[GenCon09] And Then, Up the Escalator Came Macklin

… also potentially entitled 25 Hours in Indy: Mick’s GenCon ’09 Report.

Wherin I provide a highlight-reel overview of my shortened attendance at this year’s GenCon.

• Friday A.M. – I drove up to Indianapolis on Friday morning with my friend Mark Kinney, host and producer of All Games Considered (and also the guy I’ve had the most face-to-face rpg time with over the past few years, along with Clay Karwan). Mark was convinced that All Games Considered had no real chance at the Gold Ennie for Best Podcast, but was glad to be nominated. He felt that Brilliant Gameologists would win due to its broad popularity or that Order 66 would win because of Star Wars fandom. I told him that AGC deserved the win for long-term consistency and hosts with pleasant personalities, and that either of his predicted outcomes would make me very sad. [Note: AGC won.]
• Friday Noon – I dropped Mark off at his hotel, then checked myself into the Hilton where I was booked in a room with David & Erin Moore and Mario Dongu. I decided to go wander the exhibit hall alone awhile before calling David and letting him know I was in town.
• Friday early P.M. – I picked up my Canon Puncture press badge and then wandered around the hall. I’m still not sure why, but to me the place felt sort of odd and low-energy. I headed back toward the far side of the hall where most of the indie/hippie/small press folks I like to visit are usually set up.  I knew several of my friends and acquaintances were not at the con this year, but it turned out that even more of them stayed home than I was expecting. Back at the IPR booth I didn’t see anyone I knew, and it was smaller and much less crowded than I’d become used to in previous years.  I think this was because the entities that have previously managed to congregate their booths in that area were either not present at all or were placed further away than they have been in the past.  I couldn’t see the Design Matters booth, the Pirate Jenny booth or the Ashcan Front/Forge booth from there. This felt odd. I decided to come back later. I wandered over to see Jeff Himmelman’s art booth, chatted with him awhile, then went back to IPR. Clyde Rhoer was there this time and we chatted a bit and then he took me over to Pirate Jenny, which it turns out I had passed twice without noticing. Duh. Anyhow, I bought my RPGirl zine and got some buttons from Danielle Lewon, and I said I’d be back later to talk and hear about the booth and the games.
• Friday P.M. – I walked with Clyde to the Games on Demand area at the Omni, where I re-met Rob Bohl and met Joe McDonald (creator of Ribbon Drive and the guy behind Buried Without Ceremony, a blog that Canon Puncture featured in ep 68 and in a booty article I put up last week.) It was cool to meet someone who enthusiastically thanked us for featuring his thoughts in a segment. Anyhow, GoD was totally full-up. There were no empty tables. Also, Clyde and Rob were about to go to the Westin to do a podcast panel, so I decided to join them.
• We walked toward the Westin. During our walk lots of interesting things came up, most of it meta-chat about podcasting and such, but also some cool get-to-know-ya type things. I like both those guys. On our way we crossed paths with a young athletic blonde woman who knew Rob and was apparently planning to go put on her hand-made costume and wander the exhibit hall. Clyde asked what the costume was, and she said “Black Canary”. I blurted out that she would look awesome as Black Canary. After she left Rob and Clyde razzed me about “flirting” but in my mind I was just remarking that she has the look of Dinah Lance and would make a great Canary. Honest.
• Friday P.M. – At the Westin Clyde and Rob helped lead a podcasting panel about content. Josh from Brilliant Gameologists, Curt Arnt from Wandering Geek, and Ross Payton from Role Playing Public Radio also led. Five or six people were in the audience. The panel was pretty good, although for me the most interesting thing is that it proves that we all have lots of different ideas and approaches to doing what we do. The only thing that seemed essentially unanimous is that no one likes to listen to scripted and highly-edited shows. I thought to myself of the scripted and over-edited podcasts I used to do, and chuckled. Rob ended the seminar with a pretty cool rant about how the word “content” actually sucks in his opinion because it suggests a market-driven consumer-oriented approach and leaves no room for art and creativity. I dug that vibe. Although I see the points often made by some of our podcasting peers about sound quality, content quality, and a professional approach to the work, mostly I agree with Rob. For me it’s mostly about having conversations and sharing my creative thoughts. Although I’m not immune to worrying about how I come off, so …. Anyhow, I figured I ought to finally call David and go hang with him, but before I took off from the seminar room Rob and I talked about possibly playing Misspent Youth at the Embassy that night. I really wanted to try out the game and also add Rob to my list of people I’ve played with, so I looked forward to it.
