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djfooboo posted:
I got a free copy as they were throwing out their demo games, what's the game like at 3 or fewer?
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Aug 4, 2015 18:53
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Couple of quick things I forgot to post too: Food trucks are usually tasty but overpriced The Ruth's Chris pickup lunch was loving terrible. Mine was free and I was still mad at how lovely it was. Two dinner roll sized sandwiches that were microwave quality patties and bread, no toppings at all, a bag of chips, and a cookie. Can't believe they were charging like $12 bucks for it. I wasn't a fan of Ruth's before but this sealed the deal. High Velocity has drat good burgers. The pretzel bun was one of the best I've ever had, and this burger made it onto my top ten list. The Gencon beer was good. Not as sweet as I thought it was going to be, which was a good thing. FFG line should go out the hall instead of wrapping around and blocking other vendors booths FFS. Miserably managed. Chessex does not deserve like 5 different booths for the same poo poo when plenty of vendors don't even get a single one because of space. Artist alley was meh and should definitely be moved to make space. People with rolling luggage and beach carts in the exhibitors hall should be executed. Indi is a great city, definitely enjoying my stay here this week as well as last weekend. Shapiros Kosher Deli is expensive but so worth it. Best Reuben of my life. The Gencon ball started out as the most awkward thing I've ever seen but quickly turned into a great time. Just took a bit of booze and some actual dance music to bring out the fun. Cash is definitely king, you can get great deals if you pay cash (even more so when you have exact change). Indi CVS's close at 7pm. The gently caress? There is a severe lack of grocery stores or convenience stores near the ICC. Made a couple of good hikes to get food for the hotel. Sunday felt like a waste, especially when the Thursday-Saturday ticket was only $55. Happy that I kept an open schedule to explore and demo stuff, but next year I'll probably plan 1-2 events a day. Really hated that some games required a ticket to demo, seemed really lovely and the one game I did that for was junk (Epic card game from the Star Realms guys). Favorite games from Gencon were Arcadia Quest, Pocket Imperium, and Flick em Up. Duds for me were Rattle Battle Grab the Loot (great art and components, very meh game), Codenames (just don't buy the hype), and all the games I couldn't find here! Overall I had a great first Gencon and look forward to next year!
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Aug 4, 2015 18:53
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Just put my Gen Con up elsewhere, so here it is with some names removed. Great overall, wish I had more auction time but that's true every year. At some point I should just volunteer there all 4 days but that probably won't happen unless I stop coming with friends that actually want to do stuff. Post Gen Con Report: Took 3 Gen Con newbies with me this year. I was excited to see how they were interact with everything in Indy for these few days. We flew in on Wednesday fairly early, checked into the Westin and went straight to the convention center to get our badges. The line was long as always but things went quick. We walked around the convention center some, picked up a couple of shirts and just generally oriented everyone to where things were going to be and just people watching. We then headed out for a late lunch/early dinner at the RAM, picked up some growlers and just took in the area around Gen Con. Two friends had a late evening game of Death Cup and I went and had a late night snack with my parents before calling it a night. On Thursday we started the con right off with a game. We played escape the room, which I believe was my first time as well as the rest of our small group's. The game was fun, but unfortunately dominated by a very over eager dad and his two children. It was ok for a while, but when it came down to the last 15 minutes or so I think everyone in our group was just done and let them do whatever. After escape the room I headed into the vendor hall very briefly while my traveling companions went off to play in a Shuffling Horror game. I found a great deal on about 40 DCC modules and picked up some loose Dwarven Forge lava tiles by weight and then went to drop them off in the room. I then headed over to the Contessa opening ceremonies which I was definitely looking forward to. Stacy Dellorfano, Margaret Weiss and Shanna Germain