The Frenzy is Over

I'm back from Gen Con. (Have been since Sunday night, but was too tired to post then and wasn't ready yesterday.) Here's my story:

Thursday.
Wake up hella early to catch the 7:00 a.m. metro and go all the way to National airport. Once there, learn that no liquids whatsoever are being allowed into the cabin. Repack my luggage with ALL of my liquids (apparently even Chap Stick and the like are classified as liquids these days) and check what I had intended to be my carry-on. Through the security checkpoint in a half hour, then waited as my flight's departure time kept getting bumped back.

Leave DC a little over an hour and a half late. Arrive in Indy equally late. Brian (Betsy's beau) picks me up at the airport and gets me to the hotel. I check in (get a special D&D room key card), find my room and unpack a little (ready my badge, tickets, and other "immediate use" items). Walk the three blocks to the convention center, pick up my badge holder and lanyard, and make my way to the miniatures hall.

Sign in for D&D minis league play, and play a few games. Get super hungry, so leave for dinner and return to the hotel with a convention guide book/event catalog to peruse and set about planning the next few days.

Friday.
Get up, have breakfast, and head off to the convention center before the exhibit hall opens at 10 (missed it completely on Thursday). Cruise around quickly to gauge points of interest. Hit the autograph booth to get an autograph from and picture with Gigi Edgley.



Demo several games at the WotC "booth" (a sprawling area with many tables and a "store" in the center) to collect promos and rack up bonuses for my "giant d20" roll (which comes later). Play the game "Weinhandler" at the Mayfair Games booth to begin my quest to become a "Knight of Catan" (by collecting resource ribbons from doing demos). Collect my "Clay" ribbon. Go off to a Q&A session with Gigi Edgley at 2:00, and return to the exhibit hall to roam. Roll the giant (nerf) d20 once the line shortens a half hour before the hall closes, with a +5 for the 5 demos I completed. Collect a "Dungeon Tiles" product as my
reward.

On the way back to the hotel, throw some change in a tip bucket for a guy who was playing the Star Wars theme on his saxophone on the sidewalk. Dinner with Betsy and Brian at Champps. Wander back to the convention hall with them in the hopes of spotting costumed freaks for the curious non-gamers. No such luck.

Saturday.
Return to the hall to continue the Mayfair quest. Play "La Strada," "Bison," and "Figaro." All were decent games, though the guy who was explaining Bison did a piss-poor job of it, leading to a massive play failure in the later game while he was conversing with bystanders.

1:30 rolls around; I run off to make my True Dungeon appointment at 2:00, knowing there is some preparation involved on-site. Fail to get photos of 4 stormtroopers, the emperor and a royal guard, a gamorrean guard, and other very nice Star Wars costumes because of the time crunch and millions of other people getting pictures.

Enter the "tavern" (staging area) for the True Dungeon events, and sort through my tokens (essentially, wooden nickels of varying rarity with the True Dungeon logo on one side and names of adventuring items on the other, which represent equipment you use in the dungeon). Meet the others in my "party," and decide who will be which character -- I get the rogue (yes!). Exchange tokens to maximize our effectiveness.

We go through the dungeon, and do fairly well as a group of mostly total strangers. All make it through to the end without dying, though we fail to successfully complete the last puzzle. As the rogue, I had opportunities to help the group or help myself when successfully opening a chest. I take one of three (failed to open a fourth) for myself -- the last, since I knew it was my last chance -- and the GM/dark sorceress there indicates that she is pleased with my actions.

In the tavern afterward, a cloaked demon/orc/something approaches me and discreetly hands me a token, which turns out to be an ultra-rare Cloak of Displacement. Apparently gaining the lady's favor was worth screwing over the party! Place a "what the hell" 40 gp bid on one of 8 super-mega-ultra rare "artisan" tokens being auctioned that day (previous days' tokens went for 5,000-15,000 gp).

Return to the exhibit hall. On the way, see a woman sifting through a deck of "Gloom" and comment on how good a game it is. In the hall, play "Palatinus" at the Mayfair booth and collect my last ribbon: "Sheep." Show the ribbons and become knighted, earning a special promo deck of cards for use with the Catan games, a coupon for 50% off one game, and a raffle ticket entry in drawings to be held Sunday. Use coupon to purchase La Strada, a game I really enjoyed playing earlier.

Exhibit hall closes. Dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Return to the True Dungeon tavern on the off chance that no one outbid me on the artisan token (an Elven Armband to be precise). The other seven on auction go for 5,000 and up, but I manage to scoop mine for the 40 gp. I'm cool.

Maxminis DDM draft tournament at 8 p.m. Play 4 rounds, go undefeated (as do 3 others) and somehow end up in first place. Get first pick from the massive prize selection provided by all the participants. Take a dracolich repainted by a very skilled painter and member at Maxminis (who couldn't make it to Gen Con). Get back to hotel at nearly 3 a.m.

Sunday.
Sleep 45 minutes past intended time due to failure to turn alarm on. Do a quick "test" pack of my luggage. Determine that I need to ship some items. Rush to the UPS booth at the convention center with items I intend to ship. Find that the line is crazy long, so I call Betsy to see if she could mail the stuff for me. Affirmative. Lug everything back to the hotel.

Do a little trading of extra minis junk I don't want to take back. Roam exhibit hall one last time with Daniel (from Brazil, lived in MD when I got here) and Jim (was also in MD, now in CT I think). Take each others' photos with a booth babe.



We say our farewells, then I wait for the Mayfair drawing. Win nothing; go back to hotel to collect bags. Betsy and Brian pick me up and we go to lunch. Visit the zoo to kill time with a "zoo babe" before heading to the airport.



General observations:

• Fewer costumed people than I remember from last time.
• Fewer booth babes.
• Seems like I had much less time this time (but I was doing a lot more, so maybe it just flew by).
• Seems like it should be one day longer. Maybe I should plan to arrive the night before it starts instead of in the middle of the first day.