The Ten Best Things About GenCon 2002

Gen Con is over. We survived.

In fact, it was great. So great, I had to sort of catalog all the great things that happened just to keep them all straight in my mind. The points below aren't necessarily in order, they're just all really nice memories.

1. Meeting People. It was wonderful to meet so many of you at Gen Con. I was overwhelmed by the number of friendly, kind people who came up to me during the con to shake my hand and said something nice about Malhavoc Press, 3rd Edition, Call of Cthulhu d20, HeroClix, and so on. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking the time to give me your encouragement and thanks. In particular, I was pleased to find out how many of you have finished or are playing through Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. For those of you who had PCs in that one -- I'm sorry. It was fun, though, right?

2. The ENnies. This year, the EN World d20 System Awards were held on Friday night at Gen Con. It was great fun -- a gathering of publishers and gamers all together to recognize the best products out there. Read our own report of how we did here. It was also great because we got to meet with people who frequent EN World and the guy behind it all, Russ Morrissey. He's a great guy.

3. Milwaukee. As many of you probably know, this is the last year Gen Con will be held in Milwaukee. I'm going to miss a lot of the traditions that that city represents -- the Safe House, the King and I restaurant, Major Goolsby's, and many more. It also struck me as I walked back to my hotel in the middle of the night that I walked the streets of Milwaukee without undue concern for my safety. Will Indianapolis offer that kind of luxury? I don't know, but I'm skeptical.

4. Orc and Pie. We had Orc and Pie T-shirts available for sale at the convention and went through most of the ones we brought. It was great fun not only to see people's reaction to the shirt (by the end of the show, you couldn't look anywhere without seeing someone wearing one) but to hear about how the whole "Orc and Pie" thing has spread. Some of you have probably already been aware of the hilarious Orc and Pie thread at Nutkinland, and the unofficial sequel in the free humor product Portable Hole Full of Beer, but did you know that the final encounter in Wizards of the Coast's Dungeon Delve event at Gen Con was "Orcus and Pi"? I've also been told there's a d20 adventure out there that features an encounter with some orcs whose treasure includes pie (if you know what adventure this is, please email me and let me know -- I still don't know the name or publisher).

We also heard from a lot of gamers about their own experiences with Orc and Pie. One of my favorite jokes was Orc and 3.1416, an adventure for mathematicians. And of course, there are those who actually put Orc and Pie in their campaigns -- like the guy who used it and and everyone who ate from the pie teleported into a terrible trap-filled dungeon, or John Sussenberger's "The Tarrasque and the Pie" for epic-level characters.

If you didn't make it to Gen Con, or if you did but we ran out of your size in the shirts, never fear. We will make them available for purchase online. Stay tuned for details.

5. Special Autographs. It was one of the highlights of the show for me to meet Chrystine (age 6) and Genevieve (age 10) Robinson, the authors of Ambient d20 Games' Kid's Colouring Book o' Critters. These two adorable little girls are almost certainly the youngest published d20 authors, and they signed my copy of the book. They also made a special point of thanking me for putting a deck of many things into Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Apparently, both of them got levels from their draws.

6. Miniatures. Gen Con offered a great selection of miniatures. I got some excellent new figures from Cell Entertainment, Confrontation, and some particularly cool miniatures from Crocodile Games and Reaper. Reaper not only does great character miniatures but, as I discovered at the show, it does some of the best monsters out there, including some really great dragons.

7. The Sword and Sorcery Studs. The folks who helped us at our booth were the best -- they worked long hours and were always very friendly. Alan, Rob, Scarlett, Todd, Lisa, Rhiannon: You're the greatest. ("Sword and Sorcery Studs" was what all our our badges said, because the full "Sword and Sorcery Studios" wouldn't fit.)

8. The Banewarrens. Our new product at the convention received an amazing response. We had to order more during the show, they were in such demand. (And to top it all off, we discovered at the con that, if you want to play Gary Gygax's d20 Necropolis [see below], it works great as a set-up.)

9. Seeing Old Friends. From my old friends Matt Wagner and Rob Bell (my predecessor as editor of Champions and current Virginia state representative) to Kevin Barrett (a former editor at ICE, now one of the designers of Mage Knight) to Matt Filla (a MonteCon regular) to newer friends like Clark Peterson of Necromancer Games, Steve Wieck of White Wolf, John Nephew from Atlas Games, James, Todd, Jason, Mike, Scott, and Claudio from Fiery Dragon, Hal Greenberg of Mystic Eye Games, and dozens of other people, Gen Con is my opportunity to meet up with people I don't see much anymore. That's always great.

10. Games, Games, Games. You gotta love Gen Con. It's an opportunity for thousands of game lovers to come together and enjoy a long weekend devoted to fun. We can all just be ourselves, not worry what other people think of our strange hobbies, laugh a lot, and play games. What could be better than that?

Here's a look at a few of our photos from the convention.

* I was returning from a D&D game with Clark Peterson and Bill Webb from Necromancer Games; Steve and Stewart Wieck of White Wolf; Joe Carricker, a Scarred Lands developer; and others.

The "I Survived Orc and Pie" shirts were a big hit!	Monte signs copies of The Banewarrens with cartographer Robert Lee (also the designer of the shirts, BTW) and artist Toren "MacBin" Atkinson.
Gaming Frontiers editor Robert Williams displays proofs for vol. 3 of the magazine. Due out in October, this issue contains a Banewarrens excerpt and a magic items article from Monte (reprinted from his DMs Only column).	Monte chats with folks at the EN World gathering following the ENnies Friday night.
Gary Gygax proudly displays his hit d20 hardcover Necropolis, hot off the presses from Necromancer Games.	Intrepid reporter/photographer Jeff Quick covers the convention for GameSpy. Read his coverage!
Monte signs CD covers at the RPGNow booth with Malhavoc artists (from left) Toren "MacBin" Atkinson and Stephen Shepherd.	There was a lot of love in this booth.