• Friday P.M. – I met up with Mario and David and we ate at Claddagh, an Irish pub near the convention area. Yum. I had meat loaf and a Black Velveteen to drink (sometimes known as a black & gold), which is Guinness and Cider mingled.
• Friday Evening -  David and I planned to go to the Ennies. Neither of us has ever attended the award ceremony before. We showed up, met lots of people, and wished the AGC folks luck. I chatted with Sean Patrick Fannon and Carinn Seabolt, finally getting to meet them in-person. I looked for Ryan Macklin and Paul Tevis, two guys I was really hoping to meet up with, but couldn’t find them.  Then when it came time to actually go in and watch the festivities, David and I decided we’d rather podcast or play something rather than sit and watch an awards show. Plus David wanted to go play a session of Star Wars D6 with his Sparks gang later that night.
• Friday Evening – We went back to our room and were joined by Mario. The three of us recorded about 40 minutes of talk about the stuff that they’d seen and enjoyed before I arrived. I think we’ll end up breaking that recording into two separate segments that we will release on the Canon Puncture Show in the coming weeks.
• Friday Night -  David went to play Star Wars and asked me to go, but I chose not to. The circumstances of the Sparks game did not appeal to me. Plus, if I’m playing Star Wars, I’m damn well doing it with the PTA/Episode LV gang, and the only guy from that group who was even in town was Paul Tevis, and I hadn’t encountered him yet. So, Mario and I headed to the Embassy Suites to see about getting into a game over there. At this point I called Arnold Cassel, a new friend from Rich’s playgroup in Jacksonville and I told him we were heading to the Embassy. Mario and I arrived, and I saw several people I knew of but no one I’ve actually met or hung out with before. I didn’t see Rob Bohl there at that point, so I sat down with Mario at an empty table called Arnold to see where he was. A guy sitting less than five feet from me answered his phone. Yep. Arnold. He was just about to start playing Spione with Ron Edwards and some of the Forgies and Jennies. I introduced myself to Arnold but then left him to play his game because I was getting a bit of a “why are you interrupting us?” vibe off of Mr. Edwards. I talked to Mario for awhile about the slightly weird mess that surrounded my decision to leave The Game Master Show and go with Canon Puncture instead. Mario and I are pretty close, and we were able to clear things up as far as I can tell. Still, it put me out of the mood to play. Eventually Mario decided to go to a bar with Chris Slager, I was heading out with him and saw Rob Bohl and a group of folks sitting in the big cushy-chair area near the Embassy’s escalators. I went to say hi, Rob told me he was running Misspent Youth and the game was already in progress but he invited me to watch. So I chose to say goodnight to Mario and watch Rob’s game. The play group included Kevin Weiser from The Walking Eye and a few other folks whose names I never got. I think Misspent Youth is going to be a cool game from what I saw – although unfortunately I had already missed the part I think I would have liked best – the collaborative world-building/premise-setting that happens at the beginning of each game. Still, I watched the game progress for about an hour or two and I enjoyed it, although obviously I’d rather have been playing.
