GenCon Adventure 2014, Part the Second

Part 1 here.

Day 2

Up early for shower and breakfast before my first game, at 1pm in the afternoon, but I had gotten my schedule mixed up and thought that I had a morning game so I suddenly found myself at loose ends and so, back to the dealers hall I went.  Which gave me a chance to drop by and say hello to my artist friends Drew Baker and Talon Dunning (who was selling commission like they were going out of style) and picked up a print of I’m the Villain from NEN (who also did all of the art for PostHuman Studio’s new Shinobi Clans game).  I also had the chance to learn how to play the Furoticon card game (NSFW link here) which was quite fun and surprisingly deep play mechanics given its framework.

Then off to my third (and best attended at seven players) RPG session, again the intrigue scenario.  Happily, it played out almost entirely differently from the first game and a different villain made their appearance and was summarily caught and then executed, again saving the Moshi family from embarrassment and their winter court from disgrace.  The only downside was the room was rather noisy and communication was a bit more difficult than we would have liked, everyone seemed to have a good time.

Afterward, I wandered around the con for a little while, just seeing what was going on in the various hotels.  I had an invitation for a late night get together but I was to tired that I figured that I would be poor company, so back to my room where I watched a little more NHK-World (which was on the Embassy TV system for some reason) before getting some sleep.

Day 3

Usual routine, think this was the morning I ended up having breakfast with Drew Baker, who was also staying at the Embassy, which was nice chance to catch up.  Then off to my morning game -via half of a writer’s seminar session on kickstarter- this session was taking place during the Heroes of Rokugan interactive event, which is a LARP, so the table for my game was surrounded by gamers many of whom were in costume which was cool.  What was not cool was that only one player showed up but it was the intrigue game so . . . we played.  It was one of the Hollow Throne crew who I had met on Thursday so we rolled through the adventure and then talked gaming while watched and making color commentary about the ongoing LARP swirling around us.  A good time but I still would have liked to have had more players.

But, off to wonder the dealers room, and especially the art show, again.  Where I had a quick visit with April Lee (who has not been at GenCon for sometime, I think), purchased a print from Laura “Pelick” Siadak and another artist who I can remember nor find her card among my things, also some prints and  comics from Snow by Night (whose webcomic I also recommend).  Also, Rare Elements did some lovely handmade fantasy coins which were beautiful but beyond my means at the time.

Then back to the last evening game, stopping for some coffee on the way, which had four players, two returning from Friday’s intrigue game and one the husband of my lone player from earlier in the day.  It was the action adventure game which ran well except for one player constantly questioning the basic framing premise of the scenario and the very loud Heroes of Rokugan battle game running at the same time but it resolved satisfactorily.

After the game, a brief wander around and then back for some sleep after a brief distraction by the NHK.

Day 4

The last day of the Con, how did it arrive so quickly!  Breakfast and then off to my last session with two players (one returning from both of my previous years as GM) and the rest of the room, empty as HoR had finished with the battle the previous night.  The game worked out fairly well, all things considered, with the Moshi family honor again being saved and the true murderer brought to justice.

Then a final prowl of the dealers hall with a few last minute purchases, including interesting things from Souljar Games, before helping to dismantle and pack away the AEG booth until next year.  As usual, break down was hot and hard work with only about a quarter of the available people power contributing without explicit direction.  But it was mostly done in a timely fashion and then out to dinner at Steak and Shake with some of my fellow demo team members.

We talked for a while and then back to the room to pack, interrupted by a visit by Fred Wan (of the L5R Story Team) and Reggie “Angry Crab” Garth discussing the Lion Clan and Bushido which was fantastic to be peripherally part of.  I took a break from packing at about 11:30pm for one last ramble through the last games on the ground floor of the Embassy Suite where I ran across jim pinto, Travis Heerman and two others playing Cards Against Humanity which I was invited to join.  It was my first time playing and it fun but we were all a bit fatigue-drunk by this time so I cannot say if that is a normal state of affairs of not.  Finally got back to my room and finished packing around 1am.

Day 4+1

The long drive home, which was actually pretty good except for losing an hour to Atlanta traffic.  The End

My few photos from GenCon can be found here.

Also looks like I will be back running the L5R RPG next year, more details on that closer to GenCon 2015.