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Gary Con 15

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March 23-26, 2023 Gary Con 15 took place in Lake Geneva, WI. I didn’t take as many pictures this year.

What I Ran

I signed up to run 4 games of 4 hours each, one each morning. I used the same scenario for each. I used Delving Deeper the Original D&D clone I describe as OD&D but organized. While not perfect and there are a few things I would change, it makes for fast character creation and is simple to run, perfect for cons.

It was a higher level scenario with 8 – 8th level (or max level PCs). 4 humans: Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, and Thief all 8th level. 2 Elves, one an 8th level magic user and the other a 4th level fighter/4th level magic user, 4th level fighter being the max level. A 6th level dwarf, max level, and a 4th level halfling, max level. The halfling saves as an 8th level fighter and gets +3 on hurled weapons, which I ruled includes slings. All fighters had magic armor and magic weapons, the others had some sort of magic item that included weapons. I randomly determined the magic items and some were quite powerful. I kept them.

My scenario is called “Rescue From Fire Island”. The evil princess of the Eternal Flame (a volcano) captured good queen Galvia of the Verdant Isles. In times of trouble, Galvia summons a dragon to help. Her advisors are keeping this quiet to avoid panic while the party, the “Special Projects Team” rescues the queen. The queen is to be sacrificed in a week to the volcano. So there is a timer. There is a hexcrawl element so the PCs can encounter various creatures on the island. Both groups I ran this for loved it.

The party would be teleported in but the princess’ castle and the dread temple on the volcano were blocked. The players got to choose where they teleported in. This difference guaranteed that no two groups would play the exact same situation.

Two things I used for this made it interesting that players in both groups appreciated. I used checkers for tracking days with the plain side being day and the crown side being night. The other thing was for each PC I had two game pieces for each player their own color. One piece went by the index card with their name and PCs name and class. The other went on the made to show marching order. I used mancala pieces to show where the party was and when they encountered certain special encounters.

I have a spoilers section at the end. Don’t read it if you want to play this scenario. I plan to write it up and will put it on DriveThru RPG [Affiliate Link].

Day 1

Sadly, no one signed up for the first day, Thursday, and no one was looking for a game, so I didn’t get to run it. Of course I was most worried about being ready for the first session, but I was ready.

Day 1 – Nearly full gaming hall with my table prepped.
Day 1 – Waiting for Players before I finish setup.
Day 1 – Ray Otus with a refurbished Castle Grayskull DM screen and dice tower. With a Forrest Aguire sans fez.
Day 1 – Pat Kilbane with the current cut of his documentary, “The Dreams In Gary’s Basement”.

Day 2

The second day, I had 3 people signed up, but they all cancelled, but three fellows were available. I had them each run two PCs, which was a good mix. They had a blast. One of them showed up and was asking about my game, and bought one of the Delving Deeper books I stock up on from Lulu. This year, I planned to use them as a roll off gift after the session. Which when he located his two buddies, I still did, and because I had more than I needed after no game the day before I did the roll off, and sold another to the other.

They loved the hexcrawl aspect and had a lot of random encounters. Their choice of where they teleported to got them quickly to the final encounter. The thief was turned to stone, but the rest of the party made some interesting choices in what they did and beat the princess and saved the queen.

They had a blast and every time I saw them they were still pumped and ready to run Delving Deeper for their home group.

Day 2 – Running “Rescue From Fire Island” for the first time.
Day 2 – Giant mini sized print of a Dyson Logos dungeon with two DMs on each end running different groups.
Day 2 – Chgowiz running his battle for the moathouse from the module “Village of Hommlet”
Day 2 – Closeup of Chgowiz’s 3-D printed Moathouse

Day 3

The third day, I had 7 signed up. Only one was a no show, but I had ran into a friend who had a younger friend looking for a game, so he joined in. They all had a blast and were also really into it.

They chose to come in closer to the pincess’ castle and encountered the Juggernaut, the toughest monster in Delving Deeper, but managed to beat it and the princess. They also had no random encounters so got to the location of the final fight and beat the princess. The elf mage saved vs petrification TWICE! Three PCs died in the end.

One of the players gave me a gift card to Target. They said they had one for each game they signed up for between $5 and $25 and they didn’t know which was which. That was a first for me, and I will use that to stock up on game materials like graph paper, etc.

Day 3 – Full table of players for second running of “Rescue From Fire Island.”
Day 3 – The Administrator himself, Merle Rasmussen of Top Secret.
Day 3 – Todd Stashwick AKA Captain Shaw of the current season of Picard. We met last year and he recalled my name and my blog.

Day 4

The final day, 3 were signed up, but one cancelled. One showed up on time, but had to leave early because of when his ride was leaving and another showed up an hour late, so we only had about an hour left. Even if I tried starting at the end fight and they each ran 3 characters, I’m not sure I could have made it work in an hour. So we played my card game. One of the players bought Delving Deeper from me a few years ago at Marmalade Dog, so instead of a roll-off, I gave the gift book to the other fellow. Sadly, both times I play tested my card game this Gary Con, I forgot to take a picture mid game. We had fun and they both enjoyed it.

I about lost my voice from talking loud enough to be heard over a crowded game room where almost every table was at play. By the time I got home Sunday evening, I felt bad and suspected if I didn’t have Covid, I had the flu. Muscle and join aches and increasing nasal drainage. I did a Covid test and I thought it might be a false positive because I didn’t notice the faint second line until after the 15-20 minute window to check it. The directions indicated that after 20 minutes if the second line showed up if is likely a false positive. So I was planning to re-test on Monday, but when my breakfast had no flavor and I felt worse, I knew I had Covid.

I am so mad at myself. I still wear a mask going to the store or to pick up restaurant take out. At Gary Con they only required a negative Covid test or proof of vaccination, but did not require masks. I only wore a mask in line at registration, because we were packed tightly. I’m feeling a lot better today. My voice is worse due to all the drainage, but the random aches and pains are gone and I have a lot more energy.

I’m resolved to wear a mask next year as I don’t every want to feel this bad again. It saddens me that I helped expose others to Covid. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone as I feel terrible. It’s only because of being fully vaxed and boosted that I’m already feeling better.

I’m really disappointed in those who were sick or had been exposed who showed up and didn’t wear a mask. That is so selfish. I don’t like that I can’t trust anyone with my health and that it’s all on me. The world will never be like it was pre-Covid. At least not for a long time.

But other than almost losing my voice and getting Covid, I had an awesome time. Gary Con is still my favorite convention. Not too big and everyone is happy to be there.

Spoilers

Don’t read this if you’d rather discover these things as a player in this scenario.

The dread princess is a lich and the queen is the dragon. She has a magical collar that prevents her from transforming. The volcano will explode and destroy the island by the end of the 7th day if the queen isn’t sacrificed.

Inspiration

My granddaughter and I play a free-form RPG we made up called “Dragon” where she is a dragon. My son and his family lives with me, so she will come to my room and say, “Grandpa, let’s play ‘Dragon’!”

So I thought for a moment and said, “OK, one day you wake up to the mocking laughter of the evil princess and find yourself in a dragon proof cage.” When I was thinking about what I could run at Gary Con this year, I easily made a more coherent scenario that would make for an interesting and challenging session.

RPGs

Gary Con 14 – 2022 Recap

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I had a blast at Gary Con 14.

Listen to the companion podcast here.

Wednesday

I arrived Wednesday about lunchtime and went to The Pub Next Door and had one of the lunch specials – spaghetti.

I then made a Walmart run for a couple things I forgot before checking in.

My room was about as close as you can get to the lobby. I was on the building closest to the lobby on the Gary Con HQ side of things. My room was the first room next to the stairwell. I was on the top floor, the third floor.

