Just got back from my first day at GenCon. Long day. As I’m writing this entry, the pool on the second floor of the Westin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis is coming through the ceiling of the first floor — no joke. More on that later.

I started out the day by trying to find stuff to do until the vendor hall opened. I ended up watching some anime in one of the rooms that may or may not be covered in pool water at this very moment. This anime watching session lasted for about five minutes because I quickly grew bored of watching quick clips of anime played over the best pop songs of 1998. “AMVs” as they are called, are supposedly some sort of indie art form. They remind me of mash-up songs a bit, and I imagine that people who have actually seen the cartoons from which they originate would enjoy them more.

There was a room where they were showing fan films across the hall. I saw two quick movies there: Teenage Bikini Vampire (more innocent than it sounds) and Attack of the DMs (probably not the correct title). The former was a cute little story about a young vampire who longs for surf and sun but her family wishes that she would just be a vampire. The latter is sort of an inside joke about “True Dungeon” (read: LARPing in a haunted house) GMs who are played by various Star Wars characters… except for Punisher… and Samuel L. Jackson. Though he might’ve been dressed like Mace Windu, I think Mace a few more lines than “AW HELL NAW!” in the movies. Really clever mix of stop motion and graphic effects on that fan film.

Next stop was the vendor hall. I played this game from Fantasy Flight called “Drakon” that was really cool. They just released a new version of the game and it was too fun to pass up. I was a bit disappointed by the computer game companies’ showings this year. Blizzard had a dozen or so lonely computers set up with Burning Crusade running — which was cool — but they were sort of thrown out there on the floor. It was if they were saying, “here’s your goddamn Warcraft fix, play it and shut the hell up.”

I tried out the new Warhammer MMORPG. The capture-the-flag game they were demoing was really neat. Given my incredible incompetency with MMOs (or at least liking a character enough to let them live past their teens) I haven’t been able to partake in activities typically reserved for high-level characters. The CTF game was simple, and seemed to allow the losing team a few chances to fight back. I wouldn’t know for sure though. I pwned the dwarves in their hearty little asses.

Bought the new OotS comic book. Rich Burlew was there again and was signing autographs.

Checked out the Forge booth as I do now every year. It’s a shame these guys aren’t more popular than they are. They make some really (and I mean really) interesting RPG systems that seem very distant from the typical hack-and-slash, points-driven stuff that I’m used to playing. They seem like the guys who would be more concerned about their D&D characters’ motivations and aspirations than how much damage they deal with their broadsword of supreme disembowelment.

Speaking of D&D and disembowelment, I participated in the D&D open championship from 1 to 6pm. Our party ripped and shredded. Probably the most difficult module I’ve ever played from the RPGA. They didn’t kid around with this one.

Most of my evening was rather uneventful. I played Mario Kart with some random folks in the “E GAME ARENA” for a while. The E GAME ARENA had a computer lab for MMO players, a dozen or so Xbox 360s for Halo 2, and a few GameCubes and PS2s with the games that actually matter on those systems. I saw one kid trying to play DDR two-player using a guitar controller and the dance pad. This would have been really neat had it actually worked. He ended up dropping the guitar and then frantically tried to catch up with the steps on his side of the screen.

I grabbed dinner and then waited in line to see “The Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising.” I waited for about four hours to see this movie as there was no other time I could see it this weekend. It was hilarious… or at least that part I got to see was hilarious. The lights came on in the middle of the movie and a guy came in and said he was sorry, but we had to leave. Somebody yelled something about God keeping us from seeing the movie while another yelled out something about fate. I think both may have been right. Those of us in the red-eye 11:30pm screening had been waiting since 7pm to see the damn movie. Then, apparently, the pool at the Westin decided that it wanted to take a visit to the first floor. At first I thought it was some sort of minor problem that completely warranted an evacuation, yet it might not have been visible. I was wrong. There was water pouring from the overhead lights in the lobby. People started snapping pictures of the chaos as the wannabe-mallcop GenCon official demanded that we all leave immediately.

Last but not least: Overheard at GenCon

“Yeah, she’s a great artist but she has that strange lisp.”

…

GUY I’D NEVER SEEN BEFORE WHO SOUNDED EXACTLY LIKE MANDARK FROM DEXTER’S LABORATORY: “Hey man, do you remember me? I was just in the line a few minutes ago. Let me back in line.”
ME: “Um… no, man. I don’t remember you.”

…

(guy dancing around hallway who either A – thought GenCon was a rave or B – was having a seizure and was unfortunately wearing headphones which lead to the assumption that A was true)

…

(to me) That juggy chick from the man show touched my butt.
ME: (silently winning at Mario Kart while this total stranger told me this story)