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Post by geneweigel on Apr 19, 2022 13:54:45 GMT -5
I just put in to DM two games FRI and SAT.
It says "pending" so hopefully this goes off without a hitch.
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Post by GRWelsh on Apr 19, 2022 17:11:08 GMT -5
I've always wanted to go to that Con. Let me know how it is. It looks awesome since it has a focus on the older games... Very similar to GARY CON in that way and I see it will have a lot of the same guests. I've always wanted to meet Jeff Dee, and I see he'll be there. $112 per night at the Westin is a great deal and the convention being at the airport Westin is super convenient. I love the Dallas/Fort Worth area but traffic getting into Dallas is horrendous. So flying in to DFW and just taking a shuttle to the airport Westin is an ideal situation.
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Post by grodog on Apr 21, 2022 8:18:47 GMT -5
I’ve been attending since the beginning, and it’s a very fun show. Once I decide that GaryCon has gone too far (likely soon, in the next year or two), NTX will be my only “big” convention each year.
Allan.
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Post by geneweigel on Apr 21, 2022 8:40:17 GMT -5
I saw elements of big corp here and there, and it's followers, at Gary Con. Luke Gygax seems to be steeped in that but I don't really know. I fell into a game demonstration "trap" ( scifi game with volumes of skills and a quirky mod style) by an aggressive designer but my magical attack adjustment kicked in at the last second for my succor spell...
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Post by geneweigel on May 20, 2022 14:00:29 GMT -5
Well, its 2 weeks away. I just posted my known schedule so far: THURS plane arrives 5:33PM, Orlando to Dallas FRI 1pm AD&D to 5PM (Broken Castle Add On "Swamp Tower" place name), 6PM Artists Gathering to 10PM, SAT 1PM AD&D to 5PM (1981 era original game by me "Vampire Castle" place name), SUN plane departs 1:19PM. Dallas to Orlando Dorothy is going to visit mom with two youngest so I shouldn't be as "clobbered" when I get back this time around! Yeah right!
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Post by GRWelsh on May 23, 2022 7:29:23 GMT -5
Well, I'm happy for you. That convention sounds awesome. It definitely seems like one of the few that is worth travelling to, and the deal at the Westin is unbeatable. I used to travel to the Dallas/Fort Worth area a lot for work... It is an area of corporate sprawl with a lot of traffic, but if you are staying on site that isn't a problem. I particularly like Fort Worth and recommend the Cattlemen's Steakhouse, the Stockyards, the rodeo and the Botanic Garden if you get the time... the last feels like standing in a Japanese painting. EDIT: I just realized I'm wearing the Fort Worth hoodie I bought on my first trip there in 2006.
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Post by geneweigel on May 23, 2022 7:52:00 GMT -5
Well, we've got a pretty good idea of what the Gary Con set up is a celebration of Gygax D&D and yet cozy enough for traditional Gary avoiding type D&D players to find their own space since Gary is now completely non-threatening and in the past. His son representing the con is very laidback casual player who does not see content but rather sees D&D's current success as reason to celebrate his dad. Hey, you know what? As long as I don't have to sit in on a "threener dog" game it ain't my issue. I really was happy talking to humble Terry Kuntz, completely different from Rob, but you can imagine the shared origins but I can't let that interaction influence the comparisons. So I'm going to keep that in focus but its still a factor as meeting known people is part of the charm. So far Dennis Sustare has bailed which I wanted to get his opinion on my "anti-druid". Rats!
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 3, 2022 22:54:12 GMT -5
Having a surreal evening at the artists gathering. I ran the addon for Broken Castle this afternoon. Totally awesome game.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 4, 2022 16:44:53 GMT -5
Another awesome game "vampire tower" was a remapproach to an old game with old ideas.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 4, 2022 16:45:22 GMT -5
Players enjoyed again.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 4, 2022 18:14:45 GMT -5
Going to a pickup game upstairs on the 13th floor.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 4, 2022 23:11:26 GMT -5
We had a break and went to get a beverage... Begin journey into madness...
Nice smiley lady enters into elevator with older grey haired guy as I'm going back up to the 13th floor. She turns to me and says,"So guys how long is this convention thing going for?" The guy answers before me,"well, it's the last night. It'll be over tomorrow..." She says," oh? have good one" DING walks out. It says on badge ZEB COOK. I look down at my badge and its flipped over. He is looking like Larry David in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Then DING gets off.
I'm like... Nahhh!!! He couldn't possibly know me... Or does he?
