Gen Con! (Days 1...and 2, 3, and 4)

They call Gen Con the Best Four Days in Gaming...this is true. But, as a friend pointed out to me, it is also the best Four Days in Sleep Deprivation.

You go with the best of intentions: you won't stay out late, you will get sleep, you won't watch the sun rise...and it all goes out the window that first day.

Sleeping is iffy.

Blogging is right out.

So, here I sit, ready to do a massive wrap up of an amazing time...

Let us begin...

THURSDAY
Day One. The Kick Off. The Beginning. The Insanity. We managed to find decent parking not that far from the Con back behind Lucas Oil Field (pro-insiders tip: as long as there isn't a game it is less than 10 minutes from the hall and usually $10 all day).

I was trying to got to the class I had scheduled that morning at 11 AM, Introduction to Medieval Italian Longsword. Now, the SMART person would have taken advantage of the fact that the will call line was open 24-hours starting Wednesday and gone sometime before dinner the previous night, but I was not that smart, and the will call line was huge!

The costumes just get cuter every year...

I had my e-mail confirmation, and, as the class was being taught by folks from the Chicago Swordplay Guild out of Forteza Fitness, I figured I would be OK. The problem became that no one knew where the damn class was. Now, while wasting $2 is not the worst thing that could happen if I didn't go, I REALLY wanted to see how much I remembered from the Italian Longsword Class I took a few years ago with R & D Choreography. So, thank goodness for knowledgeable Gen Con info booths with smart phones. Yes, the class was all the way over at Union Station, but "all the way over" in Indy is less than 5 minutes at a brisk walk.

So, yes, I was a little late and, yes, there was an issue because I didn't have my actual ticket, but someone had a generic and I had cash, and it was a TON of fun re-learning how to kill people...

So pretty...

So pretty...

After that rousing good time, it was back to the hall, but then almost instantly out to lunch at that modern medieval tavern, Hooters. There is nothing classier than eating chicken wings in aelvin warrior outfit. 

So, Gen Con has been hitting bigger every year, and the exhibitors' hall keeps growing to accomadate that. What used to take one day now takes about one and half. Steve and I started our journey through the hall, window shopping and enjoying the amazing sights to be seen. 

This also means stopping by the always amazing Sasquatch Games and picking up copy of Primeval Thule, which you of course get signed by the authors, most of whom you are already friends with...

In preparation for Saturday, I stopped by the Timeless Trends booth, as the old corset for the Irene outfit was just getting painful to look at. As these are the people who provided me with the wonderful contraption that got me through "Sherlock", I just should have gone to then in the first place. Of course, not being able to work out for two months because you broke your wrist during one of the coldest winters in Chicago history isn't going to help much, either. 

Nothing bought yet, I promised to stop back, and went to grab my phone to find out where Steve had gotten off to, only discover that the phone would...not...turn...on. Thank goodness the lovely folks at Sasquatch Games are SO cool, and then you keep you claws in your hubby for the rest of the day. 

Realizing that doing the whole floor in one day was probably out, we made bee-line for the Artist Alley, as there was someone wanted to meet.

A few years ago, Steve worked on a very well received adventure, "Madness at Gardmore Abbey", which was preceded by another he worked on call "Siege at Gardmore Abbey." Here's the cover:

Well, meeting the artist and introducing yourself and having the guy get excited to meet you back pretty much makes your Con...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Ralph Horsley!

Yeah, he's pretty awesome.

So, we weren't done the the artwork yet. For years, Steve and I have been looking at the amazing artwork of Ms. Echo Chernik. This woman does nouvea-Mucha that makes me DROOL. We have been specifically looking at her Goddesses of Cuisine set. This year, we just bit the bullet and did it. 12 prints. 1 bonus.  Done.

Heading back to the car so we could change, we then wandered over and met up with Rob Schwalb, my husband's cohort on The Monster Manuel for 5E. We also got to hang out with Monte Cook and our friend, Shad. 

We did dinner at The Ram, where we met up with Chicago Game designer Eric Simon, author of Steamscapes, for which Steve did a shorty story for flavor. Then, back to the hotel, and sleep.