I learned many lessons from GenCon this year, many of them involve eating too many Monster Burgers from The Ram. On the roleplaying front, this was my first opportunity to play with an entirely new group of gamers since college. Even in college, I had pre-established relationships (mostly friendships) with the rest of the gamers in the group. Barring some online chats, this was the first time I got to play with people who I had not physically met before.

Observations and Advice In Action

As previously mentioned, I had the distinct pleasure of an invitation to Drunken D&D which was run masterfully by our good buddy Phil, The Chatty DM. This was a great way to get to know a new group of people and bond over a common pursuit: a mixture of getting sauced and playing a fun adventure.

After the second successful session of this type of game, thoughts started prickling around in my head (or maybe that was just all the Bud Light)… but either way what Phil did made excellent sense. He engineered an ice-breaker right into a D&D game, which allowed us all to get to know one another in a not-too-serious game setting while enjoying some non-nerd style bonding (i.e. booze) as well.

What I Do…

On the rare circumstance that we welcome new players into our group in Stupid Ranger Central, we tend to have a social “getting to know you” session that sometimes consists of character creation, pizza, or a roleplaying heavy first gaming session where characters and players are encouraged to interact over a session which is intended as a prelude to the campaign proper. This allows new players to feel comfortable in the game setting while getting some light roleplaying involved as well.

Phil did a great job of engineering a game that really accellerated the bonding process, we were all laughing and having fun within minutes of getting together for the first time in person. It was brilliant!

What do you do to introduce new players into your mix? Do you adjust anything in your campaign to allow for a “feeling out” process? Let’s hear those ideas!

As promised, here’s the first 5 minutes of our Out of the Box Roleplaying event at Gen Con last weekend!

1. The hotels attached to the convention center are totally worth the effort and cost to get them.

   I stayed at the Westin this year, and it was literally across the street from the convention hall. For that matter, several of the events I went to (Hickman’s Killer Breakfast, the Queen of Geeks pageant) were IN the Westin. This also meant I didn’t have to carry my books with me when I had a game later — going back to the room was easy and for once my back wasn’t killing me by the end of the ‘con.

2. The utility of wearing a fanny pack during a convention outweighs the degree to which it makes one look effeminate.

   I had my wallet, gum, dice, pencils, my tickets, a camera, and my Nintendo DS at the ready and didn’t feel like I was even carrying anything. Next year I’m specially lining one of the pockets to fill with chicken nuggets and/or E.L. Fudge cookies.

3. Never give up.

   We didn’t get True Dungeon tickets in advance this year like usual, so my good friend Sirgeekelot and I were stuck trying to get in on the waiting list. Which got so full they stopped taking names and were telling us to check back with them every hour and a half and maybe they could get one of us in. Screw that. Sirgeekelot went back to the room and I thought I was going to have to miss out on the event, but then I remembered Stupid Ranger had told me they had the occasional single ticket for sale. Which they did, and it started 15 minutes from right then. So I hurried back to the Marriott and was able to play — and for the first time, finally survive!

4. D&D bloggers are awesome people.

   We got to hang out with Yax, Dave and Bartoneus from Critical Hits, and Phil the Chatty DM quite a bit this weekend. Quite frankly, I had so much fun that it makes me sad that I won’t see any of them again ’til next year. We played Drunken D&D with Phil as DM a couple of nights, in which we all laughed so hard I was sort of worried about someone dying. It was like hanging out with old friends I’d known forever, except they had the faces and memories of people from the Internets.

   One other thing — I don’t know if it’s just me, but now I can’t read any of their blogs without hearing what they wrote in their speaking voices. The good news is I can get through one of Phil’s posts in record time now. The bad news is that everything Bartoneus writes is now in his “unintentionally sarcastic” voice from his Drunken D&D character.

5. Don’t get the “Kraken Steak” at the Ram.

   Don’t get me wrong, it was delicious. It was also like a half an ounce of meat. Tarrasque burger please!!!!

6. Hosting your own event is a lot of work, but TOTALLY WORTH IT.

   Our “Out of the Box Roleplaying” event Sunday morning was, in my opinion, a resounding success for a first-time event barely anybody knew about. We had around 20 people show up, which impressed me greatly because it turned out they stuck us in the Embassy Suites hotel, which is like 5 blocks away from everything else and apparently the only entrances are underground (with the exception of a secret hatch in the food court at the mall). We had a lot of really silly fun, and I enjoyed myself immensely. I really want to thank our fellow bloggers for being in on this with us, the audience seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves and I really think you’re the ones to blame.

