Gen Con 2008 Sunday

(Another temporary post, sadly, as I'm feeling really sick from some kind of cold thingy.)

Great turnout for 8 AM CE: 15 people! Thanks again to Derek for bringing his EON set and I hope everyone had a good time.

Dungeonquest was a first: all 8 players (the full event) turned in actual event tickets. I promise I'll have the two sets tuned up for next year.

I had two interested people show up to play Return of the Heroes, and I stepped in as a third. We all maxed out our main combat ability cubes and the luck of the Guard draw had me winning the game. I can agree with the assessment of the table: a fun game, but if you have something similar (Talisman, Runebound, Prophecy, etc.) then probably not one you need to pick up. Still, I like its limitations now that I know how it works.

I was tired and sniffling all day from a cold and lack of sleep. Hopefully this will blow over quickly.

More and a wrapup when I get the chance.

Gen Con Indy 2008 Saturday

(This one is going to be a quick summary as I'm running games early tomorrow morning. I'll flesh it out later.)

I spent most of my day in the Dealer's Room. Normally this is an exercise in both fun and henchman ability tests as I watch my money flow from my wallet to the various vendors. This year, though, there wasn't nearly as much stuff that I wanted. No new comics, no Paranoia releases, and so on.

I did pick up some cool art from a number of artists, some books to read from the $5 per book places, and one of the Lost Worlds books I didn't have already.

One cool person I ran into while wandering around was Clinton Boomer from the PHB PSA series on YouTube (among other things). Cool guy, cool series, and nice Presto costume.

I watched part of a Journey to Jupiter game (because I got there late. :( It's pretty much Killer Bunnies with the addition of a map where you fly around and get shot while trying to collect carrots in space. It looks like an additional layer of chaos on an already chaotic game, and I don't think I'll be picking it up.

I won the game of OotS: the Shortening I played tonight; I chose Elan and helped everyone I could. The new rules both sound pretty good and the cards are fun, but there's still some tweaking to do.

OK, have to run games in less than 8 hours. Be back later.

Gen Con 2008 Friday

Today was our big game: Drivin' and Killin' with Jimbo and Ned, pitting the players as the South Park folks vs. the GMs as Jimbo and Ned. The map tiles worked wonderfully, the vehicles all worked out well (especially since Brian, who made the military vehicle, didn't know the specifics of the cars being used against us). We had 6 players who did a bunch of damage to each other as well as Jimbo and Ned. Our TIMMY! wound up taking out the engine of Jimbo and Ned's car and won the event, while our Chef was given the roleplaying award, donated by SJG's MIBs. (Thanks guys!)

Before that, I hit the Dealer's Room and picked up a copy (one of about 5 sold today!) of Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. Can't wait to try it! Also picked up a copy of Red Dragon Inn 2 and some 3.5 books. My last purchase was The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising. A bunch of the actors and actresses were there signing, which was cool. (As it turns out, the Chainmail Girl loves Nordic Countries!) Last but not least, I stopped by the FFG booth and checked out a playtest demo of Cosmic Encounter. I like their selection of powers, including the changes I got to see (like the common single Macron tokens on the cone are worth 2 points for rewards). It should be a good set.

I was pretty tired and wound up napping through the Roborally game I was going to play, but I woke up in time for "Now We're Troubleshooting with Portals", a Paranoia event. This was one of those silly games that could have been run in any system, but Paranoia makes it easier since you can't argue with the railroading. Dying while playing with the portal physics was fun, though, and we had a good time. At the end we all sang along to the Portal song.

All in all a good day. Tomorrow, more dealer's room and licensed games!

Gen Con 2008 Thursday

Today was my long day of running Commodore games and Cosmic Encounter. Had a bit of a hiccup finding my tables and getting set up; I had missed the location of an outlet that was behind the Train gamers' booth, partially because they had run their power over to the Rogue Judges' area and partially because I didn't search hard enough.

After that, though, everything went swimmingly. For M.U.L.E. I had 6 players and an observer in the early session and 7 players and an observer in the afternoon. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even the player who accidentally lost a M.U.L.E. in round 1 and was pretty much out of the game afterwards. I need to work on my instructions a bit. (I think an intro video would be cool.)

Sadly, nobody came to play Oil Barons. I may have to leave it out next year in favor of something like Archon.

CE Thursday was a reasonable success, but only 9 of my 16 players showed up for it. One of them brought his EON set, which was very cool. I played with three other guys on my half-built Mayfair set.

The only blemish on the day was that I was scheduled to play in this year's edition of Paranoia Trek after running all of these events but fell asleep back in the room after getting some dinner. I missed one of my favorite ongoing Gen Con events! :(

New Rule: No gaming after running eight hours, even if it's just board and computer games.

Big thanks to Odie and Brian for helping me haul stuff to and from the con. I think it's time to look into a sturdier folding dolly, though. And more bungees/straps.

Tomorrow: A glimpse of the Dealer's Room, Car Wars, Robo Rally, and perhaps some actual Paranoia...?

Gen Con Indy 2008, Day 0

We've arrived safe and sound. Got our hotel room, settled in, and went to pick up our stuff. As usual, our total wait time was about 5 minutes for badge, bag, and GM stuff. As irritating as the registration system is, it's much better being frustrated in the spring than the day before the con.

I went to the Forum Stink but didn't hang out much. Wasn't really in the mood this year, which makes sense since I didn't spend much time on the forums this year.

Tomorrow: 8-bit games and Paranoia Trek!

'Twas the Night Before Gen Con Indy 2008

packing...printing...
packing...packing...printing...
packing...packing...washing...packing...

Lots to do before 3 AM! AHH! Too much pressure!