Mike & Kyle's '08 Gencon Travelogue

Brasky · Anglican Bishop Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 14408

What an adventure Gencon 2008 was! As you all should have heard by now, my mom sponsored us and went with us on the trip to Indianapolis. But there's no such thing as a free lunch, so she also served as our staff photographer.

My mom and I had to get up at 3:30 am on Friday to make our 6 am flight out of Austin. We had a layover in Chicago where we were supposed to meet up with Mike and then all three of us would fly to Indy together. My mom took a picture of me in the Chicago airport reading my Scientific American magazine and waiting for Mike:

Wait a minute! Who's that stranger sitting next to me? Holy shit! It's Mike! Here's a shot of us realizing that we're actually sitting right next to each other. It was a powerful and emotional moment:

After exchanging pleasantries, we had to find a way to kill an hour and a half while we waited for our flight to Indy. Oh my! What's that in Mike's lap?

It's a fascinating science fiction short story he'd been reading on the plane!

We still had to find ways to keep ourselves occupied:

So after tying my shoe, we went to a Starbucks and got loaded on caffeine.

When the caffeine wore off, I completely crashed. Here's a shot of me snoozing on the flight to Indy:

Once we got to Indy, we immediately started getting ready for the Ennie awards which were Friday evening. Here's a shot of me writing our acceptance speech while Mike finishes unpacking:

We wanted to make sure we were going to at the awards in style. Taking care of all the small details, Mike helps me with a lint brush in the areas I couldn't reach:

And the last thing we do before heading over to the con is to get a little nourishment. Mike and I were famished, so we both went to town on a couple of foot longs:

Brasky · Anglican Bishop Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 14408

So finally we made it to the Ennies. Surprisingly, our podcast with a listenership of several hundred lost out to two websites with multiple thousands of participants. Who cares, we had a blast! The Ennies were pretty cool and we got to see a bunch of folks we'd never met. It was actually pretty crowded, but never fear-- we had front row, assigned seats:

Even though we'd walked through the con a bit on Friday, we were a bit short on time. Now with the Ennies behind us, Saturday was our day to get loot, look at everything and have a blast. And we did. But while waiting for our cab (we had to stay far from the convention center since we didn't make reservations until last month) we made sure to stretch so we wouldn't cramp up while walking the floor:

This was totally unexpected, but our brother Guillermo showed up to surprise us-- and he was in costume! How can you tell this Tattoine desert hunter is Guillermo? He has the trademark Jones-brother stomach:

Who wants to be a superhero? I want to be a freaking superhero! HOLY SHIT! IT'S FEEDBACK!

When we got to con, the only thing we knew for sure we wanted to do was get on a segway and try the challenge. We'd never been on one before. Can you see the disappointment in our faces?

Here we are standing next to the giant 20-sided die. It was hollow and they were asking people to donate dice by throwing them into a little hole in the side. Rumor had it that Gary Gygax's bones were inside too.

My mom also got a picture of Mike and I propositioning a hooker:

Here's a shot of Mike and I getting a demo of Infernal Contraption, a card game from Privateer Press. We liked the demo so much we each bought it to play with our kids-- [we're going to review everything we bought separately in the RPG section of the forums]. And when I say "we each bought" I mean that our staff photographer/sponsor bought them for us.

Okay, now before we get to this next picture... it's not what it looks like. We have a perfectly good explanation for how this accidentally happened, and maybe someday I'll have the time for it, but for now you can just enjoy this picture of Mike and I in the "wrong" section of the exhibitor's hall.

GoombaGoombaGoomba!

Brasky · Anglican Bishop Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 14408

We went looking for family board games, and got this great demo of a game called Handy. The only way I can describe it is that it's like twister with just a single hand for each player. It was really simple, clever and ingenious. We didn't buy it because our kids couldn't do it, but we ended up buying several games at this same booth.

Here's Ken Hite signing a copy of one of his books for my mom. We have a couple good Ken Hite stories, but we'll save them for the podcast. My mom was so excited to be getting a Cthullu version of Where the Wild Things Are (even though I had to explain to her what Cthullu was):

When we stopped to get something to drink, my mom snapped this picture of a random jedi-dude. We thought it was hysterical that he was inadvertently placing his lightsaber there. He was waiting for his non-costumed wife to bring him a slice of pizza.

