Hey Steven, I replied to your Facebook post too, but the Thing is a new social deduction board game by Mondo / Project Raygun. You play one of the twelve members of the Outpost 31 team from James Cameron's 1981 The Thing film and the object is to escape to the chopper with 4 humans and no Imitations. You can tie people to couches, burn them up with the flame thrower, perform blood tests (if enough of the outpost is still standing), etc., but this is a board game, not a miniatures game, so it’s very different than Aliens. I’m more of a miniatures guy myself, but this is an excellent, 2-hour detective game and it’s even more fun with folks who know the movie. I've played three times and the humans lost each time, though, so it's not easy! If you played Leading Edge's Aliens game (produced in the early 90s), yes it's the same, but will be played on a custom 3D board that matches the original map.
For those interested, I have 4 events scheduled this year. On Thursday, 2 AD&D games played at Gary Con V return: "The Ivory Coin" and "Crusaders and Tombraiders". On Friday, appropriately during the day (the sun never sets at the South Pole in January), I will be running 2 slots of my new Call of Cthulhu, 7th Ed. RPG titled "Bonechilling Terror Beneath Blood Falls, Antarctica". If you liked "Hideous Horror of the Hebrides" from Gary Con VII and VIII, you'll enjoy this game too.
Nice. You're a machine! I hope to get into at least on one-grid game with you. Way in for one of your MSH games. We had a blast in New York '77 last year. Here's what I submitted. Both using AS&SH: Hyperborea: Ruinous Palace of the Metegorgos (Thu 12PM-4PM). An adventure of moldering power, monstrous fecundity, old gold hidden in old places, and the cruelty of petty gods. Rumors swirl through Brigands Bay and Stonebrook of an ancient power that once more stirs in the deep Hyperborean forest. The children of the cursed Metegorgos stalk the woods outside her ruined hall. What treasures might wait within, forgotten in the darkness of her long madness? This adventure definitely has some adult themes and content and is not for the squeamish. Written by Evey Lockhart and published by In Search of Games. Hyperborea: Beyond Beyond the Ice Fall! (Sun 12PM-4PM). The long year of darkness is over, but ice still grips Hyperborea. Wolves and stranger things rove in the darkness, and the bloated, old red sun is slow reappear. The supply ship is overdue and feared lost in the sudden late snows, and a strange unearthly cold is gripping your island home. The skills you honed during the long darkness are suddenly needed. In the icy wastes, death or glory awaits. An adaptation of "Beyond the Ice Fall" by Joseph D. Salvador. The 250-character limit on descriptions on TTE this year is annoying!
Cross posted from the FB page: Early-Bird GMs, Please check your email for a t-shirt reward form! It only takes a second and helps to ensure sizes don't run out.
Just added a pair of AS&SH games to the on-grid lineup, but not set in Hyperborea: Thursday 10AM: Something Stinks in Lankhmar Friday 10AM: Raid on Spinecastle Keep, a Greyhawk adventure. This is in addition to an already submitted game on 10AM saturday , set in Hyperborea, "Escape from Onja Cot"
The Thing is Amazing... I have been doing demos of it since Philly Pax Unplugged and get lots of requests to run it for Board Game groups
And last but not least, the newest in my Savage Gilligan's Island Series, Episode 3 - Das Boot!? ... The castaways have to contend with some very dangerously confused and confusing visitors, an attack from the sky, and an invasion of some sort of puffy mushrooms that aren't normal in any way whatsoever. Saturday 12p-4p. Savage Worlds.
Dang it. All the games I want to play are scheduled for the same time I'm running games. - The GM's Lament
Know how you feel. Also, it appears from the scheduling that the whole convention center is being used this time. GaryCon has definitely grown in the last handful of years.
A lot of games scheduled in the Forum Ballroom (all the way at one end of the resort) that I don't remember being used the last two years.
We're using the Forum for the first time this year. Yes, it's very far from everything else, but there is shuttle service and the kitchen on that end is much bigger than the conference center kitchen, so tableside food service ought to be much quicker.
Yes, it's a good quarter mile from the main lobby to the forums, walking distance but I don't think you'd want to do it often (especially toting gaming gear). I don't have a shuttle schedule , but they ought to be available at the main desk. I know they have a smartphone app you can use to get alerts.
I believe it's a room near where dndgeek and I were camped out the first year at the Grand Geneva. Remember that lovely, recurring hike, Jay?
To get there from the main area, one would pass by where my crew has stayed the past couple of years . . . and where we stash our beer. So we have taken the news fairly well.