Back in the Saddle and Behind the Screen.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was able to get an actual face-to-face gaming group started last summer. No small feat in the middle of COVID-19. But the four of us managed to pull it off. We managed to avoid getting sick by following the basic rule of "if you don't feel well, don't show up." And that worked, so yay on us.

I'm running HackMaster, which should come as no surprise to anyone that has read any of my previous posts. It's the longest campaign I have ran since I ran Shadowrun in the 90s. At least this time the party is more consistent.

The campaign in a nutshell. There are two nations: The one to the north is dealing with orcs coming from the north, and the one from the south is dealing with hobgoblins coming from the south. These nations help each other, but it's not an easy alliance. The hobgoblins from the south have made contact with the orcs to the north, and are now sending supplies and troops in an effort to mount an orc/hobgoblin offensive at the border between the two nations in order to force both armies to fight on two front. That was a run-on sentence. Our heroes just happen to be at the border between the two nations and have just discovered what is going on.

Now they have to find a way to stop it.

To be continued...

Did I say, next week? I meant in under six years.

So... that was long gap between posts.

Real life has a way of putting things aside. Gaming and blogging about gaming just happened to be one of the many things that I wasn't able to do for a while.

Things have started to improve personally. I'm back living in Illinois and close to family again. I receieved my PE (Professional Engineer) license a few years back and am working at a job that I find rewarding. And despite COVID shutting down nearly everything, I have managed to get an actual face-to-face group to play HackMaster on a mostly weekly basis.

Since I am gaming again (Well, GMing anyway), I should get back to blogging about gaming again. So starting tomorrow I'm going to get in a few quick posts to catch everyone up on my campaign. After that will be a semi-regular posting about the campaign and whatever thoughts I have on GMing and writing adventure ideas.

GaryCon V Recap Post- Part III: The Weekend

Ladies and gentlemen, sorry about the delay. This is Michael here, and I kinda agreed a while back to write up my last two days of GaryCon to get the lead-in to Dave's last two days. Sadly, I've been having a host of issues, so I've kept things delayed... a few months. I really need to finish this up. SO! Where were we?

Saturday started pretty well honestly. It was the one day Dave and I were going to be sharing two games, and the first game was Mutant Future. Or to be more accurate, using the Mutant Future setting to play out an episode of THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN! Ah, nostalgia and kids' shows. And the GM honestly rocked. ( +Tim Snider of The Savage Afterworld- Dave) I won't go too heavy into details, god knows Dave might want to, but this was a GREAT game, with the GM playing up the motif with the opening credits played on his laptop, as well as a commercial break. Lots of fun, imaginative playing of the setting, and honestly we really abused some of the opportunities we got. Great game and great start. I think we kinda beat it a bit early, got handed free settings books for if we wanted to do Thundarr ourselves, and went off to eat some before our next game. (Long story short, I managed to quadruplicate Ookla to defeat the enemy. -Dave)

Again, that was intended to be our first game, and I was looking forward to my second as well. See, the followup was a game of Dungeon! I really love that game, and I do need to get a copy of it myself. (I got one! -Dave) Wizards of the Coast did a reprint of the game so if you like board games, pick it up. Again, it was hosted by the creator of the game, who's name escapes me, Dave will probably correct it in. (David Megarry -Dave) And he told again the story of the game, showing the first edition and the tables it was originally played on. Very cool stuff. Sadly, I got to feeling unwell by the time the history was told, and had to excuse myself. So I got to miss out on the actual game itself. Went back to my room and rested most of Saturday away, using my laptop to keep in contact with people online and post some in forums. Even sick, I did some role-playing. Shush.

And that takes me to Sunday, and the last game on my list. The one I'd been looking forward to all con. Call of Cthulhu. Honestly, I'd never played it and I'd wanted to for SO LONG. I love the Lovecraftian setting and I really had been looking forward to it. By the time I got there, there were about five other players waiting, and more showing up as we settled in to talk and chat. Friends and people I'd met from prior cons, I was really looking forward to the game!

