Just throwing a post up here to see if anyone has any early warning Gen-Con info.

I'm going to be completing my commando writeup in the next week or so, and if possible I'd like to know where to go to volunteer GM for the granddaddy of all gaming cons.

I saw that last year, organizers were in search of a few GM's out there for various cons.

I know not a lot has been put in stone (Or probably even on paper) yet, and its 8 months off, but a little pre-planning never hurt anyone.

Drop the_dunner a line and he can put you in touch with the appropriate people, or see if you can dig up Moo's email addy. IIRC, Dunner is the Shadowrun Commando guru--the responsibilities for managing the commandos were divided between Shadowrun and Battletech GMs.

As a returning GM, I'd like to say: welcome aboard, I'm sorry, we really are all well-adjusted individuals in our own lives, and may whatever God you worship have pity on your soul.

It really is a lot of fun. (And for the record, we began planning GC '08 during GC '07...Writing has been in process for awhile.)

Good to have you on board for GenCon Indy '08, Mugzy. I look forward to meeting you

'Course, I've found that such feelings don't always go both ways ......

You said what we were all thinking.
*Ducks*

Just kidding....

I keep considering throwing my hat back in the ring to help run stuff, but... Then I remember what free time and fun are like

Good luck guys. Caine, Eidolon, and I'll be around to hassle you and taunt you with booze. Maybe we can even get Fisty there this year!

Bull

OH! We're playing Taunt the GMs again this year? can we use airsoft this time? Or bricks.. how bout bricks???

Welcome to hel.. I mean, welcome aboard Mugzy... You'll have sooooo much fun it'll take you a week to get better (and loads of antibiotics)

Maybe this year I'll get into some Shadowrun (besides a LARP).

...of course, I've been saying that for three Gencons, now.

Ask a GM nicely and sometimes there's pick-up game opportunities. We're all pretty busy but you never know what's going on at 3am or something

Mugzy sign up as a commando, run a few missions for practice, and don't worry, they'll find a way to abuse you for GenCon.

I'm still a bit sore.....

And Critias, there's always something SR running somewhere at GenCon.

I am gonna play in the Scramble this year!!

Thanks for the... uh.. warm.. welcome guys. I'm looking forward to meeting up with you.

As it stands I put up my signup to the commando site, and I'll be nailing down a "firebase" soon enough (one of several possible locations in the Denver to Fort Collins Area... any locals out there I'd appreciate any input as of where to go), and sending everything off for that.

I think I'll start with some of the Missions as was put forth as an idea here. I have plenty of original stuff, though as well.

Anyway, any one of you more experienced Con -GMs want to throw out a standard "day in the life" kind of thing for me to expect in this?

As much as I love Claddagh, we gotta get you kids more variety in your eateries. Although it does have your best whiskey selection in town.

Occasionally Bull's Rolling Bar and Grill ™ comes through to keep you hearty and well during the day, although we slacked soem last year. (remember kids, gatorade and MadDog do make for a wonderful time, but if you have to quit drinking before noon your day will be shot)

There is a reasonable chance I might be there as a player this year... wow. A GenCon where Im not tied to the tourny room all week? Unheard of!

And obviously Dire, you must have been doing the MooCow eh?

Nah ... we'll have a CGL game room until about 20 hours prior to the con when they'll move us all around and, eventually, just have us running games on the 40 yard line in the stadium.

'Course, that would be damn cool.

Obviously I missed including the essential step of finding the actual game location in my description of the daily routine.

How challenging might that be? Consider that for one mission I collected a set of six pre registration tickets, each with different room assignments, which in turn differed from the registration packet, which in turn differed from the Hall monitor packets, which differed from the CGL packets. Add in the fact that the assignments aren't simply one room, but were in fact spread over 5 hotels over 8 city blocks on different floors and rooms.

After that you would need a drink.

There were sure a lot of frustrated people, though once they sat down and got into the game, every runner I talked to had a blast!

