Man, oh man! I'm almost glad for the fact that things are starting to calm down a little now, with both Origins and the 4th of July weekend behind me. While both were a blast, they aren't exactly "relaxing" endeavors by any stretch!
I had intended on pumping out this entry last week, but didn't get the chance, as I was unpacking all of our swag (to be detailed in tomorrow's entry!) and re-packing for my first trip back to Pennsylvania since Thanksgiving. Plus, I had something else on my mind...more on that in a bit, though!
On our final day at Origins, Karl, the PlatinumChick and I ended up skipping Attack of the Mutant in favor of a little extra sleep, but did manage to wake up in time for a trip through Red Dragon Inn with the amicable Geoff, from Slugfest Games. Little did we know, though, that Geoff is, in fact, their head-gaming-guru. Spiffy, indeed!
I'd heard good things about RDI before, but none of us had any experience with it. Lucky for us, the rules were quick for us to pick up--even with us playing preview classes with the soon-to-be-released second expansion pack! I took up with the Troll Alchemist, while Karl and the PlatinumChick took on the Pixie and the Gnome Artificer, respectively. By the end of the game, Karl was able to snatch away victory from another of the players--another Dayton native, no less!--then rolled a Natural 20 on his swag check, walking away from the table with a brand-new board game!
Even nicer about this, I got to talk to Geoff a little about submissions and the like. While he wasn't that interested in Dungeon Slam!, the idea behind SunnyVale Acres seemed to really intregue him. With any luck, I might just have a buyer for SV Acres, once I get some playtesting in!
From there, we set out for one last go-round in the Dealer Hall, with the PlatinumChick making her yearly mini purchases. Man, if nothing else, we walked away with a ton of minis! That'll all be in the swag rundown pics, coming tomorrow.
After saying our goodbyes to El Willy and his crew, we headed off for a brief lunch at BD's...only to see Willy the 2 and Donnie once more! We palled around for a while over Mongolian Barbeque, then split up, heading back towards Dayton.
On the trip home, though, I got to thinking, as I usually do after our yearly geek-pilgrimage...
• Running Games at Origins is FUN—No, really! I had a blast running players through Survival of the Fittest, and despite my horrid dice luck in WEGS Plume Mountain, the game was a laugh riot. I’m actually contemplating running 6 games, rather than 4, next year.
• Minis are Heavy!—Ugh. This was the one downside about running games that were miniatures-heavy. Between my maps, minis, dungeon tiles, and more…that was a load. I’m really not sure how EEE managed to survive, carting his massive Ninja Nuttiness castle back and forth.
• Anything with Cthulhu in the name sells—This one blew my mind. EEE’s CthulhuTech games all sold out. The PlatinumChick’s CoC games…all sell-outs. As I mentioned to some of my WEGS players, I’m thinking about writing a new scenario: “WEGS + Cthulhu = WEGSthulhu!”. I’m pretty sure that I’ll sell that one out next year!
• There are a TON of games I want to run—This is a big one. I came away from Origins with lots of ideas, ranging from a Wild West-era Cthulhian cattle-drive, to a horrific trip through Castle Glamis (of MacBeth fame), to an Icons version of “The Near Orbit Mass Driver Blues”. As always, once I get them written up, I’ll be test running them at the various conventions around Dayton.
• This year’s WittCon should be a blast—I had a ton of players in my games from the Columbus/Cincinnati/Dayton area, all of whom seemed to show some real interest in a local convention. Plus, I was able to get some information from a Cincinnati-area game store, which sells Ral Partha miniatures, especially the “bulk” minis, sold by the ounce. With a solid core of gamers and a lot of great prospects for support on the horizon, this year’s WittCon may be the biggest one yet!
Showing posts with label Red Dragon Inn. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red Dragon Inn. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Thursday, July 01, 2010
The Warlock's Origins 2010 "Live" Blog--Saturday
Note: While this entry is going up today, it was written just following the day listed. Stay tuned throughout the week for my day-by-day coverage of Origins 2010!
Man, oh man! Origins 2010 hit its WittWEGGin’ climax with a bang, as we headed out for games in the early morning after a late Friday night. Karl was up even earlier than the PlatinumChick and I, as he’s been playing in an ongoing SPARKS Star Wars d6 game. The PlatinumChick and I, though, got to indulge in a rare opportunity.
You see, while we’re both gaming fanatics, we rarely (if ever!) get to play with one another! Usually one of us, if not both of us, are GMing, whether it’s D&D, Call of Cthulhu, or some other system. In fact, it occurred to me as we were scheduling for this year that we’ve never played Call of Cthulhu together before at all!
That’s since changed. Thanks to the noble folks at Rogue Cthulhu, particularly our glorious GM Justine, we joined The Clue of Cthulhu: a scenario based around the board game-turned-movie “Clue”. Deciding to leave my fate up to the dice I rolled randomly…and took on the role of Mrs. Peacock for the duration. The PlatinumChick decided upon Ms. White, who turned out to be a “black widow,” killing her husbands for insurance money. A disgraced possible-Communist opera singer, I started off in the best disguise I could think of: a gruff, Bronx-style street mama that sounded of emphysema. Only when my secret was revealed did I switch a prim, proper, articulate 1920s dame.
The game was an utter blast. Everyone at the table was deep in character, including a fellow named Derek, who I had met twice earlier…both in Stargate Savage Worlds and in Rescue of a Lifetime. Apparently we were on the same wavelength when scheduling!
After a quick lunch, the PlatinumChick and I managed to score probably the biggest win of the whole convention. For the last 4 years, we’ve been trying to finagle a room at the Drury Inn and Suites, which adjoins to the Convention Center food court. While we’ve stayed at the Hyatt most years (and the Mariott down the street last year), we’ve been wanting to find somewhere that we can fit 5-8 people in a room comfortably. Finally, finally, finally…we snagged a suite for next year’s Origins! The WittKids will be living in style!
