Well, well, well. Here we are, well over two full years since the idea of actually going to this thing started to seem more plausible.
I've been dreaming about going to Gen Con since I used to read about it in the old newsprint Wargames West magazine I got when I was about Connor's age.
And I can't help but feel like Picard, as he finally sits down at the officer's poker game, looks around at all his closest friends, and says...
"I should have done this a long time ago..."
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
"And So It Was That The Light Returned. . ."
" . . . to the hearts and minds of those who had tasted bitterest defeat in earlier times, returned after having been denied, thought destroyed by the evil which sought to consume the Light, to shatter the bond that had existed in their youths. But a seed lay dormant in the hearts of the adventurers, waiting. . . . waiting. . .
Now, the two have become four, combining their strength and spirit into a searing Light once more, preparing to ride together into battle, strong and whole.
And the Darkness trembles at their approach.
Let all the land rejoice, for Gen Con 2009 is their destination . . . and they will be victorious!"
Monday, July 28, 2008
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Things have changed a bit...
Not to make excuses for the long silence here, but our Gen Con plans aren't what they once were. Looking for a new plan, that's us. Or me, anyway. Pat's got himself a new job (which is good) and that job requires his attendance over the Gen Con weekend (which is... less good). So I'm trying to decide whether or not to go by myself. It's an interesting decision process; I think by the end of it I'll have a decent handle on how much of the excitement about this trip was road-tripping with Pat and how much was Gen Con itself.
On the one hand, it's a long way to Indianapolis and it'll be weird to be alone amidst that many people, but on the other hand they sure will have a lot of dice for sale.
Tricky call.
On the one hand, it's a long way to Indianapolis and it'll be weird to be alone amidst that many people, but on the other hand they sure will have a lot of dice for sale.
Tricky call.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
How Crazy Would I Be?
First - Charlie, that was a great post. Well thought out and presented, and definitely worth twice the wait.
Second - even though the postin'll be sparse until something actually, factually *happens* to us pertaining to Gen Con '08 (which ought to be April at the latest, Constant Readers), I thought I'd throw this link out there anyway. I don't want to fall into the trap of not talking about every little thing that comes into my head simply because it isn't important or relevant at the moment. If I lived my life that way, I'd never say or think anything.
Cool book, huh? From what I can see, it doesn't say much about how the day-to-day workings of the convention go, but still - if someone wants to buy me a present, feel free.
Second - even though the postin'll be sparse until something actually, factually *happens* to us pertaining to Gen Con '08 (which ought to be April at the latest, Constant Readers), I thought I'd throw this link out there anyway. I don't want to fall into the trap of not talking about every little thing that comes into my head simply because it isn't important or relevant at the moment. If I lived my life that way, I'd never say or think anything.
Cool book, huh? From what I can see, it doesn't say much about how the day-to-day workings of the convention go, but still - if someone wants to buy me a present, feel free.
Monday, February 18, 2008
And we're counting down, down, down...
When Pat and I... hang on. I should probably apologize for how long it's taken me to get this post up. After three days of one or even two posts daily I expect the ten-day lapse was pretty jarring to our loyal readers (hi, Norway! Thanks for paying for Internet!). Truly, I have no excuse; I was busier than usual last week but not too busy to sit down and get my typey-type on. More accurate would be to say I balked at the idea of maintaining the pace we'd set. What on earth can we talk about on a daily basis for the next half year, I asked myself? When Pat and I talk about Gen Con (which we do. Often) we cheerfully rehash subjects and ideas over and over again, but that seems like poor blog etiquette. So I expect the occasional week or two space between posts won't be unusual, at least in times like these where there isn't really any news to impart. 'Round about mid-April there will be a flood of posts about event sign-up, I'm sure, and if we've the energy to manage it there will be posts a-plenty from Indianapolis itself. Outside of that, hopefully Pat and I can keep being interested enough in seeing what the other has to say to keep a steady post rate about things Gen Con-ish going so that it stays the other person's turn. It worked at Affina, after all.
Anyway - as I was saying. When Pat and I first registered for Gen Con, lo that long fortnight ago, Pat noted that it was basically six months away. 180 days, he said. Wow, that's a whole school year. I agreed that it seemed like a long time and we were sad together. Later in that same conversation, though, it got re-spun. It's only six months, Pat said. That's 180 days - only the class days part of a school year! That's nothing! And again, I agreed (apparently Pat's temporal perceptions have a powerful influence over me). 180 started to seem like sort of a magic number, really. It wasn't quite 180 days away yet (this being a couple of weeks ago), but once it was it would start to feel like it was really on the downhill slide. 180 days - not even half a year! So I went out into the Internet and found some free "post a countdown timer on your blog!" code and lo and verily didst I post a countdown timer on the blog. And we're under 180 days now, and counting our way merrily down. I predict crossing the 100 mark will also be exciting for me. I may add another one counting down to the events registration day; thoughts, Pat?
To my assigned posting topic, now. I agree wholeheartedly with Pat's post. Role-playing is a way for kids with abilities in areas less socially favored than athleticism to have a thing they're good at and find camaraderie. And even a team feel - "it's only a game" and all, but while you're role-playing you're traveling with a group of friends who'll put their lives at risk for you without a moment's hesitation. It's a way for those who don't belong to belong for a while.
I think you can spin it another way, though. There are certainly lots of role players who decided they enjoyed role-playing because they were good at it (I, perhaps immodestly, tend to include my two role-playing circles in that group), but there are also people for whom role-playing is more of a social crutch. People for whom it becomes more than a game; for whom social interaction around the dice and handbooks is the only kind they're comfortable with. Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons in a real-life setting.
What's the difference? Let me quote Pat's post - "To be able to drop the constant downplaying of something that's important to your life, to stop being embarrassed and actually celebrate how you are for four glorious days." Well said, sir. Most people I know who role-play never got over the idea that it wasn't something best discussed in open social forum. It's not fair - the football team can certainly discuss their game but we can't talk about how Devon Lancer killed three dragons before realizing he wasn't wearing pants - but I don't recall ever challenging it. For those to whom it's more than a game there is no such stricture. Devon is part of their ideal social world; why not tell his story? I remember several times having to saying words to the effect of "Not now, [Franklin]" when he would choose the Fine Arts Center lobby before band rehearsal to regale me with his latest tale of conquest and mayhem. It makes me a little embarrassed to admit I was, at the time, embarrassed for him.
So there's another side of Gen Con. There are many people out there - I can think of a dozen just from the small college I went to - for whom being surrounded by the thing that anchors their social world must be a thing of priceless value. And if I see Franklin at Indianapolis and he starts telling me the story of his character's foot race with a troll to save a harem of buxom maidens, I'll be able to give his tale the respect it deserves.
