A little help for the newbies please?

Hello fellow gamers

I'm hoping I can bother some of you for a bit of assistance. My wife and I will be attending our very first Garycon and are in need of some good advice.

Let me start by explaining our situation a bit. I started gaming back in high school (around 1983) with a group that played AD&D pretty much exclusively. I fell in love with the game instantly and wanted to learn everything I could about how to play it. We dabbled in a bit of Toon (and a super hero game that I can't recall) towards the end of that groups existence but nothing really did it for me then other than good ole 1st E. After high school I tried to keep a disheveled group together for a few years but life just kept getting in the way.

Fast forward 20 some years of virtually NO gaming and I happily find myself once again back at the table. Except now I'm sitting next to my best friend (who also happens to be my wife). Somehow, after what I considered our "2nd try in life", (I'll spare you the gory details) we have found our way into a fun new gaming group.

The problem is that these "new" gamers that we play with are not nearly as "hardcore" as the group I loved years ago. It's fun, but.......just not the same. They tend to play like the adventures are some kind of video game and there is very little "role" playing. It's mostly just rolling dice with a heavy "kill monster/take treasure" feel.

Our dilemma is that we just don't know anyone else in the gaming community or, more importantly, any of the other game systems that are available out there. I'm guessing that we won't be the only "noobs" attending, but because we are so green, I would like to start figuring out what games we might want to get in now instead of scrambling last minute.

I have been scouring the forums and read some things like Scooby-Doo, The Love Boat, Simpsons, and X-Files type games. (wifey loves X-Files) All of these sound like a great diversion from our usual dungeon crawls and I would love to learn more about them.

Does anyone have links to past game lists with descriptions of the games? I would also love any suggestions you might have for any other games you think we would enjoy. Also, we have no idea who the people are who might be running some of these games. Any opinions about who runs a great game that we might enjoy playing in?

Basically, I would entertain ANY suggestions at this point. Thanks for reading all of this and thanks for any help you might be able to throw our way.

See you all in March!

Ogre Mage and Hotgoblin

 

Just out of curiosity...which valley of the fox...the one in IL?

 

Well, I'm in pretty much the same boat, although I am not in a gaming group yet. I had tried running 2E a couple of times over a few years several years back for my wife and oldest son with little success. After that, I hadn't played again until Gamehole. (By the way, are you the one I was discussing Iron Maiden with during Mentzer's game Saturday night?) I was just going to sample some different games that sounded interesting and play in some special events and possibly spend some time in open games or signing up for something on-site if there was someone I wanted to play with. That's what I did at Gamehole, and for the most part it was pretty successful. But I am willing to get some suggestions to help narrow my search. I know looking through the list of games from last year, I would need far more time than the four days to be able to play everything that sounded fun.

 

Hey there, Ogre Mage! Welcome to the Gary Con community!




Here’s my 2 cp’s worth in response to your requests for assistance & information -

As for gaming systems – GaryCon’s focus is on old school games, so principally games from the 1970’s and 1980’s. That general time period included such games as:

- AD&D and OD&D (original D&D, a/k/a White Box D&D), of course;
- Tunnels & Trolls
- Runequest
- Call of Cthulu
- Traveler
- Top Secret
- Boot Hill
- Gamma World and Metamorphasis Alpha
- Bunnies & Burrows
- Villains & Vigilantes
- Paranoia
- Star Wars RPG

And those are just some of the RPGs. There’s also board games and miniatures games (to name a few):

- Cirvus Maximvs (a Roman chariot race board game)
- Grand Prix (a large-scale car race board game)
- Chainmail (miniatures wargame, set in the Medieval Times)

(I’ve seen all of these played at Gary Con in years past.)


