SoCal Minicon 4 - Photos and Recap

 DM Telecanter cackles as player misfortune manifests in a tower of Jenga blocks.

Ha ha! A great weekend! SoCal Minicon 4 was damn awesome. It was twice as big as last year and everyone I talked to said they had a blast and want to come back in 2012. We had a few people this year fly in from back east and the midwest, which amazes me.

The first game I played in, on Saturday morning, was Steve Perrin's SPQR game. SPQR = Steve Perrin's Quest Rules - it's essentially Steve's house version of Runequest. The table was full of great players. For the first ~45 minutes or so Steve explained the historical background of his imaginary continent with the aid of large and heart achingly lovely hand drawn maps. It was great. I love grand introductions to sessions when they're done right. The adventure was an overland journey to locate a wizard's tower and I played a naive, claustrophobic, agoraphobic farm lad on his first foray. I spent a few pleasing hours in the game, which included a battle against three manticores who were trying to eat the party's horses. Sadly I had to drop out of the game early and leave the minicon for the day because of a family matter. I hear the group made it to the tower before dinner time. Nice work!
 
On Sunday morning I played in Telecanter's fine fine Swords & Wizardry session. If you read his blog (and you should) you know he is prone to frequent strokes of creative genius. This tendency of his was well on display in the session. The set up was that the party members were all infected by The Red Plague while staying in an inn, and so were inclined to set off together to the Redoubt of the Red Wizards to find a cure. The Red Wizards were reputed to have created the plague perhaps ~100 years earlier, you see. A sticky bit was that the plague causes infected souls to become hypersensitive to stress and anxiety. So sensitive, in fact, that if a victim is pushed too much she will go berserk. The brilliant game mechanic for this fragile state of sanity was Jenga. Whenever violence or other major stress happened in the session a player would have to draw out a Jenga block. Clockwise around the table the draws went. Every melee round. Every curse uttered. Every gasp of frustration from a player. We all knew if the blocks fell the party would go insane and all would be lost. BRILLIANT FUN! We spent much of the session acting like a bunch of plague-ridden Marcel Marceaus in a freezing cold invisible dungeon being attacked by crawling bones, ticks, and hoodoo stranglers, so there was lots of Jenga action. Of course we got a firehose in the face of all kinds of other creative telecanterian strokes, some of which I recognized from his blog writing. Clerics drawing bones (dominoes) for prayers, apologizing assailants, weird homespun ensorcellments. Halfway through the game Mobad declared aloud that it was the weirdest dungeon he's ever played in. A beautiful game, great fun, a privilege to play. (We won, too!)

For the Sunday afternoon session I ran a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Because a couple of the players had previously played in my Orccon Asteroid Crypts of the Xylbocx Starcult game I decided to make this session a direct continuation of that adventure. I'm a bit conflicted about how much I want to talk about the content of the session. I might like to run it again for another group so I don't want to give too much away. The location the players explored was the CACODAEMON TRANSLUCENT PLANETOID. This thing is a great spherical cyst of a few miles in diameter bearing a giant luminescent cacodaemon embryo at its center, much like a small sun lighting a small hollow world. On the inside shell of the cyst were some localities settled by various interests for various reasons. The adventuring party eventually ended up spending much of the session exploring the Cacodaemon Cyst Yolk Mine where hobbit miners drain and condense embryonic blood of the cacaodaemon from the gelatinous white yolk. (The cacodaemon yolk forms a small mountain range on the inside shell of the cyst.) I was privileged to have a group a super fun players and I want to thank them all for playing in my game. I am flattered that Telecanter wrote up a short recap of the session HERE.

There were many other sessions besides the three I was involved in. Here are pictures to prove it! (Many of these pictures were taken by Chainsaw, as credited).

Chillaxin' between killing imaginary monsters and purloining imaginary gold pieces. (R-L): Shaman, Grodog, Anna. (Photo: Chainsaw)

T. Foster's game. (CW from L): jallison, Cimmerian, Wheggi, Bedivere, Anna, T. Foster, Shaman (standing), grodog. (Photo: Chainsaw)

Steve Perrin's game. (CW from bottom left): Deanna (blue shirt), Cyclopeatron, Steve, grodog, Marcus, Telecanter. (Photo: Chainsaw)

 Perrin's game: (L-R): grodog, Marcus, Telecanter, Cyclopeatron's nose. (Photo: Chainsaw)

Perrin's game.

Joseph Goodman running Dungeon Crawl Classics. (Photo: Chainsaw)

Grodog running Castle Greyhawk.

Telecanter's game: (CW from bottom left): socalcanuck, William, Telecanter, Marcus, St. Yossarian, Summerisle, Mobad (black hat).