Anyway - as I was saying. When Pat and I first registered for Gen Con, lo that long fortnight ago, Pat noted that it was basically six months away. 180 days, he said. Wow, that's a whole school year. I agreed that it seemed like a long time and we were sad together. Later in that same conversation, though, it got re-spun. It's only six months, Pat said. That's 180 days - only the class days part of a school year! That's nothing! And again, I agreed (apparently Pat's temporal perceptions have a powerful influence over me). 180 started to seem like sort of a magic number, really. It wasn't quite 180 days away yet (this being a couple of weeks ago), but once it was it would start to feel like it was really on the downhill slide. 180 days - not even half a year! So I went out into the Internet and found some free "post a countdown timer on your blog!" code and lo and verily didst I post a countdown timer on the blog. And we're under 180 days now, and counting our way merrily down. I predict crossing the 100 mark will also be exciting for me. I may add another one counting down to the events registration day; thoughts, Pat?
To my assigned posting topic, now. I agree wholeheartedly with Pat's post. Role-playing is a way for kids with abilities in areas less socially favored than athleticism to have a thing they're good at and find camaraderie. And even a team feel - "it's only a game" and all, but while you're role-playing you're traveling with a group of friends who'll put their lives at risk for you without a moment's hesitation. It's a way for those who don't belong to belong for a while.
I think you can spin it another way, though. There are certainly lots of role players who decided they enjoyed role-playing because they were good at it (I, perhaps immodestly, tend to include my two role-playing circles in that group), but there are also people for whom role-playing is more of a social crutch. People for whom it becomes more than a game; for whom social interaction around the dice and handbooks is the only kind they're comfortable with. Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons in a real-life setting.
What's the difference? Let me quote Pat's post - "To be able to drop the constant downplaying of something that's important to your life, to stop being embarrassed and actually celebrate how you are for four glorious days." Well said, sir. Most people I know who role-play never got over the idea that it wasn't something best discussed in open social forum. It's not fair - the football team can certainly discuss their game but we can't talk about how Devon Lancer killed three dragons before realizing he wasn't wearing pants - but I don't recall ever challenging it. For those to whom it's more than a game there is no such stricture. Devon is part of their ideal social world; why not tell his story? I remember several times having to saying words to the effect of "Not now, [Franklin]" when he would choose the Fine Arts Center lobby before band rehearsal to regale me with his latest tale of conquest and mayhem. It makes me a little embarrassed to admit I was, at the time, embarrassed for him.
So there's another side of Gen Con. There are many people out there - I can think of a dozen just from the small college I went to - for whom being surrounded by the thing that anchors their social world must be a thing of priceless value. And if I see Franklin at Indianapolis and he starts telling me the story of his character's foot race with a troll to save a harem of buxom maidens, I'll be able to give his tale the respect it deserves.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Road to a Natural 20 Based Lifestyle
Before I launch into my no doubt deep and soulful answer to the question of why it is we've all chosen to do what it is we do, I just have to say - wow, the excitement for this whole trip is getting out of hand. And believe me, I'm just as tired of sounding like some sort of lovesick fanboy as you are of reading about it, but there it is. After viewing the sweet video Charlie posted and digging up a little more information of my own, I have a bigger dreams and grander expectations. It's to the point where it simply isn't going to be possible for this level of ramping up to sustain itself, because in very short order I'm going to quit my job and go sit outside the Indianapolis Convention Center and wait.
I found this helpful link/site about Gen Con during my online digging, and thought I'd share it here. I linked to one specific article on the site, which itself seems to be some sort of repository for Gen Con knowledge. I'm a little threatened, to be honest, since that's how I envisioned our site, but I remain open minded. After all, maybe we'll overtake the whole of the online community as the premier Gen Con discussion blog. Anyway, the linked-to article did provide some interesting insight on how to conduct one's self at the event, so I included it.
But enough stalling - on to business. I have been tasked to answer a question that is so deep and all encompassing that it has never (to my knowledge) been definitively answered. Sounds like fun.
Having taught communication skills for the last few years, I've become interested in an idea called 'the map is not the territory.' In essence, this is a theory that states that the world is as the world is, and that the map in your head does not necessarily represent the truth of what's out there. In fact, it says that the map in your head definitely does not represent what's out there, and that no person's perception is right or wrong, they simply are. In other words, I can only talk intelligently about what intrigued me and brought me to gaming (initially to Dungeons and Dragons). I'd be willing to bet, though, that parts of my thoughts are at least familiar to people out there. Still, I'll stick to larger trends. (As a side note, I want to point out that I think it's true that most of us became hooked on role playing in our younger junior high/high school years. This is an impressionable time for kids, and I feel that it plays a large part in the process of hooking us all. Therefore, my reasoning from this point on is based on the idea that the majority of players first became involved with role playing in their early teens.)
The largest trend, I think, is simply this: people who 'don't belong' are a big part of role playing. We've (Charlie and I) already referred to ourselves numerous times in our postings as geeks, or indicated that what we'll find at Gen Con might not be 'a bunch of cool people' - and I think that's telling. The very fact that I can say what I'm about to and (I'll bet) have much of my reading audience nod their heads in agreement is also telling. Namely, none of us knew any star athletic types as we grew up that were big into role playing. Notice, I didn't use the word 'popular', since I did, in fact, know a couple semi-popular kids that played (not many, though). However, these people weren't popular like the quarterback or the homecoming queen were popular. These were sort of 'dirty popular' - the kids whose parents were well known, but who were in trouble with the law quite a bit, smoked pot, or engaged in other similar, anti-social behaviors. Maybe 'infamous' is a better way to describe this group. They most certainly weren't the nerds and geeks of the time, but they were also set far apart from the 'pure popular', if you take my meaning.
So I think that's the most important cause going on here. But another reason I listed this idea of social awkwardness first is because, in my opinion, it ties in (or, indeed, is a straight up cause for) the other personality quirks that make up a gamer. Like intelligence - my second identified trend. I'm going to bet that if we took an average on-floor IQ during Gen Con, it would be substantially higher than, say, the average IQ of the Oakland Raider fans who sit in the end zone during each home game. Not to be stuck up, but you just don't find a lot of RPGers who have no interest in facts and figures, no real desire to read for pleasure, or little love of analyzing information and trying to solve mental puzzles. Role playing calls to people like this, and it offers them the chance to be proud of being sharp, and maybe even be the sort of person others might look up to just because he or she can do math quickly in their head or recall vast amounts of information from memory.
So we come to the third trend - the top tier of requirement for involvement in gaming - an imagination. I think the first two trends build on this one. Without ever having a feeling of maybe wanting to be someone else, or without a brain that's been opened to free thinking by lots of reading and mental exercises, can there be an imagination? I really don't think so. And doesn't this seem to bear out why a lot of the people who lead happy, included, popular lives don't see anything interesting in 'sitting around pretending to be an elf'? After all, why would they want to be someone else? To editorialize a bit, though, I think it's pretty sad that they're so closed off and have no soul. What sad, small lives they must lead.
So what do we end up with, when all is said and done? We have kids that feel left out, want some like minded people to hang with, have impressive mental skills, and have fertile imaginations . . . could there be a bigger draw than role playing?
As far as Gen Con goes, I think one real, fundamental reason it's held (even if it's not openly spoken of) is simply to get together with people who are like you are for a change. To be able to drop the constant downplaying of something that's important to your life, to stop being embarrassed and actually celebrate how you are for four glorious days? To experience what it's like to swapping stories that evoke real emotions of humor, anger, love, and excitement - and to have it be OK that all of those emotions are based on fantasy stories, things that to the common person are 'fake' or 'lame' or 'a waste of time'?
