Mortellan's GenCon Recap

Welcome Greyhawk fans. Here is a few bits and pieces of my convention experience this year in Indianapolis:

This was the year for Wizards to shine with their new edition of the Player's Handbook and crowds of people vying to play in the new organized play (as I saw many lucky VIPs got advance copies of the Monster Manual) and the adventure theme, Tyranny of Dragons was everywhere (my friends kept calling it tranny of dragons). I did not take part in any of this madness, but it was the big deal of the show.

I did manage to achieve a goal however by going to the Wizards Bazaar where I got the cool Tomb of Horrors mini set from GaleForceNine. I am stoked at having minis of the old lich Acererak but the Iggwilv's Treasure set was also tempting. I only recently got around to assembling my Lolth mini from last GenCon so I felt I had to stick with one purchase. There was also a Scourge of Suderham (Slave Lords) set, but nothing really new Greyhawk-themed. I'm sure once the Forgotten Realms/5e thing settles down, GF9 will try some more classic minis.

For me and the Gamerstable podcast group, GenCon is especially about eating and drinking. There was so many different food trucks outside the convention center all day, and so many restaurants to eat within walking distance. I can't accurately give you reviews of all the places, but needless to say I used to confine myself to the RAM Brewery and it's a mistake folks. There is a lot of great places to go for nightlife in downtown Indy. Next year, I intend to find out where all the gaming industry people go after hours.

As you read previously Anna Meyer's Flanaess Atlas did not win an ENnie for cartography but at our annual Greyhawk meet-up, I met Anna and she assured us that the exposure of being nominated was more an award than anything and she will be getting plenty of future professional mapping gigs from here on. Anna was amazing to talk to as we shared memories of our first experiences with Greyhawk and our inspirations of getting into making maps and articles for the setting. A lot of fans missed out on this rare chance to talk about Greyhawk. I cannot wait until next year to do it again.

As I was officially representing Canonfire! at the con I got in the exhibition hall an hour early to meet with some important folk including Erik Mona and a name many in the community might not know is a huge Greyhawk fan, Jon Leitheusser. Jon works with other companies right now, but last year he had a freelance adventure published The Battle of Emridy Meadows. We talked a lot about the future of Greyhawk and agreed that things should go back to the basics of the boxed set (576 CY). Jon has major connections to Wizard's Chris Perkins (another big Greyhawk fan who I cannot track down at GenCon) and game company Green Ronin so who knows what may come out in the near future?

Here's a realization that was brought up at the Greyhawk meet-up, why is no one running a Greyhawk event at GenCon? I'm not saying a seminar/panel, just a straight up 4-hour module set in Greyhawk in whatever edition or game system the DM is happy with? There's zillions of games ran at GenCon, but where's the old schoolers? You all know a Greyhawk game for six would sell out in a minute. I'd do it, but come on, don't I do enough? ;)

That's it for now. Hindsight being 20-20 I'm starting to remember authors and booths that I didn't visit enough so I'm going to have to start keeping better notes and managing my time in the future. If anyone has some good GenCon news to share feel free to comment!