Reflections: GenCon 2008

Hey, I'm really not as geek as my wife thinks I am...

At least I didn't feel like it when I went to this years GenCon in Indianapolis. I mean its not difficult to feel quite normal amongst so many costumed people. There were FAR more people geekier than I can or will ever be.

A bunch of my friends and I had quite the blast! We drove down on Friday and stayed through Sunday. We saw all manner of funky costumes and felt right at home with the droves of geeks, dorks, gamers, and role-players alike. Among other things, we hung out and enjoyed our base of operations near the convention hall, which was only a few blocks away.

A couple notable events took place, first being our dinner at the Weber Grill, first time I've eaten at one- was an awesome place, with great food and outstanding service. They give out little packets of spice like other places give you mints at the end of your meal. How cool is that!?

Although I missed Peter Mayhew (actor who played Chewbacca in Star Wars) which made me sad, I did have the opportunity to partake in the Tower of Gygax. Now before you go running to moderators, it was a role-playing event that was being hosted at the convention.

Gary Gygax was the guy who invented Dungeons and Dragons. He passed away earlier this year and as part of his memorial, they were hosting an impossibily difficult hack'n'slash 1st edition campaign. Most of our characters ended up dying off pretty early, in fact in the 30 minutes that I played, I think I saved vs. death like 4 times. Eeeps.

So after that we kinda hung out and then played a board game that Paul picked up called Settlers of Catan. What a neat strategy game! Here it is in a nutshell, linky here:

As a pioneer on the island of Catan, your goal is to grow your civilization by producing and trading resources such as wheat, ore, and wood. Build roads, expand your settlements into cities, and be the first player to earn 10 victory points and win the game. Random maps are created each time you play, so each game provides a new and exciting challenge.

Anyways, we had a blast! Check out our Flickr group for pics of the trip...

And Indiana's got some strange town names...
In about 30 miles we saw Moroco, Egypt, Lebanon,
but these two took the cake...

Okay, so maybe I am as geek as my wife says I am.