| Users_Online |
You are an anonymous user. You can register for free by clicking here |
0 member(s) online.
10 guest(s) online.
|
|
| |
Gencon 2002 ! What Adlon did in Milwaukee...
Gen Con. Always wanted to go, but never had either the time, money, or
gumption. Finally, my time had come.
The Mortality Radio Show Co-Host, Lee Vanderlip (Dungeon Master) had been
going, with his wife. Only, in the last month before, he had taken on a new
job, new responsibilities, thus, he couldn't go this year. He offered me his
passes, which I accepted. I booked my flight, and was set. Lee even offered
me his hotel room reservation.
I declined the hotel, because I had a few other options. Then, my wife (soon
to be X) decided it was time. We filed for divorce. Being a single parent
now, as she moved out the week after filing, suddenly, I was in a temporary
quandry. My options for the hotel room had passed me by, and Lee HAD to
cancel the reservations he had. Understandably.
So, I decided, that, ALL things work out, right? So, I didn't sweat the
hotel situation. I let a few friends in the industry know I was looking for
ANYTHING room wise, even a floor, and let it go at that.
I left Fort Myers, Florida, on thursday, at about 7:30 AM. My flight was
fine, to Cincinatti. Quick change of planes, then off to Milwaukee. Again, a
very smooth flight.
I took a cab to the convention center, splitting the fare with a father and
son who were also going straignt to the convention. I arrived at Gen Con at
1PM.
I got out of the cab, grabbed my luggage, and then stopped, and looked. MOBS
of people OUTSIDE. Well, this being my first Gen Con, I thought perhaps
something was amiss. I asked someone what was going on, and got a look of
disbelief. Heh, I'm kind of glad I didn't run into that person again. I felt
pretty foolish.
I went inside, found my way around, and got to the Mystic Eye Games booth at
1:30 PM thursday. Said hi to the guys at MeG, met several other people at
that booth, like Chris and Dee of Twin Rose Software, Richard Rowan, or Gas
Light Press, Jason Parent and Denise Robinson of Ambient Inc, Jeff Colledge
and Bob Grunwald of Bard's Productions, plus several MeG people, like Doug
Herring, Andrew Thompson, Becky Glenn, and more. I then set my bags
under one of their tables, and Hal Greenberg had told me that a few people
were indeed looking and listening out for a place for me to stay. I even
heard Kevin Melka, of Fast Forward Entertainment, was looking seriously for
me. Well, as I had set my luggage down, I parted the MeG booth, and went to
look around the exhibition hall. I was in awe. Now, I had been to trade
shows before. I had been to small local gaming conventions before. But this
was WAY big.
I went up and down every aisle. Met Matt Sprange, and Alex Fennell of
Mongoose Publishing. Matt has been a big supporter of the Radio Show, and
from such a long way away. It was really great to meet him, and Alex,
finally. Nice guys, both. I then went to the Bastion Press booth. I met Jim
Butler and Greg Dent. Again, as Jim has been such a big supporter of
Mortality Radio, this was a great meeting. Then I met Todd Morasch. Now THIS
guy was a LOT of fun. BIG greeting from him, complete with a "come on in"
attitude. It was then I decided that I'd make SURE I ran into Todd again
over the weekend. As often as possible. I found him to be really personable,
and verry passionate about his work with Bastion Press. With people like him
around, look for more great stuff from Bastion Press.
I continued to ogle all the sights, and went on to several other booths,
such as Troll Lord, Green Ronin, and Fast Forward Entertainment. I talked
with Kevin Melka, and he let me know without a doubt, that he was on the
prowl for me pertaining to where I'd sleep that night. Kevin, too was very
personable, and I made SURE I met Jim Ward, before I headed back to the MeG
booth, to check in on my rooming situation.
When I got back, my problem was solved. Josh Rensch (Shouit) showed up
pretty near when I did, and we met, then he said that I could stay with him
and his girlfriend, IF she says ok. He has me accompany him, to meet up with
Melissa, to ask if its ok that I stay with them. I felt compelled to hold
back while he approached her about it, not wanting her to feel on the spot.
