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Larry Fettinger - This year, instead of working in a booth, I stayed with Larry and his wife Tina in their house about 15 minutes from the convention center. I've thanked him immensely for his hospitality, but still feel like I need to thank him again. It was an absolute pleasure gaming with him before, during, and after the convention. I appreciate Larry's straight shooting demeanor (which meshes well with my opinionated nature almost perfectly), his drive, and his passion for games of all sorts. InD20Group has a great leader, and I look forward to spending future GenCons at his house. Larry, if you're reading this, I hope you're not in that MarioKart wheelchair next year...but if you are, let's plan on pushing you into some furries. 

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Otherwise known as AJ Porfirio, Grant Rodiek, Chevee Dodd, and Matt Worden. It was an absolute blast hanging out with these guys. As Grant noted in his GenCon post, we're "the best kind of assholes." Between multiple games of If I'm Going Down, Empire Reborn, Dicey Curves, and Farmageddon, I got to know these guys and feel like I made some really great connections in the world of Gaming. AJ is a phenomenal gamer who beat me in almost everything we played, Grant and Chevee churn out amazing games that make me envious, and Matt is the quintessential straight man and introspective designer. It was a pleasure to share some frosty beverages with them. Guys: let's never forget Zimbabwe, Husband Truth, "Surprise ___," and shots. But... if I may put in a request for next year, let's not commemorate any of those things at the JW Marriott.

Tasty Minstrel - Also staying with me at Larry's were Michael Mindes and Seth "Laffy" Jaffee (a nicknamed coined by Larry) from Tasty Minstrel games. I had met them both briefly at GenCon last year--though I'm sure they don't remember--but it was good to hang out with them more extensively this year. Michael has great insight into the gaming industry and it was a pleasure to chat and pick his brain about the ins and outs of potentially self-publishing my own game. Likewise, Seth is an impressively cerebral gamer; many times I was really impressed with his ability to do in-game calculations on the fly. I hear he and a few friends even spent 8 hours getting a perfect score in Hanabi. THAT, my friends, is dedication. Sadly, I didn't get to play as many of their games as I would have liked (e.g. Village, Kings of Air and Steam, EmDo expansion, etc). Rest assured though Seth: as soon as I find a baby, I'll be testing out your "raisins to grapes" hypothesis. 

Jacob and James Mccarthy - Like many of my gaming friends, I met James through Ascension. If you're a long time reader of this website, you might recognize James as the "Ascension tattoo guy." You might also recall him driving down to my house for the inaugural Road to GenCon tournament in which we took 2nd and 3rd place respectively. James is a heck of a player, and is the person who has logged the most plays against me both IRL and online. Unsurprisingly, James's cousin Jacob is also a phenomenal Ascension player. For starters, he took down some of the best online competition in winning the pre-GenCon Ascension iOS tournament. I sold him my ticket for the Godslayer tournament on Friday, and he then proceeds to take down the 100+ player 2012 World Championship the next day (besting his online nemesis in the finals to boot). If you're wondering, "is he really that good?" ... yes, yes he is. I look forward to playing him in more games of Immortal Heroes, seeing him on a card in an upcoming set. And hopefully, if things work out next year, I'll be playing he or James in the finals of the 2013 World Championship.

Bryan Fischer and Ben Rosset - When you meet these two gentlemen, you might think you're dreaming. Ben and Bryan are legitimately, some of the nicest people (not just gamers) you will ever meet in your life and it makes me positive that they will be successful in whatever endeavors they choose to pursue. I got the chance to play Ben's soon-to-be-published (Kickstarter, Aug 31st) game "Mars Needs Mechanics" on Saturday morning and really enjoyed its elegant, accessible nature. We'll be doing a session report about the game on Friday, so check back then for more info about it. I also had the chance to play Nevermore's first Kickstarter success, Chicken Caesar, on Saturday evening. It may have been the fact that I won, but I really enjoyed it as well. Due to the exhaustion of all players, I don't think the backstabbing nature of the game was as overt as is could have been, but we still managed to kill off a significant portion of chickens pretty quickly. In both games, it was evident that Nevermore is very good as choosing/making games that are deep, but don't layer unnecessary complexity on top of that depth. That's a giant plus for me, and I look forward to seeing what excellent games they release in the future.


