Gen Con 2012: My Experience

I'm interrupting my normal column (is it normal now to interrupt it?) to write about Gen Con this month and next. This month is a recap of my experience. Next month is a combination survival/tip guide to share notes with fellow Con goers and give some heads up to those going for the first time in 2013.

My Gen Con

I was there Wed through Sat (left Sun) and had a great time. Quick overview: I GMed three RPGs, I played in four RPGs, I played three boardgames, one card game, and one miniatures game.

Gaming has been amazing this year. So many new games coming out or being worked on (DCC RPG, Numenera, Shadows of Esteren, Magic World, Night's Black Agents, Edge of the Empire, and that 5E thing) and RPGs I already like (Rogue Trader comes to mind). It is a great time to be an RPG gamer. I'll start, though, with the players. Then I'm going to list the costumes I saw (the ones I remember) because I don't remember where and when I saw each costume and then talk about the con by day (events and games).

Players

• Tim: big brother, my first DM, wonderful host who opens his house to all of us, Savage Worlds GM (also thanks to his wife who gives over her house for the weekend)
• Jack Jack: Tim's friend (brother in law too I believe, can't remember how the connections all fit) and Savage Worlds Cthulhu/Scooby Doo and Low Life GM
• Marty: friend from D&D 3.0 days, his first Gen Con! (you know you like the bunny suit), went on the roadtrip
• Paul: friend from college and Warhammer FRPG 1E, went on the roadtrip
• Phil: friend from D&D 3.0 days, wheelman, piloted the roadtrip
• Ted: Tim's friend (also a brother in law), showed up Friday night

Costumes (not paid models as far as I could tell)

• Predator versus gamer (Predator 1, gamer 0)
• Backed by stormtroopers, Darth Vadar disarming Han Solo
• Wookiee on stilts
• orc, drow warrior, and drow cleric
• Padawan and his grandmother (she wasn't in costume, her daughter made the Jedi robes herself for her little padawan)
• Batman
• Joker
• stormtroopers in kilts and a stormtrooper from the Planet of the Apes
• more stormtroopers as well as a scout walking with his girlfriend and a clone trooper
• lots of video game costumes I didn't recognize (big ass swords etc.)
• a tech priest and ratling from Warhammer 40K
• steampunkers
• Spider-Man and Venom
• Princess Leia slave girl (she will let you hold her chain)
• knit Cthulhu with sunglasses
• lots of revealing costumes (short skirts, leather, cleavage, etc.) from the ladies
• a TIE fighter pilot and his daughter, a padawan
• vampires
• zombie nurse
• Mario brothers
• father and son in scouting uniforms (not costumes I don't believe)
• future soldiers
• pirates
• t-shirt that on the front side says, "Jesus Saves" and on the back side says, "He takes half damage"

Wed Night

With three of my friends rolled in Wednesday night and picked up our badges and tickets at the Will Call booth before heading to my brother's house. He is the gamer who introduced me to gaming and his lives near the Con. Awesome guy.

We played part of Talisman and had some beer (okay a lot). I got to belt out the song Turbo Lover by Judas Priest. Then we went to bed (sleeping bags, couch, inflatable mattresses, beds, whatever you could haul in and/or claim). I was too tired for stairs so I slept in my sleeping bag in Tim's den.

Thursday at the Con

Thursday went to the Con to get in to the dealer's hall at 10. I had managed to get tickets for my friends to Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. RPG event but couldn't get another seat for me. I considered getting a generic ticket but the line was too long.

I wandered the dealer hall instead. Stacks of books and games were out for all to look out. Demos were running fast and furious. It was a chaotic beautiful sprawl of games, gamers, and the hobby we love. A mixture of hard-core gamers, costumed convention goers, and families with babies. I loved all of it.

I picked up my kickstarter for Shadows of Esteren and GL screen along with a CD and t-shirt for the game. I talked to Nel, one of the creators from France. I like Shadows. Great game.

I snagged a copy of FFG Koronus Bestiary and walked for about ten minutes to the end of the huge line. I gave up and put it back (I did this twice more at the Con and never did get it, as Star Wars distracted me).

I checked out Chaosium. Magic World wasn't out so I moved on.

I checked out Ultimate Equipment from Paizo.

I got in line again for the Bestiary but got out of line to play a prototype of Relic. I was a ratling sniper. I explored the 40K universe and loved the game. I put back the Bestiary after playing.

I was hungry so I walked for a while (inside via bridges) to the mall for Chinese. Along the way I saw a Wookiee on stilts, stormtroopers in kilts, a stormtrooper from Planet of the Apes. The veggies, chicken, and rice gave me the boost I needed.

I met back up with my friends. Their GM had not been the best in their opinion (a common theme we find. We are hard on GMs). We went to play Battletech. The game was disorganized and had too many people at the table. But they tried hard to make it all work.

