Author Topic: Gen Con 2014  (Read 21577 times)

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Offline Wolfhound

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #160 on: August 13, 2014, 05:41:24 AM »
Quick Q for all - anyone else printing the various posters/fliers from Colin?

Quick Q for all - anyone else printing the various posters/fliers from Colin?


I printed a copy of most of them, then photocopied them (so that it wouldn't kill my printers ink cartridge).
Wolfhound (aka Aaron Smalley)
World of Aernth/Channel Cities setting: www.ChannelCities.com
City of Archendurn & Dun Cru author (for RM/HARP)
Cur. projects: RMU Creature Law 1 & 2, No Quarter Under the Crown (campaign module for RMU)

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #161 on: August 17, 2014, 11:19:08 PM »
Well I briefly saw Aaron at one his slots but had to leave Indy around 2:30pm so couldn't make the meetup today.

Things went pretty well for me this Gen Con (as well as they can when you are hauling around a 4 year old).  So I'm pretty happy with this years con myself.

Hope everyone had a great Con, and I hope to be able to meet some more of you next year.
-Pyrotech

Offline Old Man

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #162 on: August 18, 2014, 08:36:21 AM »
Hi all,

Had fun watching a bit of the Saturday night slot. Did you end up having to check the structural integrity rules for tenement walls? :)

Ciao,
Old Man
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #163 on: August 18, 2014, 09:32:40 AM »
Went fairly smooth this year. Played a bunch of Wings/Sails of Glory and got enough coupons and freebies that I ended up with like 11 ships for about $70 (just three of the larger ones would be $75 normally).  They were also discounted about 20% at the booth which was nice. I refuse to pay full rate, likely have to stand in line just to look, then have to carry it home when I could just buy it onlne for 30% off and get it shipped free (lookin at you Fantasy Flight).

Played in Aarons game late Sat. I think we BS'd about a 3rd of the time away. With a little on-the-spot tactical choices we mopped the enemy pretty good. Nice putting some names to faces at the event and dinner Sunday.

Sitting at the airport now hoping that, for the first time ever, I won't have an issue going through Chicago. Have tomorrow off to recover just in case... recover from vacation day. The best four days in gaming is often enough gaming before you need a break!
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
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Offline Wolfhound

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #164 on: August 18, 2014, 02:57:57 PM »
Great to see you guys there and see who is who (pyrotech, OldMan, Bruce and Cory in particular), although I might not be remembering correctly, but I think OldMan may have stopped by last year also.  He took some photo's of the game, not sure if he put them up online somewhere for others to see but I thought that was the plan.  Sorry I missed the dinner Sunday night, but I didn't realize that a couple of the people in our group needed to be back to work early Monday morning, one at 6:00 am and another another at 8:00 am.  While I had taken the day off Monday, others needed to get back at a reasonable time.  But I was pretty well worn out and nearly fell asleep at the wheel a couple of times while driving north (about a 6 hour drive), so probably good that we didn't stick around any later for dinner, otherwise might not have made it home.  The lack of sleep for several nights in a row probably didn't help with that either. 

Met several other people who are only semi-active on the forums who also participated in the Channel Cities at Night sessions.  Can't recall who they said they were from a forum ID standpoint now if they told me.  But some of them showed up for the games or stopped by to see if there were any openings, which there often were.  All 6 sessions had sold out, but I think only one had all four of the people who had originally purchased tickets for it show up.  But the sessions generally seemed to go well.  There were also several people who are Rolemaster and/or HARP fans from way back that hadn't played in a decade or more, as well as two younger guys who had never played it at all, but said that they had heard about it and wanted to give it a try.  They walked away from the table saying that they will definitely be using Rolemaster in the future.  It was a combination of the critical tables and the mechanics (open-ended rolls, character creation flexibility, wide range of spells, and the gory details of the criticals) that got them hooked. There were a lot of questions about when the new version will be released or when the next version of the open-playtest will be available, neither of which could I answer since I'm just as curious. 

OldMan, no we didn't go to that depth with it.  I just had them make a strength check to try to bash through the wall (which failed, even without the penalty that I applied to the roll).  But they did come up with an alternative entry method. 

Also picked up a few games and other items, as well as talked with various people about different aspects of game publishing and design, tried out several games that are not yet in production (some were pretty good, others sucked) and paid attention to how they presented the information and talked about each game.  Especially what worked and what didn't from a teaching and "sales pitch" perspective. 

