Of course, I went to Gen Con a couple of weeks ago. The convention was awesome as always. Fred and I hung out a lot together playing HeroClix. I played in a pre-release event for the next set, Web of Spider-Man, which was cool since Spider-Man has been my favorite comic since I was a kid. I saw a lot of people I hadn’t seen in a while at the convention, though regrettably, I didn’t spend much time with them. I ran several Pulp City demo events like I did in 2009. This year I added on a tournament and a scenario event where Ulthars are invading the city. This was Maciej’s idea. We only had 6 people for the tournament, which was 4 less than the tickets we sold, but it still went well. I think everyone had fun.

For the most part, since Gen Con the main focus of my time has been on assembling the Pulp City miniatures Maciej has been so kind as to provide me with for my work at Gen Con. I have a total of 26 to assemble, with 8 left to go.

Several of us in the area bought into MERCS, so I have assembled the five models I bought at the convention. Joel has been reading up on the rules and I hope to try this game out soon.

I’ve been on a big superhero-gaming kick lately. Fred and I have discussed playing a Savage Worlds game using the Super Powers Companion. I bought a setting book from 1st edition Mutants and Masterminds to use as the backdrop. Should I fin a time and place to run this, I think it’ll be a blast!

I’ve also been working on promoting Pulp City more in the area. I did a demo game with Bryan and his girls last Sunday and come September 12th, I’ll be running another demo event. The latter will be run much like the Ulthar event at Gen Con, though not all the minis will be painted, unfortunately. I still think it’ll be fun.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to. I hope to get some pictures posted and maybe a battle report or two for stuff I’ve been playing.

The nice thing about this year as opposed to previous years is that I had some company for the drive and some help with parking and gas costs. Fred was that company, and what great company it was. I had a blast having him ride with me.

We began the con with Wednesday night as Fred needed to get his passes for the weekend. I got to see a few people that evening and even had time to set up the Pulp City boards for early the next morning. Brian was more than glad to help me and I was more than glad to accept. We hung around with Joel as well while Fred was down at the Event Registration booth getting tickets for the things he wanted to do. We ended up leaving around 9 or so, if I remember correctly.

Thursday began bright and early at 8 am with Pulp City demos. Brian and I ran two sessions one hour each serving four people. That’s eight players. The nice thing was that a couple of people who had purchased the actual tickets didn’t show, but we had plenty of people with generics to fill in; one of which was even a local! After the demos, I made my way as fast as possible down to the dealer hall with JR, Brian and some other folks. Brian and his wife had the kids with them, so they had to break off a little early. One of my first stops had to be the Wyrd booth to pick up the Malifaux book and a Fate Deck. Maciej hooked me up with some swag for running demos. I worked a shift in the Pulp Monsters booth from 2pm to 6pm that afternoon doing demos of Pulp City. I got to hang out with the guys from Darkson Designs as well, which was pretty cool. I may need to check out their games. I left the booth at about 5:55 hoping to make it over to the FFG booth to pick up their new Living Card Game (LCG), Warhammer Invasion. I got there and the the tower of boxes was reduced to a mere footstool. I asked one of the booth guys if this was all they had and they told me yes. So, I picked it up. Afterwards, the Wyrd guys were doing demos upstairs in the same room where I’d previously held Pulp City demos for TableTop Gamers (TTG). It was full enough that I didn’t get a demo though. In themeantime Tim and I opened the box and sorted through the rules for Warhammer Invasion. We played a quick 2-player game of Dwarfs vs. Chaos. We found a misprint and had some issues to look up, but it went fairly smoothly. Later, Fred showed up with his Thor on a chariot and we threw down a 3-player game. Some folks at another table were asking us questions as if we were experts, which was pretty cool. Fred’s Empire deck ended up running out of cards the turn after Tim had made two of my sections of my capitol burn to the ground. It was a really fun game even though I normally hate 3-player games.

