I went to my first Gencon. Will it be my last? Uncertain. Did I have fun? Sure.

What is Gencon? Only one of the largest gaming conventions in the country, if not the world. All kinds of gaming. Miniatures (though no Games Workshop), card games, board games, role playing games, LARPS, even computer games. I went with my good friends Wes and Frank after hearing them rave about how much fun they had last year.

I played hard and thankfully had some canceled events so I had time to visit the vendors. My biggest find of the week was a reletively new miniatures company, Magnificent Egos. Good looking figures and they had an archer with a longbow that's similiar to a character I'm playing in Pete's world (Ereth). One of the cool things about this company...they gave away free mini's based on purchase amount. I found some that I liked and planned to purchase...when they were bagging my merchandise they added three extra figures. I spent something like $49.50 and they game me the figures for the $10, $25, and $50 level. Very cool. The folks were friendly and not pushy.

The other find was the card game Fluxx. I had fun playing it with some strangers and had to buy it. I hope it can be integrated into regular weekend gaming rotation. It was won some Mensa award for good games.

Let's see, what else....there were a lot of obese people, black t-shirts, greasy hair, and gamer funk. But people were friendly and relaxed. There were people in costumes that would gladly let you snap pictures of them.

I learned that, while I like to hack/slash with friends...it's not the same with strangers and limited to four hours. I actually think I enjoy the role playing better than the roll playing. If I go next year I will sign up for more board games.

I played giant Settlers of Catan, Robo Rally, fun life-sized versions of Kill Dr. Lucky and Devil Bunny Needs a Ham.

True Dungeon was a lot of fun. I take a great deal of pleasure in knowing I made it farther than anyone else in our party. We all died in the last room. Then we had a chance to defeat Death in order to return to the land of the living. I was the only one to score the critical head-shot. Of course I then forgot to grab a light source from one of my slain companions...but it was still very fun.

And a word about Indy (the very small part I saw). I didn't like their water. But they do have White Castle and there was one near the convention center so I had some sliders. The convention center was great...though Gencon is so large that they're actually running out of space. Or so it seemed to me.

Oh...and the vendors were giving away very little in swag. I was hoping for some free stuff and it didn't really happen.