A Role Playing Games Blog
Non-RPG
Gen Con Day 1… Results: Tired! (Lots of fun but beat)
0August 5, 2011
Whatever possessed me to think I could actually write about Gen Con Indy after a full day of gaming? Well here goes a post about first impressions. I got to talk to a LOT of people today, and hopefully get to talk to more tomorrow, both friends and exhibitors. So how was it so far? Awesome!
After my last first time here four years ago, I came to the con with a different attitude, and it has worked. I have spent time with friends from the island who travelled here from back home as well as those that live stateside. I have also met with friends I had only contacted through social media. It’s a strange thing to meet people you’ve only seen in avatars and profile pictures.
As far as Gen Con goes, well what can I add? It’s a massive event no gamer should miss. No matter how far away you are it’s a pilgrimage worth making, and I am sure once you’ve been here you’ll want to return. Today I concentrated on the Exhibitors Room, foolishly believing I could see all I wanted to see. I visited booths, talked to some professionals I had never thought I would exchange words with and learned about all sorts of interesting games. Some are already being talked about in the blogosphere and internet new sites. Also I went to some smaller companies and saw some really interesting things, especially in areas I typically don’t follow, like miniature games and board games.
I spent far too much money and already have the books I wanted and a few more. I will write more extensively later on specifics as I am simply just too tired to write much more. I finished the night playing a game of Savage Worlds with David (@LodestoneDavid) from Purple Pawn who was kind enough to run three loud Puerto Ricans (me, my friend Yamir and @luniticus) as well as our new friend Scott, through an excellent pulp adventure. It helped me better understand the system as well as show me how to put together all the rule components more efficiently. Kudos to David!
And I cannot sign off today without thanking the Gen Con staff who facilitated my being there, were helpful and all around swell people. Covering the con for the blog has been a blast. I will write more next week about the experience and specifics, so this is just the beginning. Thank you all for reading!
PS – Remember that This Just In from… Gen Con! Is also covering the con and they are doing podcasts about it…
My Gen Con plans…
6August 3, 2011
I am really looking forward to Gen Con! I blogged about it a while ago… We are so close to that most sacred gathering of geeks in Indianapolis that I can taste it. I’ve only been there once before in 2007 but I can tell you it’s one of those things you have to do at least once if you are a gamer. Last time I think I missed a lot of the fun, I bought too much, gamed too little and did not interact with people enough. All issues I intend to correct.
I also plan to cover Gen Con for the blog. The how is still taking form. I’ll be taking lots of pictures and talking to whoever will indulge me, to know what fun things publishers big and small are planning and unveiling at the con. In this day and age there is so much information and coverage (like the fine folk at This Just in from Gen Con) that I don’t aspire to bring you every bit of news, just what I think will be of interest to our readers. I hope to post in some form from Gen Con, let’s see if the Exhibit Hall and random games don’t kill me…
What’s my plan? Well it’s fluid… At first I began filling up a log schedule and after a while I realized I would be running from one place to the other with little time to just ENJOY being there. So I scrapped it and decided to play it by ear. Here is the (very) rough outline: (more…)
Twitter and me!
2
I was not keen on Twitter at first. Some may say I am not big on change, but let’s just say I did not close my MySpace page until last month! I was not quick to migrate to Facebook when it came along, so when I began blogging and discovered how the RPG blogging community was active on Twitter I reluctantly joined. It took some time for me to get used to Twitter, I still use Facebook and remain very active, out Puerto Rico Role Players group main form of contact is there. I use Facebook for my games all the time, and it’s worked better that most other online tools I’ve tried, it has to do with the service’s pervasiveness, I am well aware of that.
So little by little I have balanced my use of Twitter and Facebook. These days most updates I do on Twitter and they appear on Facebook. Oftentimes I will post in English in Twitter, where the majority of my followers are English speakers, and do my occasional update in Spanish in Facebook, where I have a LOT of Spanish speaking friends.
One thing I had NEVER done was participate in a large scale real time discussion with lots of other people. I get hashtags; I had just never tried it. Some time ago I had seen the #RPGchat discussions and lurked, fascinated by all the ideas floating about. So last week I saw they were discussing Gen Con this week and decided to join in. I used my iPhone with the Twitter app and was able to follow and participate so easily.
The people participating in the discussion where friendly, helpful and so much fun and I won a prize they were giving away! It was the most fun I’ve had in Twitter. Shout out to all the fine folk there, it was a pleasure to meet you. I will definitely be joining them again.
I did embrace Google+ early one so worry not I’m keeping up to day.
Just in case, if you are interested, in Facebook you can find me as sunglar@hotmail.com, in Google+ as sunglar@gmail.com (you can see a pattern emerging here) and in Twitter as @Sunglar. I’d love to get to know you all better!
You learn who your true friends are in times of hardship…
4July 11, 2011
I have not posted here since July 1st, and my last post was about the planned Puerto Rico Role Players Geeknic. Was it the greatest geeknic on earth like I predicted? Well if a concussion, incessant rain, floods, trips to the hospital and your car getting stuck on a flooded street are your idea of great, it was epic!
