Throughout the ages the socially elite have somehow bestowed upon society the notion that it's a horrible flaw to be chronically in touch with one's youthful sense of imagination. They have created an unwritten law that states, once you've reached a certain age you must spend the rest of your short life worrying about such topics as, mortgages, having 2.5 children before you're 35, stock portfolios, biological clocks and taking the SUV in for a tune up. Yet, topics such as, Anakin's corruption to the Dark Side by the end of Episode II (or will it happen in III), the number of Blood Pool points it's going to take to waste a Malkavian member of the Sabbat, or whether '7 of 9' is going to travel back in time to do a guest appearance on "Enterprise" are considered both foolhardy and immature. There are those who look down their noses at such thoughts as being unimportant in "normal" society.
Well, guess what?.... "THERE IS NO NORMAL!!!"
And Gen Con isn't part of normal society! It's a place where we imaginative, free thinkers immerse ourselves into the role playing realms, worlds and genres of, Fantasy, Sci-Fi and Horror for four days straight! This year's con will have celebrities such as Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrisian from Star Wars, Episodes V and VI), Marina Sirtis (Counselor Trio from "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), Hudson Leik (Calisto from "Xena, Warrior Princess"), Alexandra Tydings (Aphrodite also from "Xena, Warrior Princess"), James Marsden (Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer") and Richard Biggs (From "Babylon 5").
VALHALLA!!!!
The Gen Con Game Fair, held at the Midwest Express Center, has been a Milwaukee staple for over 25 years. And being a Milwaukeean, I am quite proud that thousands of the imaginatively blessed have congregated in our fair city throughout the convention's history. Disappointingly, it now has one more year (2002) in its home of Milwaukee before it moves to another town. But that's a whole other ugly story I may tell one day.
Please don't fret quite yet!! Let's take a look back at this year's extravaganza. Here's a daily play by play of my adventures (and misadventures) at the Midwest's biggest gaming convention...................
Wednesday, August 1st, 2001,
It's the day before GenCon officially opens up. I've taken the day off due to the fact that at noon GenCon will allow those of us who have pre-registered to come down to the Midwest Express Convention Center and pick up our event tickets and badges a day early before the throngs hit the registration lines. Good deal!
I get up at 10am only to find my unairconditioned apartment quite warm. I turn on the news and hear it's going to reach 90 degrees with a 101 humidity index. I'm glad I got a bus pass for the week's activities. I would have walked, but in this heat I would have ended up like a Minnesota Vikings player during training camp (ouch!)! After watching a bit of god awful daytime TV I decide to stop torturing myself and head on down to the bus stop.
Why is it that whenever I'm on the bus I always end up sitting next to someone talking or singing to themselves? It never fails! On my way to the convention center I get to hear a wonderful medley of, what I think is R& B songs from a gentleman I've named, "Mr. sing-a-song". I get off at the con center and enter the huge, modern building that also has old world charm.
I arrive shortly before noon so there is a bit of a line. Once they open the registration tables it's a short 15 minute wait and I have my badge and tickets!! Quite quick! I check my registration info and make sure everything is ship shape, which it is, and I start to look through the on-site registration book to see if any events/celebrities have been added that I might take an interest in. Nope. Nothing new and there's little information on where the celebrity Q&A sessions are. I ask around and the employees of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), the company that runs the con, seem to be just as perplexed as I am. I figure they may know more tomorrow when GenCon starts. I decide to do some people watching instead. If there's a place to do some serious people watching, it's at Gen Con. The normal fare of gaming people are milling about. I see many Darth Maul shirts (many of which are an XXL), Indiana Jones style fedoras and of course younger kid's dressed all in black hoping people will mistake them for a clan of vampires. There's also some dweeb sitting around hoping to bump into a cute, young single female gamer (Oh, wait a sec. That's me. Scratch that last one). After a while I head back home on the bus. No musical accompaniment this time.
Thursday, August 2nd, 2001.
I wake up bright and early, get on the bus and arrive about a half an hour before they open the vender hall. The place is heavy with con-geeks such as me, all heading to games, running to seminars or waiting for the vendor hall to open up. I decide to see if they have any info on where the heck the celebrity Q& A sessions are as well as when and where the "Star Wars: Connections" seminar is being held. It is briefly mentioned in the GenCon book, but no other information is given. I finally get the information from a member of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) at an info booth and I'm set for the weekend.
