Flying Solo at GenCon

[cherydactyl]

So, a few days ago I got back from GenCon. I went by myself; no illyaa, no kids. Well, my friend Chip picked me up and drove; I stayed in a room with him and another friend at the Embassy Suites. And, boy is that hotel a little odd...the front entrance is pretty much on the 3rd floor inside a building facing toward the parking garage. And then you go up a level on an escalator to get to the lobby on the 4th floor. Very odd.

I again worked for the Train Gamers Association to help put on the Puffing Billy train games tournament. I rather lost my voice between mustering somewhere between a third and a half of the Ticket to Ride prelims and teaching two slots of Empire Builder, plus one of Metro. The recruitment of me and others for future TGA service continues apace. Some year I or we will manage to get to Railcon, which is commonly over Labor Day weekend; it's just hard to get there when school starts the day after Labor Day and the kids are both starting a new school this year.

Anyway, I was having my "always a bridesmaid" tournament syndrome...lots of 2nd places. I had to work hard to get my 4 category wins for the PB. My 3rd win was the Ticket semi Saturday night. My fourth win was the potluck Aussie Rails I played Sunday morning. I lost the "challenger class" trophy to one of the three people who beat me at Eurorails, in a very frustrating prelim game. I had stalled at 246 after a tourists to Barcelona and flowers to Porto start. The game also featured me dumping in Torino with cork on my train to get cork to Cork, marble to London, and marble to Dublin. I *never* go to Ireland, but I did that game! Anyway, if you don't play Eurorails, that all made no sense to you, but no worries. In the overall PB, I placed 10th, which is quite respectable.

The loss of voice did not stop me from playing Rock Band on Saturday night after I placed 3rd in the Ticket to Ride nationals final (I made an error; I was tired ::shrug::). Some guys had set up their console and a wide screen TV in the lobby at the hotel. I got to sing Don't Fear the Reaper, Should I stay or Should I Go?, and Dead or Alive (I think that's the name of the Bon Jovi song...?). I *really* *really* *really* want rock band NAU! It was beyond a blast!

PB overall was up about a third over last year in terms of players and "butts in seats," which, considering that it seems GenCon as a whole was very likely down in attendance, is very cool. We train gamers are a relatively organized bunch. I hear any TGA members reading this snorting...but it's true that compared to the average group at a con, our tournament structures are relatively clear, we can answer questions pretty well, and have a structure in place for responding to problems, among players, about rules questions, and for data entry errors for scores. And the core TGA people are great people, which is really why I do PB...because I don't otherwise play train games more than other kinds. Well, maybe a little, but only because many of the good resource-management games happen to be train games.

It was a good weekend. I am still tired, now four days later. Next year I want to see if I can get my parents or someone to watch M so we can go again. S wants desperately to go.

Comments

[gillan.livejournal.com]

It's funny how all these people I know independently of each other went to GenCon. I imagine you guys all walking past each other.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Oh very probably. I saw a friend who moved to Oregon a year ago (amnuxoll), and missed other people whom I know (e.g., theshunter) because I didn't know to look for them combined with the fact that I hardly left the room where the PB tournament was except to go to the food court twice. I only went to the dealer room on Sunday, too. This is only my 3rd GenCon, and only the second time I went for the full four days, so I don't know the terrain like I know it at Origins.

[bitter-lily.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you had so many frustrating near-wins.

I enjoy volunteering for the Puffing Billy too. It was great working with you!

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

thanks! it was great doing the teaching games and working with you too. :)

[surakofb5.livejournal.com]

Uh oh, now you've done it! TGA has figured out you're a responsible, competent volunteer. You're marked for life! (I have the same problem with my taekwondo school.)

I haven't been highly motivated to go to GenCon since my one mediocre experience, but if Origins leaves Columbus maybe I'll try it again. Playing train games sounds more fun than getting sold out of every RPG I wanted to try.

[train-gamer.livejournal.com]

And the best thing is, it is very difficult to get sold out of the games that the TGA is running! We don't pay attention to the 'max players' numbers that the cons make up provide. If we have people who want to play, we will do our darndest to make sure that they can.

Plus the fact that we have, at both major cons, the 'Puffing Billy' ribbon -- which, for a set price, allows you to play all the TGA events you can get into all weekend.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the ribbon is a good deal even if you split your time between TGA events and somewhere else. I think the break even point is something like 5 or 6 games, depending on if they are shorter or longer games, of course?

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

It's worse. I'm responsible, competent, and worst of all *willing*. ::grin::

Shortly after our previous exchange about Origins dates, the Origins web site put up further dates. IIRC there are now dates through 2013 posted on their front page, though I suppose you could read the posting at just being the dates and not necessarily the location of the game fair. Hrm.