Tabletop Tuesday: Gen Con Wrap Up
Hey all, Sam and David here.
Okay, this might end up being a bit long. Well, at least it’s certainly going to be a whole bunch of photos, so I don’t think we’re going to take too long with the intro section. We’ve tried for the most part to divide things up day by day at Gen Con (with the exception of the Writer’s Symposium photo dump).
It was a jam-packed four days of gaming and geekery and we’re excited to get into it.
But we should probably start with the fact that we were very sleep deprived on Thursday. So, Sam didn’t get off work until a little after 3am Central Time from her shift on Wednesday, making it already Thursday by the time that we got on the road towards Indianapolis. David had thankfully at least gotten a bit of a nap, although only 1.5 hours instead of the hoped for 3 hours. That meant that he was driving while tired….so Sam stayed awake to just talk and keep David going too. Thankfully we made it to our usual parking garage and made it into the convention center just a few minutes after the exhibit floor opened for the day…and we made it through the whole day without any chance to get any more sleep.
All right, let’s jump into the Day One fun…
Obviously here you can see our haul for the day. We can certainly admit that we went a bit crazy on picking up stuff this year, but we’re excited about so many games, and we’re going to have a lot of fun playing all of them.
One of the first places we ended up stopping at was the Dice Guardians booth, where David picked up an Ashton Greymoore Dice Guardian from Campaign 3 of “Critical Role.”
We also definitely had to find Lauren Walsh’s art booth to pick up some of her awesome Critical Role art (and David was introduced to the adorableness that is Woubble and he is now in love)…and Sam ended up getting signed character art along the way from M.L. Wang, and then we found Tyler Walpole to get some of his incredible Critical Role art.
We absolutely had to make a stop at the Paizo booth, and we picked up Kingmaker, Abomination Vault, Rage of Elements, and Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, plus the map folio and the management screen for Kingmaker, and the three parts of the Stolen Fate adventure path with the Harrow Deck to use alongside it.
We also picked up the Player’s Guide for Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition and the Core Rulebook for Werewolf the Apocalypse at Renegade Game Studios.
David picked up Bananya: the Card Game and a few core sets and expansion decks for Kamigami Battles from Japanime Games.
And David very very nicely bought the Deck of Worlds and all of its expansions for Sam at the booth for The Story Engine Deck…so yeah, expect the Deck of Worlds to start showing up for Weekend Writer prompt posts soon enough.
Oh, and David also made a stop by the Cosplay Deviants booth and picked up a deck of cards.
Sam: I started my day off with going to a book signing in the exhibit hall. It was supposed to be for R.R. Virdi and Erin M. Evans, but I found out when I got there that R.R. Virdi had cancelled his con appearance…which meant I was hauling around a 822 page hardcover for no reason. But I did get Empire of Exiles signed by Erin M Evans, and she gave me some cool bookmarks, character cards, and a sticker.
The last picture that hasn’t been talked about is the free books and bookish goodies I picked up at the Writer’s Symposium. They gave away a lot of Shadowrun books this year (and I’m happy to say that I’ve already found a friend who plans to give them a good home).
I also went to the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium, which I will talk more about in the next section.
David: Probably 90% of my time was spent checking things out in the Exhibition Hall. Trying out tabletop games and just generally hanging out with other board gamers. A few of the games I played as demos were Catapult Feud, Legendary: What If, Shadows of Brimstone: Gates of Valhalla, and Jungle Ball to name a few that I remember. I played and enjoyed so many that all of it kind of blends together.
Handed out a lot of goodies to Critters over the four days who all loved what we brought. We asked them their favorite of the three campaigns and they received a corresponding goody–a blue scrying poop for Campaign 1, a golden dick for Campaign 2, and a Pâté for Campaign 3.
These photos are of various panels, showing the panelists sitting at tables and speaking on the respective panel topics. First up is: Gregory A. Wilson, Katherine Monasterio, Howard Andrew Jones, and Bradley P. Beaulieu, then I forgot to take a photo from my second panel, which included Ajit George, Whitney Beltrán, Matt Forbeck, and Brandon O’Brien, next is E.D.E. (Emily) Bell and John Jennings, then Jennifer Allaway, Erin M. Evans, Sarah Hans, and Gini Koch, after that is E.D.E. (Emily) Bell, K.B. Wagers, and Brandon O’Brien, next is Toiya Kristen Finley, then Katharine Monasterio, and finally Karen Menzel, C.S.E. (Claire) Cooney, Brandon O’Brien, Monica Valentinelli, and Bryan Thao Warra.