And the GM never showed up. Nobody knew what happened to him, where he was. Talked to the con staff, they had no idea what was going on. Table was bleeding players as people went to try and see if there were openings in second pick games when yet again the awesome con staff came through. There was someone with some experience in Call who was willing to GM for us. Great man, I REALLY wish I could remember his name (I am HORRIBLE with names) (Don't ask me, I was playing Traveler at the time- Dave) who more or less ran us through a condensed form of one of his basic sessions. Dave came along during the game, his own game plans kinda shot, and he sat to watch a good deal of the fun as we tried to investigate through a mysterious death and tragic murder. (No, my game went pretty well actually -Dave) All of it looked to lead up to an occult conspiracy and a plan to summon an elder god, and two of our impromptu group got captured by cultists and held in a prison under their base. The rest of us came in, not knowing they were trapped, and confronted the leader of the cult...

And I will admit part of this was my just being kinda tired and feeling ready to head home, but... When the cult leader asked us if there was anything he could say to get us on his side? I sold everyone out, kinda. I'd been hired, NOT paid, and had been working this nonsense without any hope of recompense. I think it rather tickled the GM that I was more than happy to be paid off, and my detective left the rest of them behind to cash his check and get on the first ship he could find to France, get as FAR away from all that nonsense as he could. Honestly? Great end to my last day.

Dave and I had already packed up the car so, we left. Got lunch at a nice out of the way place with... Crap. Dave, tell the rest of the story, my brain is pudding for names.

Afterwards we hung out with +Christopher Stogdill, +Carolyn Stogdill, +Paul Raasch and +Scott Schwartz at Hogs & Kisses in Lake Geneva for lunch before heading home. Overall, it was a great time.

In related news, GaryCon VI has officially been announced for March 27-30, 2014. For more information go to garycon.com

The GaryCon V Recap Post- Part II: Friday

[This is a continuation of the belated recap of GaryCon V that took place in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin last month. This recap also features my brother Michael as a guest blogger.

Also, I need to get this done so I can move on and blog about other things.]

Friday

One of the things I told myself I was going to do Thursday was to get everything together for the Shootout. That didn't happen, so for the second year in a row I was scrambling to get building models assembled and paper minis cut out. The glue sticks I purchased for the models didn't work at all, so I had to run back to Wal-Mart to buy tape. As for the minis, it turns out that I didn't have them with me when I left upstate New York. And my attempts to print out copies from the hotel's printer failed spectacularly as they didn't have any PDF viewers on their office computer. I decided to make do with the fantasy minis I used the day before and continued on. My only interruption being when Michael came back from his 9am game earlier than expected. I'll let him explain.

Finally! The GaryCon V Recap Post- Part I: Thursday

Since I have slacked off on completing my blogging about GaryCon V, I decided that it would be a good idea to bring in a guest blogger. And who better than the man that shared a hotel room with me all convention long, my brother Michael. You know, this guy.

Since Michael and I weren't always in the same place at the same time, we should be able to give you a broader view of the convention. And in those cases where we were together, hopefully different perspectives. And we have both agreed to not go easy on each other, so this should be fun.

Five Days Till GaryCon!

First, I can't believe that I didn't think of this sooner. But the solution to yesterday's problem was realizing the a mat that could be rolled up could also be folded.

Second, it looks like I'll be checking my bags after all, since I will be bringing a few of my pained miniatures with me for my HackMaster game. I suppose it is possible to get them by the TSA without issue. But I am seriously debating whether or not it would be worth the hassle. I am trying to find some good paper minis to bring with me. I'm having some luck with the PCs, but I need ones of kobolds and dogs for my adventure. Alternately, I could use some sort of token or pawn as a stand-in. but I need to get them fast and cheap.

Other than that, I just need to make sure I have all my other stuff (i.e. everything not game or clothing related) packed and ready to go Tuesday morning.

9 Days Till GaryCon! Now Is Not The Time To Panic.

Ever have a deadline for something that you are given notice months in advance, yet by the time that date is almost upon you you realize how much you have yet to get done?

Yeah, that's me finally getting all my buildings printed for my Aces & Eights Shootout.

And I still have a few other things I need to get squared away before next week.

Yipes!

12 Days Till GaryCon! Good Signs.

You know that GaryCon is rapidly approaching when +David Kenzer takes a break from working on the HackMaster Game Master's Guide to see who else is going.

