Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 252

Live From Gen Con, Favorite Boardgames, MechWarrior Pods and more!

This week Lara, Allen, Erik and Charlie talk about their experience at this year's Gen Con!

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor

Tech Thing Daily
Game Thing Daily
Good Old Games

Brass & Steel
Leviathans
Geek Chic
Mesa Mundi
X-Wing by Fantasy Flight Games
The Walking Dead Board Game by Z-Man Games (Click News)
Dragon Age RPG by Green Ronin
True Dungeon

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outtro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

Comments

For next year, I definitely need to make sure I'm there for Thursday. I was on the floor 3 days this year and last year. The difference being last year was Thu - Sat, this year was Fri - Sun. Two weekdays and one weekend lets you get so many more game demos in than one weekday and two weekends.

As for the new show floor, I'd say it was an improvement. Rarely did I find myself unable to maneuver through the crowd or get stuck in a slow moving line. One thing that helped with this was that Fantasy Flight's booth wasn't one giant rectangle cutting the show floor in half with people clogging the aisles by standing outside the booths watching as others demo games. They had maybe five to six squares adjacent to each other but divided by walking space. Worked much better.

Seconding Thursday. I really needed more time for GWJ stuff and personal stuff.

This is some straight up old fashioned 1980s tape recorder in the middle of the room style recording. Good stuff. Walking up to a woman, handing her 100 dollars and telling her you want to "get inside the pod" sounds like it would be illegal in 49 states. I suppose it is only a matter of time before someone changes their GWJ username to Captain Pikahcu.

"This is relevant to my interests!"

"Oh my ovaries hurt."

"Science. I hear it works, Female Doggoes."

"That's called a testicle."

And just because he was brought up, here you go:

"Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite." -Patrick Bateman

McChuck wrote:
Fredrik_S wrote:
McChuck wrote:

Pretty sure you and everyone else hated it. In fact, we didn't even finish it.

What was it about it that you didn't like? I can't imagine that you guys played nice with eachother. :)

All I remember is no one was having much fun except right when we decided to quit I was because I was taking a commanding lead.

I remember the board, and feeling like it ought to be fun.

Yeah, but now I remember that everyone hated Chuck. Poor Chuck.

I like Phil Collins (I'm a drummer), but "Invisible Touch" is not a meditation on intangibility, and "In Too Deep" is not uplifting.

wordsmythe wrote:

I like Phil Collins (I'm a drummer), but "Invisible Touch" is not a meditation on intangibility, and "In Too Deep" is not uplifting.

You mean Patrick Bateman was wrong about something?

I mean that.

wordsmythe wrote:

I mean that.

Does anybody want a peanut?

KaterinLHC wrote:

To be fair, it was Erik who brought up He Who Shall Not Be Named. I merely apologized. Profusely.

Your profuse apologies are accepted. I guess I'm just sour because a certain someone has been making the rounds in all my favorite podcasts as of late. First This American Life, now the conference call, what next? The Giant Bombcast?

Also Erik,

Eff you!

And I mean that from the bottom of my heart.

TheWanderer wrote:

Still kicking myself for not sticking out the LARP. Next year have one on Friday to!

We've committed to running two medium-sized Brass & Steel LARPs at the Midwinter Gaming Convention. It's in Milwaukee, so that's but a short jaunt up I94 for you.

I also somehow managed not to get personally introduced to you at GenCon. I would be that third author whose name is actually much easier to pronounce than Kveberg.

I may just take you up on that if my wife doesn't have a photo shoot that weekend. Lara razzed me to no end when I made it back to the suites for not following through on my "gonzo journalism".

Welcome to the forums! Stay a while and hang out. You might just like it here.

I really enjoyed this podcast.

I tweeted to Lara during Gencon to check out Hollowpoint, the new (smelly, hippy) RPG from the guys behind Diaspora. Did any of you get to take a look...don't know if they had a booth, but I think someone there was running demo of it. I ordered a copy a few weeks ago and am waiting for it to come in the mail.

We're sending Wandy to Midwinter? Welcome to the deep end, soldier.

"Surprise action 1 ..."

mwdowns wrote:

I really enjoyed this podcast.

I tweeted to Lara during Gencon to check out Hollowpoint, the new (smelly, hippy) RPG from the guys behind Diaspora. Did any of you get to take a look...don't know if they had a booth, but I think someone there was running demo of it. I ordered a copy a few weeks ago and am waiting for it to come in the mail.

I looked for it, but couldn't find it. (The floor was HUGE this year, and I got much less time on it this go-around than last.) Anybody else have any luck?

wordsmythe wrote:

(I'm a drummer)

My first thought: awesome, a fellow drummer! Followed by: crap, you must feel like dude from Def Leppard now.

Do you still keep up? I gave my set to my brother when I started living the apartment life more than a decade ago. Figured switching to guitar was more neighborly.

kincher skolfax wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

(I'm a drummer)

My first thought: awesome, a fellow drummer! Followed by: crap, you must feel like dude from Def Leppard now.

Do you still keep up? I gave my set to my brother when I started living the apartment life more than a decade ago. Figured switching to guitar was more neighborly.

Electric set. I'm hoping to be able to use it again in ... months?

We have a thread here for Artemis, the Spaceship Bridge Simulator: http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/5...

And the official site with a free demo: http://artemis.eochu.com/

The demo lets you run Helm and Weapons.

Also, it looks like the guy is still running a promotion: Make a video of you and some friends playing, get a free copy of the game.

http://artemis.eochu.com/free-game-o...

Since you are not taking calls you should remove the voice mail number from your contact blurb.

Good catch!

I saw you taking pics at the Brass & Steel LARP, Charlie. Any chance you can post some of those?

Pamean Ken wrote:

I saw you taking pics at the Brass & Steel LARP, Charlie. Any chance you can post some of those?

We're still trying to get Charlie to write an article just about his steampunk experiences. Once that goes up so will the pictures.

I think "Doctor Who Babies" was the funniest thing I've heard in a while.

So jealous.. I'll get there someday

Aw man! So upset that I wasn't able to get to GenCon this year, guess I'll just have to settle for having a newborn baby girl! (And finally catching up on some old GWJ Podcasts)

Oh yeah, and Fortune *cough*AND*cough* Glory is actually quite good and well worth the bucks. I picked it up fairly cheaply over at Troll and Toad for $64.99 and am looking forward to getting more people together to get some bigger pulp adventure sessions in. Then again, I'm a huge fan of all Flying Frog's adventure style games and a sucker for a well executed theme. (And they pretty much exude theme at all times.)

Looking forward to next year, save room for me in the podcast audience!