GenCon 2008 – more fun than you can shake a staff at!

This is part two of my GenCon 2008 Chronicles. On day two we got up before the dawn in spite of driving all night the previous night. Here we are getting breakfast and ramping up for the day. That’s the glow of the sun about to come up behind us there.


We saw lots of families at the con this year. I thought this father mother daughter group was too adorable. They were playing an RPGA game together, and they were all in costume. If I ever have kids I’m sure I’ll subject them to the same. Of course once they hit puberty they’ll join the football team or become cheerleaders to rebel 🙂


And there were lots of babies at the con this year. I didn’t really notice any last year but they were a noticeable contingent this year. Even one of the RPGA judges was running games with his infant strapped to his chest.


And of course on Saturday there was the costume contest. I didn’t get a good enough seat to get good pictures of all the amazing costumes that participated, but here’s a couple I liked that were out and about. These guys were super cute.


And this girl’s costume was also amazing. Everything she’s wearing she made herself from scratch, from the dress to the parasol to the jewelery. The only costume I liked better was the Blood Elf in level 70 raid gear: her hair was in perfect blood elf style and she did a fighting demonstration in her costume! I’m still looking for pics of her. So I can ask her to marry me.


Some cute girls in armor.


And some tired looking barbarians.


One of the painting contest winners on display.


In the dealer’s room there was this amazing table. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.


I was afraid to ask how much it was. Hand made. Luckily there were cards with the price on them.

$10,000. Gulp. Maybe next year.

At this point we’ve almost leveled our RPGA characters and have basically defeated the con. It’s Saturday night and we have to decide between live dubbing of hentai by the theater audience and going to the GenCon dance.


So we went to the dance. The theme was steampunk so we saw even more great costumes there.




And then it was back into the car to return from whence we came. In this case Austin, but we knew we were on the road with kindred spirits.

Till next year, thanks GenCon!


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GenCon 2008 !

I’m back at GenCon for the second year in a row. This time artist Dan Smith came along for the ride, and we brought some copies of Claw Claw Bite and The Horror of the Old Ones along to get into the hands of the unsuspecting public here.

First of all, it was a long and grueling ride up from Austin to Indianapolis. 19 hours. Here’s us contemplating the trees about 12 hours into the drive.


And this is us looking smug (or is it dazed?) after finally arriving and getting our badges for the weekend of gaming debauchery.


Next it was off to the dealer’s room to talk to the folks at Paizo about putting some of our stuff in their booth on consignment. Not to spill any beans, but they’re talking about making their Pathfinder system (which sold out in one day at their booth) into a brand that others can publish under, just like the d20 system logo. I was so excited because that’s exactly what I was hoping they’d develop, and if it works out Unicorn Rampant will publish our d20 / 3.5 material under that brand.

Of course, my favorite part about the dealer’s room is the miniatures.


Dan’s favorite part was the booth bunnies. There were a lot less this year than last year, including a disappointing lack of any showing of a Conan booth and the attendant she-ras. Or maybe I just missed it.

And of course there were some great costumes again this year. I may cover the costume contest tomorrow, but regardless there will be more pictures in my next post of costumed attendees. Here’s Dan’s pretending not to be impressed by this girl’s great 5th element costume.


After that it was off to the huge RPGA room for some gaming of our own. His paladin did fine and my Eladrin warlord survived in spite of taking over 30 points of damage from a very nasty were-rat under the streets of Waterdeep. Here’s a glimpse of the room. There are about three times as many tables as you can see in this picture just for RPGA events. Overall this represents about 1/20 th of the total gaming taking place at GenCon this year. It’s pretty mind-boggling, really.


Well, I’m off to bed. At 8 AM our characters need to head off to Baldur’s Gate to tackle another adventure!

-Adam


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