tracker7 | Entries tagged with conventions

Had a very good time at RiverCityCon. Games went well - my DCC sessions, the Castles & Crusades game I played in, and some board games with a couple of Louisville friends I should have spent some time with long before now. DCC at fifth level is just bonkers - characters getting multiple action dice, huge bonuses and big dice for warriors and dwarves and thieves. I stopped reminding players of the second dice after about an hour - I had enough to manage on my side of the screen.

The Tuesday night group wrapped up the Dragonbane campaign last night. I was sick - more in a moment - and sat out the session. They opted for another Dragonbane campaign, and I'm going to sit it out, at least for a while. The monthly OSE game is great. The Tuesday night group is fantastic. But, like things were a few months ago, I'm playing enough fantasy.

Probably unrelated, I've had the hardest time writing a scenario for my Cyberpunk Red game. Players gave me some great ideas; I just haven't been able to do anything with them. I'm experiencing some kind of burnout or more likely a creative logjam. My players deserve good games, darnit.

So, yesterday. Woke up not feeling well - body aches, headache, fever, sore throat. Took a shower, wobbled my way back to bed and emailed the boss to tell her I was taking a sick day. Crawled under the blanket and went right back to sleep. Fever went away mid-afternoon, and many hours of sleep helped. Still had a headache when I got up this morning, but it wasn't enough to keep me home for another day.

The Dodgers are the 2024 World Series champs! They won Game 5 last night, a banger of a come-from-behind win, final score of 7-6 after spending four innings down 0-5. I would have liked to have seen the win at Dodgers Stadium, but winning at the opponent's park is just fine.

The Trail game was not good. Had two players more interested in their Noo Yawk accents than pursuing the investigation that others were there for. It happens, I guess. Sometimes even Han Solo got boarded, sometimes even I run a bad game. On to Eclipse Phase in a couple of weeks.

Tried to vote around 9:30 this morning. Traffic around my first choice of sites was quite heavy, backed up a quarter-mile. I opted to run a couple of errands and try again elsewhere and had better luck. In and out in about 15 minutes. Poll workers said the site had been busy all day.

The site was the hotel convention space that used to host Conglomeration. I hadn't been in there since the last Conglom in '19. The mind's eye saw the registration table in the main hallway and the vendors' tables in the room where I cast my ballot. Sic transit.

Short workweeks are always appreciated. I like them better when the day off is a Friday - when the week ends sooner rather than starting later - but I'm not going to complain. This one was busy, with the normal 150-mile drive on Thursday, so at least it didn't seem to drag on. So, here I am on a Sunday afternoon, watching the Colts-Texans game and doing laundry. Getting in some reading, too.

Today is the third anniversary of Mom's death. The pain is gone, and has been for a while, if I'm being honest. It's an emptiness now. An empty space. I miss her.

Friday was Dad's birthday, and I took him to lunch yesterday to celebrate. Heck of a good meal and Copper & Oak in Danville. We had a little other business to take care of, and that was handled easily enough. He's singing with his gospel group this afternoon, and that will hopefully keep him from dwelling on the date too much. They're singing about thirty miles south of Indy next weekend, and I may go up there and see about going early enough to go up to Patachou for one of their fantastic omelets.

I'm diving back into Eclipse Phase, prepping for a SYR game in a couple of weeks. I remember the broad strokes of the game, but so many details are coming back to me on the reread.

Some real glamour shots of Lucas Oil Stadium and Indianapolis in general during the game. I was just there five weeks ago, and I find myself missing it already. My GenCon family isn't what it used to be, but they do still mean something to me.

Some jerk decided to shoot up I-75 yesterday afternoon. Dude bought an AR of some stripe and 2000 rounds for it yesterday morning, then found a spot on an overpass and ... just started shooting. Still at large as of this afternoon.

I got back from Charcon a few hours ago. I'm calling it a successful convention weekend. I ran one of the two games had scheduled, played some pickup board games, had meals at a great late-night calzone place and Tudor's and a hibachi food truck. And got to see some friends - the most important part of the trip!

Something caused a fire alarm to go off in the middle of my Saturday morning game, so we evacuated the building. That ate up about 20 minutes of table time, and I had to compress the final encounter into a narration, but it was still a good time.

A tornado hit west Louisville on Thursday. A short-lived EF-1, on the ground for about three blocks out around Cypress Street. We have some clients in group homes over there, and I was there for visits on Wednesday afternoon. Not much damage, thankfully.