gave some great talks, and Margaret's and Shanna's combined hit a lot of the same notes and issues that Brenda Romero hit at the GLS 11 conference a couple of weeks ago. Once Contessa wrapped up I met up with everyone to head over to the vendor hall for their first time. It was great to see it was busy but not so much you couldn't get through everywhere. We wandered around for a while until everyone was overwhelmed having seen about 10% of the space and headed to Scotty's for a mid-afternoon lunch. Food was good but we were dissapointed that there were no vegetarian options on the special Gen Con menu. Still, we grabbed our free dice for eating there and headed back to the vendor hall for a bit before our evening games with Contessa. Kevin got to play in a game of Horror of Ashwood Inn that sounded great while Kate and I played in a BX game of Palace of the Silver Princess (very fitting real life background on that module for Contessa). Was a lot of fun and we pretty much just wrapped up for the night after that. Friday was a very open day for most of us. We had shuffled a few event tickets around to Saturday since we knew it would be far busier, so we wanted to have more free time this day. A lot of time and too much money spent in the vendor hall. We discovered Patachou for breakfast that was great and not horribly busy. Definitely a place to remember for future years when we don't have a free breakfast provided for the hotel. Two of us went to a Q&A of Trace Beaulieu from M3T3K that was great. Later we went to a place called Pearings that was like an interesting mix of frozen yogurt bar, cafe and beer bar. I tried the official Gen Con beer, "Drink on and Prosper," that unfortunately tasted like sweet tarts and mushrooms. We also wandered over to the marketplace on Friday for a late lunch at Three Carrots which had really good vegetarian food. I headed to the auction to talk to some friends and hopefully bid on a few things. I wasn't able to stick around as long or talk to people as long as I would have liked, but still glad to have at least been able to say hi Frank Mentzer and some others. Saturday, event wise, was our busiest day. Had breakfast again at Patachou, then briefly went to the vendor hall which was absolutely crazy. I am glad to see that Gen Con is getting much better with handling cosplayers (or really those that photograph them). Only had one issue in the vendor hall with someone who had brought in a working R2D2 that clogged a main entrance with everyone trying to take pictures. The rest of the madness was out in the main hallway in front of the vendor hall. At noon I headed up to the miniature hobby area to do a speed painting contest with Dark Sword Miniatures. First time doing one, and I didn't place but I didn't get my model pushed back till near the end. Still fun and a little tense in a good way and a free mini and brush out of it. After painting and a quick stop at the food trucks I went on a mission to track down Mike Mearls for an awesome Dungeon Master patch I saw mentioned on twitter. Mission was successful, patch secured and off I went to join everyone at a concert for the Double Clicks. Their songs were great as was the show. There was a little time left after their show and a couple things we wanted to grab so one more trip to the vendor hall before resting in the hotel room for a while since we were expecting a late night. At 9pm we all had tickets for the D&D Epic event Blood Above, Blood Below. Our DM did a great job, and though I didn't think the module or event space was as good as the epic last year everyone enjoyed themselves and still had a great time. Things wrapped up just after midnight, so we tried to head to the Chaldea screening but unfortunately the doors were locked by the time we got there. It was late and we were all tired, so back to the room we went. Everyone was tired the morning of Sunday with so much going on. We took our time packing and getting breakfast. It took a while to find somewhere to get breakfast since almost everywhere was closed and we forgot about the food trucks somehow. We spent some time milling around the convention center and vendor hall until our capstone event for the con of True Dungeon. We did the puzzle version of Into the Underdark and everyone had a blast. Much excitement to be had. We did pretty well too, only losing one person (Sarah) in the last puzzle of the dungeon which we were not able to solve. Afterwards we met up with my parents one more time and then off to the airport to get things straightened out about our flight that was cancelled. Overall I had a great time and looking forward to next year already!