The landing at the top of the stairs has a group of gamers that set up for the entire weekend. A group of AD&D players and they had a long game that was a continuation of prior years that they’ve come to Gary Con. I never heard them. This made it easy to just head back to my room to drop off stuff or get stuff if I wasn’t too far away.

I then went to see what was what and met up a few friends in the lounge and we then headed to the registration for badge pick up. We got there and the line was already long. We had to wait about ten minutes for the registration to open. It took close to an hour to snake around to the registration window.

Waiting in line. Registration window to left of 1st pitcure. Finally in sight in 2nd picture

While waiting I discovered that I was right behind a friend – hard to recognize with masks on and we caught up. I saw a few others ahead of me in line and said a quick hello.

Wednesday is the weekly OSE game I play in. This is campaign two and it was Session 87, I have made every session. I also played in the first campaign that was about 245 sessions. I never missed a session of that campaign and played a couple times on Wednesday night at Gary Con, and once they moved the game to Tuesday just because, so I wouldn’t have to play from the convention.

After the game, I went to the lounge and got in more visiting before turning in.

Thursday

I had a 9 am three hour slot. For Gary Con 12 – the first one to be affected by Covid, I signed up for all wargames and board games, as I wanted to get those in. I got into every game I wanted. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

I tried to repeat that this year, but there were not as many wargames, and the ones I wanted in were already full. I did find a board game, Diplomacy. We had a full roster of seven players. Five players, including myself had never played before. The guy running the game played Italy, and the other experienced player had Russia. I had Germany, and the other novices had England, France, Austria, and Turkey. Each of the other newbies were college buddies.

Not much movement mid-game.

The game is set in 1900 Europe and the idea is to use negotiation and deceit to grow one’s empire.

The only random element is determining who plays what country to start. For the rest of the game, the players talk among themselves, either as individuals or groups to discuss plans. We had a blast making alliances then stabbing each other in the back.

As Germany, I knew I was surrounded. The other novices decided we should gang up on the experienced players. So we hammered Russia and nearly knocked it off the board. Then we focused on Italy. Austria was wiped off the map.

Being surrounded, I had an initial alliance with Russia, but quickly took Warsaw, a control center. Having control centers determines how many units one can have on a one for one basis.

I also took Denmark and the Netherlands and made an agreement that I got the Netherlands and they got Belgium. I then mostly sat in place to hold my control centers. I did a bit of movement to the south to keep Italy off my territory.

It was only a three hour slot due to a mistake in scheduling so we only had time for four or five turns. At the end of each turn we’d write down our moves. Once all were turned in, the guy running the game would go through them and adjudicate them. Some moves couldn’t be adjudicated until other player’s moves were considered.

The last couple of turns are when I backstabbed Italy, when we all ganged up, and then I backstabbed France and took Belgium. England made an alliance with me to break our alliance with France.

We then ran out of time and when the score was tallied, I actually won! I wasn’t expecting to win. My use of a strategy to avoid a two front war is what saved me.

Diplomacy can never be the same game twice, even if you play with the same players and each end up with the same country.

We had the right mix of players and had a great time. I can see where people who take it too seriously could end up with hurt feelings.

Diplomacy was published in the 1959, so it is older than I am. Dave, Gary, and most of the old guard played Diplomacy both in person and by mail. I see how it influenced the emergence of roleplaying. If you’ve never played, this is something you should try.

WOTC still sells Diplomacy and you can get a PDF of the rules from their website. Since you can get the rules for free, you can use any map. You just need tokens for armies, navies, and territory markers. You’d have to add control points to the map. The Risk Board could work, or a fantasy map, or a map of your own design.

In the afternoon, I had lunch, then I took a nap, then I visited with friends and took a quick tour of the vendor hall and ran into a few more friends.

I ran into Yolanda Frontenay, owner of Gary’s old house where he wrote original D&D. See my prior post about the Indiegogo Campaign and the immediate need to take out two trees.

I then dressed up as my character Griswald, the namesake of “Follow Me, And Die!” for the wedding of Satine Phoenix & Jameson Stone. Griswald is the fellow with the raised sword and wolf’s head shield with red eyes that is my social media avatar by Satine. She recognized what I was dressed as.

Thanks to a friend I have these better pictures than the closet mirror in my hotel room.

It was a fun ceremony. There was a vinyl game mat for guests to sign and a stack of various creatures from Figurines of Adorable Power for prty gifts for the guests.

Satine & Jameson – Officiated by Luke Gygax

After the ceremony, Satine and Jameson had their picture taken with the wedding party and then the guests. They had two instant copies of each photo. One for the couple immediately placed in a photo album and each guest in the photo signed it. The guests then got a copy of the same photo.

We then had much talking among fellow guests until things wound down late in the evening.

Friday

From 8 am til Noon I played in “Skull Stack Crater” a Holmes Basic scenario by Zach Howard of Zenopus Archives. I played a lizardfolk warrior. We were all third level, the halfling thief was fourth level.

The mix of experienced players easily got through some obstacles. I played my character as a fearless warrior who would gladly go first. I think I had the most hit points.

It was a fun adventure.

I played in Zach’s Return to the Tower of Zenopus at Gary Con 11, the last in person con til now. One of the other players was in that same game and we remembered each other.

I then went to a seminar by Jameson Stone, Indie TTRPG Publishing & Kickstarter. He and those attending the seminar mentioned several helpful things for those doing Kickstarter or other crowdsourced fundraising. He mentioned several things I had not heard or read before in all my reading.

I then took another nap. I live in the Eastern time zone, so I keep waking up as if it is 7 am, when it is 6 am Central. That made for long days. I also hadn’t slept well the prior days.

After supper I attended GM Tips by Satine. I’ve been to several GM Tips presented by Satine, most recently at Gamehole Con last October. She always has something new to say.

The main thing is that there is no one size fits all answer anymore. There are three possible applications: live games, online games, and streamed games. Each of them is different, so the answers for the same question is different for each. Very insightful and something to think about.

After Satine’s seminar I had a brief moment to tell her something I didn’t get to tell her after her wedding. Then we got our annual Gary Con picture. She and Jameson would fly to England for D&D in a Castle the next day, so it was a whirlwind for them.

I then visited with friends in the lounge.

The next day, I didn’t have anything until 11 am so I was planning to sleep in.

Saturday

NARRATOR: “Despite his good intentions, he did not, in fact sleep in. He awoke at the same early hour as every previous morning. He realized this as he looked bleary eyed at his watch.”

At 11 am I had the two hour screening of the documentary, “The Dreams in Gary’s Basement” by Pat Kilbane. I saw a teaser of this at my first Gary Con – Gary Con 8. That was also the first Gary Con for both Satine and I and we kept ending up in the same seminars, and we became Gary Con buddies.

After the screening I bought Pat lunch so we could catch up. We met up with Dave Wesley and he joined us and regaled us with stories of his father’s WWII service. Near the end of that Grif Morgan of the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary joined us.

I then took another nap.

On my way to get supper I talked with a table of younger gamers who liked my denim vest. (I got a LOT of complements about my sleeveless denim jacket with various pins and buttons, and a Death Dealer patch on the back.)

I got the three of them to play my card game. It was the first playtest I got in.

I then ran into Zach Howard and we got to talking about Holmes Basic. Pat Kilbane walked by and the three of us talked about how Holmes Basic was the first D&D for each of us.

I looked down at the desk with Gary’s books on it and realized that one of the books is the Penguin Atlas of Medieval History. I still have that book from college. I can’t find it to get a comparison picture.

Gary’s “Penguin Atlas of Medieval History”

I made another trip to the vendor hall. I missed the presentation of the Gary Con Lifetime Achievement Award, but figured out that it was Lou Zocchi of Game Science, when I saw the award at his booth.

I bought a 5 die set from Lou. I think that’s my fifth set of Game Science dice.

