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Posted by: apollo124 Jul 31 2008, 06:09 AM

Hey, all. I've just got a couple of questions about the upcoming and highly anticipated GenCon Indianapolis. I'm probably jumping the gun here, but I'm just trying to get all my ducks lined up in a row so I don't miss anything. So, on to the questions....

Is there going to be another "run for Mr. Johnson" this year?

Do you have a time and place (I know it's subject to change) for the What's up with Shadowrun meeting? and the Battletech/Mechwarrior meeting?

Is the Catalyst booth going to be in roughly the same spot?

Probably going to be more questions later, but it's 2 am now and I need to get some sleep.

Posted by: BishopMcQ Jul 31 2008, 08:14 AM

For accurate information, Adam would be your best bet on these forums. Otherwise, Tara Bills is the convention coordinator for CGL and can be found through the CGL website.

Here is the publicly available info from GC Indy, which I'm sure you have:

For the Booth position, per the GenCon site they are in http://gencon.com/files/2008/indy/exhibitor2008fplan.pdf By my recollection it is about the same location. From the main doors, take 15 steps forward and go five rows to your right. There is the Upper Deck area, one booth, and then the CGL section.

According to the Event Catalog:
Catalyst Game Labs: Shadowrun, BattleTech, Eclipse Phase and more!
This seminar discusses the goings-on of Catalyst Game Labs in general, and especially its new games. Meet developers and writers, and ask them your questions directly.
2008-08-16 12:00 to 13:00
Embassy Suites--Chancellor 3

and

Shadowrun Q&A: Countdown to the 20th anniversary!
Find out the latest developements and plans for Shadowrun, as we get ready for its 20th year! Meet developers and writers, and ask them your questions directly.
2008-08-16 13:00 to 14:00
Embassy Suites--Coronation II

and (for completeness)

BattleTech Q&A: 25 years of Heavy Metal Mayhem!
Find out the latest developements and plans for BattleTech! Meet with developers and writers, and ask them your questions directly.
2008-08-16 14:00 to 15:00
Embassy Suites--Chancellor 3

Something tells me that Loren, Peter et al will be making arrangements for one person to start the next panel while the previous one wraps up.

Posted by: Adam Jul 31 2008, 10:35 AM

Brilliant that they didn't put all 3 panels in the same room ... :/

Yup.


I don't have the maps in front of me right now, but I think it's in the exact same spot ... except it's just a little bit bigger.

Posted by: Drogos Jul 31 2008, 10:50 AM

BRILLIANT!! I know how hard planning for big events can be, but damn that seems like a no brainer. If I end up making it Saturday like it looks like I will, I'll try and make those/


And we all know bigger is better...

Quick question for those who've been there before, I've seen and heard of the lines for trying to get into DragonCon. They are HUGE. I'm one of those poor unfortunates who was unsure he'd be able to attend until the last minute. How bad are the lines to get passes going to be? Any advice on best time (obviously just a guess, but you know, any ideas help) to hit the line?

Posted by: the_dunner Jul 31 2008, 11:09 AM

The lines are absolutely horrendous from about 8:30AM on. Your best bet is to get in line by 7AM. I'm not sure what time they start selling, but any later than that and you're looking at 2-3 hours wait.

If you can, the only "not bad" time to buy a badge is Wednesday afternoon.

Posted by: Adam Jul 31 2008, 11:56 AM

I'm not sure what the exact procedure is for buying a badge on-site now [I haven't had to do so for years] -- do they make you show ID? If not, it may be easiest to get a friend to grab you a badge on Wednesday, if you have one in the area.

[Please note I'm not volunteering to help you out here -- my Gen Con Wednesday is always mental, mental, mental. ]

Posted by: Drogos Jul 31 2008, 12:30 PM

Don't worry Adam, I wouldn't presume to add any more to your probably over full plate. I'll see what I can do, though I'll probably just have to suck it up and stand in line...maybe I'll have the GF dress up real nice and see how well she does by herself

Thanks Dunner...won't make it to Indy until Wednesday night real late...so I guess I'll get up early one morning and jump on over.

Posted by: Caine Hazen Jul 31 2008, 04:40 PM

Last couple of years the Wed night option has always been better. I was getting mine after dinner and it was a 30min - 1 hour wait. Lines have been known to stretch out the door on Thursday, leading to 3-5 hour waits for a badge... why I preregged this year.

