So, GenCon Indy was a good time overall, but felt different this year; and I wouldn’t say in a good way. The gaming we did was great, but the overall crowd (and it was very crowded) seemed less ‘gamer’ and more… I don’t know…
It just wasn’t the same vibe it has always been for us and wasn’t very inviting, to be blunt.
In fact, Lady Z and I ditched more of the Convention than usual, running 3 out of our own 4 events and being relieved that the last one was a no-go due to a lack of players – because it allowed us to leave early Saturday night. We didn’t even bother returning to the Con for Sunday at all, choosing rather to just relax at our cabin for the day and then go out for our traditional Korean dinner - which was awesome BTW!
Then, we only played in 2 events (other than our own) and 1 of those was a complete failure on so many levels that I think I would have enjoyed a visit to the dentist for a root canal more than I did the game. *shudder
The other game we played in was thankfully, a decent little piece of roleplaying.
As for our own events, what we ran was a blast!
Dungeons & Drag Queens had 7 players; and this year we included a bunch of silly little props (feather boa, silk fan, evening gloves, riding crop, etc) that the players got as their characters found them throughout the adventure. Of note, this group decided to do things backwards, going to the last section of the adventure first and then traversing from there, through the middle, and then on to the beginning last. It was a bit of an oddball approach, but it worked for them haha! Glad to see our BHB group isn’t the only one that does things completely off the rails! XD
Nazi Sasquatch Death Squad also ran with 7 Players and went pretty much according to plan. We had a good time with it and it reminded me of when we played it on CYS. A funny bit during the game was when 1 player had his character steal a car from the airport rental lot, only to have the rest of the team rent a car and be given the keys to the stolen car!
Sanitarium had 8 Players show up, but I could only run for 7 max, so 2 bowed out, leaving 6 players. It was by far the most fun we had at the Con. The idea to incorporate a shared dream worked like a charm and things ran as smooth as they could possibly have gone. All 6 characters survived, having captured a guard to sacrifice at the end. The parting observation of the players, tongue in cheek, was “what this adventure needs is more rape.”
Escape Facility 7 was the game we cancelled, because only 1 player showed up. This was a bit irritating, because all of my games sold out within 30 seconds of event registration going live. So it begs the question of what happened to the rest of the players. But being Saturday evening, 6:00 PM, facing a 5 hour game that I was really dreading the whole time, due to how complex it can get – I was so grateful for the free ‘out’ handed to me on a golden platter. We thanked the 1 player who showed up, gave her all the swag that we would have split with the group at the end of the game, and I even gave her a signed copy of BHB for her trouble.
So, that was the gist of things for GenCon 2015.
Don’t think I’ll ever go back after this. Not that it was bad or anything, just that it no longer felt like ‘my’ GenCon and Origins is 3 hours closer, much more laidback, and more self-contained.
