Someone tell me about GenCon!

[Kublai]

I am dying to hear the details! I expect, however, that most of the attendees are in deep comas while they recuperate. I am patient. I will wait....

POST ALREADY!!!!

[foxandwarlock]

What do you want to know? Con stuff in general or BW exclusive?

Can't tell you much about the BW sessions since we (my group) were in the Shadowrun Tournament but Game of Thrones did some really cool stuff with the OGL and the Houses, Hit Points, etc. They tried to make it a little grittier and deadlier but at the end of the day the two extreme ranges of the D20 make it hard to consistently accomplish stuff. They are frozen in terms of releasing because they need George Martin's sign off but he refuses to anything before he finishes a Feast for the Crows.

Marvel vs. DC CCG had some pretty sketchy/hard core art that was very appealing but we didn't play any of it.

Got to kill a few puppies for Satan (A BLAST! Possibly some of the best 20 minutes at the Con).

Oh! And played some Little Fears. For those of you not familiar, you play kids under the age of 13 who are combating the monsters under the bed, closet, etc. and trying to stem the tides of Closetland. Very fun - especially when you call someone a butthole and everyone at the table covers their mouths in shock. We had a tomboy in our group who had the "Potty Mouth" flaw and so she was the only person allowed to swear - she dropped one f-bomb and it was hysterical because we all literally looked at each with mouth agape.

Had very few problems with room assignments and general table f-ups but heard the opposite from a bunch of other people - so *shrug*

And, the rising tide of CCG's and D20 vanilla wafers continue to swell, threatening to consume us all. I swear you can get anything in a CCG format now.

Oh yeah. I did manage to hear about this strange competition called "Beat Pete" and some guy that Luke referred to as the "Master Scripter" But I'm sure it was made up...you know, like urban myth or something :twisted:

[Kublai]

Well, if I know Luke, I'd say the game was probably be called Beat Meat! :twisted:

Anyway, I put this thread here because I don't necessarily want to hear about BW at GenCon, but stuff like you posted that is outside this little bubble I live in.

Anyone see anything about the upcoming Sid Meier's Pirates! boardgame? How about that Pirates card game? I love me some pirates, I do!

Was GenCon a good thing or a bad thing? Was last year's registration SNAFU a thing of the past? Is it worth the time and money to go there? I've been dreaming of going since I was thirteen, but have yet to make it there.

[foxandwarlock]

I am proud to say that Drozdal and I teamed up to whack some poor kid who volunteered to play a combat demo with us. Hehe. C'mon, it was fair - he had a magic dwarven shield for god's sake!

Pirates were a big thing this year. A lot of pirate this and that - particularly bandanas that covered your whole head with a skull and crossbones printed on the front. There was some advertisement for Pirates of the Spanish Main but I'm not sure what it is (Movie, CCG, RPG, etc.)

But I did get to play in a GURPS session where you played the crew of a Dutch Privateering ship. Does that count? No? What if I told you that I shot the doctor (another PC) in the back after he tried to block me from escaping and abandoning the party with a shirt-full of dubloons? Did I mention he slapped me earlier in the adventure and called me insolent? :twisted:

GenCon was really good for my group this year. This if the fourth year for two of us - we went just Sat + Sun for the first two years and then we got wise. To me, the organization of the thing definitely appears to be improving though woe to you if you need ANYTHING that involves tickets on that first morning. People stood in line for 3+ hours for Generic tickets. I mean, you know you're going to sell them right? Just preprint them and tear them off as people ask for them - like the carnival.

Is it worth it? Well, it depends on how much money it takes for you to get there. What are you going to do with your time? My group spent 87 hours in Indianapolis from Thursday to Sunday. 16 of those were spent sleeping, another 52+ were spent at RPG events. That means of the hours we were awake we had dice in our hands 75% of the time. Its fun but its not vacation - usually you go home more tired then you went but damn if you don't have some cool/memorable experiences to go home with.

I think I laughed four days straight from stealing gold dubloons right on through walking out of a Midnight game because it was set 900 years in the future (compared to our home game) and Raemos and I didn't want to know what happened.

You probably ought to go one time and judge for yourself. Get it under your belt and call it a day but pre-register, pre-register, pre-register. Having no tickets and playing stand-by will suck the fun right out of the experience.

[luke]

It was great meeting FoxandWarlock and crew. You guys were a blast to hang out with, I hope we get to play sometime.

Dro and I had a non-BW highlight: We heard Kublai wanted some Pirates of the Spanish Main ships so we went over to the Wizkids booth to see what we could get.

We bumped into the Riddle of Steel guys from our booth George (claymore) and Don. We got a little game on.

They had chosen the choicest ships, of course. And George was actually telling the demo guy the rules to the game (which was pretty funny). Dro and I knew nothing.

Anyway, Dro immediately turned and rammed George's ship and put himself in terribly disadvantageous position -- he couldn't move and he could only fire with one gun. George had three guns to open up on him with.

