Unicorn RampantClaw / Claw / Bite magazine & Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Aug 16th GenCon 2009: Saturday

This day was all about two events — our Arena of Death Battletech game and a late night playing of Tower of Gygax that ran until 7am. I didn’t know I could sit that long! Well, actually, I stood for most of the Battletech game, giddy with excitement and playing, and also at co-running the event.

Odd thing happened most of the way thru the game tho — the fire alarm went off and we all had to vacate the premises. When we returned, we were almost out of time to complete the game. This was too bad; we had a bunch of smaller ‘Mechs taking on two Marauders and I was still sneaking about in my Commando. Oh well, at least everyone ended up okay, save a guy who got a little run over in the excitement. He seemed okay tho; I saw him being carried out on a stretcher as I walked back into the Convention Center.

Tower of Gygax redux… played a Monk this time, and feigned death after getting my ass handed to me by a Minotaur/dragon. While the rest of the party were slaughtered, I snuck back and retrieved the Blueprints of the Tower from the beast’s chest behind his throne. Then, after hiding in the shadow of one of his tapestries, I snuck my way back out after he returned to his throne. Two nights, two powerful artifacts. I was proclaimed the Ultimate Champion of the Tower. Huzzah!

Good times both nights. I would play Tower of Gygax a hundred more times. I even became attached to my characters in this meant-to-go-through-characters-by-the-dozen adventure.

That was all I had time for; by the time I’m getting to sleep in the morning (8:30am), there will only be time to wake and bus to the airport.

Aug 15th GenCon 2009: Friday

What can I say? Tower of Gygax rocked my world. A return to old school 1st edition D&D, before everything got so complicated. Before the terms taint, bloodied, and grapple entered the scene. Back when you just took 2 actions — move and attack, move and cast, or double move. Back when dungeons consisted of puzzles rather than long battles.

The main premise of Tower of Gygax is that you’ve entered this tower that was built by a wizard, and that constantly shifts and changes. But this Nethack-like dungeon is not dull; the room description s are rich and the puzzles challenging. Some rooms need to be pushed through with combat, but most require the lining up of symbols or the solving of a riddle, or even just the careful use of the elven ability to search for secret doors. Tread softly; there are deathtraps around every corner! So the premise if fairly ridiculous, and you’re expected to die as if you’re in a Paranoia game, but this experience is too fun to pass up. You must try it next time you’re at a con where it’s being offered.

Of course, I started the day playing a nine hour game of Advanced Civ, coming in 3rd out of 7 players. Since I’ve never seen the end of a Civ board game, it was nice to have this run to completion. When it comes to board games, this may be my favorite; it’s definitely in the top five.

A good two games of Pompeii later, I was ready for Tower of Gygax. You know the rest. I emerged from the game at 7am after almost 5 hours of playing and then chumming with the DM afterward. I was the lone survivor and had the Crown of Paradise to show for it, providing command abilities and the ability to open up pocket planes at will. Good times!

Aug 13th GenCon 2009: Thursday

Ugh, the day started early. 7am is earlier than I’d normally drag myself from slumber, but for tickets to fun, I suppose I could do it. Signed up for a Diplomacy game at 10am, a SF film by Richard Garriott and others actually filmed in space, and picked up 10 generic tickets at $2 apiece for use all over GenCon.

The line took forever. If it’s possible to line up generics beforehand, that’s the plan for next year. I mean, sheesh, why waste valuable time in line!?!? Luckily, this gave me time to figure out my schedule for the next few days. Also a good thing that I tried to sign up for things on Friday afternoon, so the dude behind the counter could remind me that the Civ game is actually Friday, not Saturday. Good thing he told me or I’d have missed it!

Then off to games, and the exhibition floor. I found the floor a bit overwhelming, with all these vendors pushing their products with vim and vinegar. Nice to see the gaming world pushes ahead full throttle despite the many reports of a dismal economy out there. WotC had a glossy exhibit; Crazy Egor had a nice warehouse of all you’d ever want feel. There was everything in-between. Next year, we may try to get a table if we start printing our modules. Stay tuned for news of this over the coming months.

Got into a few games over the course of the day, including Diplomacy, Pompeii, and Junta. I’d say the Junta game went best, with everyone really getting into it. Pompeii is a nice 45 minute fire-and-forget kind of game. Diplomacy is hard if people come in as a strong voting block. I got screwed by a strong Turkey/Austro-Hungary alliance and my Russian people were forced to take Berlin at the cost of losing Sevastopol to Turkey, Warsaw to Austria, and St. Petersburg to Britain. Can you say “squeezed?!?”

Back to the focus of this blog. I was excited to see so many role players, people dressed up (photos perhaps to follow), and general goodwill toward gamers all in the first day of the con. Looking forward to tomorrow, where I hope to get in some good old fashioned role playing after an 8 hour Advanced Civ game. Where else other than GenCon can you get in a game?

Aug 13th GenCon 2009: Wednesday

Today, three of us from Unicorn Rampant hopped flights from Austin to Indianapolis. Had to figure out Indy’s public transit system, which isn’t terribly well documented. In the end, I discovered the Green Line 7, which heads from the airport to the downtown area, passing by the Convention Center and most of the hotels, including the Hyatt where I’m staying for the next few days.

We’ll be running a few games, most notably For Love of Evil all day Thursday and Friday. Though it’s already sold out, this is highly recommended for you 4th Edition gamers out there! We’ll be releasing this as a module soon.

After an okay meal at a sports bar across from the Convention Center, we headed back to get tickets to get involved in some fun. There were a number of things already going on Wednesday; if I’d known this, I might’ve flown out late Tuesday night to partake. Unfortunately, they cut off the line right in front of us, so we weren’t able to get into the Wednesday night games we’d hoped to play. But we did get in a Battletech session in a two-on-two battle which was almost resolved.

Now to get a (mostly) good night’s sleep before getting up by 7 to get in line for tickets!