The GenCon update thread

[DeJaVu]

Greetings from Indianapolis! While I'm the one starting this thread, I don't intend to be the only contributor--others are free to add their thoughts, impressions, experiences, whatever. I especially welcome contributions from people who might be playing more than I will, since my time will most likely be divided between meetings, seminars, tending my wife's art show table, and watching my son.

So: Day 0. The Exhibition Hall is hot, and people inside are grumpy, as they have been setting up all day in the portion of the convention center that will not have the blessing of air conditioning until tomorrow. Most of the Catalyst booth was shrouded as I walked by, but I was still impressed--it's bigger than last year, and some of the goodies I saw were neat-looking, including my new Eclipse Phase t-shirt.

I saw Ben, Randall, Tara, Paul, Loren, Heather, Chas, Herb, Ken, Trent, David, and others whose name I'm forgetting right now or just didn't catch. It was good to see them all. I used the brief conversation I had with Herb to assure him that anything he does to shrink Jason Schmetzer's ego (such as looking at his name tag last year and referring to him as "Guest") was a good thing. I also admired Tara's homemade raisins and her ever-growing collection of dirt. Really.

The con starts for real tomorrow, and with good internet access at my hotel, I'll be sure to share anything interesting that happens that I happen to see.

Jason H.

[DeJaVu]

Day 0-

Ok well not as exciting with behind the scenes ego shrinking advice or raisin and dirt admiring, I too swung by the convention center last night. I went ot meet up with some friends that were coming from out of town and met up pretty easily. It wasn't too hard as the full crowds had quite made it yet. The line for my swag bag was remarkably quick and then came the event registration. The line was fine, but once again I fell victim to trying to follow the schedule to find out when the events I wanted were. I should really remember to go prepared and look at the online schedule before I get to the center.

It was a nice night and my wife and I am Chughban wondered around downtown and went to the war memorial. All in all a very enjoyable time. Today, time to jump full force into the GenCOn experience.


Wasp

[DeJaVu]

Day One:

The con is off and running, and while I hear good reports from the Catalyst booth (including a line that held steady for the first few hours of the show), probably the lead story of the day are the multiple reports of sightings of white-robed figures distributing some sort of literature throughout the gaming halls. I have not seen what they're handing out, but I'll try to get a look at it tomorrow.

But back to the Catalyst booth--it's another nice set-up, and the books really are a piece of work. The box set looks great with its Origins Award Winner sticker, and Tac Ops is a big, meaty piece of work, suitable for debraining a medium-sized mammal.

Spottings today include a talking rooster selling stuff in the booth, Steve, Kevin, Jason Beta, Tami, Bones, Andreas, and many, many others. Good to see each and every one of them. There were some good games going on when I ducked into the gaming hall, and I'll have to look in there a few more times just to watch some fine action.

Besides the Catalyst stuff, I saw some other good-looking games, including the Descent line from Fantasy Flight, so I'm going to have to do some research to figure out what I want to buy. More tomorrow!

Jason H.

[DeJaVu]

Day One:

Well, that was a really hectic day. The first was jut figuring out what to play and finding out about a last second change in the Battletech Open and then swapping event tickets. Which, for those that care, was actually really painless.

First, I just hung out saw folks from Milwaukee and Indianapolis and then hit the Exhibit Hall. Naturally the first place I hit was the CGL booth. Man, was it just packed with things to see. As Jason mentioned a lot of writers and developers were around. Perhaps the biggest thing there was Tac Ops and Jason is right, you could brain a small mamal, or a WoB. Just kidding. The t-shirts looked good and with a wide variety of Shadowrun and Battletech stuff I think CGL is off on a great show. They were also pushing Eclipse Phase and advertising Ctuthulutech. Then a trip to chessex with a wide range of new novelty nice including a Herb special Nuke mushroom cloud one.

So onto the action. The first round of the open was a clan battle on 2 map sheets, I ran a Night Gyr Prime and Fire Falcon H versus a Kingfisher with heavy large lasers and Giffin IIC with ATMs. All in all it was decent fight right up to the fact that I kept missing piloting rolls on 4s or 5s. I should just say that the Kingfisher is one mean mech.

After that I hit the Babylon Diet, man that was fun. Cloud Cobras vs the Coyote. It was touch and go, but the Cobras pulled out a win on tie brakers by killing more mechs. There was another table going and I believe the Coyotes were victorious there. There were lots of folks playing and our own Jester managed to keep a Stone Rhino for 6.5 hrs and absorb 3-4 rounds of massive five from assault and heavy mechs once Zellbringin was broken

But that is day two, today will be Odesa battles and more open.

Wasp

[DeJaVu]

My ego is inexhaustable...

Day 1:

Lots of people around, all of whom seem intent on reducing my ego. Strange. Anyway, the booth is freaking awesome and chock full of stuff--I don't think I've ever seen so much CBT in one place. It's daunting. There's a tower of Box Sets that's taller than I am.

Weirdos in white robes spotted... not sure about that.

