GaryCon IX
Day One
Lake Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, March 23-26th 2017

Was invited up by Mike Noe this year to help out with GaryCon IX, so I drove up on Thursday to Lake Geneva...

Arrived about 5 PM on Thursday night, and went over to GCHQ and checked in, Spent the next couple of hours learning how to get people their badges for the show, and wrapped up early about 8 PM.

Walked around for a bit, took some photos, and then sat in on a game of the Rhune RPG with the Author Jaye Sonia. This is a new Pathfinder Stormpunk Fantasy Game. had a good time with this..

Wrapped up a bit after eleven then rolled out and checked in to my Hotel over in Beloit (Hampton Inn). It was a bit of a drive each day, but by spending only a C-note on the hotel room, was able to afford to buy more new gaming goodies in the dealer hall during the show.

Checked in safe and sound by 11:30 PM, and retired for the evening. Pix below of day one are all labeled with additional details.








Day One Photo Archive
http://imgur.com/a/fGP8F


Day Two

On Friday I wasn't scheduled back into GCHQ until about 6PM, so after breakfast, arrived back at GaryCon about 8 AM, and wandered back over to GCHQ anyway to get a convention guide in order to find my way to the open gaming tables. Ran into Skip Williams RPG events coordinator, and he walked me down to the Open Gaming area. He ran a lot of games at the show, and sat in on a few as well. Kinda got the feeling this was his home show, and that he came here to play RPGs. He was still going strong running a game when I departed around 3PM on Sunday.

GaryCon this year had dedicated the show for Jim Ward, The charity auction this year was held for his benefit, to help out with the mountain of medical bills he has managed to accumulate over the last few years. I brought a few things for that auction, but I also brought some gaming goodness and opened my GMing for the show by running an original Gamma World (See photos!) adventure on Friday morning.

I brought my California map, my Sydney map, and my Florida map, and then let the players pick from military Pregens. For the pick-up game session I had setup a bunker "Morrow Project" style game where the players were cryonically frozen, and then re-awakened to rebuild civilization. They also got to pick which map they started on. They chose California.

First person to sit down for the game was Jayson Eliot from TSR Games, along with his wife. We started a game, and as she had never played Gamma World before, I explained how it worked. They picked the Northern California map, and explored around their bunker after creating some new scout drones to help with recon. She played well, and soon we were joined by Jeff Dee and another gentleman, and we got a good game going, where they all went and set a trap in an ancient residential home for a flight of Yexil that had been loitering in the vicinity of their survival bunker.

They managed to successfully capture one Yexil after a brief firefight, and then I had to table the game about one hour before the end of the morning session because I got called in to work at GCHQ.

The first round of volunteers, some of whom had been in for three or four days working hard, were running out of energy, and needed a break, so I was called in (as one of the new arrivals and fresh), to man a merchandise booth that had been setup across from GCHQ. I ran the booth from 12-4, and then took a short break for dinner, made a quick run through the dealer hall and picked up again at 6, along with Michael Ramp we then provided GM Service. We could use a few more volunteers to help staff the show next year, as this seems to be growing attendance was up by a full 1/3 this year over last year!

Now with GM services, we had a small cart with stocked with soda, water, chips, candy and candy bars. We would go around and offer refreshments for any GM who had pre-registered their game, and who had their game listed in the convention guide. While we were going around, we would also collect any event tickets the GMs would care to turn in (save them a trip to GM HQ after an event, and provide more play time at the table.) This was something new we were trying, It turned out to be very popular, of course I have a few good stories about this...

We received many many Thank You's for this service, and I heard a few remarks during the show, to the effect of of "I don't know of any other Convention that does this..." and I would just smile and say "GaryCon", ...and of course, take care of the GM's running games at tables.