Posted by: apollo124 Aug 1 2008, 06:32 AM

Thanks all, especially Bishop and Adam! Just what the doctor ordered.

Posted by: tyweise Aug 1 2008, 04:51 PM

From past experience at GenCon, what is the liklihood of getting seats without preregistration?

I'm going to be there a day earlier than originally planned, so I need to fill my Thursday with something.

Posted by: the_dunner Aug 2 2008, 03:24 AM

We try to keep extra GMs on hand, and many of our GMs will accomodate 1-2 more players than we allow for in pre-reg. So, if you show up with generics, your chances of getting into a SR game are decent.

Posted by: Redjack Aug 11 2008, 03:32 PM

Attention passengers we are on final approach to Gen Con Indy 08.
Please return to your seats and fasten your seat-belts.

Posted by: Bull Aug 11 2008, 04:12 PM

Holy shit! Almost here!

Posted by: Caine Hazen Aug 11 2008, 05:06 PM

Well there goes the neighborhood

Posted by: Vegas Aug 14 2008, 02:40 PM

Yup, and this place is going to be a GHOST town while you're all gone.

*sniffles and shakes fist at her bank account while spitting on her lottery ticket*

Next year bitches. I WILL be there.

Posted by: DireRadiant Aug 18 2008, 01:57 AM

You missed the midnight run on the all girls prep school....

Posted by: Redjack Aug 18 2008, 03:05 AM

And the troll with the Vindicator Sunday morning.... You know, before wireless you always worried about being downrange of a mini-gun....

Posted by: dog_xinu Aug 18 2008, 12:45 PM

Many of the GMs (I have not checked with all of them) took extra players. Plus sometimes people that pre-reg'd didnt show up so their seat opened up. This also happens at Dragon*CON (I just mention it since it is like 10ish days away!). Depending on the game being run at the table will determine if the GM can take more than 6 without breaking the game.

I just want to add something on a side note. All the GMs at GenCON did a fantastic job! Or all the people would not have walked up to me saying such things (while wearing one of the CGL shirts). I never heard a complaint nor non-positive thing. I had several staff members say "thank you.. you guys are great.. we never have to worry about you.." (paraphrased).

it was a blast!

Posted by: Redjack Aug 18 2008, 01:49 PM

Every one of my games had 7-8 players and I had several who played one day in a game and came back later with generics. Every player I talked to, no matter whose Shadowrun game they played in, had a great time.

Posted by: sinthalix Aug 19 2008, 01:35 AM

I had the same experience as Redjack. 7-8 was the norm and several people came back to play with generics. They each had a lot of praise for the other GMs. There were a lot of noobs that showed up that had a great time and were looking forward to learning/playing more.

Posted by: DireRadiant Aug 19 2008, 02:12 AM

Where'd you find those players? Mine kept complaining I was trying to kill their characters off!

Posted by: Caine Hazen Aug 19 2008, 03:12 AM

you just seemed like the killer GM type

Posted by: sinthalix Aug 20 2008, 12:03 AM

Your Round 2 table said they really enjoyed your GMing style. I think they said something like "I've never seen someone grin so much when they were rolling a huge handful of dice!"

Posted by: apollo124 Aug 22 2008, 06:41 AM

This may sound like sucking up, but I'm gonna say it anyway.

Kudos to the Catalyst team! I love the fact that they come to GenCon every year, answering questions from their customers/fans, letting us in on some of the inner workings of the game publishing industry, and even just chatting with people who show up at the booth. Not to mention the officially unofficial support here on Dumpshock, and the official support on the Shadowrun4.com website.

I only spent Saturday at GenCon but I had a blast. I got quite a few questions answered, and was very satisfied with that. IMO, no one else does this kind of thing for their fans. I love the interconnectedness of the lineup of upcoming products. Lots of fun stuff on tap for the next year, and beware if they make a military book like Fields of Fire! Any chance of seeing video of the Blakist's for those of us who weren't there Friday?

Keep it up folks!

Posted by: Dashifen Aug 22 2008, 01:48 PM

As a Catalyst GM, I have to agree. CGL is awesome. Even the "little" things like getting pizza for the Scramble GMs and getting it for every person playing or running the tournament (and feeding the few tables that weren't even SR but were in the same room) is great stuff. I had other people coming up to me at the con saying that they heard about how cool CGL is. Great work, all around!

