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GENCON 2012!!! Its on!

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DWC

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« Reply #60 on: <08-20-12/1649:48> »
As Recovery Monday draws to a close, and another Gencon goes in the books, I've been reflective.

On the whole, I had a great time.  To anyone who's even considered it, volunteer to judge a round or two along with playing.  It gave me a nice contrast with playing, and the staff were great to us.  As always, I had a blast with the Scramble, though I might or might not have been making my own fun for a portion of it.  Big thanks to all the volunteers to who made that happen.

As always, it was great to catch up with a bunch of folks, along with meeting new ones and putting names and faces with forum names.

On the other hand, the decision to put all of the Catalyst products together in one room was an atrocious one.  Putting Missions back in the JW with the other RPGs and the Scramble back in Union Station with the other LARPs would do the campaign (and the convention) a great service.

Barring something weird, I'll see all y'all next summer.

Kortane

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« Reply #61 on: <08-20-12/2007:33> »
I went to Gen Con 2012 as my first-ever convention. I had a wonderful time! Thank you to everyone who made this possible. The game masters, organizers, random attendees, and my fellow players all contributed to the overall awesomeness of my experience. I got to play all sorts of games, meet lots of interesting people, and even practice my improvisational oratory/rabble-rousing skills during the Scramble.

You guys and gals Rock!


(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)

(Pretty please?)

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #62 on: <08-20-12/2014:36> »
(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)

(Pretty please?)

... yeah, this requires explanation and video.  So explain!!  And find video and post here.  ;)
Pananagutan & End/Line

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Play the game. Don't try to win it.

Critias

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« Reply #63 on: <08-20-12/2022:17> »
If you are who I think you are -- aka, "Decker Girl," from our impromptu Friday-night game in the hotel lobby, by all means read on.  If not, I apologize for mistaking you for her.  ;)
(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)
Someone's got to have some, somewhere -- sadly the video capabilities of my phone leave much to be desired.  You did a great job of it, and if you hadn't told us it was impromptu right now, I would'a thought you were in on it the whole time.  I also had no idea it was your first con.  You weren't nearly as wide-eyed and terrified as most GenCon newbies.  You fit right in, and hopefully we'll see you again next year.

I'm glad you had a good time, and it was a pleasure gaming with you!  Sorry the decker was the only one we had left in our pick-up game, but hopefully you still had a good time with us.  I know that at least Mongoose, the epic rockerboy, had a blast sitting across the table from ya. 

Critias

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« Reply #64 on: <08-20-12/2056:14> »
For my own brief GenCon review:

Pro:
1)  Food trucks!  I can't figure out why no one else thought to introduce them to geeks on this scale, before.  Fairly cheap food, fairly tasty food, and nice and close to the convention?  Sign me up.

2)  Playing geek-Tetris to fit everyone into our room.  Due to some last-minute guys going "Hey, my plans fell through, got room?" we had six dudes in my hotel room this year.  Everyone got along well, though, we hung out and had a few meals and chats together, etc, etc, and it turned out to be, overall, a positive experience and an excuse to meet some new folks to hang out with.

3)  GenCon coincidences.  I ran into an old professor of mine purely by chance, helped him get back into BattleTech after years without playing it (including hooking him up with my old Northern Kentucky gaming group), and chatted academia with him for a while.  It was a very pleasant surprise, and I even got to work in a "now the student has become the master" joke when he was asking for GenCon advice since it was his first year.  We ran into a pair of L5R developers when a buddy and I were fumbling through starter decks and the rulebook in our hotel lobby, and then we took turns geeking out at each other (OMG, you work on this game?! vs. OMG, you work on that game?!).  I sat down at a table just to get off my feet, struck up a conversation with a pair of guys who came over and asked if seats were taken, and it turns out they play HeroClix with one of my local gamers ("Yeah, we know Dave!").  And, last but not least, I was in a conversation that was overheard during my lunch at the airport, and right before I boarded my flight home, someone approached me to sign their book.  Coincidences, coincidences, coincidences.  I love 'em.  They remind us how small the world is, and how many cool geeks are out there. 

