Gen Con 2011: Day 2

Today I went to the dealer's hall. I picked up one of the convention books with all the details in it as well. I didn't have a lot of time to look around, nor a lot of time to take pictures so no in depth reviews or notes here.

Then why was I in the hall? Picking up shirts for my girlfriend. She enjoys some of the shirts they have of dragons and faeries and undead Hello Kitty variants and what not. While picking up her shirts, some odd six in all, I did come to a few conclusions.

Parents need to start beating this children more. This isn't to say that everyone at the convention is universally rude or stupid but there were several instances where I had to remind myself that people probably aren't being deliberately rude when they bump into me. However, the people who are standing like three people's length away from a booth to look at the items and just standing there? Just my opinion mind you, but they are stupid and I pushed past them with a quickly muttered excuse me.

In some instances, the rudeness was almost a tangible force. When I came to an intersection of two major arteries, an elderly woman in an electronic wheelchair was moving from one direction to the next and the people behind me were jostling me trying to get me to cut her off. I worry about this planet sometimes...

In terms of general crowd, massive in size and scope. A lot of people in costumes of various ages. One woman in costume was busy pushing her baby along in its stroller.

In terms of the booths... and remember, I didn't get a full look around. I saw a lot of booths that were third party. Places like Half Priced Books, Coolminiornot, the Warstore, Games Plus and others. This doesn't count the hordes of places specifically selling 'geek ware' of various types ranging from the shirts I hunted down for my g/f to Celtic style clothing to the various weapon stands. There seemed to be a lot of those.

WoTC big D&D release seems to be Neverwinter Nights. I'm glad that they had banners and were making a contest of it but as a long time fan of the 'old' Forgotten Realms, allow me a moment of "get off my lawn" here eh? The whole thing does nothing for me with its heroic structured campaign and the only reason I'm getting it is the blade singer variant build in it. But I'll get it later for a better price than WoTC is selling it for today.

I did pick up some miniatures as one of the booths I passed by had some strange looking beasties, a few of them quite 'Skaven' or Rat Man to your non-Warhammer players and some huge boar or pig men that look like they would be good alternatives for the Farrows or whatever they're called in Hordes.

I then ran my two games; Primeval and the Laundry. I thought both games went well. I even had a fellow reviewer in that first batch of games, Kurt Wiegel, and encouraged him to run some games for the convention next year. The second game seemed to stall a little bit and one of the players quit after a few moments. My bad Zedd, hope that it wasn't my interpretation of the game that threw it off for you.

I do enjoy some of the buildings around here. They have an old feel to them and would make great setting pieces for almost any era game. I'll try to take a few pics of them before I leave to show what I'm talking about.

Anyway, tomorrow I'm free and don't have to run any games so hopefully I'll be able to snag some pictures. I can guarantee that I won't be taking any of the 'standard' pictures. I've seen the troll in the hall dozens of times online already, as well as the Privateer Press both setup with its awesomeness. If it's a static moment, chances are its already been shot.

Hope everyone's enjoying the convention!