Old School Hack at SoCal Minicon!

Just a few updates on this weekend's Minicon in Anaheim:

1. Nick had to drop his Saturday evening Stormbringer game due to work obligations.

2. Kirin Robinson is stepping in to run a Saturday night session of his Old School Hack game! This is a Red Box-inspired D&D retroclone that looks pretty awesome. Sign up now!

3. A seat has opened up in Steve Perrin's Saturday morning game.

4. A handful of seats are open for the Sunday games run by Grodog, Telecanter, and Bedivere.

If you want to RSVP for a game please email me through my blogger profile!

See you soon!

Southern California Minicon This Weekend! (UPDATES)

I'm getting pumped for the 4th Annual SoCal Minicon this weekend in Anaheim!

Click here to view the up-to-date SCHEDULE and PLAYER RSVPs.

Click HERE for various event details and directions.

UPDATE (July 27):

Nick can't make it due to work issues. Therefore:
(1) The Saturday Stormbringer game is cancelled.
(2)  A seat has opened in Steve Perrin's Saturday game

There are still a number of player slots open on Sunday July 31:

Allan Grohe (Grodog), an authority on the Greyhawk setting, is flying out from Kansas for the minicon. On Sunday morning he will be running an AD&D Greyhawk session. There is still one seat open for this game.

Telecanter is running a morning Swords & Wizardry session. There are still two seats available.

Greg (Bedivere) is running an afternoon AD&D game of his Puzzle Tower, for which four seats are still available.

EMAIL ME THROUGH MY PROFILE if you want to RSVP!

See you this weekend!

Steve Perrin Details for SoCal Minicon

This is just a brief update that Steve Perrin, the creator of games such as Runequest, Stormbringer, and Superworld, and original contributor to Call of Cthulhu and Thieves' World, will be running a game at SoCal Minicon 4 on Saturday, July 30, 11am-5pm. Steve is a true luminary of the first-generation West Coast RPG scene, and I'm very excited that he's coming out to our event!

Steve will be running his revised (i.e. streamlined) Runequest rules called Steve Perrin's Quest Rules (SPQR), which you can find information on by CLICKING HERE. Pregenerated characters will be provided.

Steve's game will be followed by a session of Stormbringer run by Nick of the Castle Dragonscar blog! A brilliant double feature!

Even though it's still two months away, seats are filling up for SoCal Minicon. Several of the sessions are already full. GO HERE for a list of sessions and to see how many seats are left available. Email me through my blogger profile if you'd like to reserve a seat. Remember - this event is free!

Joseph Goodman Intro for SCMC 4

Joseph Goodman is running a Dungeon Crawl Classics game at SoCal Minicon 4. He just sent me this extensive intro for the scenario he's running. There are only two seats left open for Joseph's July 30 afternoon session, so if you want in on the DCC action you better act fast and email me with your RSVP!

You are pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with sweating peasants under a
sweltering summer sun. The stench of hog herders and grain farmers permeates
the crowd as you all look north to the rickety scaffolding erected beside
the city wall. A large, slovenly man in a black hood heaves an axe over his
shoulder and mounts the steps to the platform atop the scaffolding. Waiting
for him to arrive is a prisoner, his face covered in a burlap sack, his arms
held securely by three men-at-arms. Even from hundreds of yards away, you
can hear his sharp intake of breath as the wooden beams creak under the
executioner’s heavy steps. Thirty feet above him, the Thirteenth Duke of
Magnussen looks down from the city wall, nervously fingering his thick iron
crown. This is the iron crown given to his sire thirteen generations
removed, when the ambitious first Duke of Magnussen made a fell pact with an
unknown power, who asked for but one thing in return: the thirteenth
daughter born to a Magnussen duke. Now, thirteen generations hence, that
daughter stands shaking beside her father, as both watch the executioner
sharpen his axe. The man to lose his head today is a screeching prophet who
madly called for the death of Magnussen’s daughter before disaster should
befall the city. For his words, today he dies.

The executioner swings his axe in a looping motion. Thunk. The severed head
somehow misses the waiting basket and rolls forward into the crowd, which
shrinks backward to avoid the rolling orb. There is a hot, sweaty moment of
stunned silence as the burlap sack falls away to reveal the dead man’s face.
It is – the Duke’s face! The dead man has the Duke’s same face! All eyes
turn to the stricken Duke, who looks on in horror.

