Con Report: Winterdark II in Lake Geneva

[colpladoh]

Greetings All,

Winterdark II was a great little gathering of gamers. Attendance was up from the first year, but didn't quite fill the large con room, As usual for the events here in Lake Geneva there was no trouble finding a game and playing. What was unusual for me is that because of a fall my ability to take part in things was curtailed a good deal. Things on my end will be better for Lake Geneva Gaming Convention IV this June I am sure, and I hope to run three dungeon crawls than as well as host several games of my One Hundred Years War card boardgame, King of England - King of France...which wasn't quite ready for this show:(

Thursday night Steve Chenault, head honcho of Troll Lord Games, the con sponsor and a fellow game designer and developer who is one of the great group of free-lancers that does such excellent work for Trigee, Joe Damiani, joined Gail, son Alex, and me for dinner.

When I showed up on Friday about two dozen gamers were there. Frank Mentzer was on hand to play boardgames and DM...asnd of course he brought goodies from his bakery in Minocqua for the attendees to enjoy. Chris Clark of Inner City Game Designs, a great stalwart, was there running a Lejendary Adventure game as well as some of his own game creations. I played a game of Dragon Lairds with the authors Jim Ward and Tom Wham as well as several other persons. I did not manage a win but had a great time. I left early as we hosted a small supper gathering at our house in the evening.

Saturday was the peak day of course. I came in the late morning, chatted, signed a few autographs, and watched the gaming until afternoon. Then I returned home and was soon Doming an OD&D game dungeon crawl for six players and one auditor--one of the regulars from my group, John Seibel--"Deogolf." contrary to what I said, one PC was killed immediately upon entering the dungeon, failing to make a poison save. However he soon has a new character ready to play, and the PC party made it all the way to the 3rd level of my 1972-3 original Greyhawk Campaign dungeons, bypassing the 2nd level altogether.

Sunday I did a bit more schmoozing and book signing. I brought Ticket to Ride Europe along, and five if us played. I must confess to winning hands down and loving it. Like most gamers I do play to win...LOL! I than kibitzed during the last hour of another Dragon Lairds game...in which Tom and Jim beat each other up during play so that Joe Damiani came out the winner,

In the afternoon Joe Damiani joined me at home where we watched the Cowboys get beaten by the Giants, then played Senet and the Adventurer card game--I won the first game, Joe the second.

As ar as I can tell everyone had a marvelous time, and there will be a Winterdark III next year.

Cheers,
Gary

[Scott]

Thanks for posting the update, Gary.

[geneweigel]

colpladoh said:

one PC was killed immediately upon entering the dungeon, failing to make a poison save.

And its a good thing they didn't check out the doormat.



Sounds like a great time was had. I'm most certainly (90% chance;91-00% use standard DMG encounter tables. ) going to make next con in June. So I'll see you there.

[Falconer]

Hey, Gary--

Sorry I didn't make it over to your place for Settlers. I had thought Frank's AD&D game would be over by 2, however it went overtime to 4:30!

But let me know anytime you need players and I'd gladly come over! :-)

--Falconer

[ghul]

I hope to be there in June as well. I would love to lay some games, run some games, and talk shop with the veteran RPG designers. :-)

Regards,
--Jeff T.

[grodog]

We should definitely plan some sort of coordination for gaming: I know Bill "dungeondelver" Silvey also is likely to attend, and he and I have talked about trying to arrange for some more GH gaming goodness while there

[Rhuvein]

Thanks to Gary and the Trolls for an excellent event! I was a little more prepared and organized at this CON compared to last summer, so I was able to get in more gaming.

I also got to chat and get to know everyone a little more as well as meet many new and interesting folks who are both on and offline

Well done! ;D

[GT]

So are ya gonna be at the summer con, Rhu??

[Rhuvein]

gt said:

So are ya gonna be at the summer con, Rhu??

Really gonna try my best, GT.

Odd thing - Winter is much cheaper, so I've got to keep that open and budgeted.

But summer is huge and full of events and the one where everyone is planning to go.

So, I've got to go to see all you guys again and now that I've had a chance to meet some of you, it'll be that much better and more interesting to go.

And then if Scotty or Gronan and everyone else make it, it'll just be fantabulous.

Sheesh, so I guess I've got to go.