Now I just have to make sure I get him to sign my "Air Mail Stamp" Hacklopedia of Beats (top left).

20 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon IV: Day Three.

Previously on Weekend Wizardry...

Since the video above is from both days two and three, I figured I would use it yet again to fill in some of the blanks.

So Day Three... For a Saturday it was kind of just there as far as gaming went. On one hand, I had a bit of a letdown at the beginning of the day. On the other hand, I did gain a few new experiences that went very well for me.

To start with, I had a level 5 HackMaster game I was running that required pregens. Pregens that I did not have at the time. So I needed to roll up six fifth level PCs in the course of a few hours. I also needed space to lay out my books while I did this, which the desk in my room did not allow. So I went to the bar at around 7am to get started. Only to get kicked out because the staff had to clean up. So I moved to the restaurant where open gaming was held. Only to get kicked out of there because the media was doing an interview with Luke Gygax in there. I finally found a table to sit at in the lobby and came up with a group of PCs.

Around noon the game began, and it was slated to be pretty big. The event was full, or close to it when the convention started. My brother and friend Paul being two of the people signed up. As the game started, it turned out Paul and Michael were the only players to show up. Blown off again. And this time I wouldn't get any new players to fill in until much later. As the video shows, Paul and Michael were playing three PCs a piece to keep things from being a slaughter. By the time our time had run out, Jerimy Grafenstein of Kenzer & Company had found four people looking for a game and managed to get them hooked up with us. The game ended up being a success. In another nice turn, I managed to run combat without using minis and mats. Not a big deal for old school gaming, but they are a big help when playing HackMaster.

Later that evening, I played in my first Pathfinder game. Having stopped playing D&D after 2nd Edition, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was also the old newbie in a group of Pathfinder vets. The good news was that everyone from the Pathfinder Society, players and GM, were incredibly helpful. I also got the Pathfinder novel Prince of Wolves as a bit of swag from the game. And apparently, if I read the book, one of my future PCs will get a +2 holy rapier from the Pathfinder Society. I haven't read the book, but I did buy the Pathfinder Core Rules when I got home.

I guess overall, Day Three was a day that started bad, but got better as it progressed. Next week, we wrap up the memories of GaryCons past and look towards creating new memories of games yet to come.

32 Days Till GaryCon! I Got a Ticket to Ride.

I just bought my plane ticket this afternoon. So now I just have to make sure I get my vacation time approved and GaryCon V is a lock. Meanwhile, prep work continues as normal. I just printed out a few more buildings for the Shootout and a Battle Sheet for HackMaster. I'm going to have to start cutting out buildings soon enough.

I also managed to work out by vehicle situation for the convention, saving myself a couple hundred bucks. The pressure is now officially on. This week we will be a month away from the convention and the week after that will be my 200th post on this blog. I think I'll take some more of the advice I received last week and discuss why I chose to play in the games I signed up for as well as getting more in depth about the other games I am running.

Meanwhile, it seems that Kenzer & Company is running a contest for a one-shot HackMaster adventure that will be printed in Knights of the Dinner Table. That does sound like something I may try my hand at, since I've had some luck in getting a one-shot adventure published by Kenzer before. So it looks like things won't be lightening up any time soon.

34 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon IV: Part II

So Thursday started off with something new. Me sitting at a desk in my underwear desperately trying to get about nine paper building assembled in time for the shootout. I managed to convince Michael to help me ans soon we had our buildings done and I got some pants on. Things were looking up.

After a quick bite we went downstairs to find our table and get set up. I was a bit disappointed to see that we were at a small table shoved in the back room of the convention center. It wasn't until well into the game that we were actually given three tables and had that entire room to ourselves. Players began to line up, the majority from the Kenzer boards. Though I never took an actual count, I would say that we had at least a dozen players going. And despite having around twelve people gathered around the table, for some reason everyone seemed to be drawn towards the bathhouse for their starting position. It even got named the "Bathhouse of Blood" for all the kills that occurred around it. One of the highlights of the game when +Barbara Blackburn joined in, said "Take that you man-varmint!" and shot another character in the butt.

