Gen Con Day 3 -- Voiceless, Crossing The Streams, and Meeting The Media

As before, these are random musings and impressions as they came to me throughout the day:

• Finally figured out the hot water situation at the hotel I'm at. I'm on the 11th floor of a rather old building. When I turn on the hot water at 5:30 a.m., I'm the first one apparently. So the hot water needs to be pumped up from the basement (or wherever) for "the first showerer of the day." Took 10 minutes to get hot. So, for everyone staying on floors 1 through 10 of the Canterbury, I'm the reason you awoke to hot water each morning as I "primed the pump," so to speak. You're welcome.
• It was good to finally meet a fellow RPG Blogger "in the wild," so to speak. Justin Davis of A Field Guide to Doomsday and Amy, his Ever-Understandin'-Better-Half, played in both of Friday's Mutant Future games. Justin and I surprised Amy by bringing out her home-played PC as her "pre-gen" for the game. Yup, her Gen Con convention adventure is now part of her character's continuity. Gotta be sure to fire off experience points to her. I hope Penelope the Mutant Crawdad had fun!
• Three days of irregular sleep, walking all over God's Green Earth, and eating nothing but crap is really starting to take its toll. I feel like gnomes are mining away my stomach lining.
• HOLY CRAP. I just tried to actually talk this morning, and my voice is SHOT. I didn't even realize it, but I'm barely above a whisper this morning. Supposed to run a TOON game in about 2 hours, but I can't see how I'm gonna pull this off. (EDITED TO ADD: I went to GM HQ as early as I could to pull the plug on the game. Hated to do it, but I hope I gave those who signed up enough notice to find something else to do and to ensure they get refunds for the event.)

Later that afternoon after eating an entire roll of Halls, I was able to salvage my voice enough to run the Ghostbusters game "How Dry I Am" I had scheduled for 2 p.m. Only 2 of the 6 registered showed up (Thanks Clifford and Kyle!). I'd say we "made do," but that's inaccurate. We had a GREAT time in the game and much laughter was had by 'Busters and Ghostmaster alike.

Just got back from the Media Meet and Greet. Although I'm a small fish in a big pond, it was nice to meet some of the folks who also write/blog/podcast about the industry. Met the folks from Undergopher Central, Pulp Gamer, and Odd Novelty Productions. Then Justin and I traded Illuminati tales for a few hours over beers. A fine end to the day.

I've decided that I've done what I came to do. Ran some games, met some folks, spent some money, and made some memories. There's nothing scheduled for me on Sunday, and I really have no interest in seeing a closing ceremony or fighting the crowds leaving the city. I'll take my leave early in the morning, so consider this my last live Gen Con update. I'll post some wrap-up thoughts in the days to come. So long Indy. See you next year -- count on it.