Pencon 2012

Meh. Just another weekend for Lupus.

Hello, ya'll (look at me, I'm a Southerner >_O)! This is Micheal Chen, "His Friend" =P

I would like to thank everyone for being great and making me feel welcome, I had a great time that I really wish could have gone on longer, but alas...

To be honest, I was afraid I'd be stuck in a corner of the room doing my own thing for most of the time, but right from the get-go I was involved and I enjoyed every moment hanging out with the lot of ya. And while I have a hard time remembering names, I totally cherish the fun-times with those I played games with and hope to bump into ya'll here and there (though made more difficult working with avatar portraits instead of actual faces...>_<).

I do believe some of ya'll that I hung out with a bunch were...Atras, TigerBill, JaSeR, trueheart78, and a whole bunch more, presuming I'm putting the names and faces together right =P Feel free to correct/remind me! Quixotic.June, have to thank her for the surprising and completely embarrassing moment when she got a hold of the microphone, when I was the only one in the center of the room, caught like a deer in head-lights during her call-out @_@; And of course Complex, for driving me to and fro across the country. Ya'll are a great bunch, and I'd be happy to play games with ya'll, especially during another convention!

Also, Artemis, if it weren't for the need to sleep (of which I got very little of), I could have played that with everyone all night(s) long, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to play it with a great group of people for the first time. Whether in-house or across houses, I loved being able to learn the game with and share what I've learned with everyone I met in that little part of the castle. And it was definitely a thrill being able to help my house in that part of the competition, though totally didn't expect to survive it >_> *cue Kobayashi Maru*

If anyone ever wants to set up a date to play that, we'll have to work something out. I'm definitely going to have to remember to wear the gold shirt next time =P

And yes, I use emoticon faces for punctuation, don't mind me >_<

I also want to thank everyone at the castle who hosted the event, those who made sure we had a place to sleep in at night, made sure we had fresh toilet paper (a necessity for city-slickers), a constant supply of drinks, the delicious and oft-fulfilling edibles nearly three-times a day, and a place to lay out all the board games we could handle.

So again, I had a great deal of fun, it was the highlight of the year for me if not moreso, and I'd love to do it again sometime!

I also want to wish everyone well who are dealing with the current storm up there, hope everything turns out alright through that and it doesn't deal as many problems to ya'll personally as it is to others that I've heard from so far =/

TheBluePaladin is quite possibly the best starship captain I've ever served under.

Also the only one... but still it was fun as hell.

Ha, one RL friend on forums, now to get the rest on here. I will start my cult following here and now!

Ok, now for my shout out post:)

First off, thanks to Oily and the staff. The communication leading up to, and the setting and activities of Pencon was stellar. You made it really easy for me to ditch my family for a weekend and play board games. Thanks especially to Jake for herding all the nerds all weekend. The staff at the castle was awesome and their praises have been sung by better voices than mine - I can only +1 to the Ravenwood love. This was my first ever -Con, but will certainly not be my last. Also - I won my first ever raffle!

It was really nice talking to ALL of you, but especially -

Minarchist - was really nice meeting you face to face. I feel like playing silly xbox games together made us friends already - and meeting face-to-face confirmed that.

NSMike - You are a great guy and I really enjoyed talking to you. I owe you Darksiders. You monster.

Stilgar - hadn't really interacted with you on the forums before, but man am I glad we roomed together. I had a great time talking with you and playing board games all weekend. Even though you beat me.

Internet Celebrity Michael Zenke - that was my first ever game of D&D, and I had a GREAT time. I am sure all that played with you agree - thanks a lot for your time and effort.

Obirano - was awesome to finally meet you. Invite to KC was sincere, and I hope you make it up some time. Our conversation about videogames with Dyni, Cube, and SixteenBlue was one of the highlights of the weekend.

Tangle - awesome meeting you. If I make it back east, we will totally need to grab a beer!

Monocheli - you and your lovely wife took awesome care of us and I had a great time talking to you. Your son is super cute as well:)

IRC crew - way to represent! Was awesome hanging with you all in person.

Boogle - Oklahoma Oil Change. 'nuff said.

Q-Stone - You know you you are and what you did.