4)  Pick-up games are where it's at, cool cat.  I love ticketed stuff, too, mind you, but there's just something awesome about a half dozen gamers just not having anything else to do for a bit, and sitting down with some books, some dice, some cards, or some minis, and having a good time. 

5)  The longer I go to GenCon, the more GenCon Buddies I get.  I've got too many to rattle off all of 'em now, but suffice it to say it's always a pleasure.  Even though I only see y'all once a year, Indy wouldn't be the same without you.  Fun games and good food and good times don't happen in a vaccuum, no matter how good the books are, how pretty the artwork on the cards, or how lucky the dice.  It's the people that make GenCon magical every year.

Con:
1) Sweet giggidy-goo, did my feet hurt.

2)  My iPhone decided to make the camera function just black out the screen, instead of letting me take pictures, for about a day and a half.  That really sucked.  I took maybe ten photos the whole time, and there was so much more awesome stuff to see and show off.  I'm cycling through other peoples' Facebook photos to show stuff to my wife, which just makes me feel cruddy.

3)  I hated flying.  I hated having such limited luggage space (or worrying about shipping costs), I hated how my itinerary got changed at me on the last minute (sending me from Dallas to Denver to Indy, which is backwards and silly and saddled me with a layover I didn't want), I hated having to leave to make it to the airport on time instead of just drifting out of Indy on my own schedule, etc, etc.  I dunno.  I guess I got spoiled for my first several GenCons when I lived just an hour or two away, and had my car right there to lock extra stuff up in.  As it was, I was really stingy in the vendor's hall, and hardly bought anything.  Feeling like I had no space to bring stuff home really curtailed my shopping, and I never really thought about how much of the GenCon fun was that vendor's hall, before.

4)  By the end of the weekend, I had the Con Crud something fierce.  Blech.  My voice doesn't need that kind of "help," thanks.  ;)

Kortane

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« Reply #65 on: <08-20-12/2110:53> »
If you are who I think you are -- aka, "Decker Girl," from our impromptu Friday-night game in the hotel lobby, by all means read on.  If not, I apologize for mistaking you for her.  ;)

I am indeed the illustrious "Decker Girl" who didn't like the idea of the crane-game being used for such a purpose.  :)

Thank you for the compliments! Way to rock hard enough that skills were unnecessary. ;)

(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)

(Pretty please?)

... yeah, this requires explanation and video.  So explain!!  And find video and post here.  ;)

The video, I can't supply (hence the request). The explanation? Uh....my character may have not appreciated the speech that Governor Brackhaven made regarding Prop. 23 and may have decided that a rebuttal was in order. A rather, umm...loud rebuttal.

Shadow-Jackal

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« Reply #66 on: <08-20-12/2112:41> »
I went to Gen Con 2012 as my first-ever convention. I had a wonderful time! Thank you to everyone who made this possible. The game masters, organizers, random attendees, and my fellow players all contributed to the overall awesomeness of my experience. I got to play all sorts of games, meet lots of interesting people, and even practice my improvisational oratory/rabble-rousing skills during the Scramble.

You guys and gals Rock!


(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)

(Pretty please?)


Sorry I took that 200$ from ya after all that. ;) I can't believe your speech was impromptu! It was quite impressive to say the least!

-That weird elf from the CAS.

Kortane

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« Reply #67 on: <08-20-12/2138:54> »
Sorry I took that 200$ from ya after all that. ;) I can't believe your speech was impromptu! It was quite impressive to say the least!

-That weird elf from the CAS.

Thank you! That 200 nuyen was fairly earned. (and I suspect Court might have sustained injuries if she hadn't elected to pay up)

 I would dearly love to know what was actually said during the rhetoric-storm, so if anyone finds a link or a video or a transcript, please post it or message it to me.