Posted by: Redjack Aug 22 2008, 03:27 PM

Same here. From the game packets to the pizza to table signage to the NERPS cards, CGL did a bang up job. People were motivated, they were happy and the gaming rocked the house.

Of course, the bar is now set VERY high for the 20th anniversary of Shadowrun next year. I am definitely looking forward to seeing how high CGL notches is up for that!

Posted by: grendel Aug 22 2008, 09:32 PM

I heard the Blakist's performance was up on Youtube.

Posted by: Bull Aug 23 2008, 04:56 AM

If anyone finds a link, let me know. I didn;t see anything a few days ago, but taht may have changed since.

And Caine, send me copies of the evidence, will you?

Bull

Posted by: Critias Aug 23 2008, 06:07 AM

I ended up missing my Shadowrun game at Indy (I had tickets for myself, my wife, and my buddy, all long-time SR players) but when Saturday rolled around they were both on a big D&D kick -- of all things! -- and wanted to try to get into one of the Forgotten Realms RPGA games. They outvoted me, and we ended up ditching our SR game to run, generic tickets in hand...only to not find room in a D&D game anyways.

It pretty much blew my Saturday for me.

On the bright side, I DID make it into one Catalyst game (Battletech, playing Grinder) later that day. But I still felt kind of ripped off. Throwing away perfectly good tickets to a perfectly good Shadowrun game, tickets I'd bought months earlier because everyone said they wanted to play...just to go not make it into another game.

Posted by: Bull Aug 23 2008, 06:19 AM

Sorry we missed ya there, Crit! Was looking forward to meeting you.

Yeah, the only game I ended up playing all weekend (Besides the SRTCG on Friday night) was the Scramble on Thursday (I had crazy fun ). We wanted to get into a game on Friday afternoon, but all the SR games were packed out, and then I got involved with some stuff after the hall closed for the BT guys, and pretty much blew out my voice doing that little event.

On Saturday we were gonna try and get into some more games, but we ended up hvaing those games, the CGL seminars, and a semi-planned lunch with some friends all planned for around teh same time, and as I wanted to try and talk to Synner a little bit, I went with the CGL seminars.

Ahh well. It was fun nonetheless.

Posted by: grendel Aug 24 2008, 07:36 AM

Not my photo, but here's the head Blakist himself:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bennyhobo/2768155188/

Posted by: Bull Aug 24 2008, 03:42 PM

Wow, what a dork that guy is!

Posted by: Critias Aug 25 2008, 04:23 AM

If anyone's gonna be at DragonCon (I know Catalyst itself will have a presence, in that Shadowrun Missions is going on, yadda yadda yadda, but by "anyone" I mean "anyone I know from on here"), maybe I'll see ya down there in a couple days. Toss me a PM or something if you're interested in exchanging cell info or otherwise trying to make plans.

All the DragonCon gaming pre-reg was closed by the time my wife reminding me there was gaming at DragonCon, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get in some on-site registration and still play a little Battletech or Shadowrun or something. Grinder at Gencon got me all hopped up on nostalgia and I finally busted open my Classic BT starter box, got in a game with my buddies yesterday, I'm reading through all my old Battletech books, re-installed Mechwarrior Mercenaries, you name it. I love the smell of PPC fire in the morning!

Posted by: Bull Aug 25 2008, 04:42 AM

I'd love to make it down to Dragon Con some year, but it's just far enough away, and just close enough to Gen Con that it's not really feasible, shy of someone paying for my airfare and hotel for me. :/

As for who's gonna be there, I'm not really sure. Dog_Xinu posts here, and will be ne of the CGL Demo Team guys there doing Missions games, and Kai is, I think, Organizing things for the con (Though she doesn't post here very often at all). Not sure who else will be there.

Bull

Posted by: apollo124 Aug 28 2008, 06:06 AM

Here's the Word of Blake links.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1ACktfmDgZU

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=H3NCkZQX5Bs&feature=related

And please remind me, if I ever get famous to destroy all copies of any childhood writings, like Randall Bills should have.

Posted by: Joskney Sep 25 2008, 03:33 AM

I think I have a couple photos of that man also.

Posted by: Bull Sep 25 2008, 04:20 AM

My condolences to your camera

Posted by: Joskney Sep 26 2008, 02:07 AM

Its alright!!! I think I have more of Adam during the booth set up. If ANYTHING would break my camera is Adam.