We went and saw the live taping of Fear the Boot. I asked a question and the guys were really cool to us-- they really wanted us to win the Ennie. Mom got a shot of Mike talking with Dan:

After Fear the Boot, we stuck around for Paul Tevis' Inside the Game Designer's Studio with Steve Kenson (designer of Mutants and Masterminds among other things). I'm a big fan of Kenson, having written a M&M product (Ascension to Olympus) myself. I couldn't believe I got front row seats for this interview. Oh my god! OH MY GOD! IS THAT STEVE KENSON STANDING RIGHT BEHIND ME!?!

It is! It is Steve Kenson! Oh... this isn't what I expected at all! It looks like he's in pretty good shape. I mean... just look at that ass!

LOOK AT IT! Steve Kenson has a great ass!

Here's the interview. Paul does a spot-on James Lipton impression. And my mom has a huge crush on Steve Kenson now. She thought he was "the cutest thing!"

After many, many hours of entertainment and purchasing, we went to the Steak and Shake which was recommended to us by many people. It was really pretty good. Here's Mike and I enjoying a Diet Coke:

Here we are on the cab ride back at the end of Saturday. Yes, it was still light. Yes, it was only 6 pm. But I'm an old man now and I'd only had three hours of sleep the past two nights.

Here's T, our cab driver who drove us everywhere this weekend (my mom had a bit of a crush on him too-- she's somewhat of a cougar). T was awesome and, even though we were all tired at 4:30 Sunday morning, T was there on time and got us to the airport with plenty of time to spare:

Here we are at the Indy airport getting ready to fly home. Mike and I decided that we didn't have any pictures of our staff photographer/sponsor, so we took some with her before we left:

And that's it! There's a thousand more stories that we'll tell over the next few weeks on the podcast, but these are the pictures. I hope everyone had as good a time as we did.

Roblogic · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject:

Dear God! Caption this photo over load! Don't....know....what....to....do...........AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!
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FlameBlade · Foreign Correspondent Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 2673

That's just you learning that two members in your family are gay, Rob.
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Thatcash · Posted: Sun Aug 17, 2008 7:12 pm Post subject:

The saddest Siamese twins ever:

It's research into LARPing. Know your enemy and all...ahhh, fuck it. Mike and Kyle are closet LARPers.

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Daki · Hopscotch Hustler Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 2442

Again... fuckers! Very Happy

Missed your call because we were at Happy Hour and then you never return my message. Jim, Gunny and I were heartbroken that we could not find you.

HEARTBROKEN!

EDIT: Wait a second, I saw the results from the awards and it had you listed as a Gold Medal winner.
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SumDumQuim · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 3:13 pm Post subject:

I just can't get over it! In every.single.one of those pictures Mike looks like the nice one. I know that to be untrue.

Your mother looks very young and pretty, a bit like Felicity Huffman. It was so nice of her to have sponsored your trip so thank you Mrs. Jones for providing us with entertainment.

Sorry about Ray's lobster claw comments, he is just very sensitive and Eva was being cruel.

Oh and PS? You guys blew off Gunny after happy hour?? I think so much less of you now.

Daki · Hopscotch Hustler Joined: 02 Nov 2006 Posts: 2442

Jim and I were trading messages back and forth checking if either had heard from Mike and Kyle. By Sunday, we had decided they were both fuckers for not calling back.
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"While people like you were hanging around in bars and crying over your first loves, I was learning how to kill people with office supplies."

zensunni_wanderer42 · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 5:02 pm Post subject:

Well, it is obvious that the trademark Jones-brother stomach is from a paternal gene!

Nice travelogue!
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Brasky · Anglican Bishop Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 14408

Next year we're going to plan better and we'll be able to meet up. We'll also be staying in one of the close hotels, which will be much nicer.

Raygun · Posted: Mon Aug 18, 2008 9:49 pm Post subject:

SumDumQuim · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 1:33 am Post subject:

zacharythefirst · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:46 am Post subject:

Nice work, guys! Great work on the pics!
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Jeff Hauze · White Rapper Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 4196

Raygun · Posted: Tue Aug 19, 2008 6:21 pm Post subject:

hehehehe
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Ampere · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:58 am Post subject:

Yeah...I didn't have contact info for the guys and missed them entirely. Next time I actually want to see the siamese twins.
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Brasky · Anglican Bishop Joined: 26 Oct 2006 Posts: 14408

Next year will be better planned out for us.

dar · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:23 pm Post subject:

wait wait wait!

Which one is the thin one?

Notice that guy standing in the background of every picture. It's not me. Really it isn't. Especially at the airport.
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Awe crap. This thing IS on.

Angel · Posted: Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:54 am Post subject:

If I ever go back to America I'm gonna go visit GenCon, seriously.