Everyone I didn't mention - you were still awesome and I loved talking to you. Will definitely be coming back next year!

Hear hear, Cap'n! Great work. As your helmsman I can say it was a pleasure to serve under you. A really masterful strategy with those mines and you nailed it.

As promised, here's my videos!

PenCon introduction.

PenCon Walkthrough: From the Raven's Roost Pub to the Artemis bridge

Pencon fighting game final: TMNT fighting game on Genesis

PenCon JS Joust 1

PenCon JS Joust 2

PenCon house tournament standings and FINAL ROUND unveiling 1

PenCon house tournament standings and FINAL ROUND unveiling 2

PenCon house tournament final round play 1

PenCon house tournament final round play 2

PenCon house tournament final announcement

Oh shoot. I have the GWJ Flag. Where is it going next, folks?

I think pretty much everyone knows my opinion of the event and how amazing/beautiful you all are! I am incredibly thankful for the time I spent and the people I met in Ohio this past weekend and can't wait to do it again!!

Since getting back to the 'Burgh I've made it my mission to find a couple of the games I played this weekend with the goal of taking them home for the holidays to play with my family. Thankfully I found the board game that Atras brought (Flash Point) on Amazon. I have forever changed my signature to reflect my love of all things fire related and to honor the nickname bestowed upon me by the eternally cool TigerBill! Dude, I seriously think that only a man with the SuperBalance of SuperDave could keep up with the crazy hot mess that is boomBOOM-BETTY!

As an aside, if anyone ever wants to play anything on Steam I have the lame handle of gbarbee720. Currently I'm obsessing over Borderlands 2 but can be persuaded to play other things. Also, there is talk of trying to achieve victory in hoard mode in Gears 3 on XBox before the new year, (pleeeeeaaaaasssssseeee?!) unsurprisingly I remain inconsistent in my internet presence going by quixoticTrend there. I'm all over the place like... a wild fire. Dammit.

love&hearts!

OK, now I'm maudlin.

rabbit wrote:

OK, now I'm maudlin.

Solution: ramp up RabbitCon to rival.. nay, outshine PenCon! We cannot have an anthropomorphic animal convention gap!

quixotic.June wrote:

I think pretty much everyone knows my opinion of the event and how amazing/beautiful you all are! I am incredibly thankful for the time I spent and the people I met in Ohio this past weekend and can't wait to do it again!!

Since getting back to the 'Burgh I've made it my mission to find a couple of the games I played this weekend with the goal of taking them home for the holidays to play with my family. Thankfully I found the board game that Atras brought (Flash Point) on Amazon. I have forever changed my signature to reflect my love of all things fire related and to honor the nickname bestowed upon me by the eternally cool TigerBill! Dude, I seriously think that only a man with the SuperBalance of SuperDave could keep up with the crazy hot mess that is boomBOOM-BETTY!

As an aside, if anyone ever wants to play anything on Steam I have the lame handle of gbarbee720. Currently I'm obsessing over Borderlands 2 but can be persuaded to play other things. Also, there is talk of trying to achieve victory in hoard mode in Gears 3 on XBox before the new year, (pleeeeeaaaaasssssseeee?!) unsurprisingly I remain inconsistent in my internet presence going by quixoticTrend there. I'm all over the place like... a wild fire. Dammit.

love&hearts!

I know an awesome game store up near my place. They have pretty much every board game/RPG you could want and if they don't have it the owner can get it for you. You and Dave should venture up here and check it out.

Not finding your Steam handle, quixotic.June. Odd, that.

SuperDave wrote:

Craziness of my normal life somewhat averted for the evening. Time for my lengthy response.

PenguinCon, you terrible and wonderful mistress.

The week has opened up with me dragging ass and wishing I had the vacation time to take Monday off as well. I act like too much of an old man to be staying up past two am only to be up bright and early two times in one weekend.

