Also Handy's "Beyond the Ice Fall" was great if a little brutal at the end.   It's not a Hyperborea game until at least one PC is gruesomely murdered by the party berserker!   Our untimely ends happened early in the session so Handy kindly provided us with an opportunity for a second chance in an adventure where our same PCs awoke hanging from a gallows!  We didn't quite finish that one but I'm pretty sure we were on the road to success.

It was great to meet and game with some of you.

Chainsaw's Crystal Point was excellent. We had a good group. I think Alice and Chris were new to ASSH but not to old school-ish gaming. Alice pulled our bacon out of the fire at least once and using divination at some points was useful.

Port Greely was a fun romp. We got a lucky turn to find the path of least resistance to a satisfactory conclusion. Also, the printouts of the art that Ghul had were fucking amazing. All I gotta say is keeping finding and using these artists. They make the stuff that just utterly nails the aesthetic I think Ghul goes for for Hyperborea.

See y'all next year, or at least as many that can make it and that I have time to meet.

What a great time. Didn't play in one bad game the whole con.

Wednesday
Thanks to Chainsaw for hooking us up on Wednesday night. Felt a little bad for him trying to keep us drunk dumb-asses on track. Only our group finds a 300' shaft, blasting radioactive steam, and decides this is probably the best way to enter a dungeon. Great adventure, wish we could've explored more. 

Thursday
Played in a Barbarians of Lemuria game. Nothing says a good time like strangling a tyrannosaurus with your bare hands or killing snake-men with a wine skin.

Jeff's Mystery at Port Greely adventure was just perfection. Handy was bummed that he couldn't run it for us, being that I had already played it, so I decided I'm going to DM it for the group when it comes out. Will be my first time DMing. Gizmo said it best, "Also, the printouts of the art that Ghul had were fucking amazing."

Friday

Played in a Cyberpunk game. The franchises have taken over the world and we had to deliver McDonald's secret zombie sauce. Were attacked by every fast food franchise you can think of. Watching a cyborg Ronald McDonald whiff an atomic elbow attack was hilarious. I blew my own head off with a rocket launcher in the first 5 minutes. GM was gracious enough to give me a mulligan. I then proceeded to roll critical failures the entire game. Even after a picked up 2 new sets of dice during a smoke break. 

The Highlight of my Friday was playing in Morgan's Snakemen on a Plain game. 9th level beserkers are the s***. Had a moment of panic when our first encounter was 13 giant crabs, their mother and a crab man. I was thinking "Game over man, game over." Then I realized we're all 9th level. Handy wasn't happy that I had a +1 mace. My only magic item. He felt Morgan was spoiling us. We eventually did make it to and defeated the final boss monster. I was waiting all game to say " I'M TIED OF ALL THESE MOTHER****ING SNAKES ON A PLANE". Unfortunately I was paralyzed by a naga and didn't get my chance. 

Saturday

I snagged a walk-up seat in Lige's Floating Monk's of Malpesh game. We started out by sacrificing a kitten and puppy to Yug. Del then angered the monks and gods by trying to walk the towers while armed and invisible. EOTB decided to try and hit on a nun with a philther of love. While Chainsaw murdered a, what we thought was an innocent guide, for his smoking some lotus dust. Needless to say we accumulated some bad juju really fast. Karma was dealt in the first room by a vampire that charmed the party into fighting each other. Bill's beserker beat my cleric to -28 hp. We quickly changed his name to hamburger. Back at town he was reincarnated as a Yeti. Someone mentioned that we were in a desert, so the decision was made to shave his back.
Great time, with a great group of players.

Sunday

Played in Gizmo's Mobieus Maximus (sp?) game. Gizmo did an amazing job twisting the track and adding in all kings of time warps, killer clowns and deadly obstacles. Ended up taking second place. Although I didn't win I did get a chance to cull Monkeydomo and my friend Manny, like the dogs they are, for talking s*** before the game. I really hope to play this again next year. Pure genius from Gizmo.

Had a great time just drinking and hanging with everybody. Already booked our rooms for next year.

 

BigPerm wrote:

Sunday

Played in Gizmo's Mobieus Maximus (sp?) game. Gizmo did an amazing job twisting the track and adding in all kings of time warps, killer clowns and deadly obstacles. Ended up taking second place. Although I didn't win I did get a chance to cull Monkeydomo and my friend Manny, like the dogs they are, for talking s*** before the game. I really hope to play this again next year. Pure genius from Gizmo.

Had a great time just drinking and hanging with everybody. Already booked our rooms for next year.

 

Thanks for the kind words about Moebius Maximus. I eagerly await your feedback and suggestions to make it better. All of you did a job of beta testing it.

mabon5127 wrote:

I was incredibly pleased with the three games I ran this weekend! I don't take credit but was gifted lots of awesome players that made it all happen! Handy, Big Perm, and many others allowed me to really enjoy the con!

Morgan, your games were so much fun. Every one of my crew of reprobates who played in them had a great time, me included. As I said, if you ever get your notes more together and want me to do any playtesting with my group, just let me know. It was great to meet you! You really do excellent work.

mavfire wrote:

Gentlemen, thank you all for the kind comments about the artwork. What can I say, the setting and Jeff's writing inspires...I am quiet certain the adventure will really be quite awesome when it is released upon the world. Thanks again for an absolute awesome time gaming!

Great to see you, Del! Thanks for letting me check out more of your work--and Em said the same. Really nice to see the originals.

Chainsaw wrote:

- 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.

