The Killer Breakfast is attended by hundreds but only a select 150 or so get to go onstage and be killed by Tracy. Sitting down, I noticed that Mr. Shiny and his daughter, who was 9 or 10, were sitting in front of us. This meant that they'd end up onstage as well as Charles and I.
As you can see from my crappy photo, Tracy looks like your typical gamer. He had a southern accent and was really funny. The idea is that you go up on the stage and Tracy gives you a scenario. He then asks how you got into his scenario and what your character does. One of the funniest moments was when a guy onstage was told that he was being attacked and he responded that he casts a mirror image spell. In D&D, this spell creates a series of images of your character which will (hopefully) confuse your attacker and allow you to escape or attack the creature without it knowing which of the images is in fact your character. So the guy makes his comment and reaches behind the curtain behind him and pulls out a life-sized cardboard cut-out picture of himself. This had the crowd rolling. Mr. Shiny's daughter was also funny. When asked how she got there, she replied, "You'll have to ask my father that one."
Once the Killer Breakfast was done, I opted to forego "The Poetics of Violent Death" Cthulhu game in order to hang out with Charles and roam around. We headed over to the convention center and found my brother waiting to get into a miniatures game involving the siege of Stalingrad. I was totally unsurprised by the World War II theme as, like our dad, it's his favorite bit of history. Even after 2 years of owning a pretty nice digital camera, I'm still pretty inept at using it. I wish I could take some nice pictures of the miniatures because most of them are really freaking cool. I can only imagine the time and effort that folks putting into them as they are extremely detailed. Anyway, here's a couple snaps of the setup Carl played. We've got some ruins of Stalingrad and a couple T-34s.
After informing the GM that I wouldn't be able to play, Charles and I headed downstairs to the vendors area. We found that Alyssa Moore was back and in a different outfit.
Here's Charles with a pokemon:
I thought that the character's name was Pokemon but was quickly corrected. Pokemon is a species, I guess, and not the actual name of a character. I have no idea what this yellow hoolie's name is. During our travels, we decided to check out the Utilikilt joint and Charles tried one on.
Here's some other shots from the floor.
Now, this hottie was hawking Cthulhu Live - a LARP. Although the booth didn't have a ton of stuff, it did have this book which I presume is a copy of the Necronomicon or some similar profane text.
We also ran into Harley Quinn and a hottie of a barbarian.
Around 5:30, I headed over to catch the end of the costume contest. I stood in the doorway for a bit before Ted wandered in and we caught a couple seats. As per usual some parent dressed their young daughter in naiad gear and made them do a Riverdance like routine. And there were the usual Star Wars outfits. (The Darth Maul guy was genuinely intimidating.) Overall, though, I wasn't too impressed by the costumes. There were some really nice ones – don't get me wrong – but I didn't see anything like the elvin woman with wings or the Grim Reaper costume I saw last year. Nothing seemed like it took years to make. I stepped out early and found Andrew. We went outside and grabbed a root before heading back in to get photos of the hotties as they left the hall.
I think dinner came after this – BW3 again. Afterwards, Andy took off for True Dungeon and Mike for a gaming event. I eventually found my brother and we hung out until a bit before 11 when we went into the Westin for the Hentai dubbing session. The line was really long but Charles had a place pretty close to the door so we joined him. We ended up waiting for 10 or 15 minutes. However, the monotony was broken when free DVDs were handed out. I was shocked to find that they were copies of Beating the Bunny. The case had this menacing bunny on the back and a blurb telling the tale of some guy who becomes addicted to pornography and his life ruined. It was some kind of Donnie Darko Christian anti-porn PSA. A group had given the GenCon organizers the DVDs for free so they gave them away. Eventually we were let into the room and we took our seats.
A pony-tailed gentleman welcomed us. He worked for some company in Los Angeles that makes porn flicks and also dubs Hentai videos into English. The guy began by showing us a brief video about his company and what they do. It was really hilarious. In one scene, a woman who does voices showed how she does some of her sound effects. To capture the moistness down below of a woman, she uses a fork to slosh around a bowl of tuna salad. It was at around this point that the ceiling began to bow and the chandelier bits began to swing. The GenCon dance was above us and getting pretty heavy, apparently. That and a pipe had sprung a leak the night before so everyone feared a ceiling collapse and ran out the door. Maintenance was called in and we were soon given the all-clear.
Most folks remained and the intro video finished. The gentleman then explained all about what was to transpire. A scene already dubbed into English of a couple minutes or so was shown and then audience members would go up to the front and do their own dub of the scene. Although they were given scripts, the aspiring voice actors could do whatever the hell they wanted. It was absolutely hilarious! There was this little brunette hottie who volunteered every time. There was one clip in which a guy was schtuping a woman from behind doggie style when he made her bark. The dubbers from the audience took it further and it went from dog, to goat, to chicken. The woman's clucks matched the character's onscreen mouth perfectly. The session was well-worth risking our lives for.
Unlike last year, I really didn’t buy very much this year. I did grab a couple mini-prints from Death From Above which did these military pin-ups.
I also picked up a couple Doctor Who sticker/activity books for The Dulcinea's kids and a David Tennant action figure for her. In addition, I got her a sticker of Ron from Harry Potter. Also at that booth were some nice Bettie Page stickers and I bought a couple for Miss Pamela. For myself, I added another title to my DVD collection: Demon Hunters 2: Dead Camper Lake.
I'd bought another movie of theirs, The Gamers, last year and thought it was great.
I was sorely tempted to get a copy of Call of Cthulhu, a movie by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. It was supposedly a very faithful adaptation of the Lovecraft story of the same name. The video is in B&W and silent and is a pretty strict reproduction of 1920s filmmaking.
I saw in the event listing that there was a demo of a collectible card game about tech support but I wasn't able to make it and I didn't see the game anywhere in the vending area. Anyone know anything about this? Having seen my first bit of Hentai, I went over to the tables of this outfit that had tons and tons of the stuff. Charles and I looked at the dozens of titles baffled – what to get? He asked the vendor what types of hentai there were. He replied, "Man & woman, woman on woman, man on man, tentacles, BDSM, men with women with strange packages…" How to choose? A single DVD was $20 so we went with a 4-DVD set for $40: The Darkness Collection:
I haven't sat down and watched any of it yet but I did take a sneak peak at the first episode, "Alien From the Darkness", and I can tell you that it's full of tentacly goodness.
I also bought a couple t-shirts.
So, if you see someone walking down the street with one of these on, it could very well be your humble narrator.
One last thing I'd like to address here is the rumor that I heard on Thursday about GenCon not being held in Indy next year. Either one of the GMs or the guy who ran the foam weapon making session said that the convention center had double-booked next year's dates with a knitting convention and the knitters were getting preference. I fecal matter thee not. He remarked that the person responsible for the double-booking had been fired but GenCon would have to find other digs for next year. Anyone else hear this rumor?
No comments:
Post a Comment