There is a bit of Irony with all of this. One of the last times I saw Gary, we were at Origins in 2007. I had setup a wargaming table in the minis room, and it was shortly after six AM on Friday of the show, but there at Wargame HQ was Gary and Duke Siefried planning their battles and events for the day. It was just the three of us, no one else was even up yet, it was that early. Normally I don't fanboi, however, I do remember asking Gary if he wanted me to get him coffee or tea or anything, as I needed to run off and get coffee for myself to get the day going right. He politely declined, of course, but looking back at this last weekend, I can't be sure he didn't secretly GM this into GaryCon IX, So I kind of felt him looking over my shoulder as I was rolling that cart around last weekend offering the same thing to GMs running games at his show that I offered to him back then.

We were making our rounds and stopped at the Castles & Crusades game on the way back, the one that was being run by Stephen Chenault. Of course, he asked for a Dr. Pepper, and of course, the resort only had Pepsi products in stock. I told him I'd see about rounding some up as soon as I finished my current round of tables. About ten minutes later I see him in the hall, he's Jonesing, pacing back and forth, and having like Dr. Pepper withdrawal symptoms or something, he said "You know they don't have any Dr. Pepper here in the Hotel?"

I apologized and I'm like, "Yes, I'm just finishing up now, I'll be running off property to find some cold ones as soon as possible."

I did exactly that and returned about fifteen minutes later with two cold Doctor Peppers as well as a twelve pack, which we stocked at GM HQ so that no GM (cough... Steve... cough) would have to do without Dr. Pepper for the remainder of the show.

He hadn't killed any of his players with his Dr.Pepper induced withdrawal symptoms before I managed to get back, so it all turned out well. ...well mostly... There was however, this one player that shall not be named, ...he attempted to cross a rickety rope bridge over a river in full platemail, ... just what were you thinking again? Also, for the rest of you players, ...look out for the Hangry Giant Fish, 'just sayin.

Sunday afternoon we managed to run out of water as well, right when I got to Jim Ward's Gamma World game, and I made a second run to get another case so we would have a supply of bottled water for Jim, as well as for the remainder of the show. Everything else with GM services went well.

We wrapped up about 11pm, and I returned to my Hotel and retired immediately. The best thing to keep frosty for a big show like this is a good nights' sleep, and a decent breakfast.






Day 2 Photo Archive
http://imgur.com/a/NsTKJ

Day 3 (Saturday)
Lake Geneva Resort, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin March 22-26, 2017

My volunteer schedule had me coming in to help with the auction from two to seven in the afternoon, so I setup an open game of Traveller on Saturday morning and was ready to go by 9 AM, Since it was early and in the open gaming area, it was pretty quiet, at least to start. I managed to get all the Traveller pregens done, and as with the Gamma World game, I had no specific module to run, and was planning on a Firefly type game where one or more of the players would start with a starship and could pick other players as crew, and we would just roll with that.

About 9:30 Marc Miller cruised by with his Traveller bin, he went into one of the rooms next door to the open gaming area, and then he came back out to have a look at the table I had setup for open gaming. I asked him if he was going to do a seminar or game that morning, and yes, he was scheduled to run a Traveller game at 10 AM. No one was at my table so I said, if no one shows for my game by 10, If you have room, I would definitely like join your game. He took a couple photos of my setup, and he said "Sure, just show up, I'll find a spot for you."

About 9:45 a young guy shows up at my table and wants to chat. He sees all the shiney starships and wants to try Traveller. I think his name was Josh...

Me: "You ever play this game before?"

Josh: "No."

Me: "I have Pregens, or you can roll up a character."

Josh: " I heard this is a game where you can die before you even get to play the game, is that true?"

Me: (laughing) "Yes... here let me show you..."

So I spent some time explaining some of the basic concepts of Traveller, I let him browse the little black books and I can see the wheels turning and lights of inspiration going off behind his eyes.

Josh: "I have to get this game, Where can I get this game?"

Me: 'Funny you should mention that, I wanted to start a game right here this morning, but the guy who actually made the game is right next door, and he will be starting a game at ten, you want to help me pack up my table, and we'll just go join his game?"

Josh: "Sure!"

So, we joined Marc Miller's first Saturday morning Traveller game. Because it was the early slot, and most everyone else at the show had been out partying and carousing the night before, no one else showed up. So it was just the three of us. Remember that part I said earlier about going to bed early, getting a full night's sleep, and starting early? BooYaa!

