Gen Con Milwaukee Remembered: Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my remembrances of Gen Con's past when they were held in Milwaukee. They are journals of the sights, sounds and, god help us, smells of one of the greatest gaming / fantasy / Sci-Fi conventions that once was.

I do have to apologize for a few things before I post Part 2.

First of all, I mean no disrespect to fans of the current Gen Con that is held in Indiana. I have yet to go there, so I admittedly have nothing to judge it on. But, you have to take into account the fact that Gen Con was my local convention for years. When it was taken away from the city, it cut deeply into my geek psyche. So there's some bitterness there.

Second, I really don't feel like Wiki-linking every name that comes up in these journals. There's a ton of them. If you really have the need to look someone or something up, that's what Google.com is for. I'm sorry I'm being a bit lazy on that front.

Third, if you think my spelling and grammar are bad now, you can imaging how bad they were back when I wrote these things.

Fourth, I'm no HTML geek. That lack of talent doesn't mix well with cutting and pasting these journals to blogger.com. Blogger.com has a tendency to take what I paste and give it whatever font or size it feels like and will not let me change them. So I'm sorry the journals can turn out to look a little odd at times.

Having that out of the way, here's part 2.....


ZANGZ's GEN CON 2001 JOURNAL: Part 2

Thursday, August 2nd, 2001.

I wake up bright and early, get on the bus and arrive about a half an hour before they open the vendor hall. The place is heavy with con-geeks such as myself, all heading to games, running to seminars or waiting for the vendor hall to open up. I decide to see if they have any info on where the heck the celebrity Q& A sessions are as well as when and where the "Star Wars: Connections" seminar is being held. It is briefly mentioned in the GenCon book, but no other information is given. I finally get the information from a member of Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) at an info booth and I'm set for the weekend.

At 10:00am the big vendor room doors slowly rise and a herd of us gamer goofs rush in. Each one of us heading down one of the 15 or so isles filled with goodies and treasure. Down one isle you may find vendors selling a multitude of different colored dice, a cape and cowl or Warhammer 50K miniatures just waiting to be painted and put into a strategic battle. Down another isle you'll find other vendors selling a new role playing game, a new collectible card game (also known as a CCG - they're for gamers who don't have the imagination to role play. I use them as bookmarks.) or a multitude of different T-shirts with our favorite Sci-Fi, Fantasy or Horror characters on them. If god is truly loving and gracious, this IS what heaven will be like (I guess hell will only have CCG stuff).

I plod around the place in a bit of a daze, not knowing what to concentrate on first. I see some things I like and keep a mental note to visit the booths again during the con. In the very center of the vendor hall is a huge post modern castle. This is where WOTC sell their wares, such as Dungeons & Dragons, the new Star Wars role playing game (RPG) and Pokemon CCGs (aka: PURE EVIL!). At least you now know how WOTC acquired the convention from D&D originators TSR (Actually they acquired TSR.). Pokemon wields great power.

At quarter to noon I head across the street to the Hilton's Mitchell Room to attend a seminar titled, "First Time Game Master". I sit down in the small hall and grab some soda and snacks they have left for us. This will be lunch for today. The seminar is given by a man simply identified as Don. Don is a slender guy with a gray beard, fedora and fishing vest (ok, one thing you would notice if you attended this con is that a lot of gamer guys wear fishing vests. I'm a gamer and I don't have one, but evidently they have tons of pockets to put things like, dice pencils and free "con swag" into - more on "con swag" later.). Don has played RPG's since 1980 and has game mastered (GM) since 1986. So he knows what he's talking about. After the round of applause at his conclusion I dart back to the vendor hall to do a little shopping.

As I wander down the isles I'm greeted by many a pretty spokes model trying to make eye contact so they can hand me a pamphlet on their company's games. What I find amusing is how we con boys get suckered into talking and flirting with these girls. They're so sweet and nice to us we tend to forget that outside of these conventions they wouldn't know a 10d from a 12d and probably wouldn't give an aerial intercourse on a flying pastry (that's 10 sided dice from a 12 sided dice. I don't think I need to tell you what an aerial intercourse...etc., etc., is.). However it is nice when they, or anyone else from these companies, hand out con swag!! Con swag refers to FREE STUFF!!! That's right. At a lot of Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror conventions, companies give away free samples to passers by. Or they will raffle free stuff away at any given place and time. Thus by the end of each day most of us will have a bag full of "Con Swag"!!

Speaking of filling my bag, I purchase a bunch of fun stuff today. I start with a funny H.P. Lovecraft Lager T-shirt. Then I move on and pick up the soundtrack to David Lynch's motion picture, Dune. I also score a new PS2 game that was just released for $20 less than store price. Last, but in no means least I pick up two sets of dice. A personal yearly tradition of mine here at GenCon. I leave with a heavy bag and hop on the bus back home. But, I'm not done with GenCon today just yet. I arrive back home, drop off my bag, sit in front of a fan for a few minutes before heading back to GenCon where WOTC hold their annual street party.

(Jeeze, this is getting long already!!! Maybe I should edit it down a bit. Aww, frell it! Only three people will read this thing anyway. On with the show.)