At least, that's my best guess at what's going on. What do you think, my Gen Con buddy?
I found this helpful link/site about Gen Con during my online digging, and thought I'd share it here. I linked to one specific article on the site, which itself seems to be some sort of repository for Gen Con knowledge. I'm a little threatened, to be honest, since that's how I envisioned our site, but I remain open minded. After all, maybe we'll overtake the whole of the online community as the premier Gen Con discussion blog. Anyway, the linked-to article did provide some interesting insight on how to conduct one's self at the event, so I included it.
But enough stalling - on to business. I have been tasked to answer a question that is so deep and all encompassing that it has never (to my knowledge) been definitively answered. Sounds like fun.
Having taught communication skills for the last few years, I've become interested in an idea called 'the map is not the territory.' In essence, this is a theory that states that the world is as the world is, and that the map in your head does not necessarily represent the truth of what's out there. In fact, it says that the map in your head definitely does not represent what's out there, and that no person's perception is right or wrong, they simply are. In other words, I can only talk intelligently about what intrigued me and brought me to gaming (initially to Dungeons and Dragons). I'd be willing to bet, though, that parts of my thoughts are at least familiar to people out there. Still, I'll stick to larger trends. (As a side note, I want to point out that I think it's true that most of us became hooked on role playing in our younger junior high/high school years. This is an impressionable time for kids, and I feel that it plays a large part in the process of hooking us all. Therefore, my reasoning from this point on is based on the idea that the majority of players first became involved with role playing in their early teens.)
The largest trend, I think, is simply this: people who 'don't belong' are a big part of role playing. We've (Charlie and I) already referred to ourselves numerous times in our postings as geeks, or indicated that what we'll find at Gen Con might not be 'a bunch of cool people' - and I think that's telling. The very fact that I can say what I'm about to and (I'll bet) have much of my reading audience nod their heads in agreement is also telling. Namely, none of us knew any star athletic types as we grew up that were big into role playing. Notice, I didn't use the word 'popular', since I did, in fact, know a couple semi-popular kids that played (not many, though). However, these people weren't popular like the quarterback or the homecoming queen were popular. These were sort of 'dirty popular' - the kids whose parents were well known, but who were in trouble with the law quite a bit, smoked pot, or engaged in other similar, anti-social behaviors. Maybe 'infamous' is a better way to describe this group. They most certainly weren't the nerds and geeks of the time, but they were also set far apart from the 'pure popular', if you take my meaning.
So I think that's the most important cause going on here. But another reason I listed this idea of social awkwardness first is because, in my opinion, it ties in (or, indeed, is a straight up cause for) the other personality quirks that make up a gamer. Like intelligence - my second identified trend. I'm going to bet that if we took an average on-floor IQ during Gen Con, it would be substantially higher than, say, the average IQ of the Oakland Raider fans who sit in the end zone during each home game. Not to be stuck up, but you just don't find a lot of RPGers who have no interest in facts and figures, no real desire to read for pleasure, or little love of analyzing information and trying to solve mental puzzles. Role playing calls to people like this, and it offers them the chance to be proud of being sharp, and maybe even be the sort of person others might look up to just because he or she can do math quickly in their head or recall vast amounts of information from memory.
So we come to the third trend - the top tier of requirement for involvement in gaming - an imagination. I think the first two trends build on this one. Without ever having a feeling of maybe wanting to be someone else, or without a brain that's been opened to free thinking by lots of reading and mental exercises, can there be an imagination? I really don't think so. And doesn't this seem to bear out why a lot of the people who lead happy, included, popular lives don't see anything interesting in 'sitting around pretending to be an elf'? After all, why would they want to be someone else? To editorialize a bit, though, I think it's pretty sad that they're so closed off and have no soul. What sad, small lives they must lead.
So what do we end up with, when all is said and done? We have kids that feel left out, want some like minded people to hang with, have impressive mental skills, and have fertile imaginations . . . could there be a bigger draw than role playing?
As far as Gen Con goes, I think one real, fundamental reason it's held (even if it's not openly spoken of) is simply to get together with people who are like you are for a change. To be able to drop the constant downplaying of something that's important to your life, to stop being embarrassed and actually celebrate how you are for four glorious days? To experience what it's like to swapping stories that evoke real emotions of humor, anger, love, and excitement - and to have it be OK that all of those emotions are based on fantasy stories, things that to the common person are 'fake' or 'lame' or 'a waste of time'?
At least, that's my best guess at what's going on. What do you think, my Gen Con buddy?
In my mind I'm going to Indiana...
Absent any posting suggestions, I'll just turn my question for Pat back onto myself. What about Gen Con am I most looking forward to?
My first reaction feels like a cop-out answer. I just want to see it. I want to see for myself what 30,000 geeks in the same building looks like. I want to walk along the rows and rows of displays and booths and whatnot. I want to experience it. It's hard to be more specific than that, really, but that's a lame answer by itself, so I'll try anyway. Quantification, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.* And as an added bonus I'll finish the hat trick with a third consecutive enlistified post! Whee!
Here's a YouTube video that covers some of the things I mentioned here. Hosted by Jason Marsden (not to be confused with James Marsden of X-Men and Enchanted fame), it's got some neat footage of what Gen Con actually looked like last year. It shows the gaming floor, Hickman's Killer Breakfast, Margaret Weis's famous weird laugh, Vendor's Row, and a fellow who looks so much like "Franklin" that I had to stop the video three times before I was convinced that it wasn't. Tune in soon for a Pat-errific post about what it is about the world of fantasy gaming that's such a draw for so many people (hopefully we're not soon to the point of posting about how we need things to post about...).
*to the best of my knowledge, no one actually says that.
My first reaction feels like a cop-out answer. I just want to see it. I want to see for myself what 30,000 geeks in the same building looks like. I want to walk along the rows and rows of displays and booths and whatnot. I want to experience it. It's hard to be more specific than that, really, but that's a lame answer by itself, so I'll try anyway. Quantification, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.* And as an added bonus I'll finish the hat trick with a third consecutive enlistified post! Whee!
- I'm looking forward to trying role-playing with some people I don't know. I'm a fiercely introverted person; I'd always rather do things with people I already know and I don't make new friends easily or quickly. My entire role-playing experience, therefore, has been with a total of maybe a dozen other people: two small groups (one in high school, one in (and since) college) that played together for extended periods of time. One of the big attractions at Gen Con is a chance to sit down with a group of strangers and try my hand at being part of a new group. I'm nervous and excited about that all at once. Nervous because it will be weird, and I'll bet that it will be hard to role-play correctly with a group of people I don't know, and there's a huge logistic difference between sitting around a kitchen table and sitting in a room with 200 tables each with a game going on. Excited because it will be a new role-playing experience. I think I'd like to try a couple of systems over my time there. Play D&D or Deadlands once and something I've no experience at all with once. Maybe that will change as we get closer to (ahem) 4/20, but right now I think that's about all my feeble little system will be able to handle.