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Post by GRWelsh on Jun 5, 2022 6:48:26 GMT -5
Come on, Gene, you've got to give us more details on the games you ran. How did they play out, did anyone die, did they kill the vampire of vampire tower, etc.
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 5, 2022 8:12:27 GMT -5
It'll be easier later on the computer. I just accidentally deleted two posts
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Post by geneweigel on Jun 5, 2022 21:43:25 GMT -5
Heh, I just came home to my oldest daughter turned the house into squalor because mom's in NY. Hours of digging up "RISKY BUSINESS 2" and I was going to enjoy the pool but she didn't bother looking at the pool. Now its green slimed on my new light fixtures that I had the mechanic do on Thursday and Friday while I was away... Tired!!!
I did a lot of work on the plane back and also read Rob's essay on Arneson. Very interesting. I'm beginning to see that the big kaboom at TSR was not the Blumes as much as it was Arneson. From reading Rob's take critically, I believe Rob loved Dave as kind of an idol perhaps Terry did as well and it seems to me that Dave led them astray. It'll be in my new essay "THE ARNESON STRAIN"... Seriously, looking at the big picture that all this stuffy talk dismisses is toy play.
Game 1 (FRIDAY) The "Swamp Tower" (Unnamed BROKEN CASTLE add-on for the pdf version which will be free for those who already bought the hardcopy or for sale if no one wants the hard version) Had 5 players. A wrecked small castle in a lake with ruined buildings. I tried to leave out some elements to get them to move right into the action. Discovered and fought a half golem weapon shark that was composed of an extreme water breathing potion for blood which they figured out from my rapid descriptions. They went into the lake and discovered that the "small castle" was actually the top of an extremely stilted designed tower of the ancient bird men. Then there is another underwater "tower" that looks like a light bulb. A force of huge humanoids with trout faces and spetum are holding on to a transport "device". Its alive but not fighting. Some escape. It has a door they go down a ladder into a cavern find a lever to open a strangely designed portcullis-like gate there is a strange wall with pod-like protrusions. Turn out to be sleeping chanbers then they go through a secret door and it leads to chamber of the big "troutman" (a giant) who has priests, killer frogs with poison and larger but nonarmored berserker type troutmen with scissoring lips addin. Two of the players lost track of their schedule and said they had promised to be at another game a half hour ago but lost track of time. I think we were 3 hours in. So I had the other players run them like henchmen (they were fighters). One of the frogs instant killed one of the fighters but they found an antidote in the treasure and then we wrapped. They missed about half the adventure but due to the time they would never be able to do it all in that time frame and I wasn't to do an 8 hour game.
Game 2 (Saturday) Retro 1982 game which was my first design. Didn't touch on everything so I moved it along rapid fire for a Reader's Digest version. Didn't mention the countryside just vaguely which I have a map but just made everything move fast. Town is covered in a green slime variant called "red slime" they figure out that it dissolves like slime but not as fast the poison turns you into a lesser chaotic evil vampire eventually. So some have confusing alignments are somewhat still alive under the control of the slime (This is not from "olive slime", I got the seed of the idea from an Intellivision video game where Dracula could turn villagers into red lumpy-looking zombies to fight cops. Wait it gets better!) A female ghost appears and moans "BEWARE, SIR TEETH!!!" So the town is useless from all this slime everywhere however thanks to a strange aurora seen as the sun set they investigate and find a bizarre tower outside of town that looks like a section of Stonehenge but organic and bone-like. Its 200 feet tall. Secret doors at bottom take on east "leg" of tower a shambling mound-like bloody red slime creature that is still alive. A trapped stairs found by thief is a spiked pit trap. A gate is open on a floor to the abyss with massive slime demons coming rapidly to the portal and they destroy it. Magic Mouth says "You fools will die!" They see the owner was working on golems. They find a villager magically frozen with a special magical lantern item that they did not figure out how to use. He flees in a panic and dies. They get upstairs rows of cages with living villagers and giant stone coffins they say "Sir Teeth" just left. And they listen and hear baying of wolves and bone golem worg-sized wolves attack. They kill them. Then a hag. They 8 of the coffins are stone golems with tombstone heads. In apanic the cleric casts sticks to snakes. Sir Teeth (10 foot tall faceless with giant tusklike teeth also based on the poor graphics from "DRACULA" the Intellivision game.) appears and tries to kill the magic-user by projecting an illusion of him self on the other side of the building but they don't buy it. They attack him instead of the golems. He dies and the golems deactivate. They find piles of coins under where the golems were laying. They grab what they can with the villagers and flee as the building starts vibrating. Fades from existence and wraps.
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