GEN CON 2010 - Labyrinth Lord game.

Okay, so I'm letting history pass me by and I probably ought to say a word about the awesome Labyrinth Lord session I was in on my Friday night at Gen Con 2010, thanks to my primo amigo Paul, who managed to score the tickets. As I said before, I mostly stumbled into official events for this outing.

He's got a pretty good rundown at his blog.

The game was run with aplomb by Kilted Yaksman, who also has a run down here.

I regret that I have no pictures of this event of my own, since my camera had run down on batteries and I had yet to pick fresh ones up at the CVS across the street from our hotel. So enjoy the shots of the action on Paul and Kilted YaksMan's blogs. There pretty much the same shots I would have taken...

So anyway, I chose to play the mighty fighter, Cormak the Veteran, who came equipped with a torch bearer named Burgard and a henchman armed with a crossbow named Ulmore. I apologise for any mis-rememberings or omissions in this account, but that's what you get when you've got my brain and it's making you type things a week later...

We made our way down into the Tomb of the Bandit Queen, having first stopped to loot a bunch of horses we found at the entryway.

At the bottom of the stairs, we found a large room with a big well in the center. A man was standing at the edge of our lantern light, facing away from us with his arm raised above his head. As we approached, we started getting lashed at by tentacles, and it turned out a carrion crawler was attacking us from above. The man was dead, his face kinda chewed off.

After a furious battle, we slew the critter. But the commotion had drawn the attention of a pack of giant rats, so we were soon engaged in battle once more.

Once we slew the rats, we discovered a secret door at the north wall of the chamber. As we started to follow it, a couple of bandits, probably the owners of the horses and friends of the guy the carrion crawler had munched, accosted us from behind with a the usual demand to stand and deliver.

Well, Cormack was a bit pissed off from the rat fight and was in no mood for any buttockry from a bunch of unwashed mooks, so he turned on 'em and threatened 'em with a most excellente and olde schoole beatdowne, and glory be but they failed their morale check and scampered away. It was a nice moment for me.

Following the hall, we came to a room with four statues on pedestals. Our dwarf took his sledge hammer and started bashing open the pedestals, and found some gold in the base of one. This, however, caused two of the statues to animate, and start smacking us around. We fought and defeated them, with the dwarf, I think, being the most effective. A: Because the player was rollin' aces on his dice, and B: dwarves don't take no back sass from masonry.

Anyway, also in this room were two portculli, which led to sub tombs. We pulled the portcullis' open and searched inside.

The one to the south contained two sarcophagi which each contained a zombie. After smacking 'em back down into a proper corpse position, we found a bit of gold, and a couple of potion flasks.

Encouraged, we searched the other tomb, and here we met a zombie and a frikkin' ghoul. This fight was a little more dodgy, with a couple of paralysis' and some close calls, but we beat him, and dug up a nice haul of coinage and a magic sword for our troubles.

Now here, if this had been a full on campaign with us all being 1st. Level, we'd all probably have cut bait, and taken off on our stolen horses. Of course, that wasn't the case, this was a con game, so we forged ahead.

We followed an exit to the east to a hall that led to a rickety rope bridge over a vast abyss. After some strategizing, we decided to send Paul's character, the elf magician, across, since he was light and had infravision. It was nice knowing him.

Turned out, the big crevasse was haunted by stirges, which aren't so much a town in South Dakota where the bikers gather once a year, but these kinda mosquito, bird, vampire bat thingies that clamp onto you and suck out your blood. Which is what they did to Paul's elf, with extreme prejudice, turning him into elf jerky before our eyes. At least they made him light enough to carry.

So, after firing a few arrows into the bloodthirsty little bastards, we managed to get across the bridge without it caving in on us.

We headed down the hall on the other side, and came to a weapons room, where I think we picked up some extra gear to aid in our quest, arming up our henchmen to ISO 9000 standards.

From there, we continued down the hall, and nearly got crushed by a giant rock on a chain that dropped from the ceiling Raiders of the Lost Ark style.

I think we got thru that largely uncrushed. We cut the chain holding the thing up and rolled it into the weapons room to clear the way in case we had to beat a hasty retreat.

