I went to a Con.. a small con .. but it counts.

Chillin at a table playing games/

Neal and I  drove down to WGGCon 2014 at Croton Point Park, it only took about an hour and a half to get there and we stayed for about five hours or so, I'm the wrong guy to ask about time and distance.

The con was very laid back, and run by very nice people. I have no complaints about the experience.

I'm not Normally a con goer, I don't have years of Gen-Con under my belt and  I don't make a huge habit of  seeking out gaming conferences.

Here are my thoughts:

• Board games are cool , but I like RPGS more.
• If I was going to run an RPG, which I could have at WGGCon there was no reason not to , I would want to stat early or plan on staying the night. 
• Prepping for a con game would need to be more extensive than my normal prep, but I think that's kind of given.
• As a GM I don't know if I could deal with the noise. I'm not used to it, and back ground noise just kills me.

I got to game with some cool people.
I played a beta from Dr. Finns games with  Steve Finn the  writer and designer. 

His current kickstarter which only has 20 or so hours left (GO QUICK!) is called   "The Institute for Magical Arts."

It's a fast playing two player card and dice game with a nice balance of luck mitigated by strategy. Cleverly written and easy to pick up. It was great to play it with Mr. Finn watching and giving pointers.

We also played "Let them Eat Shrimp" by the same designer / company. It's an area control and management game done by shape with a undersea theme. Let Them Eat Shrimp is also a clever quick playing game suitable for kids or adults.

Check out Dr.Finn's games web site here for the rest od Steve Finns games.

Steve Finn and I also had a brief but interesting conversation on the nature and risks involved with kick starter. He has had a good deal of success on Kickstarter and has had several successfully funded projects. Kick starter still scares the hell out of me.
Even just in our quick conversations Steve Finn really impressed me, good guy.

We also Played Ascending Empires

A game which I fell like I should be saying I was lucky to play.
 The owner who's name was I believe Orin.  I admit I was having trouble hearing him. so if I just got his name wrong I apologize. He was an nice guy and very gracious to teach us the rules.

Then he kicked our butts.

I had never heard of the game but apparently it's popular and currently hard to find.
The hard to find  part might explain the several people who stopped to watch us play and also this entry on Amazon.

Ascending Empires involves galactic exploration, civilization building,  researching  technology trees, claiming victory points, and flicking small ships around a board making them crash into things.

Mostly I crashed into things. Mostly I crashed my ships into my own ships. I was pretty horrible, I had fun with it regardless. 

The  fourth Player in our Ascending Empires game was this gentleman.
Some call him Chris but he also goes by Whack Steven on You tube and on Twitch TV where he live streams Pathfinder. With something like 22 multiple part episodes on You tube you can get lost in the content but it's worth it.
His You-tube Vids are well produced, and look and sound awesome . A viewer can tell he takes making them seriously, and puts the time in. (the opposite of my you-tube vids)
In a broad sense the videos make an excellent learning tool for GMs then specifically for using Roll-20 to play Pathfinder, go watch them.

A genuinely cool guy we chatted about general games, D&D 5th edition, and then got our heads kicked in at ascending empires. 

To be fair he came in second by being sneaky with his cities.

So that was my con experience. 

If all conferences were that laid back and  all the  people you meet that interesting engaging and cool, hell Neal might be able to talk me into a few more. 

Metatopia anyone?

Finally  WHEW~!~

when I got home This was waiting for me.

Its a great book.

Frog god games is a cool company.

I'm a happy  Blood sucking-panda-drake

As always thanks for reading 

questions and comments can be left in the  wreckage of two crashed star-ships floating below.