Gencon Report: Thoughts and Swag!

First of all, huge thanks to Templar for paying my hotel and flight to the convention. Without him I'd not have been able to go. ^_^
Second, the gallery of all of my con pictures is located here!

Gencon was freaking awesome. ^_^ It was my first year attending, but hopefully it won't be my last (with luck I'll have a better job soon and can save up for next year).
The best part had to have been meeting a bunch of my friends from online. Templar, April, and Mason being the top three. Putting faces to names is interesting enough, but getting to hang out with people is great... especially since I don't get to get out of the house nearly enough. :D
Second best is just being able to get out of the house and have a real, proper vacation. Going into it I didn't think I was going to be able to relax and put everything aside. Turns out, a day into the convention and I was able to actually relax and have fun, so woo!
Third was the shopping, because shopping is awesome and I managed to get a lot of neat stuff (mostly to do with Malifaux and Wyrd Miniatures).
Finally the panels, seminars and general game demos were a lot of fun. The seminars were insightful, especially the RPG Freelancing one. I spent a good deal of my time at the Wyrd Miniatures areas, watching or participating in demos. At least when I wasn't hanging around with friends. I have to admit, if I had more money and space I'd probably have grabbed Pupet Wars and Showdown, as they were a lot of fun as well. Well, Showdown was, Puppet Wars I need to try out some more, but the models looked like fun and I could use them for Malifaux. Jetpack Unicorn, being a party game, was interesting but not something I'd get much use out of right now.
The real game-demo winner for me though was Winter Tales. I will likely do a longer review of my thoughts on the demo, but suffice to say it was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that if they had it available to purchase there I would have grabbed it in a heartbeat. Sadly, they did not. Still, I'm totally going to get it as soon as I can (the FFG release. I'm still debating if I want to order the Italian version or not. It DOES have bilingual rules...).

This.

This is awesome.

The downside of the convention has been that I brought home the Con Plague and spent the last couple of days sleeping most of my hours away. XD

Now, onto the swag! Sweet, sweet swag. :D I did pretty well, methinks!
I bought:
 1x Malifaux Second Edition Rulebook
1x Tara, Herald of Obliteration Box (Malifaux)
1x Lady Justice, new box (Malifaux)
1x Fancy Convention Fate Deck (Malifaux)
2x Arsenal Decks, Neverborn and Arcanists (Malifaux)
1x Rasputina, new box (Malifaux, for a friend)
1x Evil Baby Orphanage + Expansion
1x Candy & Cola (Relic Knights Exclusive)
3x Nyan Nyan (SDE Exclusives, one for a friend)
1x Shadowrun 5e (for a friend)
1x Shadowrun Patch (for a friend)
1x Shadowrun Poster (for a friend)

Technically got for free!
1x Viktorias, new box (Malifaux, costume contest voucher)
1x Lady Justice, new box (Malifaux, for a friend, costume contest voucher)
1x Beckoners box (Malifaux, costume contest voucher)
1x Hanging Tree Box (Malifaux, Achievement League prize)
1x Rotten Belle box (Malifaux, Achievement League prize)
1x Witchling Stalker promo (Malifaux, from Templar)

Gencon Report: Day 4 (Sunday)

Sunday began with sadness, for it was to be the last day of the convention, which meant coming back to Arizona. :(
Once everything was packed up and I said my early goodbyes to Chris and the others I took my bags down to get checked in. Figuring I wouldn't be doing much gaming I opted to check in all of my bags... My shoulders were hurting a lot anyway from carrying my minis bag around the whole con. This would be a slightly bad idea as I would get a bit bored later on, oh well.

There were bellydancers. They were awesome. I have video. ^_^

Much of the morning was spent just wandering around. My plan for the day was really to just get some last time to hang out with April, Mason and Nick, until the Malifaux Achievement League prizes were announced. The others hand things to do though, so after hanging out a bit everyone went their separate ways, mostly. I followed Mason to the Pandemic table. I was even considering joining in if they accepted my bondage ticket as a generic one, but that's when something unusual happened!