Admittedly, I gave my lost puppy look, and whether or not she saw it, she
said yes. I then aproached, and we met. I asked if she was sure, and I
thanked them both profusely. Shortly after that, we went to the hotel, which
shall stay nameless, as you'll see why down this page, later on.
the hotel looked like a VERY old hotel, and it was. Being built in the
19teens, it was under remodel, to some degree. A bargain at 90$ per night :)
We did the "you there, us here" thing, set down my suitcase, and grabbed my
later to be crap laptop, my digital camera, and went back to the Con. We
went back, and I began to shoot pictures. Meeting more people, and visiting
more booths as I went along. Come to find out, Josh (Shouit) knew alot of
people at Gen Con. We went around some, meeting and greeting various
publishers, and before I knew it, it was 6 PM, and the exhibit hall was
closing. But, there was a game to be played called the d20 Smackdown. I had
been told about this, and definately wanted to see it. It was a game that
Mongoose Publishing had put together, and several different d20 publishing
companies were going to participate. Josh and I stopped by the Celebrity
boxing, where I met Peter Adkison. He was awash in the event, with people
trying to get his attention for this and for that. I waited patiently, and
when he had a lull, I introduced myself. Much to my surprise, as busy as he
was, he seemed like I could have all the time I wanted, to chat with him. We
chatted a bit, about the Con, how impressed I was, talked about Mortality
Radio JUST A BIT, and I began to feel that I had taken up enough of his
time, so, I bowed out, and let Peter get on with running the Con. Off to the
d20 Smackdown. Josh and I got there just in time, as it was about to begin.
We followed some of the publishers over to the gaming room, and they found a
table. Then the gameboard came out, then the cards, and the rules. Alex
Fennell of Mongoose Publishing was the game master, and after a brief rules
intro, the game began. And they had fun. It was a very cool site, watching
all of these publishers, from a diverse group of companies, all playing and
having fun together. When Mongoose had won the game ( heh), I left thinking
that this is indeed, a most EXCELLENT community, if we have publishers like
these who can set such an example of having fun. It was at the Smackdown
where I met Anthony Valterra, of WotC.
After the Smackdown, we headed back to the hotel after grabbing a bite to
eat.
Then, at the hotel, we found out that we had NO hot water for showers. Well,
there was some, in the form of a minor trickle, about a 1/4 inch stream.
Alritey then. This was interesting. In order to mix warm water, one had to
make the hot water full blast, and the cold a trickle to meet up with the
hot water. Thus, a trickle shower. None of us were too happy about this,
but, hey, EVENTUALLY, one got clean :) VERY long showers.
To bed, and wake up early friday morning. It was at this point that Josh was
all too happy to point out that I snore. He continues to do so to this day,
if you lurk at the proper forums. :) I'll not talk about..., well, thats for
later on :)
Got breakfast, and hit the Con. Got there at the opening bell, and the place
was mobbed. You could tell that alot more people showed up friday, than were
there thursday. But, today would be a long day, as the ENnies were tonight
at 8 PM. Had alot to do before then. First off, was to find where Morrus was
going to be. After getting inside, I found out that Morrus was due at the
MeG booth to sit in on a Wild Spellcraft signing. The signing was to happen
at 2PM, so, I went abroad again. I checked in the gaming room. Wall to wall
tables, where people played every tabletop RPG and card game known in the
industry. I stopped by Troll Lord, to say hey again, and to find out when
Gary Gygax was due. I was told the times, and noted them. Then I met Ernie
Gygax. Ernie was an interesting guy. We chatted for a bit, then he proceeded
to hand me a copy of his Lost City of Gaxmoor. Thank you Ernie. Went on to
meet Todd Grey, and Steven Chenault, of Troll Lord as well.
Now, at this point, it's important for me to say, that I met SO many people
that weekend, it' guaranteed that I'm going to miss a few names, or
meetings, in this report. To those I met, and don't mention, my deepest
apologies. I truly felt overwhelmed the entire weekend.
I went back to the FFE booth, and met more of the FFE people, and as well,
right next door, visited the Sovereign Press folks. It was there I met
Margaret Weis, and Tracy Hickman, as well as Chris Coyle, and Jamie
Chambers. Great group of people.
