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Gooncon: Summer with Flavor 
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Aug 22, 2017 23:16
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djfooboo posted:Wait, we can reserve early rooms as government employees. Whaaaaat?
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Aug 22, 2017 23:31
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There's a certain number of rooms at each hotel earmarked for government employees (I'm actually a fed contractor, but it still worked). $125/night for the Hyatt this past con. 
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Aug 22, 2017 23:38
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The closest I will come to knowing a celebrity is my friendship with Dr. Quarex, auction superstar. In Gen-Con related news, my haul arrived today. I ended up scoring a copy of Demon: The Descent for $40, a bunch of Fantasy Flight Games books, the Burning Wheel Codex, a cheap set of Mage: The Awakening Tarot cards, and Millenium Blades. Also picked up a copy of Cutthroat Kingdoms and Catan for a friend. All in all a very good year, I had an excellent time and remembered it is the greatest year ever so instead of not going ever again I am definitely going next year.
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Aug 23, 2017 02:36
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Quarex: reminder that you need to upload hobocon so we can organize a group viewing I would upload the dungeons and dragons cartoons I won in the auction, but it appears someone already has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaJZpoC2_34
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Aug 23, 2017 02:57
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Did anyone see The Witcher roleplaying game, did it look any good?
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Aug 23, 2017 07:26
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LLSix posted:Just got back from my first Gen Con and I'm feeling distinctly underwhelmed. I had a hard time finding enough activities to stay busy. It felt like the whole place closed down much earlier than other cons and opened back up later in the morning. We were planning on staying the night this Sunday too, but when it came to it, neither of us could think of a reason to so we headed out when things started closing down at 4. I've been to 5 of these things, and for me it has always been about talking to designers who are passionate about what they do. So, while you find this sometimes with big companies, most often it's the small guys--though big shout out to White Wolf guys this year, I had some awesome conversations with them. I think I've actually played games with other people maybe 4 times in 5 years, and even those were in a "press" capacity--having a press badge really helps me with those above conversations. That being said, there always seems to be events and poo poo going on, some of which you obviously need to have generic tickets for, at all hours of the night. I'm honestly surprised that if hanging out and playing games with random people was your thing, that you and your wife had trouble. Granted, since I now live in this god forsaken town, I spent virtually no time downtown after hours this year.
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Aug 23, 2017 17:10
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As some of you know, I ran two instances of a Paranoia game that was a recreation of the Tomb of Horrors module. This is my After Action Report: The first game had a full showing, and managed to get through the entire 'dungeon', but there were definitely areas I could have improved on. Part of it was I was still rattled from losing my entire dice bag, but the biggest thing was that keeping all my notes and handouts organized turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated. When I did my second adventure I was a lot better in this area. My other self-criticism of the first game is that while it didn't take long for the players to galvanize into warring factions, they pretty much stuck to this initial alliance, which was disappointing. For the second game, I made some modifications to what handouts were handed out, and it produced the effect I wanted. While it took longer for troubleshooter-on-troubleshooter violence to get started, when it did it felt much more earned and chaotic. However, despite having a smaller group, the second game only got half-way through the dungeon by the time we hit the four-hour mark. So no one was sad when I just said "okay, Sealab-I mean Alpha Complex just blows up" so we could all In both games, I accidentally handed a player the wrong hand out, and in both cases I decided to roll with it. The first game had the more hilarious consequence, with the Troubleshooter murdering the NPC he was supposed to protect. Ultimately, Paranoia and Tomb of Horrors (or any classic module, really) go together like...well, like bourbon and pop-rocks. It's a fuckin' trip to consume it, but it's going to wreck your body and leave you exhausted. The problem is trying to manage all the various traps and note passing at the same time. If I had a vice-GM that was doing all the secret poo poo, or if I was doing this over pbp, it would probably work a lot better. In fact, I think I'm going to recruit for a game right now.
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Aug 23, 2017 17:51
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SirPhoebos posted:For the second game, I made some modifications to what handouts were handed out, and it produced the effect I wanted. While it took longer for troubleshooter-on-troubleshooter violence to get started, when it did it felt much more earned and chaotic. However, despite having a smaller group, the second game only got half-way through the dungeon by the time we hit the four-hour mark. So no one was sad when I just said "okay, Sealab-I mean Alpha Complex just blows up" so we could all It's always a risk when doing con games that you run out of time, but my pro tip for that would be to first keep an eye on the clock as you run stuff, after every "chunk" of your adventure, then secondly I recommend trying to structure your adventures so that its easy to swap stuff around and bring your narrative ending closer to hand. So for example, in my game, the Infernal Bone Machine, its separated into roughly 5 areas, but any one of them could trigger the End Game if I needed to. That's also including 2 separate areas that players may not even ever see (Theres a bit at the end where players have to contain a big ball of magic, and the adventure as written has them then go INTO the ball and fight the big bad in there, but no on ever did that, we just wrapped at the ball).
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Aug 23, 2017 18:22
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After being in a couple of adventures, I kind of want to run one or two next time I go to a Con. How do you go about doing that?