Why yes, that is a Klingon playing a mandolin (I think) next to a bellydancer. Gencon is weird. ^_^

I received a phone call from a number I didn't know. Now, normally I don't answer these sorts of calls. They're usually just depressing, but I answered it... and it went to my voice mail. Then, I checked my voice mail, which is odd as I'm usually -really- bad about checking it, but I'm glad I did this time, for I had a neat message. A message from the Wyrd Booth, telling me that I needed to come by "about the costume contest".
I pretty much grabbed my stuff and ran to the dealer's hall where the tide of people slowed my journey. *shakes fist* Eventually though I made it and learned that I had placed second in the Wyrd Costume Contest. Second. Place. I wasn't expecting that at all! In fact, it still feels a little surreal. Awesome, but surreal. :D

Voucher, woo!

I used the voucher I got to get April a starting Crew (Lady J) and grab some Beckoners and the Viks Crew for myself... All while wondering where and how I was going to store this stuff. My bags were packed as it was.

We also convinced April and Mason to try out Winter Tales. :D

April, Mason and I did a very very quick demo of Puppet Wars before returning to the Wyrd Booth for the raffle (I never got any raffle tickets, which was slightly annoying, but oh well. I got second place in a costume contest, that was awesome enough to make up for it! :D ) and for the Achievement League prizes... Which I placed 6th in, woo! That put me in the second tier of prizes... a Minion box and a box of the Hanging Tree minis. The minion box wasn't worrying to me because it was small, but I was staring in mild horror at the hanging tree box and how I was going to pack THAT in with everything else! XD
Once all the prizes were given out, the four of us decided to get in one last meal together before we all had to go our separate ways... So to Steak'n'shake we went! Sadly, because of the time and when my limo was ariving, I had to dash out early just to be safe, so I grabbed a to-go box and went back to the hotel. After getting hugs, because hugs are awesome.
Miraculously, I was able to pack everything into my bags. I was worried about stuff breaking, but thankfully it would only be the Hanging Tree box that was damaged, and even then only a bit. April stopped by and we chatted for a while until my ride arrived. One more hug and then I was off to the airport where check-in and security were, thankfully, short.
Obviously, the flight made it back to Phoenix safely and I was back home quickly. I have to admit, after five days of being in a non-smoking area, coming home to a heavy smoker was like being punched in the nose. I'm still getting used to it. @_@
And that was the last day. ^_^ Coming next will be the aftermath and my thoughts on my very first Gencon, woo!

And because I can, have an angry giant spider-chick. :D

Gencon Report: Day 3 (Saturday)

Saturday began with a swearing that I would not be spending any more money save for food and transport fees. It also began with me deciding that I wanted to spend more time gaming and working on my Achievement League stuff than going to seminars. To be fair though, the seminars I had for Saturday really weren't that interesting, so gamnig it was!
Meeting Mason, April and Nick down in the halls, we hung out for a while. While I had scrapped all of my planned seminars and panels and activities... They had not, so soon enough I was left alone. Not a big deal though, I did some wandering about to get some costume pictures before coming back to the Wyrd area in the Miniatures Hall. There I watched people demoing and playing Malifaux, and I even helped out in running demos and answering questions, which was fun. It also helped with my Achievement League purposes, so woo!

Didn't get as many pictures as I'd have liked to.

Eventually Nick returned to the minis hall and after hanging out a while we got in an amusing game of Malifaux. Our Strategy was Reconnoiter while most of the Schemes involved murdering models in the other Crew. As I had given him a 5 point advantage, I was at a pretty big model disadvantage, and decided to take cover in a building to lure him to me. It... didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped (damned Seamus and his teleportation!), but I did manage to kill one thing to get me the sole winning VP, so woo!
Once Mason and April returnd from their panels/games/whathave you the lot of us went to get dinner together. This time we opted to just go to the mall, because yesterday's exploration weighed heavily upon our minds. Except for Mason who was gleefully unaware of our perilous journey. (Note for next year: Send Mason on perilous journey).

With food obtained it was back to the event halls where we played some games. I ended up doing a beginner game of Malifaux with April, her running Lilith while I ran Tara. Lilith thuroughly stomped the Herald of Obliteration, as any good Neverborn should. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to watch TV and make fun of the various Ghost and House hunting shows until bed time.