Meanwhile, Don quietly was raiding treasure from a nearby island as my ship stalked out of strait and closed with him. He got the first volley and knocked one one of my masts down. He out-gunned me, could move faster and was a more experienced captain.

Suddenly, the table had turned into Burning Wheel pirates vs Riddle of Steel privateers!

Don fired barrage after barrage into my 3rd Rate frigate, while my steely gun crews calmly picked off his masts one, two, three. His ship was dismasted and captured, huzzah!

Meanwhile, against all odds, Dro's single cannon crew managed to destroy George's three good masts! Dro was victorious -- and so was Burning Wheel!

But, in true Poisonous Ambition fashion, I immediately turned my sights on Dro's wounded ship and closed in for the kill. Unfortunately for me, he made it to the safety of his home port before I could bring my guns to bear.

Damn you, traitorous Drozdal! There'll be a reckoning!

Victory to the Wheel!

:twisted:

-L

[Wuxing]

I know you have met Luke, but for those who haven't that are reading this, let me tell you he is absolutely fanatical in his love of gaming. It just pours out of him everytime you see him talking, whether it's about BW or Riddle of Steel or something else. He was extremely generous with his time and infectious energy with us.

As an aside, since I got caught up in his energy and completely forgot. Thanks for the game Luke, and whoever helped you get it done over the years. Just thanks. :)

On energy, I could say the same for most of the people at the "Forge" booth. I've wanted to thank Ron Edwards for making me think about gaming in a different light and got a chance to just do that. No fanboi praise, no over done hype, just a simple handshake and a thanks. It's interesting to meet some of these folks after being familiar with thier online persons. The sheer energy coming out of that booth could match, and likely beat, the energy of most of the other hall put together. You can almost feel it in the air around the booth. If you get a chance to go and just watch from afar you'll see what I am talking about.

The con continues to improve. Traffic looked lighter, but that could have just been that Saturday didn't look like the total mess that it usually looks like.

No pirate activities for me. :( But it was everywhere! Pirates are the new ninjas of gamers. That would be a great one shot, NvP:Ninjas versus Pirates!

It was fun for the most part. I have my way of gaming, you have yours, it's always interesting to see what happens when we meet at a table and try to mesh it. I hijacked a few games, in the most respectful ways possible. We played Warhammer Fantasy and the whole table was laughing having a great time, all because we hijacked the game and made it ours. Played a lot of things I wouldn't normally play. Stargate SG-1, Warhammer Fantasy, Dark Age Inquisitor and Exalted to name a few.

As far swag goes, outside of the Monster Burner and print copies of kpfs, I wasn't excited about a lot of product. I died try to get a copy of Paranoia XP for old times sake, but they sold out.

I tell you what was the coolest part for me, other than meeting some new peeps, was seeing some of the old con guys. We had an extra ticket for a Game of Thrones demo and who do we run into trying to get into the game, a guy we played with last year who we had a total blast with. How cool was it to be able to just give this guy a ticket and say enjoy it! He was a total blast to play with again from all accounts.

I'm glad I took Monday off, I needed to time to get some rest. It was a long weekend. I keep going back though. As long as they are fun, I'll keep going.

[Kublai]

Abzu! That game sounds great! You REALLY picked me up a pack? :cry: <-- tears of joy

[Andy K]

I know you have met Luke, but for those who haven't that are reading this, let me tell you he is absolutely fanatical in his love of gaming.

Holy fuck yeah. Between Luke and Ben Lehman, there was enough energy to power a small suburb. I swear, Luke's vibrant energy is infectious. Whenever I felt like I was winding down, I just stood over by him as he ran a demo, and got instantly recharged.

No pirate activities for me. :( But it was everywhere! Pirates are the new ninjas of gamers. That would be a great one shot, NvP:Ninjas versus Pirates!

No way, man. Pirates are so last week. Eastern Europe is the new Japan, to quote Ben. Let's see a Ninja take on a Cossack. Or, better yet, a Pirate vs a Ninja vs a Crimean Tatar. Or hell, an Eastern European pirate- The most famous pirate queen in the mediterranean was a Turk, IIRC.

Anyway, it was some great shit.

-Andy

[Drozdal]

Abzu! That game sounds great! You REALLY picked me up a pack? icon_cry.gif <-- tears of joy
We've got you 2 demo packs but noone wanted to wait in 40 feet line to the cash register to pick up a real booster - that game was hot!

IMHO - whole idea of ship combat in Pirates of Spanish Main is great - we haven't tried advanced game (in which you have capitans and special cards) - i will rock. Only one thing - that all search for treasure on islands is fucking booring - that's why my first action was to smash those ships together and see how that game really works :evil: And indicating ship damage by removing masts is fucking brilliant idea.

Drozdal

[Raemos]

This was my first time going and I have to say it was totally worth it. I’m sure I suffered from a chemical imbalance from laughing so much. I’m in the group with Foxandwarlock and Wuxing and have only ever played with them. 52 hours of gaming with people I’ve never meet was an experience I was unprepared for.

