GenCon 2025

[Black Jack Rackham]

Woo, first post and it's the events listing, will wonders never cease? Here you all go!

Thurs (31st):
9am-1pm HoA, Ep. 21 – Siege Warfare
2pm-6pm HoA, Ep. 23 – Behind the Throne
7pm-11pm RoC, Ep. 1 – Down on Your Luck
7pm-11pm HoA, Flashback

Fri (1st):
9am-1pm RoC, Ep. 2 – A Day Ending in “i”
2pm-6pm HoA, Ep. 24 – The Heroes of Altamira
2pm-6pm HoA, Flashback
7pm-11pm HoA, Ep. 22 – Loose Ends

Sat (2nd):
9am-1pm HoA, Ep. 23 – Behind the Throne
9am-1pm RoC, Ep. 1 – Down on Your Luck
2pm-6pm HoA, Ep. 24 – The Heroes of Altamira
2pm-6pm RoC, Ep. 2 – A Day Ending in “i”
7pm-11pm HoA, Personal Agendas

Sun (3rd):
10am-2pm HoA, DOMINGO GIGANTE!

[Black Jack Rackham]

all of our events have now been "Accepted for Consideration"

[Angela Valdez]

Any chance of running Episode 1 of RoC in Domingo Gigante?

[kenderleech]

its pretty likely. Or it may be all tables of HoA ep 2.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Any chance of running Episode 1 of RoC in Domingo Gigante?

I think you mean DOMINGO GIGANTE!

[salamanca]

You're in Canguine, Mark. I think you mean DYDD SUL MAWR.

[kenderleech]

Maybe we can call it a stroll from the top of the hillhillhill hill to the banks of the river river.

[salamanca]

Mark is an hour and 20 minutes northeast of Columbus and not at all dead as of 45 seconds ago.

So the road to Indy looks good.

For those attending, I hope you have a blast.

Remember, surrender is NOT an option (Mark literally did not write anything about what to do if you give up peacefully. Use that info as you will)

Have fun, don't buy any ducks.

[Watcher487]

Have fun, don't buy any ducks.

This is a lie, buy all of the ducks.

Enjoy the Convention, peeps.
Shane

[Black Jack Rackham]

Hit the ground running so hard when I got home, I completely forgot to give my review of GenCon this year. So without further ado, Mark’s Roundup…

THE GOOD:
You all, always you all! Whether it was the old hats jumping right in to help out the new folks, or the new folks really quickly buying into the Rogues aesthetics (or the multiple chants of “one of us, one of us, one of us!), I don’t think I can recall a session that wasn’t filled with laughter, cheering, ooh’ing and aah’ing at all the right parts, etc. And part of that was because of…

The other GMs. If it wasn’t Ken making me jealous of his GMing skills, it was Megan and Mel jumping in darn near every session to make sure that, despite less GMs this year, we still never had to turn anyone away (though it got REALLY close this time around)

Food! Ken found us a new place very much like Fogo de Chao that is down by his house and thus out of the press of humanity that is downtown. As a bonus they do almost everything gluten free (WOO!) We got to sit, chat, and not be inundated by other gamers. Bonuses all around! But I did eat WAY too much. (though I will say that the lack of certain GMs did affect the mood, so they’re both going to have to come next year!)

In addition, Don and I found a great Mexican food restaurant last year that not only was still in business, but still had just as great food! I did, however, eat WAY too much. Speaking of…

DON! Having our artist there was not only a treat but downright fun. I can’t think of another group that has their own in-house artist just hanging out doing art right at the table!

The weather! Somehow we got not one, not two, but three days without ungodly heat or pouring rain. I fear the apocalypse is coming.

THE BAD
The Zoo. While it was fun going and all the good stuff getting art references with Don, the behavior of one of the employees put a pall over the rest of our time there. I don’t usually have any problem with arbitrary rules (which seem designed to squeeze every last penny out of folks who can afford it). I have a REAL BIG problem with those rules being applied haphazardly. Especially when it would have cost her nothing to mind her own business.

The Construction. It seemed like every single road going into and out of downtown (and many as far out as Ken’s house) was under construction throughout the con. It was a nightmare of logistics to route around crap to get where we were going any time we drove. So a special thanks to Mel who made it again this year so I didn’t have to schlep all our stuff back and forth from my hotel to the Marriott.

The Conrad. It pains me to say this but my time at the Conrad may be coming to an end. Or at least my touting the greatness of the Conrad. They changed the showerheads removing my religious experience and replacing it with a trickle shower that was offensive to my sensibilities. And, according to Don, the great breakfast next door has suffered from a change of menu. I can say first hand though, the oatmeal was quite a bit worse than I have ever had previously. So much so, I didn’t have it but the one day.

A BIT OF BOTH
The gaming room. For the first time I think ever, we didn’t have to contend with the blazing sun raising the temperature in the room to ungodly heights. Instead we were pleasantly comfortable on the shaded side (and as a bonus, one of the hotels shielded us from the setting sun).

That said, apparently the Marriott doesn’t like supplying all the rooms with refrigerators anymore. We seriously considered stealing one from one of the other rooms, but most of them were on the sunny side so we didn’t want to deprive them of everything…

The Dealers Hall. This year around they expanded it once again, I don’t know if these two are related but it seemed like this alleviated some of the traffic. I did not get pasted by any nerd tanks this year around (though this might have just been the day I went because I heard others describe the activities of some in the dealers hall as “downright rude.”

Also got to speak to the Studio Agate folks who seem very excited about the prospect of doing more 7th Sea. I will keep an open mind but I don’t know how much leeway Chaosium will give them nor do I know what most of the fanbase wants to see.

Speaking of old friends. I also had a chance to speak with the folks who publish Rocket Age (I gave up on it several years ago when they abandoned their own system for D&D rules, then abandoned that to go with Savage Worlds, both of which I have no interest in). Turns out they’re back to their first system and have a couple of things both published and in the pipeline. WOO!

That said, if it wasn’t for my dice addiction and hearing an elevator pitch for a game I would formerly have had no interest in, I might not have bought anything this year. Boardgames and card games were everywhere and the few new RPGs there were decided to just bring mockups of their books so we could look but couldn’t actually purchase anything. Really? Everything else new I was interested in, I’d already kickstartered so it was on its way to me without having to schlep it across the country.

AND FINALLY
On a personal note, FUCK CANCER! Seriously.