NonCon 2003

Since I thoroughly enjoyed myself last year, and they invited me back, I attended NonCon once again this year. Getting there was the first problem. While I convinced plenty of my friends that they'd have a blast there, none of them were able to attend. I arranged a ride with my aunt, which promptly fell through due to illness, and eventually had to get a ride from the same semi-staffer as I did last year.

Upon arriving, the first thing that struck me (besides the fact that I actually got there before the con started this year), was how much better organized everything was this year. Rather than being spread around the Vassar campus, nearly everything was contained on one floor of one building. Crash space was much easier to obtain, and guest speakers like me even had access to free hotel rooms a few blocks away.

The next thing I noticed is that in a fit of over-eagerness, I'd signed up to speak on half the guest panels. This of course followed by the fact that, once again, while there were in theory 100 or so people in attendance, I didn't see anyone but the same dozen or so people for the entire three days. Not that that's a bad thing really.

Last year, I went to NonCon expecting to watch a ton of anime, and instead spent most of my time playing table top games. This year I went expecting to game for three days straight, and instead I spent most of my time discussing old sci-fi and horror stories with people far more qualified to speak on the subject than me.

The most notable of these was C.J. Henderson. In addition to writing refreshingly accurate reviews of Sci-Fi movies, he also writes quite a bit. What makes him so notable? Well, sitting around with him long enough I was eventually pressured into buying his latest book. It's a collection of short stories which apply the formula of the hardboiled detective novel to things like the Cthulu Mythos. Good stuff.

I did however eventually get around to a good deal of that gaming.

First off, I played nearly everything by Cheapass Games. I think the only game they make that I didn't get around to was Freeloader, but I own it now, so I'll be giving it a whirl in the not too distant future. The thing about Cheapass Games is that since their stuff is so darn cheap (I mean, they'll sell you a board game for less than three bucks), when they send a rep to a con, they'll bring a giant box of games and give them all away. I particularly recommend Kill Dr. Lucky and U.S. Patent #1.

Some other interesting games I got under my belt include Settlers of Catan, a rather interesting German strategy game, and Zombies... although I passed out before finishing that one. And why?

Because prior to zombies, I was involved in a 7 player 4 flag game of Robo Rally, and we actually finished.

I even squeezed in time for some anime watching... although most of it I already had. The big one I hadn't was Magic Circle Guru Guru. Basic plot summary: A kid's parents pressure him into becoming the main character of a console RPG. Highlights include the stat windows that pop up whenever new characters show up, listed stat bonuses for every piece of equipment that appears on screen, and the surprisingly frequent alert boxes for status changes. Particularly when the main character's mother makes him breakfast in the shape of the world map. "Don't eat the poison swamp!"

So all in all, as it was last year, NonCon was the most fun I had all year. Hopefully next year, some of you people will actually be attending, particularly since I'm planning on running a Tyranny demo or two.

Oh, and for the record, no, I was not bribed into any of the above plugs. Trust me, I'd mention a lot more if that were the case.