WednesdayI worked from home Wednesday morning, trying to jam everything I needed to do into a few hours. I wasn't entirely successful. Stratochamp arrived around 11:30 am, his vehicle laden with boxes of items to sell at the auction. We moved everything into my car, and got on the road just in time for me to join a conference call. Three and a half hours (and one more call) later, we pulled into Indy.
We parked near the convention center, and unloaded the stuff for auction. One of Indianapolis' finest wandered over, and told us we needed to move, since food trucks were about to take over our curb. Stratochamp headed off with the handtruck piled high, and I drove off to the hotel to park and check in. I then walked across the street to the convention center, got my badge in the VIG lounge (no long will call lines there), and then went to the auction room. Items registered, we headed over to Palomino, an Italian restaurant and (at Frank's suggestion) the location for the annual Acaeum dinner. We had three tables, and two and half were already full. The service was a bit slow, but the food was good, and it was great as always catching up with fellow members of our forum.
ThursdayThe VIG badge permits access to the dealer hall on Thursday one hour earlier (at 9 am) than the scheduled opening. But there's always a line even for the VIGs, so I was there by 8:15 am. Once in the hall, I went straight to my predetermined targets. First was the Kobold Press booth, which I had heard was selling signed copies of Hoard of the Dragon Queen (the new 5th Edition adventure by Steve Winter and Wolfgang Bauer). Well, they did have copies (as did a lot of retailers in the hall), but they weren't signed. But Wolf was there, and I chatted with him for a while, and he did sign my copy. He said Steve wasn't arriving until Friday, so I would need to come back for his signature.
Next was Troll Lord Games, where I picked up one of the new black box sets for C&C (number 14 of 300, the lowest one they could find).
And then to the Goodman Games booth, where I caught up with Harley Stroh for a while, since he had missed both GaryCon and NTRPGCon this year (for a good reason; he became a first-time father back in March).
Finally, I went to the Cthulhu Wars booth, and talked to Sandy for a bit while they tracked down a T-shirt for me (as a Kickstarter backer). Shortly thereafter, the hour was up, and the hordes descended on the hall. I fought my way upstream and out of the hall, and went back to my hotel room for another work call.
Right after lunch was an OD&D game in the VIG lounge, called Game Like it's 1974. We started off with just the LBBs and used Chainmail rules for combat. As the game went on, we dropped Chainmail, and then added the rules from Greyhawk. We started off with some outdoor adventures, using the Outdoor Survival rules, and then into what was described as the "First Dungeon". After the game was over the
DM explained the name: it's the dungeon on page 4 of Underworld & Wilderness Adventures (the third of the LBBs).
That evening, Tracy and Laura Hickman met with those of us who are buying a copy of their adventure Eye of the Dragon. We had hoped to be able to actually play the game, but Tracy had recently had surgery, and was too tired to
DM. But we got about two hours of his time, hearing stories of the old days, the origins of Pharaoh and Rahasia (and confirmed that it is pronounced "ra-HA-see-ah"), and what he's been doing to create EotD. We also got to see (over Laura's objection) part of the completed text, as well as the player maps (which are very cool). When I have a chance, I'll post a few photos of our meetup in the EotD thread.
The rest of the evening was taken up spending time with fellow Acaeumites. I'm not sure when I got back to the room, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't in bed until 2 am or so.
FridayWhich meant that, next morning, I rather regretted my decision to schedule a game for 8 am. This was Shadow on the Moonsea, one of the 5th Edition scenarios being run by
WOTC. At some point, I'll post a bit about the game on the new D&D thread. But I really enjoyed it. It felt a lot like 1st Edition, but with many of the house rules I have always used in my own games. The other players were in their mid to late 30s, so it was a pretty mature game as well.
That left me a (very) little time for the dealer hall (still no Steve Winter), and then a visit to the auction room. Afternoon was True Dungeon, with Stratochamp, Blackmoor, Blackmoor's wife, Melnibonean and dbartman. Since there are ten in a group, we were put together with four others. Two were a father and son, who apparently spend all of their time and money buying and collecting the super-rare tokens. It was like we were all fourth level, and they were 20th. So the monsters we faced never stood a chance. On the other hand, we didn't completely solve any of the puzzles. Talking to a few of the
TD volunteers, I gathered that others were having a real hard time with them too. But we all survived, and had fun.
After
TD was dinner with the Blackmoors, Frank and Tim at Buca di Beppo.
And then the collectors' auction. As has been noted, the rares in the auction were better this year than they have been for many years. But most had issues, and either didn't sell (due to the reserve) or sold for a song. Very odd.
Saturday9 am was Hickman's Killer Breakfast. Having seen Tracy Thursday night, I can only assume he was running on pure adrenaline to make it through the show. And when I saw him later in the dealer hall (looking very pale), I can only imagine what it took out of him. But it was one of the better shows in recent years, with Stratochamp, Frank and Tim among the many victims.
Because I had a VIG badge, I got to sit up front. Here are before and after shots, looking back, to give you a sense how many attend the Killer Breakfast.
There was one other usual event at Killer Breakfast. Derek Gruder, who I think is head of programming for Gen Con, came on stage to introduce the show. He hadn't done that before. And then he called his girlfriend up to the stage (who he had met last year, at Gen Cpn speed dating), and proposed to her. She did say yes.
Early in the afternoon, I stopped by the D&D documentary panel. The panel included Anthony Savini, as well as Jon Peterson and Tim. They showed a bit of a preview of the movie (though the clips they showed may not make it into the final edit), and then answered questions from the audience. They avoided any discussion of the litigation (and they weren't pressed by the audience), and said they hoped the final movie would be done by October or November.
I had to leave the panel a bit early, to make it to my next event, the other True Dungeon game. I was only able to get two tickets to this one, so only Stratochamp joined me. This time -- and without the help of any superhero characters -- we made it all the way through, solved all the puzzles and killed all of the monsters. A good time was had by all, and I'm now third level. Yessss!
I finally had time to walk the entire dealer hall, and also managed to track down Steve Winter and get my Hoard of the Dragon Queen signed by him as well.
I had signed up for a game of the "Tower" for this evening (the renamed Tower of Gygax, a name they can't use any more). But by this point, with lack of sleep, I decided to skip it. After dinner (Buca di Beppo again), a little while at the charity auction (including watching a very generous purchase by Melnibonean, way overpaying for a block of Eldritch books, and some dandy auctioneering by JimK/Boredflak), I decided to pack it in and go back to the room.
SundayThe saddest day of any convention. We started at the auction hall, so we could collect our payouts (I sold all four of the items I brought). Then, off to the dealer hall, for the last purchases of the convention (including a dice tray in Gabon ebony, and some custom made wooden dice; I'm just a sucker for stuff like that), and then back on the road home.
Now, the long wait: about seven months to GaryCon.
