[HoE] What I Did On My Summer Vacation

[Abdullah Oblongota <toadpooka@usa.net>]

GenCon '99 was, in a word, GenCon.  There's no other way to describe it.
I volunteered for PEG, but not on the cool
"stay-in-a-hotel-a-damn-mile-away-but-at-least-get-the-name-of-a-decent-company-on-your-con-badge"
plan.  I ran Grimme Crusade demos, which was fun at times, and one time was
downright annoying (bad batch of players).  I missed most of the Listserve
Dinner due to a GC Demo, but I showed up long enough to say hello to a select
few folks.
As far as I can tell, the Deadlands LARP this year was the first Live/Wire event
I've been to that didn't end in a Big Ass Fight that bogged everything down. 
I'd like to think that my scheming helped prevent that, having warned all the
important folks about the impending assassinations.  Unfortunately, I was too
wrapped up in the game to escape five minutes early and see the Patriot
execution.  Then, SOMEONE at the PEG booth told me specifically that they
weren't having a repeat of the event, so I missed it twice.
The only non-PEG event I attended was the Mr. Mouth World Championship.  This
thing was a spectacle to behold.  Seeing the high strategy and sportscaters'
analysis of four grown people flicking plastic flies into the rotating head of
an electric frog is something I'll not soon forget.  By the end of the
tournament, I was happy just to have been in the same room as the greatest Mr.
Mouth player in the history of the universe.
Speaking of sharing spaces with important personages, my friends and I kept
running into Chekov in the Hyatt elevator.  By the third or fourth time, I was
wondering why he was following me around, and he was wondering the same thing. 
That guy is just...creepy-lookin'.
I foolishly scheduled my HoE pick-up game for Sunday and no one showed up. 
However, I did sell the story rights to John Goff for a nickel.  I guess I've
got more "posse killer" potential than I thought.
And, unlike Origins, I made it home without having a car explode underneath me
in the middle of nowhere.
So, all dumb scams and people who can't understand the ranking of playing cards
aside, GenCon was definitely fun, and Black River Rails certainly profited from
the arrangement (even if PEG sold out of Devil Bats...)

-- 
From Whom It May Concern,
Richard Ranallo, The Man They Couldn't Hang

Your money talks, but my genius walks
Morticians wait with a shovel and a fork
As detectives trace my hands with chalk
Your money talks but my genius walks.
--They Might Be Giants, "You'll Miss Me"