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Aug 4, 2015 19:00
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Bottom Liner posted:Favorite games from Gencon were Arcadia Quest, Pocket Imperium, and Flick em Up. Duds for me were Rattle Battle Grab the Loot (great art and components, very meh game), Codenames (just don't buy the hype), and all the games I couldn't find here! You never played Arcadia Quest with me 
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Aug 4, 2015 19:00
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For anyone who wasn't using it, the GroupMe app was really nice, very funny at times and it's the only reason I snagged GoT, thanks to Kim. Get on that poo poo next year.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:03
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Kaddish posted:You never played Arcadia Quest with me I know, didn't even get to open my box
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Aug 4, 2015 19:08
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I played a demo of Arcadia Quest where the drat demoer kept telling us what to do instead of letting us play the drat game.
djfooboo fucked around with this message at 19:24 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 19:17
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BlackIronHeart posted:For anyone who wasn't using it, the GroupMe app was really nice, very funny at times and it's the only reason I snagged GoT, thanks to Kim. Get on that poo poo next year. Mute us while you're sleeping
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Aug 4, 2015 19:21
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What is Arcadia Quest? I saw the boxes and signs for it all weekend but never actually saw the booth.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:23
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Fast paced, easy to learn/teach dungeon crawl-hack and slash board game. You play a guild of 3 characters and the monsters don't require a dedicated player, unlike Descent, etc. it's modular with a campaign and a mix of pve and pvp quests. Most scenarios are 30 minutes to an hour, and you pick 6 for a full campaign. Really fun.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:26
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Does it have roll to hit?
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Aug 4, 2015 19:29
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Countblanc posted:Does it have roll to hit? Of course it does. It's CMON.
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Aug 4, 2015 19:37
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Bottom Liner posted:The Gencon ball started out as the most awkward thing I've ever seen but quickly turned into a great time. Just took a bit of booze and some actual dance music to bring out the fun. I realize that it is a DIFFERENT KIND OF DANCING, but I highly recommend shelling out for the beginning dance classes at Gen Con. I've had various people try to teach me how to ballroom/swing dance over the years, but nobody seems to realize that I have literally no experience doing it and that you have to start me from scratch. They really do get that we're all nerds with no dance experience (if you sign up for the beginner courses) and start you out nicely from there, and I ended up having a really great time. djfooboo posted:I played a demo of Arcadia Quest where the drat demoer kept telling us what to do instead of letting us play the drat game. We tried a demo of Incredible Expeditions and some sperglord came over and kept trying to tell my fiance what to do, even though my friend standing next to her was making a few more mistakes. I want to give a shout-out to the guy demoing, because he understood what was going on, calmly stated to him that my fiance could decide on whatever it was that she wanted to do, and then politely asked him to stop putting all of his weight on the table because the table wasn't very sturdy (I could feel the surface shaking). I know you can always expect a few at GenCon, but still. Nevertheless, we had a great time! They were very nice people and quite affable even though they had to demo that thing all day. Bottom Liner posted:Overall I had a great first Gencon and look forward to next year! There's so much to do at Gen Con that you could probably do something different every single year/day and never get tired - there's literally that much stuff going on! And there's still a lot to do even if you don't want to pay money for events, too. I'll draft up an after-action report soon...
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Aug 4, 2015 19:44
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Deviant posted:This sounds like our adventures with Horizon Starship Simulator, which was going very well until Sithwitch's husband drove us into the surface of Mars. Now sad I missed this, especially since there wasn't a thing I could do at the airport about my cancelled flight other than get a hotel room from them and stay until the next day. djfooboo posted:Codenames was the game of the con for me. 20bux for an awesome game I can play with anyone that is an entry to Vlaada! Look at this good opinion about Codenames. Bottom Liner posted:Duds for me were Rattle Battle Grab the Loot (great art and components, very meh game), Codenames (just don't buy the hype), and all the games I couldn't find here! Look at this terrible opinion about Codenames. TheHoosier posted:Mute us while you're sleeping Never allow GroupMe to make noise. Almost always a bad idea. But the GroupMe was awesome for finding goons for games and food. Or abusing Mudcrab's ability to be in the exhibit hall early even if I failed to wake up early enough to get in on the action. Had a great time at my first GenCon almost everything I played was fun. I really really wanted the NSDM game to be awesome. It seems like a great idea, I just don't think they pulled it off. Maybe they allowed too many people in so you end up with people getting relatively minor/isolated roles, but after having very little to do as my in-game persona I ended up just going down to the bar after a couple hours since the only action post-role-distribution that made sense for my character got shot down by the judge as a politburo decision that I couldn't initiate. Also really need to get a closer hotel, so I guess badges in January.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:27
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fordan posted:Look at this terrible opinion about Codenames. Seconded. Man, we played more Codenames than anything else anyone bought at the show. Was sad I missed out on it myself, they only had preordered copies left by the time I went by on Saturday.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:39
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fordan posted:
Also the American moderator was a bit of a prick.
