So, perusing other people's blogs, I notice National Blog Posting Month. It seems to be a 365 "month" , but they do offer different topics each day: "What is your favorite thing?", " What toy do you still have from your childhood", and "What would you do if you didn't have to pay rent/mortgage," are three recent suggestions.
Now, I'm not one to discuss politics, personal history, or my favorite Spice Girl on a gaming blog, but I took the NBPM suggestions, some TMP and RPG.net message board reading and came up with.
What was my favorite con that I had to travel an hour or more for?
I've had the pleasure to be within short driving distance to a number of one and three-day cons within Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania., but there's something more memorable about travelling hours with poor directions, random stops along the way, crashing at some random dive or somebody's floor.
Our honorable mentions--
UBCON '93-'95- Three years of travelling Rt 17 to get up to the University of Buffalo campus for a weekend of gaming. Each could be the ultimate definition of "ROAD TRIP!", involving drunken brawls, men wearing dog collars, getting chased off-road by the New York State Police, transporting minors into Canada, and hanging out with Larry Sims of Battlelords of the 23rd Century fame. The stories themselves are only told in full with a proper accompianment of alchohol and the three years and their players merge and meld into one another, so I can not pick any of these.
Garden State Games Faire '96 - A one shot con outside of Trenton with lots of gaming and a simply massive games auction. I have fond memories of running my only LARP, an Illuminati University game the involved a bomb, a swimming pool, and room full of pissed off RPGA members seated around the above-mentioned pool.
Origins '96-'97 -- My trip to Origins in Philly involved running piles of Legions of Steel, meeting Uncle Duke for the first time, and a six foot tall cross-dressing prostitute in a leopard print mini skirt. Due to a court order, the trip to Origins in Columbus, can only be described online as OHIO!!!!!
Dexcon '96 -- Edison, NJ con. My buddy Wooly and I ran Legions of Steel all weekend long, we set up next the giant maco-battles 28mm OGRE, 40K with Titans, and a giant Star wars space battle in a 20' x 50' space. The highest point was eating lunch with Steve Jackson.
HMGS Cons-- Cold Wars, Historicon, and Fall-in! I've had a blast at each one, and after marriage and parenthood, these are the only cons I'll travel to now. I've had a blast at each, but no one con stood out amongst the others.
It could be considered underwhelming, but my favorite con was not a GenCon (never been, don't care to ever go), but actually Organized Khan-fusion 19 or 20. It was a small con outside of Harrisburg and I had promised Mike Griffith (Lehicon/Bogglecon organizer) to pass out fliers for the next Lehigh Valley con. I had found myself without a reliable vehicle for the trip and commandeered the services of my Dad.
The site for the con was small, there was perhaps two dealers (one being M.Foyers Games Only Emporium, the convention organizer), but there was a good variety of games. We were only there for the afternoon slot at best, didn't play in a game, but the fliers got dropped off and I spent my time there trying to explain each game to him. Even if he feigned interest, he did it well (the WW2 microarmor game picqued his interests, as he was a history buff).
We grabbed a late lunch/early dinner and headed back to Easton in a dreary drizzle, but with warm conversation about gaming, and anything else that came up.
Truth be told, my Dad had an attitude to my gaming (mostly D&D at the time) that I wish most grown-ups had: "I don't understand most of it," " It doesn't look appealing," and "I wished he used that time to do something more productive, but he's staying out of trouble and his friends that do it seem like good guys." To say other circumstances in the late 90's were "complicated" would be an understatement, but for that afternoon it was camping trips as a kid and just random conversations I had with him, when times were less "complicated."
In the big picture it didn't matter whether it was 19 or 20 con-wise, within a year my Dad passed away. We'd spend some afternoons and a few holidays together during that time, but no memory is as unblemished as that dreary car ride down I-78 and 81, in a late model Monte Carlo.
I notice that the shop that hosted the con changed hands and names, and that they're running a two day con the same weekend as Mepacon. If it goes well, perhaps I can scout it out one afternoon in the distant future, and then take my girls down for some good old-fashioned fun.
With dragons, 6mm shermans, and plush dice...
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