The escalators were ridiculous in the morning. When I set out to deliver the ridiculous game box to Tom’s truck, the lobby on my/our floor was packed with people & cases & carts & strollers, so I walked down the stairs instead.
12 floors holding a 20lb box away from your body so that you can watch where you’re putting your feet is a pretty good morning exercise, it turns out. I switched to the 80s boombox one shoulder technique for the rest of the walk, mostly because the top of head approach made doorways a smidge risky.
The elevators had emptied a lot by the time we actually checked out, thankfully. I’d forgotten that the last day elevator chaos was a thing, because at Gen Con I usually check out the day after; That said, I’m not sure why I’ve never been caught in the jam just leaving the floor?
Some of the vendors were either really keen to get that last sale, or maybe just tired & punchy from the convention, so there were a few times that pausing for too long, or looking at something more closely, would trigger the sales pitch at a little more intensity than you’d expect. “Heart” & “Spire” were like that, as was the Hellboy RPG, where the guy really wanted to tell me all about the system.
I always feel a little bad in those circumstances, because I’m almost certainly not going to buy the thing, no matter how good their sales pitch is. Luggage weight is an issue, but so is “who would I play it with?”.
The Magical Land Of Yeld is one I’d seen in the display cases, but eventually stumbled across the actual booth. Intended to be playable by kids & adults, it’s about children transported to a magical land who will need to get back before they turn 13 & become monsters. Of course, maybe they’ll decide not to go back, or that being a monster isn’t so bad, …
The DarkSpace booth was also a Geek Church booth, so the two sides had very different aesthetics & colour palettes; I wish I’d taken a picture. While I was there the daughter of one of the folks, a Geek Chaplain, made her first ever art sale & was almost in tears over it.
We left a little before the official end of the convention; You hit the point where you’re pretty sure you’ve seen everything, and there’s the feeling that trying to wring a little more out of the con is probably a step along the path of diminishing returns.
Back in Indiana, at Naomi+Jay’s, I got to unbox the ridiculous game. There’s a lot of stuff in there, painted miniature buildings in their own trays, all set up to fit in the giant box.
Gave it to N+J, because I figure they’ll get a whole lot of fun out of it. That was always my plan with anything I won in the various raffles.
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One response to “Origins Game Fair Sunday”
I was laughing so hard as you were carrying that huge game box back to hotel. You muttering here and there about how ridiculous it was. A memory I’ll never forget. That was a major highlight for me at the Con. Still laughing.