Finally, we came to a huge chamber, where a whithered, horrible female creature in rotted robes sat on a throne behind a big pile o' bones. The Bandit Queen, whose tomb we were kind of robbing. Heh... Hi there...

She hissed the usual "who dares" etc. speech and ordered her minions to attack. The pile o' bones scrummed up into skeletons and charged us.

The party fell back to the door to give us a choke point to operate in so we didn't get surrounded. This mostly worked, but then zombies and skeletons started shambling down the hall behind us, so soon we were pinned in. Party members started to fall, to the claws of the dead and the ghoulish Bandit Queen's spells, we were getting whittled down.

So we came to a choice, with only the dwarf and my fighter, and I think maybe Paul's upgraded wannabe archer torch bearer still standing. Do we fight thru the couple zombies behind us and escape with less shares of the gold we'd found to split up, or go for the gusto and gank the ghoul gal?

The answer was obvious. We charged the Ghoul Queen. I'm told we got a couple really good whacks in on her, but sadly, we got chewed to kibble.

TPK! Glorious TPK! Total Party Kill! Whoo!

Which was awesome. That's old school how we do it on the short bus, baby!

So all told, a great time. As Paul noted, it took a little time to get used to a different play style than what we normally encounter, but that's the beauty of con's. It was a load of fun.

Big thanks to Kilted YaksMan for running, and to the rest of the players for making this a fun session. There was one guy at the table who I'm led to believe hadn't played an RPG since the Moldvay/Cook edition came out 20 some odd years ago. I hope he had fun. It's cool to have someone experiencing it for the first time, or coming back to it after being away from it for a long time.

All told, a great bunch of guys, a solid scenario, and a good game.

Huzzah!

Gen CON 2010 - Science Patrol! Go! Analysis.

Okay, so anybody who knows me knows I love me some kaiju. And even more than kaiju, I love wacky, old school Japanese live action superhero shows, the Ur example of which, is the great grand pappy of 'em all Ultraman! So I created a Savage Worlds scenario loosely based on elements of the show. I ran it at the first Helgacon, and also ran a sort of campaign with the scenario a couple of years later, both with resounding kudos from the players.

My solution for how the Ultraman type character, Astro Man, could be played, was to have all the players run him as a team, each taking a turn with his normal punches, jumps, and kicks, or being able to sacrifice their turns strategically to have him do special Astro attacks. All told, it worked pretty well!

So I brought it with me this year to Gen Con. I hadn't had the time to preschedule it as an official event, but I'd heard before that Pinnacle Press, the publisher of Savage Worlds, had a sign up board at their booth in the dealer hall where pickup games could be advertised.

Well, they weren't doing that, but the fella at the booth said that they were running a big Savage Worlds blowout thing called Savage Saturday Night, and would love to have as many GM's as they could get.

So I turned up, and after some initial confusion I ended up with six players, five of whom were a gaming group from someplace in the upper midwest, I gathered. I was a little rusty with Savage Worlds, so I was glad to have the guy who GM'd regularly for them at my side for rules help.

Overall, it was a fine session. I got back in the swing easy enough, and Savage Worlds never disappoints in how much you can get done in a few hours time. Sometimes the players were a little passive and zoned out, but that's understandable at day three of a grueling con.

One of my players had been having a very difficult con, having hurt his leg before he came and having spent most of it in a wheelchair. I won't repeat the stories he told at the table, but suffice to say he ran into some major jerks who behaved in a very unkind fashion towards him.

(Pro tip to all you nerds out there. You don't get to play the "Poor us! Everybody shuns us and picks on us!" card if you're gonna be dickweeds. You act like the bozos this guy was describing, maybe you deserved to get pantsed and shoved into a locker a few times when you were in high school. Just sayin'...)

Anyway, I bring this up 'cos that player got to have the crowning moment of awesome in the game when Astro Man judo flipped the Mega Ominoid into a building. I'd like to think I brightened the con a bit for him.

So yeah, we ended on a high note, and the whole thing only was about two and a half hours, which was great 'cos I needed to get back to the hotel and A: Chill and B: Pack, so thumbs up.