The game went for about three and a half hours before everyone had their fill and there was one player left standing. Since I didn't have much in the way of prizes to hand out, I had to settle for giving the winner the cheap paper model of the bathhouse as a reward.

After that I went to the Kenzer booth where I managed to get +Jolly Blackburn, +Barbara Blackburn, and +Steven Johansson to sign my special upside-down bound Hacklopedia of Beasts. Michael and I had ourselves some dinner and around eight o'clock we were back downstairs for some more gaming. This time I was playing HackMaster instead of GMing it. Our GM was +George Fields, the Ironman of HackMaster GMs. George runs more HackMaster games than the freaking Kenzer D-Team!

One thing that I like about making the switch from game master to player is that not only do I get a chance to get out from behind the screen, I also feel that by playing under other GMs makes me a better GM. It's nice to take a look at how other people interpret the rules and handle players. Even if you don't agree with how another GM makes a call, it does give you insight into aspects of the game you may have overlooked.

George's game wrapped close to midnight, and I was spent. Michael went on to do some more gaming that evening. Within two years he went from the timid guy unsure about even going to the convention, to socializing with strangers at a moments notice. I, on the other hand, went to bed for a much needed rest. After all, there were still three days of gaming to go.

42 Days Till GaryCon! Change of Plans!

Well, I just got confirmation that my HackMaster event at 8am on Thursday morning has been reduced from a six hour event to a four hour one. That just leaves me making sure I can get through the character creation steps quickly and onto the game proper. I'm thinking of using a modified version of the QuickStart rules from HackMaster Basic to help everyone get through. I also have a few volunteers to co-GM the event with me if need be.

Anyway, tomorrow I get to tell everyone about my experiences last year at GaryCon. And there will be video to go along with it.

44 Days Till GaryCon! More Model Madness.

So yesterday's post was about my having problems getting cardstock to work with my plotter. In addition to my daily posts here, I also have a link to my Google+ page. So far, I received no solutions, but both that post and the Google+ got +1ed. It's like the response to my post was, "You're having technical difficulties! Awesome!"

By the way, I found a solution. It's called, "plot one sheet at a time and apply gentle pressure to the cardstock to get it to feed." An annoying strategy, but effective. When it works.

In other GaryCon news, I am attempting to get my six hour HackMaster event shortened to a four hour event if possible. In the past I may have needed more time to go through chargen and the game, but I think I got the hand of it now. Plus I believe people are more likely to sign up for a four hour event than a six hour one.

Other than that, everything seems to be going smoothly. Just have a bunch of models to slowly print out. Assembly will have to wait until the day before the shootout, since assembled models will get crushed. I'll probably cut things out at home and have a model-gluing party Thursday night in my hotel room. Woohoo!

46 Days Till GaryCon! Event Registration is Live!

Outside of some technical difficulties, the event registration for GaryCon V has now begun and will be running until February 23rd. You also have until January 31st to register for the convention with a Copper Badge that gives you 15 SP to register for events.

In good news, I got all the events that I wanted to sign up for. So I will definitely be doing stuff at the convention whether it's playing or running a game. My itinerary looks like this:

Thursday:
8am-2pm (GM) HackMaster- Monsters in the Barn
This is the event I wrote for GaryCon II that was published in HackJournal #39 last year. It's an introductory session for those that have never played Hackmaster before.

3pm-5pm (Player) TSR with Gary Gygax
One of the seminars I wanted to attend. I played in an OD&D game with Mr. Mentzer last year and the stories he told were the best part of the game.

6pm-10pm (GM) Basic D&D- Steaks
This is an AD&D adventure from A1 that I have converted for the BECMI rules. Not heavy on combat, but should still be fun.

Friday:
10am-2pm (GM) Aces & Eights-Last Varmint Standing
This was another fun game I ran last year. Just a big shootout amongst all the players in a last man standing situation. Walk-ups are greatly welcomed here as things will go up and down at a moments notice. No experience necessary.

7pm-10:30pm (Player) Advanced D&D- Quondam Fount
I  had fun at Frank Mentzer's table last year, why not do it again?

