I recently volunteered to run a couple of sessions for the new con in town this upcoming weekend on Saturday and Sunday. I already know the organizers from their previous efforts, where they coordinated game days at local library. In many ways this is just a bigger version of their library game days- though much more ambitious, including an attendance fee, five time slots with six games apiece ...

This year at Gen Con Vicki Potter from Tabletop Adventures joined fellow gnomes Kurt “Telas” Schneider, Phil “DNAphil” Vecchione, and myself to give the seminar “All Grown Up, and Still Gaming". We discussed gaming with a career, gaming after marriage, and gaming as a parent. And since it was at Gen Con we got lots of great feedback and tips from the plethora of gamers in attendance. ...

  To those of you who do the convention circuit, you’ve probably heard about this thing called Con on The Cob – Games, Art, Freaks & Fun. It’s a small-ish convention in northern Ohio from October 15th –17th. It generates a lot of buzz for a very good reason. I went to last year’s Con On the Cob with my gaming company and had a blast. I have ...

Labor Day in the United States marks the end of summer, a day when municipalities close their outdoor swimming pools. Schools in the northern states used to wait this late to start, but niceties such as high school football and mandated number of school days nixed that. The other seasonal tradition is the fashion-maven's adage: Don't wear white after Labor Day. The origins for this are a bit obscure, ...

Today I offer no advice, but instead I seek to hear from others. In the near future I plan on organizing a local mini-convention for RPG fans. Nothing against board, card, video, or war games, but I want to focus on RPGs exclusively. The plan is to hold this event at my local library where I can reserve presentation space for free as long as the event ...

This year’s Gencon was my second year attending. My first year, the decision to go was last minute and a few factors kept me from having a very good time. This year, I decided that i was going to make sure and enjoy myself. One of the ways I did that was by participating in Gencon’s VIG (Very Important Gamer) program.  A few of the Gnomes had done ...

Lots of random and silly stuff in this one, only some of it vaguely GM-centric. If you’re interested in my RPG-specific experiences at Gen Con, try here. Seminars My ‘normal’ Gen Con experience is a number of seminars, maybe a game or two, and lots of time at the Exhibit Hall. This year, I played in a few games and gave two seminars, but didn’t actually ...

Hello everyone.  I think I might be the last of the GenCon Gnomes to chime in. I wanted to give a quick recap my GenCon experience, as well as dispense a few GMing tips along the way. Hackmaster Basic As requested , I made a beeline to the Kenzer & Company booth and picked up my copy of HackMaster Basic. I have started reading the book in earnest, and I ...

This year I ran four RPG events at Gen Con. I’m confident that each was a  success based upon the feedback that I was given by the players. If you happened to play in one of my games at Gen Con this year (or attended one of the seminars I was involved in) please leave a comment with your feedback about the game that you played in. I ...

Normally I don’t actually game much at Gen Con, aside from a rare pick-up game or an after hours card/board game with friends. I prefer to cruise the near-endless Exhibit Hall and attend seminars, but this year I decided to check in on the gaming. Games Played Out of the four RPGs I played in this year, two were excellent, one was just okay, and ...

The Gnomes are getting ready to descend upon Indianapolis for GenCon. We will be various games, seminars, and walking the dealer's floor. Sometimes we Gnomes are tricky to spot, so in today's article, we are going to provide you a little guide on how to spot a Gnome. Martin Ralya I spend so much time in the dealers room (Exhibit Hall) that my friends wonder if something's wrong with me, so that's ...

Last Friday, I asked you all to pick the product that you would like me to pick up at GenCon to review, and you answered. The results were tallied and the winner was... Related posts:You Pick It—I Review It: GenCon Edition Review: Realms Of Cthulhu What I Did On My Summer Vacation (GenCon 2009!)

GenCon is just under 2 weeks away, and I am in full swing making my final shopping list, when I noticed that I had forgotten about all of you guys who are not going to be able to attend. So for all of you that cannot attend, I wanted to do something for you. One of the great parts to GenCon is the convention floor. It is row ...

I just got back from my most recent trip to the Origins Games Fair. While we Gnomes will be at Gencon en masse, Origins has always been my home convention. Its about 2 hours away from me, has a lot of people I know and they think we’re the source to go to for game mastering advice. Besides the 2 big name gaming conventions and a few big ...

This will be my 10th GenCon (I started in '97, and missed '98, '01, and '08), and every year for the past several years registration has been a whirlwind of testicle-smashing pain. Not this year. It started off looking pretty shitty -- the site's interface for event searches, and especially for sorting, sucks. Without gencon.highprogrammer.com, my group would have had a much poorer reg experience. And I whined about event ...