A good time was had by all.

Kampai!

P.S.: To the fella sitting at my right at the table, the GM guy, who's name I don't recall. I haven't forgotten about sending you the Science Patrol! Go! materials, I just haven't dug them all up yet. I'll get 'em to ya sooner or later.

P.P.S.: And here's another Man... Or Astroman? video, just because when we sent the gold plated record album out on the Voyager, they're what outer space sent back!

GEN CON 2010 - Science Patrol! Go!

A mysterious island has appeared in Tokyo bay, and it falls to the Japanese branch of the International Science Patrol to find out where it comes from and why it is here!

The crew is composed of:

Commander "Cap" Muramatsu
The level headed, quiet, pipe
smoking leader of the team.





Lt. Commander Hayata
The square jawed, heroic
pilot and second in command





Field Agent Arashi
The lovable lug,
nearly indestructable
go getter tough guy.




Field Agent Ide
The nerdy tech guy
and genius inventor.
Bumbling but brilliant!




Field Agent Fuji
The fiesty, strong willed
action girl. Get your own
coffee, boys!




Special Agent Shiro
The plucky, twelve year old
mascot of the Science Patrol.
His father gave him the
mysterious Astro Capsule for
safe keeping, before disappearing.



The team circled their amazing futuristic plane, the Jet Voyager, over
the mysterious rocky island, wondering at the strange domes, one shining
silver and one red, that they saw there. Ide detected high amounts of the
unknown Omega X energy radiating from the island.

They landed on the rocky, volcanic beach, amazed by the deep sea fish that flopped on the shore, including a few trilobites.

As they made their way inland on a winding, asphalt paved path, they were attacked by strange creatures. They were shaped like men, with rubbery, black hides and sharp, metallic claws. Where a human would have a face and forehead, they had a single, huge, glowing red eye!

The Science Patrol defended themselves with their laser beam guns. (Except for young Shiro, who no matter how often he asked was told he was too young to be trusted with such a weapon. Instead, he used his slingshot and fired pachinko balls!)

Everytime one of the creatures was killed, the eye would rip loose from the huge socket, sprout spindly tendrils, and scuttle away into the rocks. The team started firing at the eyes, causing them to explode in red goop. Soon the strange creatures were defeated.

The team followed the path to the base of the silver dome, and found an archway guarded by two more of the creatures. With a clever, ambush attack, the monsters were destroyed.

Entering the archway, they followed a winding corridor and found themselves under the arch of the silver dome. At the center of a round catwalk, a huge spherical vessel full of billowing orange and brown mists. Something big was stirring inside. Something with a huge, red eye!

They followed another corridor, and found themselves in a control room, where a strange creature was speaking to a projected image on the screen. The creature was a beautiful, ivory skinned woman on one side, and black and rubbery with a huge red eye on the other. She wore a silver headdress with a pointed top and winglike projections, and carried a staff with a crystal on top.

The image on the screen was an old man half shrouded in shadow. Within the shadow, another glowing red eye. He turned when the Science Patrol entered, and laughed a chilling laugh. He introduced himself as Doctor Ominous, and predicted the conquest of this world called Earth by the Ominoids of Planet Jupiter.

Ah! The horror!

Outraged at the intrusion, the female creature ordered more red eyed minions to attack, and used her eye and crystal staff to take control of the heroic Arashi, causing him to punch Hayata with much regret. But her evil control didn't last, and the Science Patrol defeated the menace. The horrible eye popped out of her socket, crawled into her elaborate silver hat, and flew away on what turned out to be a tiny spaceship.

Doctor Ominous laughed, congratulating them on their victory, but said it was too late. The MEGA OMINOID would now destroy Tokyo. The team felt a tremor beneath their feet, and the silver dome opened on the skyline of the great city. The island had been moving the whole time!

They ran outside, and saw a horrible, towering, one eyed beast slouch toward the hapless city. Now it was time! Shiro drew forth the Astro Capsule, given to him by his long lost father, and said the words he had been told to say.

ASTRO ACTIVATE GO!

