More GenCon ramblings

So, yeah... as I said last time, I just got back from GenCon. There were probably a good two or three dozen or so people that I spent most of my time with while there. Many of them I had been excited about meeting in real life for a long time, and honestly... they lived up to the hype. They were awesome.

Others I hadn't really thought too much about and wouldn't have worried too much about going out of my way to meet, but I see now that I would have totally been missing out. They were awesome.

There were two guys that distinctly didn't like, but yeah... well, we won't go there. I didn't spend too much time with either.

There are two guys of the first group mentioned above that bear singling out and mentioned particularly. One of them is Stuart. Honestly, I think that for several years we irritated each other online more than anything else, but two watershed conversations really changed all that dramatically. The first was about campaign setting design philosophy, where we realized that in some major respects we had the same conceits that are NOT shared by the majority of GMs. The other was about religion, where I found out that his major area of research was Mormon folklore. In any case, after those conversations, the two of us became VERY friendly, I think we developed an incredible amount of respect for each other, and although we still differ about many major issues, I think we recognize at least a bit of a kindred spirit in each other. So I was very happy and gratified to meet and talk to Stuart. We only talked briefly until after the Ennies when I went to his room for an hour or two and we just talked and talked until neither of us could stay awake, and then Sunday he picked up an open slot at the last minute and slipped into my Dark•Matter game. Fun times. Very glad I met him, and even more glad that he wasn't one of the many, many people that I had been really excited to meet, but only ended up greeting and chatting with very briefly before not seeing them again.

The other is Corey. Corey and I have known each other online for a long time now. I'm not even sure how long, although it can't possibly be less than five years and is probably closer to seven or maybe even eight. Unlike with Stuart, Corey and I are in a really bizarre situation in that we apparently have 95% of our brain completely in common. We have the exact same taste about almost everything, and the funny thing is that it's not like we exactly have common tastes that a lot of other people share. So we already knew we were kindred spirits from the get-go. I was really excited to meet him; and especially to just chat about stuff and even more especially to GAME with him. Sadly, I did too little of both, but we did chat a fair amount, we did both play in the Kobolds game, the Mars d20 game, and I was also in one of his DINO-PIRATES games (he assures me that it must always be capitalized.) Part of the 5% in which we differ is that he is much more charming, polite and friendly than I am, though. He was a true delight to hang around with. I'm disappointed that of all the chatting we did do, we didn't get to talk more about gaming itself, though, which given the venue in which we met is kinda strange now that I think about it.

The funny thing about Stuart and Corey is that both are former Vancouverites who have both decamped to Toronto in just that last few years or so. The other funny thing about that is that I live only about 4-5 hours from Toronto. The other funny thing about that is that apparently I'm too stupid to have arranged some way to meet them before GenCon when it should have been relatively easy to do so.