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GenCon, Reading - Day One
We're off to GenCon! Packing goes well - sheep's skulls, squashed rats, 'warning: unexploded bomb' signs, rubber vulture, life-size suicide bomber and politician standees, 'mine' signs (x3), painted bedsheets ... but no camo netting. It's at this moment we remembered we left our camo netting in LA. So in a bid to blag some last-minute camoflage Tom phones the local TA, who unsurprisingly refuse to help us out. Tom makes a new enemy when he tells the TA colnel that he'll try the 'proper army' instead.
So a quick detour to Luton Army & Navy stores and we're kitted up and off to Reading, stopping occasionally to pick up interesting rubbish we see for our stand. We're possibly the last people to arrive, meaning that we have just two hours to set up, but we're old hands at this now and Reading University soon has its very own piece of armagheddon-themed terror.
Sadly (and thankfully) Reading isn't Vegas and there's little to do but end the night with a game of chess. Rock n roll.
Up early the next day and we meet our convention neighbours who are staring wide-eyed at the horror which has sprung up next to them overnight. It's not long before we're 'known'. Despite our new camo netting, blending in is not an option when you're wearing a bright orange jumpsuit. The day passes quickly, with lots of classic reactions, from sheer disbelief to loud, insane laughter. We also hide some WMDs around the place for people to find after stealthyly removing the orange jumpsuits ( we had previoulsy tried hiding WMD's whilst wearing the suits and couldn't work out why we were constantly being watched - we are stupid sometimes).Although there's a reward of a free game, WMDs still prove elusive - no one's found any yet. But this time it's not down to dodgy intelligence.
We also hide some WMDs around the place Tom makes himself a second enemy in one day by approaching a LARP (Live Action Role Playing - weird shit) booth, picks up a troll outfit and declares with genuine child-like enthusiasm "Oh I love fancy dress!". Tom is firmly informed that the correct term is 'Larp gear' and under no circumstances 'fancy dress' or 'dress-up'.
We were humbled on many occassions by the genoristy and noisy vocal enthusiasam of many 'fresh blood' visitors to our stand who wished to take as many postcards as they could carry (And that's a lot!) to spread the 'terror' on our behalf...Big up all you guys, you know who you are.We love ya!
In the evening, there's a game-themed quiz. The promise of free wine and food draws us in, but we know full well we're going to be rubbish. And yet, we are recruited into a team despite all our warnings that we'll be nothing but a hindrance. Our team ends last, with the lowest ever score in GenCon history. Question after question is met with blank faces at our table, while ubergeeks all around squeal with knowing delight. Example question: 'You are Morlock and have the Dagger of Oblivion. If I have a Spellcasting power of four, where and how can I invert your Targ energy?' Our team-mates are briefly hopeful when the 'Boardgames and Publishers' round is announced and look at us expectantly. We then had to explain that we're here by accident and know next to nothing about boardgames and publishers and might even struggle to answer a question about TerrorBull Games. Turns out we know less than next to nothing, since our score for that round was a big fat zero. And that was the round we played our joker. Thankfully wine, as is often the case, rescues the evening.
The night ends with a short scavenge for more rubbish. The big find of the evening: a pair of rubber gloves. Nice.
Posted by TerrorBull Games on 31 August 2007 - 0 comments