   It was my intention to record the whole thing and put it up on Youtube. Unfortunately, my video camera sucks and we only got the first 5 minutes. I will, in the coming days, be uploading that for your viewing pleasure. And then you will get to see (and hear!) everybody introduce their characters (and gaze upon Dante’s totally bitchin’ DM hat!).

7. Sleep occasionally during the convention.

   Monday’s coming, no matter how much you don’t want it to. Stupid Mondays.

I’ve been to several Gencon’s over the years, but this one will forever be one of the greatest!

First, as promised, pictures! There are pictures from the RPGBloggers Unite! panel, as well as our Out of the Box Roleplaying session. And especially for Dave the Game, there’s a set just for the Drunken D&D game sessions!

Speaking of Drunken D&D, it was great to have a chance to play D&D with some of our friends in the blogging community. Being the shy person that I am, I will confess that I was fairly quiet to start. I had forgotten how hard it can be to play with an entirely new group. But I had a great time!

The sales floor was fabulous fun, and I did my share of spending. Topping my list of cool RPG-related items was my Ring of Invisibility from Intimagik, Elven dice from Unusual Dice and a set of platinum Campaign Coins. I also purchased a few prints from various artists. And Gencon wouldn’t be complete for me with lots and lots of books. I got free books from signings — Blackstaff Tower by Steven Schend and Reader’s Guide to the Legend of Drizzt by Philip Athans (with R.A. Salvatore). Plus, I picked up a couple of books from McFarland Press, as well as the Brazen Serpent Chronicles. Lots of good reading… I should be busy for awhile.

One of the best things about the con this year was getting to meet all our friends from the blogging community. Thanks to you all helping to make this the most memorable Gencon ever!

As promised, here is my quick run-down of GenCon 2008! The StupidRanger crew had a great convention this year, here are the highlights according to me!

The Usual Suspects

Each year, near the end of July I start going slightly crazy. I wake in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, speaking strange languages that consist of names such as Chessex and Intimagik. I have a problem with GenCon shopping, however it is getting better as years go on. This year I purchased a scarce few gaming supplies, settling on some fancy-pants synthetic opal dice from Crystal Caste and a new battle mat from the aforementioned Chessex.

The sales floor this year seemed a bit smaller and less spectacular this year than in years past, but there was one noteable shining star: the Sultan gaming table by Geek Chic. This thing is gorgeous and appears as if actual gamers helped design it (which they did). It is expensive though, tipping the scales at nearly $9700. I won’t be getting one any time soon, but I hope if they get enough orders they will produce a slightly less spectacular version for The Rest of Us.

The Main Events

Truly my main event for this year was getting to meet all of our blogging buddies in real life: the guys from Critical Hits, Phil from Musings of the Chatty DM, and Yax from DungeonMastering. We got together for two sessions of drunken D&D (a truly epic sight to behold), the RPG Bloggers Unite! panel, and our Out of the Box roleplaying event.

Speaking of, our event went off quite well. The energy level in the room stayed sky-high for the entire two hours, much zaniness, dancing, prize-giving, and hilarity ensued. Special thanks to all of the aforementioned guys that sat in with us to make that event a success. There are plenty of things that we intend to do differently next year, but one thing will be certain: E.L. Fudge cookies will fuel our engines of insane roleplaying!

My convention experience this year would have been mundane if not for the company we kept this year. Even though I was meeting all of these people for the first time, it felt no different than sitting down with a bunch of my college friends for a great gaming session.

And the rest…

This was my first convention doing a costume, I went as Arthur Dent from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as a counterpoint to Stupid Ranger’s Trillian costume. It was great, I got my picture taken by a bunch of people and it was fun.

Also fun: meeting Shelly Mazzanoble and Ed Greenwood, talking with Dave Arneson for the second time, and shaking David Faustino‘s hand. The urge to call him Bud was almost overwhelming.

Last, but not least, I got to see the guy playing Daredevil at the WizKids booth accidentally send a Force FX lightsaber blade sailing 30 feet into the air across the convention center… luckily nobody got hurt, but the look on his face was certainly priceless.