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Aug 23, 2017 21:33
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Its pretty easy, when the event registration opens up, go to the GM/EO Dashboard and click "Submit event". Fill out the form, then wait for it to be approved
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Aug 23, 2017 21:57
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Moriatti posted:After being in a couple of adventures, I kind of want to run one or two next time I go to a Con. How do you go about doing that?
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Aug 23, 2017 22:15
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I did it this year and got exactly the times I entered when creating the event. That said, I'm not exactly sure how time/rooms are assigned in the bowels of the event schedule. Also, check if the company who publishes the game is organizing events at the con. Many companies put out a call for GMs starting in February or March and they almost always need more people demoing them. They may reward you for running their game - ArcDream gives booth credit and goodies to hand out, Pelgrane does T-shirts and maybe something else, and Posthuman Studios pays their GMs. However, if you are running the event as a company associated one, you should get in touch with their organizer first. Often they'll even create the event for you, though you may not have as much control over the time in that case. For myself, I ran a Delta Green event for ArcDream this year and had a blast with it. (Hopefully my players did as well, since I killed all their characters.) It was a breeze on my end and I got a Delta Green raid jacket for free as a result. I would absolutely do it again.
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Aug 24, 2017 00:03
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Sionak posted:I did it this year and got exactly the times I entered when creating the event. That said, I'm not exactly sure how time/rooms are assigned in the bowels of the event schedule. Pelgrane gives GM's $5 booth credit for running and $1 both credit for each of the players. You can't spend more than $5 in coupons at the booth though so I don't know if you get more for running multiple games, I only ran 1. RocknRollaAyatollah fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Aug 24, 2017 |
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Aug 24, 2017 00:58
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 Another great Gen Con! Didn't get as much as I usually do, and it almost all went to RPGs this year. Picked up some Sentinels expansions and the Gloomhaven Broken Token kit, but most of my other friends bought the games I was interested in so I'll just leach off of them. I wanted to snag Vast after having a great demo of it with the artist and his wife, but it was $18 cheaper on Amazon and that was too much of a discount to ignore. This was my first time going with more than just one friend, and I was nervous about how it'd all work out, but we had a good balance of doing group things and separating. Played a ton of Pathfinder ACG (as always) and tried out Starfinder. I originally was ready to drop down a lot of money on Starfinder, but the event we played was pretty lackluster and it selling out on day 1 left a bad taste in my mouth. Ended up doing a demo of 7th Sea, as well, and falling in love with it so my group and I decided to jump into that.
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Aug 24, 2017 01:05
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Apparently Tom Vasal was furious at Alan Moon because he told the dam fish joke at the Dice Tower panel and there is swearing so Vasal thought it was inappropriate. Basically gently caress Tom Vasal.
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Aug 24, 2017 02:07
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Agrias120 posted:This was my first time going with more than just one friend, and I was nervous about how it'd all work out, but we had a good balance of doing group things and separating. Played a ton of Pathfinder ACG (as always) and tried out Starfinder. I originally was ready to drop down a lot of money on Starfinder, but the event we played was pretty lackluster and it selling out on day 1 left a bad taste in my mouth. Ended up doing a demo of 7th Sea, as well, and falling in love with it so my group and I decided to jump into that. 7th Sea is fun! I've got some issues with the second edition rules and my group is all aboard Apocalypse World lately but I'm hoping we'll get back to it someday. I leafed through the two new books and thought the Sorte deck was great.
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Aug 24, 2017 02:12
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Rad Valtar posted:
Though for the record I would never swear that casually in an actual event at an overtly family-friendly convention. So for as much as Tom Basalt... Tom Basalt... Dammit phone. For as much as he can choke on his high horse, he is certainly within his rights to be upset at his dude. Unless that was an adult event in which case yet again go to h*ck Tom.
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Aug 24, 2017 02:50
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Agrias120 posted:I originally was ready to drop down a lot of money on Starfinder, but the event we played was pretty lackluster and it selling out on day 1 left a bad taste in my mouth. Fragged Empire is the better choice there, I think, having gotten a look at Starfinger. I actually ran across some of the adventures in the auction store, and got the archives at IGDN, so I finally have a set of the main books and I'm pretty happy about it!
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Aug 24, 2017 03:13
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Starfinger A Phil Foglio joint.
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Aug 24, 2017 03:17
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CaptainRat posted:A Phil Foglio joint. Would've made for some more interesting hall banners, at the very least!
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Aug 24, 2017 03:25
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CaptainRat posted:A Phil Foglio joint. Great now i see phil foglio art in my brain
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Aug 24, 2017 03:28
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Tom Vasal is a pretty conservative evangelical Christian for those not too familiar with him. He's not a Mike Pence type, as far as I know, who thinks The Handmaid's Tale is a winning plan for America but he's practically Ned Flanders.
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Aug 24, 2017 03:29
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Dr. Quarex posted:After looking up the joke, I bet the fact that the straight man character is a priest is also part of why a humorless self-righteous Jesum would be angry about it. Counterpoint: Tom Vasel is a homophobic dickweasel and can choke on his own vomit.
