Gary Con V Snapshots and Memories

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by mark, Mar 19, 2013.

  1. mark

    mark Spellbinder

    I had a great time at Gary Con V and wish to thank all of the staff and GMs who made everything so wonderful and fun! :)

    There was an official photographer in attendance that really knows how to take great shots and has all the top notch equipment, but I took a lot of pictures that I hope will fill in some gaps for folks. I've uploaded them to Facebook and Google, so please feel free to Tag folks you know and make comments on your convention memories. And please do also add my on G+ to your gaming circles and Friend me if you like on Facebook. You should know up front that I use these social media platforms for gaming, and use them vigorously, but avoid modern religion and politics (I also delete those types of comments from others when they wind up on my pics, Wall and such).

    Check them out -

    https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1175 ... 459/albums

    http://www.facebook.com/mark.cmg/photos_albums
     
  2. jeffery st. clair

    jeffery st. clair Troubadour

    Thank you so much to Mark and any other photographer who happened to catch me playing or running a game - I truly appreciate you letting me grab them off the Web.
     
  3. mark

    mark Spellbinder


    You're quite welcome. And for those who missed me saying so (I tried not to interrupt games unduly), if you are in a picture and would like it for your personal pages or websites, please do grab them and make use of them. I take a ton of them so we'll always have fairly complete record of the gaming and fun. :)
     
  4. welleran

    welleran Footpad

    Really? I hadn't noticed! :D
     
  5. JediSoth

    JediSoth Troubadour

    I've been tagging myself in your G+ albums and adding notes about the games I was playing.
     
  6. Guy Fullerton

    Guy Fullerton Level 0 Character

    Wow, Mark, that's an amazing amount of pictures! Thanks for sharing! (And stay warm ;))
     
  7. mark

    mark Spellbinder

    Thanks! It's great that so many are adding info and Tags. I appreciate it. :)


    You, too, Welly. ;)
     
  8. jim skach

    jim skach Troubadour

  9. jim skach

    jim skach Troubadour

  10. bbarsh

    bbarsh Level 0 Character

    http://s700.beta.photobucket.com/user/b ... 5549807358

    Link to album. More to come.

    Original Pacesetter and the new Pacesetter! Steve Sullivan of the original Pacesetter Games came by and we had a blast talking about old times and new! I just wanted to get this pic up as it is my favorite of the Con. Steve is one the people who inspired me to do what I do. Much more to come about Steve and Pacesetter (old and new).
    [​IMG]
     
  11. caddy1071

    caddy1071 Level 0 Character

    Hi all! Hey, meant to get back long before now, but life intervenes. :p I wanted to just give props to GaryCon and how much my gamin' friends and I have enjoyed this convention. The convention being truly geared to those who love gaming and the time dedicated by all the GMs for the enjoyment of attendees is amazing. Every time we come back with memories of good gaming and a stressless convention environment which really rockets GaryCon over other conventions not to be named. (Although I enjoy them as well ;) )

    Thank you all for your time and dedication (GMs AND players) that make the time so special - I'm a GaryCon convert to the core. :)

    I'd also like to send a special shout out to Paul Burdick (a.k.a. Magician Michael Mirth - look for him ;) ) for putting together an off the cuff Call of Cthulhu session together for us on Sunday when we had a 6-hour slot game cancellation. (or something ;) ) Paul heard about the trouble and volunteered to run a session for us and we all had a blast! While battling last minute travel plans and the end of convention hustle, Paul took the time to share his gifts and give us some memorable hijinks. :p Thanks so much, Paul! One of the many, many great stories I have from GaryCon, and looking forward to many, many more! :)

    Thanks, all!

    tty!
    Cory

    "Geekery Unbound"
     
  12. PBurke

    PBurke Level 0 Character

    Notes and Journal Memories from PBurke

    It's been a few weeks, and I wanted to share my notes and memories from GCV ....

    Gary Con V

    Last year’s Gary Con IV was the first gaming convention that I ever attended, and it was such a blast that I decided to try to make it back every year. So the week before Gary Con V, I packed healthy food, gym clothes, and swim trunks (the resort has both an exercise room and an indoor pool). These would help me maintain my stamina for all the gaming I had planned.

    Early Wednesday I took off with my friend Michael (AKA “Contrarian”) from Detroit. (Michael and I are co-chairs of the Detroit D&D Meetup group.) We made the trek with the car CD playing Jim Steinman, David Bowie, the Sweet, Shonen Knife, and the soundtrack to Les Miserables.

