[BNW] GenCon thoughts from another geek

[Sean Michael Whipkey <highway@cstone.net>]

Just because I know none of you really care, I'm giving you another
synopsis/psuedo-review of GenCon.  For a real review, check out rpg.net
next week (hopefully)...

TUESDAY, 0700 EDT

Of course, the guys from Iron Crown Enterprises (ICE) are late.  We get the
car and head out to GenCon.

On the way, I find that a number of their demo people have dropped out, so
I agree to run a few Silent Death Astro-Smashes for them.  If you haven't
played Silent Death, I highly recommend it - a fun and bloody game.  Our
own Matt Forbeck used to work on the line...:)

On the way in, we randomly run into PEG at a Wendy's in West Virginia.  Weird.

Most of the rest of the way was used to discuss various games of all sorts,
old campaigns, who sucks at role-playing and writing and who doesn't, and
cataloging the various smells (ewww!  Pig truck!) of the Midwest.

We managed to make it to Racine, WI, home of ICE's hotel (mental note:
don't annoy the Milwaukee BoV) for the weekend.  We sleep.

WEDNESDAY:

After sleeping in we go to the Midwest Express Center.  Whaddyaknow - PEG
ain't there yet.  I help ICE set up their booth.

Eventually, PEG shows up.  I move over there.  We haul boxes back and forth
as I start to meet the various people, including Hal "Hey Wendy's guys!"
Mangold, Zeke Sparks, and others...

I got to meet Chris McGlothlin, which I had been looking forward to, as
he's not only a cool writer for Deadlands but also a customer of the ISP
that I work for (as is Graveyard Greg, who showed up a little later).  We
ended up doing the whole "hurry up and wait" thing for the carpet.

Later, Scott Hacker and I walked the seemingly-interminable (at the time)
distance to the hotel.  Ow.  After grabbing a beer or two and some food
from the lounge at the Park East with Greg and Scott, it was sleepy-bye
time.  Yes, I was a wuss that day.

THURSDAY

Got to start off with a bang by learning GRW then helping Lee run a game of
it at noon.  Of course, Andon screwed up and sent all 16 players to one
table.  Darn.

Then came the John Goff Invitational Tournament.  I learned some really
good tricks on how to run NPCs in that one, much to my future PCs dismay.
We had a good group of people, including Sandor "Give me another guts
check!" Silverman, Allan "Sure, I blow the strain" Seyberth, Jenny "Can I
have some bourbon?" Hise, and some others who I can't remember but have
written down but not with me so don't take it personally.  I got killed
first (alas) but managed to make it to the dinner closer to on time, so ah-ha!

After consuming too much bourbon, Pat Phalen and I went to the dinner,
meeting up with the Idiot Outlaw, Jeff "I'm armed...no I'm not...yes I am"
Achuff and Arick "Adrick" Madrigal (whose name I consistently mispronounced
all weekend for no reason whatsoever other then I'm a dumba$$).  After a
good time and many Guiness, I forgoed the opportunity to waste more money
and brain cells and went home to pass out.  Major wussy time, I admit.

FRIDAY

Today was my first game of "Don't Drink the Water".  The PCs did alright -
the mad scientist constantly aced his number of shots roll from his
flamethrower, shooting 19 (!) shots at the two feral zombies bearing down
on him.  Toast.  I thought I'd gotten the gunslinger killed (no wind left,
though he made his stun check) but the Blessed threw himself between him
and the zombie and saved him.  Oh, well.  I dragged the players up to the
PEG booth just in time for the execution of Patriot!

The execution went well but could have been louder during the soliloquy
that C. David "You look old" Ross gave as Patriot.  The guys who stood next
to me hummed "America the Beautiful" the whole time, and I couldn't help
buy crack up when one guy yelled (in response to Sandor's constant "He took
my son!" remarks) "HE RAPED MY DOG!"

Afterwards I ran two Astro-smashes for ICE.  I got back to the room, hoping
to find someone to go drinking with, but everybody (including new roommate
Jim Crabtree, an artist) wanted to go to bed.  <sigh>

SATURDAY

I got to sleep in - nyah nyah nyah! :)  Somehow my laptop battery got
drained, boding poorly for my pickup game.  I watched Briscoe County, Jr.
I went to the exhibit hall.  No one wanted to play in my pickup game at the
same time as anyone else.  Two players disappeared.  One went back to his
Con X game.  Another didn't sign up, then got frustrated when we didn't
know he wanted to play.  Sigh.  I'll post the adventure onto here.

Patriot went up for execution again today.

There were also ... the evangalists.

Ya see, Allan and I decided to walk to Walgreens to get a cola.  As we walk
over there, a woman offers Allan a flyer about God, which he politely
refuses.  The next guy says "Learn about God who will save you from the
Hell you deserve."

Allan stops dead in his tracks.  We kept moving.  Talk about button-pushing...

After my game ended with half the posse dead but victorious.  I was
supposed to be in Graveyard Greg's game, but somebody (including Pat
Phalen) didn't show up.

I was also hoping to hit the Safehouse that night, but alas, it fell through.

SUNDAY

Three astro-smashes, then going back with ICE.  Got my BNW stuff.

MONDAY

Drive back - randomly run into John and Joyce Goff at Tamarack in WV.

BNW is a blast.
I got to meet lots of cool people.  Y'all rock.

More when I recover more.

SeanMike
follow-ups should go to deadlands-ot@gamerz.net

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SeanMike Whipkey - Cornerstone Networks Engineering - highway@cstone.net
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