muddy
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 158
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Post by muddy on Jan 25, 2019 13:50:27 GMT -6
I'm interested to know who will be at Gary Con this year, and what if anything, you will be running. Registration is up and running...
It's my first time, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm running two sessions using Blueholme. Far too much campaign background and pregen information can be found here. (password: ThanksGary)
(Mods, if there is a better place for this thread, feel free to move it.)
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 25, 2019 14:42:18 GMT -6
Thanks for the starting this thread, I've been meaning to get one started myself. And it's great to hear you will be running Blueholme! I'll be there for the second time, and am signed up to run In Search of the Brazen Head of Zenopus, once Fri morning from 9-1 and once Sat evening from 7-11. tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xi/schedule/903tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xi/schedule/1667 (currently full) This is the same scenario I had planned for last year before I had to cancel attending due to a death in the family. I did run it at North Texas in June with Chris Holmes (!) playing along with grodog austinjimm and welleran among others. I will also be running it next month at the new Scrum Con. It was originally titled "Return to the Tower of Zenopus", but I was prompted to rename it to something more original because Mike Mearls is running a similarly named game this year (plus the whole "Return to Whatever Classic Dungeon" is sort of a WOTC thing anyway). 1/28 Update: After Gold Registration, my Sat evening game is now full. Still lots of space in the Fri morning game.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2019 14:55:21 GMT -6
I'll be camping out in the Legends of Wargaming room except for Saturday night.
Come on by. Don't try to talk to me when I'm setting up for a game (the sand table is rather labor intensive), but other than that, I'd love to chat.
Don't hesitate to tell me your online handle.
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Post by grodog on Jan 26, 2019 23:05:07 GMT -6
I'm there again this year, but won't be running any games other than perhaps some pickup games in my Castle Greyhawk: I'm planning to play quite a bit more this year than in the past few, when I've only run games (or mostly so).
Allan.
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Post by dicebro on Jan 28, 2019 20:55:02 GMT -6
Hi folks. I’ll be running a couple sessions of Original D&D using The Misty Isles DM kit from the 70s. It will be my third Garycon.
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Post by Zenopus on Jan 29, 2019 16:02:47 GMT -6
Important FYI: Luke Gygax on FB wrote: I believe the Happy Hours are from 5-7 each night. This year's cup design featuring an Aboleth. Blue & green are soda/beer cups, black may be GM's cup?
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Post by Fearghus on Feb 1, 2019 14:55:49 GMT -6
I'll be there this year and will make it point to get into the games those of you posted above. Anyone interested in pickup games please let me know. grodog , will there be a new issue of the Twisting Stair?
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Post by grodog on Feb 2, 2019 7:41:55 GMT -6
I'll be there this year and will make it point to get into the games those of you posted above. Anyone interested in pickup games please let me know. grodog , will there be a new issue of the Twisting Stair? Probably not, Fearghus unless Tony and I pull off completing #4 in the next month (which isn't impossible, but my partner's been very busy with his new day-job, and I'm in the middle of implementing a new search engine at work, too, so I'm not holding my breath ). That said, we'll have plenty of other new and interesting stuff at the Black Blade booth again this year, even if TTS remains behind schedule. I'm hoping we can turn that around by NTX in June. Allan.
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Post by mrmanowar on Feb 2, 2019 16:10:37 GMT -6
Zenopus, I am in your Friday game. Gronan, I'm in your Saturday game. I'm really looking forward to both games! Grodog, it will be great to catch up and see what's available at the booth! See you all in Lake Geneva!
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muddy
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 158
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Post by muddy on Feb 3, 2019 15:38:26 GMT -6
I am also in the Saturday night MU's with Knives game.
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Post by scottenkainen on Feb 4, 2019 9:08:46 GMT -6
I should probably skip entirely this year to save money, but will likely drive up for one day to visit.
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Post by chicagowiz on Feb 4, 2019 13:23:08 GMT -6
I will miss you all very much! I had a prior commitment that I have to honor. *le sigh* grodog - will you guys be at GameHoleCon in November?
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Post by grodog on Feb 4, 2019 14:49:07 GMT -6
I will miss you all very much! I had a prior commitment that I have to honor. *le sigh* grodog - will you guys be at GameHoleCon in November? Michael, almost definitely not: our RL vacation schedules only allow for so many game conventions in a calendar year. Thus far, GHC hasn't made the cut, unfortunately. Allan.
