[GEN CON] Credit

Many thanks to my reporters for their wonderful and in-depth reports.

Bill, Ryan and Mike are all to be thanked for their assistance!

[GEN CON] Wrap Up

I fully intended to daily reports, based on the feedback I got from my reporters. Unfortunately time got in the way and I wasn't able to do so.

I did have a few interesting reports coming to me from more than one source.

1- Booths were better laid out and traffic was much better than previous years.

2- Pricing in the booths was absolutely erratic. One might offer an item at $85 and three booths down might have the same thing for $125, so smart shopping was essential.

3- While the hall was better organized, some events were not. I heard of two cancelled events with no real notice (though my reporters were able to find replacement options and a refund) and bad lines.

4- Friendliness at booths was mentioned more than once, but not always in a good way. Overall,  I heard very positive things, but one or two events or companies were less than helpful.

5- [This comment is from general observations of photos and not reporters per se...] Fewer costumes and "environmental things" than in previous years.

6. The hit of the con (at least from the reports I got) were all in the miniatures field. Everyone I spoke to went totally geeky over the Wyrd Terrain Kits. Made of high quality chip board, there's enough pieces and material in each kit to make several schemes.

Here's some pics!

I hope to have some more detailed information to share later this week- and maybe some more pictures.

Game on!

[GEN CON] Report #1- Goodie Bag

Gencon Post #1: goodie Bag. bag includes:
1 - MTG 30-card deck
a copy of RIFT for the PC
AEG newsleter with coupons for $5 off thunderstone, nightfall, and L5R
Ads for Yu-Gi-Oh, Mage Wars, the resistance, Food Fight and Catanamals
Fantasy Flight magazine with coupons
a True Dungeon Token
Coolstuffinc.com free promo pack voucher
Crystal caste GenCon Dice voucher
AND the ever important GenCon Coupon book. YAY for games on sale.

Twenty Years

This is one of my favorite pictures of us... from a friend's wedding, 20 years ago. It was a great day. 

The following are from ours... an even better day- 20 years ago today. 

That YSL suit still gets me. I adore this picture of you.

My grandfather smelled great. He told me that you had no idea how lucky you were. 

I still wonder if the same isn't true for me. I sure feel lucky.

I forgot how much I smiled that day. I need to do it more. 

Starting our marriage out laughing... I love laughing with you.

I hope to look at you that way  for as long as I live. 

happy 20th anniversary.

[RPG] Coming soon: GenCon Reports

That's right, all you RPG fanatics! GenCon is this week and I have all kinds of goodies for you this time around. While I can't go and report personally, I have recruited some minions-er, I mean reporters - to help me out.

I'll have pictures, war reports, tales from the land of GeekDom and Dude-Funk, also known as the Five Best Days In Gaming.

Stay tuned as the reports come rolling in from Indy!

[RPG] KnightErrantJR's Hellfrost Game #1

I had a wonderful time recently, playing in the HellFrost game that KnightErrantJR is running at my FLGS.

For those that don't know, Hellfrost is a TripleAce product officially endorsed as a Savage Worlds supplement. It's very, VERY fantasy, which is a change for me.

JR decided to do something a little different for determining the "get the group together" and sent us fun little emails, each personalized to our individual characters. Here's mine, with a little flavor thrown in.

You have been in New Asper long enough not to get in trouble.  This is a good start.  Many new faces, some of them handsome enough to linger on for a few minutes, at least.

New Asper isn't the most amazing city, from what you hear, but it's a solid place, and a good sized one at that. 

For some reason your eyes are drawn to a large house on the street, with a few alleyways on it's sides.  You wonder for a moment what the place might be, and who might live there, when you feel that someone is behind you.

As you turn around, you find a man that you can see through.  If you didn't know better, you would think this might be a ghost.  Is it a ghost? 

"Tyco.  You flirt with trouble and with adventure.  I have a mate for your curiosity.  Follow me."

The man is clothes in rotted clothes and has sunken eyes, but appears to have once been a handsome Saxa man.  His neck, wrists, and waist is encircled in etherial chains, and he moves through you . . . so cold . . . and heads to the house.    

You know you shouldn't, but you follow, and after winding around a hallway or two, you see flickering lights.  In the room you find a circle of braziers, burning incense, and the room has other inhabitants, just now working their way out of the corners.

In the middle of the room is a word, apparently written in something that looks quite a bit like blood

So there is some cryptic writing on the ground... huh. 

No, not that kind!

yeah, like that...