Battletech ran over and we left to go play Pyramid of Horus. Only four of the six of us had tickets, so the other two went to wander the dealer room. Great game, had a blast. Wished I had the money to buy the boardgame. Maybe another time.

We were going to see the WotC keynote but we decided to skip it (saw it on You Tube, glad I skipped it).

We went back to my brother's house, ordered Donato's pizza (all of those are closed where I live). I ran a playtest of Owl Hoot Trail for my brother and friends. Lots of violent gunfights, fistfights, and skulls worn as rings. They liked it. I could have GMed better (toned down the violence and fistfights to allow for some roleplaying). I used this lesson when I GMed DCC RPG for my friends the next two mornings.

During Owl Hoot Trail, I said that Ghost (a PC shaman) was holding up a skull on each hand like a pair of mittens. That remark struck Marty as funny. He shot Mountain Dew out of his nose and had to retreat to the sink to recover. We took pictures of his spluttering and he said his wife was going to say he was drinking and got sick. Yeah, Gen Con is awesome.

Friday at the Con

I got up around 8:30. I had planned to run a Black Crusade game for my friends, but they thought it was too complicated (hard on GMs, remember?:)). I downloaded a zero-level DCC RPG module and printed it out (sorry Tim for the use of ink and paper). I used an online generator to create a horde of 0-level peasants. I had DCC RPG on my laptop.

Everyone wandered in around 9:30 for pop-tarts, granola bars, and fruit smoothies (thank you Tim, great hangover cure). We played DCC. Half the 0-level character died but my GMing was better than before. We finished the first level and I told everyone that the remaining 0-levels would level up before the next game the next morning! Cool, I had never run DCC RPG for 1st-level characters before.

We headed for the Con. The only scheduled game we had was D&D Next at 4 so we wandered the dealer hall. Ran into a couple of drow and an orc and got pics on the way in. The orc gave Phil Con Crud we think.

I took a look at Witch World. Henry Lopez of Paradigm Concepts, Inc. spoke to me at length about Witch Hunter. I'm glad I met him. I really wanted to buy Witch World but couldn't afford it. Maybe next year.

We played D&D Next, which I discussed in a previous column.

After that, we headed to my brother's house. Jack Jack ran Scooby Doo Cthulhu. I played Scooby and in a fit of angst after biting the wrong guy to death and having Shaggy abandon him, Scooby surrendered to Cthulhu. At the last moment, Shaggy came back and Scooby rallied and Cthulhu was defeated. Also, Don Knotts was killed by another PC who then wore his skin around as part of his developing madness. Lots of insanity going on.

Saturday at the Con

We got up and I ran DCC RPG for the newly leveled 1st-level characters! A great game.

We had to decide if we wanted to play Ninja Crusade or D&D 5E as I had overlapping ticket times for both. We decided to turn in our Ninja Crusade tickets as it was the same RPG system as Apocalypse Prevention, Inc. and we didn't want to take the chance on getting the same GM.

One of the Kenzer employees talked to me about Hackmaster. The Hackmaster books are just beautiful and something worth seeing and paging through even if you can't buy them. Which I couldn't this year.

At the FFG booth, I was lured into buying Star Wars RPG. It was so shiny and new and surprising. I stood in line at Fantasy Flight Games once the massive line to pay shortened (by Saturday). Bryan Bornmueller, an FFG sales manager, talked to me about playtesting the Star Wars RPG Beta I had in my hands. He was loving the game. FFG also lured me into planning to make future purchases of the boardgame Borderlands, Relic, and the Talisman City expansion (by demo for Relic and displaying the boxes for the other two).

We played D&D Next. It was something to see as I wrote about before.

That night, at my brother's house, Tim ran Shadow Run using Savage Worlds. At 2:30 AM I succumbed to fatigue and my character passed out in front of the cyberborg psycho when my mind went numb and I couldn't proceed. Again, my fellow gamers rallied me and I came back after brushing my teeth to rouse my PC and we fought our way to victory. Grueling but fun.

Sunday

We don't go the Con itself on Sunday but instead headed home. While waiting for our driver to wake up, we played a card game. It was a card game about gamers trying to sabotage a GM's game and make him cry or force four of the six gamers to leave the table. A perfect capstone to another amazing con.

Conclusion

I killed eight characters in the DCC funnel. Marty's character died by dropping a box on his foot. I still laugh.

I played Scooby Doo and fought Cthulhu while Shaggy ran around in a Don Knott's skin suit.

I have the Star Wars RPG (FFG this time) and Shadows of Esteren.

Good times.

Next Month

Gen Con: the Awesome, the Bad, and the Ugly.

See You at the Con,
Charlie