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Post by chicagowiz on Feb 4, 2019 14:56:45 GMT -6
I will miss you all very much! I had a prior commitment that I have to honor. *le sigh* grodog - will you guys be at GameHoleCon in November? Michael, almost definitely not: our RL vacation schedules only allow for so many game conventions in a calendar year. Thus far, GHC hasn't made the cut, unfortunately. Allan. Well, poo. I'm just going to have to order that newsletter with your dungeon mapping advice by mail, then.
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Post by grodog on Feb 4, 2019 17:09:45 GMT -6
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Post by scalydemon on Feb 4, 2019 21:13:05 GMT -6
Hi folks. I’ll be running a couple sessions of Original D&D using The Misty Isles DM kit from the 70s. It will be my third Garycon. This sounds interesting. What types of things can be added with the Misty Isles DM kit?
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Post by dicebro on Feb 6, 2019 20:05:51 GMT -6
I’ll bring a lot of pre-generated characters on index cards. The party will have a hand drawn map, a list of rumors, a sea vessel, and a reason to explore. They will hunt for treasure and do their best to survive. No rulebooks are allowed. Players bring their imagination and a sense of humor. That’s pretty much it.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 5, 2019 22:04:48 GMT -6
If all goes as planned, I'll be there Thur afternoon thru Sunday afternoon. I posted on the blog about it yesterday.What I'm signed up for: Thur - Jasmine card game with Darlene 3-5, Call of Cthulhu "Lake Geneva I Want To Forget" 6-10 Fri - My game 9-1 (full), En Garde (1975 RPG) with Steve Winter 2-5, AD&D Legends Tournament 6-10 Sat - AD&D "The Key to Akbeth's Tower" (part of a Judges Guild module run by paleologos) 10-2, Boot Hill "A Posse for the School Marm" 2-6, my game 7-11 (full) Sun - Empire of the Petal Throne "Welcome to Jakalla" with Victor Raymond ( badger2305) 10-2 I made sure to leave an hour free during Happy Hour each evening.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 11, 2019 13:58:13 GMT -6
Back from Gary Con & exhausted in a good way. My two Zenopus games went great! It was the 3rd & 4th run-thrus of the scenario. I had two great sets of players in each game. The morning game was completely full, so I got to run the game with the full complement of 10 pre-gens for the first time. mrmanowar and paleologos did a great job running Boinger and Zereth, respectively. I usually get so wrapped up in running my games that I forget to take any pics, but one of the Friday morning players (Larry H of Follow Me and Die!) got this table shot. This is just after I gave out the pre-gens so everyone is absorbed in looking them over: These are the "minis" I used to represent the pre-gen PCs. I made two sets & gave them to the players after each game. Each is a character from J. Eric Holmes' D&D novel "The Maze of Peril": Boinger the Hobbit, Zereth the Elf, Murray the Mage, Lady Hortensa the Amazon, Sir Geoffrey, Brother Ambrose, Bardan the Dwarf, Olaf & Haldor the Viking hirelings, Maximillian the Centaur and Sunna (now a thief)
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Post by mrmanowar on Mar 11, 2019 20:38:35 GMT -6
Thanks so much for running the Zenopus game. It was fun to run through the game! I recognized a lot of elements from Maze of Peril which I bought last year. You had a lot of enthusiasm regarding the source material and I had a lot of fun in it. Thanks also to gronanofsymmeria for the OD&D game! I had a lot of fun there too as I made it out alive! It was a good Gary Con all around as I got to see many friends and make some new ones. They definitely had more people there this year than any previous one I attended. I'm also almost fully rested up after those days!
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Post by dicebro on Mar 12, 2019 7:53:15 GMT -6
I saw this on 4chan today:
“A Grognard’s GaryCon XI report. I’ve been attending since GaryCon V. I’ve been playing RPGs and Wargames since 1980. I am 51 years old and work in IT.
Luke Gygax like his father before him has followed the money. GaryCon this year was heavily (estimated around 33% of all on the books games run) sponsored by WOTC/Hasbro and featured a ton of 5E Adventurers League events. Make no mistake, soulless, slick, corporate D&D is on the March. Adventurers League it’s army and Critical Role its ministry of propaganda.