And yes the lines to get into the Fantasy Flight games booth was downright ridiculous.  Didn't bother looking at their stuff even though there was some things that I might have considered purchasing if it would not have been an hour or more wait just to look.   
Wolfhound (aka Aaron Smalley)
World of Aernth/Channel Cities setting: www.ChannelCities.com
City of Archendurn & Dun Cru author (for RM/HARP)
Cur. projects: RMU Creature Law 1 & 2, No Quarter Under the Crown (campaign module for RMU)

Offline Old Man

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #165 on: August 18, 2014, 06:35:54 PM »
Aaron

Yep stuck my head in Saturday but should have introduced myself. I took one pix that I put on Twitter. Attached it here as well (if it will fit).

Regards,
Old Man
** Yes, some of ROCO IV and VII is my fault. **

Offline Bruce

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #166 on: August 18, 2014, 08:30:47 PM »
This was my first Gencon and I had a really great time. Especially meeting the guys from the ICE forums. I haven't played as a player in over 20 years (except for recent Pathfinder organized play and that doesn't count). It was really refreshing that in every RPG game I played in all the players were good role players. But I will have to say the most interesting group of players were the ones in the Rolemaster game on Saturday night. It was only three of us but we worked great together in the game. I have never actually played Rolemaster as a player and I have never had any combat in Rolemaster where no one took any damage (at least combat damaege from the enemies). Both happened during Gencon.
It was a great game and we had a lot of fun, not just playing but also just chatting amongst ourselves. I'm sorry for those of you who were at the convention and couldn't make it to the dinner because we had a great time and the meal was amazing.
I played in both RMU events and both were a lot of fun. The one on Friday run by Beggarking (Thomas) was essentially a combat demo but it was great fun and in that one I played a Mentalist.  I was dead last when it came to initiative and hung out in the back anyway as a mentalist normally would. I don't believe I took any damage in this one, I'm not sure. It was a little tough but everyone seemed to know what they were doing.
In the one on Saturday night run by Aaron (Wolfhound) I played a Magician and was joined by two other members of these forums. If it wasn't for the fighter failing his climbing roll I don't think anyone would have taken any damage during the entire session. We all played some great tactics during this session though I believe the bad perception checks on the NPC's really helped our cause.
One thing these two sessions did was re-ignite my fire to play RMU and unfortunately the two friends that I came to Gencon with had to skip out on the Saturday night game. So they weren't able to experience anything RM related this Gencon. Meaning that I will be a little hard pressed to get them into a RMU game anytime soon. It was great meeting everyone, though I can only actually name three of you. I'm not sure who pyrotech and oldman were.... The other player in Aaron's game on Saturday I can't name and I didn't get his forum name (pyrotech?), but he was fun to play with.

Bruce
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Offline Shamus

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #167 on: August 20, 2014, 02:46:37 AM »
I heard about that little incident on the way home. It really wasn't a good week for you, driving-wise. I'm glad that you made it home all right. It was an exhausting weekend.
"Never underestimate the power of annoyance."

Offline Wolfhound

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #168 on: August 20, 2014, 05:42:44 AM »
I heard about that little incident on the way home. It really wasn't a good week for you, driving-wise. I'm glad that you made it home all right. It was an exhausting weekend.

I won't plan to run stuff that late again unless we have a connecting hotel.  I think that was a big part of it with me was the lack of sleep being out by the airport and everyone in our g
roups sche
dule ranging across such a wide range of times.  BTW, sorry I drove kind of fast on the way back and you and Larry fell behind, we probably should have tried to stick together better on the drive back north.  They told me when I called them to let them know that I made it home that you guys mised your exit coming through Lansing (probably the same interchange I missed on the way down, which was the second time I've done that over the years even though my brother only lived about 2 miles from there for a couple years almost a decade ago, so I'm familiar with that area and still missed themramp). 
Wolfhound (aka Aaron Smalley)
World of Aernth/Channel Cities setting: www.ChannelCities.com
City of Archendurn & Dun Cru author (for RM/HARP)
Cur. projects: RMU Creature Law 1 & 2, No Quarter Under the Crown (campaign module for RMU)

Offline Colin-ICE

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #169 on: August 20, 2014, 06:17:46 AM »
Welcome back from GenCon guys!

If anyone wants to send me a write up of their game/experience at GenCon I'd be happy to put it up on the blog and social media etc.

Thanks

Offline Wolfhound

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #170 on: August 20, 2014, 06:54:05 AM »
I will try to write something up when time permits (but it will likely be a couple of weeks before I get to it due to being swamped with other things right now).  Also, please pardon my last mangled response, was typing that on my cheap tablet and it doesn't work very well for such things, plus it was right after I woke up so was not fully awake yet.
Wolfhound (aka Aaron Smalley)
World of Aernth/Channel Cities setting: www.ChannelCities.com
City of Archendurn & Dun Cru author (for RM/HARP)
Cur. projects: RMU Creature Law 1 & 2, No Quarter Under the Crown (campaign module for RMU)

Offline pyrotech

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #171 on: August 20, 2014, 03:33:08 PM »
Hey Colin,

I just PMed you a write up of my Gen Con this year.  I don't know if it is what you are looking for, but I sent it to you anyway.