Suddenly the obese executioner pulls off his black hood and the crowd gasps
as one. He has no face – no – instead, there sits at the top of his neck a
brilliant silver skull, gleaming in the hot sun. The silver skull turns to
face the Duke, and then the sun is blotted out as a vast leathery winged
lizard descends from places unknown. In a flash it grasps the Duke’s
screaming daughter in one of its massive claws and picks up the
silver-skulled executioner in the other! As it flaps ponderously upward, the
silver skull laughs ominously as the Duke reaches futilely to the sky while
his stunned men-at-arms try, too late, to string their bows.

“My daughter!” cries the Duke. “A fortune in gems to the man who returns to
me my daughter!”

In the distance, you see that the Silver Skull has mounted the great flying
lizard, as it wings back across the city walls to drop behind the Duke’s
mountain-top keep.

SoCal Minicon Session Reservations

Okay okay... I've been getting enough emails and phone calls from folks who are anxious to sign up for SoCal Minicon 4 that I'm just going to go ahead and open it up even though the final schedule isn't 100% set yet.

CLICK HERE to go to the dedicated website with all the minicon info and session RSVP details. You can always find this page throough the "SoCal Minicon 4" tab at the top of my blog.

PLEASE REALIZE that sessions may be added and various details may change after you place your RSVP(s). In particular, the time of Steve Perrin's game on Saturday has not been set yet, and Lee Gold has not yet decided what day to run her session. As soon as I get more information I will update the website. Feel free to change your RSVPs if you want to.

Preliminary List of SoCal Minicon Games

Here's a preliminary list of sessions and referees for SoCal Minicon 4 (July 30-31, Anaheim):

• T. Foster - AD&D
• The Shaman - Boot Hill
• Mobad - AD&D
• Bedivere - AD&D
• Telecanter - Swords & Wizardry
• Joseph Goodman - Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Nick Bielik - Stormbringer
• Cyclopeatron - OD&D / Spelljammer
• Lee Gold - Lands of Adventure or OD&D
• Steve Perrin - SPQR (= streamlined Runequest)

And, yes, this is the same Steve Perrin that created Runequest, Stormbringer, etc. It turns out he lives right here in Orange County! He will most likely be running his streamlined Runequest variant called Steve Perrin's Quest Rules (SPQR), which I have heard is excellent!

There are a few more "maybe" referees that I won't name until I get confirmation.

There are still several slots open for games, especially on Sunday. Please let me know ASAP if you want to run a game!

As I said before, once I get the schedule set a bit better I will open game sign-ups. This being said, a few of the DMs have already hand-picked players for some of their seats. The minicon is a free, informal event, and each DM has the ultimate right to choose who plays in their games.

This is going to be fun fun fun!

SoCal Minicon 4 - July 30-31!

CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS AND SIGN-UPS!

We finally have a date set for this year's SoCal Minicon 4!

It will be TWO DAYS this year: July 30-31.

It will be FREE!

It will be in ANAHEIM near Disneyland!

Consider this post as a SAVE THE DATE notice. More details will be forthcoming shortly.

This minicon works a bit different than normal cons. As we did last year, instead of attendees registering for the entire event, they will instead RSVP for seats in individual games. At a later date I will set up a dedicated website with a list of sessions and seat RSVPs (see this example from last year). You will be able to RSVP for sessions by emailing me directly - I will post instructions on how to do this once the schedule is (mostly) set.

If you are interested in running a game at SCMC4, please email me through my blogger profile. Since this is a free grassroots events, DMs will be expected to take some responsibility for filling their tables by advertising their sessions through word-of-mouth, blogs, forums, etc.

Here are pictures from last year's event => super fun!

I hope to see you in July!

The Next Phase of the Old School Renaissance? Minicons.

Everyone is starting to agree: It's time we get together to game!

There are two full-blown cons devoted to old school gaming: GaryCon (Lake Geneva, WI) and North Texas RPG Con (Dallas, TX). Both of these have been growing steadily for the last few years and regularly bring in  well-known guest DMs. It's hard for many people to spare the time and money to travel to these cons, however. So now people are asking themselves, why not DIY locally?

Last year saw several minicons sprout up around the U.S. These were typically one-day events where a handful to a few dozen local gamers got together to play play play. The 2010 old school minicons I'm aware of were:

SoCal Minicon (Anaheim, CA)
Central Texas Minicon (Austin, TX)
Fal-Con (Middletown, CT)

Am I missing any?

This year there are rumblings of OSR minicons in Toronto and Vancouver, as well as repeats of the previous minicons. Are there any others out there?

I would love to see minicons become a primary instrument of the OSR and I hope the enthusiasm continues to build. As a "co-organizer" of the SoCal Minicon (if you can even say SCMC had a true organizer - it was just a bunch of us getting together in a clubhouse with no fees or registration), I can tell you it doesn't take much effort to put together a small event with 2 or 3 tables. The experience of meeting and gaming with other cool like-minded people is priceless fun. If you're thinking about hosting a gameday, D&D party, or minicon: DO IT!