I've experienced a common theme ever since we started doing these: too many things to do in one weekend. Boogle, please give me the name of that awesome deck-building game you taught me. I only got to play it once. I only got to play Pandemic once after I had the pleasure of teaching it to, quixotic.June, Atras, and Dyni (please correct me if I got any of these wrong) with help from Monocheli. Pathfinder with Mr. Zenke was awesome. Sway did an awesome job of telling the rules to f*ck off and just tearing into that spider like nobody's business. Pyroman, I'm still very impressed and surprised by the awesome costume you nonchalantly walked in with while giving a smug apology for being late to our campaign. You're also my hero for bringing Joust. I've been looking at investing into some move controllers already. Atras, I'm sorry we didn't get to share Vita time together with Monster Hunter. There's always next year. Phishposer, Minarchist, and Lupus, you all presented me with a great honor of second place for my first beer brewed ever, on top of giving me very constructive criticism on how to improve my next batch. I can't wait to brew more. Danyboy, SallyNasty, and very special thanks to Radical Ans ("for serials" as quixotic.June said over my shoulder) you guys made my weekend with the band time we had. Oily, NSMike, tigerbill, toph, Dan, Cheeto, and all the staff I worked with last year, it's always a pleasure to see you guys. I need to invite you all to Pittsburgh sometime. Teneman, it was a pleasure kicking back with you on Saturday evening. You run a tight ship. I also cannot wait to attend some of Monocheli's planned events. I expect less gardening excuses next year. Cube, you were a huge help lugging all my band equipment, as was Trueheart and Radical Ans (yeah, you get thanked twice). Cheeto, you were always a delight, Jake was also super helpful in driving quixotic.June and I back to our room in the crappy weather. I feel like I'm forgetting so many people in this post, but to everyone that attended and made it happen: thanks for an awesome weekend.

Time to sleep.

rabbit wrote:

OK, now I'm maudlin.

You and me both.

Being a pack mule gets you double thanked. Good to know.

TheWanderer wrote:

Not finding your Steam handle, quixotic.June. Odd, that.

Typo on her part:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/gmonste...

DanyBoy wrote:

Thank you Charlie Hall for showing Gunner, Boogle and I how to play Labyrinth. I'll be picking up my own copy soon. (FYI guys, GMT is running a 20% off sale at the moment. Use the code Fall201220. The other games we discussed at the time were Twilight Struggle, Andean Abyss and A Distant Plain /plug)
Sorry Gunner, I wish we could have played more than half a game of Troyes together. If it's any consolation, I only ended up playing one game out of my big box o' games.

Ha! Boogle and I both ordered it yesterday already from 3rd party places. TheWanderer should be getting a commission on these! A Distant Plain and Andean Abyss both look pretty interesting, though I'm not sure how plausible it will be to get 4 to sit down for a long and complex game like that. Logic like that has failed to stop me from picking things up in the past though, so we'll see how long I hold out.

Glad to see Quixotic.June and TheBluePaladin show up on the boards - had a blast gaming with them all weekend!

And we're totally up for doing an epic Gears 3 Horde beat down

trueheart78 wrote:

Glad to see Quixotic.June and TheBluePaladin show up on the boards - had a blast gaming with them all weekend!

And we're totally up for doing an epic Gears 3 Horde beat down :D

I'm in for that. I still haven't bothered to get that achievement.

obirano wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

Glad to see Quixotic.June and TheBluePaladin show up on the boards - had a blast gaming with them all weekend!

And we're totally up for doing an epic Gears 3 Horde beat down :D

I'm in for that. I still haven't bothered to get that achievement.

Achievements? I needs them.

SallyNasty wrote:
obirano wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

Glad to see Quixotic.June and TheBluePaladin show up on the boards - had a blast gaming with them all weekend!

And we're totally up for doing an epic Gears 3 Horde beat down :D

I'm in for that. I still haven't bothered to get that achievement.

Achievements? I needs them.

We are aware.

I think I'm missing something stupid, like wave 37.

I'm convinced I can't live a fullfilling life without completing all 50 waves of hoarde mode.

Apologies about the typo - it is gmonster720. Bleh.... SuperDave knows how to get a hold of me. I'm on his list and it's easy to pick me out. thanks for the correction!

Radical Ans - we will need to have a chat on Saturday about this game shop! I prefer to buy from a local shop when I can! There's also one in the Oakland neighborhood as well but I don't remember having the widest selection.