• Friday ‘Round Midnight -  And then, up the escalator came Macklin. Ryan Macklin. He was all cleaned up and dressed up and swaggering under the delightful weight of the silver Ennie he wore around his neck. Don’t Lose Your Mind had won Silver for Best Writing and Ryan, the book’s editor, had accepted on Ben Baugh’s behalf. Ryan hugged me and asked me if I wanted to go roaming around with him, talking to people and hanging out. Rob’s game was near completion, so I accepted Ryan’s offer and spent the rest of the night in his entourage. Heh. Actually it was cool to see Ryan so buzzed with the Glow of Win, and Joe McDonald was with us and I relished the chance to get to know him better. Eventually after a long meander around the Embassy, Ryan, Joe and I walked over to the Westin and plopped down in some comfy chairs and talked about podcasting, game design, life, women, relationships, and other deep stuff. Until after 3 a.m. It was wonderful conversation. But I paid for it the next day.
• Saturday Overnight -  Had a hard time sleeping once I got to bed at 3:30. I left the lights off and just plopped down on the bed, hoping not to disturb David and Erin who were sleeping in the other bed. The room was too quiet. The bed felt odd. I was dead tired but still couldn’t get to sleep. I did end up sleeping fitfully around 5 AM, and then on and off til we all got up at 9:3o or so. I later discovered I had slept with/on some of Erin’s clothes, including her dainties, that she’d tossed onto my bed when she came in from her revelries at 2 am.
• Saturday A.M. -  Brunch Saturday morning at Claddagh with David, Mario, Arnold, and two guys David invited who were apparently in Chris Miller’s D&D group in L.A. I don’t remember their names, but they were cool guys and we had good conversation. I really like Arnold. He’s a kindred spirit, especially in the rpg sense – although I think he has a much better grasp of systems and theory and why he likes what he likes than I probably ever will.
• Saturday Noon – I agreed to meet Arnold at 2pm at Games on Demand for a game of Mountain Witch. I Looked forward to it. But I was feeling wonky, and I was overdressed for some dumb reason, trying to show off my weight loss with skinny jeans and a tight shirt. Idiotic. The Indy weather was somewhat hotter and far more humid than it has been in past years. I was sweating and cranky by the time I got to the hall. I roamed the hall with Mario for a bit then split from him as he went to talk to somebody. I went on alone. Mistake. The hall was really, really packed and stuffy, and nothing was catching my eye. I headed to the back corner again to see if any of my indie acquaintances was around. The Forge booth looked off-putting and cliquish. I know who several of them are, but I’ve never formally hung out with any of them, so I shied away. The IPR booth still had only a portion of its normal surge of energy, and Brennan Taylor was there but talking to someone so I chose not to horn in. Several of the Jennies were at their booth. I really wanted to interview them but I chickened out because I was sweating like a pig and too shy to go it alone with no wingman. I walked on by, and then just felt so stupid that I decided to leave the hall.
• Saturday 1 P.M. -  I walked back to my room to go change my dripping wet clothes before heading to the Omni for GoD with Arnold.  I was exhausted, hot, alone, and bummed that Rich, Daniel, Josh, Judd, and so many of my other friends were not there, and the ones that are are doing things I’m not really interested in, or they’re nowhere to be found. Faced with walking a really long way in the heat to get to the Omni – thus arriving to play sweating like a pig all over again – I cracked. I called my wife Leah, told her I was coming home, then checked out of the hotel and drove home.

That’s my GenCon 09. Not my best con experience. I blame no one but myself, mind you. I’m a big boy and I could have bucked up at any point. I really enjoyed meeting Arnold and hanging out with Ryan and Joe. I liked hanging out with Clyde and Rob, and I always enjoy David, Erin, and Mario, but for some reason wasn’t feeling much like playing the stuff they were playing. I missed Daniel and Rich a lot, and I was bummed that the PTA Star Wars game was a no-go this year. It just didn’t feel like GenCon to me, because the reason I go is to congregate with my peeps and meet new ones (with the help of my current ones, because I suck at introducing myself to strangers). Still, I could have made the best of it and stuck around. I bet I would have played a cool game with Arnold and probably would’ve had a really good time at the media meet-n-greet Saturday night.  But instead, I saved some money and made my wife extremely happy for seeing me home a day sooner than expected. Overall, I’m going to call it a win, even though I am kicking myself for missed opportunities.