Gen Con 2014 Retrospective: Saturday

You may have noticed a bit of a delay between my last posts, and well, work has kind of exploded.  Not literally of course, but it's been so busy that I've barely gotten enough time to eat let alone blog.  So let's get my Gen Con Saturday under way shall we?

Saturday started off with me waking up at my own pace and deciding to casually head over to the exhibitor's hall with my buddy.  Before we even got out of the hotel we came across Luca from the RPG Classic, Chrono Trigger, just after she got her morning cup of coffee.



We get to the convention center, and we decide to cut through the events hall to get to the dealer's room.  On our way we come across a really awesome cosplay of the sisters Elsa and Anna from Disney's Frozen:



Today is my relaxed day, so I spend time wandering around the exhibitor's hall seeing what I can see.  One stop I made was by Palladium's booth to check out the sprues for the upcoming Robotech Tactics RPG miniatures game:



It was really nice to get a close-up look at these miniatures.  I can't wait to get my hands on my own copies.  The miniatures look pretty detailed and of high quality.

So I continued my journey and came across a Scout Trooper:



I stopped and got a picture as my friend had been disappointed that he hadn't encountered any Storm Troopers at the con so far.  I would later find out that he did indeed come across some Storm Troopers, but missed the Scout Trooper.

Time was ticking down to my 2pm Victoriana demo, but before I left the exhibitors/events hall I caught one of my friends in cosplay and was able to convince her to let me snap a photo:



It was a short rush to get to the demo area, but I arrived in time.  Victoriana is a fantasy setting in, shock, Victorian London/Europe, but it makes use of the traditional fantasy races.  It's a fun setting that I hope to run a game for some day.  I was in for a treat though as my demo was more gothic horror than high fantasy.  My group and I were trying to convince a landowner that our claim was legitimate (it wasn't), but it turns out that all the fuss over heritage was for a vampiric/Frankenstein-esq operation.

As a side-note: this is a reason why I need to blog semi-real time.  I've forgotten most of the good details from that game.  All I remember is that fun was had, and that I make a bad solicitor.

After the demo I get back to the hotel and decide to grab dinner at The Ram.  On the way we encountered a robotic/moving Dalek:



It was a very impressive feet and a great way to build an appetite.  Once we hit The Ram we sat down in the general seating area and caught the end of Star Wars: A New Hope while waiting for our food.  Something must've gone wrong, and we ended up suspecting that our order hadn't gotten put in or some other glitch because we were halfway into The Empire Strikes Back by the time our food arrived.  We had been joined by two other travelers who had ordered their food and gotten it before we got our meal.

On our way back, our evening having been cancelled, we passed a guy who looked suspiciously like Nathan Rice (Lodge from the Gamers movies).  I commented as such and my friend asked me if I was sure followed by a suggestion that we find out.  A quick dash backwards followed by an awkward hello, and it turns out that yes indeed it was him!



It was a great way to top off our Saturday night, and made the events of our dinner even more worthwhile.

UPDATE:  Forgot to mention that I ran into Andy Dopieralsk, also of Dead Gentleman fame, on our way back to the hotel, but he was in a bit of a hurry to get to an event he was needed at.

I rounded out the evening by watching Dark Dungeons, which turned out to be hilarious enough to justify buying my own copy the next day.

Gen Con 2014 Retrospective: Friday

Continuing from Thursday, I managed to sleep very soundly.  I think that dialing back the AC had a significant impact.  First up was packing up the car and heading over to the con.  I had secured myself a parking pass for the IN Government parking garage the previous evening, and it probably saved me $15-$30.  Check-in wouldn't be till later that day and I had to do demos from 9am-2pm.  This would be my last stint doing demos for the weekend, and the rest of the con would be mine.  Got to see another really awesome Lady Justice cosplay during my shift as well:



I had a lot of fun demoing Malifaux for the last couple of my shift.  They were really picking it up, and we ended up going past my 2pm finish time.  This wasn't a big deal since it wasn't affecting my level of compensation.  After I finished up with the demo I went and checked in at the Wyrd booth in the exhibitor's hall, and ran into a really awesome War Machine cosplay of Menoth's Kreoss:

 

At the Wyrd booth I collected my rewards, and promptly purchased a bunch of Malifaux stuff for me and my friends.  I had some troubles with my credit card that I cleared up at the booth, which ate into my free time a bit.  I had been given the keys for the new hotel room, and did a quick dash back to meet up with my friend Thirdpower for his first Gen Con experience.  While I waited for him to make it the last few steps to the hotel I spent time taking in the view from our room:



After a bit of time to get my stuff transferred to the hotel room and a few minutes to breathe Thirdpower and I headed to the dealer's hall to browse a bit before it closed.  We hit up a few booths to just scratch the surface of the Exhibitor's Hall, but made a point of visiting Jen Page at her booth promoting Project London:



After that we made a quick jaunt over to Steve Jackson Games' booth where Thirdpower got to chat up OGRE stuff with some of the designers.

