GenCon Day 1.1

GenCon is a highlight of the year because I am by nature lonely. There is not much better for the soul than seeing thousands of my unwashed but eager geek brethren occupying the center of a major American city. It is a reminder that none of us is alone, and especially that geeks, who are eternally convinced of their own powerlessness, at least have power in their numbers.

And my God! Their numbers.

I have never in my life seen a GenCon like this. I watched the opening of the Great Hall from a second floor balcony. When the crowd surged for the doors it was like watching the tide roll in.

Inside, my homies and I first made for the Fantasy Flight booth. We literally spent five minutes trying to get to the end of the line to get to the booth, then decided and it was so long that it wasn't worth waiting in. We decamped to the Paizo booth where we were again balked by a line so long that I-94 would be jealous of its length.

So then we decided to check out the D&D Next product on sale as a GenCon exclusive. No line for that though.

Makes me think that the decline of D&D has been good for the community, and opened up opportunities for creative designers. Also, a quick poll of nerds at the con found that while people tend to be excited about projects that FFG and Paizo are undertaking, they feel dread and worry when they hear the words "D&D Next."

One of my goals for the con is to explore some indie rpgs. I spend a lot of time designing games for my classroom, so I am interest in novel mechanics that I can steal.
I hit a seminar on DungeonWorld which piqued my interest and led me to pick it up later in the day. I also attending a roundtable on indie rpgs which convinced me to pick up Our Last Best Hope which is about a group of people who have to save the world from an impending threat.

More to tell, specifically about designers behaving badly, but I must be off to game!