Don’t worry everybody is alright. My lull in posting had nothing to do with getting hurt, it’s all work and real life responsibilities keeping me away, but vacations are approaching and I hope to make up during that time. But I know you are not here to read about my life, you are here to know what happened at the geeknic? Well let me tell you…
One of the wonders of living in a tropical island is the weather. It’s usually beautiful and sunny year round, BUT every so often we get torrential rain (and don’t get me started about hurricanes) that was the case last weekend. It rained all weekend, but when Sunday rolled along, despite some drizzle, it seemed like the sun was coming out, so I made my way to the park where the geeknic was going to be held and met up with my fellow early birds. We set up and then the rain came… We began moving stuff to a dry place and there was when the first mishap occurred.
Come one, come all, to the greatest geeknic on earth!
1July 1, 2011
by Sunglar
in Dark Heresy, Humor, News & Reviews, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Pathfinder, Random musings, RPG
I try (I really do) not to toot my own horn, or try to use the blog (too much) to promote another project I’m involved with, Puerto Rico Role Players. I guess there is some crossover, as I share posts from the blog on the Facebook group for Puerto Rico Role Players and oftentimes write about activities the group organizes here, but mostly after the fact. I don’t recall actually using the blog to promote an upcoming gathering. This post aims to correct that.
For over a year a group of RPG fans from Puerto Rico has been gathering to share our love of gaming, food and camaraderie in different places across the island. The group was formed over two years ago and after forging an electronic community and doing some demos at local conventions we finally decided to hold a social activity to get to know each other better. We settled on getting together on a park or other public place and someone suggested the idea of calling it a geeknic. He actually got the idea from geeknic.org, everybody loved the idea and we ran with it.
Gen Con here I go!
5June 17, 2011
I realize it maybe a little premature to be so excited about it, Gen Con Indy is still over a month and a half away, but I feel like a kid the night before x-mas. Gen Con was a mythical place for me most of my life. I read about it, saw pictures, knew people who had been there, and I could not wait to make the pilgrimage that every RPG geek must do at least once in his or her life. So back in 2007when a friend put together a trip I jumped at the opportunity.
We all gathered together and travelled from sunny Puerto Rico to that mysterious land called Indiana. I loved going, it was fun, exciting and I spent far too much money! Since we went as a large group we spent most of our time together, I played little and had very little interaction with other convention goers. Amazingly for a gaming convention I only played a couple of encounters at the Wizards of the Coast room and some demos at booths, but that was it. My fellow travelers played some CCGs but that’s not my thing so I roamed the Exhibitors Hall and took a LOT of pictures.
When we left we all said “We are coming back!” And we meant it, but real life happens and putting together a trip where all of us can coordinate our schedules becomes harder and harder. Then I began writing for the blog, and last year when Michael said he was going I wanted to go to Gen Con and meet the Stargazer (i.e. Mr. Rock Star). Sadly work and other situations kept me from going, 2010 was not the year for me.
Crazy Campaign Chronicles: Childhood toys…
0June 7, 2011
by Sunglar
in FATE, Fluff/Inspiration, FUDGE, Non-RPG, Other Systems, Random musings, RPG, Savage Worlds
Introductory note: I wrote a previous post on this series about those crazy ideas one gets for campaigns and never gets to plays. This is a little different because I got to try to play with this idea but it never took off. I still have hopes for this idea. This is a little rantish, proceed at your own peril, you have been warned.
I had a lot of toys as a kid. I was never into toy cars, model kits or sports paraphernalia. I liked board games, later electronic games, but my favorites where action figures. Most people my age remember the Star Wars Action Figures, GI Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, Transformer and the myriad other toys of that golden age of action figure and TV show synergy called the 80s. But I am old enough to remember some older toys, like the larger GI Joes and the Mego dolls (yes boys played with dolls!). In that transitional period from the larger doll type action toys and the supremacy of the smaller action figure there were one set of toys I was particularly fond of, the Fisher Price Adventure Series.
These were toys, according to the promotional sheet that is the first illustration on this post, designed for the growing child from three years of age into the early grades. They were play sets of real life professions, adventurers and other exciting activities. There was a safari set, ambulance, scuba divers and motorcyclists among others. Real life adventure heroes! Typically they had vehicles with two or more action figures with only 5 points of articulation. They were simple and fun and I spent hours playing with them, eventually amassing a large collection of Adventure Series figures and vehicles.
By now you may be thinking, what is this guy doing writing about toys in a role-playing blog? Well amazingly many of the games and storylines I played as a child have inspired me later in life either as themes for stories I have written, games plots or even entire campaigns. Others are still undeveloped waiting for the right time to become a campaign. This is the story of a weird little hybrid experience and how the toys of my youth inspired me. If you want the story of how I imagined this read on. If you just want to go to the details of the actual game scroll down the page, I’ll be sure to let you know when we are back on topic! (See this is almost like a “choose your own adventure” but only in post form).
You have a question about an existing or upcoming Stargazer Games product? Ask away! You want to know what we think about a recent development in the RPG industry? Send in your questions. You always wanted to know what we think about game X? Send us an email.
