GenCon 2013 - Day 5

The new Firefly Board Game by GF9

Great custom table mats for demos

Sunday we broke camp at the hotel and packed everything into the truck before heading up to the ICC.  We parted company about 9:30 as Sean went to go check into attending mass across the street at the lovely Catholic church, while Dan and I headed to a demo of the new Firefly Board Game in Hall D.  

The components looked great and the game was shiny!  We assembled crews and took on jobs to accomplish our goals in the 'verse.   GF9 has done an awesome job with this one.  I'm so happy that I picked up a copy first thing on Thursday morning. 

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They had several demo tables going

My crew including Mal himself

Larry Elmore signing my D&D Red Box

Our demo finished up around noon.  Dan took off to go check out some more games while I met up with Jon and headed to the auction house.  Jon helped me close out my business there and haul some stuff out.  Then I headed into the Exhibition Hall for one last mission.

After I had bought the D&D Red Box at auction on Friday, I had wanted to get it signed by the author and artist.  I took the box to the OSR (Old School Renaissance) booth on Saturday to try and catch up with Frank Mentzer, but I didn't have any luck.  So I headed back over there on Sunday and was able to catch him.  

After a brief consultation with Frank about the value of the item (he is an expert on gaming collectibles), I decided to devalue it some by removing the 30+ year old shrink wrap.  Some folks may be thinking I'm crazy for doing this, but for me this was something that is a personal memento.  I decided that it was more important to have these signatures than to have a shrink wrapped copy.

I was like a ten year old kid again as I removed the plastic from the box.  The contents were in pristine condition - it was something truly great to behold.  Frank signed the inside of both books and he signed the back of the box.  I thanked him for his time and I headed over to Larry Elmore's booth.  Larry very graciously signed the cover of my box and the cover of my two books.  He commented that he hadn't seen one of those in a while.  He then flipped through the interior and reminisced about some of his interior art with me.  It was a great moment, as I'm a huge fan of Elmore's art.  I picked up a few 8x10 signed prints while I was at.

After saying my farewells to Larry, I met up with Sean and he took me over to see the large demo of Robotech RPG Tactics.  The minis look great and we can't wait to get our copies of the game.  Sean even plans on running some demos next year at MAG Con. 
 
We then split up as I went to go make one last pass through the Exhibition Hall looking for any last minute treasure.  On my way out, I ran into my buddy Jeremy Southard from Wastex Games.  Jeremy is a game designer back here in Houston.  He was helping out at the Third Eye Games booth.

I was late for the rendezvous at the truck and the guys let me know with a constant stream of heckling via text message.  We headed out of Indy about 2:30 and made the long journey back home - tired but in generally good spirits.  We finally made it back to Sean's place in Spring, TX about 8 AM.  He was a real champion as he drove at least 12 of the 16 hours back home.  We offloaded luggage and loot and parted company with vows of a return voyage next year.

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Robotech RPG Tactics demo

RDF Veritechs

The Zentraedi enemy approaches

One of the many massive gaming halls

Jeremy Southard