Dragonlance D&D Game Blog

I've decided for my final Gen Con post to touch on a subject that just recently came to light for me. With 2013, I've now gone to Gen Con four years in a row. On top of that I also went four times when the convention was in Milwaukee (long live the Safe House). In all that time I can honestly say that I've never had the "Full Gen Con Experience". And honestly, it's a myth (hence the title for this post). While the convention technically goes on for four days, five if you count all the Day Zero things--more of which seem to crop up every year--there is really just too much going on at any given time to take it all in. In all the years I've attended, I've only seen the costume parade once, stumbled in to the anime room once, and never played a game of MTG. I rarely attend the "Paint and Take" any more, though I love to look at all the contest entries, and I probably spend way too much time in the Vendor's Hall. But this is just my...

For my penultimate Gen Con post of 2013, I want to touch on a few other things I did or saw, or in some cases didn't see at the con. While a large appeal of the con is the chance to play all sorts of games, shopping in the vendor's room is just as big a drawl. With the chance to see up close and demo games you might not have known about, get a copy of an early release of a game (I'm looking at you Pathfinder card game fans), or get that sought after mini, or TCG card, not to mention all manner of costume accessories or home furnishings, it's easy to see why the room is always crowded. This year I didn't have a real shopping list going in to the vendor's room, but I still found myself in there nearly every day. Thursday's visit was to pick up the few must have items (gifts for friends and family). I tried to get in to the Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) booth to see what they had on site, but the wait line was too long (as in stretching around their booth an...

I had originally planned to write each day of Gen Con as it happened, at the end of the day. Unfortunately my schedule left me with little time at the end of each day to do a proper recap. Here now is the first in a series of posts about my Gen Con experiences. Check back for more posts about my con experience. Note: I just read a posting that seemed to indicate that Gen Con attendance was 49 thousand unique visitors, up over 20% from last year. Kudos to the Gen Con staff and planners, while there were more people this year, it didn't feel as congested in the hallways or the vendor's room as it had in the past. As I've mentioned before , one of my goals at Gen Con is to try new games, to step outside my comfort zone. This year, I actually did that a couple of times. One such game was Letters from Whitechapel, a game where one person takes on the role of Jack the Ripper, and the other players (up to 5) are the detectives trying to track him down.  Once the crime i...

Yesterday was the first official day of the convention, and what a whirlwind day it was. Things started out with me having to get up early so I could un-register for some events I didn't want. I was planning to take care of the events on Wed, especially with GenCon touting it's "24 hr a day service" at the Badges and Events booths. Unfortunately the 24 hr/day doesn't start until 7am on the morning of the first official day of the con, otherwise, they close at 9pm. If I had known that, I would have taken care of the event issues right away. And I can't fault GC for this, it was noted that Wed had limited hours, I just didn't see it. Anyway, everything got taken care of and I headed off to my first event, this year's version of the D&D Dungeon Delve. This time around, there wasn't really a dungeon, and little delving going on. Instead -- oh wait, I don't want to ruin it. Suffice to say, I had an ok time. I found myself knowing some of ...

So I'm now in Indy getting ready for the 2013 GenCon convention. Today is basically day 0, the convention hasn't really started, but on the other hand, it kind of has. Like last year, I drove out to the con, and had a great time with my car buddy Brad. It was a great chance to catch up on what we've been up to, what our respective families have been doing, and of course, talking about all things geek. Once we arrived and dropped off our gear, we headed over to the convention to get our badges. The line was super long, but moved much faster than we could have expected. In less that 15 minutes we both had passes and event tickets in hand. Next up, time to get the swag bag. Oh, wait there's no swag bag this year? Bummer, but the coupon book looked better than it had been in previous years, so maybe that will make up for it, especially since most of the swag I would ditch before leaving the state at the end of the week. One other little thing I noticed. In the past ...

As I get ready for GenCon 2013, I find that this year, unlike most others, I'm not heading off to Indianapolis with a list of must-get items. Now part of this is certainly due to the fact that this year Dungeons and Dragons is between editions, so there's no hot off the presses source book or box set for my favorite RPG, but it's not just the lack of D&D product that's reduced my shopping list to near nothing. I'm starting to wonder, is Kickstarter is to blame. Is it killing off, or at least diminishing, the excitement of the GenCon vendor's room? In the past I would circle around the Reaper Miniatures booth, or gaze longingly at the various Dwarven Forge setups. But thanks to Kickstarter, if I took part in the Reaper Bones KS from a while ago, or the Dwarven Forge Game Tiles KS from earlier this year, I'd have little reason to visit either location. Same for Larry Elmore, an artist I've admired since I read my first Dragonlance book, and who...