I bought a new dice bag from another vendor.

Next I bought a set of dice from Role 4 Initiative. I didn’t realize that they were a Michigan based company. They are in Portage, MI about 15 minutes from where I live. They are all online sales since they don’t have a storefront.

An online friend gave me a 3-D printed mini of Gary Gygax. He said that there were ten around the convention free to whoever found them. He had two.

I then spent the evening in the lounge visiting. I tried and failed to get any pick up games to try my card game.

Sunday

I sat at a table in the restaurant near the table where Todd Stashwick was having breakfast with someone. When his friend departed someone else walked up about the time I was finished. Todd mentioned he grew up near Lake Geneva (Chicago). I then struck up a conversation with him about old games, like D&D 1e. This was his first Gary Con. He then gave me a card with a Spotify bar code for his gaming/travel playlist. It’s a bunch of songs from late 70s & early 80s and got me all the way home with playlist to spare. He honored me by following me on Instagram.

I managed to get in two playtests with two new players and one of the players from Saturday’s card game.

I then did a playtest of the original deck and the alternate deck. I was glad to learn that the never before played alternate deck was not broken. I did find some phrasing that was wrong, and I used the wrong term on a card that didn’t match the correct term.

I had comments that the art is perfect and that they would have bought the game if it were for sale.

I think this means that I’m finally ready to put together the final deck. I’m not the one to do layout. I can make it look good enough for a playtest, but I need a layout person who knows cards. If you know someone who won’t cost me an arm and a leg, let me know.

I got in a great visit with Steve Winter and we talked about all kinds of things and other gamers joined in.

I talked to someone else and they went to follow me on Twitter and found out they were already following me.

On previous days of the con, I had several tell me that they read the blog, or follow me on Twitter. I met someone at the lounge bar Saturday night and they said that several people said that he needed to read my blog. That is always a cool ego boost.

About 3 pm, I found myself reluctantly ready to head home. I couldn’t afford it, but I could really use another week or two like that. I found my mood lifted, the drudgery induced by Covid isolation eradicated. My spirits were lightened and my creativity renewed. The drive home was easy and not too big of a pain. There weren’t too many drivers that were scary.

I made it home safe and after I unpacked I scripted and recorded, edited, and posted episode 199 of my podcast.

I have ideas ready to flow for more blog posts, podcasts, and more. I don’t have the time or energy to get them done as quickly as I want, but I’m pressing ahead as quick as I can.

For those of you who were at Gary Con and we didn’t connect, I’m sorry we missed each other. For those new people I met, it was wonderful to meet you. For all my friends who I did get to see, it was awesome catching up! I hope to see both those I didn’t encounter and those who couldn’t make it next year, or at Gamehole Con or UCon later this year.

My only negative is that one evening I left my black zippered hoody with my logo and “Follow Me, And Die!” in red letters. I reported it and gave regular updates via Twitter. No one turned it in. I hope whoever has it was able to keep warm and that they get a lot of use out of it.

Crying over my lost hoodie.

GAME ON!

RPGs

Helping Others During Isolation & Quarantine

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Last night (March 18, 2020), I mentioned to my patrons on Patreon, that I am not dependent upon their backing. I suggested that they consider backing the Patreons of creatives who rely on their Patreons to pay their bills. I then shared that across my social media.

I also mentioned that I had gotten too wrapped up in trying to keep up with what is going on with COVID-19. It was a huge, distracting time sink. It also fouled my mood. I need to step away from that.

[My prostate cancer diagnosis derailed my focus and I never published this way back in the early weeks of the pandemic. Since the pandemic isn’t over, it isn’t too late to share these thoughts. I’m not sure I’ll do anything with my list unless a lot of people indicate an interest in a certain topic.]

What Can I Do?

As I thought more about it, ideas of what else I can do to help more broadly than boosting my patronage of a few Patreons. I thought of all the things I know how to do that can add some variety to what I can share. As I thought, one other thing that occured to me was that I should challenge others to make their own lists of things they can share.

This is not limited to parlor games, board games, and Table Top RPGs. I’ve seen my YouTube channel have a huge increase in people suddenly searching for help getting started with Roll20 so their in person group can still play. I’ve had people seek assistance getting started so they can prep for their Virtual Gary Con games.

I will still talk about games on the blog, podcast, YouTube & Twitch channels. But I want to do more. So I am sharing my list of things I’ll list to talk about, and will share if there is interest.

There won’t be soup lines in this one, so those who have will need to share.

I encourage all tiny Patreons to encourage their followers to go support the Patreons of creators who rely on their Patreon to pay the bills.

My List

I know how to do a lot of different things and have some skills that some may want to know about.

  • The obvious RPG & Gaming stuff.
  • Sharing how to use Roll20 & other VTTs and resources to game online.
  • Opening up a new online game for new players. By that, I mean new players looking to learn how to play RPGs.
  • I’m leaning towards releasing the card game to both DriveThruCards [Affiliate Link] and GameCrafter with the free art to get it out. I don’t have the mental and emotional bandwidth to run a Kickstarter during a pandemic. I can do a Kickstarter later with the new art. This will give my artist more time to produce it.
  • Suggest little things we can do to assist and encourage one another.
  • Share my knowledge & experience with a world ill prepared for everyone staying home.
    • How to cook. I’ve got a back burner project that was a joke in college, but with serious practicality, The Bachelor’s Guide To Home Cooking. My parents taught me how to cook. I may have some tips others will find helpful.
    • How to clean. It’s amazing how many don’t seem to know how to do this.
    • How to do laundry. Maybe not, but some adults don’t know how to do this.
    • I was a volunteer firefighter/EMT way back when. All my licenses and certifications are long expired. I don’t have many good stories.
    • Life hacks. I don’t have many, but some may find them helpful.
  • Be a listening ear on a live stream. It’s amazing how many need someone to listen. Now more than ever as we are isolated, or confined with family or roommates, we need a variety of others.
  • I have a BA in History. I focused on the ancient near east, the Greco Roman period, middle ages, and Europe up to WWII. I’ve also studied colonial North America, the American Revolution, Civil War, and westward expansion.
  • Genealogy. I find it fascinating to identify when and where my ancestors were in a given time frame and relate that to historic events. I started a genealogy blog several years ago, and did the A to Z blogging challenge on that blog and this blog simultaneously.
  • I have had many comments on the sound of my voice. Many find it soothing. I have ideas to go along with that.
    • Reading a public domain short story or poetry. Maybe even something I’ve written.
    • Hypnosis or a Calming Voice. (No, I’m not starting an ASMR channel.)

What Can All Of Us Do?

-OR-

What can I do to help others in an isolation or quarantine scenario?

  • I suggest we all make a list of what we can do.
  • Order something for your elderly, disabled, or poor neighbors from an online retailer or restaurant, since you can’t go there in person.
  • Leave a note of gratitude for the mail carriers and delivery people.
  • Cheer on the healthcare, janitorial, and sanitation workers you know. Not just the ones among your family and friends.
  • Be kind to those who work in retail. Especially those at grocery stores.
  • Keep your house clean and organized to maximize the living space and minimize the things you have to worry about.
  • The sudden inability to do things is a lesson that we should always do things at the time they are needed. Don’t put off the laundry, if you use a laundry mat. Don’t put off grocery shopping because you hate it. Don’t put off visiting your aging relatives as you never know when you’ll see them again.
  • Take this time to figure out what is truly important to you.
  • If you are out of work and money is tight or non-existent, don’t be too proud to share your need. I’m sure food banks, houses of worship, and other non-profits will soon be out of resources until the supply chain catches up.
  • If you are blessed with a surplus of cash or other resources, share as you are able.
  • If you’re worried about the long-term food situation, now is the perfect time to be planning a garden. You can lay out cardboard in your yard to kill off the grass to make it easier to work it. Research methods that take little water. There’s a lot of good stuff on YouTube.