Good Cyberpunk Red session last night, with a new player dropping in. She got onboard fast and helped drive the game. I hope she sticks around.

Haven't done much of anything today. Napped a lot, got in my GT7 workout, double-checked my Charcon material - still waiting on the GM badge code to arrive. I'm chalking this up to my body telling me to get some rest, and having done so, I'm going to try to get some things done this afternoon and evening, since plans got scuttled. Let's see how that works out for me.

And I'll be darned. The Charcon code just popped up in my Gmail box.

I ran through the final season of Star Trek: Picard. Not bad, but it was a heavy nostalgia trip. Most of the TNG regulars got screen time, but one notable recurring guest showed up in one episode only to die, and I wasn't in love with that decision.

Netflix's Beverly Hills Cop movie was enjoyable enough. There's a chase scene that doesn't quite work for me, but the rest is fun. A few years ago, I rewatched the first movie, and was surprised that, wow, that was a genuinely good movie.

Less than six weeks until I can start looking for another position within the agency. I've been watching the postings off and on, and there are some good options. There are parts of my job that I do like, but they're heavily outweighed by the parts that I very much don't.

It sure is July 4. Every doofus around is setting off the fireworks they bought at whatever tent set up in whatever parking lot. I figure there'll be a few rounds of that hit new guessing game Fireworks or Gunshots tonight, and the news tomorrow morning should be good for a few uncomfortable chuckles.

Charcon's coming up. Still waiting for the GM discount code to arrive. I'm comfortable enough with the adventures I schedule, and should be more so after the test session Tuesday evening. I'm looking forward to this trip - looking forward to seeing some people and getting some breakfast at Tudor's.

I gotta wonder how things are going to be when I read this entry in a year. I figure that things are going to go pear-shaped and that orange bastard will get re-elected and ... the republic ends.

It is June, therefore it is hot and since I am a delicate flower I do not like it at all. During the monthly meeting for my position, the head CM always asks what our favorite thing about the current month is, and I answered nothing. There is nothing about this month that I like.

I'm at Mom&Dad's this weekend, doing Father's Day stuff with Dad. He declared that it's too hot to go to the lake, and I am just fine with that. We picked up my car yesterday morning, and the body work is just about perfect. I need to get the front end aligned soon, probably before Charcon.

Charcon! Four weeks until I head into the depths of the Appalachians for a weekend of games. And maybe a detour to Point Pleasant for some of the Mothman Museum's root beer. Gonna see some of my favorite folks, too.

Asmodee confirmed last week that development on X-Wing and Armada was at an end. This wasn't much of a surprise. AMG's indifference to Armada was maybe less damaging than their clear lack of any good ideas about X-Wing. So, after a decade of dogfighting and fleet engagements, the lines have come to their end. There's already talk about community groups continuing work, and some is already being done. A couple of folks in my Tuesday night RPG group asked about playing, and since there are some second edition squadron builders still out there, I'm going to get my collection out of the closet and play the old game again.

Did I mention that it's really hot?

GenCon released the event schedule today, and registration is in two weeks. So far, there has been no communication from the convention team lead who succeeded me. No scheduling, no confirmation of badges, nothing. I'm not impressed. When I did the job, it was a much heavier load - larger team, actual event scheduling, etc, and I had things set up and in place by mid-April.

One of my games went off. I played in a couple of others. Saw some Lexington friends.

Lexicon is a board game con, and if you're not there for that, and especially for whatever classic and/or darling of the year that the organizers are in love with, you're a second-class citizen. Minis and RPG folks are shunted off to a very loud room, and it looks like more board game tables are going to be placed in the RPG space. So, we're not only ghettoized, but we're going to be colonized. Yay.

Shadowdark is a really good game. From my experience, it seems to walk a line between OSE and DCC, and that's right up my trad-fantasy alley at present. The Electric State ... it's interesting to see how far stripping down the MYZ engine can go, but the setting just left me cold. That may be due to the GM, however. Whatever. I have plenty of games.

And playing Coriolis was good. I'm taken with the setting, in its Third Horizon incarnation, anyway. I went in on the Kickstarter for Great Dark, then canceled my pledge after seeing the Great Dark preview release. Not really to my taste.

