A Journal of Weldon's Trip to Gencon
August 4, 2005:
Well, this all started when I came to work Friday. I'm a software engineer, or at least I was one in the morning. By the end of the day, the corporate powerhouse that is the "game company" laid me off. Honestly, I was not surprised it happened, because, I had skipped out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because I got a threatening, slanderous and harassing response from an online personal ad. Call me stupid, but if I go place a singles ad on Craiglist, I do not expect a followup post to come from a poster talking about how I'm insane, a dork, a creep, and how I threatened to kill her, and all that crap. All of it untrue, mind you, but she's one screwed up girl and her friends have this "save the damsel" complex. Anyway, I come in on Friday and my manager tells me they have to let me go. Not for the past three days, he added. The current project has too many engineers and the other projects are full. As a business decision, I understand. Video games are a cutthroat business. And a lot of my fellow friends/co-workers wished me well. By the end of the day, I had my boxes of personal stuff and headed out the door.
August 11, 2005:
So, my housemate suggested that I needed a vacation. I realized Gencon was coming up. I hadn't pre-registered because I assumed I'd be busy. Boy was I wrong. But here I am, unemployed, and wondering if I should spend $400 on plane tickets, hotel room and $70 on a four-day convention. More importantly, my housemate suggested that I think of this as a career opportunity. After all, with the amount of time I put into Dragonlance, maybe I should find a way to get paid for it. So that's not a bad idea.
August 12, 2005:
Well, I'm on my way. I've made airplane and hotel reservations for Gencon. In the words of Martha Stewart, "This will be a good thing." If I know your standard role-playing and gaming convention, it's going to be filled with booths. I'm going to bring a stack of books for author signatures, and lists of Dragonlance stuff I'm going to hunt down for my collection. Also to make me feel better about spending a lot of money without a job, I'm going to learn about what it takes to be a writer. And I see on the Gencon website that there are writing seminars in the mornings. Cool.
August 18, 2005, 5 pm:
So the Convention actually starts at 2 pm Wednesday, August 17th. I'm going to get to the show on the 18th. That's simply because there is a family member's birthday on the 18th, and I'm going to spend it with her rather than Gencon. I'm sorry, but I DO have my priorities on straight. The family need to know I'm looking for a job, I'll spend a birthday morning with her, and then head out to the airport and arrive in Indianpolis at 2pm. It was a tough decision. Margaret Weis had invited Dragonlance fans to meet up with Sovereign Press at their hotel room yesterday. Too bad I couldn't make it.
It's good to note that I had reserved my room with a hotel affiliated with the convention through the Gencon website. So, after arriving at the Radisson airport hotel, I discover that there's a shuttle service from each of the registered hotels associated with the convention. Without it, I'd have to either rent a car or arrive by taxi. With the hotel being more than 6 miles from the convention center that really saves on the taxi fares. I would recommend anyone else to do that same. The Indiana weather is a bit different than what I expected. It was a humid, yet baking heat. I would have thought that the weather would be drier because Indianapolis isn't near a body of water. I guess I'm just too used to the breezy California weather. Fortunately, the motel, shuttle bus and the convention center are nice and air-conditioned.
Wow Gencon was huge. I'll talk about that when I explore tomorrow. The main entrance to the convention center was very busy with convention center badge pickup and registration. They also had a catalog of the latest events and last minute changes. The lines were long, but the nifty part included getting a bag of free games. The bag included a Five Rings booster packs, as well as other collectable card games, and coupons, including discounts on dice. There was also a station for buying the 2005 Gencon shirt. Lastly, there are stacks of the Gencon Events booklet, 258 pages of events and advertisements. All the information is also on the Indy Gencon Website, but it's useful to have this booklet while your laptop is stuck at home. I started flipping through the book, looking at the various events I wanted to visit. Now, this is disturbing, but the book has a list of recommended "Do's and Don'ts." "Please shower every day, use those handy soaps and shampoos in the hotel room." That shocked me, but as I looked up, I noticed that there were a lot of guys, who had sweat stains under their arm pits. Ewwwwww. I must say, there were definitely more men than women. And not all of them were in shape. As I said, sweat-stained T-shirts. Ewwww. I find this troubling because I see CNN news reports about overweight America, and I think RPGers are doing their best to represent America. I've been to Anime conventions (currently run my the previous mentions jerkoffs who harass me) and let me tell you, those Anime people don't shower. And in the hot baking summer weather of Indianapolis, I clearly recommend bringing in deodorants. Because this is also part business I dressed up. Business casual. Black dockers, and shoes, with a buttoned t-shirt. And of source, an undershirt and blue boxers. I say this because one can never tell if there's a hook-up. And a good smelling, well-dressed Asian guy in the middle of a sea of overweight, XXXL-sized "T-shirt and jeans wearing," white America will stand out. And I hope I look business-ready on the lottery-winning chance that someone introduces me to the WotC book editor and tells them I can write a Dragonlance book.
