An inner journey of gaming, life, and pop culture

I survived another Genghis Con. I’m sitting here with a case of gaming/convention hangover but quite happy that I am. Being behind on sleep and sanity was well worth it.

Before I talk too much about my experiences, I do have to mention that a couple of weeks ago I was made the Public Relations guy for the Denver Gamers Association, who runs Genghis Con and TacticCon. I was approached to take the open job and start giving the DGA and the conventions a voice. I took this job with a lot of pride and quite humbled to be asked.

I got to the Red Lion hotel on Thursday afternoon. As it turns out my first job as the PR guy started shortly there after. Without getting into the nitty gritty details of what happened, I had to talk to a police officer and help settle an issue between two people (whom I both know). This had nothing to do with the convention, it was all about two people who had issues with each other. A compromise to avoid further legal hassle was come up with and then things could move on.

My first game was that night, I ran tremulus for some of the members of the DGA. A fair warning to those of you who ever get asked to run a game for those who help run a convention, it is very likely your game will suffer from the following: Late start, some interruptions, and a table full of appreciative gamers who are just happy to get a chance to play something. It was a great table that really took their time to explore the odd clues I put in front or them. The highlight from this game was discovering (through the story creation methods that tremulus uses) is that there was an Irish serial killer monk was possibly terrorizing a local town filled with children who liked to execute and torture small animals. I’d say you can’t come up with this stuff, but this table of gamers and I did.

Friday was an odd day for me. I was supposed to run tremulus again in the afternoon, but the game didn’t get any players. So I jumped in on Derek Johnson’s Savage Worlds: Transformers game. I met two Colorado High Schoolers who were actually at the convention for a field trip as a part of their high school’s gaming club! I found this to be cool and amazing. I had to tell them the story of the time I tried to start a D&D club when I was in high school, which ended up putting me on a watch list. I thought it was great that they were allowed to take a sanctioned trip to go have a day of gaming. The game itself was a Derek Johnson classic as always. It ended with me getting killed by some nasty Decepticons as I was making my way to escape Cybertron. I think Derek took a small amount of pleasure in killing my character…I don’t blame him.

Friday night was to be Cyberpunk with the great Harley Stroh. But with all things gaming with Harley, bad luck reared its ugly head and Harley got stuck in traffic. We didn’t end up playing. So it was a glass of wine and talking with friends. An odd break from gaming.

Saturday was my busy day. That morning I ran an Agents of Oblivion game for a few people who got kicked out of a Shadowrun game and a few others who had open tickets and thought it sounded interesting. I ran them through a game I have run before, and by the end I think I had everyone enjoying themselves, despite half of the table not getting to play what they wanted to.

Right after that session I took part in an impromptu Mardi Gras parade through the convention. This needs no further explanation.

The afternoon game found me in Sequoyah Wright’s Savage Worlds: The Edge. This is Sequoyah’s home brew setting, which I hope I can convince him to one day publish. It is an a rich, apocalyptic, setting that I enjoy visiting whenever I can.

Then came Savage Saturday night. Tynan Gacy ran a Savage Worlds setting of his own creation. Now Tyanan is still a high schooler and he came up with something that has a ton of potential. He ran a game for six adults and one 13 year old kid. He did great! I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with this setting as time goes on. I remember what it was like to be a GM his age, and I never came up with something as creative as he has.

Sunday’s breakfast I spent talking to Ross Watson and Harley Stroh. They spent a lot of time giving me ideas for my new position as the DGA PR guy but also some other con ideas they would like to see. I hope that one day I can see a few of them come to life. We shall see.

Sunday morning’s game was tremulus and I got an entire table who didn’t know anything about the game and once again I got a few who wanted to play a game that they couldn’t get in to. But I turned them into fans. We had a great session going, and 3 1/2 hours in we were starting up the big finale of the session when the fire alarm went off. So we finished the story outside and all were happy with the game.

After the all clear was given I went back inside, bought a copy of Ticket to Ride Europe, then said my goodbyes. Leaving an event like this is always a little bittersweet. I’m happy to get home and rest, but also you want the good times to continue. I also know there is more gaming like this just around the corner. I’m happy to announce the next charity game day I will be helping to organize is going to be on May 18th, and Tacitcon is Labor Day weekend. I have a lot of work to do for the DGA, but it will be fun to work with them. For now it is back to the real world of work and trying to remember what a day is like that doesn’t involve rolling dice.

-Justin