First GGX Thoughts...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by scottmbruner, Mar 12, 2018.

  1. scottmbruner

    scottmbruner Level 0 Character

    Wow.

    So, that was my first GaryCon and it was a tremendous experience. In fact, I just booked my room for 2019!

    Lessons learned:
    1. If you run a 10-hour Tomb of Horrors game, put an hour break in there! It went well, but I definitely (I'm 44...) wound down around hour 8.

    2. Stay in the Grand Geneva.

    3. THERE WERE SO MANY MORE PEOPLE than I expected. I'd thought this would be a much, much smaller experience, and folks at my tables who had been to previous Cons say it's really exploded in growth. I don't mind for selection of games, but I never saw a lot of people (Erol Otus, any Gygaxes, Tim Kask, Frank Mentzer) that I'd hoped. I saw Zeb Cook twice, but both times chickened out on asking him to sign my 2E PHB. Next year...

    4. They make an amazing Sazerac at the Geneva bar.

    5. I didn't know a con could be so fun, accessible, inviting, and full of like-minded gamers. I've been to other Cons where people didn't show to my scheduled games or didn't grok OSR sensibilities. Other than just 1(!) no-show in my games, none of these issues happened at GaryCon, and everyone was dedicated, engaged, and friendly.

    Great experience all round - next year, I need to schedule better to play in the games run by the legends, though.
     
  2. Jarlaxle

    Jarlaxle Troubadour

    1. Yeah, figure on a break.
    2. Yes.
    3. Pretty big...about 2500 people, IIRC. Surprised you didn't run into any of the Old Guard...they seemed to be everywhere. (I saw Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Ernie & Luke Gygax, and Skip Williams.)
    4. If you say so...
     
  3. gmbarry

    gmbarry Footpad

    1. dont do a 10 hour game
    2. Sometimes off site can be nicer to wind down
    3. never schedule games you run between 12 and 6 most days if you can. Walk around more, amazed you missed them, never pass up an autograph (unless your a moron and forgot your DL1 while in the area after forgetting that Killer Breakfast was happening.. But thanks to that big sign near the bar and restaurant, you make it at the last minute) and after that... Never saw the Hickmans again
    4. You did not have any Malort ?
    5. Luck.. all Luck
     
  4. dndgeek

    dndgeek Troubadour

    Lol, didn't we break in there somewhere? Sorry; I will be a little better organized next year and hit the breaks I had planned! Glad you had fun at your first GC. See you next year!
     
  5. scottmbruner

    scottmbruner Level 0 Character

    Ha Ha! Not your game...mine :) We both must've done a 10-hour game. My players were stellar, I felt like hour 8+ I wound down a bit.

    Tomb of Horrors is kinda my jam, and I'd like to keep running it forever, but it does represent time challenges. I've thought of a few ways to truncate some non-essential areas (like digging up the entrances).
     
  6. dndgeek

    dndgeek Troubadour

    Oh, nice to know there's another nutcase out there running 10-hour games! Usually I just find a way to introduce the boss/end scenario towards the end of an event, and I thought of scaling the difficulty of the final encounter according to how well/far they did/got in the game, but I ultimately refused to do that, because the Tomb of Horrors is one of the standardized tests of AD&D and I didn't want to debase it in any way on its 40th anniversary, in Lake Geneva.
     
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  7. scottmbruner

    scottmbruner Level 0 Character

    How did your group do? With two characters left alive, my group did what no group before had ever done: defeat Acererak.

    I mostly ran it as it, but I did speed up a couple sections to give them the opportunity to face the demi-lich, and removed one set of trapped hallways. Are we getting off-topic? :)
     
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  8. dndgeek

    dndgeek Troubadour

    Nice! I ran it BTB and, though it took them an extra 3+ hours (12+ hours total), they made it all the way through, found the crypt and defeated Acererak. There were at least half-a-dozen times that I was like, "Whelp, I think this is it; they're going to die (or get stuck) here" but they came through each time and figured out each puzzle. All players contributed and, for the most part, they were all very, very careful where they moved and what they touched. It didn't feel like 12 hours, though, as we had a good group of players that could be funny and stay on task at the same time. I think this experience may have primed me for a marathon running of Barrier Peaks in miniature at GC12, for the 40th anniversary.
     
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  9. Buttmonkey

    Buttmonkey Troubadour

    Ooh, Barrier Peaks might suck me in. I was a play tester for Frank's Wretched Swamp. I have no interest in playing through ToH. But Barrier Peaks would be cool.
     
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