Anyway, despite being a well versed traveler, Tyco doesn't recognize the writing. She's trying to figure out what to do when it dawns on here that there are 6 other guys in the room with her, and they all came in the room by different doors. This is more than a little freaky. 

Everyone in the room seems disturbed by the writing, and wonder what it says (as well as what to do). Some mumble, some ask out loud, some try to stay inconspicuous, but all seem more than a little alarmed when a member of the party starts addressing the town guard loudly, asking them to find a sage to read the writing. Another member of the group takes the gent aside and reveals to him what the writing is (Murder) and the loud fellow now begins asking about the tenant of the home- again to the guard. 

After some fits and starts, the group quietly retreats to the house and it is discovered by a variety of means that the home used to belong to a noble who traded wine, but had recently died of a very transmittable disease. The house is supposed to be under quarantine for at least another week, so being inside it is probably unwise. All of us except one are unwittingly healed of the disease by a member of the party who is acting really, really weird. 

Somewhere along here [OOC: I honestly can't remember how this came to pass] it is either decided or deduced that this noble's death might be the handiwork of a local death-and-mayhem God cult. 

It is then decided that someone from the group should try to infiltrate this cult, and the "rogue-iest" rogue type ever gets elected (or volunteered, I am not sure). 

The group travels to the cult hideout and the rogue descends the stairs and knocks on the door. (I swear I am not making this up!) Somehow he gets in and hangs out for a bit, but the cultists decide to give him an "initiation test" in an attempt to get rid of him. 

They ask him to bring as many of the poor, homeless, beggars and prostitutes he can find to them so they can give them "presents". This apparently sounds like a good thing to our "friend" and he leaves and then reports this to us. 

We then come up with a brilliant plan to act drunk and that we are following the guy to a new party to get even more drunk. 

(Our party comprises of 2 Engro, a Noble Anari (I think?) , A FrostDwarf, 2 Finnars and another guy I can't remember. We don't "gel".) 

We get inside and there is a brief fight where the cultists are defeated pretty quickly, and we manage to get some information out of them. Apparently this isn't really a Death-God cult as much as it is a fraternity for "get-back-at-Saxa" with some debauchery thrown in. YAY. 

The cultists are apparently brewing something up at another location, and it is almost ready according to the guy we get the information out of. We go to the other safe house and 

then things get really weird. 

Instead of going inside and investigating, or checking for guards, or anything like that, the plan is to burn the place down. THEN, the group tries to send the rogue (whom I've managed to sort-of befriend) inside to check it out but asks him to torch the place while he's at it. 

This plan doesn't really go over well with my pal, who isn't keen on being the messenger or the designated fire-starter, after we've spent so much time trying to avoid authorities. 

An examination of the basement of the hideout reveals an abattoir with what used to be people hanging from hooks, with pustule bags of infectious disease being grown in their abdomens. All of them save one are still "brewing", but there is one that looks as if the wormy bag o' sickness got away via the "sewers".  (There's definitely some leniency on reality in this game...)

The fire starts, the hideout burns down, and we are on the way to the home of the noble in our party when we are summoned quite forcefully to the home of a Duke. 

Said Duke wants to hire us as consultants and troubleshooters to investigate whatever goings on may be occurring that the regular consul and nobles might not want to hear about...

and thus ends the first session.... 

[40K] What NOT To Do

I didn't play this week (but it's ok, it was my choice) but I watched a lot of games. I heard some very interesting comments and generally enjoyed the guys at my local shop and their many opinions.

Towards the end of the night, I over heard a comment about Hunter Killers being kind of useless. I innocently asked what made them so bad.

A few of my most trusted friends proceeded to tell me why they were such a waste of points, and then went on to tell me about other things that were complete and total losers. They also pointed out why some of my perceptions of "bad" choices were WRONG

 and educated me on the very desperate need for Furious Charge in my army if I ever quit being a wussy and finally buy Thunder Hammer/Storm Shields and/or Lightning Claws. (Man, I had no idea they were so insanely good. I need some super fast-  like YESTERDAY.)

So for all you newbies out there- don't spend 10 points on a shot you can only use once a game and can't hit the Titanic or anything of equivalent size. Buy Tank Hunters for long distance guys or Furious Charge for close combat dudes instead. Don't buy a searchlight. Don't forget that plasma has a purpose. Use Land Raider Crusaders whenever possible (and if you are Black Templar, stay the ^&&% in the ride!).

I've shared some of the crazy-good wisdom of the 40K crowd... now share your best "Don't do it" pieces of advice ...someone will thank you later...