My Gencon... in Idaho

As you all know by now, I spent my Gencon weekend in the wilds of America. Well not quite. I was in Boise for Fandemonium. Here is the story of my trip there.

After getting my plane ticket, I realized that I had previously planned on running part 2 of my redone NeoExodus adventure: Cold Visitor. I’ll talk about the specifics of the adventure at a later time, but the new adventure is a major re-do (the bigger plot points are still there), including full stat block re-write, addition of a NeoExodus introduction and flavor for many of the NPCs. So I got home around 1AM, finished packing (as I was packing my NeoExodus stuff, I could not pre-pack).

Thursday morning came fast. Morning routine over, got the kids in the car and we drove to the airport. We had McDonald’s for breakfast. They loved that! They got to play in the jungle gym for a little while, then off to the airport. The flight there was bumpy as all hell. I managed to hold down my lunch, but it wasn’t easy.

Finally Boise!

Got my suitcase, CA (aka Clarence) and I were then on the way to his place. The plan was for some Pathfinder Society to get everyone in the pre-con mood. I ran them through PFS0-08 Slave Pits of Absalom, one of the modules I like very much, even though the combats are not great. Still for a beginner-level adventure, it’s fun. I like the adventure. Room for role-play, I think it is a good intro to the campaign.

Friday Morning came. CA and I set up our Pathfinder display, we talked to people, did some recruiting and when two o’clock came by we had two tables ready to go and games to play. I ran Master of the Fallen Fortress – another good, fun introductory adventure. CA ran PFS0-05 Mists of Mwangi (another great one).

I always said that a good product will sell and that a good product well-presented does well. Pathfinder and Pathfinder Society are both. Fun, easy to pick up and exciting if the GM is even a little into it… I’m into it. I like the product. With the iconics freshly off the presses, they give new players a look into some of the aspects of the game: traits, feats, class features, everything to get people into the game fast and with characters adapted and that quickly fit into the game. Finally! Initially I think few of the people who stopped by our table had planned to play that much. But a good product…

Friday night, I ran NeoExodus: Encounter at Ramat Bridge for a number of participants (including CA). Again the response was tremendous and the players really got into the story. Really offers something different from what Paizo and Golarion offers. While I liked the adventure all along, it has really grown on me, really make NeoExodus come to life the way I imagined and wrote it. I would like to take this opportunity to give a big time kudos to ALL my NeoExodus players who each time made the adventure special for me to cherish.

In the morning, CA and I were back to our shenanigans, bright and “early”. We set up our gaming tables and kept on taking to the locals. Interesting discussions. We also did surprisingly less PR as our tables filled by themselves! We must’ve been doing something right as many “repeat customers” came back from Friday. The whole day, I took a group of young adventurers through the Godsmouth Heresy, well on their way to second level. Meanwhile CA ran PFS2-13 Murder on the Throaty Mermaid and Mists of Mwangi again. Good fun again. The group was RPing and having great fun with it, so the crawl itself was secondary. Fun prevailed on both sides of the screen (my bully side loved hurting them).

Came evening and I offered to run them through PFS2-EX The Midnight Mauler. Definitely one of my favorites adventures (and one I must’ve run like 15 times by now). If you haven’t played it get to your local Venture-Captain or 4-star GM and bribe them with food. It works. Great time, only black spot: we had to wrap up and that one lady was… well she was “forceful” about expelling us. So I had to pack in the dark. I’m sure I’m missing something I haven’t discovered yet.

A gamer’s dinner at Denny’s and sleepy time concluded the day. Again, the talks and discussions were extremely stimulating. Exchanges about the role and use of a sorcerer; edition war chat (between 1e to 4e and Pathfinder); the differences in local player’s gaming style (Denver has fighters and healers while Boise has fighters and arcane): “what ifs”; and “here is what happened (way back when)”… I really loved the discussions! Very stimulating.

Sunday was slow. Because we kept yakking and yapping with everyone, we started late (around 11). I ran PFS2-11 The Penumbral Accords while CA again ran PFS2-13 Murder on the Throaty Mermaid. When everything was done, my voice was trashed. I’m sure that had we decided to run more, we could’ve run until the cows come home. But I had to take a plane.

Jay, CA and I went to have a post-con lunch at Eddie’s. Great food. Then to the airport and back to Colorado. I’ll post more pictures later.

Thank you Boise! You are now on my “Gamer Tour” list!

JP