans for later in the weekend. We had grand plans for taking advantage of the surprise free night for individual geeky activities, but it turns out we were way too tired for anything exciting after spending so long solving puzzles. We poked around on our laptops for a bit, and then went to bed, planning to get up early for more geekery in the morning.
Zoë: "I think this is something that the captain needs to do for himself."
Mal: "No, it isn't! No, it isn't!"
Zoë: "Oh..."
- Firefly
At noon icespark and I went to a lecture called “First Time Game Master.” icespark has been thinking of running a game, so we thought it might be a good class to start our GenCon activities.
The speaker was a lot of fun, and you can tell he must be a very entertaining storyteller. He illustrated his points with amusing tales from games past, and I really enjoyed his talk. icespark seemed to get some good first-time storyteller advice, so the free lecture was time well spent. We’re thinking about seeking out his lectures again next year, and maybe his games if he’s running any.
After the “First Time Game Master” class, icespark and I went to an activity called “Belly Dance for LARPers.” It was run by d_c_m of different_drum, and although I signed up mostly to support icespark, I wound up having a great time myself as well. The teachers were great, and I felt much less self-conscious than I thought I’d be.
After the belly dance class icespark and I had dinner and rested a while, and then went to the Dark Providence Premier, which was supposed to introduce an interesting new gaming system. However, either the event was cancelled without notice, or it was moved to where none of us could find it (including other lost potential players). After wasting a lot of time looking and waiting around, we finally got our money back for our tickets, and decided to call it a night for GenCon.
On our way out, however, we decided to take a closer look at the dragon puzzles posted around the convention center. Each placard had a different gaming or pop culture dragon (Puff, Lockheed, Tiamat, etc) and a different puzzle to solve. For each five puzzles solved, you got an entry to win free passes to next year’s con. We solved a few at the convention (which wound up taking several hours - most of them were complicated or difficult) and copied more to work later.
We went back to my apartment and went through our swag, and made plans for later in the weekend. We had grand plans for taking advantage of the surprise free night for individual geeky activities, but it turns out we were way too tired for anything exciting after spending so long solving puzzles. We poked around on our laptops for a bit, and then went to bed, planning to get up early for more geekery in the morning.
Zoë: "I think this is something that the captain needs to do for himself."
Mal: "No, it isn't! No, it isn't!"
Zoë: "Oh..."
- Firefly