GenCon 2014 and the 5th RPPR Fan Meet-up

[Tadanori Oyama]

The same. I'm open Friday and Saturday evenings as far as I'm aware. My brother would be down for it too, depending on what he's got going on.

[Graywalker]

I was thinking about running a CoC scenario for any RPPR listener who has the time and wants to have some totally non-violent fun.  I am going to run the second half of the Payday scenario, the one that deal with the stolen book after the heist.

If anyone is interested, let me know.

Count me in, just give me a time and place, also...

Tad and Kamen, you two covered most of the major things about a Con trip, but you failed to mention some important information such as...

-Con Bug: With so many people going about their business in any convention with lots of sick people, figuratively and quite literally. To avoid getting sick and having it ruin an otherwise great time, take the time to power up your immune system. Take some Airborne or Emergen C with you and take some before heading out. You'll get some extra energy and are less likely to get sick.

Costumes:

• Hydrate and cooling off: Tad mentioned keeping hydrated while walking around, this goes double for cos-players, especially those in dark and heavy clothing. You're going to sweat, a lot, and need to take breaks, sometimes quite often. The AC of the Convention Center will help but not that much. Wear some sort of underclothing, like 2nd skin body suits, provided you can. It's thin material and makes for better air flow in larger costume, like something made out of foam or something.
• Pictures: If you have a costume that looks cool and is from a popular anime or game, be ready to stop and get your photo taken. Sometimes it might be a single photo or group shot but there are times when people will just keep coming up and taking photos of you. Be ready to pose it out for a little while longer if this happens.
• Costume Damage and visuals: Chances are this won't happen but there is always a possibility that while walking around in costume, something might go wrong with the costume. Fabric tear, joint breakage, soda stains, excreta excreta. If you bring spar material for repairs do so if you can, otherwise slow down and take your time. Lot of hard work goes into costumes, don't spoil it by damaging it before you can enjoy it fully. If the costume is large and cumbersome remember you might not want to wear it to the Con if you are staying a great distance away from the Convention center and if you have trouble seeing out of a helmet make sure you have someone with you to either guide you along or act as a second pair or eyes for you.
• Convention rules and restrictions: Taking the time to visit with the information booth and learning what rule GenCon has as far as weaponry goes. Thus far, I've only encounter a problem with Airsoft guns and similar weapons that look to "realistic". Unless otherwise stated by an official, it's best to leave those in your hotel room. The only time that you would be allow to use it otherwise is on the main stage for the costume contest.
• Be respectful: A standard for anyone taking pictures of cos-players, always ask them for a photo, don't just take a snap shot of them as they are walking by. More often than not, anyone in a costume will gladly let you take a photo of them. Do your best to get out of heavy traffic area's to get your photo, with less traffic comes the less likelihood of someone photo bombing you.

That's all I can think of as far as Con edict goes. I'm personally looking forward to meeting up with everyone from RPPR again and having a fun time on the show floor.

[Tadanori Oyama]

So: things are pretty set at this point. Everyone likely has their schedules figured out and their events planned. Now that everyone has some stability does anyone want to do any RPPR fan events, outside of the actual meet up? Stuff like pick-up games, meals, or just meeting to hang out.

[BishopSansPants]

As long as I'm open (i.e. not DMing D&D or palling around with the other guys from my gaming group) I'd love to get into any hijinks I can including games!

[Tim]

I guess I picked the wrong month to give up hijinks.

[Daegan]

We of Eclectic Eccentricities will be at booth 770 (the back corner), and as always, we encourage folks to stop by and say hi while we're booth-bound.

Tom: TOTALLY interested in that payday 2 game.  Been a few days, here's hoping all slots haven't been filled already.

[BellaJen]

Just to make it clear. Daegan is my husband, he was posting for me. Tad you asked where our booth was and  that's us all the way in the back corner. Since my name isn't baby they put us there. =)

What booths will others be at? I'd love to swing by and pick up a few things while chatting with folks.