RPGs

Registration Chaos For Gary Con 12

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Today, February 22, 2020, at Noon Central U.S. time, Silver Badge registration opened for Gary Con 12.

The server almost immediately had issues and no one could stay logged in. The company that runs the online even registration service, TableTop Events indicated that their Cache servers had an unanticipated issue, even though they had prepared for the load of all the badge holders signing up simultaneously.

Sadly, that effort was short-lived. A few individuals, such as myself, were able to select events into their carts and complete checkout.

Thankfully, the decision was made to allow those few who checked out to keep their registration.

Later the decision was made to keep items in the carts of those who did not complete checkout. Normally, they expire after two hours.

Direct Link to Facebook post with the link contents below plus a screenshot.

https://www.facebook.com/GaryConLLC/posts/2791721214229655

Full Text:

Greetings Seekers,

Today, TTEs server had an unprecedented error and were disabled. We suspended sales at that time to take the load off the servers while they were repaired. No tickets were able to be sold before then, to our knowledge. The president of TTE released a statement regarding the error at that time and repaired the error. We attempted to reopen, but more errors kept popping up and the servers, despite adequate load, were still not functioning.

At this time, it seems our best option is to reschedule the launch. We understand that this is incredibly inconvenient and disappointing. We don’t quite know when we will reopen, but we promise to notify you by update through TTE at least 24 hours in advance. Some attendees were able to get tickets. We are unsure whether we will reset tickets at this time, but we promise to give you notice on our decision soon.If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me. It may take me a little longer than normal to answer as I have many, many emails to sort through already, but I will personally respond to each and every email I receive.

Update @ 1:43pm: The staff has made a decision regarding tickets already sold: you will certainly get to keep those. We believe very few were actually able to accomplish this feat and it seems inequitable to take those tickets away from the lucky few. TTE normally empties carts after 2 hours, but TTE has disabled cart expiration, so events in your cart right now SHOULD stay in your cart.

Thank you,
—
Caroline Burks
Director of Guest Relations
Gary Con Gaming Convention
Caroline@garycon.com

History

Registration for Gary Con has had issues in the past. They have used TableTop Events for the past several years. This year’s issues have been the worst that I’ve seen it. The history of past issues has not helped.

When the registration failed the first time, Table Top Events shared this through the Gary Con Facebook page. Direct Link.

https://www.facebook.com/GaryConLLC/posts/2791673430901100

Full Text:

An explanation of the TTE problem today and an apology from the head of TTE, JT Smith. Thanks to JT and his crew for their quick response and resolution today.

“Tabletop.Events were prepared well in advance of the launch of Silver tickets today. We had fired up over 20 extra web application servers and nodes to the database. Unfortunately, something we could not anticipate was that our cache server was about to be overloaded. The cache server is used to maintain user login sessions. We’ve handled conventions double the size of Gary Con on it, and even Gary Con itself on it without issue in the past. We’re still trying to diagnose what went wrong there. Needless to say we have replaced it with larger servers that are 12 times the size of the current servers just to make sure that it can’t happen again.

“Even though we had done everything we thought we could do in this case, Tabletop.Events still takes full responsibility for this outage. We are sorry we caused a delay in your registration. We apologize to both Gary Con and the attendees. Moreover, as the owner of Tabletop.Events, I am also personally sorry for this mishap. We will do better.

-JT”

All Over Again

Unfortunately, the re-try at 1:00 PM Central had issues again. Thankfully, as mentioned above, those with successful completion get to keep their registration. Also those with items in their cart will keep their cart when it goes live again.

On top of issues with the hotel overbooking some rooms that lead to confusion and anger among some, this has lead to a lot of harsh criticism across social media.

My Experience

My first Gary Con was number 8, and I’ve been every year since. Registration hiccups have been minor, to me. Other things, like no alert of cancelled games, table service being slow or occasionally not happening. Overall, they have been great experiences and the minor issues are fairly easy to overlook.

Growing Pains

This year, Gary Con is the biggest ever. It has morphed from a con focused on older games and miniature war games to having a large contingent of newer D&D 5e with Adventurer’s League and official Wizards Of The Coast support. Some have called this selling out to the big money, or big names, as more D&D celebrities are attending.

D&D 5e and all the rest is not a problem in itself. The real issue is that the family is committed to keeping it in Lake Geneva, home to D&D and the original TSR. This results in the reality that there is only one location big enough to hold it, and that location has exceeded capacity to house it under one roof.

It is a huge roof with the boonies at the far end of connected structures. This year, some events are occurring on the grounds of the venue but in detached buildings that are 20 minutes by available transport away. Some comments online indicated they were not sure if there was a walking path available for that.

This year will be a real test for Gary Con. Will it be capped at a certain size? Will Gary Con really be able to stay in Lake Geneva?

I certainly hope it can stay in Lake Geneva. I really like going to Gary Con as I get to see some people I don’t see anywhere else, other than other similar cons. Sadly, there is a limit to how many cons I can attend each year.

Suggestions For Improvement

I suggest getting the word out across all social media, and not just Facebook. There are lots of people who avoid Facebook and were left in the dark on other social media until those of us on Facebook could fill them in.

Such instances of “telephone” can lead to inadvertent misinformation being introduced.

Gary Con is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and perhaps others. I suggest coping & pasting the message from one social media to all the others so those who only follow on one get it.

Also, Table Top Events should have a way to put up a message on the website so we all see it.

I’m no expert on running a busy website, but I know there are ways to deal with this. I hope they can keep a list of the issues that occurred this time, and all prior times, and verify that all of those issues are resolved before trying again. It makes both Table Top Events and Gary Con look bad.

I’ve gone to other, smaller cons that use Table Top Events and had no issues. Table Top Events handles conventions larger than Gary Con. I am not aware of the other cons using Table Top Events having these types of issues.

KUDOS

Caroline is the Director of Guest Relations and she is the best person for that job. She remains cool under pressure and handles the chaos of stressed out gamers. We should all show our appreciation to Caroline, as she is a key member of the Gary Con team. We should all chip in and get her something nice, like a vacation in a place without internet, or at least a gift card to a business she wants to patronize.

RPGs

Gary Con XI Recap

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Gary Con XI in 2019 was yet another awesome experience! Here’s the companion podcast episode.

I rode with Steve Fridsma, from Grand Rapids, MI who I met last year. We were supposed to play in two AD&D [Affiliate Link] games, but the first one was unexpectedly cancelled, so I offered to run the
Gamma World [Affiliate Link] scenario I was running the next day, and some of the players elected to do that and we had a blast. Then we played in Chgowiz’s AD&D [Affiliate Link] game the next day. We kept in touch on social media and tried to coordinate rides that included one of my con roommates, but the travel days didn’t work out.

Steve and I arrived Wednesday right around check in time and I unloaded my bags to my room ASAP then picked up my badge and GM packet. We again got a lot of books, some duplicates of others. I may use them for a giveaway.

I had my card game and notebook with me, and met up with Steve and some others who wanted to play my game, and drummed up some interest from some others. We had a UX designer, architect, and game designer among that play test. This is rules that are basically the rules I had as of the end of play testing last year at Gary Con X. The deck had a few tweaks from last year, 5 cards were swapped out for some other cards to add some more interest to the game. Most importantly play text deck number 2 fixed the font color and placement of the numbers and added some explanatory verbiage to some cards. This group had lots of great suggestions.

After the game, Thaddeus Moore asked me to sign his copy of
The Front [Affiliate Link], as Mark credited me as proofreader. This is the first time I’ve ever signed a book in my life, other than to indicate it was my book.