We missed out on the Burning Wheel games because of a conflict with the Shadowrun tournament. That was my first and last time entering that, too high of a cost missing BW.

I got to play D20 for the first time. Yes it’s true; I’ve never touched it before. My guys have done a good job of protecting me over the years.

We ran into the PR lady for Wizards of the Coast in the drug store outside the convention hall. She ‘seemed’ nice, but I kept waiting for her to rip her face off and eat us. :twisted:

My first experience was absolutely fantastic and well worth it all. If you do go, you must go all four days. The atmosphere of Thursday/Friday was very different from Saturday/Sunday.

[Claymore]

Meanwhile, against all odds, Dro's single cannon crew managed to destroy George's three good masts! Dro was victorious -- and so was Burning Wheel!


-L

Grrrr................. I could not roll above a 3! 4 turns in a roll all I needed was a 5+ (and at the start I was rolling 3 dice, then 2, then one, sigh..) Curse you Drozdal! I shall have my revenge!!!!! :evil: I hereby challenge you to a rematch Gen Con 2005! :twisted:

The Game kicks butt, I managed to "aquire" about 9 packs over the course of the con.

Otherwise, had a great time at the con, The Riddle of Steel went well thanks to a great bit of help from Ben, Jasper, and Calder.

We also picked up 3 copies of the Monster Burner for the store, and promptly sold out today!

[Drozdal]

We also picked up 3 copies of the Monster Burner for the store, and promptly sold out today!

Great news.

Claymore You'll have your revenge anyplace anytime :)

Drozdal

[Andy K]

BTW, Drozdal's pics from GenCon can be found here:

http://www.robo-christ.com/gallery

[Drozdal]

Thanx so much Andy :twisted:

Drozdal

[doom of the fallen]

It is a grand old time for Chattel and players alike:)

[Gumby]

Luke,

I did my damndest to find burning wheel inc. but to my dispare I didn't. What was your locale in relation to last year. I search High and low for you guys. but again no luck.

Hope everyone had a sweet time at the con.

Gumby

oh btw,
David Carradine(sp) from Kung Fu the Legend Continues is a complete prick, he was uncool to talk to and acted like I was wasting his time, even though I was the only person there. BAH..

[luke]

Dude! Dro was so looking forward to kicking your ass again!

Next year, check the program book for the exhibitor's list. We were in there!

-L

[Gumby]

He could try to roll me, not gonna happen though.

[Gumby]

Luke,

I met Jasper at a Larp, his contacts are, ineresting...
He is Friggin cool
Small World..

[haiiro]

Hopefully this thread is a good spot for this. ;)

I played my first-ever game of BW at this year's con, and it was absolutely fantastic. The in-character debate between the two groups (elves and dwarves) has easily the highlight of the session -- full of impassioned performances. The debate mechanics are excellent, and it's a very neat approach to something that could easily be mis-handled (and that I would have expected to be dull, had it been described to me).

It was also nice to see how well the game flows in play. Just reading through the rules, it seems dense and somewhat more complex than necessary. At the table, the opposite was true.

My friends & I gave up another event that we were also quite excited about to play this session, and I'm glad we did. Count me in for doing it again next year (and with any luck, playing or running BW between now and then as well!). :)

[Siloqui]

wait, hold it, back up.... Stargate SG1 has an RPG? uuuuugh!!!! I need to live somewhere that games!! (I lived in Rochester NY and got sucked into the Camarilla cause that's all that was around really) I need more exposure. Had friends who went to GenCon and said that it was great. If I had gone it would have been for LARP stuff though. Pirates have been a big theme in that group too.

[Thor Olavsrud]

wait, hold it, back up.... Stargate SG1 has an RPG? uuuuugh!!!! I need to live somewhere that games!! (I lived in Rochester NY and got sucked into the Camarilla cause that's all that was around really) I need more exposure. Had friends who went to GenCon and said that it was great. If I had gone it would have been for LARP stuff though. Pirates have been a big theme in that group too.

I think Ithaca has a live and kicking roleplaying community. In fact, I think our very own Paka has a group there... 8)

[Paka]

I think Ithaca has a live and kicking roleplaying community. In fact, I think our very own Paka has a group there... 8)[/quote]

The Gaming Gods of Ithaca have been quite kind to me and I often burn dice at their altar in thanks.

[Manicrack]

The Gaming Gods of Ithaca have been quite kind to me and I often burn dice at their altar in thanks.

Dude, now i know why you bring so many dice to our DitV games.
You burn them afterwards, and thank for a great game.
:)

-Crack

[Siloqui]

maybe I need to offer ritual sacrifice to teh Player Gods... to keep me safe from DM Gods cause yall have some pretty powerful dice. Or, well, tehy tend to kill me often enough.

(yes, I blame the dice and not my own stupidity. I walked into an orc cave with 7hp. I didn't deserve to die he just had crappy dice!)