Friday was again a pretty busy morning with Pulp City demos. Brian again was ahuge help by being there super early and having everything already set up and ready to go. The demos were just as full as the previous day. I spent much of the day just trekking around the dealer hall looking for stuff to blow cash on. I even finally decided on a second crew for Malifaux after asking around about the ones that most interested me aesthetically: Pandora. I was told she was the more “cerebral and annoying” crew, so I was sold right there. Later in the afternoon I met up with Tim, Joel, JR, Morgan and some other folks and we went down to Currito for some lunch. Afterward, Tim walked his bud Kevin and I through the Lord of the Rings skirmish game. I ended up winning the game through making his army break before he made mine break as he had quickly grabbed objectives with Wargs I couldn’t catch up with. Later on Fred showed up with an old school card game called Star Trek: Trading Card Game Second Edition. He said he’d gotten a demo on a whim and that it was a lot of fun. He picked up a starter/booster box for cheap and had been messing around with decks. We played a quick 3-player game with Bryan before he had to start setting up for Ambush Alley. Brian called and said he wouldn’t be coming back to the convention center after running errands due to traffic from the Colts game that evening. I don’t know why they insist on scheduling these things at the same time! Fred ended up going to try to watch Plan 9 From Outer Space, so I tried again to get a demo of Malifaux. I did end up getting to play a game with one of their Henchmen, but he must have been demoed out since he didn’t speak much or help me out with the rules. He did preoceed to beat up Seamus with Lilith and told me that sometimes you have to lose to learn a game. I disagree with this notion, but whatever. Later, I watched a game between Maurice and a guy I’ve met from St. Louis (I hate that I don’t remember his name!). The latter was playing the Pandora crew I’d just bought and Maurice was playing the Zoraida box. I think I learned more from watching this game than the “demo” I’d played earlier. After that I goofed arouns while thinking Fred was at the movie. I found him outside the room sorting through cards, so we headed out.

Saturday morning began with a sigh as no one showed up for the 8 am Pulp City demos. We did, however, have a full set for the 9 am session. It was nice to finally pack up all that stuff and take it to the car. I picked up a few Outcast and Resurrectionist models for Malifaux to supplement the boxes I’d already bought and I bought a box of starters/boosters for the Star Trek CCG to play with Fred. Brian and I did some goofing around and then I had to do another session in the Pulp Monsters booth from 2pm-4pm. Again, it was pretty cool, but a bit exhausting. I then met up with Tim, JR, John, Dan, Brian and Morgan for our big 3,000 point per side War of the Ring battle. Tim brought both of his Mumakils and JR brought the Balrog. The good guys had Aragorn, Boromir, Glorfindel, Galadriel and my first use of the Galadhrim cavalry. Midway through turn 2 I think it was, there was a fire alarm and we had to leave the building. We came back in about 30 minutes (rumor had it the problem was caused by an overcooked pizza in the food court) to finish the game. We didn’t finish until a bit after midnight. That was 6 hours worth of War of the Ring! I ended up in a bit of trouble with the wife as I hadn’t called before 12 like I said I would. Fred finished up at a tournament and then we were on our way home.

As always, Sunday was a bit of a sad day. First of all, Fred and I ran into the biathalon on our way in, which held us up by about 45 minutes or so. To keep from getting too distressed, we went through decks and packs of Star Trek that I’d purchased the day before. Then when we got there, lots of people were vacating the premises. That part is always pretty sad. We tooled around the dealer hall for a while and Fred and I split a box of Star Trek boosters since they were so cheap. We then went back upstairs and sorted through some of the cards. In talking about CCGs, I got my mind set on getting some boxes of the old WARS CCG, which is a bit like Star Wars, but only about $8 per box. I didn’t really buy too much this day, but I did hang out with Bryan, Fred and Joel. We waited around a bit for Tim since he said he’d be around for us to go through the Malifaux rules, but he never showed up. He did say something earlier about having to do some RPG stuff with his wife, so that’s probably where he was. Around 4:30pm, we left the convention center and made for home.

I then spent the evening and all the next day with my awesome wife who never once made a big deal out of me spending money at the convention or spending so much time away from her. How kick ass is that?!

All in all, this Gen Con was one of the best. It was a good mix of hanging out with friends from all over and “working” the convention. Next year will be even better!!