Chip Theory Games - Contesting Ben and Bryan for the "Good guys of the Con" award were Josh and Adam from Chip Theory games.  After driving non-stop from Minnesota and arriving at Larry's house on Thursday evening, Larry and Josh kept busy demoing Hoplomachus, their game of gladiatorial combat (yes, we'll be doing a review of this one too). When not playing their game, the duo played RPGs, beat us at Smash Up, and entertained Larry's children with magic tricks. I'mm looking forward to getting their game to the table and seeing what else they have up their sleeves.

I could go on forever with people I met, reconnected, and hung out with... but I don't want this post to go on forever. I will simply say that if you have a chance to meet the following people, please do so:

Ryan Metzler, UnDead Viking, Joel Eddy, Father Geek Cyrus Kirby, Chris Urinko, Scott Morris, Jay Treat, John Sizemore, Chris Kirkman, Jason Tagmire, Jason Kotarsky, Phil Kilcrease, Tim Norris, Billy Tillman, Keith Collins, Adam Clark, Christopher Badell,  Cardboard Jungle, Brian Frahm, Huuuze, and MANY many more. 

#4: Android: Netrunner -- (Scott) My gaming history goes back to the early days of collectible card games.  One of my favorites from back then was Netrunner.  I especially loved the cyberpunk-ish theme and I loved the two distinct play styles of the Runners and the Corporation.  When I recently heard that Fantasy Flight was going to bring back Netrunner, I was extremely excited.  I was a little apprehensive about it being rethemed into the Android universe.  However, the Twilight Imperium reimagining of Dune into Rex seems to have worked well, so I have the utmost faith that Fantasy Flight has not hurt my baby.  Also, I hope that it's successful enough that we see more than 2 sets for this edition.

Other published games I'm looking forward to playing: 

#1: Mars Needs Mechanics -- I met Ben Rosset briefly at Origins this year, and he seemed like a bright, passionate designer with whom I'd like to speak more. I, unfortunately, didn't get to play his game, Mars Needs Mechanics, but made a mental note to do everything in my power to play it at GenCon. MnM, from what I could deduce, is a set collection game that uses timing effects in order to allow players to build combos and be the most successful engineer. As a lover of engine-building games, the ability to build an engine (both literally and figuratively) in this game has be eagerly awaiting my turn to play it. 

#2: Swinging Jivecat Voodoo Lounge -- Loyal readers of this site will know that this game has been my White Whale since Origins 2011, when I fist saw it. I was within feet of multiple playthroughs of it at Origins this year, but never got the opportunity to play myself (though getting to play Princes of the Dragon Throne and Forge were pretty sweet consolation prizes) . Nonetheless, I didn't get to touch the martini glasses or the skulls, or the plastic monkeys... and that makes me a sad panda. In SJVL, players are hepcats in the club scene of the late 50s, and through careful usage of the cards they are dealt/acquire, they progressively build cliques in the four areas on the Lounge. It's abstract-y to a point, but still maintains a hilarious theme, (i.e. it's right up my alley.)

#3: King of Tokyo: Power Up -- Though I'm sad that the expansion to one of my favorite games of 2011 got pushed back from GenCon to Essen, I am pretty pumped that IELLO will have demoable copies at their booth. For those who haven't been obsessively following the news about this expansion, Richard Garfield has appeased the throngs of players clamoring for individual character powers. In Power Up, characters may activate a specific character power by rolling 3 heart symbols. After this is done, one of the character's cards is flipped up and subsequently gives them powers to use throughout the game: The Kraken might make a player lose health and VP, the Cyber Bunny may steal energy cubes with an attack, etc etc. And, while all this sounds pretty cool, the inclusion of an additional character named Pandakai ups the "want" factor on this game to 11.