GenCon Indy
Aug. 21st, 2005 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournHad a great time at GenCon Indy, spending most of Saturday playing Living Force with the people I only ever see at this event. In previous years I attended as many of the 4 days of events as I could, but this year I choose to fly in Friday, play Saturday, and leave early Sunday. This was partly due to wanting to both conserve vacation time at work and have some time to relax this weekend, but also because over the years my engagement with these Big 3 cons has waned. My favorite campaigns have been coming to an end, and the new campaigns focus on things I find entirely unappealing. No more Virtual Seattle or Living Jungle to play, Living Force will be ending for me at Winter Fantasy in February 2006, and Living Greyhawk has devolved into a powergamer meta-gaming miasma. This will likely be the last GenCon Indy I'm going to attend in the foreseeable future. GenCon SoCal is cheaper and easier for me to attend, offers a similar selection of campaigns now days, and as a stronger media presence.
Having become a bit of a minimalist thanks to Kim's influence so many years ago, I didn't load up on the products being offered at the expo. I did walk the floor to see what is new and plan to pick up a few things either via mail order to back home at a local hobby store. Shadowrun 4th edition was being released as a limited edition this weekend, and the Firefly RPG and the associated media guests were a big buzz at the show. Then again, I still haven't picked up a copy of the new edition of GURPS put out last year.
With the NorthWest mechanics strike, I was pretty worried about my flights. I booked NWA in order to get a direct flight to Indy, and I paid a few hundred extra for the privilege. Finding out about the strike the night before getting up at 6am to catch a flight was not reassuring. Despite the strike, my flight left on time and was smooth enough. The flight home on the other hand was ass. It seems part of the 'contingency plan' for the strike involved putting cleaning crew personnel into the push-trucks normally driven by the mechanics. As a result, there was a shortage of cleaners. The second leg of my flight home today was delayed 2 1/2 hours waiting for someone to empty the lavatories. They loaded us up after the stewardesses did a quick cleaning and sat an extra 2 hours on the plane, making a 3 hour flight into 5 hours. Given that the plane was chock full of families with young children, it proved a very long flight. The rosy picture NWA is painting about the results of the strike demonstrates more the quality of their press relations firm than reality.
Having become a bit of a minimalist thanks to Kim's influence so many years ago, I didn't load up on the products being offered at the expo. I did walk the floor to see what is new and plan to pick up a few things either via mail order to back home at a local hobby store. Shadowrun 4th edition was being released as a limited edition this weekend, and the Firefly RPG and the associated media guests were a big buzz at the show. Then again, I still haven't picked up a copy of the new edition of GURPS put out last year.
With the NorthWest mechanics strike, I was pretty worried about my flights. I booked NWA in order to get a direct flight to Indy, and I paid a few hundred extra for the privilege. Finding out about the strike the night before getting up at 6am to catch a flight was not reassuring. Despite the strike, my flight left on time and was smooth enough. The flight home on the other hand was ass. It seems part of the 'contingency plan' for the strike involved putting cleaning crew personnel into the push-trucks normally driven by the mechanics. As a result, there was a shortage of cleaners. The second leg of my flight home today was delayed 2 1/2 hours waiting for someone to empty the lavatories. They loaded us up after the stewardesses did a quick cleaning and sat an extra 2 hours on the plane, making a 3 hour flight into 5 hours. Given that the plane was chock full of families with young children, it proved a very long flight. The rosy picture NWA is painting about the results of the strike demonstrates more the quality of their press relations firm than reality.
