GenCon 2017

[Punisher]

I just sent you and Punisher some contact info. Anyone else going that I missed?

Just replied..
Guess you missed my earlier post.. couldn't get the 4 day tickets and didn't feel it was worth it to pay the fri and sat individual prices nor do the traveling.. hopefully next year.
We did finalize our tickets to Pax Unplugged though... Just need to figure out hotel and then we are set.

[hepcat]

Ah, whoops. Well, hopefully we'll see you next year.

[Blackhawk]

Gah, just got a notification that my miniature modeling/sculpting class has been cancelled. It was the event that I was the most excited about, as it was one of my weak spots that I was hoping to shore up.

Oh, well. At least I get to keep the relatively substantial ($52) fee.

[Blackhawk]

Doo doo doo, walkin' out my front door.

[hentzau]

Doo doo doo, walkin' out my front door.

Have fun!

[Blackhawk]

I'm checked in, and I've got my badge. The t-shirt lines were worse than the will-call lines (which I was able to skip anyway because magic), but the wait didn't look too long at all as of ~3:30.

[Punisher]

Ah, whoops. Well, hopefully we'll see you next year.

No Problem. Thanks for rubbing salt into the wound!!!

[Punisher]

If anyone stops by the Mantic both at Gencon, Can you let me know how much they are selling these for?
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR WAVE THREE – MAGGIE, PRISON DEFENDER
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR – SAFETY BEHIND BARS EXPANSION
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR WAVE THREE – GLENN, PRISON DEFENDER

Thanks.

[Blackhawk]

Two and a half hours in the vendor hall and I saw maybe a quarter of it. It's hot, and it is exhausting! I picked up a few items, but haven't made it to Mantic yet.

[Punisher]

Two and a half hours in the vendor hall and I saw maybe a quarter of it. It's hot, and it is exhausting! I picked up a few items, but haven't made it to Mantic yet.

Don't go out of your way by any means.
and yeah, I'm not sure why convention centers don't invest is super duper sized AC. Heck, even putting some regular fans around the place would help...

[hentzau]

Two and a half hours in the vendor hall and I saw maybe a quarter of it. It's hot, and it is exhausting! I picked up a few items, but haven't made it to Mantic yet.

Pace yourself, man!

[Blackhawk]

Why would I do a thing like that?

Today, with my sculpting class cancelled, I only had one event - Era of the Ninja. It was a fun game, although I had a few concerns. The quality of the components was poor. The miniatures looked flimsy and the board pieces in the demo set were slightly warped. The art was fantastic, though. The gameplay was basically the D&D Adventures games (Castle Ravenloft et al) with a Japanese flavor and a few tweaks. I'll be checking prices tomorrow, but unless it is cheap, I'll skip it. I like the theme, though. We'll see.

Wandered some more in the vendor hall tonight. Picked up a couple of things that were on the list I put together, plus some gifts for the kids.

One of the friends I came with injured himself recently (ruptured Achilles), so I'm helping him out a lot between my games (especially in the vendor hall), which cuts down on my completely free time. Most of my non-committed time will be Saturday after 5.

[Punisher]

Another request.. If you get a chance to see Weta games Giant Killer Robots.. I backed it during Kickstarter and I'm curious where it's at so far..

[hentzau]

I just spent about 15 minutes watching a live video feed of the Sales "Machine" for Exploding Kittens. Hilarious.

[Blackhawk]

Just got back to the room for the night and grabbed a shower. Lesse, started off the day with Giant Sized King of Tokyo. The prize was an exclusive creatures, but I got stomped. Six players really changes the strategies - I'm used to playing with 3 or 4.

Wandered the vendor hall after that. I wanted to get all my planned shopping done by this evening, as Saturday is supposed to be a madhouse in there as the weekend warriors tend to hit. I was with my injured friend, who is stuck in an powered cart because of the injury. Altogether we spent about five hours wandering through the hall. I made a few final purchases, and actually ended up with quite a few things on my list (plus a couple of gifts for the kids.) Larry Elmore had a booth selling prints and such, and I've always liked his art. There were also copies of the 30th anniversary Snarf Quest book. I used to read Snarf in Dragon magazine, but as I never had the full set, I was never able to read the whole story. I picked that up and got it signed, which was awesome (especially since the line was two people long.)

Came back, ate. Next up was a painting class. It was supposed to be an advanced highlighting class, but was pretty basic. On the other hand, afterward the instructor was happy to look at a few pictures of some of my work and gave me some advice on how to overcome a problem I've been struggling with. If his tips pan out, it will have been more than worth the fee.

Now it is time to rest up a bit, as I have Hickman's Killer Breakfast in the morning, requiring a 6AM wakeup. It's a huge D&D game run by Tracy Hickman, and it is supposed to be fantastic. Had you told 15-year-old me that I'd be chatting with Larry Elmore and playing D&D with Tracy Hickman, I'd have done backflips.