Another minicon model to explore would be the con-within-a-con. For instance, players could pre-organize a series of old school events at a major convention like GenCon. Meetup groups dedicated to old school gaming also make sense. Does anyone know of examples of these approaches?

Southern California Gaming Conventions: Strategicon, WyrdCon, SoCal Smackdown, Etc.

Gaming is huge in Southern California. It’s so popular, in fact, that there are no fewer than five major gaming conventions in the Los Angeles / Orange County area alone. Surprisingly, however, I often meet local gamers who either never realized there’s a thriving local convention scene, never bothered to visit a local con because they don’t know what to expect, or went to a local con some years ago, had a bad experience, and never returned.

The point of this post is twofold. First, I simply want to provide a list of the Southern California gaming cons I am aware of. Second, I want to give brief first- or second-hand descriptions of what these cons are like. Hopefully this information will be useful for some readers:

2011 Southern California Gaming Con Calendar:

Feb 18-21: Strategicon / OrcCon – LAX Sheraton Gateway

April (?): Hyphen-Con – San Diego

May 27-30: Strategicon / Gamex - LAX Sheraton Gateway

June 2011:  PolyCon 29 – Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

June 10-12: WyrdCon II - Costa Mesa Hilton

Aug (?): SoCal Old School Mini-Con IV – L.A. / O.C. area

Sept 2-5: SoCal Smackdown – Anaheim Hilton

Sept 2-5: Strategicon / Gateway – LAX Sheraton Gateway

Before I launch into the descriptions, though, I want to briefly describe the weirdness of Strategicon, which is by far our area’s biggest player in the con game. “Strategicon” is actually three different conventions at three different times of year: OrcCon, Gamex, and Gateway. Over the years Strategicon bought out other regional cons and moved them all to the LAX airport. Because of this Strategicon has had a virtual monopoly on gaming conventions in L.A. since the mid-80s. There are two major downsides to the Strategicon monopoly: (1) the character of all of all three cons has been completely homogenized and they all “feel” exactly the same, and (2) since they are all at LAX none of them are particularly convenient to outlying areas like San Bernardino, Orange County, Antelope Valley, San Diego, etc. This is especially ironic because OrcCon’s name is an abbreviation for “Orange County Convention” – so why the hell was it moved to LAX? Lame. Strategicon is a lot of fun and I go as often as I can, however there remains a strong reservoir of resentment towards it for the reasons I describe, especially amongst older gamers who remember the takeovers (for a taste of the vitriol, see the Comments to this previous post).

Strategicon (= OrcCon, Gateway, and Gamex): This is by far the largest gaming convention in Southern California. The last event in September 2010 had over 1200 attendees. Strategicon covers all aspects of gaming, including video games, miniatures, LARPs, RPGs, CCGs, and boardgames. Boardgames and RPGs are clearly the major focus of Strategicon, however. Indeed, Strategicon hosts most of the major regional competitions for many boardgames (and related card games like Dominion), sometimes with major prizes attached (e.g. a recent Settlers of Catan champion won a free trip to compete in Germany). There is always a huge turnout at Strategicon for RPGs as well, with major representation from RPGA (i.e. “official” D&D 4e events). While there are usually a handful of old school and indie RPGs being run, most of what you’ll find is the typical current mainstream stuff like D&D 4e, Pathfinder, GURPS, World of Darkness, FATE, and so forth. Call of Cthulhu is usually well represented, too. GM quality can vary, of course, but if you ask around about who the good GMs are you can definitely fill up all your days with excellent roleplaying. I always have an excellent time at Strategicon, but I have heard some complaints about the quality of sanctioned miniature tournaments at Strategicon, which in part led to the creation of SoCal Smackdown. Click here for pictures and a more thorough previous review of Strategicon.

SoCal Smackdown: This is a newcomer to the SoCal con scene, having had its first event in September 2010 at the Anaheim Hilton. One great thing about this con is that it is located in Orange County, and is therefore much more convenient for us more southerly gamers. Turnout this year was about 250. This con is primarily focused on miniatures tournaments, so if you are into Warhammer, Flames of War, Warmachine, etc. your mind will be blown. The downside of this con is that it’s on the same weekend as Strategicon, so most of the area boardgamers and roleplayers are in L.A. during the weekend and don't go to Smackdown. I think this conflict in scheduling is really very ill-advised, and I have ranted about it before: see pictures and a review of SoCal Smackdown.