We wrapped up a most excellent game just around noon (Marc was scheduled to GM another Traveller session at one). While we were finishing Marc fished into his bin, and pulled out a very rare copy of Traveller, ...one that I had never seen before anyway, a full color fat little book with like Vargyr on the cover that was a compilation of books one to three, and he gave it to Josh.

There. Another new Traveller GM, Win! Both of us got to keep the custom Traveller dice Marc requested that we use from his personal collection before the game began. I saw Marc again running his afternoon game, and he had a full boat, with a full table and then some, of Traveller players, playing in the afternoon session.



Grabbed a cheeseburger for lunch, and then went to checkout the GaryCon Auction Hall. Turned out, the D&D history panel with Frank Mentzer, Chris Lindsey, Mike Mearls, Skip Williams, and Rob Schwalb was underway when I showed up, so I sat in for the remainder of that. They talked about the different iterations of D&D and about how it evolved over the years, and about some of the stresses that the design of the different editions had placed on the designers. The panel wrapped up about one fifteen. I had a couple questions they didn't get time to answer during the panel, but did get an opportunity to ask Mike Mearls about that right after, as he graciously took a few minutes to answer my inquiries.

My first question was about 5e, and I asked if WOTC had any plans to do a Moderns or a Sci-Fi game using 5e rules. Mike said "They didn't have anything planned at the moment, however they remain open to opportunities for that in the future..."

and my second question was about DM's guild, and it went something like this;

Me: "Right now, with DM's Guild, The guild license states that a DM can only create adventures for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, are there any plans to allow GM's to create modules & adventures in the DM's Guild for any D&D game?"

Mike: "We have no plans for that at the moment, but we are looking into adding other WOTC campaign settings as approved settings for DM's Guild in the near future."

I thanked him for his time, and for on his work for Cityworks, which is one of my favorite GM supplements, and then helped to setup for the auction.

There was a lot of help for the auction so I didn't have too much to do. Did manage to find some Apple Juice for Frank (after the resort snackbar had sold out... woot!) and uh, just watched as what I contributed was auctioned for $170 for Jim's Medical Fund. It was three hours of fast and furious auctioning, ...and while I didn't get an exact tally before my departure from GaryCon on Sunday, word was the auction and fundraising had raised over $17k to help Jim Ward out. Helped to clean up the auction area and then took a break for dinner. It was a real honor to be a part of that!

Had dinner, ran around taking a few more pictures, and then started looking for a good game to join, and of course, found Dave Kenzer running Aces & Eights Western RPG in the seven to eleven evening session, a couple of his players had to bail, so I jumped right into the middle of a gunfight in progress.

So the story was a guy who owed us a lot of money had a deed to an impressive gold claim. He had been gunned down in the middle of the main intersection in some nameless town somewhere in the Shattered Frontier. He actually owed a lot of people money, including four other groups as well who were all in a race to get a mining deed that he had on him. Then a five-way gunfight with ten people, all people he owed money to, broke out.

I was an Italian Gunfighter (Cue The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly soundtrack here) with a Navy Colt .45 Revolver, and a lovely Italian Wife, she even had a mooustache and a five o'clock shadow, hahahahha.... We made for the body in the intersection to grab the claim from that dead prospector... I spotted some low down varmint who was trying to shoot some other guy in the back, so I just decided to shoot him in the back, to save him the dishonor of being a low down varmint, since I already was a low down varmint and all, and anyway, THAT GOLD CLAIM WAS RIGHTFULLY MINE!

Of course I couldn't hit him to save my life, I unloaded my pistol without hitting even once, and then backed up to duck behind the corner of a building to reload. My lovely wife made it to the corpse, shot some folk, got shot once or twice and then grabbed the deed, then she made a run for it deed clutched in hand shouting "I GOT IT! I GOT IT!". She almost made a clean getaway but was cut down in a hail of cruel gunfire just short of a grove of trees that would have screened her escape, and that last round that included some clown unleashing on her with a low-gauge shotgun at close range.