Not the best of news -- according to a Gencon e-mail today they're down 30,000 feet of playing space from last year due to construction. That doesn't bode well.

*grumble*

If all they manage to do is at least schedule the games in the same building it would be an improvement. Bonus if we are in the same room or nearby set of rooms.

seeing as the company will probably not be in the middle of a big upheaval this year, I'm thinking things should be a bit smoother... though that's no guarantee that the con space won't be split through even more hotels this year and still get fuxxored.

Bah! They figure that you're playing shadowrunners, so you should be used to legwork.

Anyone know when registration for the games will go live? Been to the last few cons, but never seem to make it into a game...pickup or registered.

Looking forward to being there this year.

I hope i get to run with some of you as well.

Registration for events usually opens in April or May. While it's advantageous to register early, it's not crucial. There are a lot of events, and it's usually possible to sneak into a lot of games with generics. (Especially SR -- we try hard to accomodate folks with generic tix.) The hard part is usually getting your hotel room.

On a note related to the actual OP's topic -- CGL will probably do a call for GM's in the next few weeks I'll try to post here when it goes up on the web site.

LOL, then i'm half way there. I booked my room through GenCon housing this afternoon.

Now i just need to sneak into a few games with some of you.

Thanks for the tip on the events. i'll be sure to keep an eye out.

I've officially registered myself as a GM on their web site. Now I just have to figure out how many games I want to run, and what the hell I feel like running. It's something I've been saying "maybe next year" over, every year I've gone. So, well, why not?

If anyone with experience in such matters -- who might know, for instance, how many games need to be run in order to get discounts or whatever it is you get -- wants to PM me, friendly advice would not be refused.

Usually there's no minimum: If you work for a few hours, you're going to get that work back to you in discounts for product. The more hours you work, the more "points" you earn which translates to a greater discount on said product. Usually, though, the event coordinators try to make sure that no one has to work too much more than others both to be fair to the GMs but also so that no one burns out before the end of the Con.

I think Critias was saying he regged as a GM with Gen Con, not with John for SR. Could be wrong though.

If it's the former, I don;t know all the specifics since I always worked through Fasa/Fanpro, but I believe the minimum you need to work to get your badge comped is 16 hours (4 average sessions). If you register as a Volunteer, you can decide how much time you're willing to work, and the comp gets better, but I think as a GM a free badge is about all you can get.

Bull

You running anything this year Bull?

I remember you gave me and my friends a pretty thorough demo when 4th first come out, but that was cut short when my friends negative quality (diabetic) started kicking in.

One of the high-lights for me from that year...the demo that is, not the sugar incident

You are correct (in that I registered with Gencon, not with whoever John is in particular). I'm not sure how much official love I'd get for running SR3 instead of SR4 (and I'm leaning more towards 3rd edition right now because I'm just way more familiar with it), and I'm also kicking around a few one-shot game ideas for Dark Heresy, the Warhammer 40k RPG that just came out.

So, well, yeah. It never occured to me to talk to official Shadowrun people, because I'm not likely going to be running official Shadowrun stuff.

<----John

As you inferred -- we give sweet, sweet, lubbinz for running SR4, but CGL can't give support for a game system that they don't print.

Discounts?
GenCon Volunteer Program
It only lists their 16 hour and 32 hour commitments and associated bennies. If you work 16 hours, you get your 4 day Badge comped. If you work 32 hours, you also get your room comped (based on 4 person occupancy.)

Not mentioned, but from experience, you get a GenCon T-shirt every day you volunteer. So maybe schedule a 4 hour game on each of the 4 days instead of all in one or two days. My first year volunteering had me working with a guy desperate for help. He provided meals to me from his own funds I got to be friends with about half a dozen other volunteers that I have ran into in the following years.

Funny thing is, I do not think you would need a Badge if you did not need/plan on going where one was required. (I could have done this last year as all I did was GM.) If you are just volunteering and not GMing, the GenCon people will probably post you where a badge is needed. Explaining how you do not have one may get you reassigned, I do not know as it has not come up.