Saturday:
8am-Noon (Player) Mutant Future- Thundarr the Barbarian: Warlord of the Sacred Library
Ariel! Ookla! RIDE! (This is going to be so awesome)

2pm-4pm (Player) Dungeon!
Never played this game before. My brother highly recommended it. Gonna give it a shot.

6pm-10pm (Player) HackMaster- The Temple of Unrelenting Despair
My friend Paul is running this game. I always make it a point to support my friends at GaryCon.

Sunday:
10am-2pm- Mongoose Traveller- A Rock And A Hard Place
An old-school game that I never heard of until a few years ago. One must always be open to new things.

So, has anyone else registered yet? What did you sign up for? The clock is ticking, so be sure to get signed up as soon as possible. And I will see you at GaryCon V.

52 Days Till GaryCon! Planning Ahead.

With less than a week until registration begins, it's important to get an idea of what you need to play before you sit down in front of your computer on the 27th. Having only a limited amount of gold and silver points to spend, and an even more limited amount of time, I like to write up a timetable and plan my games accordingly.

So far, I have myself scheduled for 2-3 events a day. That's including the games I'm running. And I am allowing myself plenty of down time in between. I'll be playing AD&D, Mutant Future, Dungeon, HackMaster and Mongoose Traveller. Three out of those five games are games I never played before, which is part of the reason to go to a con to begin with. I just wish I knew what time registration starts so I don't miss out on any events.

53 Days Till GaryCon! Priorities.

This was from a Skype conversation with my brother this afternoon.

[12:12:17 PM] Michael Lawson: Remind me, if Monsters doesn't get many signups for it, I'm gonna sign in. I know the thing yes but at least it helps to have someone more there jic.

[12:17:00 PM] Michael Lawson: but, and this is terrible, I hope I don't have to because the Dead Game society is running a DC universe game in that morning. xO

[12:18:00 PM] David Lawson: Play your game. My game is the first RPG of the entire con. At the very worst I might need a co-GM for chargen. Just show up for Last Varmint Standing.

[12:18:18 PM] Michael Lawson: kk. And... ****. Can't sign in till the 27th anyway.

[12:18:21 PM] Michael Lawson: XO

[12:18:26 PM] Michael Lawson: I wanna buy seats now!

[12:18:47 PM] David Lawson: Me too. I'm playing Thundarr on Saturday.

[12:19:04 PM] Michael Lawson: I'm going to the noon seminar on Gary Gygax and TSR.

[12:19:11 PM] Michael Lawson: Because DAMN that's something I wanna hear.

[12:19:21 PM] Michael Lawson: I'm a huge nerd.

Heh. We all are Michael, we all are.

[12:47:38 PM] Michael Lawson: Blaaaah. That first day has too many good events.

[12:47:41 PM] Michael Lawson: I must look away.

Have strength baby bro.

55 Days Till GaryCon! GaryCon III: Part III

Shortly after I got into D&D, my buddy Dennis introduced me to Top Secret, an espionage role-playing game. The game was interesting too me as it was another game that only relied upon percentile dice to resolve actions (Marvel Super Heroes being the other one I knew about). It was also the first game I played that had a point-buy system for character creation. Shortly afterwards I purchased a copy of Top Secret SI, the 'advanced' version of the game. I figured I would get a chance to run and play some games of intrigue and adventure. Unfortunately, I could never find anyone willing to play Top Secret. Thus the box sat on a shelf until I forgot that I still owned it.

57 Days Till GaryCon! First Event Accepted!

Are you ready to Hack?

Just got an email from the GaryCon staff that my first game got accepted. If you are interested in learning how to play HackMaster, and you have no problems getting up early in the morning, then sign up for "Monsters in the Barn" on Thursday at 8AM.

The even is what we in the HackMaster Association call a "Learn to Hack". That means I'll be covering character creation as well as running a one-shot adventure. Do you dare to try to save a small farming village from a band of dangerous kobolds?

See ya on the 14th.