Heartbroken, I furiously reloaded, ...but you know, being an Italian Gunfighter, all I could afford was the Navy Colt .45 Revolver, the one where you have to completely remove the cylinder to reload it, and while I was busy doing that, the gunfighter I was shooting at, had shot down his target in a pen with a stampeding Bull and Cattle, so he reversed course, and came running around the corner to shoot me down.

I tried to cold cock him with the Navy .45 that I had been busy reloading and missed, but at least jarred him enough so that he missed when he fired his shotgun at me at point blank range. I then decided and proceeded to attempt to pistol whip him until he was either dead, or knocked out, and he furiously was dodging and trying to reload.

This went on for awhile, and I hit him once or twice with the pistol, but he somehow???... managed to reload one shell, pulled up the shotgun, and didn't miss with the second shot. Thus ended my quest for fame and fortune in the Shattered Frontier.

I have just one comment about this game, and that is I really needed to find an affordable 1851 Navy Colt .45 Revolver just so I can ship it to Dave and let him pistol whip one of his regular players with it. I would surmise his player WOULD BE COMPLETELY UNABLE TO RELOAD A SHOTGUN while being manhandled in such a manner. ...just sayin. Pretty sure Jolly who was sitting at the table was busy taking notes so he could add some good dysfunctional shenanigans for the next few KODT strips... Thanks Dave! I did have a good time with Aces & Eights. Also thought there was an announcement about a new Aces & Eights Kickstarter coming soon as well, so keep an eye out for that!

Aces & Eights Reloaded Kickstarter
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kenzerco/aces-and-eights-reloaded-a-wild-west-role-playing?ref=category_newest

And thus I ended my day wrapping up about eleven and headed back to the hotel for a good nights' sleep.

Day 3 Pix
http://imgur.com/a/IAOri



Day 4 (Sunday)

Last day, back by eight-thirty AM to host another pickup game of classic D&D, If Saturday was quiet, Sunday morning was even quieter at least just before nine in the morning, so I skipped D&D setup in the open gaming area and went over to gaming HQ to help Frank Sapia run GM services. I hadn't been scheduled to do anything, but wanted to help, and wanted to help with breakdown as well which was scheduled to start at one in the afternoon. I had to leave on Sunday though, because of some business appointments back in Indiana starting at 9:30 on Monday, and didn't want to miss those.

Ended up running GM Services for the last round of support for GMs, and finally shutdown GM services about 11:30 AM Sunday morning.

Got to meet Ernie Gygax & KC. KC is a border collie and companion for Ernie. I had a border collie for fourteen years so we had something in addition to D&D to talk about. Ernie was in a full hour early for his Sunday game, and he had brought a plushy Dragon with him. KC, you see, ...likes chasing Dragons. So we played hide & seek for awhile, and I kept throwing or hiding the dragon to see if KC could find it. He ran one of his Marmoreal Tomb Kickstarter games for a full conference room of players and observers. The maps are simply gorgeous!

Once I had finished with GM services for the morning, cleaned out the cart and returned it to the resort, then went over to make a final run through on the dealer hall. Managed to max out one credit card picking up the Rhune RPG, and bought just a few more goodies on top of that.

At one the Dealer hall closed for the show, I helped with breakdown and we took down the GaryCon booth and then ensured the dealers were able to break down their booths too. At three I said thanks to Mike and Melissa as well as Frank, Cliff, and Turbo for letting me help this year and then departed from GaryCon. Thank You Caroline! Meant to thank you as well, couldn't find you though, right before I departed.

On the way back, took I-39 South to Bloomington, then took I-74 to Indianapolis, dodging all the Chicago toll roads and hefty traffic. It took the same amount of time as when I went up through Chicago then across on I-88,and I skipped $20 in tolls on the return trip as well. For anyone living South as well as Southeast of Indianapolis driving through Bloomington seems the best bet for any future road trip to Lake Geneva. Faster, less traffic, much less aggravation, lower fuel costs, and no tolls.