There are years when we don't? Oh and I wouldn't use bricks, Moo has a break it you replace them policy on GMs since a few years back when we were so short of them.


Wait, wait. You mean people actually game at these things?


Jesus wept. We normally get screwed by the con organisers one way or the other at the start of each year, this really does not make me confident.


Well unless we run out of GMs in which case we just put Grendel down for doing all of them.

Howdy.

Yeah, I kind'a figured (and it makes sense, don't get me wrong). But seeing as how the only SR4 I've ever played has been a few false-start sort of games here on DS (and one that's still puttering along, but is super heavily house ruled), I just don't feel qualified to run an SR4 game and expect people to fork over tickets. I can do the setting. I can do descriptive GMing. I can cook up a story. But when it comes time to actually start slinging dice, I need to be a comfortable veteran of a setting before I want to run something that folks are paying good money to play in. And, well, I'm just not that comfortable with SR4 yet.

Heck, especially if I were to be scoring free swag or something for running it. Then I'd feel like I was robbing my players and my shadowy benefactors.

Friends, schmiends. When've I struck you as someone out to make new friends? I'm just lookin' for a couple bucks back for my badge. I figure if I'm gonna try and run a few games, I might as well run enough to get my $65 back

I downloaded some 33 page gig from the official Gencon site specifically for GMs, and it mentions that the badge reimbursements work on a sort of "ticket hour" principle. If you run a four hour game for two players, that's eight hours of tickets (just basic players times hours formula). It takes 96 points to score the complimentary badge (or to get a refund for a badge you already purchased). Looks like it's the same "32 hours of service" for GMs and regular volunteers, though, for housing (oh well, screw housing).

I figure if I can just cook up two cool scenarios for one-shot games, get six players per game, and run each one twice (just to test my GMing a little, have fun handling different ideas and play styles from different groups, yadda yadda yadda), I'm in like Flynn. Twenty-four ticket hours per session, four sessions, and I should be golden. Or...hmm...Or I could run one four hour game for twenty four people! I'm a genius. I'll advertise that I'm running a Lone Star game, and I could have the whole precinct statted up and ready to go! This'll be awesome! *runs off, scribbling maniacal notes*

But, yeah. Thanks for the heads up, Tisoz. Reading official documents is always kind of dry and boring, it's always cool to hear from folks who've actually done it before and can relate their own experiences. Sounds like you've had a decent time doing stuff in the past, too. So I figure I'll give it a shot this year. Why not?

That would rock on toast.

Actually, that sounds like a great start to an SR LARP

Bull

Oh, and Critias? Let us know what games you're running. Maybe we'll come crash one <grin>

BUll

As much as I fear the LARP...

It would be awesome to drive around in a "patrol car" and pull runners over for "routine traffic stops".

"Sir, I understand you have a permit for your weapons but no one issues permits for Shrike Anti-Aircraft rounds. Now if you could please step out of the step van..."

Actually, two of my favorite GenCon games have been Shadowrun LARPs. It's a silly tradition me and my buddies started our first ever GenCon, but every year, we (consumate table-top RPGers and wargamers) sign up for one LARP at GenCon. A home-brewed one, with a cruddy little rulebook put together by a bunch of nobodies, so that it's the setting and the cheesey over-acting and the fun of the game that will kick ass, not someone whipping out version 3.5 of their super-serious angsty gothic RPG book (full of spooky black and white photoshops), yadda yadda yadda.

The first one ever was a Shadowun LARP where we were all locked up in a prison that had a blackout -- which freed us, leaving us to roam and negotiate and intimidate and bully one another until we figured out a way out. The other was just last year, where there was a giant international (and inter-corporate) business meeting set up to discuss proposed amendments to the corporate court's rules (under the guise of it being a big meeting to discuss metahuman employee's civil rights).

Lots of fun, both times. Plenty of BSing. Hardly anyone using the rules/mechanics, just lots of lying and being in character. Shadowrun LARPs can be a lot of fun.

