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

Dec 6th UniCON 2012 Recap

Thanks to everyone who came out and made UniCON 2012 such a great weekend of gaming. Here’s a quick recap with some photos of the fun.

Even though we had to scale it back from our original aspirations I, at least, got the complete convention experience – playing old and new games all weekend with old and new friends. That’s what it’s all about for me when I go to a convention.

I had a lot of fun running an impromptu game of Gamma World, teaching some people my board game Vampyre Women of Venus, and playing Mille Bourne, Flashpoint, Epic Spell Wars, The Official Dealer McDope Deling Game, Quarriors, Fall of Pompei, and Ra. A special thanks goes out to Jonathan Leistiko of Invisible City Games, Daniel Smith, and Stephen Hildebrand for bringing and running games.

Nov 7th History of the World at MillenniumCon 15

Just in time for Armistice / Veterans Day!

Come to MillenniumCon 15 in Round Rock this weekend for a fun time with historical minis and a slew of board games. We’ll be running the Avalon Hill classic History of the World from 9:30 until 3pm on Sunday. Come find us in the Bastrop Room. Mention this post and I’ll give you a coupon for a free PDF download of one of our adventures (your choice!) from RPGNow. Join the game, take a side, and go for the glory!

(from BoardGameGeek): History of the World is played in epochs, with every player handling a new empire during each; yes, some empires will be stronger than others, but a few clever mechanisms largely balance that out. At the end of each epoch, players score points for all their forces (from the current and previous empires) remaining on the board. The game runs from ancient times up through the mid-20th century.

Other dealers present include Reaper, BattleMart, Grindhouse Games, as well as Austin favorites Great Hall Games and Dragons Lair. As one of the only annual cons in the Austin area, I feel it’s important to support this one, even if they typically aren’t too keen on role playing games. I suppose it’s important to have the occasional con that focuses on history and little pewter men.

As it is every year, the con is being held at the Wingate Inn at 1209 North Interstate Highway 35, Round Rock, TX 78664.

See you there!

Sep 25th UniCON 2012 Change of Venue

UniCON 2012 – our weekend of gaming on October 20th and 21st will be at Unicorn Rampant Headquarters at 4601 Sara Dr, Austin, Texas.  Gaming starts at 10am on Saturday and goes till 10pm on Sunday.

This will be a free event with tables available for open gaming, and the following games on hand (in addition to whatever games you bring with you):

• Dungeons & Dragons
• Traveler
• Gamma World
• Savage Worlds
• Divine Right
• Quarriors
• Munchkin
• Illuminati
• Epic Spell Wars
• Hot Dice

No previous experience necessary: our veteran game masters will be available to teach new players and help everyone have fun.

In addition, we’ll be debuting our OSRIC / Advanced Dungeons & Dragons competitive two-party adventure The Siege of Black Mountain (no experience needed, characters to be provided).

To RSVP email us at unicon.convention@gmail.com to let us know you’ll be coming, or register on our Warhorn page athttp://warhorn.net/unicon-2012.

If you’d like to run a game at UniCON, please email us at unicon.convention@gmail.com with the following information: your name, the name of the scenario you would like to run, the game system it is in, how many players you can accommodate, the relative level of player experience, and a short description of the game or scenario.  Because we are promoting smaller-profile games, please do not place requirements for experience in the specific system you are running or player-generated characters, as with any con, GMs should be prepared to educate players about the game.

Sorry to all for the change in plans. This year our reach exceeded our grasp, and it’s a good thing. Next year our grasp will be stronger for the exertions.

Thanks,

Adam A. Thompson

Aug 1st Austin Board Game Bash This Weekend!

Only now learned that this weekend (Aug 3-5), a bunch of gamers are getting together in downtown Austin for a 49 hour board game bash!   Spread the word and if you have time, get yourself downtown.

Jul 12th Heading to SpaceCityCon 2012

We’ll be running Is There Honor Amongst You?, an adventure we co-wrote with Dungeonstone creator Leo Monaghan at SpaceCityCon on August 11th.  Come to Houston and join the adventure and the fun.  Other guests include Steve Jackson, R.A. Salvatore, Nichelle Nichols, and others you’re likely to recognize.

Feb 10th Owlcon XXXI Recap

Rocks fall.  People die.

Or so goes the motto of Owlcon XXXI, a fear-inducing slogan that seems right for the year 2012.   Owlcon XXXI is the third straight years of this great gaming convention that we’ve been able to attend, organized by the nice folks of FastWarp and Rice University.  Though there are not nearly as many events as say a GenCon, I prefer this con to the larger ones I’ve attended; it is manageable, with all events within a few buildings’ walk, and the organizers spread the 4-hour blocks of time out so that there is time for lunch, socializing, and hitting the vendor’s floor in-between games.  This also leaves ample time for pick-up games and for discussing gaming theories and mechanics and making new friends.