Us geezers and our olde Timey Games will be tolerated as loveable dinosaurs, unless we are banned and un-personed like Frank Mentzer for a bad wrong think houghcrime against the perpetual victim class. This year there was an an inordinate number of pink haired, rainbow ampersand wearing neu school gamers there to play 5E. They sure as f—- aren’t there to play Chainmail on a sand box table or Fight in the Skies.
I mentioned this to another old schooler and he said “North Texas is the fall back position” and I fear he may be right.”
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 12, 2019 9:26:58 GMT -6
That screed is overblown & sounds like the author projecting their own political bias onto the con. (I'll also note the usual irony of slagging others as "perpetual victim class" when that's exactly how they are acting with this rant). There was a great diversity of games, both old and new, and the 5E games & players did not stand out to me in any way. I can cite a few examples I encountered of younger players trying out older games. Right in the middle of the Legends of Wargaming Hall I played the 1975 En Garde RPG (run by Steve Winter of TSR) with several younger players in their 20s, friends I think. I chatted with one who had a GM cup and IIRC he was running 5E and a Western RPG they are developing. They seemed to enjoy the game and were great role-players. I played in an Empire of the Petal Throne RPG game run by badger2305. We were offered choices and everyone voted to explore Barker's original Jakallan underworld & were fairly successful. One younger player (20s or 30s) I chatted with afterwards originally started with 3.5E but now runs multiple B/X and DCC games at Gary Con. On the pure wargaming side, I was told by the father of a teenager who attended that the Chainmail Battle of the Brown Hills (played on a real sand table) was his favorite game of the entire con.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 12, 2019 9:34:26 GMT -6
Thanks so much for running the Zenopus game. It was fun to run through the game! I recognized a lot of elements from Maze of Peril which I bought last year. You had a lot of enthusiasm regarding the source material and I had a lot of fun in it. You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed the game & appreciated the Maze of Peril elements. Not too many who have played it so far have actually read the book! I've worked hard to incorporate the elements of the book into the updated Sample Dungeon. In fact, I have so much material that most Con game groups encounter less than half of it. I'm hoping to get it into publishable form soon so folks can run it at home over several sessions.
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Post by dicebro on Mar 12, 2019 13:04:41 GMT -6
That screed is overblown & sounds like the author projecting their own political bias onto the con. (I'll also note the usual irony of slagging others as "perpetual victim class" when that's exactly how they are acting with this rant). There was a great diversity of games, both old and new, and the 5E games & players did not stand out to me in any way. I can cite a few examples I encountered of younger players trying out older games. Right in the middle of the Legends of Wargaming Hall I played the 1975 En Garde RPG (run by Steve Winter of TSR) with several younger players in their 20s, friends I think. I chatted with one who had a GM cup and IIRC he was running 5E and a Western RPG they are developing. They seemed to enjoy the game and were great role-players. I played in an Empire of the Petal Throne RPG game run by badger2305 . We were offered choices and everyone voted to explore Barker's original Jakallan underworld & were fairly successful. One younger player (20s or 30s) I chatted with afterwards originally started with 3.5E but now runs multiple B/X and DCC games at Gary Con. On the pure wargaming side, I was told by the father of a teenager who attended that the Chainmail Battle of the Brown Hills (played on a real sand table) that it was his favorite game of the entire con. I played in the battle of the brown hills game with the teen and it was a lot of fun!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2019 13:29:12 GMT -6
All my Legends of Wargaming events were great.
4Chan is the grease trap of the internet.
But none of you came and played CHAINMAIL with me. * cries *
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 12, 2019 14:25:10 GMT -6
I played in the battle of the brown hills game with the teen and it was a lot of fun! Awesome! I had fun playing in it two years ago (despite losing due to several failed Counterspells against Darkness) & showed up around midnight to see who won this year, after I finished running my 2nd Zenopus session. I think they were down to three players, two on Chaos, one on Law, but if you were still there you might have seen me chatting with the teen's father. His side (Chaos) ended up winning, just as they did when I played (I was on Law), but the judge Mike told me Law won last year.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 13, 2019 8:46:24 GMT -6
Room reservations for Gary Con XII (March 26-29 2020) went live at 10 AM CST today. Don't bother calling as the wait is really long. Instead use the online reservation from the link on the Gary Con page. I got my reservation in just a few minutes using that. garycon.com/blog/2019/03/12/gary-con-xii-rooms/Update: Per folks on FB, reservations are now full!