Anyone have a newbie advise for Gencon specifically? I've done very large(NYCC + PAX East) and very small cons in the past but I'm wondering if there is anything unique to this con I should know about. (If I should post this somewhere else, sorry, let me know and I'll move it).

   -Jen

[Tadanori Oyama]

For GenCon specifically?

Well, the sidewalks on the "front" side of the convention building narrow down due to some of the restaurants having external seating areas so traveling into downtown from the convention can get a little bottlenecked. If you want to move more quickly from the main hall then go out of the street entrance to the right of the hall (that's right as you come out of the doors). It exits onto a street that sets up events and outdoor stuff, something during the convention, and makes for easier foot traffic. From there you can cut back up into the downtown core.

The core is connected by several skybridges. These can be a little confusing at first but they are a great resource because you can cut a straighter line than is normally possible with streets and you don't have to wait for lights. Additionally, some of the skywalks are private, requiring keys from different hotels. The main passage is in the corner of the convention center closest to downtown. It connects to the parking structure and then passes into the Hyatt and the Circle Mall. The circle mall path will be one you likely use often.

Stay away from the Fantasy Flight booth: every year their new product causes a snaking spiral of humans to encircle their booth and run down the wall connected to them. Get around this by cutting deeper into the hall: take 1300 or 1400 (or 400 or 600 if coming the other way) to go a few pathways out of the way before continuring across. It usually calms down by Saturday but it more or less always has a line and the booth itself is stuffed with material so it can be hard to get into.

I'll add anything else as I think of it.

[Marik]

Hey all. 

I was thinking about running a CoC scenario for any RPPR listener who has the time and wants to have some totally non-violent fun.  I am going to run the second half of the Payday scenario, the one that deal with the stolen book after the heist.

If anyone is interested, let me know.

I'm very interested in this. Should we be PM our interest or replying? I'd like to know when it would be asap as I may have to shuffle some events (which I was planning to do anyways because of the meetup).

Marik

[clockworkjoe]

Somewhat related: So, Gencon, is coming up. What kind of content do you guys want the most from us? Obviously we plan to record another Adam Scott Glancy run Call of Cthulhu game and at least a few panels. We also have a HD camera that I plan to bring, so we can record video as well. What do you want to see or hear?

[Tim]

I got five words for you: "Fear and Loathing in Indianapolis."

[Tim]

I enjoyed the interview you did with Ken and Robin for the Unspeakable so a few items like that would be good.

I also want to force you to take Caleb back to that terrible steak house and record his weeping as he breaks.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Ambushing game designers with weird game pitches was cool last time. You could do something similar with another old game.

Point the camera at Greg Stolze and let him go.

I've often thought about watching a History channel style show narrated by Adam Scott Glancy. Something like "Drunk History" where you get the narration and then have actors match it, not the actual historical events. I invision a story that keeps jumping from horrible event or horrible event across time and distance. That's a little much for the con so maybe just get Glancy to share an especially horrible story from playtesting stuff at Pagan on camera.

[Kamen]

Kinda like what Tad is saying, but a bit more general, interview a bunch of game designers and have them tell weird/funny/horrifying anecdotes and stories about their home sessions, be they recent or way in the past. Getting to hear Glancy or Jack Graham rant about past games sounds like comedy gold to me.

Getting to hear any games that the RPPR crew gets to play in, rather than run, would be cool, too. I know Ross and Caleb are gonna be all over the place between GMing, panels, interviews, and whatever booth time they may have to put in, but getting to hear their experiences with new games is awesome.

[BeyondSandrock]

Since I'm not running any official games this year I am considering running a couple of after-hours games if anybody is interested (and has the time).  The first is another run-through of The Beloved Dead (mainly to work out the kinks and try some new things out) and the second is a new CoC scenario called The Black Dream, which is set in a Chinese black jail (illegal prisons for political petitioners).  If anybody is interested feel free to message me and we figure out when would be the best time for everybody playing.