At 10:00am the big vendor room doors slowly rise and a herd of us gamer goofs rush in. Each one of us heading down one of the 15 or so isles filled with goodies and treasure. Down one isle you may find vendors selling a multitude of different colored dice, a cape and cowl or Warhammer 50K miniatures just waiting to be painted and put into a strategic battle. Down another isle you'll find other vendors selling a new role playing game, a new collectable card game (also known as a CCG - they're for gamers who don't have the imagination to role play. I use them as bookmarks.) or a multitude of different T-shirts with our favorite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Horror characters on them. If god is truly loving and gracious, this IS what heaven will be like (I guess hell will only have CCG stuff).
I plod around the place in a bit of a daze, not knowing what to concentrate on first. I see some things I like and keep a mental note to visit the booths again during the con. In the very center of the vender hall is a huge post modern castle. This is where WOTC sell their wares, such as Dungeons & Dragons, the new Star Wars role playing game (RPG) and Pokemon CCGs (aka: PURE EVIL!). At least you now know how WOTC acquired the convention from D&D originators TSR (Actually they acquired TSR.). Pokemon wields great power.
At quarter to noon I head across the street to the Hilton's Mitchell Room to attend a seminar titled, "First Time Game Master". I sit down in the small hall and grab some soda and snacks they have left for us. This will be lunch for today. The seminar is given by a man simply identified as Don. Don is a slender guy with a grey beard, fedora and fishing vest (ok, one thing you would notice if you attended this con is that a lot of gamer guys wear fishing vests. I'm a gamer and I don't have one, but evidently they have tons of pockets to put things like, dice pencils and free "con swag" into - more on "con swag" later.). Don has played RPG's since 1980 and has game mastered (GM) since 1986. So he knows what he's talking about. After the round of applause at his conclusion I dart back to the vender hall to do a little shopping.
As I wander down the isles I'm greeted by many a pretty spokesmodel trying to make eye contact so they can hand me a pamphlet on their company's games. What I find amusing is how we con boys get suckered into talking and flirting with these girls. They're so sweet and nice to us we tend to forget that outside of these conventions they wouldn't know a 10d from a 12d and probably wouldn't give an aerial intercourse on a flying pastrie (that's 10 sided dice from a 12 sided dice. I dont think I need to tell you what an aerial intercourse...etc., etc., is.). However it is nice when they, or anyone else from these companies, hand out con swag!! Con swag refers to FREE STUFF!!! That's right. At a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror conventions, companies give away free samples to passers by. Or they will raffle free stuff away at any given place and time. Thus by the end of each day most of us will have a bag full of "Con Swag"!!
Speaking of filling my bag, I purchase a bunch of fun stuff today. I start with a funny H.P. Lovecraft Lager T-shirt. Then I move on and pick up the soundtrack to David Lynch's motion picture, Dune. I also score a new PS2 game that was just released for $20 less than store price. Last, but in no means least I pick up two sets of dice. A personal yearly tradition of mine here at GenCon. I leave with a heavy bag and hop on the bus back home. But, I'm not done with GenCon today just yet. I arrive back home, drop off my bag, sit in front of a fan for a few minutes before heading back to GenCon where WOTC hold their annual street party.
(Jeeze, this is getting long already!!! Maybe I should edit it down a bit. Aww, frell it! Only three people will read this thing anyway. On with the show.)
When I arrive at the blocked off street under the conventions center's overpass, where they hold the outside party, I notice complete chaos. There are a few huge lines. I don't know if these are for food or drink or what. I just get in one and ask what it's for. I'm told it's the food line. As I look at the zigzagging, endless line I realize I should have had more than those snacks and soda at the seminar. The line moves slowly and is made a lot worse by the fact that members of Microsoft's publicity team (MS is putting up the money for the party) decide that it would be a great idea to turn chaos into complete bedlam. They start throwing out free t-shirts which not only breaks up any semblance of a line, but creates a small riot as a horde of GenCon attendees rush up for more free swag. Actually, I turn this situation to my favor. After getting hit in the face twice with free t-shirts I join some other people in creating our own food line and after about twenty minutes I reach the "food". Actually it's the last few scraps of taco dip and some olives. I waited in line for about an hour for a drip of taco dip and three olives? Whoopee. I then head to the cocktail line. This one is much quicker and to my delight the beer is free. NOW THAT'S CON SWAG!!!!
