RPG a Day #26 Origin

 

I’m going to try and take part in the #RPGaDay writing prompts for 2021. The idea is there’s a prompt every day that asks you to write about something in RPG’s you really like. There are a couple of alternate prompts offered but I’m going to try and do the main one every day. If you want to try it yourself, you can head here for the calendar for this year.

While theory has been an interesting topic to read today, it didn’t really click with me as something I could write about. I decided to look at one of the alternate topics. In this case I went with Origin. While I don’t imagine the fine folks who created this list considered we’d be a little over a month from Origins Game Fair in Columbus, I think I’ll chat about that today.

Origins wasn’t the first game convention I’d been to. I’d visited some local cons, a couple of colleges had events that were a day trip drive, and one or two places held a weekend long event that required I get a hotel room. Origins was the first large con I attended.

I drove out on my own, had a hotel room a bit too far away, and parked too far from the convention hall. The walk to the con was awful, it was way too far and took far too long. The line to get my badge was ridiculous and I was carrying my RPG books in an over the shoulder bag that was starting to hurt.

There were a few bright spots in the starting walk. I saw a couple of costumes, this was before cosplay had really taken off so costumes were a pretty unique occurrence. I talked to some folks in line, this is one of the few things that’s been a mainstay of all my con experiences, talking to people in line. I do enjoy meeting new people. Despite that I was not shaping up to a great morning.

Then I walked into the vendor’s hall and every bad thing melted into the background. I had never seen so much gaming in one spot. It actually took me a little bit to realize that this wasn’t the entire con, just the vendor’s hall. I thought all of my time was going to be spent in that room.

I was awestruck with how far apart everything was. I couldn’t see the back wall for all of the bright booths, tall displays, and colorful art that was hung everywhere. I spent most of the hour before my first game wandering around and looking at everything. It’s the one con I attended where I didn’t have a camera and I’m still disappointed in that.

I didn’t get back to the vendors hall much after that first hour or so. I’d made the rookie mistake of scheduling every inch of my time and didn’t have any to spare to get back to that magical room and look around. It’s something I’ve corrected since then.

If you’ve never been to a large con I recommend doing it at least once for the experience alone. I also recommend not scheduling anything for your first day so you can walk around the vendor’s hall and see as much of it as you want.

Origin’s was the first major con I attended and will always have a special place in my heart. It’s where I played my first battle interactive, learned about and played X Crawl for the first time, and got to experience so many great firsts. I look forward to when I’m able to return and spend some time there again.

Tomorrow I’ll come back and talk about fraction…I think.

Until then, stay safe and be well.