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On This Day In Gaming History...
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Special Sections: Gen Con '01
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Exploring! - Div Devlin, and Maestro (08-19-01)
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This is the second part of our GenCon report, in the first part we "Arrived" and got the lay of the land, in this part we go exploring!
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| Gamers ready and willing! |
The con is raging in full force now, Paradox_Equation is already there and we are to meet up Saturday; Microsoft and Wizards of the Coast hosted a block party, and the band "Spirit Creek" wailed like a group of banshee's! Free promotional gifts were being tossed out, and everyone was scrambling for earplugs or aspirin after five minutes of listening to them. If you were hungry it was a huge line to grab free eats. We'll just move on. You know it's a con, when it smells like a con, on the second day (Friday) of people hitting the place, the bathrooms were overflowing with lines, toiletries have run out, and everyone is tired from the parties the night before. This is the Saturday Primer, it only gets worse.
We begin our exploring Friday, and we determine that our main focus will be on all the folks that make gaming great. We're so done with the evil mega corps that have created a monopoly on gaming that the grass root traditions of what made everything so great were the lesser known, self published folks. D&D started this way, as well as many other games, and this is what made gaming what it is today, folks just like you that enjoy it.
The best part of the show, is the artists showcasing their works, painting and prints that have graced the covers of your favorite books, cards, games and magazines are all for sell at a reasonable price. Some of the great's were; "Mark Evans," "a'lis," "David Wong," and "Alan Dyson."
While everyone takes a focus on the larger names we stumbled across a small both manned by "Pete" who is offering to do character portraits in pen and/or ink. Flipping through his prints these we see these are great. We had to get the Dominatrix, and commission him to create a colored print for us! Check out the online gallery of "Art by Pete" and get your character sketched.
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| Place those bids! |
Dropping cash is a good way to spend a lot of money fast, so if your on a tight budget and looking for some great values on games you can always hit the Auction hall. Looking for a place to find old out of print materials for your favorite game, the Auction has it all, and a store off to the side for items that did not get sold to highest bid.
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| The Auction Store! |
We grabbed a couple of folks who walked away with boxes of items, and asked them when they were going to have time to read, learn and play the games they picked up. Turns out they do this for a profit. Buy it cheap at the convention, and then make a killing on it on Ebay. Bastages, I hope this crashes your market and everyone does it. I sooo… wanted to buy that first edition game set.
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Margaret Weis
and Maestro! |
Bummed, we headed back to the main hall, and decided to go hit up some authors of our favorite books. There is no doubt that these are the greatest fantasy writers of our time, and we had to give worship to them in our most unworthy way. From jamming with R.A. Salvatore who was mobbed by folks that we could not get anywhere near him to hanging with Margaret Weis. Note that we really enjoyed the "Rose of the Prophet" trilogy that was co-written with Tracy Hickman and consider it required reading. Nothing compares to the Dragonlance setting as well.
We also ran into Ed Greenwood famed author of Elminster the Mage, the Greatest Mage to ever exist from the Forgotten Realms was on hand doing book signings as well as talking about his book "Elminster in Hell" where the Sage of Shadowdale is drained and trapped in the Nine Hells.
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| Let's play Cards! |
Card Gamers rejoice! There is no end in sight to the end of card gaming, and it fully takes up a vast majority of the convention. Two dedicated halls and half of the arena, card gaming is an industry that continues to grow. We were really surprised to see Spellfire still holding tourneys as we thought it was long dead. Never a moment that stops, card players could be seen playing, buying, selling and trading. Magic the Gathering continues to be the most popular collectable card game in the world with, with no end is site. It is the best, and rumors hint that soon Magic the Gathering will also be in an online playing format.
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| The Gals from Card Shark |
Word of advice, you do not want to play these gals at cards. They wear those sharks on their heads for a reason. They are simply some of the best Card Gamers around. If you are looking for a better way to buy and sell collectable trading cards, do it online with the gals from CardShark's. Go and get Sharked, they rock.
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Paradox (l), Div (c) and Maestro (r)
Get Sharked |
Another card game you want to stay away from, if you're hung-over, and or tired, is "Blink" by Out of the Box . It's a cross between Uno and War, where every second counts in a fast and furious game of matching colors to colors, symbols or amounts. In the "Blink" of an eye the game can be over with a winner who can gloat. A fun game for kids and adults, and a great drinking game is you use it that way.
Next up: Shopping!
Go back: The Arrival!
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