WyrdCon: This is also a new con based in Orange County. This con is exceptional in that it is alllll Live Action Roleplaying (LARP). With 318 attendees at the first event earlier this year, WyrdCon handily wins the title of the biggest LARP convention in North America. Even though I had no background in LARPing I had a ton of fun at the last WyrdCon and I’m definitely going to the next one. You will see and experience very weird and intense stuff if you go. Read my previous review here.

SoCal Old School Mini-Con: This small and loosely organized one-day event has been held for three years now. The focus is all old school RPGs with a strong bias towards early editions of D&D and their retroclones. Attendance at the SCMC III this summer was around 30 people and it was perfectly awesome! Read about it here!

PolyCon: This is a smallish weekend-long gaming convention that has been running strong for 18 years at the Cal Poly campus at San Luis Obispo. I’ve never been to this event (long drive from O.C.), but I’ve heard it’s totally great. It appears to focus mostly on boardgames and RPGs.

Hyphen-Con: A smallish gaming con in San Diego. I’ve never met anyone who’s been to it, but it looks like a cool boardgame, card game, and RPG event. I think it’s been going on for six years now.

Heavy Metalpocalypse in the Gamma World - Awesome Illustration and Session Recap

At the SoCal Mini-Con III I ran a session of first edition Gamma World. The game was set thousands of years in the future in a verdant and primeval post-apocalypse where few “humans” remain. For this session players were members of a mutant heavy metal band – traveling "Mohijrim" mystics moving from town to town, overseeing auspicious occasions such as births, weddings, funerals, harvests, etc. Metal Mohijrim seek to fulfill the sacraments of the Lords of Metal: intercourse, inebriation, and providing high quality musical performances to needy populations.

Player Troy Z. drew this highly accurate illustration of the climax of the game! Read recap below!

The PC's band Tipton Scrotus (note that Child-Eyes wants to call the band Van Tipton):

CLICK HERE TO SEE CHARACTER SHEETS.

Mamlish and Child-Eyes Tipton: Young heavy metal magic users. Their mother Minerva was the greatest guitar shred master of her generation. They learned the magical arts from their gentle wizard dad! They seek to avenge the murder of their parents and restore dignity to the Tipton clan! Drums and vocals, respectively.

Charva Chynex: New age bass-o-maniac. Can bend light and turn invisible!

Battus Scrotus: Joker ape-man with gigantic scrotum. When he squeezes his scrotum a paralyzing musk sprays forth form his urethra. Expert at electronic guitar.

Timetrius Finster: This mystery freakus can turn invisible! He bears the battery-powered mini-amp the whole band must share.

Doktor Vernix: Some say he’s crazy, some say he’s just a simple fool. Whatever they say, he’s one of the best keytar synth players in the Gamma World! He also has cryonic powers and telekinesis! And epilepsy!

Giggleface Gynander: S/he is a gay spirited drum player (Tipton Scrotus has two drummers like the Butthole Surfers did in their heyday) with the power of pyro!

The Set-Up:
The PCs are part of the once proud Tipton clan of metal masters. Their parents and mentors were slain, the ancient family instruments were stolen, and now the band seeks to recover the instruments, avenge the deaths of their elders, and return the Tipton dynasty to its rightful stature!

As the game opened the band was down to its last domar, and all they had were crap instruments – coffee can bass, broken acoustic guitar, barely functioning Casio keyboard. They were little more than a pathetic jug band of the apocalypse. While traveling in the northern city of Yeshmiri they found this note posted:

The guitar in the picture was the Gibson once owned by their metal master Mother Minerva. The band headed north to Dyson's Camp - a town of wolf people in a forest if gigantic redwood trees - to find Zygotus. The band arrived a day before the big Zygotus equinox concert was to occur. The PCs spent some time fucking around with the wolf guards, then headed to the inn to pick up wolf babes, play some jug band metal, and maybe score some coke. They ended up putting on a show, befriending some wolf lasses and earning some baksheesh and rounds of fortified pine ale. In one stage antic, rascally Battus Scrotus paralyzed Doktor Vernix on stage with urethra musk emanating from the hole of his broken Samick electroacoustic guitar. After the show Scrotus “rented out” the paralyzed Doktor to the highest bidder for a few minutes of physical pleasure (as the band often does to make ends meet, they said). The taker was huge, almost genetically pure wolf named Lee Loup. (The Rainbow/Dio song “Run with the Wolf” came up). Overall, the band endeared itself to a small portion of the town’s population and was able to get fed, sheltered, and somewhat wasted. The only one who got laid that night, however, was the paralyzed simpleton Doktor Vernix.