In addition, several newer games that are old school in their design and gameplay which are worth taking a look at, including:

- Astonishing Swordsmen and Sorcerers of Hyperboria (AS&SH) – a gritty, dark, fantasy RPG that uses very familiar game mechanics, but which has a strong(er) pulpy feel to the game (very strong Howardian, Lovecraftian, Burroughs, CAS influence in this game);

- Swords & Wizardry - essentially a re-write of OD&D, with a few rules streamlined for ease of play (plus, the game is better organized); game mechanics and gameplay is very similar to OD&D;

- Labyrinth Lord – essentially a re-write of the Moldvay Basic/Expert D&D; the mechanics and gameplay is very similar to Basic/Expert D&D; and

- Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG – much like AS&SH, this game’s mechanics will feel very familiar, but the gameplay will be different; DCC RPG is based on a lot of the pulpy literary fiction that inspired the creation of D&D in the 1970’s, but uses a base d20 (modern) game system as the foundation. So, the magic in this game is unpredictable, the creatures are creepy and strange, and there’s a lot of wild side effects to PC actions. So, think Lieber, Lovecraft, Howard, Burroughs, Moorcock, CA Smith, etc.



As for specific games or events, I don’t have any links to past game lists. However, if you’ll PM me your email address, I can send you a Word document that has screen shots from the Gary Con 2012 event catalog from early January 2012. This is a preliminary event catalog – the final event catalog had a LOT more games than this document suggests. These screen shots are (apparently) just the RPG and board game events from the 2012 event catalog. All told, the Word document has about 5 pages of events by name, game system, DM name, and date and time of events. This should give you a good feel for the sort of games that will be offered in future GaryCons.

Or you can email me directly at tacojohndm “at” yahoo “dot” com and I’ll shoot you that 2012 event’s list.


As for whose games to look for on the events catalog, here is a short list of DMs whose games are pretty much guaranteed to result in your having a good time (obviously this list is based on my personal tastes and biases, and it’s impractical to list EVERY good/great DM in one place; for those DMs whom I failed to mention in this list, please accept my sincere apologies. Your exclusion was purely an accidental oversight.):

Frank Mentzer
Paul Stormberg (AD&D and Chainmail)
James “Jim” Ward (in particular, Metamorphosis Alpha)
Allan Grohe (AD&D, Alliens)
Greg Gilispie (in particular, Barrowmaze)
Jeff Talanian (in particular, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperboria)
Michael Curtis (DCC RPG)
Harley Stroh (DCC RPG)


That should get you started!

 

Jim.....look further North. The one in between Oshkosh and Green Bay.



Taco John....(great name) Thanks for the warm welcome and great info! That is excactly the stuff I was looking for. I am familiar with some of those systems (and GM's) and will be checking into the others. Your system comparisons are extremely helpful! I will shoot you an email for your list. Thanks again!!! (get me started indeed :shock: )



Scott.....What's up man! Yes that was us. (I'm dying to hear how you figured that out) It's awesome to see that you are on here and also looking for some info. We should try to get in another game this time. Let's keep in touch and if you are running solo at GC maybe we can hang out some.?!




Anyone else......I'd love to hear more "personal" suggestions. This forum is the perfect tool for someone like me with little actual "table time" over the last several years. A HUGE THANKS to all the people involved with keeping it going!

GameHole Con was our first con experience ever and we meet some very cool people and learned some fun new games. We look forward to meeting and playing some more!

 

I would agree with the big taco (who runs a good game himself, but is too modest to put himself on his own list). I'd also add Ken Haylock. Ken's a super nice guy, a great DM and runs a fun, non-intimidating game that's probably perfect for new attendees. Needless to say, personality fit's a big part of enjoying someone's game, so what works for one person may not work for another.

 

Hahaha...thanks chainsaw! I don't consider myself in the same league as those DMs I listed above, but maybe someday if I keep practicing....

And you're right about Ken - he IS a great DM and a good match for new convention gamers.

 

I just remembered our conversation at Gamehole. I knew we had somewhat similar gaming backgrounds in that we played years ago but then there was a long period without gaming, although you had gotten back into it while the con was my first gaming experience in several years. Plus you mentioned that while Gamehole was your first con, you and your wife were already registered for Gary Con. And I remembered you guys were up north somewhere, so I assumed that was the valley of the fox of which you spoke. Granted, all of those points could have been used to describe several people I'm sure, but I figured I would take a shot. I'm definitely interested in hanging out and getting into a game or two with you guys. I've got Thursday and Friday off, so I will try to get there early Thursday to get as much time in as I can. There was a lot to pick from for Gamehole, but since I missed early registration and had to wait until I got there there was much more limited options. Being registered for this already, I'm sure my head will be spinning when I see the full list I will have to pick from. I'm looking forward to playing some stuff I would otherwise probably never get a chance to play.