With that said, I get to the convention and explore the rest of the convention center. The Indianapolis convention center is connected to the RCA Sports Stadium. There are 4 hotels connected to the convention center, each with conference rooms that the convention uses for seminars. The writing seminars were in the Westin hotel, right next to the Anime rooms. There were two groups anime groups, the Indiana Animation Club and the Hades Pro. And each had a Room showing assorted anime 24 hours a day.
The main halls of the convention are made of three parts. There are the dealer's rooms, with booths everywhere. There are the contest centers, where Magic, Yu-gi-oh and CCG and competitive events are played out. And lastly extra rooms where the kid's play center, and computer game tournaments are held. I centered on the Dealer's room. I immediately started looking for the Sovereign press (SP) booth. Alon g the way, I hit the Devil's Due Publishing booth. They have the Dragonlance Chronicles Comic book, Cover A. So…. I had to stop and get one. Now I know the looks that you're giving me. I HAD to stop to get Dragonlance stuff… What did you expect from the Dragonlancer who's only missing some Elmore Jigsaw puzzles in his collection. Anyways, I reached SP's booth. I shook hands with Margaret who is always inspiring. Tracy and Laura Hickman was also there, as well and Jamie and Renae Chambers. I also had a quick handshake with Cam Banks and his wife. I also saw Sean MacDonald (aka Kipper Snifferdoo) and his lovely wife. Unfortunately the Dragonlance book I was looking for wasn't there yet. Holy Order of Stars will be in tomorrow, they say. Ah well, I can wait. At least there was the Serenity Rulesbook from Margaret Weis Productions. That was selling like Hot Cakes. A lot of people were interested in it. And Margaret and Jamie were happy to sign copies bought at the booth.
By that time, it was getting close to dinnertime, so Sean took me to one of the local restaurants surrounding the convention center. There are plenty of places to eat around there. Afterwards, the convention was closing down for the day, so I headed back to my hotel so I could read more about the events that were going to happen Friday.
August 19, 2005, 7 am:
So in the morning, I got dressed and waited for the shuttle bus. I soon discovered I missed the earliest shuttle, and I had to wait over half an hour for the next bus. And then there was a 30-minute drive because that one bus travels to each and every hotel before getting to Gencon. That was very annoying, and I missed out on the first event I wanted to go. I was tempted to go to the gaming rooms to have fun, but I decided my goal is to learn how to be a writer. So, I went to the writing seminars. From 8 am to 1 pm, Jean Rabe, Chris Pierson, Jeff Sampson and other Dragonlance authors are holding hour-long seminars on how to be a writer. I knew these seminars would be very informative. Also, I can get them to sign several Dragonlance books in my collection. :-) I swear, Jean Rabe is the absolute sweetest and kindest person in the world.
Mind you, I did this at the sacrifice of Tracy Hickman's Killer Breakfast. I know, I know. Killer breakfast is the main event for any Dragonlancer. You join up with about 500 other gamers, and Tracy kills everyone's characters by breakfast. Also during that time, there's a Dragonlance d20 demo being run by Cam Bank. It starts at 9 am, but right at the same time as the writing seminars. UGGGGGG. I'm talking about major decisions. Even worse, Cam Bank's Legacy of the Black Rose will be run every morning *at the time as the writing seminars. * That is all too painful, but I made my choice.
The room fits about 40 people, and the seminars covered how to be a writer, Genre-ism, and writing for a game setting. After the seminars, I yet again went to the Sovereign Press and awaited the arrival of the much-coveted Holy Order of Stars Sourcebook. They finally arrived, and I bought a copy. Heck, I bought two copies, and had Margaret, Jamie, Renae, Sean Everett, Tracy, Laura, Sean MacDonald, and any other people I could find who are a part of the crowd. Sean introduced me to Cam and his wife before they headed off to a D&D game. Sean and his wife then took me to lunch before I went off back to the convention.
I explored the rest of the Dealers' room, including the Guest of Honor area. Lines were forming for several famous actors. I purchased autographs from Ernie Hudson (Winston, the black Ghostbuster), as well as the Trisha Helfer (the blonde Cylon from Battlestar Galactica). A part of me felt sorry for them. Afterall, a field of geekdom surrounds them. But they were incredibly gracious.
As I explored the rest of the booths, I saw some of my ex-coworkers. You see, when you work at a video game company, you meet fellow gamers. And so they saw me, and we hung out. There were continued condolences for my layoff, and they were happy to see me. I also saw some former employees that left the company years ago. We caught up, and talked shop about the latest video games, industry standards, and the latest game. I soon paired up with former co-worker Sam, to explore the booths. With his help, we honed in on a booth that sold old D&D games.