Gencon Report: Day 2 (Friday)

Friday began as any other day begins; by waking up, taking a shower, doing my hair and putting on makeup! In this case though, my hair required two tubes of washable blue hair dye and my makeup consisted of black and blue facepaint! Yes, dear readers, I did some cosplaying on Friday!
You see, the Malifaux Achievement League that I had signed up for had an Achievement worth 10 points, to dress up as a Malifaux character! Ten points was a lot, so when the achievement information went live I realized I had to try for it. Unfortunately, with only a week until I left and limited funds (if I wanted money to buy swag at the con itself) my options were... limited. Enter the Death Marshals, with their trenchcoats and guns and hats... but I didn't have a hat, and googling the prices of them was a little extreme, boo... But wait! Second Edition brings with it a new set of Death Marshals with the option of having skulls with blue flames! I can do that! Maybe!
Thus, I dressed up as a M2E Death Marshal, using blue hair dye and lots of hair spray to make my hair look vaguely like wisps of ethereal blue flame... I'm pretty sure if someone struck a match within a meter of me then the head flames wouldn't have been fake. :3 Face paint was then used to give the impression that my face was a black skull with blue glow.
While I was getting ready, Masons topped by dressed up in his own costume (McMourning, also from Malifaux). Once dressed, we escaped the hotel and went back to the convention and to the various halls! Mason being Mason went to troll the AEG people some, while I went to buy more stuff in the Dealer's hall, as was the style at the time... Also because I had gotten paid, so woo!
First stop was Cool Mini or Not to get the Nyan Nyans I needed... But no, the shipment hadn't arrived yet! They claimed that the truck would be there around 3 and to come back, and that there would be enough for everybody. So I went to the Catalyst Labs booth next to grab the Shadowrun 5th book for another friend, as well as a poster and a patch. Friend's purchase completed, it was back to the Wyrd Booth, because I had more stuff I wished to grab!

There were no Nyan Nyans, but there were cosplay girls!

Purchases in hand, I left the hall to sit down and wait for April (who was dressed as Kirai from Malifaux) before we went to find and troll Mason, as you do. Unfortunately for us, Mason had wandered around, making finding him difficult! Clearly he had spies. Eventually we found him and another friend playing Malifaux. We then headed back to the Wyrd Booth to sign up for the costume contest. Afterwards we hung out for a while and played a game of Cthulhu Fluxx before everyone had to run off to their own panels. For me, this meant going to a seminar on RPG Freelancing... also an adventure!
The seminar was in another hotel, and the path to the hotel was... Interesting. I had to go up stairs, down stairs and through a skybridge. Unfortunately, due to the way the path was set up, I ended up going through the hotel I needed to be (I couldn't find any elevators, and the stairs were down for maintenance) and into an entirely different one! Eventually, however, I made it to the seminar room with time to spare, which was awesome. :)

This path doesn't look ominous. Not at all.

The seminar was very informative, I even managed to record it all on my phone. There was the added bonus that all three of the panelists had worked on Through The Breach and recognized my costume. :D
After the seminar it was back to the vendor's hall to get my copies of Nyan Nyan (one for me, one for a friend). The models still hadn't arrived, but the truck was on its way, so I got in line with the others. It ended up being a 30+ minute line, but I bought three copies of the model, muahahahahahaha!
Then it was off to meet with April and Nick and hunt down some lunch. We decided on Subway, but Google Maps lead us a few miles off course to find a Subway... We later remembered that not only was there one closer, but there was ALSO one in the nearby mall. Still, it was an adventure. A painful, hot adventure in a very heavy duster... Yeah, by the time we got back to the hotel I was drenched in sweat and filled with pain, so the decision was made to say "fuck it" and take a shower and get changed... but fist I touched up my makeup a bit so I could get a picture of my costume!

We did see this during the lunch-hunt though.

Shower completed, I went with Templar and his brother to TGIFridays, which was tasty and a nice, relaxing break from wandering around the area. Overstuffed with food, I really wanted to just get a nap in, but no, I hung otu for a bit and eventually had to run to meet up with April, and Mason to go to a rope bondage class in another hotel. Sadly, as it would turn out, this was not to be.
We arrived at the hotel and were told that we would need our IDs and, more importantly, that the ropes for the class hadn't come in. This meant that we'd need to return the loaner ropes, but there would be no partial refunds (the tickets were 10$ a piece). As one of our group had forgottn their ID and it seemed like it wouldn't be as interesting as we thought... We went back to the convention center and met up with Nick to play some Small World, which was probably more fun than the bondage class would have been. :)

There was also this, which is pretty awesome.

Afterwards, it was time for much needed sleep again.
Also, at some point during the day, Nick and I wandered about and played a really awesome game called Winter Tales. I will likely be doing a longer post on it later.

