So this year was my third year at GenCon, but really my first where I wasn't completely pre-dedicated to only 1 or 2 games. It turns out, I like to spend most of my time playing Star Wars roleplaying! This is my experience with SWRPG at GenCon 2015!

So Friday, Keith Kappel (KRKappel on the boards here), a freelance writer for the wonderful FFG Star Wars RPG line, posted on Twitter and ended up running a pick up game. I got in, with 3 other guys. The 4 of us assumed the roles of Stormtroopers in the 501st. The goal was to play through the events of Empire Strikes back, but when you wing it and improvise things get crazy (in a good way)!

He sent us in to take out a comms dish and try to locate the actual rebel fleet before the real invasion began. Do you know what happens with Despairs on Hoth? Wampas! Lots of Wampas. After defeating a rampaging Wampa, we make it to our heavily guarded target. We start the assault. Things are going ok when... MORE WAMPAS. We had an awesome 3-way battle with the 4 PCs, 3 minion groups of Rebels, a Rebel officer, a Rebel technician trying to delete data, and then 2 rampaging hungry Wampas. One of them was mysteriously missing an arm. The 501st prevailed and we made our way to Echo base through a hidden tunnel to rendezvous with Vader. After sneaking our way through a remote section of the base, we ran out of time and had to call the game.

EDIT: I forgot to mention kaosoe, who turned up after we started and played for a little bit as a droid helping the troopers. He had to leave early for an event as well. You can see his post below. He was the one that accidentally lead the Wampas to us the second time after getting lost in the snow (we totally left him behind).

Thanks again Keith for running the game. Had a ton of fun.

Saturday I attempted to get into one of the FFG official events. Each day they were running an event for each of the 3 lines at 10 AM and again at 3 PM. They were only running each event once at each time slot, and had room for 6 people at each game. They only sold 5 tickets to each event, leaving 1 slot for generics. At 5 after start time, they would also take generics to fill in if people with event specific tickets did not show up. Sam Stewart was running the Force and Destiny game. I'm really sorry, but I do not remember the names of the guys running Age of Rebellion or Edge of the Empire. I really wanted to get into the FaD game with Sam. I'm the least familiar with that CRB and would have loved to play in game run by the lead designer.

I got there around 9:45 Saturday morning and was probably like 20th on the waiting list for generics. LOL. So the games fill up and they let the rest of us that didn't make it in know that they have all 3 beginner games if any of us want to try them, they just have no one to run them for us. Before I could offer to run one, someone else stepped up and we had 5 of us play through the beginner game for Force and Destiny. It was a really fun adventure, I enjoyed it a lot.

I went back around 2 and got on the waiting list for the 3 PM games. I was still pretty far down, but they told me there were not a lot of singles ahead of me so I had a shot. So it came down to only a single open spot in Force and Destiny and Age of Rebellion very quickly, and most people were in groups of 2+ that did not want to split up like they said when I put my name down originally. The guy right in front of me was alone. He had never played SWRPG before. They said something along the lines of "you can be a Rebel soldier in Age of Rebellion, or a Jedi in Force and Destiny." LOL! He obviously picked Force and Destiny. I ended up in the AoR game.

Unfortunately the AoR adventure they were running was the same one they gave out for Free RPG/Rebellion Day last October: Rescue at Glare Peak. I did play in that one then, but my GM cut off the first 2/3 of the adventure because of time concerns. It was fun to play through the whole thing finally, and our last 1/3 went way different than previously due to the context of the first 2/3 I was missing last time. Everyone that played got a copy of the adventure, as well as getting to keep the pre-gen they used (they had us using a different set of pre-gens than the ones that come with the adventure). I had a really good time!

Sunday I got there at 9 AM for one last try for FaD. They were only running the 10 AM time slot on Sunday. The door to the FFG room was locked, but they shared it with another company who had their end open. About 9:20 I cut through the room and found out I was the 5th one there and no one from FFG was there yet. They got there around 9:40 (which gave them plenty of time to set up, really, so no hard feelings on my end) and started taking names for the generics wait list again. I ended up 4th on the list somehow (someone there before me didn't speak up). Unfortunately, almost everyone that had purchased tickets for Sunday morning showed up also, leaving not many spots open. The very first guy jumped into the FaD game, oh well. I ended up getting a slot in the EotE game only because one guy from a group of 2 ahead of me on the list disappeared.

The EotE adventure was fun. We were hired by a shady individual to enter into the Cloud City Cloud Car Grand Prix and win the race. We had to find a pilot, a gunner, and do everything we could to sabotage the 3 best rivals in the 10 team field (the other 6 were not really worth the effort) in around 24-36 hours before race time. I know the Grand Prix is in the Jewel of Yavin, but I think this was a new adventure designed around it. Once again, I had a blast (lol, just remembered I was a demolitionist). Everyone who played also got a copy of Rescue at Glare Peak (the AoR adventure), so I think that was the giveaway for the weekend. Both the AoR and EotE GMs did a great job.