Sam: I’m just going to talk about all of the Gen Con Writer’s Symposium here. I went to it on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And y’all, I took so many notes at my panels. I’m thinking of either talking about the panels in depth during some regular Weekend Writer posts, or possibly even just writing them up as bonus posts. I haven’t quite decided yet.
On Thursday I had Timing the Perfect Heroic Fight with Gregory A. Wilson, Katherine Monasterio, Howard Andrew Jones, and Bradley P. Beaulieu, and I feel like I learned a lot more from it than I did from my action/fight scene panel from last year. But the panel that really got me on Thursday was How to Get into TTRPG Writing with Ajit George, Whitney Beltrán, Matt Forbeck, and Brandon O’Brien. It was incredible and definitely got me motivated to work on some of my TTRPG ideas again.
Friday started with We’re in This Together: A Writing Community Discussion About Us with E.D.E. (Emily) Bell and John Jennings and I found a lot of what was said there to be pretty motivational and inspirational. I decided to skip my 3:00pm panel because we met up with our “Nerdparents,” a couple who owns a gaming and hobby shop back in Ohio, and they basically adopted us as their nerdlings. David and I were DMs at the shop for a couple years, and we just really like spending time with them, which was worth skipping out on Narrative Nightmares and Lessons Learned, even though I’m sure that would have been a handy panel. I ended my day with Comprehensive Intimate Scenes with Jennifer Allaway, Erin M. Evans, Sarah Hans, and Gini Koch, which was good, but didn’t give me as many tips and tricks as I had hoped for.
Saturday I started with Queernormative Language with E.D.E. (Emily) Bell, K.B. Wagers, and Brandon O’Brien, and that was certainly a useful panel. Then came my two workshop panels, as in they were ones with a ticket price (and they ended up giving me a hand cramp, but…worth it). First up was Making Stories More Immersive Through Descriptive Writing and Subtext with Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD…and I’m pretty sure I took like 8 pages of notes for that 50 minute panel alone. After that was First Chapter Milestones with Katharine Monasterio, and it was more useful than that book on beginnings I covered for Weekend Writer a couple months ago, and again, I think I wrote 7 or 8 pages of notes. Thankfully then I had an hour break before my final panel of the day: Speculative Poetry in Roleplaying Games with Karen Menzel, C.S.E. (Claire) Cooney, Brandon O’Brien, Monica Valentinelli, and Bryan Thao Warra….and it just might have inspired me to try writing poetry again. If the panel didn’t inspire me for that, then the conversation I had afterwards with C.S.E. Cooney while she was signing my copy of one of her books certainly helped.
And I decided not to go to my Sunday panel, which was Landing Your Character Arcs, because I literally did the panel last year. Originally I was going to do a compare/contrast on my notes and see if the advice shifted, because a couple of the panelists were the same as last year…but I decided I’d rather spend the day in the exhibit hall playtesting games with David.
Okay…that’s it for the Writer’s Symposium….back to the regular Gen Con wrap-up and haul….here’s Day Two…
We went back to Renegade Game Studio and picked up the Core Rulebook and the GM Screen and the Standee pack (plus Sam needed some dice) for the Power Rangers RPG, and we also picked up the Core Rulebook and the GM Screen for the My Little Pony RPG. David also had to pick up the Power Rangers Deck Building game.
At Magpie Games we also picked up Wizard Kittens and the Magical Monster expansion.
David picked up The Foulest of Spirits and Darkness in Genzacon from GooeyCube, which is 5e compatible adventures.
At Japanime Games, David picked up a copy of the TTRPG Glitter Hearts and also picked up a game called Dragon Pets.
And of course, Sam ended up with some more books…first off another Shadowrun book and Daughter of Redwinter by Ed McDonald from the Writer’s Symposium, but also Piercing the Veil by Steven A. Guglich, which was brought over by the Nerdparents from a signing they hosted a couple weeks ago.
Friday also included our annual dinner with the Nerdparents at Yard House for half-off appetizers. This year, we treated them to the meal, because we had some questions for them and needed advice on things.
David: We ended up giving the Nerdmother a care package filled with a bunch of really cool stuff to help her through some personal and medical things. Some nice coloring books and some Cinderwings that were really cute. I wish I could have done more but I think Sam’s idea was a fantastic one. This is where I learned there was a consignment/auction near where the writer’s symposium was and decided I would go check it out on Saturday since the prices would be their lowest that day. Tell you what though after all that fun I am glad I decided to get a room with a whirlpool tub in the bathroom.
