GenCon 2013

We are less than a week away from GenCon launching, the greatest event of gaming.  I have to say, the anticipation is killing me.  I can’t wait to… oh, wait.  I’m not going this year. 

For a number of reasons, I’ve had to put off my trip to GenCon for a year.  The birth of my son is the major reason.  He’s not even two months old, and as much as I would love to bring him to Indianapolis and cart him around, I know it’s just not feasible at this point.  His mother would be angry with me – either for taking him and exposing him to the con-crud, or for leaving him (and her) behind and not letting them go to the convention at all.  It’s a fight I can’t win whichever way I go, so as a wise man once said, “You can’t lose a battle you don’t show up to.”  Better to put off the plans for another year.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not excited this year.  I’ve already found my ninja-shopper and given him money, and let my friendly LGS-owner know what I would like him to order for me.

So what am I getting?

First, the ninja-ing.

Slaz has been generous enough to not only pick up whatever I give him money for, but also drive by my house on his way back home from GenCon to drop it all off.  The man gets mad props.

From me, he’ll be making a brief stop by three booths: the Wyrd booth, the AEG booth, and the Battlefoam booth.

At Wyrd, he’s grabbing only a few things this year.  Enough to hit what I think I want immediately, and the rest I’m holding until later.  With M2E coming out, there’s plenty to consider.  But in the immediacy, I only asked for the following:

Nightmare Tara

Evidently there’s some controversy about this model which, near as I can tell, stems around people who have decided they’re not going to buy it still complaining that they’re not going to buy it.  It seems to me that’s a central theme of capitalism – if a manufacturer creates something you do not want, you can vote with your dollar and exercise your right NOT to buy something.  Similarly, if you like something, you can vote with your dollar and exercise your right TO buy something.  Personally, I really like the sculpts in the box, the Nothing Beast especially.

I have a suspicion about the Nightmare box.  I honestly believe that the Nothing Beast is probably the only unique sculpt in that box.  Once the actual release hits, everything will look the same except the Nothing Beast.  When I first saw the box, that’s what I thought the case was.  I still believe it is.  And as soon as I saw the box, I decided it was worth it to pick up.  Nightmare Chompy was the only nightmare model in the Dreamer release back several Gencons ago, and that went over fine.  Why should this be such a controversy?

Regardless, I didn’t intend to get into that whole deal.  End result: I like the model, and I’m buying it.

M2E Rules Guide

Kinda need it for the game, or at least you need to have one between yourself and your opponent.  Strategies and Schemes are within.  All the updated rules since the last Open Beta are within.  Plus, lots of art, I’m sure, and a ton of fluff.

Arsenal Pack: Neverborn

The only Arsenal Pack I’m picking up from GenCon is the Neverborn one.  Eventually I’ll be getting five of them, but I’ll hold off on the other four and pick them up from my LGS.  It just means for the short-term, I’ll be playing only Neverborn.  No problem there – I love the new feel for all three masters.  Lilith is fantastic, Pandora’s actually fun to play against (until I figure out how to make her real annoying… I have some ideas), and Zoraida’s got a new feel to her as well.

Miss Step

This is a free goodie that will be stuck in my bag thanks to the fact I’m buying at least $100 from them.  I don’t like Archanists, but it’ll give me something else I can throw into my bin of “cool miniatures” that one day I want to paint up.  Might have to go through that bin at some point and see what all I have in there.  I think I have a Dead Justice box set.  Might open that up finally and paint up the Death Marshals to work with Tara.  Oh, and that would get me a painted Judge too, since I’m missing that guy.  Hmm… sounds like a good idea after all.

Okay, so after hitting Wyrd, Slaz will be checking out the AEG booth to try to grab a limited-run RPG book.  Evidently they’ve got a small book they were going to put in PDF only, but decided to put into print for a limited number at GenCon.  Most of them will be given away to people involved in a particular event, but there are some they said would be sold, if I read them right.

Secrets of the Empire: Naishou Province

It’s been a while since I’ve run L5R for my group.  My son was born at the end of June, and we’ve been on hiatus since then.  Eventually we’ll get back to the game, and I hope getting books like this will spark my enthusiasm to get back to it faster.

Finally, Slaz will head over to the Battlefoam stop.  Wild West Exodus, a miniatures game I backed from Kickstarter, will be released soon and they have a couple of prerelease models available.

US Marshal McClain

He’s an Outlaw and Lawman model (wha??) and looks pretty sweet.  I don’t know how much of WWX I am going to play after all is said and done, but I’ve got a lot on my way and I like this model, so it’ll be another nice piece to have painted up if nothing else.  Since it sounds like he’s a GenCon exclusive, I figured it’d be my one shot to grab this version of him.

I mentioned there were other things I was asking my LGS to order too.  I won’t go into as much detail, but I’ll be picking up the Arsenal packs for Outcasts, Guild, Resurrectionsts and 10 Thunders, as well as the new Battlestar Galactica expansion from Fantasy Flight Games.

Also wondering whether I should pick up the new Lilith box.  I don’t have any other way to get Barbaros, and I really like him.  I think the new Cherub is miles better than the old one.  I think the new Terror Tots are better than the old ones.  And the new Lilith sculpt, while not as good as the alternate metal one, is still pretty solid.  It might be one of those things I pick up a month or two down the line once I’m set with everything else.  But I was surprised to see that there was a box set I was tempted by, especially since I own all the metal versions already.

For those off to GenCon, enjoy!  Hope to make it out next year.