The first games start at 10am, providing enough time to sleep in, grab a warm breakfast at the hotel before walking the mile to campus for the day’s adventure.  We’ve found the Best Western on S Main to be a relatively inexpensive yet comfortable abode for the few nights in-between the gaming fun, and will probably be back unless we decide to crash with some of the locals next year.  If civilization makes it to 2013…

This year, I ran a rousing game of Junta on Friday night, and we had a full table, so all the cabinet positions were filled.  There was a lot of rhubarb-rhubarb going around the table, especially after the Amis stiffed us a few years running, or so reported El Presidente.  Two very bloody, effective coups transitioned the three presidencies over the four hours, shifting the ultimate power among three distinct voting blocks.  The competition was fierce with Damp pulling off a victory by a mere 3 million pesos.

On Saturday, I played three tabletop role playing games for the first time.  First, in tabletop Call of Cthulhu, I played Ed Wood, where I was trying to make a film in an old graveyard just outside of Burbank, when of course an alien vessel lands in a nearby valley.  After cutting a wall through the Scottish groundskeeper’s house into his garage, fighting off zombie hordes with a chainsaw and a pack of shovels from the back of a pickup truck, we made our way to the unidentified vessel. Sucked in by a black, tarry, tentacled monstrosity, we preceded to cut our way out and accosted our captors, who seemed to have an answer to all our inquiries and accusations.  Finally, after learning of his plan to take over the masses with media, we pretended to hook him up with an agent and made them a movie deal.  In the end I used him to profit from the production of a string of B movies.  Good times had by all.

Next, a player from the Junta game the night before brought his self-published Effigy rpg in and a group of us played a pick-up game for a few hours.  I played a burly gent known as “the Ogre” and chaperoned a party of motley freaks into the netherworld through a boarded-up portal in the back of a bar.  Of course!  Gotta love games set in the modern era, especially ones that have been hand-made by designers with artsy persuasions.  I need to find a pdf copy of the rules to run a one-off as a break from our usual campaign.  Xsemaj, you have a review copy to send us?

Finally, off to Feng Shui, a high-flying, cinematic game of Hong Kong Kung Fu.  Actions are taken in “shots”, which says a lot about the intended visuals. The story was well crafted, and the players were top notch (excessive jive talking aside), so the action had great flow, and we got in 5 solid scenes in four hours.  One thing I realized is that I am woefully behind in my knowledge of kung fu film tropes.  A mechanic I wasn’t fond of in this game is easily illustrated (and required a house mod to rectify): I ended up playing a slow character (well, two slow characters, after I swapped out of the hulk and into a wizard after one player had to leave due to an illness).  Mix this with one character being able to move every shot (usually you move every third shot), and over the course of the 4-hr session, I think I was able to make 8 or 9 moves.  This is something I would definitely change about the game.  Other than that, it’s a great setting and a simple system to learn.

Saturday night we went out after all the games were done, and had some mini excitement, then retired to the room to watch the original Star Trek pilot. Given this and my near-40-yr-old self, and I slept in on Sunday, then hit the vendor’s floor around noon, where we caught up with Michael from Skirmisher Press and Leo from Dungeonstone. These two vendors made great quality goods for planning adventures and executing encounters.  I didn’t get a shot of them, but I’m sure they’ll be back next year, as they see continued success.

As will we.

For the finale, the coup de grace of this year’s con, Adam and Damp played in my “Escape from Lost-In” Gamma World adventure.  I was surprised to see no other Gamma World games in the program this year.  It’s such a perfect one-off game for these settings.  Anyhoo, the goal was for the mutants to find various airplane parts scattered about the city of Austin after the end of civilization as we know it in 2012.  After surviving a shootout with some pigs on 6th Street, they learned form a local baron that they had to collect fuel, a fuselage, an engine, some rotors or a propellor, and a computer module to run the thing.

Beginning their exploration close to the scene of the shootout, the group explored the ruins of the UT tower, encountering a beast resembling a dracolich with lasers in its eyes.  After an intense battle where many flames torched the beast and a rat swarm’s dog turned on the rats, the mutants slew the beast, claiming the rotors in its nest as their own.

They made their way into the UT sewers using a map scribbled in a margin of a page of the Gutenberg Bible that they lifted from the wreckage of the Hairy Ransom Sunder.  After wandering the subterranean depths, they had to solve a puzzle, survive a falling ceiling,  a fend off cryogenci ooze that made its way up from the grates in the floor.  In the back chamber, they located enough fuel to fly them at least to the coast of the Gulf.

Finally, they made their way to an ambush spot along the old I-35 (now called either “dirty drive” or reverted back to East Ave.) to intercept the delivery of a few airplane engines.  After hatching an elaborate plan, they fought off the pigs driving and escorting the cargo, unlatching the flatbed from the rig, and taking the goods for their own.  This was the theme of the evening, and they were successful in their mission.  Now the big question of where to, now that the promise of a working plane is in their grasp.

We’ll be back next year, with new adventures in hand!

Jan 23rd Claw/Claw/Bite at OwlCon 2012

I’ll be running a few games at OwlCon 2012, Feb 3-5 at Rice University:

The Junta game appears to need more players to make the cut.  The Gamma World game is all full, but if you ask nicely and we’re only one over, I’ll make room for you.

Whether you come to these games or are going for others, I hope to see you there.  We’ll be walking the vendor floor, making contacts and catching up with Mike from d-Infinity and Leo from Dungeonstone.  If you see us in our CCB shirts, do introduce yourself and say hi.