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

Happy Birthday Baby Bro!

Can't you tell how excited he is to turn 36?

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.

There Will Be a GaryCon V Post!

I was planning on vlogging my way through GaryCon V, but the presence of hundreds of people at the Geneva Ridge Resort put a damper on the wi-fi. My video of the events of "Day Zero" would have taken over eight hours to upload back in Wisconsin. And my constant worrying about the video on Thursday led to me not preparing for a game on Friday until the 11th hour. So I decided to eschew any "journalism" and focus more on enjoying my vacation, which is really what my trip to GaryCon was about.

Anyway, without further ado, here is Day Zero.

GaryCon is Tomorrow!

And I do have some content to add about it! However, I committed to doing a vlog about traveling from my brother's apartment to Lake Geneva and all relevant subjects about it. The video has been recorded, but now I'm waiting for the Flip program to finish compiling all the small vids into one video to upload to YouTube. So as soon as that's done I'll append it to this post for all to see.

But just for a Cliff's Notes version, things are pretty awesome right now.

Two Days Till GaryCon!

Ugh, I hate travel days. I got slightly more sleep last night than I did the night before. Then it's five hours of sitting in a cramped plane or hauling heavy bags throughout the airports. By the time my mother and stepfather picked me up at O'Hare, I was just plain miserable. I needed lunch and a nap and not much else.

However, fate would dictate there be more to today. That's because today's my 39th birthday, and there was celebrating to be had. So after a two hour nap, we were off to a nice restaurant for a great meal and one of the best gin martinis I have ever had. The second half of the day more than made up for the first.

Now, it's back to bed to get ready for tomorrow. I'm (hopefully) meeting an old friend for lunch tomorrow before picking up Michael and heading to Lake Geneva. See you all there.

13 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon IV: The Conclusion

Sunday was kind of a non-starter for me. Despite my intention to close GaryCon IV, I had the urge to get going early in the morning. So around 10am, Michael and I checked out and made the ride back to Chicago. Once we got there we kind of realized that my flight back to Elmira wasn't going to be for another 24 hours, so we had to find something to do.

We could have been gaming until 6pm. But you just had to get antsy, didn't you?

To be honest, there isn't much left to talk about after heading out. I hung out at my brother's apartment the rest of the day, and then headed back to O'Hare the next morning. I did realize that getting a rental car was a nice perk for the weekend, but the cost outweighed the benefits since it was parked in the hotel lot for four of the five days I had it. I also realized my need to pace myself in the future so I wasn't hitting the pillow before midnight. In all, GaryCon IV was the con where a lot of stuff should have happened, but didn't. And that's all on me. Hopefully, things will work out better at GaryCon V.

41 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon IV: Part I

One of the nice things about vlogging my trip to GaryCon last year is that it makes recapping things a lot easier.

The first video is from Day 'Zero', a/k/a the day before the convention started.

This was the first time I had to fly to get the convention. And it was the second time that I had flown since moving to upstate New York. As I mentioned in the video above, I had a considerable layover in Detroit followed up by having a hell of a time getting out of O'Hare once I got into Chicago. One thing I failed to mention in last year's vlog was that despite it being March in the Midwest, it was 84 degrees outside in Chicago. I know that I shouldn't have really been surprised. But 'unusually warm' for Chicago in the winter is usually around 50-60 degrees. 84 was a bit much to be honest. On top of that, I had a bad headache getting into Lake Geneva. So I was in no mood to do anything but lay down and sleep as soon as I got checked in.

On another note, most of these vlogs were about a day late when I first uploaded them. The file sizes on my Flip were fairly big, the internet at the hotel was fairly slow and my laptop had the annoying habit of powering down if left unattended for too long. I've managed to do something about the latter issue. The first two may be out of my control.

After settling in, we did go down to the bar area and chat with a few friends and get something to eat. I remember having a pretty good burger and failing to get anyone interested in a game of Give Me The Brain. I also hot the sack early and missed my opportunity to get my model-building for the shootout done. I would regret that the next day.

Next Week: The convention begins.

