Thursday at The Con

We woke up early so we could get to the convention center around the time registration started. Our hotel was about 7 miles from the Con so we cabbed it. As we passed an RCA Dome parking lots, we began to see groups of people tacking the sidewalks to the convention center. The groups fell into 2 general categories: 1) your stereotypical overweight white males and 2) goths - those folks who, when I was a teenager, listened to The Cure and Joy Division. They were all pasty white and wore all black clothes. Plus the chickies wore knee-high boots (black, of course) and they all had belts with metal spikes and bits on them. It was also neat just to check out downtown Indy, never having been there previously.



Of course we were late. Having been there previously, Charles grabbed a place in line so Marv and I could get coffee and just wander around to get the lay of the land. And so we set off and found ourselves in a sea of thousands of people. Just as Charles had said, there were billions of those aforementioned fat white guys (who probably program computers for a living) wearing black t-shirts thinking that, being 50+ pounds overweight, black t-shirts with Wizards of the Coast logos on them would help them appear thinner. We walked past the LAN party area, dozens of room with chairs and tables setup, the auction room, the Medieval Olypmics room, et al When Marv and I finally found a program, we were shocked. It was as thick as a Sears catalog. The opening bits were about Indy, the Con generally, and some of the Hollywood types who would be around signing autographs as well as pages about all the game designers and übergeeks on-hand to ponitifcate upon being a good DM (or GM). Then there was the schedule. Each day's listing was about 40 pages long with game after game - boardgames, miniatures, role-playing - plus seminars and other stuff. Unfucking real.

After some coffee and a general once-over of the schedule, we headed back in to find Charles. We stood in line for another half hour before registering. But this was only for the Con - now we had to register for events. So we set out for a while to explore and find a spot to sit down and choose events. The three of us decided to wander up to the miniatures room. Stepping off the escalator, we found a Lego pirate game in media res.





We found the entrance to the room, which was fucking huge. Outside, however, was a miniature painting area. There were a couple dozen seats where one could sit down and just paint miniatures. Paint was provided and they even gave lessons to beginners. We noted that they were also preparing a speed-painting section. Going into the miniatures room, we found that there were probably hundreds of tables setup. Some had miniatures on them already, while others were having grided maps laid upon them. Curiously enough, there were a few tables decked out for a Starship Troopers game.





I also liked the railroad scenario:



So we found an empty table and spent more time going over the schedule and selecting games and/or seminars to attend. Marv eschewed gaming and booked 15 seminars to hit. He is a DM, after all, and was looking for DMing techniques and advice on creating his own worlds in which we'd play. I paid close attention to the Call of Cthulhu times. For his part, Charles was bound and determined to play his fave boardgame, Titan and he'd brought it along with him. Having made our decisions, we began our trek downstairs to the event registration booths. On our way out, we saw that the speed-painting was underway.



We got in line and waited. I tried and tried to find a Call of Cthulhu game that was open but failed miserably as they were all booked solid. I was disappointed but figured I could try to get in on one on Friday. Sometimes people don't show so seats become available. So I wandered and got some generic tickets just in case. The plan was to wander and then meetup with John, whose hotel room we'd be sharing, at 4. Charles went off to Game Bay 7 for some Titan action while Marv and I went to check out the vendors. On the way there, we were accosted by Darth Vader...



...but I assured him of Marv's allegiance to the Dark Side and he let us pass into the vendors area. And what, pray tell, were they selling? Dice, of course! Lots and lots of dice.



And really cool bracers:



And eldritch leatherbound chests:



And cool miniature sets, classically-themed:





And software for dungeoneers!



We eventually met up with Carl, Andrew & Glen. Then we found the masks.



Now here's Andrew:



And here's moi:



Plus there was some really cool miniatures town sets where the roofs of the buildings came off so you could furnish the interiors and put your characters inside to fight!



After spending some cash, we found John and went across the street to a cheesy sports bar for lunch.



After filling ourselves, Marv and I attended a seminar entitled, "Developing an Ongoing Campaign" and it featured these three gentlemen:



The guy on the left is Robin Law and he wrote a book like "How To Be a Good DM" or some such thing. The guy in the middle helped invent Vampire: The Masquerade. Finally, the gentleman on the right was some very experienced gamer whose name escapes me. It was interesting to me but methinks that it was all old hat for Marv. The refrain of the guy with the mohawk was "Players are dumb - kill them!" Afterwards, we set out to find our compadres. But first we stopped at the Fantasy Tavern. Here's Marv hunched over his grimoire at the owlbear table. Notice the beholder to the left.



Charles was playing Titan.



And we found Jon somewhere or other. We wandered some more and eventually made our way back to the hotel. Day one was over.

BONUS MATERIAL!

Here are some videos from Day 1 of The Con! (~15MB each - Quicktime)

See how miniatures are played!

Watch Glen & Andrew buy t-shirts!