Day Three….yes, we know, we picked up a lot of stuff. This is a long post. We did try to warn you.
A stop by Green Ronin Publishing included picking up the Fantasy Age Core Rulebook 2nd Edition and both the Core Rulebook and the GM Screen for The Expanse RPG.
We went back to Renegade Game Studios to pick up two Sourcebooks for the Power Rangers RPG which give some pretty cool expansions to Ranger options for game-play (like adding Gold, Silver, Orange, and Purple Rangers). David also decided to pick up the Zeo set for the Deck Building Game.
At Slugfest Games, we picked up Red Dragon Inn 5, the Character Trove, which not only has new character options to add to the original Red Dragon Inn, but also is in a huge box that can house most of the expansions so they can all be together.
Both Sam and David picked up some bookish freebies at the Writer’s Symposium, which meant even more Shadowrun books. And Sam also made sure to swing by Kobold Press to get the Kobold Guide to Dungeons, which was the newest release of that series, and the only one she didn’t already own.
We also made a stop to Dryad Tea and got a nice selection of tea to try, because we do enjoy a good cup of tea, and that’s even more true when the blends are inspired by tabletop games.
David also went to the Consignment Sale and picked up a bunch of new/used games at a discount, so we added Say Anything, Killer Bunnies and the Journey to Jupiter, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot with Green and Purple expansions, Testament, and Ex Libris.
Oh, and David also stopped by Rollacrit’s booth to pick up some the game and some glasses for the Heroes of Barcadia game.
Also on Saturday, we playtested Spellbook, a really cool game by Space Cowboys at one of the Asmodee game play areas on the exhibit floor. This game will be out September 29th, 2023, and we will definitely be reviewing it in a future Tabletop Tuesday, so stay tuned.
David: So waiting in line for the consignment wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Sam already listed what I got there so I’m not gonna list them off again. I was really most excited to find a copy of Ex Libris, since I know Sam has wanted a copy of that for a few years, so getting a good copy at that price I did was great.
I was really looking forward to being able to hit up Rollacrit for Heroes of Barcadia, I had done a demo of it last year and never got around to getting it and was hoping they would have a good deal for the base game and character expansion and they did I think both cost a little under $100. I am going to have so much fun playing that with friends since your character token is a cup you can put whatever drink you want in. Just be careful taking damage cause you got to drink from that cup when your character takes damage.
I also cannot wait until we can buy Spellbook, I think it is a game we will love playing as well.
Whew…almost there…included in this Day Four photo dump is a signed book (Saint Death’s Daughter by C.S.E. Cooney) that Sam actually got on Day Three but forgot to take a photo of until we got home.
We met Ginny Di! And Sam got her signature in her celebrity D&D PHB, so that’s exciting. While at Ginny Di’s booth, Sam got a water bottle, David got a beanie, and we both decided to share a NPC pin pack.
At Flying Frog Productions, we picked up a copy of Shadows of Brimstone: Gates of Valhalla, which is a fun, sort-of GM-less TTRPG board game.
At Japanime Games, we picked up a couple standalone expansions to Tanto Cuore, and David won store credit during a end-of-day raffle and picked up Sailor Moon: Imposterous.
At Nomnivore Games, we picked up Dungeons & Dinos and the Nomster Manual expansion. This game is ADHD & Dyslexia friendly, and even has an option to poke holes into the cards to basically DIY Braille. Nomnivore Games is all about making games that are cute and fun, and above all else, accessible. We think that’s awesome.
We picked up some game mats and stickers from artist Sasha R. Jones, because Sam is a crow and can’t help but be drawn to crow art.
Another trip to Magpie Games got us the Standard Bundle for Root: The Roleplaying Game, which includes the Core Book, the Travelers & Outsiders supplement, the GM screen, and a set of Faction Dice.
And another trip to Kobold Press had us picking up the Kobold’s Guide to Board Game Design and the Alpha Release of Tales of the Valiant, and because we were Kickstarter backers, we also were given a bunch of goodies including supplements, dice, and pins.
One of the final things we did at Gen Con was to play a demo of Tanto Cuore, which was really fun. And then we took everything to the car and officially ended our weekend of fun with a stop by Giordano’s for some pizza…thin crust this time, since we were hungry and didn’t want to wait around for a Chicago-style Deep Dish.
It was an incredibly fun four days of gaming and geekery, and it has left us feeling energized and inspired…while at the same time being physically very tired.
Thank you all so so much for stopping by and sticking with us through that rather long post. We appreciate you all. That is all from us for today, but we’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
