Writing update: My project with Peryton is going well, and I’m working on another pitch at the moment. We’ll see how that goes!
Now, for the Gencon 2009 report! It comes from another blog but I figure my loyal fans would ant to read it.
Another year, another Gencon. I admit, I am suffering from a bad case of con-crud and post con depression (two made up diseases with very real symptoms), but each year it gets better and better. I was sick yesterday, but here is my big Gencon 2009 report. Some of it will be cut but it’s not too big.
General Thoughts
Wizards of the Coast scaled back by a lot this year, but the hall was still packed pretty well. The northern side was mostly bare however, but despite the economy there were still a lot of attendees who as one of my friends pointed out, “I think a lot of people cut back on most other cons this summer and made Gencon their vacation of choice.”
My only real regret for the con is not having more time to spend with friends. Since becoming a writer, it seems like cons are becoming more and more like a second job. That’s why missing Incon hurt so much; it’s the one con of the summer where I get to hang out with friends and don’t have to do anything serious if I don’t want too.
I was shocked, however, at the poor state which some of the bathrooms were kept and how it seemed like the funk in the dealers hall seemed stronger than ever. Thursday morning before opening ceremonies, the men’s bathroom outside the hall had no toilet paper in any stall. I told a convention staffer whose response was “I’ll make sure to tell someone” but didn’t even reach for her radio. I was also disappointed how in Circle Center, even with the space age urinals that they provided, people seemed to leave the seat down and play the Submarine game while they used it. Sorry, I know I’m not the cleanest person in the world but bathroom sanitation is important to me.
Green Lantern and Blackest Night
I did not know that the artist for Looking For Group was such a big Green Lantern fan. In fact, I did not know so many of my fellow gamers were Green Lantern fans! I saw a ton of shirts around the con displaying the different faction colors. It was mostly blue (Hope) or Sinestro Corp (Fear) but I did see at least one person in a red (Rage) shirt.
Sadly, I was the only one with an orange (Avarice) shirt on, but the artist for LFG saw me wearing it and called me over. We talked a lot about Blackest Night and he gave me the website for a store that does custom GL signet-style rings, which I have always wanted. The big steel clunker ring that DC sells is just way too heavy of a ring to wear casually, and the ring that he had was awesome. He was a blast talking to by the way, and I need to catch up with LFG. I stopped reading when I didn’t have internet for a year, so I’m a little behind!
Fun moments
Sigh…I can’t pin down just one moment. There were so many. I had great roommates who literally would have done anything for me if I asked, and we had so much fun together. I wish I didn’t have to work so much this con but I have so much coming down the pipe now that I’m excited for 2010. Lets limit it to a Top 10 list, but it could go as high as 100. It’s in no particular order, by the way.
1. Playing Drunken Apples to Apples Saturday night after the White Wolf party. Always a blast, especially with great friends! Sadly I missed out on most of the drinking at the con as I was either on medication or was otherwise busy.
2. My new friend Tom though was very generous with providing beer, and it was interesting drinking with him.
3. Meeting Snake’s friend Theome who was hilarious and it turns out that he’s a friend of Filamena as well! Small world, huh?
4. Running into old acquantances who I haven’t seen in a while, like Casey, Kat Moran, Ari and Ana, Ian, members of the WW crew like David and Matt, Matt McElroy and Monica Valentinelli, and more. So many more.
5. There were several new board games that looked pretty awesome, but I’ll hold off until I see if my gaming group would want to play them.
6. Aidan 5, which looked amazing and I enjoyed the first episode.
7. Walking around the corner and seeing a book I worked on in print. Niiiiice.
8. Hanging out with my friends from Fort Wayne and with Snake, who I have all missed greatly. I know I already said it but you guys rock.
9. Making new friends and contacts while there. Seriously, this is the hardest I’ve ever worked a con without handing out portfolios or resumes while there, and having a website makes things so much easier. The two business meetings did eat up a lot of my time but they were still fun to attend, although due to my poor hearing I had a harder time at the freelancer dinner and I should seriously consider taking a class on reading lips.
10. I don’t want to gloat about this, but since I had to cancel three cons this summer I just rolled over all the money I saved for these cons and have a good start on next year’s con season, and I was able to buy some of my friends gifts. These gifts weren’t bribes, they were very much sincere. Besides, if I didn’t help some people out at the con I would have just had more bags of crap to carry home by the end.
The games
I played in two games at Gencon, although I wish I had planned for more. I think in the future I will plan for a broader variety of events, as I left the con wishing I had done more.
