This is our final GenCon 2008 Report.  It is an overview of the con with positives and negatives according to attendee Chase.

We will be returning to other gaming topics soon such as confirmed releases for Set 4 of War at Sea and a splash of 40k.  Lots of great games happening and GenCon is the impetus for much of that.  

Hope you enjoy this final installment of GenCon 2008 Report.

Gencon 2008 was a really good time overall.  The Con itself was a really positive experience.  Personally, I lucked out and got some great DM’s running the games I played.

My favorite events were:  The Dungeon Crawl Classics tournament, the Living Forgotten Realms 8 hour Special Event, and True Dungeon (as usual).

Pleasant Surprises:  the DCC event, good RPGA DM’s, Elmanster the Invincible (my Elf Cleric made 100% of win), Heidi, my question to the R&D guys not sounding completely retarded.

Disappointments:  2.5 hour skill challenges, < 4 or 5 hours of sleep 6 days in a row, Elmanster not ascending to godhood at level 3, the dealer room.

The dealer room really was lack luster.  I spent maybe an hour in there over the 4 days.  The Paizo booth, the Upper Deck booth, and the Privateer booth were the most busy (and best).  WotC didn’t have anything to special going on other than a 17th level Dungeon Delve… but the lines at all booths were to long to wait in.

Pro Tip:  Never, ever drive to Gencon.  It’s pretty much the definition of hell on earth.  I’ve made plenty of mistakes in 2008, but this might be one of the worst.

Today is the first day back for most if not all of the attendees at GenCon Indianapolis 2008 from Battleground Games in Abington.  The owner of the store, Derek, has been posting intermittent reports on their message board about GenCon and we’re sharing his final one with all of you.

Fear not for there will be one more GenCon 2008 Report to come.  It will be a summary of GenCon with pros and cons by Battleground Games attendee Chase.  Look for it soon.

We have safely returned from GENCON.

As it turns out, our group progressed to the final round of the D&D Open. Unfortunately, we were thwarted in the last leg of the competition pretty much due to the fact that our DM was exceptionally slow. On average, it took him 10 minutes of game time to determine the order people should go in initiative each time an encounter began. Essentially, we lost close to half an hour of a four hour timed game to the collecting and sorting of initiative cards. To add, this was just one of many slow downs caused by our DM. Oh well. Glory must wait for another year.

I posted the video of Chase’s exchange with the R&D staff of D&D 4th edition on Youtube. You can view it here (he asks the second question in the video):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9wtKg79fN4[/youtube]

Overall, it was a really good show. The exhibit hall was a little underwhelming in comparison to years past, but I think that might be because 4th edition D&D is so new and the industry is sort of in a state of flux. I was able to find and purchase a large Dalek action figure, complete with plunger appendages – so that, at least, was a major success.

Declan Lynch, one of our Tuesday night D&D Miniatures players, came in 5th place in the D&D Miniatures Championship Tournament. Congratulations Declan! That tournament is tough to even qualify for, let alone come in 5th in the world!

There were lots of funny stories/moments that I’m sure you’ll overhear me chatting about at the store so I’ll just wait to tell you those in person Smiley

Good to be back!

D. 

Today ends GenCon Indianapolis 2008.  The owner of Battleground Games in Abington has been posting intermittent reports on their message board about GenCon and we’ve taken the liberty of sharing his most recent one with all of you.

This is a great way for us to be in the midst of activity without making the trek to GenCon.

It’s Friday evening here in Indianapolis and all is going well.

The dealer hall is not quite as exciting as it has been in years past. At least, there isn’t anything that I didn’t already know about.

The Paizo booth is perhaps one of my favorite stops. They’ve released (and sold out of) the Pathfinder Beta rulebook (essentially a beta version of what amounts to “3.75” D&D). It’s a really interesting book that I expect will be very popular over the next few months at the store for those who aren’t ready to let go of 3.5 D&D. It’s far more interesting than I had expected it to be. I think we’ll have this book in the store sometime over the next few weeks. Definitely check it out.

On Thursday, six of us entered the D&D Open Tournament (a competitive, 3 or 4 round D&D Tournamtent) and have successfully advanced to the second round this Saturday. On Thursday night we survived the True Dungeon experience. It’s sort of like a live-action, puzzle-solving series of rooms in which you race against the clock to find the solution on how to progress to the next chamber. We made it through alive, only failing one puzzle in the first room. Luckily, we killed the stirges that attacked us and were able to continue.

Friday morning, we went to the D&D 4th edition R&D seminar. Chase was finally able to put the lead designers of 4th edition in the hotseat by asking them to clarify a as-yet unanswered question regarding rogue sneak attack damage and whether or not it’s maximized on a critical hit. He pointed out to them some flaws in their rules terminology and am happy to report that he had James Wyatt furiously scribbling on a piece of paper notes on the inconsistent rules.

“We’ll look into that,” they said.

“Please do,” said Chase. It was very funny, and I have it on video. Youtube FTW.

Later that afternoon, eight of us played in two groups of four in the Dungeon Crawl Classics Tournament. Group one consisted of Matt MacGregor, Rob Aldred, George Collins and myself. The other consisted of Chase Laquidara, Cale Laquidara, Adam Zaremba and Joe Creighton. My group… did not do so well. Matt’s character and my character died in the first encounter, while George and Rob survived for two more encounters before meeting their doom. The other group had a great run, surviving against all odds before finishing their session in a slaughterfest in which they brought down 56 minions before time ran out. We’re currently waiting to see if they did well enough to advance to the next round tomorrow. Hopefully, they’ll be posting the results soon.

Tonight, we’re going to try to enter an event called “The Tower of Gygax.” It’s basically a 1st Edition D&D game being run in honor of the passing of Gary Gygax. It’s supposed to be super-hard, run in the spirit of the famous killer-dungeon: “The Tomb of Horros.” I’m hoping our characters die in the first 5 minutes to uphold that spirit, and the memory of my personal hero.

Tomorrow, is the big D&D Miniatures tournament, in which some of our Tuesday night players from Battleground will be competing. Hopefully their D20’s will not be cruel to them.

That’s all for now…

D.