GenCon 2018

I once again have let this blog lapse for over a year, mostly because the communities I used it to 
interact with largely faded. One of the groups that I game with now has several people who write 
gaming blogs, so I am incentivized to pick it back up again. GenCon has always represented the
 beginning of the gaming year for me, so returning with a recap of that event seems fitting.

GenCon has changed a lot over the last few years, both for me personally, and as a whole. I have 
noticed a positive shift in the demographics to a younger, more diverse crowd. The convention has 
also expanded its support for families, and “cons within the con” like Contessa. On the whole, it is 
a bigger, better, and more interesting convention. For the last three years, my wife and daughter 
have come with me, and there is plenty for them to do (my wife is not a gamer).

Along with the change of bringing my family, the con has changed for me personally. The groups 
that I traditionally spent my convention with have largely disappeared. After the PodgeCast ended,
the group that grew around it dissolved; and Troll Lord Games no longer goes to GenCon. This left 
me wandering the convention alone when I wasn’t running a game or hanging out with my family. I 
did not really have a group of gamers to talk to throughout the con. Sure, the people that play in my 
games are great, but I don’t usually see them again throughout the weekend.This year I decided to 
change that.

In addition to my usual ticketed games, I signed up to demo games at the Monte Cook Games 
booth. This turned out to be the best decision I made this GenCon. I have never done booth 
demonstrations before, and I really enjoyed it. I ran “No Thank You, Evil” and “Numenera” and 
met a bunch of really great people. It was a blast to see how each group of players took a 
different approach to the demo game. The MCG people were great, especially Darcy who took 
the time to chat before I ran my first game. I look forward to doing this again next year.

I ran five sessions of Stonehell (4 ticketed and 1 off the grid) this year. There is no doubt that 
Stonehell has produced more return on investment for me than any other gaming purchase. 
I have run dozens of Stonehell games at conventions (depending on what counts, I broke 
50 this weekend) and players still provide me with a surprising experience every time. As many
of you know, I run a persistent dungeon, so my convention games impact my home games. 
This means that the dungeon has changed quite a bit over the years. Each of my GenCon 
games were for a table of 10, and I find that B/X D and D still works really well for groups of this 
size.

I was lucky to run two games where there were three generations from the same family at the table. 
One of these turned out to be the most surreal gaming experience I have ever had. The 
grandfather caught on to one of my lazy GM shortcuts and, instead of calling me on it, decided to 
play into it and mess with me. Those of you who do not like session recaps can skip the italicized 
text.

The group consisted of a young woman, her brothers, her father, her grandfather, and several unsuspecting people who were not related to them. I need to explain ahead of time that I can be a lazy, lazy GM. When I run Stonehell, there is not really a campaign setting. Each adventure starts at the steps to the dungeon and the town is only slightly more detailed than the town menu in Wizardry. I sprinkle around details that, Star Wars-style, make it seem like there is this whole world. But, I don’t know anymore than the players. I also let the players make up most of the setting on the fly by asking clerics about their god etc. In the rare case where players start digging in for more detail, I fall back on a trick that requires even less effort on my part: lyrics to ‘60s and ‘70s songs. Essentially, my GMing style is to write checks against an empty bank account. In this session, grandpa took that check to the bank.

Before entering the dungeon, the party met an old woman by a wagon. She was concerned that her magically gifted daughter had entered Stonehell and was susceptible to the lure to the dark arts. Eight parties out of ten would just head off into the dungeon to rescue the daughter, this one started digging into the old woman, her wagon, and the why. One of the players started pressing me about who the old woman was and why she had this wagon. I asked her to tell me about the wagon, and described a fairly stereotypical Roma-derived people. 

While the rest of the party started looking around for the secondary entrance described by the woman, the granddaughter pressed the old woman on why she thought her daughter might turn to the dark arts. Still no problem for me, because she had been nice enough to hand me Cher.

GRANDFATHER: I check in the well for a staircase.

ME: You don’t see a staircase. The well seems to be empty.

GRANDDAUGHTER: So, you had to raise her all by yourself? How did that happen?

ME: City folk didn’t trust our people, so we were always poor. Most of our money came from men coming into camp to watch my mother dance and my father sold fake potions. We were never in one place long before some morally outraged crowd ran us off.

GRANDFATHER: I go to the well and bang on it.

ME: Nothing happens when you bang on the well. One time we picked up a young man who traveled with us for a while. Three months after we dropped him off, I knew I was in trouble.

GRANDFATHER: I go back to the well and examine it really close.

GRANDDAUGHTER: Grandpa, stop going to the well. There is nothing there.

GRANDFATHER (staring right at me and smiling): This seems like the kind of game where you can’t go to the well too many times.

ME (now fully focused on the grandfather): OK, you are sure that this is a wishing well. As you lean in you see a ghostly form far below with chains on its feet.

GRANDFATHER: Edmund! Is that you? It has been years! We thought your ship was lost with all hands when a November storm came early.

GRANDDAUGHTER: Grandpa?

ME: It was no storm. It was murder.

GRANDFATHER: Children, I am going to have to step up and take the lead. There is an evil here that is far more ancient than expected; and only I am armed to fight it.

What followed was three of the most enjoyable hours of D&D I have ever run. The grandfather and I riffed on old song lyrics to make up a murder mystery and I am pretty sure no one else was wise to it.

On the family side, my daughter said that this year’s GenCon was her favorite yet. The highlights for 
her were cosplaying as Miraculous Ladybug along with building and destroying Cardhalla.     

  

I suspect that I will be back to blogging for a while now. I have a few things I am working on, as well 
as group session recaps, so I should have plenty of material.