Day 1 at the con survived... lots of meetings, lots of "why can't you fix this?" questions that I get to answer with much snark. I'm told its a successful day, but as I am only a peon (with much ego) am not really competent to judge.

Day 1 Afterdark: much fun was had, although lobbyist bar may not have been best choice for carousing. Crashed developer's meetings, whereupon the Dutch have been established as the bane of all CBT evil. May have had something to do with booze... not sure.

Day 2... ongoing. Am being pursued by editor--escape less likely with each hour. Will attempt to head off with booze.

Hm... ego, booze... recurring themes. Who'da thunk?

Erewhon

[DeJaVu]

Day 2:

The big news of the day was the mounting aggression of the white-robed intruders into the gaming hall. There were four of them this evening, and they were ticked. One of them bellowed at the assembled gamers, calling them heretics and infidels, imploring them not to listen to the lies being spread by Catalyst Game Labs. Another pointed directly at Herb and accused him of being behind the worst of the lies. They had a book that they kept ripping up, distributing pieces of it throughout the hall. It was quite a scene, and I'm told there were a few video images captured for posterity. What does it all at up to? Maybe tomorrow will tell.

In other news, Jason S. and I united for a time to become simply Jason, with the goal of assimilating all other writers into us, especially those named Steve. But then we had a difference of opinion and started damaging each others' egos again. Had a good talk with Loren, let my son wander around in the care of the oldest Bills child, then played an RPG called Grimm where nine players all acted out eight-year-old kids stuck in a nightmare fairy-tale world. The gamemaster was lively and flexible, so we had a good long session, and now we need sleep.

Tomorrow is seminar day--always good for a few laughs, some news, and, if rumors are to be believed, a surprise or two.

Jason H.

[DeJaVu]

Day 2 from the miniatures hall and the heavy fighting on the world of Odessa.

(Table 1) The fighting started hot and heavy at 10AM. The WOB mercs backed up by some WoB tanks started pressing toward the Coalition forces. Needless to say the WOB tried the time honored tactic of flanking with lights and mediums while the Coalition tried flanking with mediums to Assualts on the opposite flank. The WoB flank attack did well with massed fire and were dropping or damaging a good amount of tonnage while the anchor flank bent and bowed but eventually held then pushed the coalition back. I personally had a Stalker that had holes in the armor and no armor in the head, but found out later it survived the day.

I then did my round in the Battletech Open. It was lots of fun, but once again I had trouble standing on 4-5s and then to end it, I fell on my open center torso and put all 8 points of damage into it and then critted myself five times. It wasn't pretty.

I went back to Odessa and found that the WoB had pressed both flanks of the Coalition forces. This time I was on the coalition side. They were reduced to a small pocket of forces along the end of the table. However, they survived to pull out a win.

I don't know too much about what went on on the other table, except that WoB rolled over the Coalition.

There were to odd people in robes yelling and spouting lies about CGL. It was good to see the fan fare, so to speak, leading up to thier announcement today at the booth and the CGL seminars this afternoon.

Well, I must run now as I have to help save Donegal at 8.


Wasp

[DeJaVu]

Phew! What a day! Four hours of seminars, a few new games added to my collection, Iron Writer Battletech, chitchat with various and assorted people, and a brand new, secret sourcebook released. The Blake Documents were released, and I'm very much enjoying all the mystery and speculation tied to the book. The secret was impressively kept by Catalyst, and I'll leave it to them and their previews to dole out information about the books.

The seminars were good, with Catalyst showing impressive range with the CBT and SR plans, then adding Eclipse Phase, board games like Paparazzi and Henchmen, and other fun things. Not to mention the new novels. I hope they'll carry this all off, and if they do, there will be an ever-increasing amount of cool stuff with the Catalyst name on it.

The CBT seminar was especially entertaining. We got all the good updates (including Randall's "short answer" to the questions "What made Tac Ops so long?" that helped demonstrate the legendary Randall style that sometimes contributes to a certain amount of lengthiness), we saw some nice cover art, and then we saw a picture of a baby Herb Beas with a well-placed star that helped keep Catalyst staff from being arrested on indecency charges.

But the crowning moment had to be the reading of a Battltech story Randall wrote when he was 12, a story that featured a daring, skilled MechWarrior named, of all things, Colonel Bills. Lots of us took turns adding our dramatic interpretation to Randall's words, but no one brought down the house quite like Steve Mohan with his James T. Kirk-style oral theatrics. It was truly mind-blowing.

Some of the odder turns of phrase from Randall's story will gain continued life in Iron Writer stories. I'll leave others to detail the contest parameters and stories, but I had fun though I was too busy typing to trash talk as much as I'd like (though I did manage to point out that everyone wearing headphones during the competition were wusses, after which Steve tartly asked me if this was a writing competition or a talking competition). As is generally the case, I have no idea how people will react to the story, and I'll be interested to see when the stories comes out.

I met some good regulars from the board, and I always appreciate people saying hi and introducing themselves. There's one more day of the con, and I'll try to take it a little slow as I'm getting a little tired. But when I say "a little slow," I still intend to play all the new games I bought today. What else is GenCon for?

Jason H.