My oldest son and I are attending Gen Con together this year. It's pretty cool in that it will be the first time I've been in the United States during Gen Con in about 7 years. Without the Army to send me somewhere else during the big convention, I thought it might be neat to take my son. This will be my third Gen Con (I went in 2000 and 2002) and his first.
The first year that I went, I barely did anything but wander around the dealer room, bleary-eyed and overwhelmed. My second Gen Con was a little more successful as my friends and I played in the D&D Open Tournament that year. Unfortunately, that event took up most of our available gaming time.
This year, my goal was to sign up for a few different events that not only featured my favorite games, but also gave me a chance to game with some of the designers whose work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of gamer celebrities, but I do see the value in having the author of a module running his or her work for you right there at the table.
Alas, I underestimated how quickly this stuff would sell out. I was on the Gen Con site just as soon as the event registration opened up, but everything I wanted to do was gone way before my wishlist ever hit the queuing process.
Mutant Crawl Classics with Jim Wampler? GONE
Anything DCC from Goodman Games at all? GONE
Fortunately, thanks to some events that only recently became live on the site, I managed to snag tickets to an author-run game.
I've had Torchbearer sitting on my shelf ever since its Kickstarter campaign. I love the physical book, but I am NOT an indy RPG guy. Every time I read through the rules, I come away feeling like this game is very cool, but also way outside my wheelhouse.
A month or so ago, my son expressed similar feelings. Leafing through the book, he said to me "Dad, we really should figure out how to play this game. It just looks cool!"
Well, request granted, son. He and I are now signed up to play the Torchbearer RPG with the guy who came up with the concept and helped write it, Thor Olavsrud. If I can't learn the game under one of its co-authors, then I'm a lost cause.
Plus, I'm going to see if he'll sign my book.
The first year that I went, I barely did anything but wander around the dealer room, bleary-eyed and overwhelmed. My second Gen Con was a little more successful as my friends and I played in the D&D Open Tournament that year. Unfortunately, that event took up most of our available gaming time.
This year, my goal was to sign up for a few different events that not only featured my favorite games, but also gave me a chance to game with some of the designers whose work I enjoy. I'm not a fan of gamer celebrities, but I do see the value in having the author of a module running his or her work for you right there at the table.
Alas, I underestimated how quickly this stuff would sell out. I was on the Gen Con site just as soon as the event registration opened up, but everything I wanted to do was gone way before my wishlist ever hit the queuing process.
Mutant Crawl Classics with Jim Wampler? GONE
Anything DCC from Goodman Games at all? GONE
Fortunately, thanks to some events that only recently became live on the site, I managed to snag tickets to an author-run game.
I've had Torchbearer sitting on my shelf ever since its Kickstarter campaign. I love the physical book, but I am NOT an indy RPG guy. Every time I read through the rules, I come away feeling like this game is very cool, but also way outside my wheelhouse.
A month or so ago, my son expressed similar feelings. Leafing through the book, he said to me "Dad, we really should figure out how to play this game. It just looks cool!"
Well, request granted, son. He and I are now signed up to play the Torchbearer RPG with the guy who came up with the concept and helped write it, Thor Olavsrud. If I can't learn the game under one of its co-authors, then I'm a lost cause.
Plus, I'm going to see if he'll sign my book.