[Blackhawk]

Just did the Killer Breakfast. A sociophobe on stage trying to be entertaining to a thousand people. I thought that one out!

I'm kidding - I had a blast. And I timed it just right so as to be on stage with both Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman together. 15-year-old me was loving it.

[Zarathud]

Heading back for the final day of shopping. Surprised by how much I liked Gale Force 9's new Firefly miniatures game. I played Jane and had a great time bashing people with my gun Vera. We finished the mission easily, and it was very thematic.

Played a good game of Euphoria. Very Euro, but I'm glad I played someone else's copy. I don't think it can compete with our other worker placement games.

Rayguns & Rocketships has theme and heart. There's an incentive to swashbuckle but the rules had some pretty big holes.

Only had quick looks at Ex Libris, Bunny Kingdom and Spirit Island. Will have to watch to find out which has the best chance to get played.

We played a bunch of Century:Spice Road at the hotel. Very fast paced game about building and trading resources.

[Blackhawk]

If anyone stops by the Mantic both at Gencon, Can you let me know how much they are selling these for?
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR WAVE THREE – MAGGIE, PRISON DEFENDER
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR – SAFETY BEHIND BARS EXPANSION
THE WALKING DEAD: ALL OUT WAR WAVE THREE – GLENN, PRISON DEFENDER

Thanks.

$20
$40
$20

Probably too late, but I didn't find them until this afternoon.

[Blackhawk]

I'm home now. Unfortunately, I didn't get free time at the same time that OOers were getting together, so I missed out on that. My friend's injury (ruptured Achilles) was unexpected, and I have no qualms about spending a lot of my free time helping him deal with the crowds in his powered chair. He couldn't have done much if I hadn't, as his husband was committed to running a number of events throughout the con. Still, I was really looking forward to putting some faces to some names. Maybe if I'm able to go again we can plan a date/time in advance.

Some of this may be rehash, but I'm exhausted and barely remember what I posted already.

The trip was a Christmas present from my friends. The two of them also gifted me a belated birthday present - some extra spending money. It's rare that I actually have money to 'blow', so I took my time and enjoyed myself. I picked up a bunch of games, including a few that were on my list or recommended here (Legendary, Galaxy Trucker, Star Realms), some that I'd not included on my list because I couldn't find them anywhere (Hostage Negotiator), and some that I'd never heard of, but that really appealed to me (Attack of the Kaiju!) I picked up a 3'x3' play mat, a few RPG accessories, a few odds, a few ends. I grabbed a complete 30th Anniversary copy of Snarf Quest and got it autographed by Larry Elmore. I picked up one miniatures and one dice set (I didn't desperately need either, but wanted to get one of each as a sort of 'souvenir'.) I also grabbed some gifts for the kids and my ex-wife (who watched the kids for an extra week so that I could go.) Lots of promo items. There were a few games that I loved but couldn't afford to get in to (Wild West Exodus looked fantastic.)

I had an absolutely great time. Hickman's Killer Breakfast was fantastic - and I'm part of the only group of players in history that did not die. I got to chat with Tracy a couple of different times, as I stayed after the show to ask if he'd mind signing my friend's character sheet so he wouldn't have to navigate the lines in his chair. He not only agreed, he sat and joked with us for a good ten minutes, and told some stories about Gygax's last GenCon.

I played a few games. Some good, some bad. Era of the Ninja ended up being a D&D Adventures clone with ninja, but really cheap components, and the people running it were making mistakes with the rules that were obvious even to those of us who were first time players. All three of us skipped the later-scheduled demo of the expansion. The Investigative Roleplaying Masterclass with Kenneth Hite, Robin D. Laws, and Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan was excellent. My sculpting class got cancelled, which sucked, and the only painting class I got into was much more basic than what the description led several of us who attended to believe.

This morning the three of use were scheduled to go on the tour of the GenCon history museum when a fellow that ran a game I played at Fear the Con X sat down with us for breakfast and mentioned that he was getting ready to run a game and that he was worried that not enough people would show up on a Sunday morning. His pitch was, "It's 994 A.D. French descendants of Viking invaders must return to the frozen land of their pagan ancestors. A game about heritage & faith." On my recommendation, all three of us skipped the tour to play. His game I'd been in at FTC X was one of the best games I've ever been in, and this one was just as good. If you ever get the chance to join a con game hosted by Tristan Zimmerman, do it. He writes one-shot scenarios and writes an entire set of mechanics designed just for that one scenario, and he does it masterfully.

I am exhausted and in a bit of pain. Not just my feet (although ow, my feet after five days of walking and standing for hours on end), but my back. Due to a mix-up, our two-bed reservation was swapped for a one-bed reservation, and I ended up spending the week on a rollaway bed. I can hardly stand straight at this point.

