A week from today...

...I will have new posts on this blog. Relevant posts hopefully. With pictures, maybe video too.


Stay tuned.

Keepsakes

So, I was cleaning my apartment yesterday when I stumbled upon this.

It's the final character sheet for my old PC Lt. Hornsby from John Higgins' Engines & Empires Game. It's been over three years since that campaign ended and I am still holding on to this thing.

It's amazing what it is about role-playing games that turns a normal person into a hoarder. The chances that I will ever get to play Reg again is slim to none, but I still hold on to this character sheet, along with many others from numerous games that I have played in, ran or wrote but never got a chance to run. And then there's the old mud-dice, cardboard tokens and half-scribbled notes from games past. I think part of it is the nostalgia. Not only of the adventure itself, but of those times when friends gathered together to game. At the same time I discovered this sheet, I also found a slew of character sheets my brother used from the old Shadowrun 2e/3e games I used to run and the times we would gather in the living room with our friends and play. I remember each session not only for the game, but for the stuff we went through just to get things going. My fondest gaming memory is not about slinging dice, but me and three of my friends piling into my Dodge Neon and hitting every McDonald's within ten minutes of my apartment in order to get around the 'limit five per customer' stipulation on 49 cent cheeseburger day. Dinner was more of an adventure that night.

I guess that in the end, it's not too crazy to hold on to keepsakes from gaming. At least in my case, it's because it's more than just about that time my fighter got his first +1 sword.

Though to be honest, that was a good day too.

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.

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.

29 Days Till GaryCon! Dragonstrike.

It's weird having there be less than thirty days until something, but still being more than a month away from it. Damn February.

[9:20:59 PM] David Lawson: Got a question for you.
[9:21:17 PM] Michael Lawson: Yes?
[9:21:31 PM] David Lawson: What else should we bring to GaryCon, game-wise.
[9:22:12 PM] Michael Lawson: We haven't used the board games, so I'm gonna leave them at home. Definately Gimme the Brain... You have any ideas?
[9:22:57 PM] David Lawson: I'm bringing Give Me The Brain. Planning on running a few rounds of it the day before the con and on Sunday.
[9:23:27 PM] David Lawson: I was hoping you could bring DragonStrike or Dragonlance.
[9:23:40 PM] Michael Lawson: I'll bring Dragonstrike then.
[9:23:50 PM] Michael Lawson: Easier to play.
[9:24:17 PM] David Lawson: Who wears the black turtleneck?
[9:27:07 PM] Michael Lawson: Never knew his name, won't be me. :P
[9:28:59 PM] David Lawson: John Boyle.
[9:33:07 PM] David Lawson: At least that's what IMDB says.
[9:35:25 PM] Michael Lawson: Huh

Feeling brave tonight?

Dragon Strike was one of TSR's later attempts to create a gateway game to D&D. It was a cross between a board game and an RPG. Like a board game it had boards (duh), dice and figures that the players moved around. Like a role-playing game, the boards were maps of dungeons, the figures came with profiles featuring various stats and spells from D&D. The "Dragon Master" was the GM of the game running various pre-written scenarios included in the game. But the 'hook' of the game was the VHS cassette that came with it that served as part instruction manual and part television show. The cassette was 'hosted' by the disembodied head of actor John Boyle, who served to run a group of unseen players through the game (we do see their characters) while explaining the rules to the viewers.

How brave? Brave enough to do battle with hideous monsters? Hmm?

Boyle's character appropriately hams it up in every scene that he is in. He reminds me of my high school friend Jake that used to insert huge amounts of minutiae in his descriptions of events in an attempt to make them more real. Though for some reason, everything smelled like ozone.

The cassette is pretty much the main thing anyone remembers about the game. But the game itself is worth playing at least once. It's really just a basic D&D game with pregens, pre-printed maps and plastic miniatures. I don't know how well it works as a 'gateway' game to actual role-playing games, since we got our copy years into playing AD&D. But if you're looking for a nice one-shot game to play with friends, you wouldn't be disappointed in Dragon Strike.