I meet up with a couple of people I used to game with when I first started RPGing (Memeo: 10-25-01. After the two afermantioned people read this GenCon Journal they felt left out and wanted their actual names mentioned. So the two people I met up with that I used to play D&D with are...MARK AND CRAIG SHANNING!!! MARK AND CRAIG SHANNING ARE ROLE PLAYING GEEKS AND THEY WANT THE WORLD TO KNOW IT!!!!!). We go up to the stage and listen to a band called "Spirit Creek". They sound a lot like "Live" and are heavily into Vampire: The Masquerade LARP (Live Action Role Playing). After their set "Babylon 5" star, Julie Caitlin Brown is scheduled to come up and do an acoustic set. Another little surprise that wasn't in the GenCon book. Cool. I head back to the cocktail bar to get another free beer only to find out that the beer was only free for a couple of hours. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but don't you think Mr. Bill Gates could flip the tab on the beer for the whole evening? The guy's richer than god!! Sadly since they were out of food and the beer was no longer free, many attendees took to their own room parties and other soirees within the area. This left about 30 people to watch Julie Caitlin Brown's act.
Ms. Brown's songs were really good. Kind of harder edged, coffee house type stuff. After listening to her lyrics it was obvious she had been screwed over by more than one guy in her life. Perhaps Ms. Caitlin Brown should consider dating some of us con geeks so she wouldn't have that problem. Just kidding. After her short set we decided to head over to the Velvet Room, just down the street where White Wolf Publishing (Creators of Vampire: The Masquerade) were holding a small cocktail party. We walk in and I don't see anyone I know. It's hot and my friends want to head home (BECAUSE MARK AND CRAIG SHANNING ARE WIMPS!!). They leave and I stay for a beer and some snacks they have out. At least here I got some food.
I then decide to head on down to my favorite bar, the Safe House, which, with its James Bond/ secret hide out motif, is a real big hit with the GenCon crowd every year. I get in with my lifetime membership card and see the place filled with jovial con-ers all dancing, drinking and having a great time. I buy a beer and head out to the dance floor to shake my booty. Being such a horrible, white-boy dancer I usually wouldn't go into a crowd of strangers and dance with them, but these are GenCon people. They don't give a damn who you are, where you're from or what you look like. I doubt that that would have flown well with a snobbish yuppie crowd. I dance for a while and turn to my left only to notice that Julie Caitlin Brown (of "Babylon 5") is five feet away from me shaking her groove thing with some people in her entourage. Pretty cool. At about 1am. I decide to call it a day and stumble home to bed.
Friday, August 3rd, 2001
I wake up in a groggy stupor, do my morning rituals and catch the bus just in time. When I get to the con I head to the dealer room where I people watch and wander about aimlessly. Yawn. I realize it's a theme day, "Fantasy Friday" where they have many attendees dress as there favorite D&D characters. I take some pictures of some of them. I also find out that the first celebrity Q&A takes place in an hour. So I head to the Hyatt's small ballroom to see what's up.
I'm not a big fan of Xena or Hercules at all. In fact when I'm channel surfing and come upon either, it's usually some horrible musical episode and I usually change the channel. But if anyone's seen the two lovely ladies who portray Callisto (Hudson Leik) and Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings) they'd be nuts not to take a peek in on this Q&A session. The two actresses just walk in, say hello, and conduct a very non-formal Q&A, like they were talking to old friends. Very cool. What was especially cool was Hudson's counter culture attire. She wore a bandanna on her head, studded leather wrist and neck bands, fishnet stockings and knee high combat boots. She explained she'd dressed like this today for fun. She also talked about her trips to Africa and Nepal. Alexandra Tydings talked about her upcoming, time traveling show she's working on with "Babylon 5" alumni, Claudia Christian. Unfortunately, I had to bug out ten minutes early due to another gaming seminar I had to attend. Sorry ladies, the lover-man, Zangz, must leave you.
I head to the Hilton, back to the Mitchell room where our old friend Don is back to give a seminar on Gamemastering and Role-playing. Basically Don regaled us with humorous stories stressing what to do and not to do when you are GM-ing a game. When it's done I head back to the vender hall to do more gawking. And I find a few beautiful people to gawk at. Hudson and Alexandra are now at the autograph stage, standing IN FRONT of the table, which many celebs hide behind, while signing autographs. These two ladies seemed to be having a blast. They were hugging their fans and posing for pictures with them and talking to them. These two know how to treat their fans.
My wallet takes another small dent as I buy a CD of creepy mood music called "Realm of Shadows" by the Midnight Syndicate. I plan to start getting into the mood for Halloween in late September. I then head back to the bus that quickly navigates its way through crowded Wisconsin Avenue during rush hour to my humble abode to change quickly for a friend's wedding.
Saturday, August 4th, 2001.
