TOPIC: Favorite Gen Con moments... (not including TD)

Going to GenCon when I was 10, for my birthday, and looking starry-eyed at the 4-day pass attendees.  <br /><br />Seeing how each year more girls come.<br /><br />A few years ago my wife and I went to Ed Greenwood’s roast.  It was quite fun, and they fed us.  One of my favorite moments is talking to a young gaming geek in tears as he remarked “this is so good, I have been eating nothing but tuna from the can all week.”  <br /><br />A while ago I won the WEG Star Wars miniatures world championship.  I made it though one round teamed up with my evil empire wife.  No one shot at her, she was a girl after all . . . while they were attacking me she set up heavy e-web blasters on a ridge and mowed down all the rebel scum!<br /><br />We few years ago my wife and I walked by Lue Ferrigno.  I said look its Lue Ferrigno, and she said rtather loudly, “Lue Ferrigno?  Who's he?”<br /><br />Seeing the myth busters folks set up right next to the ghost hunters folks was priceless.  It still makes me giggle. <br /><br />The year in college when a half dozen of my friends shared a hotel room.  One of my friends invited a couple he knew who were sleeping in the park . . . that was odd to find them sleeping in my bed.<br /><br />Seeing the couple get married in the FASA booth.<br /><br />Wining the rights to name a pirates of the Spanish main character after my wife in a tournament.  <br /><br />Blowing up a $100 Mechwarrior Dropship with a $200 Atlas promo inside it . . . after hardly doing any of the damage to the Dropship in a kill and keep. <br /><br />Overhearing the most nerdy discussion I ever heard.  One geek had a three ring binder full of RPGA tickets, and forms . . . another geek told a story about plate mail of the deep and how he used it to breath water ending with “and that is what plate mail of the deep is for” . . . to hear it first hand was glorious in it nerdy geekness.<br /><br />The year they had legends magic cards for sale I brought lots of friends, paid there admission, and we stood in line for a bit.  I bought a new computer with the proceeds.  <br /><br />Waiting for all the ways Wizkids messes up.  They mess up something just about ever time I play in a tournament.  Mostly the volunteers mess something up.  Like the one year they had a timed kill and keep timed dragon fight, and the GM stalled all sorts of ways that was very unsportsmanlike.  Or the time I was told I could buy, and trade for pirates of the Spanish tournament gold, and then was told I could not after I did so.  Or the time non-tournament pirates of the Spanish main gold was used to bid in an auction, and they changed the rules so that you could only bid and win one item to stop one guy who spent his Gencon buying non-tournament pirates of the Spanish main gold.  Or last year you could play in a tournament to get a special figure, and when you lost you had to sit and wait, sometimes an hour, to get your prize (it was not fun waiting and watching other folks play).  Or the time it took ~4 hours to start a tournament because there computers went down . . . my gods use pen and paper.  Or the time they were giving out free stuff at the podium, I went to go get the free stuff, and the judge disqualified me.  I go and talk to real Wizkids popele now when something crappy occurs.  Something crappy occues every year, so I don’t take crap from the pee-ons . . . they don’t know what they are doing a lot of the time.  God they need someone to make rules, and then post them on the wall.  <br /><br />Asking my wife if she wanted a free t-shirt three times, and her answering no each time, while walking quickly away from the free swag.  We now rehearse the answer to me asking if she wants free swag every year (it’s a resounding yes please! By the way).<br /><br />Selling my magic cards, and buying an engagement ring with the proceeds. 

<br />I think this happened the 2nd year at Indy....not a "favorite" moment, but a funny one, nonetheless.<br /><br />Jeff, Drake, and I were sitting in the McDonald's in the Hyatt having some lunch.  Way down the hall I can see this group of girls walking toward us in full Anime costume.  One had cobalt blue hair and another had kelly green hair.  I glance at them, then back at Jeff and say "Oh my".  Well, a couple of minutes later they walk right behind us and Drake (gotta love kids) says really loudly "OH MY".<br /><br />I was a tad embarrassed...gotta watch what you say in front of those kiddos!<br /><br />Lori<br />

<br /><br />Just be glad you didn't say something like 'Can you believe what those Ho's are wearing?'.

a few years ago the local indy teens had a capture the flag game that they actually made flyers for and a few of us heard of it so we joined them. we were playing on 8 city blocks. there were about 50 players total. the highlights for me included almost getting hit by probably about 4 cars (getting the horn/finger treatment everytime) and the fact that i broke-out of game prison and ran like hell (realizing too that i was out of shape) to escape. every year i go to the con i look for the flyers for the game but havent seen any since.

