Gencon 2006

This may very well be a personal record for getting my yearly con reports done -- it hasn't even been a whole month since Gencon and here we go...

Hotel

We went with the same basic strategy as last year and booked as many of us as possible into the Embassy. Our group was somewhat smaller this year due to work commitments and whatnot but it's still useful to have everyone close by.

A bit of a complaint this year: we had to wait an excessive amount of time to get a luggage cart while checking out on Monday. It was a big hassle when it really shouldn't have been. We also had a problem with the room rates where they charged some of us more than others. That really shouldn't happen -- the rooms were all booked at the same time. We're thinking about moving to a different hotel next year but only because we think we could move closer and save some $$$ if we do.

The perennial lack of elevator capacity was again a problem. This year it was exacerbated by one of the four elevators being down for a good portion of the weekend.

Con Organization

Again, I'm having difficulty trying to find anything that went terribly wrong for me here. Lori had some registration problems (no badge) but they were entirely her own fault. Even so, the staff did a pretty good job of helping her out.

One thing I have to give them props for: all four of the events I ran were in the same room, at the exact same table. That was a nice touch. Even if the room was so loud I couldn't hear.

The thing I'm unhappy about is this "points" system they're starting. For the next couple of years they'll be doing a bunch of construction on the convetion center, primarily replacing the RCA Dome with a new stadium. This is going to limit space for Gencon for the next couple of years. They're going with some lame-ass points system to determine who will get space in the convention center and who will end up God only knows where. As a single independent GM I'm really not looking forward to it.

My Events

I ran the same events as I did at Origins. I had some truly excellent players this year and couldn't be much happier. I'm also noticing some repeat players -- I need to do a better job of remembering people and faces...

Bungle in the Jungle

My first session of Bungle in the Jungle was insanely great. I had four people come together to the event. When I saw that I was pretty nervous. Sometimes that can create a great environment because they're all comfortable with each other and it rubs off on the other players. Other times... Well, it can be really, really bad. This was one of the former cases -- an outstanding table and an amazing game.

Part of what made it work was the extremely noisy Toon game at the next table. This game relies greatly on the interaction of the PC's with each other and with NPC's. I encouraged my players to not feel glued to the table, to get up and break off in pairs or groups to discuss things. All six of the players at the table took that and ran with it. I find that all it really takes is one person to do that and everybody else jumps in and has a blast.

I've talked with a couple of them since then and everyone had a blast. Great, great fun.

Behind Enemy Lines

You know what gets me hot? Claymores.
--Agent Wanda

My final event of the con was my DG scenario, Behind Enemy Lines. As I've mentioned elsewhere, this game has the potential to get very, very adult. The first two players who sat down were together (I later learned that they were brothers, and two of the MU Skulls) and I knew they had to be separated. I made one the leader of the DG cell and the other the leader of the regular Army guys. They were at each other's throats almost from the time the game started -- which is EXACTLY what I'd hoped for.

The climax of the game occurs in an underground cave complex where the team has tracked their missing friends. The demolitions guy -- mind somewhat fractured by, um, intimacy with the Mythos -- was more interested in putting the moves on a female agent than doing his job. To help nudge him along she told him "You know what gets me hot? Claymores."

Things rapidly got out of control -- as they're supposed to here -- and ended in the demo guy blowing them all up in an effort to contain the threat. Never had a TPK before in almost 30 years of GMing. Nobody seemed to mind, though -- it was an appropriate ending.

Games

I only managed to sign up for three games this year. For a change I actually attended all three.

Call of Cthulhu: Lake Erie

It seems to be my year for replacement games. This was supposed to be "Pulp Cthulhu" but something went wrong. I understand that some of the Pulp Cthulhu events were run, but not this one. At any rate, the replacement scenario was a good one. We were a bunch of employees of a corporation that mines salt under Lake Erie. We got called out on a Sunday morning to investigate a minor seismic event. And then things went very, very wrong. The game had a lot of "creep factor" which is something I like a lot.

Call of Cthulhu: The Reborn Taint

I took a couple... extra... "samples" from some of the victims.

I was really looking forward to this event for a number of reasons. First, it seemed like a pretty cool scenario. Second, the guys who ran it both live within about 1/2 hour from me. I was hoping that it would be cool and that they would be cool. Bingo on both accounts. The team was composed of investigators from the World Health Organization and some local police. Together we were investigating an epidemic of some sort of bizarre disease.

Did you ever have a game where your dice just won't do what you want them to do? This was that game. I don't think I made an important roll at all. And every time I rolled for SAN lost... I lost the max. I won't say much other than that during one of my several periods of insanity I took a couple... extra... "samples" from some of the victims. An outstanding time was had by all. The GM's are Shai Laric and Rob Fernandez; you can get some more info at their web site.

Delta Green: The Darkness Closes

In this event, Sunday from Noon to 4, I played an egghead character for a change. I expected that he'd be mostly useless on a DG op but boy was I wrong. My anthropology and language skills were essential to figuring things out. I'm usually not that guy -- the figure out the mystery guy -- but this time I nailed it. I had just finished telling the other players about the clues and the cell leader asked me what it all meant. I went off on a 3 minute detailed rundown of the correlations and possibilities and what I thought it all could mean. The GM never stopped me, so I have to assume it was mostly right. In any case, it pointed us in the right direction to get the job done. The game was a good combination of research and action, just the way I like it. An excellent way to end the con.

Conclusion

Another excellent con for me. Every bit as good as last year's, which is saying something. I got excellent players, excellent GM's. What more can you ask for?