- I'm looking forward to the trip itself. I've never been to Indianapolis and, as we've already mentioned a few times, our housing situation will afford us a chance to see quite a bit more of the town than those whose hotels are skywalk-linked to the Convention Center. I think it'll be fun to bus in and taxi back out, and I'm definitely looking forward to the road trip out and back with Pat. Durango and the Highlander (aka The BotCP) ride again! Yababbo!
- I'm looking forward to meeting some authors and seeing some celebrities. I first read The Dragonlance Chronicles in 1990 and I've gone through many many more books like them since. Meeting the creators of these worlds and getting a book or two signed is a huge draw.
- I'm really looking forward to walking the floor of the Main Hall, or Display Hall, or Vendor Hall, or whatever they call it - the giant room with hundreds upon hundreds of vendors displaying their wares. Game systems, board games, apparel, etc. etc. and etc.; I'm told one can spend most of a day just walking around looking at it all. Plus, you know, that's where the Vat of Dice will probably be. I probably don't need to talk about that again, although I should mention that I hope Pat isn't too gung-ho to bring back vast quantities of dice from the weekend. As a dice collector (some say hoarder) from way back it'll be hard to quell a competitive need to have at least a few more new ones than he does. =|:-)
- I'm looking forward to seeing the people. I predict there will be a lot of quintessential power dorks there, and probably quite a few folks like Pat and I (power-dorks with a little better game face than some - better able to move unnoticed among regular society). Probably a few of the classic popular template, too, although I'll bet they feel like the awkward, outnumbered ones. And there will be some characters walking around - some people drawn to a place like Gen Con where their flamboyance and dedication to a world of fantasy is interesting and cool instead of weird and looked down on. The chain mail bikini girls Pat mentioned, and the guys who spend the whole weekend dressed up as their favorite character. I want to see some of these folks, maybe even strike up a conversation. People-watching at Gen Con doesn't seem like it can possibly disappoint.
Here's a YouTube video that covers some of the things I mentioned here. Hosted by Jason Marsden (not to be confused with James Marsden of X-Men and Enchanted fame), it's got some neat footage of what Gen Con actually looked like last year. It shows the gaming floor, Hickman's Killer Breakfast, Margaret Weis's famous weird laugh, Vendor's Row, and a fellow who looks so much like "Franklin" that I had to stop the video three times before I was convinced that it wasn't. Tune in soon for a Pat-errific post about what it is about the world of fantasy gaming that's such a draw for so many people (hopefully we're not soon to the point of posting about how we need things to post about...).
*to the best of my knowledge, no one actually says that.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
I Will Not Quote the Spice Girls Lyric For This Post Title
Wow.
So, I should tell you what I want, what I really, really want to do at Gen Con? Man. That’s a serious question, that’s what that is. My first answer is ‘everything!’ But I’m sure that’s not what you were looking for, and so I’ll have to narrow it down somewhat. I’m going to have to approach this task with a list, to be sure. Also, I think I’ll give you some of those Jack-Handy-Deep-Thought kinds of answers. Luckily, I’m in sort of a ‘1/2 as cool as Dave Letterman’ kind of mood right now.
Without further ado…
From the home office in Indianapolis, Indiana, here are Patrick’s Top Five Things He Really Wants to Do While Attending Gen Con 2008!
#5. See The Chainmail Bikinis
I’m the most loyal boyfriend/husband a girl could have, but as I’ve said to my friends many times during the last 13 years or so, ‘I’m loyal, but I’m not dead.’ I think this social phenomenon, this cultural aberration, warrants further study, don’t you? Who wouldn’t want to know what would make a woman plaster electrical tape over her nipples and strut around in see-through metal links? I’d sure like to know. Hell, even Ed Greenwood has something to say on the subject. Count me in!
#4. Scope the Card Competition
I’ve played Magic: The Gathering for most . . . well, actually, all . . . of my adult life. I would say that I’ve been sort of a 78% player for most of that time, which probably doesn’t make a lot of sense for people who don’t live inside my head, so I’ll explain my statement.
I’m fairly spot-on with the rules, I own (either physically or digitally) what I would consider to be quite a few cards. I know the lore, I know the history, I know a lot of the combos. I’ve never actually become, well, an epic player of the game, though. I’ve known epic players – those guys that bought every new card, read up on every new strategy, and dominated anyone they played against, saw every combo and synergistic design months before the rest of us did. I’ve just never been that sort of player. I’m at about 78%.
So, I’m most intrigued to see what, by all rights, ought to be the best deck designs around. I’m really looking forward to watching some of these Magic games, seeing what sorts of decks guys who enter $1000 prize tournaments at Gen Con slap together, and comparing what I know of the game to what they know. My guess is it’ll be pretty ‘informative,’ which I suppose could also be read as ‘extremely graphic in its detailing of how little I actually know about the game of Magic: The Gathering.’ Oh well – I’m still excited.
#3. Dice. Seriously – Dice.
Psychologically, I wonder what it is about the Vat O’ Dice that draws us all so strongly. I mean, my guess is that they just sell those dice pitcher over mug for four days, but why?! Why is the call of the plastic polyhedrons so strong?
I think the dice are what many of us associate with that first role playing experience, that first time we sat down with our friends over paper and pencil and played some D&D (because let’s be honest, that’s what most people attending Gen Con are going to remember. I think I could carry a few bucks worth of pennies in my pocket for those three days I’ll be walking around the Indianapolis Convention Center, and if I gave one to each person in the throngs and throngs that hadn’t played D&D, I could still attend Hickman’s Killer Breakfast with what was left over).
“Wow, these are weird! What are these for again?” we all asked. The dice were special - we’ve all got dice stories. The dice are the strongest physical representation of the madness that has infected us all to differing degrees over the years. Going to Gen Con and not taking some dice home would in some sense be like going up for communion and refusing the host. Sorry - too sacrilegious?
Well, then, in conclusion, nobody likes Millhouse and I’m getting some dice.
#2. View the Current State of the Gaming Culture
Being a high school teacher, I have a unique opportunity to place my finger on the pulse of what’s currently considered ‘cool’ and ‘hip,’ (BTW - the new word for something we, as children of the late 80’s and 90’s, might have called ‘rad’ or ‘awesome’ or ‘neat’ is ‘epic’. I kind of like that, actually – in fact, as I look back, I see I’ve used it twice in context already in this post. I’m so damn epic. Yay! Three times!) and bring that information back for the rest of us.
Several times so far in my five year teaching career students have asked me to run campaigns for them. I’ve been asked to run a D&D campaign three times, twice to run a Star Wars RPG campaign, and once to saddle up and run some Deadlands. All this is in addition to the couple of students who pester me constantly to play Magic with them. So, it seems the gaming bug is alive and well – if anything, there’s a larger percentage of students playing these types of games now then when I was in school.
But I’m curious how that plays out in the larger scale. Is this something that’s just recently come back into vogue? In other words, will I see nothing but people roughly my own age at Indy, with my basic background and appreciation for the history of gaming (after all, how many of these young gamers today remember the name Avalon Hill? Or, for that matter, remember when TSR was actually TSR?). Or are the younger kids (a group that to me includes seniors in high school to seniors in college) coming to these things, getting into all the old games along with the new?