Thursday morning I ran a scenario for The Front [Affiliate Link], a WWII RPG based on The Black Hat 1st edition [Affiliate Link] , by Mark Hunt. See here for The Black Hat 2nd Edition [Affiliate Link] . Mark joined in the game and had a copy of the rules from Lulu for everyone. Mark signed them all, and since Thaddeus got me started, I did the same.

With Mark there, we did a lot of belly laughing and had a great time! Mark and the other players had a laser focus on the objectives to “win” and we were done early. The players didn’t care as they had a blast. I now see a need for a few more modular encounters/events to bulk up this scenario to take up more of the slot. I plan to start publishing my con adventures on DriveThruRPG [Affiliate Link] , but it won’t be my scenario for The Front [Affiliate Link].

Thursday evening I sat in on a seminar by Satine Phoenix and Ruty Rutenberg which was different aspects of GM issues.

I then got in some more card game play testing and had a lot of fun. Some events I don’t recall which day they happened as I was so busy with running or playing and visiting, I didn’t keep track of what day I did which thing.

Friday morning I played in The Brazen Mask of Zenopus by Zach Howard of the Zenopus Archives blog. It was the Holmes Blue Box Basic, which is what started me on this whole RPG journey. I had not played those rules since the final AD&D book, the DMG came out over 35 years ago. It was a cool scenario that used characters from a book Dr. Holmes wrote. I played the hired help, two vikings, Olaf & Haldor. The dungeon in the back of the Basic rules was used, with some changes due to the passage of time.

We worked together and managed to avoid the death of all characters, and avoided a situation that could have been a TPK. For the first time in play, I encountered a purple worm and Olaf was swallowed! How cool is that! The halfling, Boinger was also swallowed. It was entirely a bonus that the worm was killed and the party cut both of them free, so that they lived to continue the adventure with minimal injury.

We found the baddies and had the boss fight and so not to spoil it we were within a few bad dice rolls of disaster, but we made the crucial rolls needed and prevailed. I really enjoyed it and would play a game with Zach again!

Friday afternoon I ran my DCC funnel, A Fungus Among Us. I had seven players, two of whom had played funnels before. One teenage boy, a young woman, and two fellows that I am pretty sure were older than I. I am used to being the oldest one in the game in recent years, so this was great. The father of the teenager made decisions and dice rolls that had three of his four 0 level characters dead in less than an hour into the session. He then had his last stay out of the way, and he survived the final encounter. Of course in the boss fight at the end, my poor BBEG had a fumble that had him on his back and unable to attack for a round. His attacks that hit only had minimal effect. The two older gentlemen must have double-booked their time as they could only stay for half the session. The remaining players did well, and lost a few more of their characters. Everyone survived with at least one character.

Friday night I saw, Eye of The Beholder about the artists of TSR who formed the image most of us have of what D&D is. I backed the Kickstarter and had seen the film online. Several of the artists were there and there was a Q&A. Just before the con they sent out a note that the CDs and other things were in the shipping process, but I didn’t have my CD waiting for me. and my CD was waiting in an unexpected location when I got home.

Friday night I ran more play tests. I finally remembered to have my 5 x 7 index cards with the quick rules on one side and what the cards to on the other. I made the players read it to ensure they could learn the rules from that, since most people will learn a game that way. I also have index cards I cut to playing card size with bullet points of the steps of one’s turn and what the cards do on the back. Of course, they identified typos of words that I spelled right, but were in the wrong context. They also identified things I need to clarify. So the cards worked, but need some improvement.

Saturday morning my schedule was clear. I met up with Ray Otus of the Plundergrounds podcast and Coddy Mazza of the No Save For You podcast. Ray’s first Gary Con was last year, but we never crossed paths. This was Cody’s first. We played my card game in the open gaming area and a father and 13 year old son joined us. The son was the youngest play tester yet, so I was really interested in his reaction. Ray and Cody loved my game, and had some suggestions. The boy liked it and thought the placeholder art was cool and thought I could just use that. He also will have a credit as a play tester so he will have some extra cool factor with his friends when he gets home.

Ray, Cody, and I did a joint podcast on Ray’s Plundergrounds and they both were too kind about what they thought of my card game. You can catch that episode here.

Saturday afternoon I ran my Boot Hill [Affiliate Link] scenario, A Posse For The School Marm. I had a lot of players who had never played it, but they all had fun. One character was injured and stunned by dynamite. Another got one bad guy and almost got the last one, but he shot her character in the chest for a mortal wound. She thought it was epic and fitting to go down fighting. She later told me that she hadn’t played an RPG in 30 years and I made it easy and walked them through what to do and she felt comfortable and welcome at the table. Also they said up front that they had another game and would have to leave early. They ended up not leaving early because they were having so much fun. Her husband is not much of a gamer, but he had a blast. I just love hearing that sort of thing.

Saturday night was supposed to be a showing of The Dreams In Gary’s Basement by Pat Kilbane, but unfortunately he was sick and it was cancelled. I backed that Kickstarter and have been cheering it on since I met Pat at Gary Con VIII when he premiered an early showing of a few interview snippets. You can read about that here.

Saturday evening I went to a party to see the teaser and a behind the scenes of Peter Adkinson’s Chaldea. It is a series of videos to highlight a campaign world setting of Chaldea. Very cool effects. Met some new people, and a player from my Gamma World [Affiliate Link] game last year and he was gushing about that memory, which is so cool!

Matt Mercer was at the con and was in the lounge, I was able to tell him a Vecna story and congratulate him on the Kickstarter and get a picture with him. Unfortunately, someone from the party who I only met at the party was drunk and not taking the hint to give people space. I was asked to escort him away from the celebrities since I knew him better than some. The fellows social intelligence was gone and he obviously wanted to communicate something, but was unable to do so beyond repeating an innocuous platitude.

Unfortunately, he was stumbling into people and flopping his arm into them. He did not react well, but we got him out of the lounge and then out of the building. We had to call for security to ensure he didn’t try to drive or something. I heard nothing more about that, but if you go to a con, don’t go past your limit to control your motor skills or communication ability. That’s how you get banned from cons. I don’t know if it got to the level of the con knowing about it or not, as I was no longer privy to the situation. I have not witnessed anything like that at a con. In the current environment, I was disheartened to witness such a thing. Please don’t drink and be stupid, it is not fun to witness nor to be the problem person who sobers up and finds they’ve got a bad reputation. I almost didn’t report this, but I don’t want to whitewash a bad situation.

I also told Vecna stories to Joe Manganiello and got a picture with him. I showed him my shirt that says, Follow Me, And Die! and he said it and then said, “Nice!” I knew he’d get a kick out of that.

Another thing that occured at the con was rumors. Someone told me X about so and so. I will not repeat that as that does no good. I will only repeat facts I can verify or I witness personally. Rumors of game stuff and game personalities always occur, sometimes there is a grain of truth, but I won’t spread something I can’t verify.

Sunday I did not sign up for any games. I was in the lounge all day apart from moving my bags from the room I shared with my normal con roommates, to that of my ride.

I played my card game at least a dozen times. One player from earlier in the weekend really latched onto the game and has probably played more than anyone but me, and knows the rules as well or better than I do. She played nine games on Sunday, and was teaching the new players and we worked on how to cut the deck in half. Since there are an odd number of some cards we did a large half and small half deck. We played one hand with the large half deck as a two player game and it feels like the full deck and is faster. One game is not enough, but it does tell me I have the numbers of each card right.

After all the play testing and suggestions for little things to improve the cards, I know I need a third play test deck and more play testing. I don’t have an artist lined up, since the rules and cards are not locked in. Unfortunately, my hopes of Kickstarting this year are not realistic. I want to avoid rushing things, as I want to do it right. I will do all I can to make launching during the first quarter of next year. This means that I need to go to more cons and FLGS’ for more play tests. Once I have a new test deck and play it a few times I will know if the cards need any more game play tweaks or only need art. The rules are really close, and I think we have to options for play, one that will be perfect for learning the game. Two player play may be as simple as a half deck, but more play test will tell.