Loot:

• Malifaux: Pandora box
• Malifaux: Killjoy
• Malifaux: Samurai Punk Zombies
• Malifaux: Convict Gunslinger
• Malifaux: Rulebook
• Malifaux: Fate Deck
• Pulp City: Boreas/Seabolt
• Pulp City: Sgt. Bale/Stoner Hawk
• Pulp City: Chronin/Dr. Mercury
• Pulp City: Dr. Red/Howler
• Pulp City: Sister Bedlam/Tangent
• Pulp City: June Summers
• Pulp City: Herald
• Magic: The Gathering: 12 Alara Block packs (4x for $9)
• Dark Age Groundwerks Bases: 2x blisters 30mm, 1x 50mm
• HellDorado: Corvus Tormentors
• WARS: Incursion Starters
• WARS: Incursion Boosters
• WARS: Nowhere to Hide Boosters
• Star Trek CCG: Call To Arms Booster/Starters
• Star Trek CCG: Strange New Worlds Boosters
• Warhammer Invasion Box
• Lord of the Rings: Golfimbul mounted and foot (proxy for Gothmog)
• Armorcast: Dumpsters
• Armorcast: Vending Machines

Thanks to having worked some time for Pulp City and having sold off some minis prior to the convention, the total cost of the weekend was pretty minimal, which is surprising as I’d pretty much purchaed about everything I would have normally gotten.

A few things to note that I wasn’t sure where they fit in chronologically: Apparently, Maciej and some other folks knew what company/individual had picked up Helldorado and were very excited about the continuance of the game. I went by the Alkemy booth to check out the wvae 5 stuff in hopes that I might be interested enough in the game to update the collection. Unfortunately I was not.

My only real regrets were not getting to see off a few friends.

I think that just about covers it!

Oh! As I was talking to Brett, he mentioned the possibility of having an extra Goblinette Hog Whisperer after the con that he’d hook me up with. Later in the afternoon he called and told me he’d be shipping me one when he got home! Sweet!! Not sure if that’ll lead to another crew for Malifaux or just a fun model to paint.

Malifaux – This game has a lot of buzz right now. They only had a closed alpha demo thing last year, but the rumor is they’ll have the book and new starter boxes. I picked up the Seamus box last year along with Hamlin the Rat Catcher. This time I think I’ll pick up the Perdita or Resurrectionists box depending on what I think of the rules when I read them.

Pulp City – I will likely be behind on a few things by the time the convention rolls around, so I’ll get caught up then.

Arcane Legions – I was really kinda excited about this game until I saw the Roman booster box art, which depicted a Spartan in power armor and wielding a gun of some sort. The Han Army booster art, however, has me somewhat interested again. I’ll probably get a demo of this just to be sure one way or the other.

Warlands – The idea of playing a game with Hot Wheels has me intrigued. If the rules look good, I may buy the book.

Uncharted Seas – I’ve played a quick game once with two other people and I did think it was cool, but like many other games, there isn’t anyone playing it regularly.

CthulhuTech – Damnation View or Mortal Remains – Whichever is out, I will likely buy it. I really like the setting of this RPG and would love to play it someday.

All in all, I think I’ll just be looking at stuff moreso than buying.

Hordes Blackclad Wayfarer - Front

The other day while in my FLGS, I picked up the newest issue of No Quarter with the intent of checkng out the stats of one of the new Minion Warlock Rorsh and Brine. In the course of flipping through the pages, I noticed they had pictures from the Gen Con 2008 Privateer Press Grand Master Painting Competition. On the bottom right corner of the Warrior models Honorable Mentions is my Blackclad Wayfarer! I just about had a fit of joy over this. I immediately bought the magazine, which I wasn’t originally planning on doing so I could show my wife and friends.

It’s the first time I’ve had the joy of seeing my name in print on a national level. It’s a pretty awesome feeling, too!! It definitely makes me want to continue to participate in painting competitions like this in the future. I think next year I’ll submit an entry for Warlock/Beast using Rorsh and Brine.