It's "Sci-Fi Saturday" at GenCon today and there are a bunch of celebrity Q&A sessions I want to hear so I high tail it down to the Midwest Express center and get the skinny on the where's, when's and how's of the Q&A sessions (at least I think I do). I briefly run into a couple I currently game with. He's dressed as Pan, god of mischief and she's dressed as a Lovcraftian Schoolgirl, complete with Necronomicon schoolbooks. I know many a fan-boy who'd want to carry her books to class for her, although, Pan might have something to say about it. After chatting with them I then head back to the vendor hall and to the autograph stage to make my claim in line. To my dismay the autograph line zigzags through the separators all the way down the convention aisle. Crap! I guess I'll try again tomorrow. It's no wonder the line is so large. For none other Lando Calrisian (Billy Dee Williams) walks out on the autograph stage to huge applause. I'll have to be more assertive tomorrow. I'm not much of an autograph hound, but in the last few years I've tried to get a few people from the Star Wars movies. He's definitely a must! I better get to the hall where they'll be having his Q&A session if the crowd is this big for the autograph singing.
I get to the Hyatt's ballroom 50 minutes before Billy Dee is scheduled. There's no one there! I'll get a great seat!! I sit and read Bram Stoker's Dracula for a while when in comes Coreboy, a con friend, who accompanied by a few friends and is quite surprised that there's hardly anyone here 30 minutes before. That should have been the first sign of foul play. Not 5 minutes later my friend, Spanky calls Coreboy on his cell phone informing us that the Q&A has been moved to another ballroom in another hotel across the way!!! Have you ever seen con geeks panic? It's quite a sight. We start shouting at Spanky over the phone, "WHAT HOTEL!?!?!?!", "WHERE'D YOU GET THAT INFORMATION FROM!?!?!!?", "DEAR GOD!!!!!", "START RUNNING!!!"
So Coreboy, his buddies and I start to make the frantic trek all the way back to the convention center, through the second floor lobby and across the street to the Hilton where we make a mad dash for the concierge. "Where's the Ballroom?" we ask. He looks at us blankly and says, "Which one?" NOT WHAT WE WANTED TO HEAR!!!!! MORE PANIC!!! He tells us that the ballrooms are on the 4th and 5th floors. We bolt to the elevators. Here's one! Going down. Here's another! Going down. Damn! Time's ticking away and whatever room the Billy Dee Q&A is in is probably filling up. Finally one that's going up!! We get in and decide to split up into two groups, kinda like Scooby Doo. One group will go to the 4th floor while the other will go to the 5th. Coreboy and one of his buddies go to the 4th and his other buddy and I go to the 5th. We run around the 5th floor of the Hilton like chickens with our head cut off. We find one ballroom filled with tons of CCG players. Obviously, this isn't it. As we are about to leave Coreboy and his friend show up telling us there are no ballrooms on the 4th floor. He decides to ask one of the WOTC staff who is running the CCG tournament. They have no clue as to what the hell he's babbling about. Suddenly a horrid thought runs through my head. What if Spanky's information was wrong, nothing changed and we spent the last 15 minutes losing our good seats by running around like pinheads for no reason? Coreboy gets Spanky on the cell phone and asks where he got his info. Spanky tells us that they made an announcement over at the autograph stage where he and his girlfriend were and that the Q&A is in this hotel in the Plankington Ballroom. This results in another mad dash trying to find the Plankington Ballroom. When we finally find it, its 12:00pm on the dot and there's one, count 'em, one person who's in this room waiting for something. Again we doubt Spanky's information. You'd think the place would be wall to wall with Star Wars geeks. We go up to this gentleman and ask what event he's here for. He tells us there's supposed to be a seminar on some RPG I never heard of before. Spanky is in for it!! Just as we're about to curse Spanky's name, a small group of people wander in with confusion on their faces asking us if this is where Billy Dee Williams will be. We tell them we're not sure. Then more confused people come in and ask the same question. It seems as though WOTC changed the location at the last minute and we were in the right place after all. Thank god!!! A major tragedy was averted thanks to Spanky's attentiveness. THANKS SPANKY!!! We scored front row seats and reserved seats in the second row for Spanky and his girlfriend who arrive a few minutes later.
After a while the place fills up and in walks a skinny, white guy who addresses the crowd. Boy, Billy Dee has lost some weight and is quite pale since I saw him this morning. He identifies himself as Mr. Williams' assistant (oh) and proceeds to introduce Billy Dee. Loud applause....Loud applause. Billy Dee Williams' Q&A session was very subdued. I don't think he was used to doing Q&A sessions. He was very quiet and laid back and perhaps a bit shy. I felt sorry for the people in the back who couldn?t hear him. Due to the last minute changes of venues there was no microphone for him to use. He talked about his film work, his painting and his books. He's a very eclectic individual. After his Q&A session ended he smiled and the crowd applauded again as he left the room.
