Wow, guys and gals. What. A. Weekend!
Gen Con 50 was huge, hectic, and wonderful. Instead of giving a laundry list of everything I did, I thought I would cherry pick a few of the best moments from the four day extravaganza.
Friends!
Above all else, the time I got to spend with my friends was the most valuable experience of the whole weekend. It's a rare opportunity to be around that many like-minded people for such a long time, drinking beer, playing games, and telling stories. It was excellent to see friends I haven't seen in months. It was amazing to meet so many new people I hope to call friends. Even if everything else sucked, the people at the Con would have more than made up for it. Shout out to Sean, Erick, Pete, Rick, and everyone else who made this Con the best ever!
Fortunately for me and everyone else, everything else didn't suck.
Chip Theory Games
My gracious benefactors, the gentlemen who provided me with a badge for the small price of demoing some of their games. Josh and Adam Carlson of Chip Theory Games, along with being amazing game designers, are two of the most humble and generous guys around. I started working Gen Con for them last year, and continued the tradition this year.
On Thursday I worked their event tables for Hoplomachus, while on Friday and Saturday I was one of their Booth Babes. Of course, working is a bit of a stretch - I hardly consider teaching eager gamers about awesome games work. Exhausting? Yes. Work? No.
Dreamchaser
Pete Petrusha already got a shout out earlier in the post, but the man deserves another. Not only is he the universally-agreed-upon-nicest-dude-ever, but he is also apparently the hardest working dude ever, too! He managed to delivered Dreamchaser Kickstarter rewards (on time) to backers at Gen Con. And let me tell you, the book is amazing. Seriously, you need it. And buy a copy for your best friend, that's what I did. It's the kind of game that inspires that kind of stuff!
Oh, and did I mention I got to play a game of Dreamchaser, as well? With Pete? Yeah... totally epic. As with every game of Dreamchaser I've this one told a great story with lots of laughs and amazing moments.
DCCRPG
Well I finally got around to playing a game of Dungeon Crawl Classics, folks! After hearing Brett and Sean from Gaming and BS and the rest of the interwebs talk about it; I knew that Gen Con was going to be my time! Unfortunately for me I wasn't able to sign up for any events, so I was consigned to waiting for a seat to open up for generic tickets.
Thursday went by. Friday went by. Saturday went by... and still no DCC. I was several beers in that night, when my friend Melissa said that she had a DCC game on Sunday morning. We thought, surely there will be at least one person too hungover to make it to a 9:00am game on the last day of the Con. We were wrong.
But Judge James Walls, being the hero that he is, made room for me in his Frost Fang Expedition game. We were all exhausted from a long Gen Con, but the group was fantastic. Even the 6-year-old dude playing Vipersnake the Lizardman hung in for the whole four hours (amazing)! James ran a really amazing adventure that let DCC more than live up to the hype. It was a great close to the weekend.
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed every moment of Gen Con 50. In spite of the crowds, the sore legs, the over-priced food, and the lack of sleep; I had an amazingly terrific time. Sun King Brewing's Dragons Delight kept me sufficiently lubricated, friends kept me laughing, the Exhibit Hall kept me coming back (and back, and back), and the games kept me entertained.
As with every convention, but especially Gen Con, I feel like I never got in quite enough gaming. With so much commotion, so many distractions, and so much to do it's hard to get everything in that you want to. One of the main things I wanted to accomplish for the Con was to play a game of Dungeon World, but it just wasn't in the cards. But you know what? In the words of my friend Chelsea, "It okay, no be cry." Because I had the time of my life with amazing people. And that's really all you can hope for.
Until next year, game well!