It was worth it, though.

[hepcat]

Sorry we missed you, Blackhawk! We ended up going home by 10pm each night as we're old and tired. Friday night I was hoping you'd text me so we could have you join Harkonis, Seppe and I (along with a few other people) at the Ram for dinner and drinks. But it sounds like you had more pressing concerns. I'm glad to hear your friend is okay though.

This may very well be my most expensive Gencon in terms of acquisitions. But the saving grace for all this is that I sold off a bunch of games at the auction and made over 400 bucks. At least that's the justification I'm going with.

Things boughtened:

Too Many Bones and two extra characters - I'd been eyeing this one for a while as I'm a fan of Chip Theories' Hopplomachus series of gladiator combat with Heroscape like rules...but using poker chips instead of minis. But Zarathud had played it a few weeks prior to the con and was the evil gnome on my shoulder convincing me to get it. To be fair, you can't order their games from anyone other than them directly, so I would have paid full retail plus shipping and minus the bundle deals they gave me if I'd waited and picked it up later.

TMB is called a "dice rpg". This simply means your stats are dice, and you level them up via combat and questing. Characters are once again represented by hefty poker chips. I like a lot of what this game does, but I haven't played enough to weigh in with any authority. Hopefully next Saturday I'll get it to the table.

Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave. I love me some Hostage Negotiator, so this was a no brainer. The storage box and extra large play mat are worth the price of admission alone.

Warfighter WWII and Warfighter: Modern. These were in the ding and dent section of Coolstuff's booth for around 30 bucks each. I got both for the price of one. They're tactical card games for solo play...but can take up to 6, I believe.

Splatter Shoot. Saturday night while visiting with Harkonis and his group, a couple of game designers they knew stopped by. They were promoting a game at the con that seemed like it was custom made for bar gaming. It's a small box, 20 dollar card game that uses whatever you have on hand (beer mugs, coasters, toys from home, etc.) to play a first person shooter game with a miniature (or, again, with whatever you have on hand). Haven't tried it yet, but the guys were really nice and I like supporting indie developers whenever possible.

On the last day of the convention, I stopped by Portal Games to see what they had. There were about 3 unwrapped copies of First Martians: Adventures on the Red Planet on their table. I asked if they were there for folks to see the contents, and I was told they were copies used for a demo the night before that they were unloading for 40 bucks. I grabbed one up after I was assured that I could send them an email if a component was missing and they'd replace it. I inventoried it right away though in the main gaming hall and discovered the only thing I was missing were two small counters for morale...which I can easily proxy without issue. I'm not going to bug them for those, but I still consider it a big score for me!

I also grabbed the character decks for Hero Realms, and a broken token organizer for my copy of Terraforming Mars.

Playeded:

Rocketships and Rayguns. Zarathud mentions it above. It's okay...but it has some serious shortcomings.

Too Many Bones. It's a fairly deep game, so the two hour demo (which was really only an hour after rules explanations and fiddling around trying to assemble everything) didn't really give me a taste for the whole game. It did whet my whistler though and I'm looking forward to more.

Firefly Adventures: Brigands and Browncoats. Probably the biggest surprise of the con for me. Really, really fun. Nice time mechanic that has you weighing the benefits of trying to rush to get the job done, and getting the job done lucratively. I think the campaign mechanic the full game will have is going to push this one into must buy territory for me.

Doctor Who: Time of the Daleks. Probably my most anticipated game of the convention. Unfortunately, my two hour demo left me kind of meh on it. It's a push your luck dice game like Elder Signs, but with a bit more theme and a few more mechanics. It's not a bad game, don't get me wrong. But this coop quickly turns into every player playing a solo game on their own. The downtime can be harsh. I may still get it, but it's definitely not at the top of my list now.

Twilight of the Gods. A surprisingly deep two player head to head card game from former NFL player Chris Kluwe. I backed it on kickstarter and am supposed to get my copy today. I backed it because it looked interesting, but also because it's being published by Victory Point Games and features their in house artist Clark Miller, who is in my top two tier for game artists.

Building up your resources in ToG is interesting. You actually trade one of your cards with your opponent in a deal that he/she can accept or refuse, all while keeping it hidden the entire time. It's only revealed when a manifest power kicks off and it could be a trap that hurts them, or if you had no such card to trade earlier, a beneficial one. There's quite a few other little things that I found interesting as well. But I think this one will take at least 4 or 5 plays before you really grasp the possibilities.

Kuwe was actually running the demos and Zarathud had a nice long conversation with him while I played. He's an incredibly nice guy who is a complete and unapologetic gamer geek. You can't help but root for the guy.

Last but not least, I picked up my kickstarter for Folklore: The Affliction. There's a ton of stuff in the boxes they gave me. I really hope the campaign is better than the one off I played at Origins a few years back though. But that's for another day...

