Old School Wrap Up - Gen Con 2012

 It's become something of a tradition to do a write up of Gen Con after the show is over. The full write-up is after the jump, but here's a picture of my treasure haul.

And this is why I take an extra bag to Gen Con.

High light: A Saturday night pub crawl where I met (and drank) with a lot of other writers and game designers, many of whom live on the shelves of the Louis Wieland Jr. Memorial Game Library.

Low light: The time between when I realized I lost my credit card and when I picked it up from the restaurant where I left it.

Best experience:  An amazing Leverage game run at Games on Demand. It was so awesome, I hope to write up the Mark and Crew for my dusty old Con Olympics blog.

Worst experience: That the D&D Next Experience was a mix of ticketed and free events, so the "free drow dice" set cost the same it would in stores, with added D&D Next commercial timesinks on top of it.

Best bargain (had to buy it, no freebies): A brand new copy of Nightfall from AEG for $1.

Best Freebie: The con was pretty light on freebies this year. Tote bags seemed to be in vogue, but I'm going with contributor copies of all the Shadowrun books I've written this past year.

Most welcome surprise: Waiting in line with a friend while he picked up a copy of the FFG Star Wars RPG and snagging the legitmately last copy of Android: Netrunner at the con.

Most unwelcome surprise: As soon as FFG announced they were out, at least three people who had bought multiple copies of Netrunner made their way along the disappointed line, offering to sell their extra copies for $10 over the original price.

Best costume: I wish I had taken more costume pictures.

Best costume try:  It's always fun watching people show up in their ren fair gear.

Most amusing costume: Steampunk Ghostbusters

Coolest booth and why: FFG is the heart of Gen Con, with a huge booth, dozens of demo tables and plenty of games to play.

Strangest moment: When the designer of 13th Age was able to put together that I was the guy who was selling it up to one of my other players.

Favorite item available in the Exhibit Hall: Even though they were there at c2e2, I really liked the carved wood mustache monocles.

Stuff bought:
Marvel Heroic: Civil War
Marvel Heroic: 50 State Initiative 
Night's Black Agents
Bookhounds of London
Armitage Files
Book of the Smoke
Smash Up
Android:Netrunner
Ars Magica supplements
Rocketmen booster box
Junta
Curse the Darkness
13th Age Escalation Edition
Foreshadows
Deadlands TPB
Shadowrun dice
Shadowrun Gun Cards

Stuff got for free:
Into the Cosmos
Shadowrun 2050
Artifacts Unbound
Corporate Intrigue
Jet Set
Twilight Horizon
Hazard Pay
Conspiracy Theories
Crappy Brithday

Stuff that was wanted that was unavailable:
I would have put Netrunner here
Dungeon World
Streets of Bedlam

Things to buy after Gen Con:
Level 7: Escape
Tsuro
X-Wing miniatures game
Legend of the Five Rings: Second City Boxed Set

Best Quote:
"So he's the Oxford Motherfucker?"