62 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon III: Part II

Friday started with two things, sleeping in and rushing to get the store and back before noon. This was the first year we did a Wal-Mart run while staying at the con. It was necessary for two reasons. First, prices for food at a convention are always pretty high. And second, GaryCon always falls during Lent and as a practicing Catholic, I don't eat meat (except for fish/seafood) on Fridays during Lent. Since the hotel's dining selections consisted of burgers and hot dogs, I would have to go elsewhere for a decent Friday meal. The nice thing about this trip was that we were joined by +Derek White and +Emanuel Nordrum who also needed to hit the store.

Getting back before noon was also an issue because that was when my first game was. Unfortunately, a misprinting in the catalog meant that unless you pre-registered for the event, you didn't know that it existed. That meant only two people showed up for the event. Emmanuel and Paul, a person I knew from the Kenzerco forums. Michael graciously filled the third spot even though he had played the scenario before. This time I had pregens available and a balanced party quickly arose. The game went fairly well as I had made a few tweaks from the previous year. I almost has a TPK going but the players wisely retreated and regrouped to win the day.

Later that night, I traded my GM hat for my less-used player one and played in a HackMaster game. Everyone from my earlier game was there, which allowed me to get better acquainted with people. The game was run by the same guy that ran the Aces & Eights game I played in last year. I have to say that despite the 4 hours we were given, it felt short. While there was a bit of role-playing, the majority of the game was taken up by two combats that I guess ran longer than I thought they would. It did give me an idea of what to expect from higher level encounters in HackMaster.

Afterwards we hit the bar for a little bit. But sleep quickly tapped me on the shoulder and told me to call it a night. Michael, on the other hand, headed for a game of Are You A Werewolf. By the time he got back to the room I was asleep, getting much needed rest before my game on Saturday.

Next week: Top Secret!

76 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon II- Part 2

So Friday morning started with my Learn to Hack game and the table was packed. I had about 8 people signed up and all of them showed. Since this was the first time I was demoing a game for people, I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough time. Back then you registered in four hour blocks, and I was sure I needed at least six hours to get things done. So I signed up for two sessions with the plan to take as long as was needed.

The session went really well as far as the players went. The thief was a combat machine taking out kobolds left and right while the dwarven mage struggled to keep up with the rest of the party. By the end of the session, my voice was almost gone and I retired to my room for a few hours before returning to the floor to chat some more with +Derek White, +David Kenzer and +Jolly Blackburn. At the end of the day, we hit the bar where a bluegrass band was playing. We took in the sounds and enjoyed a few adult beverages before calling it a night.

The next day started very slow. Originally, I had anticipated needing to work that morning as at the time I had a part-time teaching job. But since the class I was supposed to teach was cancelled, I had my morning free. So I set out for the Chicago suburbs to drag my brother kicking and screaming to GaryCon.

This is the face of a man who wanted to sleep in on Saturday.

Michael was quickly introduced to the Geekpreacher. Michael quickly apologized for not talking much as he described himself as "socially awkward". To his credit, Derek pointed out that the fact that showing up for the convention meant that he wasn't really socially awkward. He elaborated further that since gaming is a social activity, no one at GaryCon could truly be socially awkward. This improved Michael's mood considerably as we coined the new phrase "awkwardly social" to describe your typical gamer.

My brother had brought his copy of Mertwig's Maze with him to the convention in case anyone wanted to play. It didn't take long for him to find out that the game's creator, Tom Wham, was at GaryCon. So with that in mind, he spent the afternoon working up the courage to ask for an autograph. Meanwhile, I prepared for the game I was playing later that night. At about 9pm, in the middle of a tension-packed game of Aces & Eights, Michael came to my table to let me know that not only did he get the game signed, he also got to sit down and talk to Jean Wells for about ten minutes. "I had to go back to the room and geek out," was his reply afterwards.

The Aces & Eights game ended early due to an impromptu shootout on the train. So my brother and I grabbed the Geekpreacher and his buddy Redd and headed to the bar to play Give Me The Brain and The Red Dragon Inn. The next morning we took part in The Lodge's breakfast buffet before heading for home. On the ride home my brother, who not more than 24 hours earlier was peeved at the thought of going to Lake Geneva, turned to me and said, "Next year, I'm taking time off so I can attend the entire convention."

And thus a family tradition began.

(EDIT- "Awkwardly social" is the term we came up with. Not 'socially awkward' which already exists.)