Well, I'm happy to say that Man-Con was a success!
Itinerary
Friday
7:00: Aaron and I show up to find Eric sick, trashed, but happy at the "Manager's Reception." Apparently, from 5:00-7:30 at all Embassy Suites, you can get free booze, all you can drink. We drank some booze.
8:00: After getting a little trashed ourselves, we proceeded to the steakhouse, whereupon I destroyed my diet in style, eating not just fries but also onion rings along with my cheezburger.
9:30: We retire to the room. Totally perfect for our purposes: two rooms (I can sleep in one room so as to not disturb "Eagle Ears" Hess, Aaron can snuggle up with Eric El Conq-style), lots of table space, lots of chairs, and even a nice view of the bay.
10:00: We started playing the WoW Adventure Game. Fun! Aaron ended up smashing his way to victory.
Saturday
9:00: We go down to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, which is a complete fucking madhouse as the hotel seems to be booked and it is basically a throw-out-your elbows battle to get cups, plates, spoons, tables, and napkins, much less food or coffee. (Ja-el, you would've loved it, lots of vaguely sluttily/elegantly dressed young ladies, of all races!)
10:30 AM - 10:30 PM: We played 4th ed D&D. Yeah that's right... like 12 straight hours of D&D. It was great! We played through the starter adventure in the DMG, and got totally destroyed by the dragon in the last room (a tough but reasonably doable battle for the assumed five player, totally unpossible for our three-man team).
Sunday:
9:00: More breakfast, more madness.
9:30: WoW board game again, this time I draw the orc warrior and am victorious. Lesson learned: Orc warriors rule, all others drool.
12:00: Back home to foggy-ass San Francisco.
Notes on this:
- 4th ed is a lot of fun, streamlining a lot of things to promote good gameplay.
- It will be even cooler once we are running it as a real RPG, instead of as a quasi-boardgame.
- We need more of you guys to move to the SF area so that we can more easily get a group together.
- It is easier to game when you are not at a gaming convention, go figure.
- It takes Aaron a long time to order a pizza. Like half an hour.
- Beer is good.
- So is coffee.