I then went to the WotC castle. This castle took up a large amount of space,
and was packed full of people. Inside, one could play Magic, Starwars, D&D,
virtually, anything WotC has to offer. There was a section where the
Wizards.COMmunity were hanging out. There, I met WotC Mel, and WizO Jedi,
and WizO Autumn. Having chatted in email with Jedi, and Mel, it was good to
finally meet them.
Essentially, I went around meeting so many people, at every D&D publisher
booth. About early afternoon, I was told by Chris Johanson, of Twin Rose
Software, that he had found a publisher who had a leased T1 line. I was
like, YES, show me. It was at this time, I met Hunter Gordon, and Bruce
Runnels, of GRIP, the d20 Traveller guys. I was introduced, and we chatted,
and Hunter agreed to let me at his connection for a bit to post some news at
Mortality. I did, and asked if it were possible that me, and Morrus, could
do this again, tomorrow. Hunter agreed. I owe those guys a big thanks:
THANKS. :) Bruce handed me a copy of Traveller Lite. The FULL version is due
out in mid-september, and is going to be HUGE.
I posted some news at Mortality, and went around chatting with some that I
hadn't met, and returning to talk to those I had met. I ran into Jim Ward,
and we chatted privately for a bit.
I went back to the hotel for a stretch. As I had NO clue where Josh was (he
had the car) I hopped on a bus, and within minutes, I was at the hotel. I
wanted my laptop to be fully charged for the ENnies, and I cleared out my
memory stick in the digital camera. It was then that I found our bathroom
completely flooded. A pipe had been leaking all day. I was DEEPLY moved to
strong words with the hotel staff. By the time I was done with them, they
had credited us for 50$ for the inconvenience. Alritey then, I thought, at
least they were taking care of business.
30 minutes later, I was on my way back, my laptop showing 2 hours of battery
life. No problems, right? Read on.
I had to meet Monte Cook. Just HAD to. Lets face it, he's one of the guys we
can all blame for spending money we probably shouldn't :) I went to the S&S
booth, where I met Monte, Sue Cook, and Joseph Carricker, of Scarred Lands
fame. Scarred Lands, to date, is one of my favorite Campaign Settings, so, I
had a blast at that one booth. Gen Con had Monte booked pretty full, so, I
chatted with Joseph for a bit more, and moved on. Had to meet Gary!!
I met Gary Gygax. YES!!! My weekend was near complete, when completeness
showed up. Rob Kuntz. I HAD to get a pic with them and me. It just wasn't
going to happen any other way. Gary signed my Gen Con pass, and Rob did as
well. As Gary was doing a signing at the Troll Lord booth, I chatted with
Rob for quite some time. Rob has alot to say, and I WAS listening. I felt I
wanted to be in a game he ran right there on the spot. I proceeded to get my
picture with both of them, and let them be.
Finally, it was getting near 2PM. Time to head back to the MeG booth, and
wait for Morrus. Ryan Nock was there to sign Wild Spellcraft, and Morrus
wasn't there. He got there about 30 mins late, as he was lost. Easy to do,
in that maze of booths, and people. Morrus first struck me as a lead guitar
player of a Brittish rock band. As Ryan knew I was anxiously looking for
Morrus, when I got to the booth, he told me that Morrus wasn't here yet.
Yeah, right. I knew it was him, even not knowing what he looked like. We
introduced ourselves, and I got Morrus to follow me to the Troll Lord booth,
so HE could get his picture taken with Gary. Did that, and we went back to
the MeG booth.
After the signing, which ended at 4PM, Morrus and I went to scope out the
stage, where the ENnies would be presented. And, we saw... a stage. No
chairs lined up, just a few gaming tables with chairs. We both shrugged, and
hung out a bit. A bit of time passed, and as it got a bit closer, Morrus and
I went to the food court, and grabbed a bit to eat.
Morrus was SO nervous, he ate like ONE bite of his Cajun Chicken, and a
kernel or three of rice, and proceeded to play food soccer on his plate,
while we talked. We talked web, music, everything but the ENnies. Then, we
talked the ENnies. I suggested that he just pretend he's about to run a
regular D&D game, only he has alot of players. Anyways....