Capture the flag was fun when I was a kid and less of a lazy fatass than I am now.  The only way I would volunteer to play capture the flag today is if I could use my car. It would probably make the tagging part more fun too. I'd probably need to install a cowcatcher.

<br />Waiting for all the ways Wizkids messes up.  They mess up something just about ever time I play in a tournament.  Mostly the volunteers mess something up.  Like the one year they had a kill and keep timed dragon fight, and the GM stalled all sorts of ways that was very unsportsmanlike.  Or the time I was told I could buy, and trade for pirates of the Spanish tournament gold, and then was told I could not after I did so.  Or the time non-tournament pirates of the Spanish main gold was used to bid in an auction, and they changed the rules so that you could only bid and win one item to stop one guy who spent his Gencon buying non-tournament pirates of the Spanish main gold.  Or last year you could play in a tournament to get a special figure, and when you lost you had to sit and wait, sometimes an hour, to get your prize (it was not fun waiting and watching other folks play).  Or the time it took ~4 hours to start a tournament because there computers went down . . . my gods use pen and paper.  Or the time they were giving out free stuff at the podium, I went to go get the free stuff, and the judge disqualified me.  I go and talk to real Wizkids popele now when something crappy occurs.  Something crappy occues every year, so I don’t take crap from the pee-ons . . . they don’t know what they are doing a lot of the time.  God they need someone to make rules, and then post them on the wall.  <br />

<br /><br />What are you talking about?  Wizkids NEVER messes up.<br />I'm still the reigning Mage Knight Dungeons Worlds Fellowship winner!  So they must be awesome!<br /><br />hahahahahahahahahahaha!<br />(Yeah - I was a WK volunteer too - and sometimes, they seemed to just change rules mid-con (or even mid-tournament).)

Capture the flag was fun when I was a kid

<br /><br />I envy my son.  He plays capture the flag all day long and gets paid for it.  One day he took a video camera into the desert as they were tracking some illegals and I got to see them catch 6 of them.  He turned the camera around and said, "Dad, I never thought someone would pay me to play capture the flag all day long.  I love my job."<br /><br />Back to topic.  I will never forget the first time I walked onto the trade show floor to set up my booth.  It was like magic watching everyone setting up.  My most incredible times since have been at TD and then at my booth talking with people.  I love the interaction as I talk with people about my books and learn a little about them and their worlds.  That to me is magic.<br /><br /><br />Widseth

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Capture the flag was fun when I was a kid

<br /><br />I envy my son.  He plays capture the flag all day long and gets paid for it.  One day he took a video camera into the desert as they were tracking some illegals and I got to see them catch 6 of them.  He turned the camera around and said, "Dad, I never thought someone would pay me to play capture the flag all day long.  I love my job."<br /><br />Back to topic.  I will never forget the first time I walked onto the trade show floor to set up my booth.  It was like magic watching everyone setting up.  My most incredible times since have been at TD and then at my booth talking with people.  I love the interaction as I talk with people about my books and learn a little about them and their worlds.  That to me is magic.<br /><br /><br />Widseth<br />

<br /><br />where does one apply for this job. lol that rocks.

Border patrol's gotten scary in recent years according to some news articles I've read. Capture the flag was fun as a kid but at leasst no one shot at you back then. Well, depending on what neighborhood your school was in, I guess.