In a flash of light, all the members of the Science Patrol team found themselves merged with the consciousness of a super extradimensional immortal being, who came to fight for peace and mankind! Astro Man!

The monster lurched forward, and the fight was joined. The hearts and wills of the Science Patrol team combined to fire the terrific Astro Ray, burning into the rubbery black monster with the force of a thousand times the quasar power! The Mega Ominoid roared, and charged, and the two mighty foes did hand to hand battle.
As his time in our universe was short, Astro Man combined his force to fire another Astro Beam, ripping into the creature. It bellowed, and fired its own hellish red Ominoid Beam of concentrated Omega X energy!

Taking the matter in hand, Astro Man grasped the creature and threw it, smashing a nearby, evacuated building!

It's good! But what is this? The creature climbed to it's feet, ready for more mayhem.

Astro Man drew in his strength, calling on the spirits of the Science Patrol for one last, desperate Astro Beam!

Victory! The creature's huge eyeball exploded in a shower of sparks and it toppled to the ground, it's gargoyle jawed head awash in eerie flames.

His work done, Astro Man vanished into the distant Immortal Universe A, leaving the stunned members of the Science Patrol standing on the street near a grove of cherry trees, which showered them in blossoms as a breeze blew in from the ocean. The Science Patrol had won!

As they flew the awesome Jet Voyager back to base, Doctor Ominous appeared on their screens, bearing a dire message from space. The Science Patrol had done well, but now he would re-double his efforts. His chilling laugh rang in the cabin as his image faded to black.

But the Science Patrol was undaunted. Wherever evil alien invaders threatened the peaceful cities of mankind, the Science Patrol, and their amazing ally Astro Man, would be there!

Please look forward to it!

P.S.
I decided this post really needs some appropriate closing credits music.

How to have an excellent Gen Con without really trying.

Behold! Let's take a look at BigFella's trip to GenCon 2010, shall we?

Okay, so I suppose I should shake off the daze a little bit and start talkin' about the big trip.

This is a general overview of my experience. I'll get into the specifics of the few events I was in in due time.

I've been going to these things for several years now, with only a gap in attendance last year when the group I tend to go with kinda caught a case of the mehs about going to the con, myself included, round about the time when we should have been scheduling our flight and hotel, so we just let it slide and didn't go.

Actually, it did turn out for the best, 'cos I got laid off from my job in late July, and that would have given me two options if I'd scheduled the trip to Indy.

A: Don't go, and eat the cost of plane and hotel reservations or

B: Go, but do it on the cheap, which was also sub-optimal. Part of the charm in going is to spend like a drunken, nerdy sailor.

Of course, when August rolled around last year, we all pretty much looked at each other and said "Why the hell aren't we going to Gen Con?"

So, this year was something of a welcome return.

Dioramas and dragons!

Overall, it was a pretty mellow trip for me. I didn't end up scheduling a lot of events. In fact, I didn't really schedule ANY events, so much as sponge tickets off of my amigo and current GM Paul. Partly this was from the bad timing of GenCon's scheduling opening up at the same time as we were all down at Helgacon. I think both the extra tickets that Paul scored were serendipity. I had Reaper Speed Painting on Thursday and a Labyrinth Lord game hosted by KiltedYaksMan. Both were awesome.

I found out about the third official event I was fated to attend when I swung by Pinnacle Press' booth. In prior years, they'd had a notice board where one could post any pickup games of Savage Worlds and get some players.

Well, they weren't doing that this year, but there was apparently some kind of big extravaganza they were throwing called Savage Saturday Night, and they needed GM's to run. So I readied my wacky tribute to Japanese Sci-Fi, Science Patrol! Go!, and ran it for a full table.

More on this later. Please look forward to it!

So aside from those, all I did was pretty much wandered the dealer's hall or took in the sights and shenanigans of a vast horde of dedicated nerds. The crowds seemed just as thick, and as populated with the myriad varieties of those who are "of the tribe".

Try to understand! He's a magic man!

Excelsior! It is indeed a jolly good time to let one's freak flag fly!

Kitty guy is not impressed by your wizardry or Jedi skills.