The next day the band left the limits of Dyson’s Camp to explore a potential Zygotus encampment. They indeed found evidence of Zygotus, including some guitar strings and Honda Goldwing tracks, but no evil heavy metal bastards. Instead of following the motorcycle tracks, however, the players went back to Dyson's Camp. They decided their strategy was going to be to confront Zygotus on stage at the big equinox festival of the wolves. This surprised me as the GM, because it seemed foolish and dangerous in the extreme. But it turned out to be purely awesome!

With the help of a groupie the band befriended in the inn the evening before, the band talked the stage manager into letting Tipton Scrotus play a few songs on stage before Zygotus’ arrival. Once on stage the band started into rock n’ roll action rounds, where each round is ~4min - the length of a typical rock ‘n roll song (eg. Metallica’s Orion would take 2 rounds). The band worked to entertain more and more of the crowd before Zygotus arrived – the goal being to turn at least 50% of the crowd into cheering fans before the enemy arrived. They were able to do this through their (admittedly lackluster) charisma, musical ability, and some gammatronic pyrokinetic hijinx. Toward the end of their set they broke into a two-round power ballad with vocalist Child-Eyes Tipton (played by blogger Brunomac, by the way) singing about evil that befell the Tipton clan, and how Zygotus possessed the Gibson relic that was rightfully theirs! Zygotus arrived backstage at this point and were furious! Child-Eyes flipped them a magically bioluminescent middle finger and a heavy metal battle royale ensued…

Metalpocalyptic Showdown! Tipton Scrotus vs. Zygotus!

This next scene – the climax of the game - was purely rad. It is one of those moments that makes GMing worth the pain and humiliation of explaining to your normal friends what your hobbies are.

When Zygotus arrived Doktor Vernix used his molecular understanding mutation to determine that the evil heavy metal band was actually a bunch of androids and their leader, Larbchuck, was a cyborg. At that point Zygotus took to the stage and most rudely started pushing Tipton Scrotus around in an attempt to halt their rock.  Of course, some serious violence commenced – but Tipton Scrotus NEVER STOPPED ROCKING. The whole battle took place while Tipton Scrtous were playing an epic prog-metal composition. All of the android bandmembers of Zygotus had laser cannons hidden under their scalps / wigs, and I assumed most of the PCs would be quickly incinerated at this point - ending the game tragically. But the Lords of Metal were truly with Tipton Scrotus for this battle, because I kept rolling crap, 3… 7… 5…, for the robot attacks.  Once I even rolled a 1 and the Zygotus bass player ended up shooting himself with his own damn laser beam. The android leather daddies were complete buffoons, apparently! Meanwhile Larbchuck, the screaming cyborg lead guitarist of Zygotus, was gearing up to shoot liquid-light radiation beams from his eyes. Charva Chynex (played by blogger Nick B.!) used his light manipulation powers to defuse the beam. Then Mamlish the Metal Wizard cast an ajna Radionic Fireball spell and melted the cyborg’s face off (see illustration) to reveal to the people of Dyson’s Camp that Zygotus were not authentic Mohijrim – they were computronic purveyors of False Metal.

During the battle Doktor Vernix tried for several rounds to telekinese the Gibson guitar from Larbchuck’s hand, and failed. Finally he rolled a white-hot 20 (as shown in the illustration) and was able to float the Gibson out of the hands of the cyborg into the hands of Battus Scrotus in the middle of Scrotus’ left-hand tapping guitar solo. With his right hand, Scrotus then grabbed his electric cricket bat, rolled a sweet sweet natural 20 and knocked Larbchuck’s head off, sending it flying over the audience.

Lots of other kooky stuff happened, but nobody reads long session reports so I won’t bother relating it all to you… Needless to say it was a super fun game for me to GM and the players said they liked it too. For me the first part of the game where the band was cavorting about with the locals was a tad slow for my taste, but some of the players said they really loved it.  “Town & Tavern” preludes simply appeal to some people and not to others – it’s been that way since 1974, I’m sure. I think for future con sessions, however, I might plan better to downplay Town & Tavern action so players can get to the exploration and violence more quickly. Damn, I had tons of other material - NPCs and localities - for this adventure the players never touched.

One stylistic element I experimented with for this game was giving a longer background color spiel than I usually do for one-shots. I spent 10-15 minutes describing the world, context, heavy metal traditions, etc. I personally like hearing GMs give colorful and creative intros, but I also know at a con game there can be a risk of turning off players with short attention spans. I think it turned out okay this time, but I never got direct feedback from the players about it.

Anyway, the game was cool. Maybe I’ll run a follow up at Orccon in February. I’m skipping out on Gateway this year because of the new baby.

PS: Click here to read Brunomac's recap of the session.

Pictures From SoCal Mini-Con III

Yesterday was the SoCal Mini-Con III in Anaheim, California. Everything seemed to go perfectly great and everyone I talked to had a blast. Special thanks to Bedivere for arranging the event!

