So I’m still without a PC, but I have a little netbook that can get me through, so I’m going to attempt to plug this out on that.

To start things off, our group hails from Syracuse, NY. So the travel was 12 hours to get to Indianapolis with one meal stop, and two to three gas stops. the original plan was that Arfles, our friend Marty, and myself would take turns to do all that, but the rental company instilled a fear in us over the ramifications of having other drivers. So I did 100% of the driving, and we arrived at the Hotel at around 6:30 PM. got into our rooms at the Sheraton, and made our way to the convention center.

At the end of the line . . .

After finding both false ends in the Will call line that ran the entire building, we finally got into our spot. We where actually being used as a judge for the speed of the line by some of the staff. But it only took an hour and fifteen minutes to get through, get our badges, and then maybe 5 minutes to get our grab bags. So it wasn’t nearly as bad as it seemed.

Steak and Shake

So from there we got diner at the fabled Steak and Shake. Not having any in NY, this was a treat. Due to our exploratory nature, we didn’t get to go back for seconds, but I count it as a must-have next year. We wound down for the evening, and prepared for the weekend.

Thursday started with Panel first thing in the morning. I was too tired and didn’t make it to it, but from what everyone else who went to it told me, it was quite good. I joined everyone for the GM workshop, which brought a lot of things up that we can all use. Originally, we where going to break up into groups, but we where enjoying the discussions so much as a full group, it became a 2 hour discussion group.

Hirst Arts - DIY Dungeons

We had a brief stint in the Exibitors hall, to which I hit the major booths I wanted to hit. Stopped by the Burning Wheel booth, got a combat walkthrough from Luke Crane. Hit Palladium’s booth, finally got an updated copy of Rifts (complete with signatures), and got the Hirst Arts molds I’ve been wanting to get for a while. Finished up, went up to the panel on Writers block, then hit the Exibitors hall again with the rest of my group. We left around 6, went to the Sushi restaurant around the corner and had an awesome meal. In fact, since a reservation cancelled, we got a special room, and excellent food and service.

Friday we arrived for our 10am panel, to find that the panel  on worldbuilding had been cancelled. I regret that we failed to gather the courage to hijack the panel. Maybe next year, we will be lucky enough to have similar circumstances.

Hung out for a while, tested some games, then we had Game Design is mind control with Luke Crane (I can go on for pages about how cool of a guy he is), where we went over how limitations in your game effect the players mentality, and how using that can create favorable responses. After that, we made a go at “Action Castle” – something I can only describe as an old text based computer rpg controlled by a rotating line of 50 people. One person, one action.

After that, I had three panels with the guys from Hex Games, Sword and Sorcery, Unconventional Characters, and Hobo’s – the New Pirates. I have to say – that was the order of how entertaining they where. Hobo’s was the best laugh I had all weekend.

Tags: Burning Wheel, convention, Gaming, GenCon, Hirst Arts, panel, Rifts, RPG, Writing