My guess is that I’ll see something in the middle. Specifically, my guess is that the ‘old guard’ will be doing more RPGA/board game type stuff, and the younger Gen Con-ers will be playing CCGs and hanging out in the anime section. But either way, it’s going to be very, very interesting to see just what sort of crowd something so huge (both in literal size and also emotional/psychological importance) will draw. I’m pumped to be a part of it.
#1 Do Everything Else
My friends, you must have realized that I would cop out at the top of the list! How could I ever encompass what I want to do during my first trip ever to Gen Con in a simple list of five things, or, for that matter, ten things, or a hundred things? The answer: I couldn’t possibly.
For me, this trip is just as much about the whole experience (a sort of taking my weltanschauung as it concerns the gaming culture and seeing how it holds up) as it is about doing any one particular thing or participating in any one single event. Kind of a spiritual experience, I guess you’d say. I’m blasted out of my mind just thinking that I’ll get to go and be a part of this.
Ok, just so that this isn’t a complete cop out answer – what are some other things I want to do? Well. . .see some famous people, get some autographs, eat some good food, hang with one of my closest friends for 4 days, talk about everything, take some pictures, laugh a lot, play some D&D, see some cool weapons, talk to folks, hear some important people speak, boff, make some chainmail…..
You know, plus everything else there is to do. I’ll be specific next year.
So, I should tell you what I want, what I really, really want to do at Gen Con? Man. That’s a serious question, that’s what that is. My first answer is ‘everything!’ But I’m sure that’s not what you were looking for, and so I’ll have to narrow it down somewhat. I’m going to have to approach this task with a list, to be sure. Also, I think I’ll give you some of those Jack-Handy-Deep-Thought kinds of answers. Luckily, I’m in sort of a ‘1/2 as cool as Dave Letterman’ kind of mood right now.
Without further ado…
From the home office in Indianapolis, Indiana, here are Patrick’s Top Five Things He Really Wants to Do While Attending Gen Con 2008!
#5. See The Chainmail Bikinis
I’m the most loyal boyfriend/husband a girl could have, but as I’ve said to my friends many times during the last 13 years or so, ‘I’m loyal, but I’m not dead.’ I think this social phenomenon, this cultural aberration, warrants further study, don’t you? Who wouldn’t want to know what would make a woman plaster electrical tape over her nipples and strut around in see-through metal links? I’d sure like to know. Hell, even Ed Greenwood has something to say on the subject. Count me in!
#4. Scope the Card Competition
I’ve played Magic: The Gathering for most . . . well, actually, all . . . of my adult life. I would say that I’ve been sort of a 78% player for most of that time, which probably doesn’t make a lot of sense for people who don’t live inside my head, so I’ll explain my statement.
I’m fairly spot-on with the rules, I own (either physically or digitally) what I would consider to be quite a few cards. I know the lore, I know the history, I know a lot of the combos. I’ve never actually become, well, an epic player of the game, though. I’ve known epic players – those guys that bought every new card, read up on every new strategy, and dominated anyone they played against, saw every combo and synergistic design months before the rest of us did. I’ve just never been that sort of player. I’m at about 78%.
So, I’m most intrigued to see what, by all rights, ought to be the best deck designs around. I’m really looking forward to watching some of these Magic games, seeing what sorts of decks guys who enter $1000 prize tournaments at Gen Con slap together, and comparing what I know of the game to what they know. My guess is it’ll be pretty ‘informative,’ which I suppose could also be read as ‘extremely graphic in its detailing of how little I actually know about the game of Magic: The Gathering.’ Oh well – I’m still excited.
#3. Dice. Seriously – Dice.
Psychologically, I wonder what it is about the Vat O’ Dice that draws us all so strongly. I mean, my guess is that they just sell those dice pitcher over mug for four days, but why?! Why is the call of the plastic polyhedrons so strong?
I think the dice are what many of us associate with that first role playing experience, that first time we sat down with our friends over paper and pencil and played some D&D (because let’s be honest, that’s what most people attending Gen Con are going to remember. I think I could carry a few bucks worth of pennies in my pocket for those three days I’ll be walking around the Indianapolis Convention Center, and if I gave one to each person in the throngs and throngs that hadn’t played D&D, I could still attend Hickman’s Killer Breakfast with what was left over).
“Wow, these are weird! What are these for again?” we all asked. The dice were special - we’ve all got dice stories. The dice are the strongest physical representation of the madness that has infected us all to differing degrees over the years. Going to Gen Con and not taking some dice home would in some sense be like going up for communion and refusing the host. Sorry - too sacrilegious?
Well, then, in conclusion, nobody likes Millhouse and I’m getting some dice.
#2. View the Current State of the Gaming Culture
Being a high school teacher, I have a unique opportunity to place my finger on the pulse of what’s currently considered ‘cool’ and ‘hip,’ (BTW - the new word for something we, as children of the late 80’s and 90’s, might have called ‘rad’ or ‘awesome’ or ‘neat’ is ‘epic’. I kind of like that, actually – in fact, as I look back, I see I’ve used it twice in context already in this post. I’m so damn epic. Yay! Three times!) and bring that information back for the rest of us.
Several times so far in my five year teaching career students have asked me to run campaigns for them. I’ve been asked to run a D&D campaign three times, twice to run a Star Wars RPG campaign, and once to saddle up and run some Deadlands. All this is in addition to the couple of students who pester me constantly to play Magic with them. So, it seems the gaming bug is alive and well – if anything, there’s a larger percentage of students playing these types of games now then when I was in school.
But I’m curious how that plays out in the larger scale. Is this something that’s just recently come back into vogue? In other words, will I see nothing but people roughly my own age at Indy, with my basic background and appreciation for the history of gaming (after all, how many of these young gamers today remember the name Avalon Hill? Or, for that matter, remember when TSR was actually TSR?). Or are the younger kids (a group that to me includes seniors in high school to seniors in college) coming to these things, getting into all the old games along with the new?
My guess is that I’ll see something in the middle. Specifically, my guess is that the ‘old guard’ will be doing more RPGA/board game type stuff, and the younger Gen Con-ers will be playing CCGs and hanging out in the anime section. But either way, it’s going to be very, very interesting to see just what sort of crowd something so huge (both in literal size and also emotional/psychological importance) will draw. I’m pumped to be a part of it.
#1 Do Everything Else
My friends, you must have realized that I would cop out at the top of the list! How could I ever encompass what I want to do during my first trip ever to Gen Con in a simple list of five things, or, for that matter, ten things, or a hundred things? The answer: I couldn’t possibly.
For me, this trip is just as much about the whole experience (a sort of taking my weltanschauung as it concerns the gaming culture and seeing how it holds up) as it is about doing any one particular thing or participating in any one single event. Kind of a spiritual experience, I guess you’d say. I’m blasted out of my mind just thinking that I’ll get to go and be a part of this.