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Aug 4, 2015 20:57
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I cant praise the food recommendations enough again saved our groups con woes of food problems and ended them with a boon of most excellent Indian fare. Picked up all of Lost Legacy due to goon recommends.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:11
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I completely skipped the food trucks this year and just walked further, there were always shorter lines and better food if you willing to just go a block or two beyond the center. I'm sure there's an amazing food truck or three, but generally the things the food trucks are best for is opening up seats and lines elsewhere.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:28
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Someone mentioned Fogo De Chao here and our whole group enjoyed it, it compared very nicely to the Churrascaria I go to out here (some better/unavailable options, like their ribs, sausage, and asparagus, but some omissions like chicken hearts and their beans sucked compared to Agora out here in Irvine CA) and we had a wonderful time. Highlight of the trip was playing Fiasco with some friends the night prior, though - it's basically a Coen Brothers Movie Simulator and while it's waaaay freeform roleplaying, that's exactly what our group enjoys. Conversely, we played some Disaster Movie type game that was the same thing but had a ton of rules that made it suck.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:44
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I ate at Loughmillers 4 times and Harry & Izzys twice. I think I waited in line for all of those trips for the same amount of time I would have waited for 1 trip to the food trucks. Also: notice me Bucnasti-senpai. You ran my game. The one where the Honeypot's player showed up with a liter of gin. Edit: Sigma-X posted:Highlight of the trip was playing Fiasco with some friends the night prior, though - it's basically a Coen Brothers Movie Simulator and while it's waaaay freeform roleplaying, that's exactly what our group enjoys. Conversely, we played some Disaster Movie type game that was the same thing but had a ton of rules that made it suck. Fiasco goons represent.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:50
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Haha, I ate at Loughmiller's twice and one of my friends ate there at least 3 or 4 times. It was really the best place to quickly get a good burger and beer.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:52
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Harry & Izzy's was great, the bacon plate and the roast beef sandwich were amazing. I was a little lukewarm on their fries but I don't think any place I went to had good fries, pretty average tater ratings all around.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:54
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Alien Rope Burn posted:I completely skipped the food trucks this year and just walked further, there were always shorter lines and better food if you willing to just go a block or two beyond the center. I'm sure there's an amazing food truck or three, but generally the things the food trucks are best for is opening up seats and lines elsewhere. Yeah we walked a block past the food truck area and found the Yard House almost deserted, was nice to just chill out someplace cool and quiet for an hour. Ego Trip posted:Also: notice me Bucnasti-senpai. You ran my game. The one where the Honeypot's player showed up with a liter of gin. AH! Ego Trip! I was so blitzed by the end I forgot your name. That was a fun game, I always say So77 is best with a little booze.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:55
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Quick after action from me! Wednesday There is only the road. Driving is all there is. Give yourself unto the road. Thursday Boom, right into my first game of the week. I endevoured to play as many RPGs as physically possible this year. This was kinda the worst one I was in. The GM had no idea what he was doing, the scenario was kinda trash and the system was poorly explained. My co-players was also very lame. Followed this up by a walk around the convention hall, and then swung by to meet up with the rest of my group for an hour before dropping into a Monsterhearts game. That was kiiiiiinda cool and kiiiiiinda lame, in equal measures. We spent most of the time just genning up a world in someones naff homebrew Apoc world system/setting while the GM gushed over pretty basic narrativist stuff (Whoa bonds?!). The evening I spent wandering Indy and then went for shakes at the Steak and Shake near my hotel, not the poo poo