    After arriving in Lake Geneva and unpacking, we hung out at the pre-convention social in the hotel bar and watched the Improv show until I jumped into a Wednesday night pick-up game. DJChesirecat (part of the Connecticut contingent) ran an AD&D game with something I’ve never tried before -- all the PCs were Chaotic Evil. The party included a demon, an annis, an anti-paladin, a half-orc cleric/assassin, and a Drow magic-user. I played a vampire, and spent much of the time scouting ahead and flying around invisible in bat form. Since I got to regenerate hit points, I also ended up being the party’s designated trap tester. Even with the second chance that the DM gave us (exploring an “alternate reality”), we ended up with not one but two TPKs!

    Thursday morning I was scheduled for “Quondam Fount” (the Old Well) with Frank Mentzer. To avoid any spoilers, I won’t talk too much about the adventure itself. It was fun, and later that weekend I went over to the Eldritch Entertainment booth and bought the module; go to http://www.eldritchent.com to get a copy.

    I was really impressed with the variety of DMing techniques and tools which Frank used, so in addition to being *fun*, the session was also educational. Frank allows PC thieves to make their own rolls, but then the DM rolls to see if high or low is good. He allowed his players to purchase a few unusual non-magical items that one could probably find in a small town; I purchased a crowbar, bellows, and some chicken eggs. Frank did several d10 “call if you want high or low” spot checks or intelligence checks. He also allows the spell component in Spiritual Hammers to be re-used. He was really, really strong on making sure players are clear on everything before moving on, making eye contact with everyone and asking, “does everyone understand the situation?” His pre-gen characters (originally from “The Needle”) were especially delightful, each sheet having a detailed section on party relationships. Oh, and he doesn’t use a DM screen!

    4 PM Thursday I was scheduled to be in “Escape From Gilligan’s Island,” a rules-lite D20 Call of Cthulhu game DMed by Michael Browne of the Dead Games Society. This adventure was a fun and very absorbing blend of slapstick and sanity checks. I loved all the costumes he appeared in last year, so I was determined to get in one of his games this time around. He runs games for only 4 players per session. Two of the scheduled players were running late and had to miss the game**, but we managed to recruit 2 other players, TSR alumni artist Stephen D. Sullivan and his partner (sorry I forgot your name!), into our game. The characters we played were the Professor, Thurston Howell III, the Skipper, and Gilligan. Again, I’m not going to give out any spoilers, except perhaps to say that just as one might suspect …
    we never got off the island.
    Michael gives the same loving attention to detailing and planning his adventures as he does to his costumes, and his props were simply jaw-droppingly awesome.

    ** The 2 players who were late and had to miss out were my friends Jennifer and Mark Martin of the Castles & Crusades Society, who very recently had a baby.



    More later -- Paul from Detroit
     
  13. PBurke

    PBurke Level 0 Character

    Re: Notes and Journal Memories from PBurke

    I'm new to BBC code ... did I post the Spoiler Tag incorrectly? or do the forums not allow spoiler tags? -- PaulB
     
  14. jim skach

    jim skach Troubadour

  15. PBurke

    PBurke Level 0 Character

    Journal Notes and Memories from PBurke Part 2

    continuing from my last post....

    From 10 PM Thursday to 2 AM Friday morning, I played in Jon Wright’s Castles & Crusades game “Once Upon a Dark, Late Night.” Jon uses Hero Points and Luck Points in his games; Hero Points can usually get you out of an instant death situation, and Luck Points can be added to rolls.

    The game began with a memorable and rollicking firewater drinking competition and barfight at the “Puking Bar” in the city of Ramthorn. Once the main adventure was underway, our party almost went off in three directions. One group was ready for a stealthy approach, another group led by the party barbarians was eager to barge their way in, and the gnome paladin did some outdoor reconnaissance on her own. Most of our party had to use Hero Points at a crucial moment to avoid a TPK. The most memorable line of the session was definitely … “it is an inn -- why else would you have obelisks??”

    Friday noon I was scheduled for the dungeon crawl in Ernie Gygax’s original dungeon. Obviously, we were only able to explore a small section of his mega-dungeon, but we had a lot of fun. Ernie shared with us at one point that “Weapon Speed Factor was used for about one week.” Ernie uses a caller in his games. Rumor has it he is planning to publish his dungeon soon.

    Friday at 8 PM I was scheduled for the Living Adventure, and reunited with a couple of the players from my group last year. This year our group went off in some unexpected directions; I hope next year we all can get together to complete where we left off. I intend to keep coming back for the Living Adventure at future Gary Cons; I know they are planning to run the Living Adventure at the Nexxus conventions too.

    After the game late Friday night, I had hoped to attend the evening party of the Dead Game Society, but I didn’t figure out where Villa 9205 was located, so I circled around the convention again and then called it a night.

    Saturday 10 AM I was scheduled for the “Tower of Gygax,” The lesson from the first part of the session was … . No matter how pretty it looks, never pick up that jewel-encrusted dagger on the altar of Orcus. The second part of the session was a puzzle room that we solved to our satisfaction.