Ok, just so that this isn’t a complete cop out answer – what are some other things I want to do? Well. . .see some famous people, get some autographs, eat some good food, hang with one of my closest friends for 4 days, talk about everything, take some pictures, laugh a lot, play some D&D, see some cool weapons, talk to folks, hear some important people speak, boff, make some chainmail…..
You know, plus everything else there is to do. I’ll be specific next year.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Charlie! Have you been up all night surfing Gen Con websites?
Pat tossed me a couple of pitches for this entry, but they're both right decent pitches to hit and they tie together well, so I'll see if I can't get hold of both of them. Before I can talk about what we're finding in the To Do At Gen Con category, though, I've got to back up and tell you the story of a friend of ours. I'll call him Franklin.
Franklin was a high school friend of Pat's and a college chum of mine. He was one of those guys who combined a deep need to be impressive and cool and a casual relationship with honesty, which made his stories things of legend. Franklin was a guy who'd come back from the bathroom and tell you how Harrison Ford had walked in while he was taking care of business, asked him to be in the new Indiana Jones movie, offered him a box of the new super secret Cadbury's Cream Eggs, and flown out the window. A man who'd cheerfully tell you about the week he spent working as a blimp pilot, only to be cast from the flying blimp when it was revealed that he had no experience or credentials. And more insidiously, a man who'd randomly lie about stupid little stuff that was harder to catch. He'd say he'd eaten a hamburger for lunch when it had really been a taco - little, meaningless, weird weird crap like that.
I mention this because up until the last few days, almost all the information Pat and I had about what constitutes the Gen Con experience came from Franklin. Franklin's been going for years, and he'd tell Pat about it and Pat would tell me - always prefaced with the ubiquitous I'm-retelling-a-Franklin-story-here word "apparently..."
So when we started to look at what there was to do, we were pessimistic. We'd heard stories of randomly running into the authors that created the literary worlds of our childhood and stories of "full-sized" role playing - running around a room solving puzzles and finding traps - and stories of vats of dice and so on. And we'd never bothered to question them, because we wanted to believe Gen Con was really that cool. And frustrating though Franklin's talent for spontaneous improvisation can be, the man can spin a tale, so we let him go on.
Early this week, though, was different. We were registered, we had a room, and it was time to start tackling the question of exactly what we were going to do for two days in Indianapolis come mid-August. Several questions needed to be answered, but the three main ones were these:
I hope we see Franklin there. Maybe he'll even be (pardon the inside joke, Readership Multitudes) "buying textbooks."
Franklin was a high school friend of Pat's and a college chum of mine. He was one of those guys who combined a deep need to be impressive and cool and a casual relationship with honesty, which made his stories things of legend. Franklin was a guy who'd come back from the bathroom and tell you how Harrison Ford had walked in while he was taking care of business, asked him to be in the new Indiana Jones movie, offered him a box of the new super secret Cadbury's Cream Eggs, and flown out the window. A man who'd cheerfully tell you about the week he spent working as a blimp pilot, only to be cast from the flying blimp when it was revealed that he had no experience or credentials. And more insidiously, a man who'd randomly lie about stupid little stuff that was harder to catch. He'd say he'd eaten a hamburger for lunch when it had really been a taco - little, meaningless, weird weird crap like that.
I mention this because up until the last few days, almost all the information Pat and I had about what constitutes the Gen Con experience came from Franklin. Franklin's been going for years, and he'd tell Pat about it and Pat would tell me - always prefaced with the ubiquitous I'm-retelling-a-Franklin-story-here word "apparently..."
So when we started to look at what there was to do, we were pessimistic. We'd heard stories of randomly running into the authors that created the literary worlds of our childhood and stories of "full-sized" role playing - running around a room solving puzzles and finding traps - and stories of vats of dice and so on. And we'd never bothered to question them, because we wanted to believe Gen Con was really that cool. And frustrating though Franklin's talent for spontaneous improvisation can be, the man can spin a tale, so we let him go on.
Early this week, though, was different. We were registered, we had a room, and it was time to start tackling the question of exactly what we were going to do for two days in Indianapolis come mid-August. Several questions needed to be answered, but the three main ones were these:
- What is there to do, really? What does a gaming convention offer? Will we be able to sit down and play role-playing games? To watch presentations on new developments and offerings? To play board games? To buy - and even have a chance to win, or receive free in some promotional way - new games? To play CCG card games? All sorts of other cool stuff? Perhaps most importantly, is there in fact a Vat of Dice?
- How much does it cost? The basic registration fee we've already paid gets us in, but individual events have some extra $$ associated with them - is that where Gen Con makes their money? What's the price for the extra stuff that's the meat of the event?
- What's the schedule? What time do things start in the morning and finish at night? The last bus that runs from downtown to our hotel leaves the convention center at 6:40; will things be wrapped up by then?
- So much to do I can't even start to list it all. All of those things and more and more and more. here's the site again if you didn't click on the link the first time it went by. There are role playing sessions of every RPG system I've ever heard of and quite a few I haven't, there are MTG tournaments, there are workshops on everything from belly dancing and chain mail making to being a better DM and getting published as a fantasy author, there are board game sessions and tournaments (including some old chestnuts from my youth like Kingmaker and Rail Baron!), and on and on. And there is indeed a Vat of Dice! Franklin understated things, if anything. Which, as anyone out there who knows him will agree, is weird.
- Surprisingly cheap! Most events are an extra $1.50 per 2 hour block. The big ones are a little more, but they're definitely not the soaking I feared they'd be.
- Things are happening 24 hours a day. Which is why the hotels right next to the Convention Center sell out within hours. Looking at rates for some of those hotels, I'm seeing that they're $300/night (though maybe there's a reduced rate for people who register through Gen Con) instead of the $40/night we're paying Sherry and her Merry Men, but they're connected to the Convention Center by skywalks. And things are happening 24 hours a day.
Now, not to misrepresent myself or seem like I'm second-guessing us - I still think we totally made the right decision. Adjoining building-level convenience isn't worth $750 for us, I don't think. But we're just first-level (as we're called) Gen Conners; as much as anything we're going to see what this whole thing is really about. We can take a bus downtown in the morning - it'll take 40 minutes but only cost $1.50 and we'll get to see some of Indianapolis - and take a cab back for $20 (only $10 each) whenever we're done with our day. And maybe one of the days we'll even be ready to head back about suppertime - neither Pat nor I are really big, noisy crowds sorts of people. It depends on what we decide to register to do, I suppose. And that won't be decided until Event Registration opens on April 20.
I hope we see Franklin there. Maybe he'll even be (pardon the inside joke, Readership Multitudes) "buying textbooks."
Woke Up This Mornin’, Got Myself a Room – Got Gen Con In My Eyes . . .
The trip has started to take on a life of its own.
I guess I didn’t realize how much untapped potential energy Gen Con had built up inside of us ‘lo these many years – if I’d know how eager we were to actually do this thing, I’d have tried to start the avalanche sooner. As it stands now, things are screaming down the mountainside quite smoothly. Keep those fingers crossed.
