Thanks Scaly!
Flying home, but here are my quick thoughts:
- absolutely terrific people, as I knew would be the case
- overall convention execution much better than I expected following some technology issues on the front end during registration
- venue accommodations nice; much bigger than the previous spot, which made the convention feel less crowded, but also made it less likely to bump into people you might have wanted to see
- venue staff very friendly
- game rooms a little small for the number of tables, making them fairly noisy, but this may be inevitable
Warning: spoiler alert for my Strange Tale of Crystal Point adventure, ligedog's Floating Monks of Malapesh adventure, Wheggi's Sea Cliffs of Despair and The Pit from Dungeon #17
- my Weds night pick-up game with Handy's crew: played from 10PM-2AM after a lot of drinking - what a blast! These maniacs are a riot. OF COURSE they went the ONE way I didn't really expect anyone to go, a talent from what I hear, heheh. Miraculously, I think this was the only party not to suffer any deaths! Still cannot believe it! Haha! Plus, they even managed to find a very significant item.
- my Thurs noon game with Guy, Josh, gizmo, Alice T and Chris T - the most effective group, with a berzerker, scout, shaman, necromancer and cleric who used a good amount of stealth, spells and planning to defeat a giant mutated crab in the caves and score the biggest treasure haul of my four games. A late session decision to switch gears, go to the cliff top and break down a heavily barricaded door (because why not) got gizmo and Chris T disintegrated, but that just left more treasure for the rest, who then ran away, heheh. Maybe that was the survivors' plan???
- EOTB ran Wheggi's Sea Cliffs of Despair AD&D game: great time exploring a coastal region, though we only barely scratched the surface. Fought giant crabs, fire salamanders, stranded sailors and such. EOTB did a fantastic job and I hope we can play more of this some time.
- DMPrata ran The Pit with AS&SH: super fun little dungeon crawl, though we almost ate it several times, heheh. Cloak n' Dagger came up with a wise idea that kept us alive at a crucial point (the classic lasso the undead strategy) and we ended up thinking we'd won, when actually we only unleashed greater evil into the world. Wait, this is Hyperborea - could it have gone any other way? DMPrata did a great job, needless to say.
- my Friday night game with capitalbill, Kevin, Nik, Kenny, ligedog, WSmith and Del: we'll call these guys the wrecking crew, comprised of five fighting-men, a scout and a pyromancer. As they hammered their way through the cliffs, the pyromancer incinerated some undead and some otherworldly beings and the group's fighters took down several laser-wielding crab-men. Along the way, the berzerker's head was lasered off, the death lord was disintegrated, and capitalbill acquired the group's only treasure - a crab claw holding a laser. Yeah, that kind of game!
- my Saturday afternoon game with JoeMac, Dave, EOTB, Winn and Rachel: this crew of a thief, scout, ranger, berzerker and shaman took some heavy hits early on the cliff top, almost succumbing to a black crystal goat guardian that breathed swarms of hungry flies and then, after noisily breaking down a heavily barricaded door, losing the shaman and berzerker to disintegration. The remaining three actually made it pretty far inside the complex (the only ones to do so), aided by stealth and a few laser pistols they recovered, before finally being overwhelmed. TPK!
- ligedog ran his Monks of Malapesh with AS&SH Saturday night: let's just say that we could have done better, but yeah, almost TPK'd in the first room (by a vampire who charmed us into fighting each other) followed by reincarnating BigPerm as a Yeti! Just before this, we provided a nearby hermit with some small animals as a snackrifice and my evil fighter killed our guide while he was smoking a bowl (which the fighter promptly starting smoked himself). It is entirely possible we brought this doom on ourselves!
More later, but overall, great time hanging out with great people. Thanks!