Up next was "Star Trek: the Next Generation's" Marina Sirtis who plays Counselor Troi. What fan-boy could resist that Q&A? Certainly not us!! After about five minutes of waiting I look to my right and not six feet away from me is Marina Sirtis. It's like she appeared out of thin air or perhaps was transported into the room. It's probably more likely I was zoning out and didn't notice her come in. Apparently many others in the room didn't either because everyone let out a bit of a surprised, "Ohhhh!!!" She done sneaked up on us!! Loud applause....loud applause. Marina was delightful!! She was funny, vivacious and very animated. She's certainly not very hard on the 'ol peepers either!! Having front row seats didn't hurt this seminar AT ALL! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. KnowhatImean, KnowhatImean. After Marina was done we decided to split up. I wanted to go back to the convention center and wander around a bit before I went to the last seminar of the day, "Star Wars: Connections"!!
After about an hour and a half of more "people watching", I decided to head to the Hyatt Ballroom where the Star Wars seminar was to be held. When I arrived there was already a line waiting to get in. You see this seminar is being given by Steven J. Sansweet who, in the beginning, was a fan and collector of the Star Wars saga. He now works as a sort of liaison for Lucasfilms. Lucky bastard. He knows his stuff and he's brought with him some promotional footage of Star Wars, Episode II. Drool Drool Drool!!!! Just before they let us in, a bunch of fans dressed in Imperial Stormtooper garb walk up to the line. Very impressive!!! My hats off to them. I wont go into much detail about what all was shown at Mr. Sansweet's little show. But, suffice it to say, Episode II looks like it's going to be far better and a bit darker than its Disney-esque predecessor!!! LESS THAN A YEAR!!!!!! What I will tell you is that he gave a little preview of what to expect on the upcoming Episode I DVD release this October 16th. Lotsa fun filled extras that fans will really appreciate including some fully completed deleted scenes and an excellent documentary on the making of the film and of course George Lucas' commentary!!!
I head home afterward, take a shower, change clothes and meet up with Pan and his Lovecraftian schoolgirl (now cleverly disguised as normal people) at a Middle Eastern restaurant right around the corner from my apartment, just in time. Great meal! Great conversation! Great company! Time for bed.
August 5th, 2001.
It's the last day of GenCon and my last chance to get Billy Dee Williams' autograph. I get to the front of the sealed vendor hall doors an hour before they open up. I'm poised and ready for action!! After a while it starts to get crowded and security moves us back five feet so as we don't smash into the vender hall doors. We're reminded not to run. DON'T RUN?!?!?! Gamers have places to go, autographs to get, games to start! Finally the doors slowly open and we're greeted with about five worried WOTC workers in front of us holding up their hands in the "halt" position (why am I suddenly reminded of that scene at the end of Animal House where Kevin Bacon is trying to tame an unruly, panicked crowd? "ALL IS WELL!"). We herd on through them ignoring their pathetic pleas. Most of us head straight for the autograph both to avoid yesterday's fiasco when WOTC had to turn away a ton of people from getting Billy Dee's autograph. Not today, buck-o!! For I am about 20th in line and have a secure spot. So I may have maimed a small child and knocked over an old lady or two to get here. No biggie. For a free autographed picture of one of the big players in the Star Wars saga, I would have sold my mom to the Arabs. He helped blow up the second Death Star for crissakes!!
After Mr. Williams graciously signs my b&w 8X10, I happily spend the rest of the day wandering around lapping up the last day of geekdom. I do end up buying one more item, a kacky, dark blue AKIRA t-shirt. I also pick up more swag at the White Wolf Publishing booth. I also check out the art show which has some fabulous work! As I'm about to leave I hear over the loud speaker that fantasy author Neal Barrett, Jr. is signing free copies of his latest book. "Neal Barrett who?....wait a minute...FREE?" I head back to the autographing stage where I see Coreboy already way ahead of me. The line is small and after I get my signed book I decide it's time to bid a fair adieu to the GenCon game fair for another year.
Next year will be a toughie since it will be leaving its home of Milwaukee thereafter. But at least we still have one more and who knows what celebrities and craziness they have planed for next year. Who knows, I may even meet that cute gaming honey!!!! I won't hold my breath.
Until next year, GenCon.
Zangz.
P.S. Actually, I wouldn't sell my Mom to the Arabs. Love you Ma!