My son is a federal agent with the border patrol.  And Henwy you are so right it has become much more dangerous.  My son tells me now the majority slipping in are not the workers looking for a better life but drug dealers and gang bangers looking for whatever they can take.  My son has been shot at and is rocked often when they are in the field.  He was off for the night, but his team shot and killed one of the cayote gang members who were robbing illegals trying to enter.  It used to be that the illegals would usually just submit and return to try again another day, but now they have a tendancy to try to overpower the border patrol agents and enter by force.  A border patrol agent was killed a few years ago by Mexican army regulars who were 8 miles inside the US escorting a drug shipment.  BTW my son has also been on teams raiding middle eastern document forgers in Dallas (22 simultaneous homes in the middle of the night with the FBI--they found 32 forged passports for Pakistanis and all the equipment to forge them), and raiding gun runners that were part of a drug cartel.  He caught a Lebanese national trying to set up a landing strip in the desert in south Texas after 9/11.  He also got the dubious adventure of entering New Orleans after Katrina.  Only the Border Patrol, and Navy Seals entered the city after dark.  There was crap going on there that no news media reported on, and that was probably a good thing.  One night Seals defended a police precinct that roving gangs of thugs were trying to get into to steal guns and ammunition.  My brother who is a member of the Capitol Police at the capitol building heard about this at a meeting of police chiefs in DC to discuss the problems after Katrina.  He told me they expended almost every round in the precinct stockpile defending the building.  Not pretty.<br /><br />Oh well, it isn't all capture the flag, but I'm glad he was trained early in capture the flag.  He's had a lot of practice since then.  He works with a dog now and that gives me some comfort because most beligerant people don't like to hear a dog growl in the dark.<br /><br />And Sherf, border patrol is accepting applications.  My son love it.  As a result, he is a licensed EMT now, licensed dog handler and dog handler trainer, repels out of helicopters, trains on the gun range in all classes of weaponry.  He even went to a school for two weeks to learn how to knife fight.  He has been the point man in Yuma for the BP for dignitary protection.  He worked with the Secret Service when the President, Senators, etc came to the border before the last election to show their phony concern.  He told me that only one governor has returned since the election.  The others just showed up to get pictures taken to show their "concern" for the problems there to get votes.  He also worked with the Marines for six months to train on effective checkpoint security and how to spot "problems" before they happen.  That information was directly implemented in Iraq, and I think that gave him a lot of satisfaction to help out in that way.<br /><br />Sorry, probably too much information.  Just a dad who thinks his son is doing some good things.<br /><br /><br />Widseth

I don't understand why we don't just mine the border. All those people were complaining about the hundreds of thousands of mines left over from the yugoslav war and in other warzones around the world. It would be almost a good deed of sort to dig them up and then line the border with it. I figure we put up a bigass neon sign every 100 yards or so on each side that says, Danger! Minefield! Don't say we didn't warn you. Or as babelfish puts it for Spanish: ¡Peligro! ¡Campo de minas! No diga que no le advertimos. Or in Canadian: Danger, eh! Minefield, eh! Don't say we didn't warn you, eh.

i have a good friend that i went through high school with, who is in the border patrol. he told me alot of the same things that dennis has said and a few things that he probably shouldn't. the things that he has been subjected to and not allowed to respond are crazy. <br /><br /> the last time i checked they were short-handed something like 1800 people.<br /><br /> while i agree with henry on the idea, i cannot agreee with the method. mines are indescriminate and i would hate to see children hurt. i do like the idea of a "gun line" though. they are quite effective at a few prisons.

<br />I don't understand why we don't just mine the border. All those people were complaining about the hundreds of thousands of mines left over from the yugoslav war and in other warzones around the world. It would be almost a good deed of sort to dig them up and then line the border with it. I figure we put up a bigass neon sign every 100 yards or so on each side that says, Danger! Minefield! Don't say we didn't warn you. Or as babelfish puts it for Spanish: ¡Peligro! ¡Campo de minas! No diga que no le advertimos. Or in Canadian: Danger, eh! Minefield, eh! Don't say we didn't warn you, eh.<br />

<br /><br />On the Canadian side, you'd have to find some way of writing the warning in Moose and White-Tail Deer speak, or it'd get ugly real quick.