GenCon 08 - Day 1

There is something about GenCon that borders on a religious pilgrimage. Anyone that doubts that should see the throngs amassed waiting for the Exhibitor Hall (XH) to open.

There's something about swag and limited edition Magic cards that will turn normally mild-mannered gamers into a greedy mob. I decided to wait out the initial rush, figuring that what I wanted (Star Wars Saga Knights of the Old Republic Campaign Guide) wouldn't be in such high demanded that it would be sold out before I sauntered back to the Wizards of the Coast (WotC) booth.



Wrong! The greedy horde waiting for the limited edition Magic cards had formed a huge line, and in addition to the coveted Magic cards they bought up all of the meager supply of the KOTOR guide. After being flagged down by some co-workers and informed of a free Drizz't book offer, I hopped in that line, because it was free and being autographed by the author of the Drizz't series, R.A. Salvatore.

As I then made my first pass through the XH I was complimented many times on my Captain Hammer t-shirt. There was no merch from Dr. Horrible at the con, so my shirt was a rarity. Moving through the XH, I soaked in the sights and sounds that made the XH the core of GenCon. This was the place where you saw fellow gamers that you only encountered once a year at GenCon but you recognized them as well as old acquaintances you had lost touch with only to bump into again while browsing dice.

One of the things that I noticed was the dearth of booth babes this year. Don't get me wrong, some booths were manned by very attractive women, but it seemed that the use of live promotion was down. I suspect that it is a side-effect of the economy. With expenses up, can an exhibitor really afford to pay a model to stand around scantily clad and draw large numbers of gamers that may not even glance at your product? The think part of the disappointment stems from the fact that, as Nicole put it, it's part of the experience.

I consoled myself with a picture of a cute belly-dancer. She is one of the dancers from Different Drummers, who have performed at the con the last few years.

I picked up a copy of The Guild autographed by Felicia Day. I also bought a copy of Paizo's Pathfinder Beta. I am curious to see how it works out as they lead an open rebellion against D&D 4e. By the end of the show they were sold out (and they were much better stocked than WotC).

When Nicole arrived we shopped through the hall. She returned to her GenCon corset tradition. It was just as well my not-so-smart camera botched the first pic, as the salesman caught Nicole by surprise when he cinched up the corset she was trying on. Though you can't tell from the picture, the corset booth was next to the Utilikilt booth. I have to wonder if that led to some dealing among couples...

"Sure, I'll try on a corset honey... if you try on a kilt."

We swung by White Wolf to score tickets for the annual White Wolf party. The guy at the booth only had one, but we came to the conclusion that if I had the ticket, they wouldn't turn Nicole away at the door. Especially if she was wearing the corset. ;)

We broke open the catalog and Greg and Mike joined us. After searching for likely events only to then find they were sold out, we finally got tickets into the Tower of Gygax.


It was a 1 hour session of old school AD&D with 2 parties worth of players and lots of character death. My unwise thief died because his unwise player didn't notice that other players had moved my mini near a sarcophagus they opened and we died from the poison gas trap.

Dinner was at Champions. It was disappointing this year and we didn't go back despite the convenience of its proximity. After hanging out at the True Tavern for a while, Nicole got us invited to a party at the Ram. The party seemed to be several of the small game company exhibitors, so not only did we get to hear about games from the creators, we also had a very interesting discussion on what one (one being me) looks for in an RPG (topic for a separate post). Another game of Lifeboat broke out, this time with funny hats!



I finally got home around 2:30 ish, much to Ryoga's annoyance. But I figured I could get a few hours sleep and still get there in time to get in the XH early to snag a KOTOR guide.