Stormtroopers and Ghostbusters, pound for pound some of the highest levels of dignity you can achieve as a cosplayer.

As Paul noted on his blog, the hall did seem a bit more subdued than prior years. No big exhibit-paloozas, just stake out space with your product and sell it. Fantasy Flight seemed to be the 500 lb. gorilla out on the floor this year. I'd been sent on a mission by a co-worker to get their new Warhammer 40K Space Hulk themed cardgame, but I couldn't lay my hands on it 'til Saturday 'cos the lines were over an hour on Thursday.

Trendwise, I seemed to get the impression that there wasn't as much CCG type stuff this year. Lots of booths selling board/card games, a decent number of RPG's, the usual glorious freak show of game accessories and niche products. A whole lot of LARP and costume stuff, with some especially cool fake foam weapons on sale this year. (If I wasn't on the cheap(well, cheap for me at GenCon), I would totally have bought this foam sledgehammer I saw at a couple places. (Sorry, no picture of that. Alas...)

On to the bonus level!

The hum and hustle of the nerd's bazaar.

Lego's inflatable ziggurat of doom!

Apparently this is the year White Wolf got their liquor license...

Even mighty luchadors need to make a buck.

I checked out the artist's alley on Saturday and was favorably impressed by the technical skills of most of the artists in attendance, although the numbing sameness of a lot of fantasy art does make it hard to wanna crack open the ol' wallet for much of anything. (Seriously, how many goth fairies and frikkin' zombies to we need to see? Whatever...)

I also had plenty of time to retire to the hotel room to chill out, which was welcome as well. I do a lot of writing and I was on a creative uptick, so a chance to just take time and work on my laptop in an air conditioned room was nice. I was never pressured or hurried, and really just had a good time.

Our suite at the Indianapolis Hilton. I was sequestered here behind the doors by the rest of the group because apparently I snore with the strength of ten strong men. Fine with me, there was a desk I could use and the couch bed was perfectly comfy.

The view out the hotel window. Always neat. I think we stayed at the Sheraton the first time we came here, but this has been our sanctum sanctorum of choice ever since then.

And that's how I spent Gen Con. More later.

What the swearing cuss is wrong with me?

I bought way too many miniatures at GenCon. It's like an addiction. I've got a kabillion I still have to paint from before this little jaunt, but here's this trip's tally:

A bunch of Arabian Nights guys from IronWind Metals. For eventual use in the Thousand Year Sandglass.

This funky djinn guy, also IronWind. 'cos Arabian Nights type settings need lotsa genies.

A bunch of gals from IronWind's $2 bux a babe box. 'cos they're fun to paint is all.

Assorted robots from Reaper's Chronoscape line, for robotting it up in Gamma World applications or what have you.

Betty the Space Heroine, also from Reaper. Just 'cos she's cool, plus I've already got some robots.

A packet of giant preying mantis', also with an eye toward Post Apocalyptic giant bug fun! From Iron Wind.

Buncha kung fu guys from Alkemy. I knew this was gonna happen sooner or later. I'm starting to not just collect minis, but to collect genres of minis. (Like western/steampunk, post apocalyptic, Arabian Nights, and now, Kung Fu guys...) They were $10 cheaper on sale at Games Plus's booth.

A bear. Because everything's more intense with bears. From Reaper.

And then, of course, the stinking badgers, from this game about fighting critters called Brushfire. Just 'cos they looked cool, and having a bunch of big critter goons with iron claws will make for more awesome Gamma World type shenanigans someday. I'll need to find some good mutant fungus monsters so I can get this kind of action going. I guess I'm most boggled by these 'cos I bought 'em after I'd vowed to stop buying stuff. *sigh*

Seriously, though. Am I nuts? Yeesh... Better get back to painting again...

Back from GENCON 2010

Here we see a 6th. lvl. GenCon attendee on the penultimate day of his annual sojourn. A smashing good time was had by myself and my fellow party members. Over the next few weeks, as I draw my thoughts together to analyze and expound upon my experiences, they shall appear here on this humble blog.

But for now, I'll let Astro Man and the Mega Ominoid sum up my feelings.

Can't wait 'til next year.