[Blackhawk]

Sorry we missed you, Blackhawk! We ended up going home by 10pm each night as we're old and tired. Friday night I was hoping you'd text me so we could have you join Harkonis, Seppe and I (along with a few other people) at the Ram for dinner and drinks. But it sounds like you had more pressing concerns. I'm glad to hear your friend is okay though.

I was always back in the hotel (the Marriott, by the way) by 10, too. Friday I had a long painting seminar from 8 until 9:30, and Friday evening leading up to that was the night that my friend had set aside for the vendor hall, so he needed my help.

This is the same friend who got up at 3:00 AM to take me to my surgery (and posted updates on OO as TigerRider67), who drove me to my chemo sessions when they decided to leave the IV in overnight and I couldn't grip the wheel, who paid for my badge and room, and a hundred other things over the past decade. I'm 100% happy to help him out when he needs it.

[Smoove_B]

Thanks for sharing all the info - glad you guys had fun. I'm a bit jealous for sure - particularly with the whole breakfast Tracy Hickman thing. I can't even imagine what that must have been like and I'm pretty sure my inner 15 year old would have been out of his mind.

Hepcat - did you get a chance to play Maximum Apocalypse?

[hepcat]

Unfortunately, that was one of two I missed. I ended up getting to the convention too late that day and missed it (it was scheduled for 9 am, I believe). The other was a 4 hour game of Quartermaster General: Victory or Death...but only because I was too tired for that long of a game.

[Smoove_B]

I'm amazed anyone can do anything scheduled at a convention that size. I imagine just walking around is difficult at certain times of the day. I think you'll really like it, so no worries there. My friend that played the demo with me wasn't a backer but he went ahead and pre-ordered as a late KS supporter after we played. There is a ton of gaming in that core box.

[hepcat]

I definitely will keep my eye on it. Now I'm more bummed I missed it.

Going to make a big order with coolstuff today for the new Star Trek Ascendancy factions (Ferengi and Cardassian). I'm sorely missing playing that one.

p.s. Played a demo of Apocrypha just to see if I had missed something in my intro session back home. Unfortunately, I walked away even more disappointed in this one. I doubt I'll be backing another Lone Shark game anytime soon.

[Blackhawk]

I'm amazed anyone can do anything scheduled at a convention that size. I imagine just walking around is difficult at certain times of the day.

Getting lost is usually more of a concern than the crowds. I only came close to being late once, and that was because I couldn't find the skybridge to Crowne Center for the Robin Laws seminar. The whole place is crowded, but it is usually only the vendor hall that is shoulder-to-shoulder traffic jams. The scheduled events are either in the event hall (which is set up like a huge cafeteria with many lanes of travel and not many gawkers) or in the outlying rooms, requiring only the main halls. Those halls are crowded at certain times, but they're almost always moving, and they're wide enough for people to gather around without disrupting traffic.

[Punisher]

Glad you guys had a good time. Sad that I missed it..
I really wish conventions like these would be extended.. maybe even full week and one weekend or full week with weekend bookends...
There is usually just so much to do and no way to do it all..
Comic Con has lots of vendors I want to see and a decent amount of panels.
Star Wars Celebration has the same thing, plus some game demo's I wanted to do.
I am going to assume Pax Unplugged will be the same thing.
I hate having to pick and choose...

[Smoove_B]

p.s. Played a demo of Apocrypha just to see if I had missed something in my intro session back home. Unfortunately, I walked away even more disappointed in this one. I doubt I'll be backing another Lone Shark game anytime soon.

I've been reading through the rulebook and I watched the video they released. So far my disappointment is related to the card stock, but I really won't have any opinion on the gameplay for a while. The Arkham LCG really has become the gold standard for me.

[hepcat]

I'm surprised how much I'm enjoying Arkham Horror LCG solo with one character. I was having trouble organizing folks for games of this due to the overwhelming number of other games we all want to play, so I started up a Rex Murphy game. I tweaked his deck after a few losses and now he's an investigating machine. I can usually clear out a location in one or two turns tops. Of course, this will all come crashing down on me if my luck turns and I hit a bad guy I can't evade or beat.

[Blackhawk]

Arkham was on my short list, but I didn't want to mess with the lines at the FFG booth early on. By the time the lines were gone on day three, I'd found enough other things that I skipped it this time.

[Blackhawk]

I loved GenCon, but I felt like I was missing something, and I wanted to have the full deal.

So, in order to truly have the complete GenCon experience, I have chosen to develop Con Crud.

[Isgrimnur]

Congratudolences

[Blackhawk]

Did anyone take a look at a game in the dealer hall that had a steampunk setting and characters that were anthromorphic animals? A friend is asking for the name, and while I walked past it and its huge poster at least a dozen times, I never paid much attention to it, as I was making it a point to stick to my list.

[Isgrimnur]

My wife would probably love that.