Master of Kobolds (Gencon Report - Saturday and Sunday)

Gencon report part 4 - and final!

First off, let me mention a bit more about my Goblin Dan's shirt, mentioned in the Thursday report. Here's a link to a picture of the shirt (the Hydra Head BBQ image), and here's the story behind it.

Saturday I didn't have anything planned, so I was able to sleep in a bit. Everyone else seemed a bit restless, though (except Narf), so they were stirring around earlier. I let pretty much everyone else get up and ready (and, mostly, out) before I got my shower and got dressed.

The plan was to hit the dealer room, since I'd spent very little time there during the rest of the week. Unfortunately, Saturday morning is pretty busy so I didn't really spent time trying to get game demos. I mainly just cruised up and down the aisles to see what was available. I did buy a new flip-mat from Steel Squire and some new dice. I got a d20 just like my old, worn out favorite, another d20 that I like even better (easy to read!), and four d12's numbered as d4's. d4's (tetrahedrons) don't roll that well, and are hard to read because you have to figure out which way they numbered them since there's no flat top (they can number the vertices on each joining side, or they can number the opposite edges and you read the edge along the table). These are dodecahedrons numbered I through IV, so it's easy to tell them from a d12 numbered 1-12. Anyway, enough of the long side discussion of dice!

I also went to try to find a place Ellen had seen with "Mr. Suitcase", a gaming case built into a rolling suitcase. However, I couldn't find it, and Ellen later said they sold out. It turns out I wasn't impressed with what I saw online later anyway, even though it was relatively cheap. Not worth it though, except maybe just as a suitcase.

I then got bored with the dealer room and was ready to play more. I decided to grab the third part of "Well of Woe" on Saturday afternoon rather than do it either Saturday night or Sunday morning. I had plenty of time before that, though, so first I bought an event ticket for it, then got a slice of pizza, then planned to meet Matt to go through the Dungeon Delve once when it opened at noon (before my 1pm game). However, while I was eating my pizza I neglected to see that the line for the suddenly got long, and Matt wasn't there yet. So, by the time we did get in line, we were way back. We continued to wait in line, but it became clear we wouldn't be able to get in the delve and play in (it's a 20 minute adventure) before the next game slot at 1pm when I was playing Well of Woe part 3. So, I ditched the line, but Matt instead decided to ditch the module he was signed up to play and stayed with the delve instead (which he then got addicted to -- see his post for details).

Anyway, I went to muster for the "Well of Woe", and wound up being the only person for it who had a real event ticket for part 3 rather than seeing if they could get in with generic tickets. We did get a legal table though (actually, five players), and we had a lot of fun. We did things to not quite break the module, but we did wacky things that the GM wasn't expecting, so he had to improvise. The first thing we did was beat up several kobolds, and then intimidated the final three of them into becoming our lackeys. I hired them in the name of the Blackwheel Company (since my character is a member of on of the dragon-marked houses that run the company), and after they proved useful I even gave them all field promotions, and wound up equipping them with stuff from their former comrades as we continued through the dungeon. We convinced them that we were such kind and benevolent masters. Ah, alas, two of then wound up dying due to the .... oh, but that would be telling, and some people reading this will still play the module. :-) I sent the final one fleeing for his life as we were afraid he was about to turn on us. Too bad, if we'd managed to keep them alive the judge was going to see if the faction master would let us keep them as certed cohorts!

Oh, and during the module we found a Wand of Magic Missles for me to use, and every time I used it I wound up rolling maximum damage! It was just an amazing run of luck that everyone commented on. It was one of those lucky new d4's I boughth! So, I think I singled handedly killed the ... oops, that would be telling.

After than I met Ellen and Matt for dinner at the place in the Hyatt that looks like just a smoothy place, but they really have other food as well (and serve a decent 5-way chili over spaghetti). Narf joined us there, and afterward the four of us went to the Knights of the Dinner Table live read. While we waited, Matt, Narf and I played Treehouse with another guy waiting near us, since Narf bought Treehouse earlier that day. Treehouse is a fun little game that takes only a couple minutes to play, so we got in two games. Then they inflated the beach ball and sent it out into the crowd, which kept everyone entertained until they were actually ready to start the live reading.