My family doesn't do as many events as we used to.  We like to treat Gen Con like a family vacation now, so we keep it more relaxed.  But between us we still did quite a few events.

Regards,
-Pyrotech

Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #172 on: August 24, 2014, 08:08:02 PM »
Alright, so it's been a week and I am almost back to normal now. :)  I don't know why, but I have a harder time dealing with 3-4 hour time differences than I do with 8-9 hour ones.

I did not get through Chicago without issue.  No surprise.  The flight leaving O'hare for Indy that was my plane to be left Chicago late due to issues there.  I don't even need to BE at O'hare for it to cause me problems.  Fortunately I knew like an hour in advance that this was going to cause us to miss out connecting flight, so we re-arranged it up front with the airline.  Not a huge deal, but we got home about three hours later than planned.

So, what all did you guys buy?

I really didn't spend much AT the Con (maybe $125), but I am spending money as a RESULT of the Con (about $200).  I refuse to pay full rate, plus tax, and have to lug an item home with me when I can buy it online, 30% off or so, no tax, no shipping and I don't have to lift a finger (well, other than to type on my keyboard).  So, the Fantasy Flight booth (which you had to stand in line for about 30-45mins just to get into to look) had full normal rate.  Didn't give them a second glance (and I could have spent a lot of money in there).  I guess there's a whole lot of people that "have to have it now".  I think I can wait a week to have a decent amount of money and effort.

The Ares booth (Wings/Sails of Glory) not only had the 20% off but you also could buy 2 and get 1 free.  Essentially almost half off if you made your purchases right... so, as I mentioned before, I picked up about 11 ships (worth over $200) for a little more than $70 as a result of both the discounts and gift certificates/giveaways from playing in the events.  I bought some extras for the Sails of Glory online and also purchased the Omega Protocol board game from Level 7.  Looks/sounds to be a slightly more robust version of Space Hulk essentially.
- Cory Magel

Game design priority: Fun > Balance > Realism (greater than > less than).
(Channeling Companion, RMQ 1 & 2, and various Guild Companion articles author).

"The only thing I know about adults is that they are obsolete children." - Dr Seuss

Offline Bruce

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #173 on: August 24, 2014, 08:34:35 PM »
Ha, what did I buy? I bought to much at Gencon. I basically purchased three main books that were signed by the authors (which you can't get online). They were Victoriana (which was signed by my childhood buddy Walt). Consequently I also played in a game he GM'd for Victoriana and had a great time. The last time we gamed together was more than 20 years ago, I told him it brought back memories and he stated that we would have had to switch roles half way through the game for it to bring back memories...lol. And yes I probably could have gotten him to sign the book at any time outside of Gencon (but then there is the mailing costs). Then I purchased Firefly and the adventure book from none other than Margaret Weis herself, and she signed it with the other two developers there. She is such a nice and humble person, it was really great meeting her. I purchased a print from Jason Engle who also signed the print (can't get that online either). I also purchased a bunch of books from the buy 1 get 3 free booth. Plus I purchased one of those dice rings (percentile of course!) which consequently are a little cheaper on Amazon but I couldn't find any percentiles and nothing in my size. I purchased a crapload of dice (mostly percentiles) but buying dice online isn't really an option as I like to see and touch them before purchasing. The metal percentiles will come in handy when an unsuspecting player does something really stupid...lol. I also got some games on the cheap side on the last day because there were some vendors that simply wanted to get rid of their stock so they didn't have to lug it home. All in all I spent more than I should have at around $400. But I believe a majority of that was spent on food. Then there was that stupid shuttle pass that cost me $50 and I only used once.
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Offline markc

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #174 on: August 24, 2014, 08:58:35 PM »
How does that Dice Ring work for you?
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Offline Bruce

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #175 on: August 24, 2014, 09:24:39 PM »
The dice ring is really cool. It works pretty good as long as I don't get it wet, which if I do I have to run it under a blow dryer or one of those hand dryers in the bathroom for it to work properly. Either way it is just meant as a gimmick but it works none the less. Sometimes I can get an open-ended roll in less than 10 spins but other times I can spin it 50 times and not get an open-ended roll... or spin if you will.

Bruce
When you game, game like you mean it! Game Hard!

Offline BeggarKing (Thomas)

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Re: Gen Con 2014
« Reply #176 on: August 31, 2014, 12:06:17 AM »
Just now catching up on day-to-day after gencon + other travelling, but want to emphasize how much fun I had playing RMU at the convention and catching up with folks on this forum. Colin, I'll PM you my summary.
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