The StupidRanger crew will return to the regularly scheduled craziness on Tuesday, like many of our fellow bloggers we are returning home from GenCon and must recharge our magic blogging crystals with sleep.

In the meantime, be sure to check out RPGBloggers.com and read some of the best roleplaying related material around! We will be back with a GenCon wrap-up on Tuesday (and likely alongside regular content throughout the week!)

Me & Shelly Mazzanoble
Originally uploaded by stupidranger

OMG!!! I had the best Gencon day ever!!

It started out with the very fun Queen of Geeks pageant. I flubbed up the trivia pretty bad, but I totally nailed my talent, and the audience really enjoyed it. I finished in the top three, not Queen this year, but maybe next year!

After a celebratory lunch, we headed to the sales floor, where Dante and I wandered around, finally making our way to the Wizards booth. I was talking to one of ladies working at the booth, asking if Shelly Mazzanoble would be signing anywhere (as I had other events during events I knew she was scheduled to attend). The very nice lady pointed out to me that Shelly was standing right next to us!

I introduced myself to Shelly and mentioned that we had emailed a few times in the past and that I was from stupidranger.com, and she knew exactly who I was! It was one of the greatest moments of my life!

Having loaned out my copy of Confessions, I quickly purchased a shiny new copy, and Shelly signed it for me with a very nice note. She then stood there and chatted with Dante and me for about 10 minutes. This will forever be one of the greatest events in my life!!

Shortly after that, Ed Greenwood was signing at the Wizards booth, and I got a chance to meet him as he signed my copy of The Annotated Elminster. Very funny man, and very nice too, he posed with me for a picture. Also, Steven Schend was signing with him for his new book, Blackstaff Tower (which isn’t out in stores yet…. we got free copies!!) and signed a copy for me. As promised, Mr Schend, I will read and post a review of your book, but based on the first couple of pages, I’m very excited about this book!!

I can happily say that even if the rest of the convention is a bust, I will always remember it as one of the best, simply based on today. It was this ranger’s dream come true!!

Tonight marked the first of a new (hopefully) annual event: The D&D Drinking Game. Our good buddy Phil, The Chatty DM hosted several of the RPG Bloggers all-stars: Yax from DungeonMastering, the guys from Critical Hits, and the trifecta of awesome that comprises our site.

Phil was so kind to create us pre-generated, crazy, irreverent characters complete with roleplaying quirks that we had to act out. He also supplied us with a fair amount of drinking rules that ran adjacent to the 4th edition rule set. The result: concentrated awesome! I’m sure photos will also be forthcoming, but I failed far too many saves to have the dexterity remaining to post them tonight!

Five hours went by in a flash, and we only made it through one of four battle scenes. Many hilarious quotes were documented and will likely make their way into the blogosphere in coming nights, but we had so much fun that we’re going to have a continuance on Saturday night.

It was really great to get to meet these guys, and the sense of community that we had before was amplified by getting together in person. This is what GenCon is all about!

Tomorrow: StupidRanger herself competes to become the Queen of the Geeks!!

The SR crew made it to Indianapolis! I have heard that internet access at the convention center is possible, but expensive… that means unless people buy shirts RIGHT NOW I’ll be doing a liveblog as I arrive at free wireless access points.

It will certainly occur each night as we arrive back at our hotel, so check back frequently!

Onward to the convention center!!

Thanks to everyone that extended birthday wishes to us yesterday! Tonight all of us at StupidRanger Central are getting ready for GenCon this weekend!

Thanks to my new ultramobile Eee PC 1000 laptop (DM’s best friend!), I fully intend to have periodic updates from the convention floor. We’re planning to take part in many gaming events and SR and I plan to exercise our capitalist freedoms very near to the Chessex booth, but the real highlight of the convention this year is going to be our first real-life meetups with several of our RPG Blogger friends.

Like SR said on Monday, she will be competing in the Queen of Geeks pageant. Naturally, I will be in her cheering section and I hope that some of our devoted readership will show up to cheer her on to her coronation!

For those of you at the convention: we’ll see you there! Don’t be shy, we don’t bite. Come to the RPG Bloggers Unite! panel! See SR’s mortal embarassment, see Vanir eat a medically dangerous amount of sugar! Marvel at my inability to be articulate in person! All this and more in Indianapolis!!