I love my job. I really do. It isn’t that it has anything to do with this convention, but has everything to do with the fact I’m relaxed so quickly and enjoying myself so fast that I have to attribute to getting paid on time, enjoying the work and challenge, and basically being proud of myself.
I managed to blow through my entire budget in about three hours by starting at one end of the Author’s Alley and going to the other. And pretty much picking up every single book I didn’t already have. Amazingly, a lot of authors actually remembered my face long before they realized I was ‘dmoonfire’ or ‘Dylan Moonfire’ which is just neat. And, one of the authors gave me a free copy of their book so I could review it.
…
Okay, that floored me. You can get free books for doing reviews? Well, that was even more impressive. I also managed to throw a wrench in some of the author’s actions since three (including dear Anton) didn’t know they were suppose to fill out little slips of paper. So, they got educated on how to fill it out, then I brought up my neatly filled paper… and the cashier refused to handle it. Going back, I just handed them cash and got my books. Sometimes, I’m not sure if Anton likes me or doesn’t like me because of the review, but I think he does and I’ll probably give his sequel, which I’m looking forward to, the same quality. But, still, I want to smooze the authors not upset them. :)
I also have a 0.6 m high pile of new books to read. *squee*
I also had another wrench since I looked for Ms. Nilles. I knew she was going to have an empty table, and I noticed her name on the cash register. After circling the authors like a shark, and the artists, I asked.
“There is no one by that name.”
“Yes, you have it on the register.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Row five, eight from the left.”
“No, I swear we… don’t… oh, there she is.”
Sadly, Melanie decided to make it a challenge to find her, but I’m a persistent little bugger. :) Any other GenCon goers who want to meet?
As for games. I’ve had one no-show (Facehuggers and Chestbursters) which I managed to get into a playtest, out of the playtest, and into a game as other gamers went to the first playtest. Then played a 1930′s ghostbuster–as a cockney thief who was assigned to the lord in charge of the ghost hunters. I also did Runequest, but I didn’t like it as much and the mechanics were really stupid about facing. Did you know humans need to circle around 3 meters to turn around? Or, they need to spend one entire action to make a 30 degree turn. And another to pull the sword out. I think they need two for chewing gum and walking, but I’m not sure.
Traveler was awesome, in the first two rounds of character creation, I managed to destroy a ship and start a war. After that, every round I kept picking up medic, so we decided that my character was the reason that everyone on the ship kept needing medic. I also stole something from Mr. Walsh and started making up “100 Things Derelict (my character) Cannot Do”. #17 – “Is not allowed to take off the warning sticker from the explosive decompression handle next to the brake.” #34 – “Is not allowed on any space station with glass windows.” #81 – “Is not to be left in a room with anything that does ‘Do Not Touch’.” #87 – “Is not allowed to drink while docking.” Great inspiration, Glen, and it had everyone rolling in the aisle.
And then I did “Introduction to DragonStorm.” Which consisted of 3 old players with the equiv of 20th, 18th, and 15th level with 3 1st level players. Guess who did all the fighting, telepathy, magic, tanking, killing, and exploring? *sigh* Crappy room, okay DM, lousy party balance.
Overall, having a fairly good time. Most of my games were 1-2 hours short, one was 2 hours long, and I got in about an hour of swimming.
Oh yeah, and the writing panels where I think I did everything absolutely wrong. :)