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.

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.

43 Days Till GaryCon! Something Else From GaryCon III

Back at GaryCon III an anthropologist showed up to play games and to do some studies on gamers themselves. Now I never got to meet the guy, but the Geekpreacher did and he managed to snag this breif interview.

You can check out more of Geekpreacher's GaryCon videos on his YouTube channel.

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.

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!

64 Days Till GaryCon! You Gotta Be Kidding Me.

Two games that I am big fans of are Engines & Empires and Retro Phaze by John Higgins. I've had the privilege to play both with the creator when I lived in Indiana.

I've talked about both games in the past and I highly recommend picking up the free PDF versions of the games at the very least. I actually own a hardcopy version of Engines & Empires that I have gone so far as to tab so I can get to certain sections quickly. The print versions are relatively cheap compared to similar books. About $10 + S&H for Engines & Empires and around $7 + S&H for Retro Phaze.

So can someone tell me why Noble Knight is selling the print version of Retro Phaze for $30? And why are they listing it as out of print? It's not out of print, it's print-on-demand! I would hate to think that someone would see that and get the impression that Retro Phaze was not available or too expensive and give it a pass.

If you are looking for a new twist on Dungeons & Dragons, please give Engines & Empires a try. If you are interested in a game that simulates the old 8-bit console RPGs like Final Fantasy, take a look at Retro Phaze. And check out John's blog Playing Dice with the Universe and give him some feedback. John's a very creative guy and a real asset to the hobby. And I really want to see more from him. Maybe a little encouragement would help.

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.

72 Days Till GaryCon! So it's 2013.

I stopped making New Year's Resolutions a while back when I realized that anything that was important to do was worth not putting off until January 1st. But the start of a new year does provide some impetus to start up new things and make changes that we really need to make.

Now, most of my 'resolutions' revolve around non-gaming stuff. I need to lose 50 pounds. I need to study for the PE Exam. I need to save money. I need a girlfriend. You get the idea. But since this is a gaming blog, I should probably get a few gaming resolutions set as well.

So here goes.

I will find myself a regular gaming group.

I will introduce someone to tabletop gaming that hasn't done it before.

I will stay at GaryCon until it closes.

I will make sure to hang out with people at GaryCon.

I will try to attend another con this year.

I will try a new game I haven't played before.

I will try an old game I haven't played before.

I will get a decent bookshelf to carry all my gaming stuff (the one I bought at Target is falling apart under the weight of all my books.)

I will find a Friendly Local Game Store.

And finally, I will try to keep up with the rest of the online gaming community even after this 100 day challenge ends. Lord knows I have enough people on my Google+ account I should be connecting with.

75 Days Till GaryCon! I Want to Play... Are You A Werewolf?

This game is never listed in the event catalog, yet it's an annual tradition at GaryCon. Usually around midnight the call goes out for players to meet up in the restaurant. And then the game is on.

To the best of my knowledge, the game goes something like this. Out of the entire group of players, one is the 'werewolf' of the game. The game shifts between day and night phases. At night, the werewolf gets to 'kill' one of the other players. During the day, the players try to decide who is the werewolf and pick one of the players to be lynched. If the lynched player is the werewolf, the game ends. If the lynched player is a villager, the game continues. The object of the game is simple. If you're a villager, kill the werewolf. If you're the werewolf, kill the villagers and stay alive.

I first heard about this game at GaryCon III when my brother decided to get in on it late on a Friday Night. I was tired and passed on it. Friends and family have played it every year and had a blast, and I have passed because it was late and I was tired.

This time, it's going to be different.

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.)

82 Days Till GaryCon: I Want To Play... Shadowrun.

So, how did that End of the World thing treat you yesterday?

Yeah, truth be told the Mayans used the word world as a synonym for era. So while the Fifth World came to an end yesterday, the Sixth World began today. It is the dawning of a new time.

How do I know this? Simple. I played Shadowrun.

