So GaryCon VI is over. “Sigh.” I have to admit, it is one of the things I wait in impatient anticipation for during the year. VI was exceptional, and that is saying something about a fantastic con that I have been lucky enough to attend every year. So I started off Thursday with Frank Mentzer’s “Back to 1974.” I’ve never played OD&D rules and I have to say this game sold me on the edition. The adventure was simple and a lot of fun, with Frank injecting some great D&D anecdotes throughout, up until the party interrupted an ogre couple in a compromising, ummm, position. My elf Benadryl (it was what I was on at the time), his sinuses razor clear, did me proud with each bow shot between yawns. My next event that day was Rob Kuntz’s “Lost City of the Elders.” I’ve played in the Lost City before with Rob and each time, this one being no exception, it was a psychedelic fantasy romp. We only made it to the outer wall of the city, but it was a weird and wonderful trip. Drove home listening to Pink Floyd because of it. Would I visit again? Heck yeah! The next day I somehow made it to Ken Haylock’s “Early Bird Mazes & Minotaurs.” I’ve played in several of Ken’s games and he’s an excellent DM. M&M was another new experience, and one I was glad to have. Ken gave us a fun, straight-forward, mythic Greece adventure, the high point being when the nymph PC (played by a great guy) befuddled the Necromancer with a full on smack on the lips!, enabling the rest of us to take him down. Next I played in Mike Carr’s “Don’t Give Up The Ship.” I love this game. I’ve only played it twice. Last year with a little bit of skill and an immense amount of luck (which I misinterpreted as skill) I did very well. This year I was a British Admiral. My fleet was decimated and my flagship ended up mastless with 60% casualties. I had a blast, though I’m sure I afterwards I was quietly retired to the English countryside in disgrace. I ended Friday playing Kevin Cabai’s “Battle of Sarn Athrad” using the Gygax and Perren’s Chainmail rules. This game was beautiful. It replayed one of the crucial events that is at the root of the enmity between elves and dwarves in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. The detail and effort that Kevin put into the miniatures and the scenario was amazing. As a Tolkien aficionado I was stunned, and enjoyed killing lots of thieving, murdering dwarves, though the game ended unfinished as a tie. Saturday I rolled in just in time to get into Tim Kask’s “Something Completely Different II,” again using OD&D. I am soooo going to start playing these rules. And better yet, it was Tim’s Pie Game! Gaming old school with pie, what more could you ask for? How about having your strapping Paladin and all the other PCs turned into anthropomorphic mice? We dodged and dealt with farmland animals until we reached the weasel and his rat and mole henchmen that were causing all the trouble. On the way my mouse paladin was swallowed whole by a corn snake! Though the party managed to defeat the creature and cut me out, my poor legs would never be the same again… That night -Thee event! “The Circvs Maximvs Finals.” I was defending my championship! I had actually won this event last year, my ‘Run Like Hell And Don’t Look Back’ strategy having paid off. This year would be different. Refereed by Tim Kask, all nine finalists would be required to drive heavy chariots with bladed “Greek” hubs. The game was expected to be a slaughter and it didn’t disappoint. Players went for their opponent’s horses with a vengeance and soon horse corpses littered the track. I stuck to my strategy and ran for all I was worth, avoiding conflict unless it was necessary. It paid off. I ended up on the last lap undamaged and with a comfortable lead, the finish line in my grasp. Except I had to lap Luke “Luscious Maximus” Gygax. He caught me and slammed his cart into mine hard. Both chariots were seriously damaged. Luke managed to keep his under his feet. Mine flipped over to land squarely on top of Luke’s team of horses, smashing them dead and flat into the ground. Luscious crawled out of the wreckage and made a break for the wall dividing the circus track from the center island. He was promptly run over, once, twice, five times total by other charioteers. I finished the race, dragged by my team over one dead horse and then over the finish line first, but quite dead by then. Congratulations to Joe Kline on an excellent win. Had an amazing time. Thanks Tim (& Luke). Sunday I brought my daughter. She’s 13 and already an avid D&D player. We got into to Ken Haylock’s “Early Bird AD&D.” As I said before, Ken is an great DM. His adventure was fun and had a plot twist at the end that made it other than the usual hack ‘n slash/ puzzle solving session. My gal and I really enjoyed it for which I’m very grateful to Ken and all the other players. We finished the con with David Prata’s “Palace of Queen Ehlissa.” David does an amazing job of running an AD&D 1st edition game that uses ALL the rules. His adventure was also really neat – a conversion of the D&D B/X module “Palace of the Silver Princess” to AD&D1st and the World of Greyhawk. In addition, it was a living scenario, where what had happened before in previous sessions impacted the present one. Great fun and a learning experience. Besides the gaming, GaryCon once again was filled with wallet emptying vendors with items for sale that one just had to have and the best crowd of gaming enthusiasts I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. It was great seeing many friends made in previous GaryCons and making new friends in this one. See you all next year!
It was my first time playing this and man, was it an experience! The Captain of the Phoenix tips his hat to you, the fates were with the bloody French this time.
