GEN CON Indy 2011 – Day One Report
It hit me sometime around mid-morning on Wednesday. It was the eve of the beginning of GENCON, and my boyfriend and I were about to embark on our epic three hour drive full of NPR and dance music to reach our beloved Indianapolis destination. If only I could get through my long and arduous half-day of work.
After our long drive, and once inside the hotel, the rush was intense! Lots of nerds, all ready for a weekend full of – well, nerd-ness. I received a hearty “Welcome Home!” greeting from some fellow gamers we shared an elevator with, and we went on to nab our hotel room. After meeting one of our good GM friends, we chose to grab some noms at RAM, an awesome restaurant and bar, which had decked its halls with posters from various tabletop games (and otherwise). The various TVs were showing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and after I was scared $#!+less as I left the powder room to a blaring overhead “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” I realized the movie score was actually playing through the sound system! Their menu included selections craftily named after elements from Warmachine; I chose the Bog Trog Burger. Blue cheese and bacon for the wins. Granted, it was a bit of a long wait for a table, (all the geeks had the same idea, I guess). However, once we were seated, the service was great, and the atmosphere was even better.
After much costuming and makeup-ing, I arrived at the Indiana Convention Center at about 8:00 AM. The will-call line was… well, it was long. Luckily, in the midst of the two hour wait, I made some friends; one of whom was Andy, a comic and action figure enthusiast. Clad in a Hawaiian button-up and silly t-shirt, he showed me his box of miniatures, and even enacted a small skit for me so I could take a picture of him in action. Hailing from Milwaukee where he makes his living dressing as various types of mascots and characters, he has been running tables for Steve Jackson Games’ RPG “Toon” for fourteen years – and I suspect he won’t be quitting any time soon. “Toon mixes genres such as… Final Fantasy and reality TV,” he told me with a grin. The game, centered on animated characters and silly comic violence, pairs random sets of cartoons and apparently lets the players go at it! According to Andy, everyone at last year’s GENCON wanted to decimate the Wiggles. He allowed them to, although he did remind me that, “The Wiggles aren’t even cartoons!”
After I finally received my badge and my loots, I went in search of drinks for myself and my thirsty GM boyfriend, who was running games for Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG. Luckily, the convention center had stocked up on water (although for the rest of the weekend, it was extremely hard to find anything caffeinated – mainly, Mountain Dew).
My favorite way to spend GENCON is by ferrying food to my GM boyfriend and his buddies, and taking in the sights. And cosplay, of course. As I walked into the exhibit hall, I wondered what I would see this year…
Clia made a beautiful heart at Cardhalla – ready to be destroyed in their event on Saturday night.
Rick held his Earthborn Dire Troll, from Warhmachine, and showed me some of his hand-painted minis.
Palladium books caught my eye, and I walked over to talk to their booth guys. They are the makers of the Rifts role-playing game books. I talked to Matthew Clemence and Brandon Alten about Kevin Siembieda’s new revised edition of Rifts Vampire Kingdoms – I even shook hands with the big man himself. “Pretty much anything you want, you can find it,” Brandon told me. And he was right! After thirty years of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror, the Rifts books encompass any genre one can think of. He also told me about “Splicers” – a game of post-apocalyptic survival in which humans use bio-organic technology against machines, by splicing genes in different ways to achieve (very strange) outcomes. I have to try that one!
After talking to the Palladium guys, I buckled down and got to snapping some pictures!
[nggallery id=21]
