GenCon Recap

No, no, no... I didn't leave my family in a lurch and go to GenCon over the weekend.  As I've said before, it's just too big for my sensibilities.  If Gnome Wars would ever do, say, Kickstarter, and someone was providing badges, rooms, and transportation, I would be an idiot not to go, but it's not on my gaming bucket list.

There are a few GenCon related things that took my interest.

The once highly anticipated turned "Is it ever coming out?" Robotech Tactics was supposed to arrive with a few units at GenCon, while the slaves, er, employess at Palladium slogged through shipping all the Kickstarter orders.  Alas, the container shipping over from China was pegged for a US customs inspection, destroying any hope of that occuring. Of course the mere idea that product is on US soil  might be confused with a Sasquatch sighting at this point.

I spent a good ammount of time just following the twitter feed of friends, associates, and semi-famous people who attended the con.  LOTS of 5th Edition D&D, in hour, two hour, and four hour timeslot.  Lots of comments on how FUN everything was, and little in the way of mechanics, except for the comment, "This is what my group expected 4e to be."

I also had friend shoot me this picture, with the caption, "Thought of Gaming with the Gnomies."

Super Dungeon Explore

Not much in the avenue of future announcements.  Steve Jackson Games announced THREE different versions of Munchkin. While Munchkin Gloom elicited a 'oooh' for its reverse Munchkin idea, the big one to make me go "Homminahomminahommina" was Munchkin: Kobolds Ate My Baby.   What evil blackmail does John Kovalic have on SJG that he'll stay employed forever?

The biggest announcement for me didn't even happen to someone who was at the con! Bob Olley announced a new Kickstarter and gave a tempting picture of a Victorian Steampunk Prussian solider.  The concept artwork for the non-steampunk Prussian soldiers  made me do a little dance.

Although it orginates from the UK, it makes me wish we had pursued Lon at Brigade Games to launch his own KS for Gnome Wars to expand the line.

(Edit: The Kickstarter went live late this morning:  link  The 8-figure Steampunk unit are about $52 with S&H to America.  The 15-figure regular Prussian unit runs about $95.  Brigade is waaaayy cheaper, but they're beautiful sculpts.)

My biggest highlight of the con happened a week prior, when Steve Jackson Games posted a fairly innocuous tweet.

Of course, I misread this as one of the events SJG was sponsporing was a Food Truck game.

SJG +Trucks = Car Wars

Squeeeeeee!

Now, I realized the error of my ways, but I  have now a new mission in life.  In celebration of Car Wars Classic becoming available, I will begin building a Car Wars scale map of the Indianapolis Downtown around the convention center, and run an entire game of Food Truck Wars.

Large vehicles, massive weaponry, explosive propane tanks on board, what's not there to love?

As I posted this through social media, I had five instant players, so this is going to become my new project. Of course, once we find the scale map we're using, we'll need to find a location for this shin-ding, maybe.. some assistance from the SJ MiBs to run other games, and we have the makings of ViscountCon II.  More to come, hopefully.