After Action Gencon Report

Posted by beowulfthehunter

Back from Gen Con and I am ready to drop. It is indeed the best four days of gaming and my 3 ½ time going for multiple days. I will say that of the 2 other times this one was somewhat a disappointment in comparison, but even a bad day at Gencon is still better than a good day in the classroom.

Dave and myself left 5am on Thursday and arrived at 9:30 am in Indy (time change so a 3 hour trip took 4). First up we found a parking space close by with no need to hunt one down. In previous years I spent a solid half hour looking for a space. This time, boom, we found one right off the bat. Awesome, then we get in and receive our swag bag. In years previous the bag had tons of coupons, trading cards, dice, minis, and even full games. This year it came with the 2010 Gencon die, a tiny dice bag, and not much else. Some people did not even get the die in theirs. I made my way around the hall, ran into a few friends, and knocked out most of my purchases.

Unlike previous years video games did not dominate the hall and it contained all manner of companies. You had your old grognards like Flying Buffalo as well as those fly by night companies you hear about, but then fall of the face of the earth, and then those that dominate. The Wyrd booth had a bigger line than Privateer Press. WotC was back in full force with the entire Sagamore filled with D&D. Unlike last years Con Delve that cost 2 bucks for an hour and allowed you to win cool tokens, minis, or a dice bag, the Delve this year allowed you to win stamps on a card and turn it in for absolute crap, oh and they doubled the price. I only did a few this year due to the wait and cost.

I took in a few speed painting events and then sat down to a painting class taught by Vaolla. While she is not up to the standards of some of the other names teaching classes, I will say that in retrospect she had the most  professionally run and organized class among those I took. I look forward to her teaching more next year as I will sign up again. I was able to pick up some techniques that I plan to use in the future.

Friday had me taking part in the Anima Tactics National Tournament which I won, but due to miscommunication with my opponent it was a Pyrrhic Victory as he made some mistakes that cost him the game. I did however win a mini that will not be sold for another 6 months and he won 50 bucks for best sportsmanship. I still tired to buy him a mini to make up for it. Played a few more Delves and went home to sleep.

A note about the delves, they used the new Essentials characters. Having seen them in action they are simple to use, and awesome. While the fighter no longer marks he does hit for +9 vs. AC at first level for 1d10+10, that we call Striker damage! The wizard was pretty fun if you do not mind rolling dice.

Saturday had me playing Malifaux….all day. I took 3rd place and best painted. Score for me! It was run by the newest employee of Wyrd Drew Little, who ran numerous events at Games Plus and he is a consummate professional and runs an awesome event. Thanks Drew should you ever read this.

Saw numerous costumes. The con babes were out in force this year and looking great doing it. Picked up a few games and another painting video. Oh I got to see the cast of the Guild and Felcia day is that hot in person!

Sunday, was a sad day, the last day. I took two painting classes taught by two of the bigger names in the industry. For all their accolades, I found their classes to be a complete disappointment. I did not get much info out of them and very little hands on help (which is funny because the largest class had 5 people!). I was not able to find any deals and they did give away the remaining grab bags…all missing dice. Drove home and now I write this report. I plan to add more details and describe the offerings the the booth but for now I am exhausted. Until then…I’ll be in my bunk.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Reporting In from GenCon 2010! (Part 1) from NEUROGLYPH Games (neuroglyphgames.com)
• Day 2 GenCon: Stretching My Gaming Muscles (dicemonkey.net)
• The run-up to GenCon from RPG Diehard (rpgdiehard.blogspot.com)