There were six games and over 30 people total:

• Tavis Allison running OD&D
• Trent Foster running AD&D
• Joe Goodman running Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Telecenter running Swords and Wizardry
• Cyclopeatron (me!) running Gamma World
• Brunomac running OD&D

I was able to get  few pictures of the Mini-Con. Also, special thanks are due to David B. for the Gamma World pics. I tried my best to attach names to people in the pictures, but I couldn't remember everyone's name. Please let me know if I got your name wrong and I'll correct it. Sadly, I wasn't able to get pictures of Telecanter's or Brunomac's games...

 TAVIS ALLISON'S OD&D GAME:

 (Clockwise from far left: Jeff, Tavis, Nick Bielik, Kirk 'Telecanter', Alexey 'Monk', Javi, Staples, Chris 'Staples', Mobad Deathprong)

(Left to Right: Javi, Chris 'Staples', Mobad Deathprong)

TRENT FOSTER'S AD&D GAME:

(Clockwise from far left: Bedivere, son of Wheggi, Wheggi, Chris 'Cimmerian', T. Foster, Thorkhammer, The Shaman, Jeff, Rick?, Gary?)

 (Clockwise from left: T. Foster, Thorkhammer, The Shaman, Jeff, Rick?)

JOE GOODMAN'S DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS:

(DM: Joe Goodman, Guy in Hat: Louis)

CYCLOPEATRON'S GAMMA WORLD:

(Clockwise from left: Troy, Bob 'Cyclopeatron', Banjo Chris, Nick Bielik (blocked from view), Jorshus playing air keytar!)

(From left: Troy, David, Bob)

(Can't remember what I was gesticulating about, exactly...)

SoCal Mini-Con III: DETAILS

Saturday, August 14 - Anaheim, California

UPDATE: We had a great time! Thanks to all participants!  

Click here to see pictures!

This "con" is not actually a formal convention - it is  a group of old school gamers hanging out in a rented clubhouse. The details I present here are distilled from the Dragonsfoot thread and email correspondence, and should be considered tentative. If you are interested in attending PLEASE RSVP a spot in the session(s) by leaving a Comment here or emailing me - this will be incredibly helpful for the DMs.
Please read below for further details on location, parking, food, etc. This is a free event!

We'll also be doing a book swap! Bring a box of books that you think people would be willing to trade for, and hopefully we'll all walk away with new reading material.

NOTE: I will continually update this page with details, so you can check back here periodically. More sessions may be added and game RSVPs may change.

MORNING SESSION (9am-TBD):

DM: T. Foster
DESCRIPTION: I'm going to be running the "Tomb of Rahotep," the finale section of Gary Gygax's Necropolis, which I will be freely converting to 1E AD&D from the original Dangerous Journeys version (there was also a d20 version released by Necromancer Games). The adventure is for high-level (up to 14) characters and is, essentially, "Tomb of Horrors on Egyptian-flavored steroids" -- a pretty much sadistic puzzle-dungeon that Gygax was proud of as the most difficult thing he ever wrote (and which I had the honor of playing in under him in a couple convention/playtest sessions back in the 80s, so I'll be doing my best to capture some of that same feel (only with a lot less unfiltered cigarettes and not as many colorful anecdotes about sharing hottubs with Hollywood starlets and what assholes the Blume brothers are )). I'm providing pre-gen characters.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Thorkhammer
2. wheggi
3. jallison86
4. wheggi's stepson
5. Cimmerian
6. Bedivere
7. The Shaman
8. Rick M.
9. Gary P.
10. open

MORNING SESSION (9am-1pm):
DM: Tavis Allison 
DESCRIPTION: Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974 Whitebox, 3 "little brown books" plus house rules). "Night of the Walking Wet" by Paul Jaquays is an underappreciated classic in its own right & a mini-campaign setting for the other adventures presented in the early issues of the Dungeoneer fanzine. This exploration will set forth in a different corner of its sandbox than the previous all-night run at GaryCon II, and will take place a week after the events of that session (and likely a week before its continuation at GaryCon III). Players are welcome to make new characters beforehand using the guidelines here; to bring existing characters from any game system, who will be adapted to fit in to a party of roughly 6th level OD&D adventurers; or to roll up characters on the spot.
RESERVED SEATS: 6 preferred, 2 alternates possible.