If you are interested in knowing when the Kickstarter is launched, you can click this link to join the mailing list. It is ONLY for announcing the Kickstarter launch, and possible future launches.

Wednesday night, my roommates and I went to the same restaurant as last year and while waiting for a table, someone behind us saw my Follow Me, And Die! T-Shirt and asked if I was the guy behind the blog. I believe his name was John Zach from Atlanta (He messaged me on social media to correct me. I then recalled that I used the mnemonic that his name is the same as my youngest son’s.). I didn’t think to get a picture together. A couple other people told me they liked my blog and/or podcast. Erik from the Chicago area, as I recall said he’s been reading my blog for the last seven months. I did have the presence of mind to get a picture with him.

I got pictures with many others and posted a lot of them on social media. I need to find time to make an album to share to make it easier to have all the pictures in one spot. Not sure when I’ll get to that.

I had a blast at Gary Con and I will be back next year!

I will have my card game there from hopefully the final pre-Kickstarter test deck and can play with those who want to see what it’s all about. I will have it at every other con I attend.

If you will be at Gary Con next year, or any other con this year that I attend, be sure and say, “Hello!” I’d love to meet you and get a chance to game together!

RPGs

My Awesome Gary Con X!

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I had a packed Gary Con schedule compared to the prior two years. This was the first time I ran games. I ran 3 four hour games, and played in 4 games. Three were four hours and one 5+hours. Next year, I think I will run three games, but I won’t pack my schedule. I need more sleep.

THURSDAY

Gangbusters – Stop The Flow
Two Kolchaks

Two of the three games I ran were Thursday. I started with Gang Busters. I had 8 pre-gens using the templates from +Mark Hunt’s version of Gangbusters. I proofread his current state of the rules from the fall, so I used his version with my edits. The pre-gens made character creation fast. Mark was going to play in my game, as I told him that I would run so he could play. Unfortunately, his dad went in the hospital and he couldn’t make it. I had no reception with my chrome book in the part of the hotel they  had us. Mark had hoped to do a Google Hangout for a Q&A after the game.

I never saw so many players botch a roll and then make the luck roll I gave them. At least, make the luck roll when it counted. Most lucks were under 30. I had 3 or 4 players in a row make their luck roll. The players were all law enforcement. One played a state trooper and played it so well, the others asked if he was a real officer, and he laughed as he was not in law enforcement. The characters found the source of the secret shipments of alcohol. I can’t give it away, or I can’t run that scenario. No characters died, but a couple got shot up really bad. One caught himself on fire, and another kept falling in the water. It was awesome how they played smart and rolled well, and foiled the bad guys. They got done an hour early.

Stars Without Number

In the afternoon, I ran Stars Without Number. I used the revised edition rules for the Kickstarter that delivered in January. I had never played it, so running was the first time I played it. I built 8 pre-gens. The first pre-gen took a long time as I was figuring out all the bits to do it, even with the spread on character generation. I did that to help me grasp all the pieces. I then used the quick character generation and did most of the rest in the time it took to do the first. The character sheet is a form-fillable PDF, so I have those NPCs for future use.

7 people signed up. It was fun to finally play in a game with +Forrest Aguire. All of the players made a lot of awesome rolls for skill checks. My usual poor rolls for the NPCs made things really easy for them. They also made smart decisions, and had a plan of action that was direct and simple and their good rolls compensated for how daring it was. Skilled players making smart choices, they also finished about 45 minutes early. One guy who made the most great rolls on skill checks saw me the next day and said that he didn’t make any rolls at his next game.

FRIDAY

Against the Dwarfs
Against the Dwarfs

I had three games Friday. The first was AD&D in the morning. It was Against the Dwarfs by Bryan Skowera. This was the third of a series mirroring the Against the Giants modules. I played in the second one last year and had a blast. We made some poor tactical decisions early in the session and managed to luck into a plan that let us beat the bad guy.  I was able to play the Kobold cleric that I played last year, which was a lot of fun.

Friday afternoon, I played DCC with Brendan LaSalle. It was a hilarious scenario. We sang the songs of Electric Potato.

DCC with Brendan LaSalle
DCC with Brendan LaSalle
Lego Dice Tower by the Daughter of one of the players Friday night.
Lego Dice Tower by the Daughter of one of the players Friday night.

Friday night I was supposed to play in +Joseph Bloch’s game in his  AD&D Castle of the Mad Archmage setting. Unfortunately, Joe never showed. One of the people at the table found out he had told the con staff, but they never told us. I saw him the next day and totally understand why he did. For the con, I bought a rolling catalog case with a telescoping handle, so I could carry all of my stuff around the con and just pull it. I ended the con with no back or shoulder pain. It is a wise investment I will use at every con. Because I that, I had my Gamma World 1e book and my scenario that I would run the next day, so I offered to run it for the table. Two left for other things, and someone else joined in when they were walking by. It was a lot of fun for those who hadn’t played since back in the day, and those who had never played. It is very similar to Metamorphosis Alpha, so I kept asking what Radiation Resistance they had, instead of Constitution. They had fun, and I would end up playing other things with two of them later.

SATURDAY

Gamma World
Gamma World

Saturday morning I ran Gamma World and all 8 showed up and I squeezed in two others, for ten total. I only had 8 pre-gens, so we had them quickly roll up characters for the two. I am glad I did that, they all had fun and it worked out to be a jam-packed and fun scenario. I used the additional secret papers with some background for the 8 pregens. I did not use those the night before as a secret, but told those players what the secrets were. Several of the players latched onto the information on their info paper. All I asked was that they not reveal it right away, which worked out great.

Player of the Character Tree made a sketch.
Player of the Character Tree made a sketch.

In less than 30 minutes they went to the weird hermit on the edge of town to get help with something. He figured out their issue was a dead battery, but he had no way to charge it. Then the gorilla with an electric shock attack like an electric eel said, “I’ll charge it!” I said, “That’s a great idea! How much damage does it do?” “Uh, 4d4.” “Great, roll 4d4!” I picked up 8d6 and rolled those once he gave me his total. “OK, the hermit falls over dead and you all take 15 points of damage!” I started laughing because the hermit had information for them. I was already short on sleep, which makes me either cranky or slap happy. I was so tickled, I laughed so hard I had tears. I’ve never had my players bring me to tears before. They eventually got on the right track and found what they were looking for and we ran out the clock on the session. They all had an excellent time.

The GM in Tears from Laughing at what the players just did.
The GM in Tears from Laughing at what the players just did.

After a long break in the afternoon, I had AD&D with +Michael Shorten. I should have taken a nap, but I play tested my card game. I ran out of steam and had to back out early. One of the players in the cancelled AD&D game who played in my Gamma World scenario the night before is an architect and offered to be out mapper. he did a rough sketch map, and you could tell he is used to working from verbal descriptions and his map was clear and easy to follow. He mapped at a scale we could place our minis. That was a really cool thing. He also lives in Grand Rapids, so we’ll probably game together occasionally.

AD&D with Michael Shorten – AKA Chgowiz
Full scale mapping by a real life architect.

SUNDAY

Sunday morning, it was up bright an early to finally get to play Top Secret with Merle Rasmussen. It was the new Top Secret from the Kickstarter. It will finally ship from the US and European TSR warehouses this week or next. I liked how he randomized the map by each player building one section. It was serendipitous how my map worked to make an easy ending to a nearly out of control scenario, and we managed to get done early. I really like the simplicity of how the map works and how it randomizes the scenario.