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Aug 24, 2017 03:29
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Fragged Empire is the better choice there, I think, having gotten a look at Starfinger. I actually ran across some of the adventures in the auction store, and got the archives at IGDN, so I finally have a set of the main books and I'm pretty happy about it! Yeah, that's how I felt walking away, too. I backed the recent Fragged Kickstarter to get Fantasy/Aeternum/etc, and I wanted to snag the core book while I was at Gen Con if possible. I didn't realize the base setting was actually sci-fi themed until I picked it up to look at it, though, so it was a double win for me. Between this, 7th Sea, and a couple of systems our group's switch-hitter DM picked up, we might be moving off Pathfinder for good.
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Aug 24, 2017 03:38
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Deviant posted:Counterpoint: Tom Vasel is a homophobic dickweasel and can choke on his own vomit. Vote Dickweasel '20
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Aug 24, 2017 04:25
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Deviant posted:Counterpoint: Tom Vasel is a homophobic dickweasel and can choke on his own vomit. Harsh, but fair and accurate
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Aug 24, 2017 12:57
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Deviant posted:Counterpoint: Tom Vasel is a homophobic dickweasel and can choke on his own vomit. What's the details on this? I don't doubt it but I want to know for my own information and piece of mind. I casually follow him in as much as he's someone I know about, watched some videos he made, and am aware that he yelled at one of his kids in a video once to shut a door with the voice of a child abuser. I've also attended his convention twice but it's mostly just playing board games in a ballroom and getting games from Coolstuff and the flea market at a greater discount.
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Aug 24, 2017 13:34
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Deviant posted:Counterpoint: Tom Vasel is a homophobic dickweasel and can choke on his own vomit. Additional Point: He also has bad taste, or more precisely, bad standards in what makes a game good. Just ask the board gaming thread.
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Aug 24, 2017 16:10
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Rutibex's avatar isn't a joke.
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Aug 24, 2017 16:17
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RocknRollaAyatollah posted:What's the details on this? I don't doubt it but I want to know for my own information and piece of mind. I have watched him say homophobic things to my gay friend and then leave when pressed to defend his lovely stance. May he be found with a rentboy.
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Aug 25, 2017 05:19
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Deviant posted:I have watched him say homophobic things to my gay friend and then leave when pressed to defend his lovely stance. Good enough for me.
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Aug 25, 2017 15:11
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I'm only now seeing this thread, and I wish I knew about it while I was there! Regardless, I also had a good first Gen Con. My con peaked early, seeing TMBG play live and meeting some very cool folk. Otherwise, I really enjoyed learning a few LCG games, and Total Recall was a fun demo. Played in a pretty weird pick up DnD game too, so I'll definitely be more planned next con I go to.
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Aug 25, 2017 16:08
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I disagree on Total Recall, i found it dull and it didn't bring anything new to the hidden identity formula.
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Aug 25, 2017 16:29
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I want to do more events but planning with my poo poo head friends always leaves me wasting like 25 bucks in tickets every year. Edit: it's not really their fault, I just need to be better about doing poo poo my own.
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Aug 25, 2017 17:05
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tom vasel is also at least in some proximity to the quiverfull movement which is basically sharia for evangelicals
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Aug 25, 2017 18:14
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Belatedly, the one cool thing I forgot to list as part of my GenCon moments was the "Ancient Sisterhood of Gaming History" panel, which mainly had a bunch of ex-WotC female employees (including Lisa Stevens) and Nicole Lindroos telling their stories about getting involved in the TG industry. Lindroos telling stories about how they had Vampire laid out, and then the somewhat-dyslexic Rein-Hagen adding stuff at the last minute which required a last-minute panic edit and re-layout explains a lot how things tended to go down at early White Wolf. And about her leaving when she was essentially cut out of stock in the company. Lisa Stevens' story of basically going without pay for a time the first time she had to fire staff at Paizo felt really admirable at first (if she had to fire anybody, she'd felt like she'd failed) and now as I think about it explains a lot about some dysfunctions at Paizo, too... It was pretty good and easily overlooked. I know they had a lot of the Retrospective panels filmed so hopefully it should be available to a wider audience at some point.
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Aug 25, 2017 18:30
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 This man is/was a youth pastor.  Alien Rope Burn posted:
Any idea where they post the panel videos? I'd love to watch some. I need to make it a point to go to some next year.
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Aug 25, 2017 18:31
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Bottom Liner posted:[Any idea where they post the panel videos? I'd love to watch some. I need to make it a point to go to some next year. If they've been posted anywhere, I'm not aware of it. The only official video stuff I've been able to find is on their facebook page, and that's pretty sparse. I don't know whether or not they'll be publicly available, but I sure hope so.
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Aug 25, 2017 18:46
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The retrospective panel videos are planned to go up but I don't know where or when yet. Peter Adkison is editing them all, they had multiple cameras at each of them so I am not sure how they are going to end up exactly.
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Aug 25, 2017 19:01
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