My first GenCon: Day 2
Posted inEvents & Holidays Kids

My first GenCon: Day 2

So my second day at GenCon really wasn’t much of a GenCon day but I’ll tell you all about it anyways. I hit up the children’s museum with my son and wife, spent quite some time there dragging him to and fro. He had a good time for the most part, the line to get in was super long and I’m super glad I had a coupon to get him in for free.

Anyways after that we hit the hotel again and recouped a bit and then headed back to GenCon. After spending a short bit in the main hall, I didn’t have enough time to spend to make my epic ‘which game to buy’ decision before they closed the hall down, also bumped into an old buddy from high school.

I did get to meet @JasonMarker in the flesh afterwards though and that was one of the high points of my day – super cool guy, great conversation was had. Afterwards I wanted to go to the Ennies, so i made my way towards the grand ballroom and then after getting to the room where they were to be held I immediately had a mental flash forward in my mind as I looked inside – a quiet room, darkened and classy where an announcer would call out the categories and present medals to the winners and then speeches would be given. Then that same image flashed again where my son was roaring and whining up a storm and disrupting the whole ceremony, there was a 99% likelihood this would happen so I turned right around and headed to grab some food. So I decided to just skip the Ennies and just read about them on twitter, kind of a bummer I know but Congrats to ObsidianPortal and all the other winners, it feels awesome just to be privileged enough to wear the Obsidian Portal shirt around the con.

My first GenCon: Day 1
Posted inEvents & Holidays

My first GenCon: Day 1

The Hotel: If you could care less about my personal experiences and wanna get to the good stuff, skip on down to “The Con”. Oh where do I begin, first off let me just say that the hotel that I’m staying in is a real piece. I called in advance this morning to be sure that it was okay that we dont have to check in exactly at 3pm (our check in time) they said later was fine but not earlier. So when we arrived to check in around 7 after we’d left the convention center I was given the keys to our room, to which we promptly walked in to discover peoples belongings strewn about, a mirror with nasty greasy fingerprints all over it, and the TV on.

Needless to say I went straight back down and got a new room, they apologized but the two guys at the front desk really seemed like they could give a shit less.

Gencon countdown, win free D&D stuff!
Posted inContests & Drawings Events & Holidays Updates

Gencon countdown, win free D&D stuff!

Nerdy never looked so cuteWell there’s four days till GenCon and I don’t think I’ve been this excited about anything since I was a kid. Don’t worry I’m not here to list my itinerary as if I’m someone noteworthy but I am saying that I hope to see you there! I’m looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you awesome folks face to face, and maybe play a game or two.

This is going to be not only my first GenCon but also my first convention ever, so I’m pretty pumped and a little frightened all at once. On top of it being my first of many, I get to pimp Obsidian Portal by wearing their awesome shirt (my lovely wife modeling it seen here) and hand out stickers/flyers to unsuspecting folks who are unaware how simple and fun their campaign note-keeping and organizing can truly be! The fliers might even have a little incentive printed on the backs of them for those who want to check Obsidian Portal out further. But you’ll have to find me or one of my other fellow emissaries at the con if you wanna’ get you hands on them, I’m not giving away any more details here.

Wife and Son in tow we’re making this a bit of a family vacation at the same time, probably take a small break from the con to pay a visit to the childrens museum too. I really want to instill the values of gaming in my son at a young age so what better place to take him than one of the biggest gaming conventions ever! My wife is super excited as well, sometimes I think perhaps maybe even a little bit more than myself.

Playing Bashfully
Posted inDungeon Master's Musings

Playing Bashfully

I’m not sure why, but sometimes I’ve had players who downright just play like wimps. It is a stereotype (or perhaps assumption) that spans far and wide regarding player characters in RPG’s that label them as heroes or extraordinary in some way. You would think these people who weave elemental and divine powers from their fingertips, transform into beasts, leap chasms and wear plate armor brimming with weapons would charge headfirst into danger.

Apparently not always, as my most recent homebrew campaign first started I’d never seen so many players take the “safe route” so often. By safe route I don’t mean “Let’s see if we can convince the baron of X before we try Y” I mean when encountered with a graveyard that may have a few zombies lurking around they opted to sleep until daylight before investigating, even though an urgent matter was at hand. Unfortunately I didn’t punish properly for taking a casual approach to dispatching evil.

I had a cinematic encounter laid out before them, the moon was full and the graveyard thick with mist where an ominous winged silhouette appeared each night perched atop an abandoned tower. A barmaid offers them a key left by a stranger who said it would unlock the towers mysteries also offering gold to vanquish whatever sinister thing that resides in the tower. “You say the shadow appears there every night, and it’s yet to attack?” “Well then it’s probably not going to do anything tonight either, let’s get some rest and investigate when the sun rises, it will be safer this way.”

Humor amidst the tension
Posted inDungeons and Dragons (D&D) Humor

Humor amidst the tension

Personally I didn’t know what to think of these new D&D rule announcements earlier today, and in regards to the essentials products I’ll just have to wait and see if they’re for me I suppose. I’m always for improving, balancing and making games more fun for everyone and after spending almost the entire day looking into these things, and reading angry posts on ENworld to enlightened twitter posts I think I fall into the “I’m totally stoked about this” crowd. I also happen to belong to the “Magic Missle changes are rad” (also – Dispel Magic) crowd – just to put that out there.

I still think it would be nice to see a digital version of some of the sourcebooks be made available to DDI subscribers but that’s a whole other post. (Yes I know the compendium prettymuch does it, but as always- I want more)

Anyway in an efforts to move away from the heavy hearted version debate going on I’d like to share something I made for fun over the weekend.