DICE CLUB's Road Trip to

Gen Con was held for the first time in Indianapolis, July 23-27, 2003. Anthony, Dan, Curtis and Eric went the last three days. We managed to have a pretty good time.

This game store on Washington St. was closed, probably because everyone was at Gen Con.

"GENCON OR BUST" in the back window of Curtis' van.

We left at 7:30 AM, not realizing we'd gain an hour driving into Indiana!

Dan and Anthony didn't pre-register so they had to wait in line for two and half hours to sign up for their Magic tournies. Eric got in OK with his pre-registration, but Curtis actaually got in free through his connections! He saved sixty bucks. That's a true gamer!

One of my goals was to get a new portrait of Varden. Aaron Siddall did this for $18.00, including Meo.  I have to thank Curtis for finding him. The artiists were evi-dentally a lot of fun. By the end their Friday night party, his friend Denise got Larry Elmore to autograph her derriere.

Friday night, I ran my Talisman Plus Three event. "Come play in the rare and expensive realms of the dungeon, forest, city, mountains and tower."    The event sold out, but at game time, only one guy, Bill from Oklahoma City, above left, showed up. Anthony and Dan sat in, and we had some guys walk up. Talisman gets a lot of attention.

I won! Chaos Warrior, Teleport to  Dragon King, use Strengh Potion. Anthony played the Halfling, left. Also, I sat in on the three Cincinatti guys', right, regular D&D game Saturday night and played their monk.

This is Keith Baker. He won WOTC's New D&D Setting contest. They got 11,000 entries but his world, Ebberon, is the one they're developing into a full-fledged campaign setting. They held a preview Q&A session with Bill Slavisek, Chirs Perkis and other guys from the team.    Ebberon is a high-magic world with flying ships, trains and floating cities.  It's due out August 2004. He seemed like a good guy who was genuinely happy to be the newest gaming celebrity. the $120K prize probably helped.    Click here to see scans of the preview booklet.

Live-action role playing and boffer swords were the big thing and Gen Con. It seemed like every other person had a foam greatsword on their back. These two Indy guys, above, threw down for me Friday night.    The NERO LARP group was also there in force. They showed a farily cool promo video. Chris and Patty, below left, and Dan and Rick, below right, are all  from Indiana.

The costume contest was was a must-see, but it was very, very poorly produced. The Great Luke Ski was funny as hell, and some of the cosutmes were very cool. Left to right, Ghostbusters Cleveland, Luke Ski as Frodo, Leslie from Wisconsin as Nocturne, Nightcrawler's Daughter,  and a stormtrooper from Indiana.

Justin from Ft. Wayne.    Other cool slogans we spotted: >Any sufficiently advanced card game is indistinguishable from Magic >Jesus saves... and takes half damage >Blue Sun, spotted on a fellow Browncoat (Firefly fan.)

Colin from Winnipeg. He bulit this Discovery-esque ship from Lego blocks for his ultra-realistic space combat game.

Curtis has a way with the ladies...

Speaking of ladies, it wouldn't be Gen Con without Chainmail Girl. This is Calye from Toledo.

Now this is Carol from Chicago, modelling Arwen's sword from Lord of the Rings.

Denise and Nikki from Benchwarmers, the new cheesecake trading card line. Phenomenal! They were a big hit, as you can see. Anthony was head over heels.

Here we are back home in Eric's  living room in Stuckeyville, 10:00PM on Sunday night. I wish we'd had more time to see John Rhys-Davies and Sean Astin. Dragons in the Basement, Dave Arenson's documentary about the early years of gaming, was a disappointment. ?Luke Ski and the two little girl dancers saved the costume contest. I spent too much on dice. The Knights of the Dinner Table was the funniest thing I've seen in years. We can't wait for Origins and Gen Con 2004.