Also, those who are interested in playing GOW3 hoarde mode PM me about getting a Friday evening (8PM?) game together. Friday doesn't work maybe we can shoot for Saturday evening?

It was Mono's copy of Eminent Domain Dave and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Craziness of my normal life somewhat averted for the evening. Time for my lengthy response.

PenguinCon, you terrible and wonderful mistress.

The week has opened up with me dragging ass and wishing I had the vacation time to take Monday off as well. I act like too much of an old man to be staying up past two am only to be up bright and early two times in one weekend.

I've experienced a common theme ever since we started doing these: too many things to do in one weekend. Boogle, please give me the name of that awesome deck-building game you taught me. I only got to play it once. I only got to play Pandemic once after I had the pleasure of teaching it to, quixotic.June, Atras, and Dyni (please correct me if I got any of these wrong) with help from Monocheli. Pathfinder with Mr. Zenke was awesome. Sway did an awesome job of telling the rules to f*ck off and just tearing into that spider like nobody's business. Pyroman, I'm still very impressed and surprised by the awesome costume you nonchalantly walked in with while giving a smug apology for being late to our campaign. You're also my hero for bringing Joust. I've been looking at investing into some move controllers already. Atras, I'm sorry we didn't get to share Vita time together with Monster Hunter. There's always next year. Phishposer, Minarchist, and Lupus, you all presented me with a great honor of second place for my first beer brewed ever, on top of giving me very constructive criticism on how to improve my next batch. I can't wait to brew more. Danyboy, SallyNasty, and very special thanks to Radical Ans ("for serials" as quixotic.June said over my shoulder) you guys made my weekend with the band time we had. Oily, NSMike, tigerbill, toph, Dan, Cheeto, and all the staff I worked with last year, it's always a pleasure to see you guys. I need to invite you all to Pittsburgh sometime. Teneman, it was a pleasure kicking back with you on Saturday evening. You run a tight ship. I also cannot wait to attend some of Monocheli's planned events. I expect less gardening excuses next year. Cube, you were a huge help lugging all my band equipment, as was Trueheart and Radical Ans (yeah, you get thanked twice). Cheeto, you were always a delight, Jake was also super helpful in driving quixotic.June and I back to our room in the crappy weather. I feel like I'm forgetting so many people in this post, but to everyone that attended and made it happen: thanks for an awesome weekend.

Time to sleep.

rabbit wrote:

OK, now I'm maudlin.

You and me both.

Edit:

Correction time! Jake gave me a ride to get the rest of my home brew, Trueheart gave quixotic.June and I the ride so we didn't have to get cold and wet before going to sleep.

Finally time for a proper thanks.
Thanks to Boogle, Cheeto, Oily, Dr. D, and Phish for a magical moonlit night in the woods.
Thanks to The Wanderer for sharing his delicious pipe tobacco while we watched and jousted.
Thanks again to Oily for some tender moments that made my fiancee uncomfortable.
Big Thanks to Thom for his amazing Artemis set up.
Mono and Teneman and crew, wonderful location, good times, great food.

The Ravenwood crew left such an impression, we are planning on making a return trip in the spring or summer next year.

boogle wrote:

It was Mono's copy of Eminent Domain Dave and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm still conflicted about this.

Also, commas are your friend.

Minarchist wrote:
boogle wrote:

It was Mono's copy of Eminent Domain Dave and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm still conflicted about this.

Also, commas are your friend.

Game, of, the, show.

KingGorilla wrote:

Thanks to Boogle, Cheeto, Oily, Dr. D, and Phish for a magical moonlit night in the woods.

Phishposer wrote:
KingGorilla wrote:

Thanks to Boogle, Cheeto, Oily, Dr. D, and Phish for a magical moonlit night in the woods.

:hump:

Raquel Welch from Bandelero!
/drool

carrotpanic wrote:
Minarchist wrote:
boogle wrote:

It was Mono's copy of Eminent Domain Dave and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I'm still conflicted about this.

Also, commas are your friend.

Game, of, the, show.

I really like that one too. I am glad everyone else liked it. Seasons has it's hooks in me now though.

Seasons and Quarriors are high on my list to play next get-together.