So here it is, the multimedia debut of Things You Don't Care About. These are thanks to my new Canon SD1100 IS camera, which I picked up on the recommendation of both Sam and Consumer Reports. I've opened this article with a shot of the convention floor from the main entrance, looking towards where the electronic gaming section of the floor is. You can clearly see the top of the Eve Online booth, which was much larger this year than last year, when it was squeezed on the back of the White Wolf booth. This year, White Wolf and CCP both had a large presence, which was nice to see.But I'm getting ahead of myself. We stayed this year in the Hilton Garden Inn, just east of Monument Circle in Indianapolis. A bit further from the convention center than where we stayed last year, but still close, and the war monument makes it pretty easy to tell people how to find your hotel. It's also a pretty impressive monument to boot.
I spent Thursday afternoon playing NSDM, a Cold War game with the Russian and US cells that never went to crisis mode, which was surprising in and of itself. I played a West Coast representative, and ended up getting nicely screwed because everything that had been conceded to me got eliminated in the final budget cycle, which was a tad annoying. Most of our minor crises seemed to get snuffed out before flaring up too much.Sadly, I have to say that I didn't get any pictures of NSDM this year; I was too busy with the game to do so, and I am still not quite used to taking pictures (or being in them!) after being such an anti-camera person for so long. However, it looks like pictures from last year are finally up at the NSDM site. In this lovely photo, you can see me in the middle right, grinning like an idiot, and the garishly dressed Pezzle, our illustrious friend from the CVA, on the middle left.
Thursday night, I had dinner with three other members of CAIN at the Weber Grill. While it was an excellent dinner, we were disappointed that two other members weren't able to make it. Next time, Derrys, you need to let us know what's going on. Maybe it's time to join the 21st century and get a cell phone. :)
Here's another random selection from the convention, Cardhalla X. Cardhalla is a charity event that GenCon runs, where over the course of the first three days of the con, people build towers and sculptures out of cards (no coincidence this started a few years after CCGs took off). Saturday night, anyone who wants to can gather around the exhibit and at an appointed time, everyone tosses coins at them and knocks it all down. The change is collected and given to a charity. These pictures were taken Friday afternoon.
Friday, I spent most of the day talking with folks from CCP (including Tony Gonzales), and then Friday night I went to dinner with the Fiery Dragon folks, publishers of Adam's Iron Heroes books, and actually a few very nice people from CCP North America/White Wolf as well, at St. Elmo's Steakhouse. I had a good time, as I did last year, and even though I am by far the smallest fish at that table, they made me feel very welcome.Saturday, I had another NSDM game, this time an eight hour megagame I was brought in to facilitate. This one was a bit more eventful than Thursday's game. Two fully-staffed cells, the US and China, and 48 players, and we had everything from presidential scandal, to terrorists causing havoc in western China, to a situation in Pakistan that nearly sparked a shooting war between the US, Pakistan, China, and/or Russia. I think the most surprising, and probably the most disappointing part of the game was the reaction of the US Congress to many of these events; they spent much of the game buried in haggling over the budget and issues of considerably less importance than the president sitting on evidence of spies in USAID for over a year (true, they were American spies, but they didn't know that...) or the CIA and the JCS selling arms to Uighur rebels.
The game was a lot of fun though, and despite the absence of Dan, everything went mostly according to plan. I do think we all missed him, though, and we wish him a speedy recovery.
Saturday night began for me with a short stop at the RPGnet Meet and Greet. This year, despite the room being less insanely sized, it was still very well attended and it was nice to see all the other RPGnet folks there, even though my stay was much shorter than last year, unfortunately (this year it also had the added bonus of refreshments!). Lots of kudos to CW Richerson for putting this all together!
After making a brief appearance there, I went over to the White Wolf party. The White Wolf party has always been a pretty big event as long as I've been going to GenCon, and now that CCP owns them I have a tad bit more reason to head over. I missed it last year (when you can't find the Eve booth until Sunday, that's what happens), but I made sure to go by this year, despite the fact that I have to admit I'm not exactly the clubbing scene type. It was held this year at the Ice Ultra Lounge, which was a pretty neat venue I guess, and they definitely went all out for the White Wolf and Eve crowds. The lower floor was decked out in World of Darkness regalia, while the upper floor was decorated in Eve stuff. It was, however, crazy hot there, and after an hour or so, both floors were packed to the gills.While I had a good time, and got to meet a few CCP folks and a few other Eve players I hadn't already met (including a very nice lady Goon), free booze only has so much appeal when you can only have a few drinks before you keel over and puke on your shoes, and I felt out of place. I've never really understood the appeal of a party where it's too loud to talk to anyone without shouting at the top of your lungs (and I am not really the dancing type, much to Marc's chagrin, I'm sure). So, after spending a couple hours there, saying hi to a few people I wanted to make sure I saw, and fending off at least one really pathetic come on from a guy who was quite obviously drunk (and completely unappealing, the fact that I'm taken aside), I decided to call it a night. I wanted to be up fairly early anyway for the NSDM debrief breakfast the next morning.
After that breakfast (at the Marriott, as usual), where we went over some ideas for how to try and fix the US cell, I made one last pass through the dealer's hall, which is when I saw this:
What is this? It's the Sultan Gaming Table from Geek Chic. It's basically the thing I have been asking why no one has made for years. It's a pool-table sized gaming table, centered around a well area. At the bottom of the well is a whiteboard surface, and on top of that is a felt pad (on a stiff back), and on top of that you can place maps, which you can then cover with a clear plastic hexboard (or gridboard, if you prefer). And, if you want to use it as a dining room table, you can cover the top with a wood cover that levels the surface (and probably safely covers any miniatures you have down there). Around that there are all sorts of cubbies, drink holders, and unfoldable writing surfaces. It's gorgeously handcrafted from walnut and maple, and if I had $9600 and the space for it, I would have bought one right then and there. If you are one of those people who can afford something like this and wants it, I suggest you get in touch with these guys -- their GenCon debut here is what they're using to judge demand, and if they can't sell enough, the company will probably close up shop. I think that'd be a real shame, so I would love to see them succeed (if only so that they are around when I win the lottery and do have the money for it).Anyway, that's about it for my GenCon pictures and review; I'm sorry for the mediocre quality of the pictures and the sparse overview, but I've been a bit out of sorts lately, getting a little freaked out by surgery creeping up on me next week, so I hope my three adoring fans (hi Mom!) will forgive me. Maybe by next year I'll have enough experience with the camera to remember to actually take pictures instead of forgetting I have the camera with me 90% of the time!
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