That was a good thing, as I met Tom Wham going one way as I came down stairs, and he was not in a rush,  so I finally got my copy of Awful Green Things from Outer Space signed. I forgot to bring it to Gary Con 8, last year at Gary Con 9, it was always raining and since I wasn’t in the venue’s hotel, I didn’t want it getting wet. I also had him sign my Gamma World 1e, which he edited.

Top Secret: New World Order with Merle Rasmussen.
Player built map. Gets players involved and randomizes the scenario.

PLAYTESTING

First Gary Con X play test of the card game with the roommates. Dave Weeks & RJ Thompson of Gamers & Grognards.

I had a long break and ran several play tests of my card game. I had a total of 12 play tests at Gary Con X with 31 play testers from Wednesday through Sunday. Some played more than once. My game was a big hit with all who played it, and one person asked the name of it, and that was enough to hook them to want to play it. Nearly all asked, “So when’s the Kickstarter?” without prompting. My response was either, “yeah, so when IS the Kickstarter?” or “Ummm, when I announce it?” It was awesome to have the rough edges worked out on the third play test, and very little changed after that. It is a much smoother and faster playing game than what I wrote about in the first two play tests before Gary Con here.

Paul reads my blog. We played in Laura Rose Williams DCC game at the Contessa Track at UCon in November. He play tested my game.
2nd Gary Con X play test. Paul, Clay Williams, and Laura Rose Williams (AKA “Meat Dwarf”). It was nice to get a woman’s perspective on my game. She liked it!
Clay is a bit of an artist and sketched some trucker he saw somewhere.
It looks like a police artist sketch of a serial killer. I think Clay was getting ready to run a horror game….

I have lots of offers to help with various aspects of card design, art, card production, etc. One person told me he had an idea that might not require Kickstarter. Two recognizable companies said they could help me with one or more aspects related to Kickstarter/fulfillment.

Nate of WASD20
The Initiative Coffee Co.
Ruty Rutenberg took a lot of notes about my game.
Jayson Elliot of the new TSR and Peter of Mythwits.

I find the whole thing hilarious as I don’t play many card games anymore since I don’t have a regular group that plays card games. I have a catchy title, an interesting premise, and rules that make it quick to catch on. I was saying, “I’m not a card game guy.” but not that I have a card game I realized that I am so I started saying, “I am a card game guy.”

I finally played the game today with my oldest son, and he gave me more suggestions about where to take it once it hits critical mass. He also is really good at card tricks, and made a joke with two of the cards and made it look like he turned it into another card. Now THAT will be in an announcement/Kickstarter video.

There is nothing to announce yet, as I have someone doing some sort of statistical analysis, and he had some other ideas, so I am waiting on that. One cool thing a play tester said, “I like the simplicity of the game with simple rules to learn in 5 min. at a noisy bar at Gary Con.” Sunday, I was really tired, and I was making lots of mistakes in play. the rules are so simple that players can correct an exhausted creator of the game on his errors. Out of 15 games that have been played, I have played them all and managed to win 5 of them. I am usually spending so much time helping run the game that I am mostly reliant on getting good cards. However, it is so cool that people like my game and want to play it, that I’m OK with never winning a game. I’m usually very competitive in such games, but I find I’m much more relaxed about my own game. It is because I’ve already won the grand prize of the multiverse by making a game that works and people want to play. “I made a thing and people think it’s fun and want to play it!”

IF I do a Kickstarter, I will be very careful, and stretch goals will only be card game related, like better paper, better finish, etc. I will have all the work done on typing up the rules, lining up card printers, etc. I know it will be a success as one established RPG You Tuber played it and said he’d mention it when it was time for the announcement of something. I’m not mentioning the name of the game, or anything specific until I work out a few more things. I think I also need to consult a lawyer, among other things. Patreon is in my future. I know have all kinds of ideas for card games, along with my ideas for RPG supplements, and YouTube videos. I now have a new focus to make game stuff that I never really had before. That too, will not be overnight.

All I’ve managed to do today is type up my play test notes, write a big thank you to all the EXCLUSIVE Gary Con X play testers on social media, and watch a little TV so my brain can decompress. I also managed to crank out this article, as I know work will be crazy tomorrow.

If you plan to go to Marmalade Dog, March to , 2018, I will be there running one session of Metamorphosis Alpha, and one of AD&D, and I will have my prototype card game. Be one of the EXCLUSIVE Marmalade Dog play testers and get mentioned in the credits as a play tester.

IRCA

IRCA – Larry Hamilton (me), Nate Vanderzee, and Zachary Ruhnke (he went to high school with Alex Gygax) Bill Allen and the Initiative Coffee Co. crew were not around when the rest of us were. It was great to meet face to face.

WASD20

Nate Vanderzee of WASD20 was hoping to interview Satine Phoenix. I helped introduce them and watched him do a great interview. Satine is so fun. She teased us with her excitement of something big she can’t talk about. Man, am I curious.  Nate lives in Grand Rapids, so maybe we can get a chance to game together. It was really cool that he played my game and liked it!

Getting ready to interview Satine Phoenix

Getting ready to interview Satine PhoenixYou can see the interview here.

RPGs

My Gary Con Schedule

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I have a gold badge for Gary Con 10, and I got signed up right after game sign-up opened today.

I got in some of the games I wanted, but too many were at the same time as other games I signed up for, or conflicted with the games I am running. There are too many people I want to game with. I try to mix up what GMs I play with at different cons, sometimes with little success. When a seminar conflicted with a game, I chose the game. Hopefully, we can do some pickup games.

I’m looking forward to finally meeting several people from the OSR and other online venues.

I’m running games for the first time at Gary Con. Prep and polishing of my scenarios is under way. From top down, the systems are: Gang Busters (Mark Hunt’s effort), Stars Without Number Revised, and Gamma World 1e.

Gary Con X - What I'm Running
Gary Con X – What I’m Running

If you are interested, here are the games I will play. I snagged a seat to finally play Top Secret with Merle Rasmussen! I’ll also get to play with +Joseph Bloch, and finally meet him.

Gary Con X - What I'm Playing
Gary Con X – What I’m Playing

If you’re going to Gary Con X, please let me know so we can meet up!

RPGs

Crit Success Rings – A Review

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Back in March, 2016 at GaryCon 8, +Satine Phoenix gave a bunch of us these d20 rings, that you can wear and roll a d20. Very cool.

They are CritSuccess rings.

They take a bit of working the grit out, dish soap & warm water work well. Once you have them spinning freely, they seem to generate random numbers.

It is a cool trinket for those of us who collect dice and other game memorabilia.

I can see using them for a DM roll of a d20, if it needed to be secret.

They also have rings for other single dice and multi-dice combinations like 3d6. If you really like a ring or two on every finger, this might be for you.

RPGs

Tim Kask Talk – First Five Years At TSR

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Here’s a write up from GaryCon 8 from back in March I hadn’t published yet.

I attended a session by Tim Kask on Riding the Rocket: TSR’s First 5 Years. I missed the first twenty minutes or so, but I enjoyed it immensely. Tim recommended that we read the book Orcs, and that it changed his view on orcs, and that he no longer sees them as just meat sacks.

Pat Kilbane filmed Tim’s presentation for use in his D&D Documentary. I had the honor of asking the last question, “What was the thing you like best about working at TSR, and what was the thing you liked least or might want to do differently in hindsight?” Others besides Pat also recorded his response on video, I wish I had. Basically, he voiced his disapproval of the Blume’s business acumen. He said that he loved working with Gary and having so much fun. The second thing he liked was the opportunity to go back to teaching.

Pat’s YouTube channel, Dorks Of Yore published most of the interview in a series of short snippets. You can see them all in this Tabetop RPGs playlist, along with their initial video about GaryCon. Alas, my question didn’t appear in these snippets, but will be in the final product. However, this screenshot from an FB comment I made and Pat’s reply is fantastic!