The first game was Vampires In Space, a very fun game set on Mars using the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer system. It was goofy, and I was surprised at the end when Snake was revealed to be a Martian and tried to devour us all. Oh, and his character did as well. 
I still believe Snake is an actual Martian…I mean, just look at him! A magician who moonlights as an electrical engineer and has a different language and culture? Martian!!!
The second game was a generic WoD game called “Guess Whose Coming to Dinner.” I played a mortal who had dabbled in the dark arts in college and learned luck charms, but had accidentally summoned a demon with the help of his college friend and the demon was bound within his wife. The ST who was running the game couldn’t believe that the game ended with three characters committing suicide and one becoming a hermit in the middle of the woods. I’ll go into more detail about this one if someone asks.
Food
I ate healthier this year but I forgot the real healthy food back in my room each day because I had to get up early each day. Still, I remembered to think smarter and while I did drink a coke for the caffeine in the morning, I mainly drank water while moving around the con. This I think kept me going better than years where I constantly drank coke no matter where I went, although Saturday I did carry a coke around the hall but it was mainly to sip it to help restore my voice.
Products of mine there
API: Lochs was available there, which I had completely forgotten about. I had the pdf of it for months but I remember turning a corner and seeing a very familiar fishy face staring back at me. I think it came together rather nicely (Go Eloy and Co!) and it had a great mix of humor and horror in it.
I had another, although it’s on the Ether Net. Pick up Collection of Horrors from White Wolf from your favorite web distributor and enjoy Buyer Beware, my contribution to it.
Swag
The best thing I purchased this year and the thing I liked the most and both was the new Gencon 09 travel bag. From the Russian printing and it’s appearance, it’s pretty cool. It’s also extremely handy, as you can store a lot of things in it. It’s already replaced my oversized red backpack as a laptop case, though I need to figure out how to put more padding in it.
An Orange Lantern shirt. I already have a Green Lantern shirt, and a Sinestro Corp shirt, so I figure I’d go with what in the end is my favorite sin: Avarice.
A Sonic Screwdriver. Kevin will probably sneak into my house through a TARDIS and beat me if I don’t admit that I’ve always admired his sonic screwdriver, because I’m a horrendous nerd. (Fair enough, Kevin? ;)) It came with it’s own psychic paper too! I think it’s pretty cool, although the Future sonic screwdriver was tempting. I decided to go with the older one mainly because there was a con special and it was just $15.
API Loch and API Canada. I know, I worked on it but I wanted a physical copy in my hand. Due to confusion on my part, I had a comped copy waiting for me which Eloy graciously turned into a copy of Canada. I’m looking forward to reading through Loch again, especially since I wrote the opening fiction and a lot about Loch culture on Earth. I also love the Black Moss picture, which came out looking SWEET. It was my wallpaper for a while.
Spirit Slayers and Witch Hunters for Hunter: the Vigil. I had the money so I figured, why not? It’s an awesome game!
A brass pendant with the symbol of Chaos Undivided on it. I figure it suits my personality, and great applies to how I view life in general. It’s great to appreciate those little pieces of Order we can establish for ourselves, but one tiny piece of disorder can cause bad things to happen, or make everything better. That and it looks great!
I picked up from one of the discount dealers booth copies of Secrets of the Crab, Unicorn, and Scorpion. I also got a copy of Crescent Empire for 7th Sea. I know that Secrets are old and rapidly becoming outdated, but there’s still a lot of useful information in them and most of the rules and schools are still valid.
Spirit of the Century. Even though I’ve never played it, I’ve heard so many great things about it and I want to check it out.
PCGen 2009 demo, which looks interesting at the least.
Ghost Stories (WoD) for $2. It has a big scratch across the front but is otherwise in one piece.
Geist, of course. I didn’t write for it but I really wanted to check it out, and I’d rather play Geist than Wraith. I just couldn’t get into Wraith.
Pow!erful Tales, an anthology of super hero stories from Peryton Publishing. (More about that later.)
Necessary Evil, because while I may never get to play it the setting drew me in. It’s a game where an alien race has invaded earth and slaughtered the superheroes, so the villains have to save the planet.
Fall of Cthulhu vol. 3 & 4, because I’ve fallen behind and want to catch up. Snake recommended The Gray Man to me and the title of the fourth one makes me really curious. (GODWAR)
One of Tom Smith’s CDs. I love his songs, and this one is called iTom 2.0: Transitions. Haven’t listened to it yet but will when I start walking around the block again.
Mutant City Blues, because I love the Gumshoe system and I participated in their online contest a while back which drew me into the setting. Think Mutant CSI.
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, so I can catch up.