We headed back to the Con, and lo and behold, stuff was happening. Chairs
were getting set up, the prototype awards were there, and the ENnies were
coming together.
8PM. The ENnies start. I begin recording what I hoped was the entire
ceremony. I had previously charged my laptop, so I wasn't too worried.
Got the laptop set up, and then the ceremony started. Ryan Dancey was to be
the MC, with Eric Noah, Morrus, and Peter Adkison opening up the show. I
found Eric to be a pretty cool person.
So, the show starts, and I take some pics, head back to the laptop, to check,
and it's fine. Didn't bother to look at the battery life time, as it said 2
hours, right?
More pictures, speeches by the recipients, and I'm listening, and taking
pictures.
I go back to my laptop, about 26 minutes into the ceremony, and BAM. Darn
thing was off. Powered down. No ya trabaja. Well, for the first time all
weekend, I felt like letting out some pretty nasty expletives. Morrus was
looking at me, so, I just kept my poker face, like everything was just fine,
and went back to taking pics.
Of course, after the ceremony, I told him flat out what had happened. I dont
know who was more upset, me or him. It was at this point, that I decided I
HATE laptops. I own a computer business here in Florida. I have never owned
a laptop (this one was borrowed), but I have worked on them: ALOT. This
machine let me down. Let alot of people down. I felt crushed by this wicked
turn of events. If the laptop WAS mine, it surely would have met its end
that very night. It almost did anyways, but, I had to remind myself, that
ALL of my Gen Con pictures were on that hard drive. I held back my urges to
throttle that machine. I now have my pictures up on the web, and backed up,
but it still holds the first 26 minutes of the ENnies, so, I'll get that off
and post it soon. I'm just avoiding that part of the house for a few
days.
After the ENnies, as its late, we head back to the hotel room. Only to find,
that not only have they NOT fixed our flooding problem, it was getting
worse. The maintenance man came immediately upon me calling the desk, and he
came in, with a wrench, and proceeded to finish off the valve that was
leaking. He rolled a natural 20 on it, and now water was shooting forth
greatly. THAT WAS IT!!! My first thought, kept to myself until now, was to
lay him out with the laptop. Surely, justice would be done one way or the
other....
So, not only did we have a flooded bathroom, and changing room, we still had
NO hot water. I went OFF. I called the desk, demanded the General Manager.
He was at home. I STILL demanded the GM. He finally called, and as I was in
no great mood, I told HIM what was going to happen. I demanded that he
credit us for the ENTIRE stay, and that he arrange lodging for us at another
hotel, at HIS hotel's expense. After a brief tennis match with him, and a
few things about building code violations, he anxiously agreed to my
terms.
Where we were about 2-3 miles from the convention center, we were relocated
to the Hotel Wisconsin, about a block away from the Con. The room was huge. We could have
slept 20 people in that room before we had to worry about stacking them.
And, we had HOT water, in abundance. I will mention the night manager, Paul.
He was a most outstanding person. I thank him for being who he was.
So, we get settled in, and I decide to go out for the night. Josh and
Melissa are going to stay in, so, out I go alone. I wanted to see this
Safehouse. I found someone who was willing to give me the password, only she
tortured me probably more than the Safehouse staff would have, all in good
fun. After playing $10,000 Pyramid on the street, I gleaned the password,
and was off.
I was totally amazed at this place. I'm no big drinker, but no stranger to
bars either. This place blew me away. You'll want to go see my pics, as
words cannot describe the place adequately.
Adlon closed the Safehouse that night, with a souveneir Code Beer mason jar in my
hands. On the way back to the hotel, which seemed ALOT longer than it took
me to get TO the Safehouse, I ate a sandwich at the Subway, and went to the
hotel, and went to bed.
Saturday morning. I paid dearly for the previous night. About 3-4 hours
sleep, TOPS. And, feeling quite hung over, I must admit. We went down, and
ate, and I started feeling better with some coffee in me. I was to meet up
with Morrus at 11 AM, to get together, and update our sites with the pics,
and possibly some news.