Mostly, what’s been going on these last few days is a sort of ‘journey of discovery’ concerning what Gen Con is actually about. All we really knew beforehand was that Gen Con had to do with gaming, and the idea was always there that it was sort of a gaming geek’s (read: our) Mecca, but beyond that, we had nothing but unconfirmed stories and rumors to go on. I mean, from that angle of ‘a place where we belong and hope to visit one day,’ a person might as well ponder the question of what they’ll find beyond the Pearly Gates, you know? “Will there be people we know there? Will Ed Greenwood be there? Will we be able to talk to anyone we want? What will we do with all that time?”
We’ve found some interesting answers to these questions, but I’ll leave those for Charlie to discuss and dissect in the next entry. BTW, Charles, I find I’m quite positive about this sort of pass-the-torch-back-and-forth subject format for the blog – seems like it’ll be lots of fun. Hopefully, Constant Readers, the next entry won’t be Charlie telling me to knock it the hell off. Anyway, on to my Motel 6 story!
It’s important for all of you to understand what our money mindset is as it concerns this trip before I go any further. Charlie and I aren’t approaching Gen Con like a couple of cheapskates – there are definitely things that each of us are willing to shuck out the bucks for (see Charlie’s first entry). However, we are neither of us independently wealthy, and so we are trying to exercise a bit of financial restraint in the areas where it seems most prudent. Like hotel rooms.
Gen Con has a huge block of hotel rooms around the convention center that they reserve each year to help their attendees find lodging. Now, these rooms were priced in such a way that, while not being completely out of the question, they would have left us with little money for things like books, dice, and foam swords – the staples of Gen Con, as we’re told. Still grappling with the concept of how large this damn thing was actually going to be, we started kicking around the idea of making our own reservations. After all, we’re big boys, we can use the phone and call around for rates – why get stuck into a room twice as expensive as it needs to be just because we were lazy about the whole thing? For our friends who know us, please refrain from comments pointing out how going ahead and just paying more so we wouldn’t have to call around is actually more in character for us, OK?
Here enters our tale the most powerful force known to modern man – Google. After we had brought up a detailed satellite map of the entire city of Indianapolis (the ease of doing so was a little frightening to me, when I think about it), we started cross-checking hotels with public transportation routes that terminated around the Indianapolis Convention Center. This was necessary, of course, because we had eschewed staying in the expensive rooms near the actual event site (I’ll bet Charlie will cover this part in his post – probably under some title like, ‘What We Learned About Why Staying Close to The Convention Center Might Have Been Cool).
Thankfully, Google performed with its usual effectiveness, and soon we had a couple Motel 6s to choose from. Motel 6 is a place where, according to their commercials, there is always sufficient illumination which they guarantee will be provided specifically for us. Even more attractive to us than this phosphorescent promise was the price – it seemed that Motel 6 was willing to let us stay for three nights in a room containing both a Queen-sized and King-sized bed for about $100 less than the Convention Center was going to charge us for the same basic deal. We were intrigued.
And here it is, our first lesson for the prospective Gen Con traveler: don’t bother calling the Motel 6 near the Indianapolis Airport for a reservation, ever. This was the first site that we looked at. The picture is to the right.
Doesn’t look too bad. I mean, it isn’t fancy, but there aren’t drug dealers hanging around outside it, you know? That’s always a plus. Maybe, we thought, just maybe we’d found a clean and cheap alternative for lodging. Then I called the front desk. That was a mistake. “Hello” is what I think he said, although spelled out, the word would have looked more like ‘Gullowe.’ Not only was this man incapable of communicating in a manner so that a fellow English speaker could understand (and please, don’t read that as some racist comment, either - this dude was full-blooded American…unfortunately for us, I guess), but he also seemed unaware that he was working the front desk of a major motel chain.
I asked him about public transportation, and he didn’t know what I was talking about. “The buses!” I said. “Do you know if there are any buses that leave from around there?!” “I’m thinkin’ so” was his response. When asked (with no real hope of a useful answer) if any of those buses might swing past the Convention Center, he said, “I think you’ll have to transfer…somewhere.” I didn’t even bother asking about their rates. And that was the end of my conversation with the front desk staff at the Indianapolis Airport Motel 6.
Dejected, I moved down the list, afraid now that Motel 6 was showing its true colors, and that all my digging would be fruitless. Then, I saw these pictures:
Hmm. Hopefully, you are comparing these two pictures with the first one and are noticing subtle differences. Wary, I called the front desk. “Greetings and welcome to Motel 6, my name is Sherry, how may I help you?” Ok. This was going well. Sherry continued to bat 1.000 when she was able to tell me the buses stopped about a block away, and that it would be no problem to get to the Convention Center. Almost too good to be true, really. Which usually means something is about to go wrong – and my only remaining question was the big one.
“So,” I said, “how much would three nights in August – the 13th, 14th, and 15th – cost us?” I braced myself, got ready, had my finger on my phone’s disconnect button. “Well,” she said, “You really ought to go online and reserve these rooms, you’ll get a much better rate – I think something around $40 a night.” Which totaled out to about $140, split two ways, for the entire hotel stay of four days and three nights.
We’re staying at Sherry’s Motel 6.
Gen Con Event We Have to Participate in of the Day: Boffing
I guess I didn’t realize how much untapped potential energy Gen Con had built up inside of us ‘lo these many years – if I’d know how eager we were to actually do this thing, I’d have tried to start the avalanche sooner. As it stands now, things are screaming down the mountainside quite smoothly. Keep those fingers crossed.
Mostly, what’s been going on these last few days is a sort of ‘journey of discovery’ concerning what Gen Con is actually about. All we really knew beforehand was that Gen Con had to do with gaming, and the idea was always there that it was sort of a gaming geek’s (read: our) Mecca, but beyond that, we had nothing but unconfirmed stories and rumors to go on. I mean, from that angle of ‘a place where we belong and hope to visit one day,’ a person might as well ponder the question of what they’ll find beyond the Pearly Gates, you know? “Will there be people we know there? Will Ed Greenwood be there? Will we be able to talk to anyone we want? What will we do with all that time?”
We’ve found some interesting answers to these questions, but I’ll leave those for Charlie to discuss and dissect in the next entry. BTW, Charles, I find I’m quite positive about this sort of pass-the-torch-back-and-forth subject format for the blog – seems like it’ll be lots of fun. Hopefully, Constant Readers, the next entry won’t be Charlie telling me to knock it the hell off. Anyway, on to my Motel 6 story!
It’s important for all of you to understand what our money mindset is as it concerns this trip before I go any further. Charlie and I aren’t approaching Gen Con like a couple of cheapskates – there are definitely things that each of us are willing to shuck out the bucks for (see Charlie’s first entry). However, we are neither of us independently wealthy, and so we are trying to exercise a bit of financial restraint in the areas where it seems most prudent. Like hotel rooms.
Gen Con has a huge block of hotel rooms around the convention center that they reserve each year to help their attendees find lodging. Now, these rooms were priced in such a way that, while not being completely out of the question, they would have left us with little money for things like books, dice, and foam swords – the staples of Gen Con, as we’re told. Still grappling with the concept of how large this damn thing was actually going to be, we started kicking around the idea of making our own reservations. After all, we’re big boys, we can use the phone and call around for rates – why get stuck into a room twice as expensive as it needs to be just because we were lazy about the whole thing? For our friends who know us, please refrain from comments pointing out how going ahead and just paying more so we wouldn’t have to call around is actually more in character for us, OK?