Lexicon is coming up this weekend. I'm scheduled to GM three Coriolis sessions, and as of right now, I have players for two of them. Got some friends I want to see, both at the con and outside it. Should be a good weekend.

At some point, I'll spend the weekend in the new apartment.

Easter weekend was nice enough. Spent most of it in Liberty. Watched the UFL opening games on Saturday. Nice lunch with the family on Sunday. Got back to Louisville Sunday evening, very tired. Watched the first episode of season four of For All Mankind.

So, that's a nice if unintentional perk of the job - company phones are iPhones, so I have to have an app store account with the work e-mail account. And Apple likes to give away trial memberships of their various services, and I'm not too proud to accept three free months of Apple+. Put the reminder to cancel the subscription in my calendar already, of course.

Mess of an entry. I'm still getting my feet back under me.

This has been a week, y'all.

Alex's flight from PDX to DFW was delayed by nearly an hour, and he changed his flight to SDF, and there was some kind of medical incident on the SDF flight, so it was after midnight Monday night/Tuesday morning when we got out of the airport and to the AirB&B. And of course we sat up talking for a while and I got a little under five hours of sleep before heading to work.

The flight delays worked out for me - I got to play in Cody Pondsmith's demo game, and that was a good time.

GAMA Expo is very much an industry show. There are lots of games and products on display, but sales are measured in cases and the like, not individual pieces. Getting to see folks I know and respect was cool, and there were some looks at upcoming releases. This was the show's first year in Louisville - the first year not in Nevada in years - and people seemed happy with the change in venue - easier travel and a nicer facility were things I heard. On the other hand, lots of publishers said that sales weren't good, for whatever reason.

The long and short of it, I mostly enjoyed the experience, but it's certainly no GenCon. I made some new friends, got some freebies, stuff like that. Next up is Lexicon.

We got approved for the apartment, and I'm hoping to get the lease signed and moved in very soon. I'm tired of long commutes and hotels.

First day of the GAMA Expo is done. Chatted with folks here and there; while waiting for an event in the hotel lobby, I put up a little sign telling passersby that I live here and want them to think of me as their friendly local guide. That led to several conversations and exchanging contact cards, and that was really fun.

Got a few more cards at a mixer, a couple of designers looking for a publisher, and even if they're not making something Crafty's interested in, the company can probably point them in the right direction. And, to top off the evening, I crossed paths with Ken Hite outside the expo hotel and he described Louisville as a city that makes him feel good about attending GAMA again, so, choke on THAT, Nevada.

I'm far more tired than I should be at 9:20PM. I want to stay up and see the Crew Dragon launch, but that's not looking likely. This bed is looking amazing, and I think that's going to win out tonight. Catch y'all later.

I'm still, much a certain asteroid, not entirely stable, but I'm getting there.

Being back in Louisville has been pretty darn good. I'm working with good people. I'm spending time with friends. Playing games around an actual table again. It's pretty darn good. Meeting tomorrow to apply for an apartment, and assuming that works out, I'll be in a much better place, in more than a few ways.

The crowdfunding effort has seen some success, not as much as I had hoped for but more than I tell myself I deserve. Donna apologized for not having enough rewards points to spend on putting me up in a hotel again - she's too good for this world.

I was all set to mix some couch-surfing and hotel time next week, until talking with Alex F this evening about plans for next week's GAMA trade show. I guess, once again, I'm going to be a guest of Crafty Games! I'll be in the friend-of-the-company role on Sunday afternoon, and something more but not entirely official from Monday evening through the end of the show on Thursday. Alex's flight gets here late Monday evening, and I'm going to pick him up and take his generous offer to stay in the AirB&B for the duration of the show. Going to take a sick day on Friday and run around town with him until he flies back west that evening.

I'm excited about GTS. I've gotten comfortable with the GenCon experience; I expect GTS to be a whole other thing. Alex suggested going to the Sunday events and collecting freebies, and that's incentive enough for me. Some folks I've gotten to know at cons are going to be there, and seeing them will be nice.

The good: after Zoom interview late last week, I was offered a job with a mental health/substance abuse treatment organization. It's decent money, it's at least related to the field I went back to school for, and it gets me back to Louisville and the friends and found family there. A few hoops to jump through - vaccinations and a tuberculosis screening - and I start in early February.