But, by that point, I was about to head off to my next game, I AM William Wallace: a send-up of “Braveheart”, using the rules from Might, Magic and Lore. I wasn’t familiar with this system, but the staff was really friendly and helpful. Plus, it was nice to be able to talk shop with other designers (including the creator!) as we played the game. Who knows, maybe they’ll be interested in hiring on a certain platinum-coated freelance editor?!
Again, a quick meal (with Minnesota Steve, one of the other WEGSHogz!), our group locked and loaded for our last set of games. This time around, WEGS Plume Mountain was sitting with a full table, including the infamous WEGSHog, Kim the Elf Warrior! While several newbies were in the fray, Kim and Steve were great in helping out with teaching the rules and giving them pointers as they headed into Keraptis’ dungeon.
However, I must say…my dice again betrayed me. The heroes escaped nearly unscathed, with but a single NDE between them! Even worse, the dice were on their side! Ctenmiir took his daily nose-dive into the boiling mud, BiBBle survived a little longer than normal (but still got punked), and the players rolled no less than 3 Wicked Successes (01!) in 4 rolls! Madness!
It was equally great to hear that the other WittKids’ games went off well. The PlatinumChick’s If Train A Leaves at Midnight game sold out, with her hosting the aforementioned Rogue Justine and her father. EEE had a blast with Who Wants to be a Mi-Go? and L-train’s tac-squad took out zombies in Zombie Graveyard. Nearly all of our events went off without a hitch, which was fantastic, and word is slowly spreading about little Wittenberg and its’ mighty gaming community! WEGSVangelize, friends and neighbors!
With one more day in our yearly geek-fest, we’re going out with a bang! Tomorrow brings another chance to play with a creator with Red Dragon Inn and hitting the dealer room one last time before heading back home. Game on, fellow geeks!
Man, oh man! Origins 2010 hit its WittWEGGin’ climax with a bang, as we headed out for games in the early morning after a late Friday night. Karl was up even earlier than the PlatinumChick and I, as he’s been playing in an ongoing SPARKS Star Wars d6 game. The PlatinumChick and I, though, got to indulge in a rare opportunity.
You see, while we’re both gaming fanatics, we rarely (if ever!) get to play with one another! Usually one of us, if not both of us, are GMing, whether it’s D&D, Call of Cthulhu, or some other system. In fact, it occurred to me as we were scheduling for this year that we’ve never played Call of Cthulhu together before at all!
That’s since changed. Thanks to the noble folks at Rogue Cthulhu, particularly our glorious GM Justine, we joined The Clue of Cthulhu: a scenario based around the board game-turned-movie “Clue”. Deciding to leave my fate up to the dice I rolled randomly…and took on the role of Mrs. Peacock for the duration. The PlatinumChick decided upon Ms. White, who turned out to be a “black widow,” killing her husbands for insurance money. A disgraced possible-Communist opera singer, I started off in the best disguise I could think of: a gruff, Bronx-style street mama that sounded of emphysema. Only when my secret was revealed did I switch a prim, proper, articulate 1920s dame.
The game was an utter blast. Everyone at the table was deep in character, including a fellow named Derek, who I had met twice earlier…both in Stargate Savage Worlds and in Rescue of a Lifetime. Apparently we were on the same wavelength when scheduling!
After a quick lunch, the PlatinumChick and I managed to score probably the biggest win of the whole convention. For the last 4 years, we’ve been trying to finagle a room at the Drury Inn and Suites, which adjoins to the Convention Center food court. While we’ve stayed at the Hyatt most years (and the Mariott down the street last year), we’ve been wanting to find somewhere that we can fit 5-8 people in a room comfortably. Finally, finally, finally…we snagged a suite for next year’s Origins! The WittKids will be living in style!
But, by that point, I was about to head off to my next game, I AM William Wallace: a send-up of “Braveheart”, using the rules from Might, Magic and Lore. I wasn’t familiar with this system, but the staff was really friendly and helpful. Plus, it was nice to be able to talk shop with other designers (including the creator!) as we played the game. Who knows, maybe they’ll be interested in hiring on a certain platinum-coated freelance editor?!
Again, a quick meal (with Minnesota Steve, one of the other WEGSHogz!), our group locked and loaded for our last set of games. This time around, WEGS Plume Mountain was sitting with a full table, including the infamous WEGSHog, Kim the Elf Warrior! While several newbies were in the fray, Kim and Steve were great in helping out with teaching the rules and giving them pointers as they headed into Keraptis’ dungeon.
However, I must say…my dice again betrayed me. The heroes escaped nearly unscathed, with but a single NDE between them! Even worse, the dice were on their side! Ctenmiir took his daily nose-dive into the boiling mud, BiBBle survived a little longer than normal (but still got punked), and the players rolled no less than 3 Wicked Successes (01!) in 4 rolls! Madness!
It was equally great to hear that the other WittKids’ games went off well. The PlatinumChick’s If Train A Leaves at Midnight game sold out, with her hosting the aforementioned Rogue Justine and her father. EEE had a blast with Who Wants to be a Mi-Go? and L-train’s tac-squad took out zombies in Zombie Graveyard. Nearly all of our events went off without a hitch, which was fantastic, and word is slowly spreading about little Wittenberg and its’ mighty gaming community! WEGSVangelize, friends and neighbors!
With one more day in our yearly geek-fest, we’re going out with a bang! Tomorrow brings another chance to play with a creator with Red Dragon Inn and hitting the dealer room one last time before heading back home. Game on, fellow geeks!
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