When I arrive at the blocked off street under the conventions center's overpass, where they hold the outside party, I notice complete chaos. There are a few huge lines. I don't know if these are for food or drink or what. I just get in one and ask what it's for. I'm told it's the food line. As I look at the zigzagging, endless line I realize I should have had more than those snacks and soda at the seminar. The line moves slowly and is made a lot worse by the fact that members of Microsoft's publicity team (MS is putting up the money for the party) decide that it would be a great idea to turn chaos into complete bedlam. They start throwing out free t-shirts which not only breaks up any semblance of a line, but creates a small riot as a horde of GenCon attendees rush up for more free swag. Actually, I turn this situation to my favor. After getting hit in the face twice with free t-shirts I join some other people in creating our own food line and after about twenty minutes I reach the "food". Actually it's the last few scraps of taco dip and some olives. I waited in line for about an hour for a drip of taco dip and three olives? Whoopee. I then head to the cocktail line. This one is much quicker and to my delight the beer is free. NOW THAT'S CON SWAG!!!!

I meet up with a couple of people I used to game with when I first started RPGing. We go up to the stage and listen to a band called "Spirit Creek". They sound a lot like "Live" and are heavily into Vampire: The Masquerade LARP (Live Action Role Playing). After their set "Babylon 5" star, Julie Caitlin Brown is scheduled to come up and do an acoustic set. Another little surprise that wasn't in the GenCon book. Cool. I head back to the cocktail bar to get another free beer only to find out that the beer was only free for a couple of hours. I don't mean to look a gift horse in the mouth, but don't you think Mr. Bill Gates could flip the tab on the beer for the whole evening? The guy's richer than god!! Sadly since they were out of food and the beer was no longer free, many attendees took to their own room parties and other soirees within the area. This left about 30 people to watch Julie Caitlin Brown's act.

Ms. Brown's songs were really good. Kind of harder edged, coffee house type stuff. After listening to her lyrics it was obvious she had been screwed over by more than one guy in her life. Perhaps Ms. Caitlin Brown should consider dating some of us con geeks so she wouldn't have that problem. Just kidding. After her short set we decided to head over to the Velvet Room, just down the street where White Wolf Publishing (Creators of Vampire: The Masquerade) were holding a small cocktail party. We walk in and I don't see anyone I know. It's hot and my friends want to head home. They leave and I stay for a beer and some snacks they have out. At least here I got some food.

I then decide to head on down to my favorite bar, the Safe House. With its James Bond / secret hide out motif it's a real big hit with the GenCon crowd every year. I get in with my lifetime membership card and see the place filled with jovial con-ers all dancing, drinking and having a great time. I buy a beer and head out to the dance floor to shake my booty. Being such a horrible, white-boy dancer I usually wouldn't go into a crowd of strangers and dance with them, but these are GenCon people. They don't give a damn who you are, where you're from or what you look like. I doubt that that would have flown well with a snobbish yuppie crowd. I dance for a while and turn to my left only to notice that Julie Caitlin Brown (of "Babylon 5") is five feet away from me shaking her groove thing with some people in her entourage. Pretty cool. At about 1am. I decide to call it a day and stumble home to bed.

Friday, August 3rd, 2001

I wake up in a groggy stupor, do my morning rituals and catch the bus just in time. When I get to the con I head to the dealer room where I people watch and wander about aimlessly. Yawn. I realize it's a theme day, "Fantasy Friday" where they have many attendees dress as their favorite D&D characters. I take some pictures of some of them. I also find out that the first celebrity Q&A takes place in an hour. So I head to the Hyatt's small ballroom to see what's up.

I'm not a big fan of Xena or Hercules at all. In fact when I'm channel surfing and come upon either, it's usually some horrible musical episode and I usually change the channel. But if anyone's seen the two lovely ladies who portray Callisto (Hudson Leik) and Aphrodite (Alexandra Tydings) they'd be nuts not to take a peek in on this Q&A session. The two actresses just walk in, say hello, and conduct a very non-formal Q&A, like they were talking to old friends. Very cool. What was especially cool was Hudson's counter culture attire. She wore a bandanna on her head, studded leather wrist and neck bands, fishnet stockings and knee high combat boots. She explained she'd dressed like this today for fun. She also talked about her trips to Africa and Nepal. Alexandra Tydings talked about her upcoming, time traveling show she's working on with "Babylon 5" alumni, Claudia Christian. Unfortunately, I had to bug out ten minutes early due to another gaming seminar I had to attend. Sorry ladies, the lover-man, Zangz, must leave you.

I head to the Hilton, back to the Mitchell room where our old friend Don is back to give a seminar on Gamemastering and Role-playing. Basically Don regaled us with humorous stories stressing what to do and not to do when you are GM-ing a game.

When it's done I head back to the vendor hall to do more gawking. And I find a few beautiful people to gawk at. Hudson and Alexandra are now at the autograph stage, standing IN FRONT of the table, which many celebs hide behind, while signing autographs. These two ladies seemed to be having a blast. They were hugging their fans and posing for pictures with them and talking to them. These two know how to treat their fans.

My wallet takes another small dent as I buy a CD of creepy mood music called "Realm of Shadows" by the Midnight Syndicate. I plan to start getting into the mood for Halloween in late September. I then head back to the bus that quickly navigates its way through crowded Wisconsin Avenue during rush hour to my humble abode to change quickly for a friend's wedding that took place later that evening. It was a full day indeed.

Thanks for sticking around for part 2. Keep checking back for part 3 coming up pretty soon.

Zangz.