The bad: The Escape started vomiting coolant this afternoon. I'm hoping it's just a hose or a connection, and that's what it looks like to my barely knowledgeable eye. Paranoia is telling me that the block is cracked or a head gasket has blown, of course. I'll know more tomorrow afternoon.

Best-case, I'm going to spend a couple of weeks in extended-stay hotels while potential housemate and I look for housing. I'll get settled in just in time for GTS and hanging out with some game industry folks and maybe getting some freelance work. It's going to be a difficult month or so, but I can manage it. It'll pay off, in more ways than one.

Just gotta get through February.

And we find ourselves already halfway through January. We're enduring a heck of a cold snap - it's presently 25F, up from single digits this morning. There's a winter weather advisory, quite nebulous, for the next 48 hours or so. There are a couple of inches of snow on the ground here already, and the upcoming system may bring another couple of inches and a little bit of ice. This may complicate tomorrow's planned run to Georgetown to return some items from a mcjob.

RiverCityCon went off well, according to every report I've seen. Better than 500 individual attendees, good vendor sales, plenty of games. I would have liked to have seen the con put up more pictures of the RPG space - and by that, I mean any - pictures, but what can you do.

I guess I'm back on the Crafty GenCon team. Whoever I'm working for in early August can do without me for a few days. There are a couple of other events between now and then that I'm planning for, and, well...

The past few weeks have been pretty godsdamned dark. A lot of time spent with the kinds of thoughts that might get a person a 72-hour visit to a hospital. Making plans for cons, for seeing friends at them - for whatever reason, that's what my mind latched onto to give me some kind of hope, the will to power through and acknowledge that I'll get through the current circumstance. Things won't be what I had hoped for and dreamed of, but I can make the best of them. There is some light, even if I have to look for it.

The con was something of a bust. Most attendees weren't able to get event tickets until Friday morning, the day before the con. Communication problems between the organizers and the host site led to the registration and vendor spaces being on the opposite end of campus from the gaming area. I had two players for my Saturday game, and didn't see any signups for the Sunday game, so, I cancelled and went home. If I'm going to be bored and unhappy, might as well do it in a favorite chair or my bed, even.

I think it could have been a lot better, if the organizers accepted the offers from people who manage large teams of GMs and support staff at a dozen cons throughout the year. Egos get in the way, as they tend to do. It's unfortunate, but what are you going to do?

On the positive side, it was good to see some friends again, and it was good to be back ... back home for a while. I've got to make a plan to get myself back up there, or at least closer, and then execute it. There's just nothing here for me, no matter how much effort I put into convincing myself otherwise.

No-excuse early voting started today, and I exercised that right late this morning. I was darned close to going for a straight-ticket vote, but did cast my vote to re-elect our secretary of state. He's done a stellar job in the office, including promoting and expanding voting options, and he's pushed back against some of his party's excesses in the legislature. Those are good enough reasons to give him another term.

On the other hand, my vote for governor was about 75% for the incumbent and 25% against a useless AG whose campaign has been consistently dishonest and has relied heavily on the endorsement of Donald Trump and fucking fuck that sideways with a cactus. I'm hopeful that we'll be ride of Daniel Cameron come Tuesday evening.

I'm about as prepared as I can be for the little convention this weekend. Characters are printed and filed, as are the modules. I'd like to play something, too, and there are some good candidates. I'm looking forward to seeing some friends and getting some plans in place for 2024 events. Gods, I miss my friends.

The Rangers won the World Series last night. After 62 years and two World Series losses, I guess they were due. I didn't follow the Series closely this year, or baseball as a whole. Just a lull in my usual fervor for the sport. Football's got my interest for the next couple of months, then the long dead time of waiting for the next Opening Day.

Most of last week was a blur, not because it was chock full and moving fast, but because there was not much of anything going on. Got a pre-convention haircut. Little things around the house. Tried to read YA fantasy novel Goodreads sent me, with very little success. Just existed.

Then, Friday morning rolled around and it was time to head to West Virginia. The shop hasn't been able to get the Escape in, so I took the Canyon. The Escape is far and away the more comfortable ride, but since its AC is out, I opted to deal with the pickup's harsher ride. Took a Google Maps route that sent me through neighborhoods in Richmond - not recommended. Giggled at the "Sharkey Farmers" sign on I-64 East - it's funnier than Waddy Peytona heading the other way. Noted that seeing the Catlettsburg refinery in the middle of the day as an apocalypse-experiencing adult is a different experience than seeing it in the middle of the night as a post-apocalypse-obsessed kid.