That's it!!! Right now starts the money saving. NO MORE BUYING ANY GAMING STUFF OR MOVIES OR BOOKS OR BOOZE OR MINIS OR - WELL ANYTHING!!

Thanks GT.

;D

[Falconer]

grodog said:

We should definitely plan some sort of coordination for gaming

What? You don't find TLG's planning to be adequate?

Seriously, how about a tournament?

How about a shared campaign of sorts, a mini "Living" OAD&D campaign, if you will, perhaps, that carries over across the Lake Geneva cons for years to come? We've got decades of gaming ahead of us...

On another note, Steve was talking about pre-registration for LGGC being $10 if you do it now. If it's not posted on their website, email him that you heard about it and I'm sure he'll honor it. Regards.

[GT]

Cool!! Steve's a good man!

[Scott]

falconer said:

How about a shared campaign of sorts, a mini "Living" OAD&D campaign, if you will, perhaps, that carries over across the Lake Geneva cons for years to come? We've got decades of gaming ahead of us...

I've always been interested in the 'living' campaign concept. I'd like to see if we could put something together.

[grodog]

I've been noodling around the idea of a true Greyhawk AD&D Open-like tourney for GenCon, to stick it to WotC for killing the setting (which will be 6 feet under the month before, at Origins this year). It would need many DMs to make it work, though....

LGCC could be a test run for it, if it comes together in time....

[grodog]

falconer said:

On another note, Steve was talking about pre-registration for LGGC being $10 if you do it now. If it's not posted on their website, email him that you heard about it and I'm sure he'll honor it. Regards.

Good to know, and thanks. Is this an unadvertised offer, because if it's generally available, I know several other folks who'd be interested in pre-reging at $10 instead of $25 or more.

[Falconer]

I don’t ever plan on going to GenCon. And, honestly, if Greyhawk were officially “dead” it would cause me to feel relief more than anything. Maure Castle is the only “official” Greyhawk I’ve even looked at in years.

So back to the Living AD&D campaign—which, by the way, is Scott’s idea from years ago—here are some ideas:

It should be kind of like what the new Castle & Crusade Society was originally supposed to be about. To that end, it should involve the Great Kingdom.

1. “Living Kalibruhn”: Alongside Greyhawk and Blackmoor, this is the other major campaign that evolved out of the Great Kingdom. We know next to nothing about it, but it has always intrigued me. We would just need to get enough info from Rob to get it rolling, and take it wherever we want. If went this route, it would take more effort, since it's something we would have to put a lot of effort into. On the other hand, it could be very rewarding and exciting in a way that some other old campaigns might not be for us (since we are all DMs who know so much about Greyhawk and have very firm opinions about it, for example).

2. “Living Great Kingdom”: Another way to go would be to piece together as many pre-1980 references to the world of the Great Kingdom as possible. Including The Gnome Cache, Quag Keep, First Fantasy Campaign, The Quest for the Vermillion Volume, etc.--i.e. stuff actually written pre-1980, not reminiscences. Once we’ve put together some sort of overview of the campaign and a basic map from those materials, we can buff it up with some info and flavor from WoG, as if we were at C.Y. 1, say. But let the timeline diverge where it will from there...

[Falconer]

grodog said:

Good to know, and thanks. Is this an unadvertised offer, because if it's generally available, I know several other folks who'd be interested in pre-reging at $10 instead of $25 or more.

Some people definitely did it at Winter Dark. When I talked to him, he was unsure if he would extend the offer to the web, but it’s worth asking him in private via email. I honestly doubt he would turn anyone down, though.

[geneweigel]

falconer said:

[SNIP] So back to the Living AD&D campaign [SNIP]

I don't think I'm going to be playing in any games on the next trip. I'm just going to run something that I've been working on and off for about 5 or 6 years now (and run it in AD&D). So I've already got that planned.

[Scott]

Maybe an Undead Greyhawk in opposition to Living Greyhawk.
Seriously, I think starting small and working out in rings would be the way to go.

[GT]

As soon as the Castle Zagyg stuff comes out, I'll get back to you! ^__^

[GRWelsh]

Thanks for the Con Report, Gary. It sounds like it was a great time. I especially enjoyed the photos Rhuvein posted at Dragonsfoot of the OD&D game at your house.