Awesome!
Awesome!
RPGs

Gary Con Panel – Goodman Games – How To Write Adventure Modules The Don’t Suck

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I have played a few DCC funnels at conventions and a few modules at the gaming table. I’ve even been a player in a play test of a module. I can’t mention that, but if my name shows up in the acknowledgements, you’ll know which one(s).

DCC seems to have a lot of interest in their modules, so I wanted to hear what their designers had to say. If I never have a published module, at least I can use the information to help design my own sessions, and games at conventions.

The panelists were Joseph Goodman, Michael Curtis, Jobe Bitman, Brendan LaSalle, and Bob Bledsaw, Jr. There were 20-25 in attendance, among whom were 3 women. When it came time to ask questions, only one of the women asked a question. That’s a significant ratio. What I wonder, is were the other two just there with their male S.O.’s, or were they really gamers with an interest in such things. Just my musings, no data to back up any of it.

What follows are just the transcription of my hastily scribbled and sometimes illegible notes. There are a lot of good points here for planning adventures in your own games, in addition to developing modules for publication.

Joseph Goodman started off by telling us that they have done this seminar multiple times before, and this time wanted to start off with each person telling what things inspire them.

1.) Things that inspire us to get a good output.

Michael Curtis

  • All writers are readers
    • Always have a notebook when reading – make note of certain words that evoke ideas, feelings, etc.
    • Follow up on ideas an author does not pursue.

Jobe Bitman

  • Movies, especiall humor.
  • Camping & hiking
  • New museum
  • New locations and feeling what the experience is like and relate to a fantasy world setting.
    • For ex. hiking is hard work, and there’s no way characters pack all the stuff they say that they do.

Brendan LaSalle

  • Big reader
  • Movies
  • Good TV
  • Poetry
  • Music – Heavy Metal Power Cords
  • Steals a lot of bad guy lines from comic books.

Bob Bledsaw, Jr. (Insight on how his dad prepared for campaigns & modules, from all the materials he left.)

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs, Robert Heilein, A. C. Clarke, poetry
  • Actually running campaigns
    • Notebooks filled with names of inns, NPC’s with brief designations, random monsters, and names & backgrounds for magical items.
    • Village book, fantastic weapons, Temple book, etc.
    • His father didn’t like to lead players.
    • Look at an inn as each class. How does a mage see this inn, a cleric, a thief?
    • What about a monster or obstacle is a problem for a cleric?
    • Leave world open

Joe Goodman

  • Goes to places with unique features
    • Elephant seal hatchery – they are 2,000 pounds and the size of a VW.
  • Monarch butterfly breeding ground – view through fantasy lens
  • Hurst castle
  • Wild zebras on beach near California coastal highway.
  • Alcatraz was a military island citadel before it was a prison.
  • Art and comic books

I think it was Brendan LaSalle who said these two things.

  1. Read Strunk & Whites Manual of Style once per year.
  2. Read what you have written out loud, or have someone read it to you with the Last Draft. If it doesn’t read well, it won’t play well.

A common theme was to playtest a module multiple times to get the flow and pacing right. You have to know how it will play out before you publish it. Someone said if it is a TPK every time, then it’s too hard. If about half the party survives, then it’s about right.

2.) One thing they love and one thing they hate.

Brendan

Love: Brilliant little detail, for ex. Legacy of Savage Kings has a dragon in a cavern with the coins of his treasure lovingly stacked along the wall.

Hate: No matter what happens, you can’t change what happens. He gave examples of NPC’s you can’t kill, or some other thing that no matter what they do it won’t change. It is better to think of what will happen if they kill this NPC, etc. Trust your DM (who will run the module). ALWAYS put the players center stage as the main characters of the story.

Michael

Love: Enjoys ambiguity to cause reader and player to imagine options, avoids set in stone. Leave it up to recipient to fill in the blanks.

Hate: Story should emerge and not be stuck in a narrative since it is a participatory game.

Bob

Be a storyteller, not a story dictator.

Jobe

Hate: Really long details with buried information the DM or player’s need. Make it easy to find.

Joseph

Players are the audience, but the GM is the customer. Word count for GM/Judge is wasted, 1-2 pages at most. Pages should be for the benefit of the players.

3.) How bring ideas together?

Bob – List of Hobbits, only with warrior sounding names. His father’s notes were rich in lore from the books he read.

Michael – Pick three things and create a riff on it. Then come up with a brief synopsis, elevator pitch.

Brendan – Do like Shakespeare – Steal/steal/steal. What if it is a murder mystery?
Take random ideas and throw them at specific thing for the background to see where it goes and what happens.
He is a firm believer in a crappy first draft, just get it done, then refine it.

Michael – If nothing else, do something that you enjoy and are passionate about. Find a way to make it an adventure.

Bob – Don’t let your own misgivings stop you from paying or publishing.

Joseph – Get practice, especially with random stuff.

Bob – Some people have favorite modules that are not what is the most popular. Someone will like it, even if not everyone.

4.) How break out of the linear mindset?

Michael – Don’t make decisions for the players, just set the scene.

Bob – If there is an intriguing hook, it will draw them in.

Mike – For publication there is a set word count. How might players overcome this obstacle. Come up with 3 or 4 things.

Brendan – Billy goat Gruff, but 25th level character. Create a setting and villains. You can’t cover all your bases. Trust your GM.

Joseph – Mental checklist of

  • Player choices
  • There is a chance for every player to shine.
  • Visual Descriptions – Use hulking humanoid instead of just saying orc.
  • No ziggurats – New and exciting ideas.
  • Good title
  • Good summary  – Focused enough to do a 2 or 3 sentence description – elevator pith.

5.) Bad guy development –

Leave as many decisions as possible up to the players.

Base on someone you don’t like.

Don’t lock the front door to the dungeon.

Don’t leave necessary information in an inaccessible place.

No lock without a key. This can be a secret door, or another way around the obstacle. Always a way around it.

Brendan – Once you decide what he is, Imagine as your character or you personally. Such as a dragon or necromancer.
What will you do to stop adventurers?
What will you fail at?

Q&A

How get into the situation?/Start the setting for the adventure? (This was my question. I have trouble getting a good starting point for adventures.)

Brendan – In media res [In the middle of the action/story.] especially for a module, one-shot, or convention game.

Joseph – Robert E. Howard – In media res.

Brendan – Let the players screw themselves. Maybe they are all clerics, so they need hirelings to fill in the gaps. Always have a situation that requires dealing with magic.

Jobe – 1.) Be comfortable with system you are using, and just knowing the system might give you an idea.

2.) Avoid crating bottlenecks, have some secondary way to achieve the goal. A “key” to every lock doesn’t have to be literal.

Joseph – Easter Egg – Some benefit to players that test everything and one room *. Game changers – Players wreck the story line, handle it at the table.

Word count/size?

Brendan – Have a set number of encounters for four hours. For a convention setting, 6 to 8 encounters for four hours. Most modules can be played in four hours.

Jobe – Word count – Write as expressively as possible in the lowest word count.

Joseph – c. 10,000 words is about 16 pages in the format of Goodman Games’ modules.

How develop balance in a module? How do you know you have it right?

Brendan – Playtest/Playtest/Playtest as much as you can before publishing. Run at conventions, local game store with people you don’t know. A minimum of 3 times to playtest, once with friends, twice at conventions, no upper limit really.

Michael – Six months after it is released, you will know if the balance is right.

Jobe – If more than have killed, then still needs work. If less than half killed, then it’s probably pretty good.

Bob – Be prepared for anything. There should be enough source material to plan for unexpected things players do. Always leave a way out of a tough situation, but don’t make it easy.