While I started with D&D and Marvel and currently play HackMaster, the majority of my gaming time was devoted to running a Shadowrun campaign for my brother and his friends that lasted a lot longer than most gaming groups do. We ran the gamut of all character archetypes and mission scenarios, and throughout it all, it never got boring.

Shadowrun is a cyberpunk meets urban fantasy role-playing game that was originally put out by FASA and has changed hands a few times since I stopped running it after the change from 3rd to 4th edition. The main setting is a dystopian future of the mid-to-late 21st Century. A series of disastrous events at the start of the century result in a radical reshaping of the world, especially North America.

Also, for reasons that few can understand, magic has returned to the world. This coincides with people changing into dwarves, elves, orks and trolls. By the time things 'settle down', magic and cybernetic implants are commonplace. Almost all computer work is done via virtual reality. And most importantly, the largest corporations in the world exist as micronations within the countries that they do business.

That's where the players come in. These 'megacorps' are in such violent competition that they hire mercenaries to perform covert operations, or 'shadowruns'. And that is where the players come in.

This was the first game I played where you really weren't encouraged to be the good guy. Granted games like D&D and Palladium gave you the options to be evil. But Shadowrun's premise is that nine out of ten times, your character is kind of a scumbag. You are willing to work under the table for large faceless corporations as a criminal with the knowledge that of all goes wrong, your employer and your target have no problem killing you. And on top of that you usually don't have the desire or the ability to be a respectable member of society. You do your job, buy your gear on the black market and dodge the cops every step of the way.

Now, my players did tend to veer towards the moral side of the moral/amoral/immoral spectrum. But just as often, they caused mayhem for everyone around them. Near the end of the campaign, they were basically setting themselves up as a small army with a 'legitimate' business as a cover. A criminal enterprise in the making, paid for with theft, destruction and death.

And it was a lot of fun.

83 Days Till GaryCon: Memories of GaryCon II- Part 1

When word got out that there was going to be a second GaryCon, I immediately made plans to be there. By June of 2009 I was employed again and, thanks to a quirk of my start date and the company's vacation policy, I started 2010 with fifteen days of vacation time instead of ten. This meant that I could go to this convention a bit more relaxed as I would be taking a break from work instead of worrying about looking for work.

This being me second convention, I decided that I would be a more active participant and actually run a game. Kenzer and Company had officially released HackMaster Basic by the time I moved to Indiana. Since I was a fan of the game and the people that created it, I decided to run a 'Learn to Hack' scenario. For those of you unfamiliar with that term it is basically an advanced demo game, with character generation covered as well as a one-shot adventure. On the Thursday before the convention, I packed my car with enough clothes and games to last and drove first to my mother's house, then to Lake Geneva.

I got the the hotel around 5pm, just in time to meet up with the Kenzer team as they were getting their booth set up for the following day. After they were settled in, we all headed to the Next Door Pub to grab dinner and mingle. The Gygax family and the TSR crew were in a separate room, so those of us that were Knights of the Dinner Table fans sat with +Jolly Blackburn. We treated him like a rock star and he took it with a good dose of humility.

After dinner, I went back to my room since I was running my game early Friday morning. My plan was to run a game Friday, play a game Saturday and leave Sunday open. The next morning I got up early to grab breakfast at the hotel restaurant. This was before the restaurant was closed off for open gaming, and offered it's full selection to guests. As I was looking over the menu, I saw a man that I had briefly spoke to at GaryCon I. It was +Derek White , aka The Geekpreacher.I don't know why, but I told the hostess that he was with me and we has breakfast together that morning. During our meal, we talked about gaming and Derek's work as a preacher and struck up a friendship that I hold dear to this day. Derek was in Lake Geneva with his buddy Redd, who I also met at the Next Door Pub. As we finished our meal and I headed back to my room, only one thought came to mind.

"Man, I wish Michael was here to enjoy this."

Next week: My Learn to Hack session, Michael finally arrives at GaryCon, gaming with the Geekpreacher and Trouble on the Sequoyah Star.