I also picked up the PS238 trade, and it was nice catching up with Aaron Williams. I hope he returns to Incon one of these years.
There were a couple shirts I wanted, but I passed on mainly because I have too many black shirts and any other shirt I wanted I could just wait until October to pick up.
Family
My Mom and my sister Tina showed up Saturday morning and I walked around the con with them. Mom told me to buy her something worth only $10….so I picked up for her a bronze hedgehog mini and a t-shirt worth way more than that! What can I say? She’s had to deal with a lot lately and just seeing my Mom cupping the small bronze hedgehog that she tenderly named Olivia (after our dear departed hedgehog) makes me smile. I also got my sister a t-shirt that she absolutely fell in love with, which has Godzilla on it in place of the heart sign and it spells out “I (Godzilla) Tokyo.”
Post more, Tina. Or at the very least sign up for Twitter.
I was worried how they would handle the convention but they had fun. My mother’s only complaint was how big the convention center was and how jam packed the hall was. Overall, I think they enjoyed seeing the geeky side of my profession!
Rude people
Very plainly, there were some very rude people at the con whose behavior was just unacceptable.
I got rammed in the back by a very rude young woman when I was talking with Ari and Ana and it inadvertently caused my back to spasm. I managed to stay standing although Snake and Ari looked concerned, but the woman’s response was to just give me the “talk to the hand” gesture and walk on her way. Look, if you’re mad then you’re mad, but at least say you’re sorry because you never know when you run into someone who has had MAJOR SPINAL SURGERY. He didn’t hurt me severely, but to be honest it’s embarassing standing in front of friends and having your shoulders spasming as you fear that your knees will buckle out from under you. I had just lost the last of the bandages too, and the incision was particularly irritated that day from the walking.
The second guy was one of the homeless who approached me right when I was leaving the con for the last time. He was very ragged and skinny, and he stepped right into my path and asked me for money. I had been generous this con, so I reached into my pocket to give him a dollar. I pulled out three on accident and while I counted it in my hand he said “I’ll take three dollars” and tried to snatch it out of my hand. I pulled back reflexively and he glared at me, but in the end I gave all three to him. I know he may have been suffering, but he didn’t just reach out with his hand but he actually got within my personal space to take it. I do hope the three dollars helped him in the end.
A group of artists who supposedly hang out in the main floor of the Westin and while I was conducting a business meal with a potential client, they crowded around us and after I left one of them, a scary punk with tattoos, tried to intimidate my client and threatened him to move. Turns out my new client/friend Tom is a West German American who served in the military. He returned the intimidation and the whole group got timid, but in all fairness if they wanted us to leave so they could all be closer together they should have just fucking asked. I mean, it’s a bar! I don’t think Tom and I would have been heartbroken to have to move to another spot but the fact of the matter is we were conducting a business meeting and if they had been polite to us, we would have moved without a fuss. Besides, we were almost done and they need to learn patience.
Homeless people
There were more homeless people in downtown Indy then ever before. I made it a point to help out by giving a dollar to each one I met, and after the book signing I gave a $5 to the sun burnt homeless woman who was by the Hilton and had so little change in her cup. She looked up and me and said “You made my night, sir.” All the other ones were very gracious for even just a dollar, with one guy saying “God bless you and all of yours.”
I know, I usually warn people not to give out so much money to the homeless and even our bell hop said he never gave them money because he didn’t think it went towards food. It might be a little naive of me to think that everyone one of them bought food and water with the money, but once that dollar left my hand it was up to them to make the choice.
I want to mention what my roommates Paul and Snake did. As we packed up our room on Sunday we had a ton of soda and junk food left over. I think I made the suggestion of how we should give it to people on the street, but the two of them actually carried the stuff around. Ironically, we could not find any homeless people on the streets of Indy on Sunday morning but we did manage to give out twinkies to children, bottles of water to thirsty gamers, and to the one homeless guy we found in the corner of the convention hall we gave a two liter of Cherry Pepsi and a twinkie! Way to go, guys!
Physical pain and exhaustion
This convention was brutal. I was trying not to let it show around everyone, but there were several times when I would go back to the hotel room and pass out on the bed from exhaustion. When I got home on Sunday I could barely move but I decided to go to physical therapy the next day. I know physical therapy was probably not the best way to spend the first day post Gencon, but I really think I was building a momentum with losing weight and fixing my back and I couldn’t let myself slip. A side effect of the pain was that I missed any morning events I wanted to attend at the con, but I knew I needed sleep.
And that was Gencon! I’ll post the pictures eventually once I figure out where my cable for my camera went.