 

From a different thread:

 

I'm getting old, so the GaryCons I've attended (all but 0) run together in my head sometimes...but IIRC, I've played in a game (sometimes many) run by everyone on that list except Greg Gilispie...and can attest to the strength of this list.

Ever since playtesting very early prototypes of DCC back at...what...GaryCon III I think?...I've been a fanboi of that particular game and probably would get arrested for stalking the Michael and Harley if I didn't have a family and a mortgage to pay...

Special shouts out to Paul Stromberg and Allan Grohe for last year when Paul ran a great game for my kids and I when he was dead tired and to Allan who, besides running a great AD&D, has the coolest Alien/Aliens setup you will ever see and in whose game my kids and I had an abolsute blast.

Wait...have I been in a Jeff Talanian game yet? Might have to put that on the To Do list for this year...

 

I'd like to put in a plug for John Wright. Not sure if he is coming to this year's Gary Con, but I had a great time in the C&C tournament session he ran last year. I've played with some big names over the years and I think he's right there with them.

 

Chainsaw.....(also a cool name) Thanks for the heads up about the "big taco" and Ken Haylock. I totally hear what you're sayin about personality and agree completely. We are fun lovin folks that try not to get too serious at the table, but were also not against playing in some more "hard-core" sessions if presented.



Buttmonkey.....(buttmonkey?) Thanks for John Wright shout out. We will check him out.



Jim.....Thanks for the input. We sat in on a DCC game for a while at GHC when we were in between games (with Scott actually......man that is so weird) and we both thought it was very cool. We only played for an hour or so but I liked the way you started out in that game.



Scott.....That was some seriously good deductive reasoning on your part. (I love how I said we don't know anyone on here and the second person who replies.......we've met) I saw that list by mordrin on here already and I think you are right about the head spinning thing. I'm curious as to what you thought of that DCC game that we sat in on with you guys. We are getting in on Thursday too so we should definitely find something to play in together. Feel free to PM me anytime!

 

I really enjoyed the DCC game. Since everyone was a zero level character, it really forced you to get creative with what people might be able to do based on their backgrounds. Tom, the other guy playing that game (who was also in the Mentzer game with us), and I played another DCC game after that one, with a different DM, that was more traditional, and that was fun as well. I would not hesitate to play DCC again.

 

Hello Ogre, first let me say this will be my third Gary con, and it has now become the convention I look forward to the most. There will be plenty of ad&d games to get into, but I suggest trying some you never played. I did that last year and felt very welcomed and people where excited and patient to have a new player.

Ok on with my suggestions. If you like super heroes, dead games society runs awesome and slightly twisted marvel games.
One of my favorite fantasy style games not d&d is castles and crusades. The guys from Troll Lord games are great and there is usually a plethora of events to get into. For a post apocalypse game, there is mutant future, it is the old schools rules with lasers, mutants and robots. I just wanted to name a few I didn't see named yet, hope this helps.

 

Hmmmm. This sounds like I need to get into one of their games.

 

Many Thanks Gravon!
We definitely want to try some new games out. (that shouldn't be to hard for us)
I am familiar with C&C, but not Mutant Future. I will be checking it out now.
These and all the other suggestions have been an incredible help!
Thanks again everyone and Happy Holidays to all!

 

You can download the rules for free here: http://www.goblinoidgames.com/mutantfuture.html

 

That's great! Links for stuff like that are a huge help as well. (I am somewhat computer un savvy)
Thank you!

 

I wanted to add that Eli Elder is great too (we used to game together before he moved away), as is Bryan Skowera (who ran a great late night pick up game back in 2011). Keith Sloan is also a good guy who runs a regular game and writes modules, though I have not had a chance to game with him yet (this year for sure!).

 

Thanks again chainsaw!!!

Here I thought I might have to bribe you guys with beers or something for these answers.
You have all been super helpfull and it is greatly appreciated.