They changed the way things were done this year, in order to try to speed up transitions between readings a bit, so they drew the names of three sets of readers and a time so they had and "on-deck circle". In the first group of names were Kathy and Matt (I think Kathy was on the second table reading, and Matt on the third). They both did fine, although Matt says he was nervous and got crossed up on a couple of words. A friend of Amber #2 as on the first table, and I think he didn't know what he was getting into. And he even drew "tell a character story" as his prize, and again didn't know what was expected so the crowd was a bit impatient with him. Kathy's prize was "experience points", and Matt's was a free demo in the dealer room (which are free anyway). At least none of them got the Hubcap of Shame or a ass-kicking by the Kenzer crew! :-)


Then in the second set of three groups they drew Kalen and Ryan. Kalen got a got strip to read and read as Dave. Ryan got the "Dawg, the role-playing game" strip, and got to read the line "I want to play Pretty Pretty Princess!", much to all of our amusement. Kalen and Ryan both got to choose books for their prize, and both unknowlingly picked the same Hackmaster supplement.

After the reading I was interested in going to grab some dessert or something with everyone, and thought we might go to Chammps in the hotel, but it turned out to just be a Chammps bar rather than the restaurant (the restaurant, as it turns out, was a block over). We instead decided just to go back to TGI Friday's at our hotel, but the group scattered (Matt going to play the LG Special, Ryan to watch Anime, Kathy and Narf going to tear down True Dungeon. So it was just Ellen and Kalen and I, and Kalen wanted real food since she hadn't had any all day.

Finally, I walked Kalen over to the Hyatt where they were having the dance, and found Narf there. Then I went back to the room to crash.

Sunday I slept in, made sure we got everything packed up and taken to the car, checked out of the hotel, and then wandered the dealer room for a bit longer. I finished the tour of the room, got a couple of demos from Wizards so I could roll their prize die. One of the demos I got was Heroscape, which I'd never demoed before. It was alright, but if I'm playing a miniatures game I'm rather put the time and money into either D&D minis or HeroClix. Anyway, I thought I was getting my ass kicked in the demo, but I wound up winning because the troops I had in my second line were far more powerful than either I or my opponent had realized. Once I had them out on the attack I routed him. The other "demo" I got was just the Wizards of the Coast forums online, in which all I had to do was login with my account to get the demo-stamp. I then got in line to roll the die, and had to endure listening to this kid behind me talk non-stop at some other poor schmuck who was in line behind him. The guy was loud, talked constantly, and had no idea what he was talking about. Typical 17-year-old know-it-all who thinks he has to share his wisdom with the world. I almost turned around a couple times to tell him to just shut up, since his observations were based in no facts, and his opinions thus made no sense. But instead I just got to the front of the line, rolled a mediocre result, and got another pack of the Eberron character sheets that I'd gotten in my Big Pile o'Stuff, because that was a better choice than a novel I wasn't interested in or trading card boosters that no one I knew would play.

I then hiked back to the Hilton Garden Inn to get my car that I'd left in the adjacent garage all week, and found that the rumor that Ellen heard was true -- there was no attendant on Sunday afternoon so four days of parking cost me only three dollars at the automated payment station (same as just parking on Sunday). Something to remember for next year, assuming they don't decide they need to fix that system (it may not be worth it to them to pay an attendant, even if they know they lose some of the fees).

I took my car over to the Courtyard and parked it near Ellen's car, then went to the True Dungeon Riddle Reveal to figure out what we missed. Very little, as it turned out, and I talked about those things in the Thursday report.

Everyone except Matt gathered after the Riddle Reveal, and we phoned Matt and met him at the entrance to the dealer hall. We all agreed we didn't have anything else left to do, so we prepared to leave. We got back to the Courtyard and arranged the cars so that all of Matt and Narf's stuff was in my car. We then went to the hotel lobby and got a quick demo of Narf's group's video game. It looked pretty good, though simple at this point, and I really like the theme they chose for the game (origami figures, and the paper protaganist having to make its way across a classroom with various school supply antagonists and obstacles). Then we packed up, and Ellen, Kalen, Kathy and Ryan set off for Aurora while I took Narf to the airport and Matt back to Urbana.

After dropping Narf off for his flight Matt and I looked for a place to grab lunch. We spotted a Schlotzky's Deli and had to figure out how to get back around to it, and then when we did we found it had been closed for some time. So we ate at the family restaurant just across the way, where they asked if we wanted a seat near a TV so we could watch the race (Nascar). We didn't care, and instead had a relaxing lunch and took off. A couple hours later I dropped him at his apartment and headed back home.