and steak near the con. Friday I ran my first game at a con! It was a smash, according to the people in it (Some goons here can attest or reject this!) but I had a great time running it, and I'm strongly considering getting my ticket comped next year by running games. One guy, not a goon, told me they had the most fun they'd ever had at a convention at my game which was kinda mindblowing. Following this I spent most of my time in the expo hall, buying poo poo. Echoing most of the thoughts RE:Crowds and how insane Chessex is. I did discover the Dings and Dents section of CSI, which was neat, It was usually only $5 off amazon, but that's enough to justify a purchase as far as I'm concerned. Wandered Artists Alley and found it kinda wanting this year. Ended my evening with a Fiasco game with goons! Which was Rad! I've always wanted to play that and I had a great time, thanks to everyone there. Saturday Saturday I went a bit mental and spent literally all day in RPGs, besides a quick jaunt around the con hall and in the Auction hall. Games On Demand is a great way to get into games, even if those games are of varying quality. Played a Fragged Empire game with my wife and an ubernerd who spent the entire game telling her her various options during play despite her instances that she knew that she could, infact, carry a gun in the game. I basically sat in On Demand pickup games all day, ending with a fantastic game of 5th Ed that went sound right at the end when the party went all 'lolevil' but it was 2am at that point so I get it I guess. There was another ubernerd here who kept hitting on the other woman I was with and that made things kinda awkward. She was fine but still. Nerds man. Sunday There is only the road. The unforgiving, endless road. Quick things: GroupMe will make you look like a God to your friends. Games of RPGs they've always wanted to play, incredible food, endless games into the night, special deals and the locations and times of everything at your fingertips. At one point I asked people where a certain booth was, without knowing the game, and 4 or 5 goons were suddenly searching for it with me. Eat well while you're there. My one secret location (that is 30 mins away and you should cab to) is the Old Pointe Tavern. Get the Nachos. They give you enough to feed an army and they are so so so tasty. Ego Trip posted:Fiasco goons represent. Holla, get dat stroke weed son
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Aug 4, 2015 22:59
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Trip report! I went with a group of 5, including 3 newbies to gencon. Stayed at the Omni. It was great once again, their restaurant is the best and that apple-butter burger is insane. I ate like 5 of them this year.  Games I played included Battletech, miniature speed paint contests, Dungeon World (the game run by Nemesis Of Moles, and later at the hotel), Artemis, DrunkQuest, D&D5 and the BSG board game. Everything was great except the D&D. Their organization this year was pretty rough. Lots of craziness this year. -The convention center turned the lights out on us Friday night at exactly midnight - with hundreds of people still playing games. They came on again about 15 minutes later.  -We went to the Legendary Drunk-rear end Party. Basically lots of drinking games one night at a back room of the Ram. Worth every penny. Don't bother scheduling anything for the next morning. -Watched bums fistfight at White Castle around 3am. -Watched Ice Pirates while drinking Dragon's Milk at Scottys. -Placed 3rd in speed painting!   My home group is pretty determined to setup Artemis on a big screen. Battletech has also been bought after some really well-run demos by Catalyst. ritorix fucked around with this message at 23:45 on Aug 4, 2015 |
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Aug 4, 2015 23:34
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For a first timer things went off pretty well for me. I demo'd a bunch of things, a favorite actually being the new Fury of Dracula which I really enjoyed in the 20 minutes I had with it. The art is fantastic, the board in particular being really gorgeous, and the mechanics of hunting Dracula seemed to work well and were different enough. I know I've heard before the original had some pretty serious late game issues so I'll probably wait to learn more and see if they've made some changes. Other random thoughts: I finally got to spend some time learning Legendary (Thanks, Joe) and had an all around blast with that. Dark Moon was fun and pretty quick (But oh god that manual) right up until Matt somehow blew us up. As a good guy. Lastly, as everyone else said, huge props to Lauren and Kim for braving the FFG line and helping us all out. Also, I think I had 6 meals and Harry and Izzys. That bacon slab.