DWC

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« Reply #68 on: <08-20-12/2139:21> »
It was loud, and it was awesome.  Sadly, I didn't record it because the rest of us were trying to figure out how to avoid getting rolled up by security (again in Fox's case), and I wasn't in "spectating convention goer" mode.  I hope someone did get it, because it'd make a really cool sidebar to see show up in the next SOTA book's section on Prop 23.

See you next year.  Hopefully the next hostage rescue isn't mistaken for being a kidnapping.  Or hopefully it is.  That made for a hilarious misunderstanding to wrap things up with.

Kortane

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« Reply #69 on: <08-20-12/2156:17> »
Security? *pssshaw*

I do hope to be back next year. As to the whole "hostage" issue, no one actually died.

No harm, no foul.

Right, guys? ;)

Fade

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« Reply #70 on: <08-20-12/2204:19> »
Well, I didn't get to participate in the scramble this year, as I was workin' for the man running missions.  Things turned out pretty well though overall.  Not getting to raffle into the tourney didn't dissuade the pickup game of it I ran either.  I gotta say, just the sheer amount of STUFF in that made it a challenge in off the cuff gaming I won't forget.

Highlights for me:

Getting to shoot all the nice new paint off of Vice's truck. 
Teaching a father and his sons to play the game and everyone having a blast.
Seeing a couple familiar faces show up in my games (Sabot and Jack Hyde I'm lookin' at you)
Running a pickup game of the tournament for folks that didn't get in.
Steak and ribs at the Weber.  Steer me wrong you did not.
Seeing an experienced runner team pushed to its limit on Sunday morning.
Whiskey, the Triple S, and finally getting down to only the "crap" left.

Special thanks to Dire, for bringing the good stuff, Scuzz, for the ride to the Airport, Sinthalix for the crash space Wednesday night, Bull for putting up with putting this together, and everyone else.

See you yahoos at Origins.
Mike Messmer
Freelancer & FAQ Committee member
RPG Lead Agent
Catalyst Demo Team

FastJack

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« Reply #71 on: <08-21-12/0748:13> »
First off, welcome to the forums, Kortane! Glad to see you at the con and glad it was such a great experience. (And, like Critias said, if you hadn't pointed out that it was your first con ever, I'd never had known.) Your speech was excellent, even if I was pressed into being a Brackhaven supporter at the last minute.

For me, this con was the first where I wasn't just a bystander, and the Missions team impressed the HELL out of me with how much they rocked. The finally tally came to 800+ Shadowrun players at our tables (so, with 13 slots, that averages 61 people playing at any given time). Hopefully, everyone I GM'd for came away with a great experience and I hope to see many of you there next year.

P.S. Kortane, the elven social adept I was telling you about is the character in my sig below. ;)

DireRadiant

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« Reply #72 on: <08-21-12/1307:33> »
(I, uhh... don't suppose any of you have a video of my character's possibly ill-advised speech that you would be willing to send me, do you? I saw three video cameras and few cellphones pointed at me up there...)

(Pretty please?)


I got the video.... need time to upload it. :)

Mara

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« Reply #73 on: <08-21-12/1531:03> »
If you are who I think you are -- aka, "Decker Girl," from our impromptu Friday-night game in the hotel lobby, by all means read on.  If not, I apologize for mistaking you for her.  ;)

I am indeed the illustrious "Decker Girl" who didn't like the idea of the crane-game being used for such a purpose.  :)

Thank you for the compliments! Way to rock hard enough that skills were unnecessary. ;)

The same Decker Girl in the old school costume complete with Data jack that was in the Friday night Trial of Bloodright
for battletech? Or am I confusing you with another decker girl?

Kortane

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« Reply #74 on: <08-21-12/1929:58> »
To FastJack:  O_O  eep!

To DireRadiant: Hooray!

To Mara: Sadly, I was not in a costume and so cannot be the Decker girl with a data jack. That costume sounds awesome though.