Just to give you an idea, I took a homemade red leather-bound book from my backpack. This book contains acid-free sheet protectors that contain Dragonlance related articles that I had cut out of Dragon Magazine issues in my collection. But it was far from being complete. Sam was helpful by finding and pulling out the magazines while I red off the magazine issue numbers I needed to complete the collection. It was at that point, that the storeowner, and Sam realized that my book didn't contain the whole magazines, but the pages that I had carefully cut from said magazines. Storeowner and Sam were VERY leery as I bought very rare, very mint condition magazines, only to know that I was butcher them apart for the articles. I'm very glad that the storeowner didn't mark up the cost of the magazines just to rescue these magazines from their future date with an Exacto Knife. And yes, I know I am destroying the value of those magazines. And yes, I know I could photocopy pages rather than cutting them out. But I'm a Dragonlance nut, and sacrifices need to be made.
I had dinner with Sam, and then I headed off to the evening seminars. The was a really awesome seminar called "Principles of Medieval Cooking." Janet Pack and several other fantasy authors were sitting next to me as we hear about cooking equipment, techniques and ingredients available at to the English and French during the 14th century. Did you know that the rarity of spices in 14th century Europe is a myth? And did you know Cinnamon in our local stores is not the same type of cinnamon from ancient times? It turns out, American business wants to sell homegrown stuff, so they made an imitation cinnamon. You need to look for Ceylon cinnamon. That's the real spice. Wow.
August 20, 2005, 7 am:
So, it's Saturday morning. I get up early, get on the shuttle buss and hit the next series of writing seminars. The topics this time include the importance of wording, and world building. I swear, if there are any of you out there who are interested in writing, *go to these seminars.* The world building seminar was inspiring. We started off with the concept of a water world with islands. The audience and the panelists reached a frenzy fleshing out the world. For example, magic was related to water, and land, with ice and fire regions at the poles and active volcanoes. Wood was the most valuable commodity. It was a fascinating experience, and I hope world building becomes it's own series of seminars. One hour to build a world was fun, but not nearly enough time. The seminars also discussed writer's rights, including the ideas of fan-fiction.
After the seminar ended at noon, I went back to the main hall to the SP booth. Sean told me that Cam's Dragonlance game was changed from Sunday morning to this afternoon at 2 am. Cool. Now I can play that module. Serenity was still selling like hotcakes. Not only did they sell out of the hard covers of the Serenity RPG book, the soft cover versions were also selling out. I didn't stay long. You see, as a Dragonlance nut, I'm very self-conscious of the fact that Dragonlance is the really only reason to hang out at the SP booth. And I don't want to look like I'm some predatory vulture/stalker who's milling around because he has nowhere to go. Afterall, I have an image to maintain. Besides, with Dragonlance and Serenity being so popular, they were literally forming waiting stations just so folks could get their rulebooks signed. So as not to be a bother, I decided to explore other booths.
Then the worst possible thing I can imagine happens. I'm walking down the booths, and then I see her. R. The girl I trusted as a friend, who lied to my other friends that I forcible came on to her, making them hate me, ruining my plans for my own video game company, and who's friends have harassed me online by attacking a personal ad on Craiglist. Gods. And for some astronomical reason she and I are both in Indianapolis where she is within strangling range! Losing Coherant thought…. Shock. Fear. Anger. Rage. Despair. Whatever. I saw her. She saw me. And I just shook my head because she's just not worth it.
Sufficed to say, when I met up with Sean and his wife, we went to lunch where I think they could tell that I wasn't exactly mentally engaging. To give you and idea, it's like seeing Hitler in an apron. Not only are you dealing with the hatred you should feel for Hitler, but you're also asking, "WHY?" So I opted out of Cam's game to hide in my hotel room.
August 21, 2005, 8 am:
So, last day of the convention. Sorry to day, I didn't do very much. I missed out on the Sunday writing seminars. It was just one of those days where the motivation to get out of bed just isn't there until noon-time. Too bad. One of the seminars was about using monsters as characters. Man, that would have been a good one. Heck, with my alter-ego as Granak the draconian, I have the funny impression I could join the authors as we talk about what makes these characters special. Sigh. C'est la vie. But I did get up to go to the award contest for the best costume player of the convention. It's the pinnacle of the Gencon costume players. One guy had an elaborate spider-demon costume, with four possible arms. There were mages in their robes, a couple of Elminster-wizards, a few dressed up as the cartoon characters, the Teen-Titans, as well as your usual assortment of Klingons, Star Wars Storm Troopers, and anime nymphet.
August 22, 2005, 8 am:
So, with the end of the convention on Sunday, I had decided to stay an extra night at the hotel. It's Monday morning, and my flight back to the California Bay Area is at 11 pm. Honestly, I was dreading the possibility of meeting R again. She too, lives somewhere in the Bay Area. It would be very uncomfortable if I had to be stuck in an airport or on a plane with her. Fortunately, I didn't see her. So, overall, I had fun. Gencon was great, and it's always fun getting together with fellow Dragonlance fans. I got to meet up with some old coworkers. I certainly didn't get to see everything there was to see at Gencon. The message here would be, to fully enjoy Gencon, you definitely need to go many, many times.
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