With the dealer's hall closing we decided to hit up the Munchkin Tavern which had occupied Tavern on South for a tasty dinner, and then back to the hotel to relax before the evenings event: Late Night Puppet Slam.

The Late Night Puppet Slam didn't start till 11pm at night, but the evening view from our room was just as cool as the daytime view:



When we got to the Puppet Show the question was asked as to recording policies.  After a few moments of confirming with the artists/puppeteers we were told that recording was fine with additional encouragement to upload the videos.  My companion took a short vid and some pics of the show, but I tried to capture as much of it as I could:





I had some technical difficulties with my camera towards the end.  My phone started to freeze up due to having no free space left to capture everything (that's why the camera starts swinging around at the end.  That's me trying to fix the darn thing).

Following the show we met up with friends and attempted to find a late night snack but turned into more a wandering around downtown Indy before heading back to the room to crash for the night.

Gen Con 2014 Retrospective: Thursday

That most wonderful of cons has come and gone, and as I sit in reflection upon those wild days spent gaming and walking the floor one thought dominates all: I gotta start doing these blog posts at the con instead of waiting.

Let's start with the beginning.  I got out to Gen Con on Wed, parked in public parking and ended up spending $29 for what amounts to about six or eight hours.  During that time I helped assemble some miniatures for Wyrd's display case (there's a funny story about this that I'll come back to in a future post), followed by an overpriced dinner with friends at Dick's Last Resort.  That was the most I paid for a couple of beers, and I think next time I'll be more inquisitive as to the average ticket price before I sit down.  After that I headed over to the Wyrd meet and greet to pick up my badge, shirts, and hang out with the other volunteers before finally heading back to the hotel to crash.

My Thursday started off rather early.  The hotel I was staying in had some kind of a chemical smell in the room that when combined with arctic levels of AC kept three out of four of us from sleeping.  The one guy who got sleep has kids and thus is able to sleep through anything.  So barely any sleep and I'm staring down the barrel of a full day.  I get cleaned up and hit the con around 9am, waiting to do my initial rush to get the must have items.  I picked up a few things from Wyrd's booth for a friend, and grabbed myself some Relic Knight miniatures from Soda Pop Miniatures booth along with the four miniatures from Takoashi University/Tentacle Bento.  While I was there I grabbed a shot of some lovely ladies sporting costumes for characters from SPM's Super Dungeon Explore (the two on the left) and Candy, SPM's mascot (the one on the right):



Got to meet up with plenty of friends I haven't seen in a long time, but this cut my free time short.  I did however wander by the booth for The Bob and Angus Show and got my picture with a couple of puppets and their puppeteers:



The puppetteer you see standing there is Stacy Gordon who is the magic behind Claire O'Brien as well as a few others.  You'll hear more about her tomorrow.

I had to work at the Wyrd booth in the event hall from 2pm to Midnight and the t-shirt I had to wear was back in my car.  After a quick run back to get my minis and change I was left with little time to get lunch.  I kept changing my mind and ended up getting overpriced con food.  It looked delicious but was only ok.

I think the best time on Thursday was spent doing demos.  The first half of my shift, 2pm - 7pm, was spent showing people the ropes in the Malifaux miniatures game, and the second half was spent more sitting around.  I was supposed to do demos for Wyrd's board games, but there wasn't that many takers that late at night, and what few stopped by wanted demos for games I was unfamiliar with.  The best part was getting to stop people in costume and take pics.  The first one I came across was a beautiful Lady Justice cosplay:



I've started to notice that other people holding my phone to take pics results in more blurry pics.  The next two are an amazing cosplay of Rasputina and Molly Squidpidge featuring their new art:



It was a real treat getting to see those two, Rasputina's milky white  eyes were a great touch.  The last one I came across was a nice surprise.



Someone cosplaying as Kitiara from the original Dragonlance Chronicles Trilogy.

Once my shift was done I headed back to the hotel with my companion.  Went to bed exhausted and wondering if I'd get to sleep that night.

Putting the Pieces Together

Every hour is one step closer to Gen Con, and I'm continuing the time-honored tradition of trying to get as much painted as possible.  It seems like every year I tell myself that I won't do this, and I have only been successful once...kinda.  Right now I'm trying to get the last few figs for my Relic Knights Cadre painted.  The big showpiece for my faction, The Shattered Swords, is Sebastian with his Relic.  So far I've managed to turn this:



Into this:



As awesome as that looks it's not yet done.  There's still a shield and a front console to be attached (I had originally meant to do this post on Monday, but got sidetracked), as well as Sebastian himself.  The console and shield are done, and I have plans to paint Sebastian and his cypher Rook tonight.  Then over the weekend I plan to hit up two more pieces, one of which isn't even fully based or primed.  Did I mention it's going to be a photo finish?