Does disintegration count as death? 'Cause we had one of those. But then we snorted him, so he lives on!

Chainsaw, man, thanks so much for running that for us off your schedule. It was a perfect way to start the con. Sorry if we were a little scattered. For us, it's a survival skill!

Chainsaw wrote:

- 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!

I think the best was your face when Lige showed you the size of the map relative to the size of the room you made it to. That and shaving the yeti. Just sitting and watching that game was a blast!

lige wrote:

My favorite GaryCon yet in large part thanks to members of this board.

Seriously.

lige wrote:

Quote of the Night - after the final battle in the second session (as described by chainsaw)  it was a little early on time but it seemed like a pretty solid conclusion to the game.  I turned and asked Handy (who was watching the game) if I should call it and he said "They're shaving the yeti - I think it's over."

Sometimes, you just know.  

lige wrote:

Anyway already looking forward to next year!

Seriously. Our rooms are booked!

BigPerm wrote:

Handy wasn't happy that I had a +1 mace. My only magic item. He felt Morgan was spoiling us.

Am I wrong? Dude, am I wrong?

BigPerm wrote:

We eventually did make it to and defeated the final boss monster. I was waiting all game to say " I'M TIED OF ALL THESE MOTHER****ING SNAKES ON A PLANE". Unfortunately I was paralyzed by a naga and didn't get my chance. 

Exactly what you deserve for your greed!

But to reiterate: What really made it special was you guys (plus a few others, whose identities you can probably guess). I think since BigPerm, Monkeydono, and I had made it out to the con last year and so had met most of you in person, we were really ready to jump back into the hanging out. We noticed that we spent a lot more time last year just hanging out in our room. But the chance to game with such excellent people really is the joy of the trip.

Which would, in a normal person, make me feel bad about killing so many of you in Beyond the Ice Fall. Unfortunately, the same things that keep me from having human emotions are the reasons we all get along so well! But thanks for playing, You guys took it like champs!

And stop planning breakfast so early! Lige has pints to drink with us!

Also, I met someone from Texas at the airport on Monday who said he's on the boards, but (q.v. late-night pints with lige, supra), I completely forgot to ask your Hyperborea name! It was nice talking with you, though. Could you pop up and say hello?

See you guys next year! If not before!

Chainsaw wrote:

Handy Haversack wrote:

Does disintegration count as death? 'Cause we had one of those. But then we snorted him, so he lives on!

Ahhhh! Totally forgot. Who was that?

Manny. As we were leaving! His response later: "I don't really see how seafood is going to disintegrate you. Me. But I almost made it!"

Chainsaw wrote:

I had a great time man! Thanks to you all for enduring the maiden voyage of my module. Hugely instrumental in how well the game went the next day. I owe you guys!

I'm really glad to hear it!
 

Chainsaw wrote:

Handy Haversack wrote:

Chainsaw wrote:

Ahhhh! Totally forgot. Who was that?

Manny. As we were leaving! His response later: "I don't really see how seafood is going to disintegrate you. Me. But I almost made it!"

You guys still had the best survival rate - 6/7!

Your crew: 6/7
Thurs: 3/5
Fri: 5/7
Sat: 0/5

Of course, capitalbill's improvised laser is still my favorite moment: you want to cut off the claw arm, leave the claw in the laser, carry around the whole bloody mess under one arm and then try to fire the laser by moving the claw with your other hand? Beer gives people the best ideas!

You should have let him shoot his eye out!

For the record, I also won GaryCon (with grodog and welleran and, technically, francisca since he was running the game). Two for two. Riding a streak. Time to turn it up, BigPerm.

Handy sandbagged me. Thursday, Friday and Saturday he wouldn't let me go to sleep before 5 am. I was exhausted Sunday night. I'm on to him for next year.

gizmomathboy wrote:

Handy, you forgot that The Judgement Glorious Steinem the Justicar, Order of the EEOC made it to a boat as well.

Sorry, gizmo! I guess technically you *were* in the second-place boat. VICTORY!

Bunch of loooooong overdue pictures from Gary Con VIII

Arriving on a warm and toasty March day in Lake Geneva. Pull up a chair!

Thursday night at Popeye's (left table, from 7PM, Josh, Guy Fullerton, Wheggi, EOTB, gizmomathboy, capitalbill, friend of Handy's, Handy Haversack; right table from 10PM, ligedog, ligedog's friend, BigPerm, two of Handy's pals)

My Thursday night Crystal Point game for Handy's crew after we got back from Popeye's

Table of Honor

AS&SH booth (from left, Ghul, DMPrata, Morgan)

Blade Blade booth (tacojohn)

Black Blade booth (grodog)

My Friday afternoon Crystal Point game (from left, gizmomathboy, Guy Fullerton, Josh, Chris and his wife)

EOTB running some 1E - Wheggi's Seacliff's of Despair (from bottom left, wheggi, Falconer, Cloak n' Dagger, EOTB, capitalbill, ligedog)

One of Jeff's AS&SH games (from left: Don, Joe Mac, gizmomathboy, Monkeydono, BigPerm, Jeff, Barnett1967, Noah, grodog)

DMPrata's AS&SH game

Luke Gygax running some 1E

ligedog's AS&SH game (from bottom left, Handy, Handy's friend, Del, BigPerm, EOTB, capitalbill, ligedog)

grodog running 1E (from bottom left, francisa, grodog, Dan, don't know, don't know, Nik, Kevin)

Cool original art 1

Original DMG cover

Original DMG cover up close 1

Original DMG cover up close 2