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Aug 4, 2015 23:38
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Deviant posted:Also the American moderator was a bit of a prick. Husband heard the moderators bitching in the hallway that they were completely understaffed and that out session had way more people than they were prepared for. Which still doesn't excuse the American moderator for being a prick.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:28
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Gencon report: Beat Countblanc at Yomi again.
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Aug 5, 2015 00:40
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sithwitch13 posted:Husband heard the moderators bitching in the hallway that they were completely understaffed and that out session had way more people than they were prepared for. Which still doesn't excuse the American moderator for being a prick. I have to wonder how you can manage that when you have to declare how many people you're taking for an event in the first place. 
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Aug 5, 2015 00:41
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Nemesis Of Moles posted:Quick after action from me! Can confirm that a Nemesis Of Moles dungeon is loads of fun, just watch out for crystal wizards and the biclops.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:56
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Haul pic!
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Aug 5, 2015 04:21
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Crackbone posted:Gencon report: Apparently I was loving born to play Welcome to the Dungeon and Flash Duel though.
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Aug 5, 2015 05:11
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LuiCypher posted:Someone overhead me grousing about this to my fiancee and he turned around and asked me if I was talking about SomethingAwful. I confirmed my status and he turned around and wistfully stated "I love this convention." If you are around, that was very much appreciated That was me! I would have stuck around to be goony for a bit, but WizKids had me working from 9 AM until 8 PM each day, which meant my only time in the exhibit hall was during my lunch break. In spite of the long work hours, this was a good convention. WizKids held the HeroClix world championships at Origins this year, which meant that the people who turned out to play at Gen-Con were not the super-competitive types. Made for a really relaxed and friendly atmosphere around our area. Biggest letdown was missing TOVA, particularly since Quarex had to step to the fore as the lead funny guy this year. Between the exhibit floor, Artist's Alley, and the auction store, I was able to pick up a good array of pieces. I'm not sure exactly when I went from buying games at Gen-Con to buying art, but it does make my house look pretty cool.
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Aug 5, 2015 05:47
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djfooboo posted:
You sir, have not played in a good group with 4+. Nevermore is great with more.
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Aug 5, 2015 05:53
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I didn't make it into the auction a single time this year
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Aug 5, 2015 05:58
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Mr.Trifecta posted:You sir, have not played in a good group with 4+. Nevermore is great with more. I played it today with 6 and thought it was terrible. Didn't help that I think the owner read about half the rules and made the rest up as he went along. I swear they changed half a dozen times. You can't get VP as a crow. Yeah and you do that to get a VP as a crow. Umm.what? I know the game took over an hour. Maybe more like an hour and a half. Was just glad it was over. Sorry, bitter. I wanted to play Whitechapel or One Night instead.
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Aug 5, 2015 06:01
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Haul pic! Piles of Evil Hikaru. Piles!
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Aug 5, 2015 06:02
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QnoisX posted:I played it today with 6 and thought it was terrible. Didn't help that I think the owner read about half the rules and made the rest up as he went along. I swear they changed half a dozen times. You can't get VP as a crow. Yeah and you do that to get a VP as a crow. Umm.what? I know the game took over an hour. Maybe more like an hour and a half. Was just glad it was over. Sorry, bitter. I wanted to play Whitechapel or One Night instead. I haven't played with 6, played with 5. Yeah its a game of "play the magic cards as late as possible in the phase". Had 5 ravens, by giving myself a raven, then someone switched hands with me only for me to play a card that discarded all the ravens. It is a cruel game. Rules are key.
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Aug 5, 2015 06:07
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Andarel posted:Piles of Evil Hikaru. Piles! Yeah, I need to find a good way to distribute all those to goons.
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Aug 5, 2015 06:10
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Le Woad posted:Also, I think I had 6 meals and Harry and Izzys. That bacon slab. Dem bacon sweats dude.
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Aug 5, 2015 07:25
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