The Podge Cast

As I wisely took Monday off to recover from the weekend, you all get to hear all about my first Gen Con trip.

It’s going to be long, strong, and ready to get friction on.  Errrr…I mean there are a bunch of pictures.  Leap in after the cut.  Note…I set up pic descriptions for mouse over.  They’re not working.  If you’re really interested in what the pic is, check properties for the description.  I know, I’m lazy but I’m tired.

Let me begin by saying that you’ll hear me speak of the Brilliant Gameologists a lot.  That’s because they’re awesome.  Since none of my fellow hosts could attend, they adopted me as one of their own and showed me the Gen Con ropes.  You should go over there and subscribe right now.  While we have different styles, I can tell you that we share an almost identical attitude about podcasting. So go start downloading while you read this.

So Dave and I left on Thursday morning at about 8am.  Dave had gotten sick on the way up to my house and we had to stop frequently on the way up.  Fortunately, a little rest got him back into fighting shape by the time we arrived.  Unfortunately, it also meant I missed my first panel, which ended up being no big deal.

Got to Gen Con, got my press pass, and took a quick gander at the expo hall.  Wow, was it huge! I understand that it’s actually smaller than it has been in the past, but it seemed gigantic to me.  I ended up spending way too much on some of the new Cygnar models from Privateer Press and also snagged copy of Hunter: The Vigil.  Tried to find and meet Luke Crane and John Wick, but they weren’t at their booths. This would become the theme for the con.  I never met any of the designers I wanted to meet at their booths.  Just bad timing, I guess.

Meg from Brilliant Gemologists calls me up and invites me to their penthouse to meet and talk a bit before our next panel.  I meet Meg, Josh, and Zeke and they feed me beer from The Ram.  We then headed down to run the “Salon On Gameology.”  I had no idea how well attended it would be since I’d already heard that most of the stuff on the ‘official’ podcasting tract wasn’t terribly well populated.  This one ended up being standing room only with somewhere around 30 folks attending.  It was a good discussion about why we game and bits of gaming theory…y’know the stuff I usually make fun of.  Turns out, that’s why they brought me on.  I was the opposing view and had a grand old time.  I also got to meet the guys from the Accidental Survivors podcast.

After the panel, I went with the Accidental Surivor folks to The Ram to pick up some growlers for the coming penthouse party.  Upon returning, the party kicked off and we hung out on the veranda talking about podcasting, gaming, and just general BS.  You’ll hear some fun audio clips from this at some point. Both Ender_Melchior and Grungydan from the forums joined us along with a whole bunch of Brilliant Gameologist fans.  It was a great way to kick things off.

The next day, I remembered to bring my camera instead of just my phone.  I overslept and missed the Pinnacle panel, but made it over for my second (and last panel) with the BG folks.  It was a discussion on the 7 words you don’t say in gaming and was, again, a lot of fun and well attended.  Afterwards,  I met up with Grungydan and Christian and had lunch at J. Gumbo’s.  Wish we had something like that around here. Afterwards, we met up with Dave and Ed and spend the afternoon exploring the expo hall and exploring the con. Some of the guys I was rooming with were invovled with the Warmachine tournament so we checked in on them every now and again.  I also picked up my invite to the White Wolf party.

I got to demo both Battlestations and Paparazzi. While I liked the concept of Battlestations, I just couldn’t justify the price.  Paparazzi, on the other hand, was hilarious and I eagerly await its release.  Then we watched some live-action Heroclix, which was hilarous. The costumes looked really good, although Spidey and Mr. Fantastic’s man-bulges were so well outlined they became more talked about than Ms. Marvel’s nearly bare rear.  Consensus was that Mr. Fantastic wasn’t that fantastic.

Speaking of superheroes, I literally ran into Defuser from that superhero reality show.  I said “Hi” but moved along as I wasn’t entirely sure who he was until much later.

During all this I managed to do some bits of recording, but very little.  We’ll get those posted sometime in the near future.

After a long day on the floor, we decided to actually play some games.  We found some space and threw down with Warmachine.  It had been a while since I played.  I forgot how much I missed it.

As that wound down, I was off to spend the evening with one of my best friends and his wife.  They live in Indy so it was great to be able to see them.  We cracked open a few bottles of my wine and caught up.  Good times.

Saturday I finally got the meet Chris Hussey (Oboe Cope) who quickly abandoned us for shopping, and then had lunch with Grungrydan, Dave, and Chad.  We wandered a bit and ended up in the board game room playing Carcassone.  It was fun.  I tied Grungydan for the win on what was the first game for both of us.  The group split up and we checked on the Hardcore Warmachine tourney to find our friends doing alright (they ended up getting knocked out, but had a good time).  We spent late afternoon just chilling and relaxing.  I eventually got a call from Josh from BG and I went to dinner with the three of them just prior to the Podcaster’s Meet and Greet.

The Podcaster Meet and Greet was in a tiny room, packed to the gills.  The guys from Wandering Geek brought some excellent root beer that they distributed.  Besides finally putting a face to the name of a lot of podcasters, I got to meet a bunch of fans and said hello to Robin D. Laws and Paul Tevis.  It was awesome finally meeting Daniel Perez after hanging out with him online for 2 years or so.

I can’t tell you how awesome it was to meet the folks who have been listening to me for the past year or so.  Some folks all around the con recognized my voice (Is that Luke?) while most of them instead recognized me when I laughed (That’s Luke!).  One person, recognized me by sight as I left my hotel room.  Note, I wasn’t wearing anything identifying.  After he swore he wasn’t a stalker, we walked for a bit and chatted.  Really nice guy.   The point is that it’s good to be appreciated and I thank everyone who was so giving of their praise.  It really made the convention for me.

There was supposed to be a “Game with Podcasters” thing afterwards, but we lost just about everyone in the huge boardgame hall.  The few we did find, Meg and Zeke invited up for another penthouse party.   At this point, I had to make a choice…penthouse party or White Wolf party.  The old man in me won out, as I knew I had to wake up early and drive the next morning and if I went to the White Wolf party it would be a hellacious day.  So I gave my invite to Grungydan, grabbed some of my wine, and went up to the penthouse for a laid-back party filled that was much more my speed anyway.

As that party wound down, I said goodbye to my new friends, and took my leave.  I reflected on the con on the long trip down the elevator.  I had a great time, spent too much money, and only came out with a handful of regrets.  One regret was that I would have liked to play in the new Living Forgotten Realms, just for fun, and never signed up.  The other was that I never got to meet Luke Crane, who I’m obviously a big fan of.

So I pull out the phone to call my wife when I hit the lobby.  As I’m waiting for the phone to ring, I hear a voice that sounds really familiar.  I take a gander and see two guys talking right on my route.  Hmmm…one of them certainly does fit the description.  They see me looking quizically at them and the one that seems familiar addresses me:

“Hey, man. What’s up.”

“Sorry to interupt, but you sound really familiar…are you…”

“I’m Luke.”

“Crane?”

“Yes.”

“Hey, man, I’m Luke Meyer!  I intervi…”

“DOCTOR!?”

“Yup, that’s me.”

So, as the capstone to my con, I got to meet Luke.  He was hanging out with Vincent Bakers, whom I also dig, and we chat it up a bit.   Talk about a way to end a convention.

I can promise you that while Luke looks angry, he was very nice.  That was just a pose… I think. :)   Note the symetry with the picture on my shirt.

So that wrapped up my Gen Con.  If I can swing it, I’m going to go back.   It was a blast.    Enjoy some other random shots of the con below.