After breakfast, off to the Con again. Only today, it was a block away.
Nice, that.
More chatting with new friends I had met. 11AM came fast, and I met with
Morrus. We went back to my hotel room, as I had been told that Josh and
Melissa would be leaving Milwaukee saturday morning. Melissa wasn't feeling
well, and Josh had a work related thing pop up at the last minute, so they
had to get out of town fast.
Morrus and I had at the html, which I had templated earlier that morning.
Again, while Morrus and I were working, I rekindled my hatred for laptops.
Greatly. We hacked at things, and then went back to the exhibition hall, to
go to the GRIP booth, to update a few things on our websites. All the while,
I had an oncoming pounding headache. The hair of the dog was coming back.
Like a Gorgon running around in my head. We got to the GRIP booth, and
Hunter let us at the T1 line. We hacked around for another hour, and
suddenly it was 2:30 PM. We parted, and went our separate ways. I met up
with Jeff Quinn, freelance writer, and he introduced me to the guys from
Monkeygod Enterprises. I was intrigued by their product, havig never seen it
before. I talked with Dave, at Monkeygod, and chatted with Jeff for a bit
afterwards.
As it was afternoon, I realized that this was my last day of Gen Con, as my
flight options were to either get a sunday morning flight out (at 7:30 AM)
and get home by 1PM my time, or get home at 2AM monday. As I had to work
monday, I had opted with my travel agent to get home on sunday afternoon.
I mingled with as many people as I could. I made sure I got back to the
Green Ronin booth, as I had missed Chris Pramas consistently the whole time,
I finally caught him there. I also went about and congratulated as many of
the ENnie winners as I could find.
As I was asked to come back on my last day, by most of the publishers, for
product to review, I did just that. I made the rounds, and I ended up with
about 50 pounds of product to take home. I'm not complaining, believe me,
but I have product to read and review for the next XXX Radio Shows.
When the 6 o'clock bell came, I went back to my hotel, thinking I'd lay low,
get some sleep, and set out to the airport in the morning. Well, I got
restless. I ventured back to the Safehouse. The previous night, I had talked
with Scottie, the manager, and asked if he'd mind if I did a write up or
something similar on the Safehouse, on Mortality. He said yes.
I went back with my digital camera. I was let in, and began shooting
pictures. Lots of pics, and NO alcohol. I drank water. I hung out with the
MeG guys, until they got mad at me for something I won't go into. But, it
was in a good natured way :)
After I shot a bunch of pics, I went back to my hotel, and went to bed. Woke
up at 4:30 AM, got ready, called a cab, and was on a plane by 7:30
AM.
I'm writing this, because I feel that if you haven't yet been to a Gen Con,
you owe it to yourself to go. My experiences should show, that even though
real life can crop its head, you can and WILL still have an excellent
weekend at Gen Con. I'll not trade that weekend for anything. I can truly
say, that everyone I met, I totally enjoyed meeting. I made alot of
contacts, and have many strong contacts for interviews on the Mortality
Radio show. Like, just about every name I mentioned in this missive. And
more. I KNOW I missed some names.
But, again, go if you haven't already. If you have, then you know what I'm
talking about. Gen Con was coined by someone as the best 4 days in gaming,
which has become Peter Adkisons war cry. I couldn't agree more. I had a
blast in Milwaukee. Everywhere, were signs saying that "we'll miss you Gen
Con" and the like.
Now, we get to look forward to next year, in Indianapolis. Bigger
facilities, more hotels (with hot water, I'm betting :) and more Gen
Con.
Thats it. thats the end of my Gen Con report. Thank you to all who were
trying to get me a hotel room. Most of these people didn't know me from
Adam, short of Mortality.Net, and the Radio Show. Yet, overall , there were
LOTS of people looking out for me. THATS community. thanks, Doug, for
letting me camp out in your booth. Thanks Hunter, for the internet access.
Thanks, Peter, for a GREAT first Gen Con.
And to the pretty young lady across the alley from room 455 at the Hotel
Wisconsin, whose name I will never know: THANK YOU VERY MUCH. :)
Adlon
|