How many "Bubba the love trolls" have been there?

Volunteering is an awesome opportunity. Tiring but totally worth it.

Also, what's the longest someone has gone between registering and posting on these forums? Can I tender approximately 6 years? Do I win? ;)

-Your Friendly Lawn Gnome.

PS: I'm back. And maybe even going to GC this year.

I'll be posting the info (on several forums) once I get all the stuff filled out and get my game numbers and junk. I figure the best way to make sure I score all the game hours I need is to advertise.

I'm leaning right now towards the new Warhammer 40k RPG, Dark Heresy, though. The more I'm playing it, the more I'm digging the mechanics, etc. It's...kind of Shadowrunny. Ish. Sort of.

Honestly, I doubt it will really be a problem. Depending, of course, on the game you run. Shadowrun events are notorious for selling out fast, and even when you have no-shows, there's often a couple folks who show up with generics.



I haven't really checked it out much. I've been kinda soured on Warhammer on the whole for a while now. I used to be pretty well versed in the Fantasy Lore, and knew a fair bit about the 40K lore, especially regarding Chaos. Unfortunatly, this was back in the 1st and 2nd edition days, with Rogue Trader and the Realms of Chaos hardbacks to back me up. Seems like every time a new edition comes out the lore gets revamped, tweaked, retconned to hell, and Chaos usually becomes more and more watered down :/ I gave up about 7 or 8 years ago.

Sorry, little tangent there

I do know at least one of our regular GC group is a huge 40K fan and was looking forward to Dark Heresy, and I've known TS Luikart for a number of years now and like to support anything he works on, so... Who knows. Even if it's not SR< maybe we'll crash anyways

Anyways, being a newish game, it's hard to say what kind of turn outs you'd get for it. I would suspect really good, and I'd bet on selling out pretty quick, but considering the wierdness going on with Black Industries and the Warhammer license, who knows.

I've had a theory I've been wanting to test for years now, and I've just never gotten around to it. I want to schedule a 4 Hour game, starting at 3 AM, listed as "HOuse Rules. Come Listen To Us babble some crazy shit". I'm convinced you would have a couple dozen people sign up jkust to check it out. And at 3 AM at a con, you get very, very slap-happy... So it could and would be a strange and delirious game.

My first Origins (A million years ago or so) I got roped into helping Zach Bush with the SR Tourney (I was originally just doing an SR TCG tourney), and we ended up having to rewrite a large portion of teh tournament and all the characters on the fly the night before the con. So several of us got less than 2 hours of sleep for two nights. On Friday, Zach wanted to run a game of Trinity for us after the Tourney round was done. So we started at around 1 AM... By 3 AM, we we're really loopy. And were trying to teach some mutants how to be evil so we could justify wiping them out, and then we got killed by the Spice Girls.

It's a little hazy, to be honest. And believe it or not, there was no booze involved. (I didn't mix Booze and GMing, so the cons were mostly sober ones for me until I retired )

Bull

I'm planning on going to GenCon again this year myself. But I'm going the lazy route, just to play and look around, not GM'ing or volunteering. Last year was my first GenCon and I enjoyed the hell out of it. Even met Bull, Adam, and some of the others at the "What's Happening With" meeting. Fun stuff

I'm in. SR3 or SR4, but my SR3 skills are rusty at best You can always run SR4 for a die-hard Critias fan-club base to get your feet wet. I promise I won't give you too much crap when you look at the books

I'm SO there this year as I have a following that apparently will "kill me" if I don't show up and "ply me with alcohol" if I do. How can a girl refuse.

I suppose this year I need to register early so that I can't flake out like last year. If the money's already invested harder to say "no" right?

Oh good lord, be careful. There are few things sadder and scarier than watching the lonely guy-nerds fight over girl-nerds, especially when alcohol is involved.

Bull

Ticket sales went live a week or two ago. Cowboy up and drop your $65, girl. *grins* Me and Flea will see you there (and we'll be bringing Jay with us, to boot!).