So the downside? Not enough games being run. The guys running the games knew it too. They kept that waiting list from every time slot to show their bosses that there was WAY more interest in SWRPG at GenCon than they planned for. Not only did a majority of the people that bought event specific tickets show up, but lots of people with generics were trying to get in also. Every time slot I was there, the 5 people with FaD tickets showed up, leaving the 1 slot for someone with generics. EotE and AoR had 2-3 of the 5 there each time also. Every event was sold out in the event system prior to the con, so all the tickets were bought. Event specific tickets can be returned up to 30 minutes prior to the event.

Really wish I could have gotten into the Sam Stewart game, but the FFG guys did a great job accommodating who they could considering the circumstances. It was just unfortunate they had to turn so many people away. Everyone I encountered while waiting and playing was very nice as well. This game has a great community!

It was great playing the 501st ESB adventure with you.

Great Recap.

For the Empire!

Unless Keith ran more than one SW RPG game on Friday, I was there for a little bit. I stopped by to get Keith to sign my copy of Force and Destiny and he handed me the droid character sheet. It was fun. I hated that I had an event I had to go to. Otherwise, I would have stuck around and finished the game. But I did get into his game the next day. The first encounter ran so long that that's all we did. But it was a good time.

I was also lucky enough to have been able to play the Force and Destiny game Sam ran. It was awesome. He really knows how to spin an epic encounter with an inquisitor. And the guy playing the guardian in our group took him out in an epic way. It was a really memorable game. It stinks that you couldn't get in.

Unless Keith ran more than one SW RPG game on Friday, I was there for a little bit. I stopped by to get Keith to sign my copy of Force and Destiny and he handed me the droid character sheet. It was fun. I hated that I had an event I had to go to. Otherwise, I would have stuck around and finished the game. But I did get into his game the next day. The first encounter ran so long that that's all we did. But it was a good time.

I was also lucky enough to have been able to play the Force and Destiny game Sam ran. It was awesome. He really knows how to spin an epic encounter. And the guy playing the guardian in our group took him out in an epic way. It was a really memorable game. It stinks that you couldn't get in.

And yeah, the problem with one shots is getting quick encounters. Not that the game isn't fun otherwise, but there is a small bit of disappointment when time is up and you realize you didn't get very far, lol.

Awesome, sounds like a great time. Really bummed that I missed GenCon this year now that I know they were giving away copies of Glare Peak... so, sounds like you have two copies... willing to part with one?

Awesome, sounds like a great time. Really bummed that I missed GenCon this year now that I know they were giving away copies of Glare Peak... so, sounds like you have two copies... willing to part with one?

Actually, since I already had the one, I declined to take the second one.

Yeah, I was really bummed out that just a few hours after ticket sales opened, all of the FFG-run EotE / AoR / etc. games were sold out. Here's hoping they sell some more next time. I didn't even bother trying to get in with generics, it's just too much hassle and you feel like a pauper. "Please sir, may I have a game?"

I had bought a ticket that someone on this board advertised (a Friday night game called Rodian Raid), but ended up returning it because some old friends of mine were at the con and wanted to try EotE and the only night they had free was Friday. Sorry if you guys were short one!

So I ran what I thought would be a quick one-shot with my friends; I used one of the modular encounters from the back of the Lords of Nal Hutta book. The very first scene was a combat encounter, and it ended up taking a long time to resolve. I thought that the thugs were minions, but then I realized they were rivals, and with only 3 PCs (archaeologist, politico, and demolitionist), I think the nemesis + 2 rivals was too much to throw at them. They had a real hard time making headway against the badguys, so eventually I had the cops show up and bail them out. Totally my fault, now I know what not to do!

I also waited in line at the FFG booth for an hour and blew like $300 on RPG books. Been reading voraciously ever since! Even though I didn't get enough EotE, it was still a great con!

Awesome, sounds like a great time. Really bummed that I missed GenCon this year now that I know they were giving away copies of Glare Peak... so, sounds like you have two copies... willing to part with one?

Actually, since I already had the one, I declined to take the second one.

Doh! Why does no one ever think of the foreigners???

Awesome, sounds like a great time. Really bummed that I missed GenCon this year now that I know they were giving away copies of Glare Peak... so, sounds like you have two copies... willing to part with one?

Actually, since I already had the one, I declined to take the second one.

Doh! Why does no one ever think of the foreigners???

I know... Even later that day I realized my mistake.

Awesome, sounds like a great time. Really bummed that I missed GenCon this year now that I know they were giving away copies of Glare Peak... so, sounds like you have two copies... willing to part with one?

Actually, since I already had the one, I declined to take the second one.

Doh! Why does no one ever think of the foreigners???

I know... Even later that day I realized my mistake.

All good. I can only hope that with the flood of new copies out there, at least someone will put one on eBay at a reasonable price...