1 degree Fahrenheit, you say?
So, yes.
(First off, I want to apologize for my rambling sentences. I am just sort of rambling all of this off at once.)
WF started out fairly slow. With 3 and a half hours on a plane, four hours of waiting for our friends' plane to arrive, and two hours driving in the dark, it seemed to take forever to get to Fort Wayne. Once there, though, it was pretty fun (and funny, too). Now, Fort Wayne has like one grocery store in the whole town, and the police force doesn't seem to be too incredibly busy (which isn't to say they're lazy, it's just.. well, I mean, come on. It's Fort Wayne). So if you're ever lost at some odd hour of the night and happen to be driving one of those 13-passenger minibus monstrosities, and you need to go to the grocery store so that you can pick up some non-perishables to save yourself money in the long run, just keep driving around in circles until you find it. Seriously. The cops are going to play tricks on you if you stop to ask directions. But, you know, I'd probably do it too.
Inside-joke anecdotes aside, Winter Fantasy was, in general, a fun time. I learned a lot about the other Living Greyhawk regions (such as the fact that some of them are really, really, disgustingly powerfully twinked out) and actually became a little disappointed in LG. I heard very few good things about Greyhawk the whole time I was there. The Verbobonc modules were very cool, especially the one that Troy Daniels ran for us, but in general the rest of it just seemed so.. blah. Assault on the Vault was kind of stupid, some of the module selection was a little strange/poor, and everybody was getting mad or dying or ending up bored.. it was a little sad. I did, however, get to meet John Jenks and a couple other people who were very nice and genuinely good people. Hopefully things will turn out better once Year Three gets on its' feet, because I really do like the Greyhawk setting and don't want to see the campaign die off like Living City.
Speaking of.. ugh. That's all I have to say. Ugh. I hope Troy gave you a good smack upside the head, Ryan Dancy, because you deserve one.
However! Living Arcanis is the bestest bestest bestest thing ever in the whole wide world of bestest RPG things. I got to meet Henry Lopez, the campaign director for LA, as well as the rest of the Paradigm Concepts crew. They are all absolutely awesome people and I highly reccommend any of you who are even remotely interested in gaming to try and be involved in their RPGA campaign because it is, quite simply, the best. Derrel Weaver wrote an absolutely incredible Battle Interactive that was possibly the most fun I have ever had with RPGing, there were games being run for LA at all odd hours of the night AND day, and we even had a little impromptu session in which some of our characters had to basically save this newly discovered continent from dark forces that would have surely come due to some STUPID actions made by other players.
I also did a lot of volunteer work and met some really nice people through that as well. Though not everything was being run as smoothly as it could have been, and a lot of dumb mistakes were made by higher-ups, Steve, Jo, August and all of them were really wonderful. I don't think I could have asked for more in a group of tossed-together coworkers.
All in all, Winter Fantasy was a nice diversion and a big wake-up for me. I can't say that I will choose to go again next year, but it did convince me to go to other cons like Origins and GenCon West, and I hope they will offer things that are just as good, if not better.
PS -- The snow is FUCKING FRIGID.
(First off, I want to apologize for my rambling sentences. I am just sort of rambling all of this off at once.)
WF started out fairly slow. With 3 and a half hours on a plane, four hours of waiting for our friends' plane to arrive, and two hours driving in the dark, it seemed to take forever to get to Fort Wayne. Once there, though, it was pretty fun (and funny, too). Now, Fort Wayne has like one grocery store in the whole town, and the police force doesn't seem to be too incredibly busy (which isn't to say they're lazy, it's just.. well, I mean, come on. It's Fort Wayne). So if you're ever lost at some odd hour of the night and happen to be driving one of those 13-passenger minibus monstrosities, and you need to go to the grocery store so that you can pick up some non-perishables to save yourself money in the long run, just keep driving around in circles until you find it. Seriously. The cops are going to play tricks on you if you stop to ask directions. But, you know, I'd probably do it too.
Inside-joke anecdotes aside, Winter Fantasy was, in general, a fun time. I learned a lot about the other Living Greyhawk regions (such as the fact that some of them are really, really, disgustingly powerfully twinked out) and actually became a little disappointed in LG. I heard very few good things about Greyhawk the whole time I was there. The Verbobonc modules were very cool, especially the one that Troy Daniels ran for us, but in general the rest of it just seemed so.. blah. Assault on the Vault was kind of stupid, some of the module selection was a little strange/poor, and everybody was getting mad or dying or ending up bored.. it was a little sad. I did, however, get to meet John Jenks and a couple other people who were very nice and genuinely good people. Hopefully things will turn out better once Year Three gets on its' feet, because I really do like the Greyhawk setting and don't want to see the campaign die off like Living City.
Speaking of.. ugh. That's all I have to say. Ugh. I hope Troy gave you a good smack upside the head, Ryan Dancy, because you deserve one.
However! Living Arcanis is the bestest bestest bestest thing ever in the whole wide world of bestest RPG things. I got to meet Henry Lopez, the campaign director for LA, as well as the rest of the Paradigm Concepts crew. They are all absolutely awesome people and I highly reccommend any of you who are even remotely interested in gaming to try and be involved in their RPGA campaign because it is, quite simply, the best. Derrel Weaver wrote an absolutely incredible Battle Interactive that was possibly the most fun I have ever had with RPGing, there were games being run for LA at all odd hours of the night AND day, and we even had a little impromptu session in which some of our characters had to basically save this newly discovered continent from dark forces that would have surely come due to some STUPID actions made by other players.
I also did a lot of volunteer work and met some really nice people through that as well. Though not everything was being run as smoothly as it could have been, and a lot of dumb mistakes were made by higher-ups, Steve, Jo, August and all of them were really wonderful. I don't think I could have asked for more in a group of tossed-together coworkers.
All in all, Winter Fantasy was a nice diversion and a big wake-up for me. I can't say that I will choose to go again next year, but it did convince me to go to other cons like Origins and GenCon West, and I hope they will offer things that are just as good, if not better.
PS -- The snow is FUCKING FRIGID.