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muddy
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 158
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Post by muddy on Mar 13, 2019 9:12:20 GMT -6
I had a great time at my first GC, playing in Paul Stormberg's Dark Druids Adventure Rob Kuntz 1975, two sessions of Stonehell, a DCC session, Gronan's MU's with Knives, Cavaliers and Roundheads for a while with Terry Kunz and Micheal as refs, and a few other things. I also got to meet MrManoWar and ran two sessions of Blueholme. The first was fantastic, the other was pretty good (I think I'll avoid evening games - people were tired).
MrManoWar, great meeting you, I hope to see you again next year and I'll cover the pizza and beer. Micheal, it was a lot of fun, and just what I was looking for - playing ODD as it was once played regularly. I've been meaning to PM each of you but I'm still getting caught up with life outside of Lake Geneva.
As for the comment above, maybe. But I had several players in my sessions who were bored with the newer games and looking to renew their enthusiasm by going back to a simpler, older version of D&D. From conversations after the game, it worked.
My room for next year is reserved.
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Post by mrmanowar on Mar 13, 2019 21:13:04 GMT -6
Nice to meet you too Muddy! I played in various games, differing rulesets every time. I tend to play a lot of things my home group isn't interested in at the time. That's part of the fun of playing convention games for me. I also did my first ever strictly wargaming game this year and it was a learning curve as I was never exposed to those kinds of games. Chainmail and the like came out years before I was born, heck the MM (and maybe the PHB for AD&D may have come out before I was born). It's a true joy to have a con like Gary Con where if I want to play OD&D or Holmes basic, I can. I think of those gamers whose first game was 5E. Mine was a weird blend of basic D&D combined with 1E back in 1988. I wasn't there for the early stuff so it's an experience for me that I treasure. I may not be the best player nor completely understand what it was like to experience it "back in the day" but am thankful and glad for those who provide those experiences. You go with what you know. Peoples' experiences shape how they approach these games. For example, I didn't know Morale was measured not only in the troops one moved about but also how morale was rolled in light of enemies' attacking. I narrowly "won" my wargaming event...the caveat is this... it was Sunday morning and the referee had four no-shows so it was me (no experience whatsoever) with someone on my "team" who had experience versus someone who had played two or three wargaming events previous. It was very clear he (my opponent) knew far more than I did about strategy and tactics, however I had quite a lot of lucky dice rolls that mitigated in my favor. Did I feel like I won? Nope. Just got lucky. I wish there was a very basic elementary "this is how we played" element that adjusted the learning curve. I didn't feel like I "got it" until the final hour or so of the game. I felt odd as both the ref and fellow player castigated me for some "dumb moves" or grabbing a ruler when I shouldn't have, etc. It didn't deter me from trying, but I feel the "new school crowd" would have been a bit more forgiving of a newer player. For the record I have a Guidon Chainmail. Having the ruleset doesn't equate to knowing the rules well enough and playing great when there is no point of reference when trying the game. Very different from when I played OD&D with Jim Ward and Bill Hoyer as refs back at my first Gary Con when it was at the old location.
As to Gary Con having more 5E events, well; that's the flavor of the game now. The convention can only stand on what events are submitted. I'm thankful for what I played. I played OD&D, Holmes Basic, 1E and 2E. No 5E. I run games for my kids and their friends, etc. Most of those parents ask me "What can I take my kids to a store and buy"? 5E is the answer if they want D&D. These parents will not look at print on demand, or search eBay and pay high prices for the old stuff. I don't mind 5E but prefer to run earlier games, hence my desire to play earlier games. The atmosphere is different now in a sense. I'm thankful that Gary Con has a plethora of options and am happy to say I have my room booked for next year. Maybe I'll run a game or more next year. Time will tell. Either way, gaming is fun and always will be for me and I'm glad to participate and play with those who graciously ran games.
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Post by Zenopus on Mar 16, 2019 8:23:45 GMT -6
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