Here enters our tale the most powerful force known to modern man – Google. After we had brought up a detailed satellite map of the entire city of Indianapolis (the ease of doing so was a little frightening to me, when I think about it), we started cross-checking hotels with public transportation routes that terminated around the Indianapolis Convention Center. This was necessary, of course, because we had eschewed staying in the expensive rooms near the actual event site (I’ll bet Charlie will cover this part in his post – probably under some title like, ‘What We Learned About Why Staying Close to The Convention Center Might Have Been Cool).
Thankfully, Google performed with its usual effectiveness, and soon we had a couple Motel 6s to choose from. Motel 6 is a place where, according to their commercials, there is always sufficient illumination which they guarantee will be provided specifically for us. Even more attractive to us than this phosphorescent promise was the price – it seemed that Motel 6 was willing to let us stay for three nights in a room containing both a Queen-sized and King-sized bed for about $100 less than the Convention Center was going to charge us for the same basic deal. We were intrigued.
And here it is, our first lesson for the prospective Gen Con traveler: don’t bother calling the Motel 6 near the Indianapolis Airport for a reservation, ever. This was the first site that we looked at. The picture is to the right.
Doesn’t look too bad. I mean, it isn’t fancy, but there aren’t drug dealers hanging around outside it, you know? That’s always a plus. Maybe, we thought, just maybe we’d found a clean and cheap alternative for lodging. Then I called the front desk. That was a mistake. “Hello” is what I think he said, although spelled out, the word would have looked more like ‘Gullowe.’ Not only was this man incapable of communicating in a manner so that a fellow English speaker could understand (and please, don’t read that as some racist comment, either - this dude was full-blooded American…unfortunately for us, I guess), but he also seemed unaware that he was working the front desk of a major motel chain.
I asked him about public transportation, and he didn’t know what I was talking about. “The buses!” I said. “Do you know if there are any buses that leave from around there?!” “I’m thinkin’ so” was his response. When asked (with no real hope of a useful answer) if any of those buses might swing past the Convention Center, he said, “I think you’ll have to transfer…somewhere.” I didn’t even bother asking about their rates. And that was the end of my conversation with the front desk staff at the Indianapolis Airport Motel 6.
Dejected, I moved down the list, afraid now that Motel 6 was showing its true colors, and that all my digging would be fruitless. Then, I saw these pictures:
Hmm. Hopefully, you are comparing these two pictures with the first one and are noticing subtle differences. Wary, I called the front desk. “Greetings and welcome to Motel 6, my name is Sherry, how may I help you?” Ok. This was going well. Sherry continued to bat 1.000 when she was able to tell me the buses stopped about a block away, and that it would be no problem to get to the Convention Center. Almost too good to be true, really. Which usually means something is about to go wrong – and my only remaining question was the big one.“So,” I said, “how much would three nights in August – the 13th, 14th, and 15th – cost us?” I braced myself, got ready, had my finger on my phone’s disconnect button. “Well,” she said, “You really ought to go online and reserve these rooms, you’ll get a much better rate – I think something around $40 a night.” Which totaled out to about $140, split two ways, for the entire hotel stay of four days and three nights.
We’re staying at Sherry’s Motel 6.
Gen Con Event We Have to Participate in of the Day: Boffing
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
And so it begins
Behold the Vat Of Dice. I've heard stories that claim it's fountain-sized - thousands of little polyhedral morsels of goodness waiting to be scooped out, paid for, and brought back to Iowa. How exactly does it work? What does it look like? How much does it cost? When will then be now? The Internet has only tantalizing tidbits of information - things like the picture above and disturbing references to "The most expensive freaking dice I've bought in my entire life!"
But soon that won't matter. Because on August 14 I'll be able to walk up to the Vat of Dice and see it (and scoop from it; damn the cost, this is like offering my roommate's cat a vat full of catnip) for myself. For we, Gentle Reader, are going to Gen Con!
That was an unclear use of the word "we." Oops. Let me clarify (having proven that I'm not the blog contributor who's paying his way to Indianapolis by teaching English) - "we" isn't you and I, it's me and my friend Pat.
(A parenthetical aside - I suppose it's at least possible and probably full-blown likely that no one but Pat or me will ever read this blog (the possibility that we'll get bored with it and never update it notwithstanding), so the forced second person perspective - as if we're talking to a third party - is silly and maybe even presumptuous. That said, what's the point of a blog if no one ever reads it? Let the illusion continue!)
I first heard about Gen Con from Pat, lo those many years ago in UNI married student housing. I was recently back from a Victory in the Pacific convention in Kenosha, Wisconsin and trying to talk Pat into going with me the next year. "That would be fun," Pat said, "but what we should do is go to Gen Con."
"To what now?" I replied. And so to the Internet we went, and Pat told me about the great Gathering Of The Geeky (at the time still held in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin), and we agreed that it would be a fine time indeed and that we should go.
We stayed at about that level of ennui for several years. Occasionally we would talk about going and how fun it would be to go. Occasionally we'd even look online at pictures or at registration fees. And then came last Saturday. Pat was in town to videotape a concert and the two of us had dinner afterwards and talked turned to things Gen Con-ish. As we had so many times before, we talked about how much fun it would be to go... and this time we couldn't find any of our standard "Yeah, but it'll have to be another year"'s that we've used so well over the years. I'm not going back to summer camp this summer, neither of us are in a married or with-very-young-kids situation. And so we talked a little more seriously about it, and looked at a map to see how far away Indianapolis really is (about a tank of gas). And while Pat was on the way home he called me and I looked up registration and learned that it opened the very next day at noon.
Let's be clear, here - registration for Gen Con isn't something that fills up. Hotel rooms, to be sure, especially the really awesome ones right across the street, fill up very quickly. Event registration for the really cool events will, we think, fill up very quickly. But registration itself - buying the badge that lets you get into the main event and just be there - you can do when you get there in August, if you like standing in line. The fact that we'd be able to register in the first couple of hours didn't make any practical difference. But it felt like a sign, and it was apparently enough to push us over the edge. Because we're registered. We're, with apologies to Joey Tribbiani, going to Gen Con, baby!
Exactly what this blog will end up being is a matter of curiosity to me still. Certainly there are more stories from the past couple of days to tell (I'll leave the Saga of the Housing for you, Pat) and probably more to come as we get closer. Hopefully it will be neither a bunch of "Gen Con! Soon! Yayyy!!" triviality nor six months of silence, but I'm not sure yet what else we'll fill it with. If there is anyone else out there reading, feel free to chime in with questions in the comments. Once the event's come and gone there'll certainly be some postgame and a picture or twelve. And hopefully we'll be able to throw in some useful information in a way that Google can find so this blog can be the sort of helpful read-through for new attendees in 2009 that we've had trouble finding so far.
Or maybe I'll just keep posting pictures of the Vat of Dice.
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