Turned off the Interstate east of Huntington and headed north on West Virginia 2. It was a very nice along the Ohio River, separated from Ohio by the Ohio. Made it to Point Pleasant, navigated the compact downtown, and spent some time at the Mothman Museum! Cute, earnest enough, and a fun visit. Got back on the road, heading southeast on US35 - another Federal highway that has gotten a build to nearly Interstate level - and rolled into downtown Charleston. Checked into the hotel, then headed over to the Clay Center for my badge and a walk around.

Met and chatted with Anthony from Pithy Publications, who I knew from a Discord channel. Bought a copy of his Ghastbashers game, then headed to the RPG room to set up for DCC. Good game. Went back to the hotel and broke one of my rules of conventions and ordered Dominos to keep some rewards points from expiring. Quiet room and a comfy and I was out in a hurry.

More DCC Saturday morning. A number of repeat customers from the night before, and another good game. Met up with Gena Chattin, caught up, went to dinner (Pies & Pints, had been to the Lexington location) and had a good evening. Back to bed, as above with a side order of fireworks from the baseball park before I went to sleep.

Checked out Sunday morning, went back to the Clay Center for a few minutes, bought a Coriolis book from the Free League booth, then headed home. Made good time, and good mileage for the pickup. Got home, chatted with Dad, and got some rest.

Charcon was fun, and I think I'll keep this one on my list for next year. The drive, though ... it turned out to be at the far end of my tolerance. This is a sign I'm aging, and I do not like it. I don't know if I want to make the two-hour-longer drive to Archon in a couple of months. Maybe I'll just go up to Cincinnati instead.

That's for another time. Now, I need to drive 25 miles to pick up some printer ink, because I currently live way way out in the hinterlands.

I hadn't really planned to, but I wound up going to Liberty's Independence Day to-do last night. Went prepared, of course - collapsing keyboard, chair, drinks in the backpack. I set up at the courthouse, close enough to hear the bands but past the real edge of the crowd. The closing band was good, the fireworks show also good. Getting out of the Ag Center's parking area was a goat rodeo, so I found somewhere out of the way - a trend, as you can see - and waited until the fleet of cars and trucks and SUVs and brodozers was gone. Drove home listening to Peter Gabriel at an obscene volume.

More stormy weather today. I encountered the microest of microbursts this morning, an utter deluge of a storm maybe 25 yards across. Another very small cell blew through a few minutes ago - a very brief blast of rain and thunder.

I'm going to be social again tonight, I guess. Dad's church is having a midweek fish fry; as good(ish) Protestants, none of this Fridays-during-Lent stuff. I'll go, I'll eat, I'll mostly keep to myself. All will be well. Tomorrow will probably be another story. He wants to go to the lake, and I'm neutral on the idea. If some of his friends invite themselves along, I'll come down with a case of something. I just don't trust 'em, and it's not something Dad can understand.

Charcon's coming up in a hurry. One of my games is sold out, the other is at 50 percent. I'm signed up for Mothership, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm looking forward to the whole weekend, really. Even going to detour through Point Pleasant on my way home to visit the Mothman Museum and some other places around there.

Since the con is in West Virginia, I ordered a Mothman t-shirt from the good folks at Amorphia. It looks pretty good! And since today is a holiday, I spent a few hours watching Mothman documentaries on Prime. The producer of said docs, Lyle Blackburn, is also a musician and the frontman for Ghoultown!

Point Pleasant has a Mothman museum, of course, and it's not too far out of my way back from Charleston, so I think I'm going to pay it a visit when I'm there next month.

I'm starting to look forward to this one. Maybe I'll run my games. Maybe I'll play someone else's. More important - seeing a friend for the first time in years, and meeting a couple of Discord folks face-to-face.

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Roadside Picnic

Bright Ideas, Dark Futures

Army of Dreamers

Ghost of a Texas Ladies Man

Violet

Patterns

You're all I Need to get By

You Wanted More

What we Had

Gaslight

Down to the Well

Chaos Angel

Redemption Song

Born With a Hammer in My Hand

Sleep Now in the Fire

Three More Days

We Don't Give up Now

Southern Cross

All I Ever Wonder

When the Morning Comes

Five Get Over Excited

Mastermind

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June 2025

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