48 Days Till GaryCon! GaryCon III: The Conclusion

Sunday morning Michael and I got up with no plans for the day. Remembering the awesome breakfast buffet we had the year before, we were very disappointed that the new management wasn't offering it this time around. With no events signed up for, we went downstairs to see what was going on and maybe drop in on whatever was being held at the time.

We wandered the downstairs area for a bit. Said hello to +Jolly Blackburn at the Kenzer table. And before long we were bored and ready to leave. We had already checked out of our room and were no longer obligated to stick around longer than need be. But being in the vicinity of old school games got us talking about a few of the ones we grew up on, particularly Marvel Super Heroes. This got the attention of Chad from the Dead Games Society who joined in on our conversation, along with a few others whose names I'm afraid I did not get.. The topic quickly spread from the nuances of the Marvel game to Marvel and DC Comics in general, particularly the big events that occurred at the time. The conversation went for about an hour, and it's rather amazing to see my normally introverted brother involved in spirited conversation with someone who up until a few moments ago was a complete stranger. But eventually we knew we had to get back to my mother's house as she was planning on taking me out to dinner for a belated birthday celebration.

The ride back was uneventful. We talked, as the Lawson brothers do on car trips. Realizing that we had skipped breakfast and were soon to be missing lunch, we stopped by T.G.I.Fridays for a round of appetizers and bad service. When we got back to my mother's house, we hung out a bit and did laundry for a few hours before going out for sushi for dinner.

Since I was now unemployed, I decided not to head back home right away. I spent a few extra days with my mother and stepfather while resuming my search for new employment. That would have to wait another three months though. But I was fortunate to have been able to enjoy myself despite my predicament. In July, I drove out to upstate New York and began a new chapter of my life. It was a shame to leave the Midwest behind, but real life sometimes countermands what you want. What I did know what that I wasn't about to let distance get in the way of GaryCon IV. I just needed to make new arrangements on how to get there.

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.

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!

69 Days Till GaryCon! Memories of GaryCon III: Part I

I got rear-ended on the way to work yesterday, so I'm trying to get this blog written before the side-effects of the muscle relaxers kick in and it's nap-time for me.

GaryCon III was another one of those bittersweet cons. Much like GaryCon I, I got laid off before the convention. This time it was three weeks before the con that I got the bad news. Despite my predicament, I had already made the commitment to go both emotionally and financially. So on a Thursday morning, I got in my car and drove from South Bend to the Chicago suburbs to meet up with my brother and prepare to make the drive to Lake Geneva.

I already agreed to split the hotel room with you. Now you want me to drive you there?

Now this is where things take a turn for the nerve-wracking. Once in Chicago, I convinced my brother to drive the last leg of the trip to Lake Geneva. I figured that since I had already driven for almost 3 hours to get out there, it was the least he could do. The thing about Michael that you need to understand is this, he hates driving. Driving is something he does when there is absolutely no way that he can conceivable walk somewhere. And his tension gets worse if it's someplace he has never driven before. So, with the aid of my GPS, we took a very quiet, hour-long drive to Wisconsin.

Outside of the silence, the drive was uneventful and we got checked in right away. We also got in about an hour after everyone else had left for the Next Door Pub. So once again we got in Michael's car and headed out. This time around, we picked up a passenger who unfortunately would not shut up. Once again, Michael is trying to depend on the GPS to tell him where to turn. So with this guy in the backseat, he nearly missed all his turns because he couldn't hear the GPS. We got in on the tail end of the buffet that was set up and managed to get our fill before heading back to the hotel.

Once we were back, the person we gave a ride to introduced us to Small World. Afterwards we ran a few pick up games of Give Me The Brain before finally turning in for the night.

Next Week. Games played, games ran and games blown-off.

70 Days Till GaryCon! Thanks...

To my mother, who bought my brother and I our first copy of Dungeons & Dragons over twenty-five years ago. Who recognized it as a means of expressing our creativity and saw it as a way for us to break out of our shells. I just have one thing to say.

Thanks, and Happy Birthday.