Back from GenCon: So much laundry but at least the Tetris Effect is going away..

For a while, whenever I closed my eyes, all I saw were crowds of people milling about in my brain. So many amazing t-shirts, so little time to yell compliments as everyone hurried by to their next event! 🙂

This was my first time at GenCon. At any big gaming convention, in fact. It went by in a whirl of emotional and sensory overload. So much fun, so many kind and creative people, so many inspiring stories! I am including pictures and descriptions of this joy-filled time below. There will be no need to talk about how many new dice mysteriously snuck home with me…

First, the highlights.

Unquestionably, for me, the most meaningful, thrilling, and delightful of all was meeting Ed Greenwood!!!

To have the opportunity to speak to the creator of the world that we play in, and who has brought us hours and hours of adventure, friendship, laughter, tears, arguments, and happiness, was so special. Thank you Mr. Greenwood for being so gracious, funny, and generous. I continue to be awed by all that you have done and continue to do!

Next, seeing my giddy goblin beaming after getting their copy of Adventure Zone: The Suffering Game signed:

And, of course, I am so proud of, and happy for, my talented husband. He got to flex his GM muscles for Goodman Games, running a DCC module: Castle Whiterock. Check out:

https://www.facebook.com/share/cNz5b4hxGmVtPf8d/?mibextid=QwDbR1

for more info!

Now in chronological order…

Packed and ready to go:

Very relieved to arrive. And just a little loopy after 11 hours of driving:

Ready to go:

Head swimming a little from all the many, many people:

Clearly these four days took a toll on this elegant couple at Chaosium’s Room:

Thursday:

Sunday:

Welcome to the gaming floor!

I’m afraid we have to get a Wizard Van now…

And a goblin-size dice tower:

Nat 20!

But I’m drawing a line at this gong:

Goblin seriously considering lifting the top prize for the Spell Duel Tournament: Enter the Dagon. No Goblin! No!

Dungeon Crawl Classics = serious business:

GMs need time to plot:

And fuel up:

If you were wondering what was in all those bags and boxes:

All home-printed and painted terrain and minis. We are this spoilt in our home game too…

Again, so proud!

We had the chance to listen to, meet, and spend time with remarkable people that we have admired for a long time. I was too starry-eyed to see straight after meeting Ed Greenwood. But my family informs me that there were many other perfectly lovely folks at GenCon:

To all of those generous and hard-working people who give so much of their time and emotional energy to make so many others deliriously happy: thank you!!!

We could not be more giddy:

Also, thank you to all of those very dedicated individuals who put such effort and care into their superlative costumes! Your commitment is seen and greatly admired. You humble all those of us who take one horrified peek at the blistering weather forecast and take the cowardly path of the simplest clothing possible:

He even made up cards to hand out!

And there were trains:

I love trains! So, entirely unwarranted and gratuitously creepy statues notwithstanding, I know where I want to stay if we get to come back 🙂

Can you actually stay in the train cars?!?!

Decompressing after some very intense fun and, you know, extroverting…

This story was playing in the hotel lobby as we left. So, we got out of Indianapolis just in time, I guess?

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Heading east through Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, all the way home to Maryland, we passed through some really neat towns. Here is where we stopped for a mid-way break:

And then there is the unique charm of travel in the state with the USA’s most…special place names. Can anyone guess? Pennsylvania. Yeah, it’s Pennsylvania:

Another looooong drive behind us, and I am happy to report that all of us, all of the two and four-footed members of our little tribe, are home safe. The Cat, other than uttering a few carefully chosen phrases that are not fit to share with polite society, has not yet started speaking to me:

Dog One gave me one significant and dubious look:

Added a couple of remorselessly guilt-inducing stares, coldly asking whether GenCon was worth leaving him for for so long:

After a deeply satisfying (to him) 2 seconds of this, he forgave me my absence whole heartedly and sloppily:

There is such a thing as being smugly forgiving:

Dog One has now returned to his favorite activities: eating, sleeping, loving on his Humans, and working on his magnum opus: a complex legal treatise establishing the basic injustice of not considering an 85lb pet a lap-dog…

Dog Two refuse to allow his image to be used in this blog. No, seriously, my GM-the-Man, beloved husband has all of Dog Two’s heart in his keeping. And, while I was posting this, Dog Two was out running in delirious joy with his one and only Human.

Thank you so much to EH, aka Elie, for putting those animal handling skills to work keeping our most ferocious and grumpy animal companion fat and happy. The Cat wants to go and live with you now. I am pretending not to mind… 🙂

And thank you to Bettie for ensuring that the Dogs, both Neurotic and Needy, as well as Gluttonous, Gregarious and Gorgeous, were properly spoiled and pampered during our trip.