Gencon 2015

So at the last minute, I ended up going to Gencon.

Well, I can say "last minute" but it really wasn't.

My wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!), volunteered to work in the crafting room, and as a result, I registered for the full four day extravaganza.

I hadn't done the full package in a few years, but I kind of knew what to expect. 

The approximate crowds at Gencon this year was around 61-65K (yet another 10% increase, the sixth in a row)....

Speaking of six...

The floor of my parking garage....

IMHO, parking this year was kind of brutal.

There was construction going on at the city circle, and two of the garages were also closed due to "construction".

If it is one grip I have with Indianapolis, it's what I think is the lack of parking. When you have a six floor parking garage and 2 1/2 - 3 floors are taken up with "reserved" slots...there's a problem.

I ended up parking all the way over by Barcelona Tapas and humped it to the ICC.

The sky was indeed pretty blue though, and Indy is a nice city/town....

Not a cloud in the sky....

Egads...they still exist!!!! (and this one worked, and yes...
I checked for change...old habits never die...)

One of the more interesting buildings around here is the "Circle Tower". The front and the insides of it are done in what I can only call "Egyptian Style Tomb Motif".  I need to get some inside pics of this place. I do believe they might have a pharaohs sarcophagus on the 13th floor... Either that, or this is a nexus point for Gozar The Gozarian.

The entrance way....Who ya gonna call?

And here we see the crew "hard at standing...errr.."work", on the Indy Circle"....

But the downtown circle and monument is pretty against a blue sky....

And Ali-Babi asked the genie for a "Sure fire way to make some money in Indy during Gencon..." And the genie granted him...a food truck....

Registration at Gencon was pretty easy. Of course I had a will call badge, and there were some of the usual hiccups when thousands of people descend on something in the first opening day, but I was okay. I got through Registration pretty fast...

Registration....

According to Gencon, that piece of plastic with my name and barcode was worth approx $90.00... I'll leave it to the other people at Gencon to vouch for it was worth it.

Meanwhile some of the ads at Gencon....Games and Councillor Troy....hmmm...

 

Room 209 the SPA (Spousal Activities, Crafts Rooms, where my wife (Gawd bless her!), spent her Gencon....

So I hit the Vendors/Dealers Room/Hall/Lair:

With CS Forage Cap on, I made my way through the crowded hellishness that was the Vendors Room. Little Wars Attendees will definitely recognize that cap....

And yes the room WAS crowded....

With people buy "What'sits" and "Whosit's", and other fine fancy stuff....

One of the games that they were demo'ing that I wanted to try was "Mysterium". It looks amazing and if it sucked, I figured I could use the cool props for miniature stuff...

And of course there was this.....

This is definitely "THE GAME" for IT Service Professionals.....

While wandering through the aisles, I came upon this old school beauty:

I've got a copy of that "somewhere I do believe....and if you see the original $4.95 cent price, you can also see the "newer price" in the bottom right of $24.95....something things don't change...some things do....

Meanwhile, out on the streets of Indianapolis....

Yes we know what you want to say....(Go ahead...it's all right...)

While during Cos-play Saturday...we had Evil Queens and Sweet Princesses....

And bears...(Thankfully NOT Pedobear).....

And certain suave and charming 3rd World Dictators showed up, to show people that "Swaggering, Overbearing, Tin-Plated Dictators with Delusions of Godhood", can be well...."sexy"....

The man of the hour....all hail!

Glasses on....glasses off....A comparative analysis in modern political oppression, disdain of the people, and all things "Dictator-ness"....

And and nice full pose body shot.....

Stirs your heart with feverish nationalism, doesn't it?.....

But enough about all of that!

While there I spent money.....

I sucked it up, plopped down 20 bucks and bought the D&D 5th Edition Starter Set....

(I'll review this later in another post)....

Hopefully they didn't make it an upgraded 4.0 train wreck....

And being who I am, I also grabbed the DM's screen...

(At a quick glance of this, I can tell you that I am NOT impressed....)

And I bought some miniatures...

First off was some Reaper P-65 series, (which I had never heard of, but later found out that they were doing in resin and these were the metal releases).

So of course, I got "Strumpets".....

"Hello Ladies......"

And then I stopped over by the good ole' "Midnight Syndicate" booth....
For those of you not in the know, MS, makes a lot of "Soundtrack CD's." I've already got 13th Mansion, and some of other tracks purchased via DL...
But I wanted a copy of the D&D soundtrack they did, and while there I also picked up their "Monsters of Legend".
They make great background music pieces for games...

I'm actually looking forward to listening to them while gaming out...probably painting figs or building terrain....

Wandering around I saw a wonderful dealer with LARP boffers, and found one I really liked....

"What ho! That black handle long-sword seems just to be what I need to keep door to door salesman at bay! Let me check ye olde price upon yon sticker...."

"Hmmm...Handcrafted by The Danes...."

"GADZOOKS AND FORSOOTH!...Ummmm....No thanks...Not today...." (That's one of my college loan payments right there...)

So the really cool LARP weapon didn't come home with me..

But what DID come home with me was yet another bunch of miscellaneous figures from the Ral-Partha Bins, including four (4) cobras, some type of Jungle Cat, some floor terrain pieces, and of course, slave girls, bondage girls, and "damsels in distress"....

All ready to be painted and well...."rescued"....

That's GOTTA hurt for these ladies....

"Snakes....why did it have to be snakes?"...(oh and some terrain pieces and some poor wench stretched out on the rack...)

And yes...some more poor unfortunate lasses in various forms of physical discomfort and in need of rescuing....

But perhaps the coolest part of the entire affair was this....

Out of 60,000+ people there...

In all that crowd....

And all those events, and rooms...

Who do I run into?

The one and only.....

My son....

"The Geek is strong with these two...."

I spent 3 1/2 of 4 days at Gencon and had a good time. Didn't play as many games as I wanted but jut enjoyed the people, the experience, and getting stuff, talking to dealers, and buying yet more dice for my wonderful wife (Gawd bless her!).

Gencon keeps getting larger each year, but I am sad to say that this will probably be my last major four day full Gencon experience, unless something major happens. I'm just too old and it sucked up too much energy from me...

But next year...we shall see.....

And a big thank you to the City of Indianapolis for making it happen!!!!