improvstone wrote:Just start a game with the air hostesses .....  

Wrong kinda role-playing, man.  

Holy crap!!!  After 14 hours driving non-stop, two No-Doz, three Starbucks double shots, 62 F-bombs, and one really bad IHOP experience we are finally at Indy.

If any of you are driving to Gen Con and were flipped off by a surly looking guy in a Pontiac Grand Prix with Texas license plates, I just want to apologize now and get it out of the way.  

By the way, Badmike and I are at the Courtyard Marriott in room 544.  Plenty of Shiner Bock for everyone.  

Don't forget to post some pics please.   ... for those of us that can't make it.  

Was there a street party Wednesday night?

FormCritic wrote:Was there a street party Wednesday night?

Hey guys;

Well, no street party, but the Acaeum was well represented this morning by myself, Kingofpain, Killjoy and Prufrock.  We met at the registration line and then after waiting hours in line went to a well earned breakfast at the Red Eye (a 24 hour diner a few blocks away).  Waited in a horde of overweight, sweaty gamers for the opening ceremonies to get over with (didn't see or hear a word, waste of time!), then hit the dealer's room.  Quickly bought the 1E Goodman Games module, then slid over to Crazy Egor's booth and proceeded to dump a load of money on some goodies. As a bonus, bumped into Frank Mentzer at the booth as he came to pick up some stuff and spent a few minutes shooting the breeze with the legend (and Acaeum member!).  However, loaded down with stuff we had to make a trip back to the hotel room to dump it all off...jeez, only open a few hours and already having to dump off loads of used gaming stuff.
 BTW, anyone need an Ironhoofs Highlands?  I think we all got one at Egors!!!!
  Also have met Blackmoor and talked to Grodog, so the Acaeum is well represented so far.  Can't believe it's only the first day afternoon and we've already spent a fortune.  But as you can guess we are having a blast.  Time to go back and spend more money...may have to end up staying on at Prufrocks because I won't have gas money to get home at this rate.
  Going to look for James Mishler and Grodog....and waiting for the auction...

Mike B.

stumbling tiger wrote:Thanks, Mike!  Please, more reports from the front, so those of us who couldn't go can at least have a vicarious GenCon experience.

And pictures as well ....

Hi folks---

Had the pleasure of meeting Badmike, Prufrock, KoP, and killjoy after our 2-6pm Bottle City event, and I got some good pics of the event as well as of the gang.  However, they had already just eaten, and we were ravenous, so after saying hi and chatting a bit, Rob and I peeled off with some other friends for food.

On the pics front, I somehow managed to leave my mini-USB cord at home, so I may not be able to post them during the show as I had originally planned.  We'll see....

On deck for tomorrow is the first Warlocks Walk event, and two panel seminars.

grodog wrote:Hi folks---

Had the pleasure of meeting Badmike, Prufrock, KoP, and killjoy after our 2-6pm Bottle City event, and I got some good pics of the event as well as of the gang.  However, they had already just eaten, and we were ravenous, so after saying hi and chatting a bit, Rob and I peeled off with some other friends for food.

Suffice to say it has been a real pleasure meeting everyone.  Including grodog and Rob...badmike, killjoy, prufrock and I also got to meet stratochamp, blackmoor, gus landt, netrodent, Frank M., James Mishler and Gary Gygax.  The whole convention is pretty amazing...overwhelming in some cases.  We spent easily four hours in the exhibit\dealer hall and probable only saw 20% of it.  The auction was pretty exciting even though there wasnt a whole lot of rare stuff tonight.  It was pretty fun bidding against Al on a first print Tegel Manor.  Ended up that neither one of us won it though.  Oh well...lots more interesting stuff to bid on the next two days.  

stumbling tiger wrote:Thanks, Mike!  Please, more reports from the front, so those of us who couldn't go can at least have a vicarious GenCon experience.

Well here goes...It will be nice to have these down to remember later...