1. cyclopeatron
2. Javi
3. Staples
4. Kirk (Telecanter)
5. Kirk's friend 
6. Alexy (monk)
7. Nick Bielik
8. open

AFTERNOON SESSION (2pm-6pm):

DM: Joseph Goodman (Goodman Games)
DESCRIPTION:  Dungeon Crawl Classics. Atop a craggy peak overlooking the teeming ports, the brilliant emerald tower has watched generations of kings rise and pass. This Citadel of the Emerald Sorcerer goes undisturbed by the king’s subjects, who fear the flapping monstrosities that descend from the dusk – as well as the king’s edict. But you’re not a king’s man, and many a fell beast has fallen to your sword ere tonight’s adventure. Surely a fortune in gemstones awaits you in the Citadel of the Emerald Sorcerer! Join the continuing public playtest of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game with this new level 2 adventure, introducing some of the new spellcasting rules employed by the game.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Rick M.
2. Gary P.
3. Louis (Jon Archer)
4. Todd
5. Karina
6. Joel A.

AFTERNOON SESSION (2pm-6pm):

DM: Bobby "Cyclopeatron"
DESCRIPTION:  Gamma World (1st edition). MUTANTS OF METAL. It's hard work being in a mutated heavy metal band touring the post-apocalyptic Gamma World. Getting gigs, pleasing fans, keeping your keytar synth in good repair, and fighting rival heavy metal bands and aliens - it's all in a day's work. Pregens will be provided.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Brunomac (lead vocals)
2. David B. (electronic guitar)
3. Brent W. (drummer)
4. Joshua O. (synth)
5. Nick Bielik
6. Banjo Chris 
7. Troy Z.

AFTERNOON SESSION (2pm-6pm):

DM: Kirk "Telecanter"
DESCRIPTION:  Swords & Wizardry (OD&D clone)
RESERVED SEATS: 3 to 6 players preferred.

1. Staples
2. David Keeton 
3. Mobad Deathprong
4. Kirk's Friend 
5. open
6. open

EVENING SESSION (~7pm):

DM: Chris "Cimmerian"
DESCRIPTION:  Urutsk: World of Mystery.
NOTE: This session might be canceled due to a potential work conflict for the DM. If this happens, Bedivere will instead run an AD&D session.
RESERVED SEATS:

1. Bedivere
2. Kirk (Telecanter)
3. Kirk's friend
4. Tavis A.
5. Mobad Deathprong
6. open

EVENING SESSION (~7pm):

DM: Kevin "Brunomac"
DESCRIPTION: Original D&D. Whitebox by-the-book. Roll up characters and go for it!
RESERVED SEATS:

1. Fred. C. Dobbs 
2. Gary
3. Staples 
4. Mat
5. Alexy (monk)
6. open 

MINI-CON LOCATION: The Mini-Con will be a few blocks from the Anaheim Convention Center. On this Google Map aim for the big clubhouse near the pool on the North side of Orangewood, to the left of the pointer:


View Larger Map
  
OTHER DETAILS - PLEASE READ! 

Parking
Since I'm so close to Disneyland and the convention center, the streets in the area are marked as resident permit parking only. Enforcement is fairly light, but there's no need to risk getting a ticket.

There is guest parking within the Sherwood Village community in any open, marked space (it's pretty obvious - the streets in the community are all either red or marked parking spaces). There's usually plenty, but I've never had 30 guests over before. I also have 4 resident hang tag permits that will allow parking on Orangewood right next to the clubhouse that I can give to people I know - especially anyone bringing tables and chairs or with lots to unload. These would likely go to Tony F, Jeff Allison, and perhaps Cimm, T.Foster, Shaman, Thork, or Wheggi (whoever gets there first, or whoever gives a compelling argument as to why they need it).

I know people are coming from all over, but if it’s possible to carpool, that would help.

Tables and Chairs
The clubhouse has chairs for 20 and tables for 2 games, and a counter top and refrigerator for food. I additionally have a card table and chairs for the book swap, snacks, or whatever we need.

It looks like we’ll need another table for a game session, and 8-10 chairs.

Food
If everyone brings their favorite snacks and drinks there always seems to be enough to share.

We were planning a bbq. There are a lot of people involved now, so I’m not sure how long bbq-ing for 20+ will take. We have 2 large gas bbqs outside the clubhouse. I think we can still do it if we have multiple people manning the grills as long as we limit it to something simple like burgers and dogs, but we just don’t have the space or time to cook spare ribs or whole chickens or stuff like that. We need to coordinate buns, condiments, and any veggies we might want. I don’t know if everyone should bring their own meat to allow for tastes, veggie substitutes, kosher, or whatever, or if we should pool that too. Any suggestions?

If you must bring something else to grill it must be as quick and simple as burgers or hotdogs.

Because there's 3 sessions instead of 2 like before, we also need a lunch. There is all manner of fast food, pizza, and restaurants in the area – obtaining food shouldn’t be a problem. The clubhouse also has a microwave.