    Saturday at Noon I went to prolific Savage Afterworld blogger Tim “Sniderman” Snider’s Mutant Future adventure, “Dead in the Water.” He is the author of a Mutant Future monster manual titled the Deviant Database; a few of his new monsters showed up in our adventure. Our party consisted of a 2-headed mutant human, leslie the android, a mutant housefly (myself), a mutant cactus, and a freeze-ray shooting beaver. It was another blast of an adventure, and now I’m definitely toying with the idea of making and DMing some Mutant Future adventures of my own.

    Sometime Saturday while wandering in the war games section, I met Jon Pickens, who kindly talked with me and answered my questions about the Remagen Bridgehead miniature war game. This is a Legends of Wargaming event re-creating the capture of the Ludendorf bridge by American troops fighting the Germans in World War Two. I’m pretty sure this game had the original miniatures!

    Later Saturday I played in the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure “Children of Frynn” with James Carpio. We started late at 5 PM and moved upstairs. I’m not sold on all the crit table charts and funky dice, but the adventure was great with enjoyable puzzles and challenges. My favorite rule in Dungeon Crawl Classics is that instead of skills, PCs can apply knowledge and abilities based on their previous occupations (my previous occupation was dwarven mushroom farmer). What I loved the most about the adventure was the flavor, which successfully evoked the feel of classic sources like R.E. Howard, Fritz Lieber, and H.P. Lovecraft.

    Saturday night was back to the hotel bar where I enjoyed some good company and conversations at the Castles & Crusades social, and then I joined a late night Castles & Crusades pickup game. Unfortunately, I had overestimated my energy level! I started nodding off early in the pickup game, and before I fell asleep for good and started snoring, I excused myself and went back to the room to crash for the night.

    8:00 AM Sunday I asked permission to sit in and watch the first part of Ken Haylock’s Early Bird Mazes& Minotaurs game. The GM was kind enough to let me watch the first part to satisfy some of my curiosity. This is a sword-and-sandals game, more Harryhousen than Homer or Hesiod. The character sheets were particularly beautiful. (see http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/ ).

    Allen “Grodog” Grohe’s Castle Greyhawk was the final event I played in last year at Gary Con IV. My final event this year Sunday at 10 AM would be another event run by Allen Grohe: “Aliens: Rescue Newt,” a cooperative wargame with miniatures. The game board was beautiful and breathtaking – anyone who hasn’t seen the photos posted online needs to go take a look.

    Aliens is a very engaging strategy game The rules are very easy to learn quickly, and the only die needed is a d10. The key tension in the game is that players must decide during their turns whether they will stay in place and shoot or whether they will keep on moving. Aliens keep popping up on the board, so it is important to keep moving. We ended up with a TPK.

    There was some post-game chat on the feasibility of making a “retro-clone” out of this game, taking out all of the IP and making it into a generic sci-fi/ Lovecraftian horror miniature war game. This is such an excellent game that I really hope this idea happens.

    That’s all for now …thanks to everyone who contributed to making Gary Con V a wonderful experience – I hope to see as many of you as I can next year!

    --Paul from Detroit
     
  16. Khasimir

    Khasimir Footpad

    That was one of the highlights of the con for me. The absolute craziness that ensued from the thief picking that thing up was just a blast. I was still laughing about it later on that night.

    When Frank Mentzer said "Haters be hatin'" towards the end of his seminar, that was another highlight. Never saw that coming.

    During Welleran's morning game, someone blurted out "You shanked that b****!". I'm going to forever use that in future gaming sessions as a result.

    The seminar about the History of Castle Greyhawk was great. Especially Paul talking about how Gary got some cheap dime store miniatures and essentially distorting them to what he guessed an <insert monster here> should look like, thus how we saw them drawn in the MM are exactly how they appeared in Gary's basement.

    Not only was Mike Mornards game a blast to be part of, talking with him until 2AM Sunday morning was just as cool. Being able to pick the brain of one of the original OD&D players was a phenomenal occurrence. I look forward to playing in his game next year.

    Playing in Wayne, AKA The Keeper's Wings of War morning games was really cool. I normally hate card driven wargames (I like pushing cardboard counters around), but I could have played his WoW game all morning long.

    I am grateful for being able to play some games that I've never played before: DCC (thanks for the great game Michael Curtis), Wings of War, old school OD&D, some of the pickup games in the upstairs room and Mazes and Minotaurs. It very much broadened my gaming perspective and I enjoyed myself immensely.
     
  17. ThrashLibrarian

    ThrashLibrarian Level 0 Character

    Glad to see I contributed one of your memorable quotes! It was a great great game.
     
  18. jim skach

    jim skach Troubadour

    If you are interested...I was finally able to set aside a little time to complete the last couple of round up posts about GaryCon V.Day 4, Part 2 and Day 5 are now complete..and I can start planning for next year!
     

Share This Page