The morning started as King and I woke up with far too little sleep (went to bed late and lost an hour due to the time zone change). Had plans to meet Martin and Al in front of the sign in booth, but ended up wandering for awhile just taking it in.  They finally showed up and we waited with them in line for awhile, then got our free goodie bags (some Axis & Allies minis, assorted stuff), then headed to a nearby diner to eat.  I proceded to have one of the best cheeseburgers I have eaten in years while the rest got more traditional fare and we shot the shit for awhile.
  We thought we had taken too much time but when we came back the line to get in was somewhere around the corner into Ohio and the opening ceremonies still hadn't even started yet. We were forced to stand in a horde of people while we wasted 30 minutes of our life waiting for the exhibition doors to open.  Anyway, once they did we made a beeline for the Goodman Games booth, determined to score every copy of Saga of the Witch Queen and hold them for ransom....but this year Goodman had the foresight to actually print quite a few of them, they looked really nice with their pastel cover!  The Goodman games booth had some great stuff and some freebies, King bought the new $100 boxed set Castle Whiterock and thus loaded himself down the first five minutes of the show!
    Afterwards we went across the aisle to Crazy Egors and proceded to go a little crazy ourselves.  Despite the high prices on a lot of items, we managed to find some buried treasures and each walked away with something good.  I think all of us located a Ironhoof Highlands, I scored some good Traveller stuff, and Al got a Wee Warriors Embatted TRek for a modest price.  WE literally bumped into Frank Mentzer at the booth as he was there to pick up some stuff, and introduced ourselves. BTW just so you know Killjoy was the bleeding guest of honor the entire day as everyone fawned on him including some gaming legends, it seems like everyone has heard of or has wanted to meet Al, he's like the rock star of the Acaeum and I was just happy to be his roadie for awhile!!!
  So a quick trip back to the room to drop off stuff (you'll notice a trend developing as the day goes on...)  Then back again to pick up MORE stuff, I found a booth with everything 50% off and loaded up on some more goodies and tried to purchase a "Sexy Gamer" Tshirt one of the booth bunnies was wearing, but unfortunately it only came in small (like it's only for chicks or something).  Bought some Troll Lords goodies including Tell Qa and met Gary Gygax who signed some stuff for King.  Another trip to drop off stuff (this time to the rented locker) and then back to the fray, Where we found a few more goodies, got James Mischler to sign our copies of Tell Qa (Nice guy, another trend you'll see developing, all Acaeum members seem to be great people).  WE then hit the auction for the first time, and the auction consignment store, where again we all scored....a Mint Caverns of Thracia for John, a beautiful copy of The Companions Highroad for Al, and a SW copy of D1-2 for me for six bucks!  OH and I forgot for Martin he scored some really beautiful original numbered artwork at the exhibition room. For the 3rd time that day I spent far too much money (but how many $5 Q1s can you have anyway?  As many as you want!).  So once AGAIN we hauled everything back to the hotel room and dumped it off, and then had dinner at the TGIFridays in the Marriot.
  So then it was on to the Hyatt to watch Rob Kuntz's Bottle City tournament round game, he was ably assisted by Grodog and ran the game using a copy of his original map!  We got to shoot the bull with Rob (our third gaming legend of the day) and once again Al was treated like visiting royalty (perhaps he's a long lost son of Charles we don't know about????) as Rob insisted he try to make his Maure Castle game the next day.  After a great conversation with Rob we headed to the auction room to hit the consignment store one more time then settle down to the auction.
 Almost forgot, earlier we also ran into Acaeum member Gus Landt as he and his brother painted some figures in theminiature section, later I wandered over and both Blackmoor and Gus and their beautiful wives were playing some.....um, no delicate way to put this....3.5 EDITION D&D!!!!!! But we still let them stay on I guess......
   Back at the auction, we had a helluva good time just watching and bidding as it came......We all came away with 1-2 items which was very cool, makes you feel like you aren't wasting your time!  Oh yeh and the highlight of the evening was Frank on the auction podium plugging away for the Acaeum site as he told the audience that it was THE place to go to identify rare or obscure D&D stuff, very nice gesture on Frank's part.  The auction was quite fun even though the more interesting stuff is being held over for Friday and Saturday night.  Al and King went up against each other for a1st edition Tegel Manor (which went to someone else) and Strato and Al went up for a manuscript for X8 that ended up only going for $200.  
   Afterwards we shut the place down and met Strato and his wife along with Acaeum member Netrodent and ended up walking back to the hotel together as it turned out we all stayed at the same place.  Not even really enough time to dig through all the loot before getting ready for bad.  Tomorrow we have Al's D&D game he's running, as well as the Acaeum dinner at an Irish pub, and of course the giant Friday auction.  Time to drink a Shiner, and get to bed!

Mike B.