Sunday at Gen Con did not start well. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know I was out late – very, very late – with some friends on Saturday. I had my final game of Nefertiti Overdrive on Sunday, so I had to wake up. Because I had been careful to get enough sleep through the rest of the con, I got up around 07:00 and had breakfast. I didn’t feel horrible (as I expected I would), just kind of tired (big surprise).
I made it in plenty of time for the game, only to have nobody show up. Nobody. Out of six tickets sold for the game, nobody arrived. I don’t know how common that is. I expected at least one or two people, but it’s possible the tickets were sold to one group, or perhaps two different groups, and they had enjoyed themselves so much that they couldn’t drag themselves out of bed Sunday morning – or were having too much fun doing something else that they missed their 10:00 curtain.
Whatever the reason, but 10:30, with six no-shows, my Gen Con duties had ended. I went looking for the Lanzas and found Alex, one of my drinking buddies from the night before. We ended up chatting for a bit and taking up a lot of space at the Games on Demand table. I thought Alex was working there, but he had stopped by to talk to somebody else, so we were actually in the way of legitimate business.
After we found ourselves somewhere comfy to chat, Mark Diaz Truman showed up and asked if we wanted to join a game of Cartel, his new Powered by the Apocalypse game. After checking with the Lanzas about their lunch plans, I was able to jump in on the game.
I wrote about Cartel here. I really enjoyed the game, partly because I was playing with a very good group, but also it’s a fascinating situation and the rules really help to reinforce the setting and the feel of cool, Mexican, narco-criminality. It was quite easy to get immersed in the story, and building the interpersonal relationships was almost as fun as actually getting to play those out.
That was a great way to cap off Gen Con, but then I got to do lunch at Steak & Shake with the Lanzas. Those guys are a big reason I always want to go to Gen Con. And there are so many others. Gen Con, for me, is much more about the people than the big announcement, or the exhibitors’ hall, or any of the rest. I get to immerse myself in geekiness with some of the coolest people on the planet.
What is not to love?
After lunch, I offered to help with the tear down of the Indie Game Developer Network’s booth, but there were so many people there, I felt kind of useless. It was fascinating being in the hall as everyone is packing up and getting out.
After all was said and done, many from the IGDN gathered at the Weber Grill. A few last pints and a great burger later, and it was back to the hotel. I was with roomie Jason Pitre of Genesis of Legend Publishing, and we ran into a whole crowd from the IGDN shooting the shit in the lounge of the Embassy Suites.
I kind of wanted to stay and just listen the whole night, but I was wiped and went to crash. And so my Gen Con ended.
One more post to come with final thoughts on my Gen Con 2015.
You can find Steak & Shake here.
You can find the Weber Grill here.