Gencon Report: Day 1 (Thursday)

Thrusday began with waking up and grabbing a shower, then heading out to the nearby mall to get breakfast and hunt for batteries. The only place open in the foodcourt was a Chik-Fil-A, and while I'm not a fan of the whole crap involving them/their ownership, I was hungry. No batteries were found, however.
Once sated with a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit I was off to wait for the vendor's hall to open! Unfortunately, I would not be able to procure a Gencon book/schedule/maps until the very last day, so I wasn't entirely sure if I was in the right place. Thankfully I found a sea of flesh waiting for doors to open and figured that this would be the place. It was, and I even got to watch the opening ceremony thingy, complete with amusing technical difficulties (I swear we watched those sheep talk about how evil the Gencon CEO was at least ten times..).

Behold the Sea of Flesh

Navi was chasing Link up and down the hall, demanding he listen.

The doors opened and every made their way to the vendor's hall. The first stop for me was the Wyrd Miniatures area, because I wanted Malifaux Second Edition, Nightmare Tara and Miss Step, damnit! I also grabbed the Neverborn Arsenal Deck and the fancy convention fate deck. :)
From there I made my way to the Cool Mini or Not booth to try and pick up a couple of Nyan Nyans for SDE and Candy & Cola for Relic Knights. I managed to get Candy & Cola, but apparently they sold out of their Thursday allotment of Nyan Nyans within the first seven minutes!
With my shopping done for the day I was off to the Miniatures Hall to meet up with Mason and friends, as well as to sign up for the Malifaux Achievement League. After getting a game in with Mason I did some demos (Evil Baby Orphanage, Showdown and Puppet Wars) before it was time for my first seminar of the day: Writer's Craft: Mystery vs. Confusion!

Puppet Wars!

Mad Scientist Rainbow Dash!

The seminar was pretty good and informative. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, or quite as helpful as I was hoping, but it was still worth the hour and the cost (which was free. :D ). After that it was back to finding and hanging out with friends for a while.
Eventually though, I went back to the hotel room to put away some stuff and then went to dinner with Templar and his brother. We went to a place called the Ram, which had really gotten into the spirit of Gencon by replacing their menu with a Warmachine-themed Menu. Now, I'm not a big fan of Warmachine and Hordes, but that was pretty awesome!

Unless this place is ALWAYS Warmahordes-themed..

Also, we saw a barmobile... That was... Odd.

This seems like an accident waiting to happen... (Alternately: Scottish Troop Transport)

Next, some more wandering, but not much, because Thursday April, Mason and I were going to the Glitterguild's Nerdlesque Burlesque. The show was awesome, and had both women and men performing. The routines included:
Star Trek Vulcan, who ended the show with the Vulcan hand sign over her crotch.
A Carmen Sandiego routine
Female Galactus
The main character from the Walking Dead (male) who ended his routine with a badge over his naughty bits.
A Catwoman
A male pony that pranced about the stage.
A magician who kept his clothes on.
A tribute to B-Movies
and others that I can't remember. Sadly, there were no pictures allowed.

Gencon Report: Day 0 (Wednesday)

Wednesday started off annoyingly, but not terrible. I didn't sleep at all over the night, so when 6AM rolled around I was still wide awake for my shuttle ride to the airport.

Early morning Arizona

At the airport I learned that apparently everyone wants to leave Arizona - which I can't blame them really - as the lines for both check-in and security were positively massive. I think in total I was waiting in one line or another for an hour and a half. It was okay though, as my flight was delayed for nearly four hours!
The delay wasn't too bad though, given that half of the flight was going to Gencon. As a result we ended up having a mini-convention right there at the gate. :D It was entertaining to say the least.
The flight itself went well, and when I got to Indy I took a limo (it was cheaper than most of the other options!) from the airport to the hotel. There I met up with the friend that paid for my plane and hotel fees for the convention (huuuuge thanks for that again, Templar!), as well as his brother and their friend. We then went to eat at a place called Steak'n'Shake where I met up with more of my friends from online.

April and Mason, raaawr

Afterwards it was back to the hotel where I hung out for a while before heading to another hotel with April to check out the pre-convention demos from Wyrd Miniatures. There we watched a game of Kings of Artifice that was in progress until we headed back and passed out in our respective rooms, eagerly awaiting the first day of the convention.