It was a very humbling experience to be at this show, everyone there, it seemed was a major RPG gamer, a renowned game designer, or Game Industry luminary. Saw Mike Mornard there several times, Mike carr, Dave Perren, Lou Zocchi and so many other awesome gamers  and gamne designers that it was pretty much impossible to keep track of everyone, met a few freinds I hadn't seen for a decade or more, ran into some new folks that I had never met, and met a few I had only previously known by reputation. I have been to twenty RPG shows now since 2001, and this was one of the very best!

All-in all, one of the very best of RPG conventions. Thank you!

Day Four Pix
http://imgur.com/gallery/uZnB5

Thanks for posting this. The picture albums were absolutely fantastic and it looked like great fun.

Question: was there anyone there who was both under-30 and not just accompanying their parent?

Yes.  I couldn't say how many, but a good chunk.  A young man has been coming since he was 12 or 13 and is now 15.  A relative accompanied him the first year for a couple of days because of course you would, but for the last few years he just gets dropped off.

That's the only one I can verify personally, but I suspect there must be others.  Or their parents may be on site, but they aren't glued to their parents' games.

And that's just the under-18s.  There are a TON of twentysomethings at GaryCon.  The notioin that "old" games don't appeal to young players seems to be frankly bullshit.

My favorite was the young woman, NOT a gamer, there with her boyfriend to see what it was all about.  She signed up for Don't Give Up The Ship -- Napoleonic era sailing ships -- on the British side, and ended up capturing TWO, that's right, TWO, French frigates.

I suspect a lot of people in the 10-30 age range would enjoy or even prefer games published in the OSR 'witching hour' (ca. 1975-1980) if they had access to original hard copies and took an hour to really read them over and write up a character. It is both stupid and tragic how much of the energy that goes into our hobby is wasted on re-hashing the fucking rules instead of going where it belongs - world building and play.

Most people are booger-eating morons.

That "very rare" Traveller book Mr. Miller gave to Josh sounds like the compilation of the 1981 Books 1-3 you can get on the Far Future Enterprises web site. I prefer the 1977 edition but bought a few copies of that compilation to give to people as it is an inexpensive way to get started with Classic Traveller.

Quote from: Larsdangly;958399I suspect a lot of people in the 10-30 age range would enjoy or even prefer games published in the OSR 'witching hour' (ca. 1975-1980) if they had access to original hard copies and took an hour to really read them over and write up a character. It is both stupid and tragic how much of the energy that goes into our hobby is wasted on re-hashing the fucking rules instead of going where it belongs - world building and play.

I think the games being out of print is the only real barrier to youngsters playing and enjoying them. It's too bad there's no legal way to make facsimile editions of these old games and make them readily available for a new audience. Or even for the old audience that would like to replace an old or lost copy.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;958394Yes.  I couldn't say how many, but a good chunk.  A young man has been coming since he was 12 or 13 and is now 15.  A relative accompanied him the first year for a couple of days because of course you would, but for the last few years he just gets dropped off.

That's the only one I can verify personally, but I suspect there must be others.  Or their parents may be on site, but they aren't glued to their parents' games.

And that's just the under-18s.  There are a TON of twentysomethings at GaryCon.  The notioin that "old" games don't appeal to young players seems to be frankly bullshit.

My favorite was the young woman, NOT a gamer, there with her boyfriend to see what it was all about.  She signed up for Don't Give Up The Ship -- Napoleonic era sailing ships -- on the British side, and ended up capturing TWO, that's right, TWO, French frigates.

Well, that's good to hear. I agree with the sentiment that the OSR can be hugely appealing to the younger crowd, just not always sure that the younger crowd gets to hear about it.

Quote from: RPGPundit;959078Well, that's good to hear. I agree with the sentiment that the OSR can be hugely appealing to the younger crowd, just not always sure that the younger crowd gets to hear about it.

You could swap out the term "OSR" with so many things. My kids are into a bunch of old cartoons like Dynomutt and Blue Falcon and the Laff-a-Lympics, which they would've had about 0% chance of even hearing of in another household. And my son gazes longingly at my West End Star Wars books and the cover of the AD&D book with the heroes stealing the gem out of the statue while their partners lug off the reptilian bodies...so evocative...waiting until he is ready to use them for more than looking at the pictures...