In short: awesome convention.
I ran one Learn-to-Hack game at the convention and spent the rest of the time either hanging out or playing. I got in more HackMaster in this one con than I have in the last 5 years of game conventions combined, and I've been to more than a few cons. The last half-a-decade I'd been volunteering at the Origins Game Fair and a couple of GenCons, organizing the HackMaster events for Kenzer & Company. All my time had been spent running events (working) and not playing in any.
To say that GaryCon was an enlightening experience is an understatement. Not only did I get to meet and play with a bunch of old KenzerCo friends, I got to meet some legends of the industry. Yes, these are relatively normal guys, but still....their work has given me so much enjoyment over the years. I didn't really sign up for any games since I was there more to chill, but I was able to jump into several and there was a big pick-up game I got into. I didn't loose any PCs, but there were a few close calls.
I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are some of the better ones.....(click for larger pic):
Despite claiming multiple times he wasn't going to do it, Jolly Blackburn changes his mind and decides to run a big game for the rest of the D-Team and a few hangers-on. David Kenzer (wearing the pirate hat), is trying to work out some strategy with Brian Jelke. The rest of us are either having side conversations or listening in. This was the first (and only) time I'd ever played in a game with Jolly as GM.
There is a bit of a break as Jolly needs to set things up for the next stage of the encounter. James Colleti (sure I spelled that wrong), an old friend of and major stock-holder in KenzerCo is chatting up David Kenzer. Steve Johansson is chatting with Jolly about the rules. There were a lot of rules conversations going on during the game.
Matt Leonard (Tanic5) and his son Nathan (TanicJr) hamming it up for the camera. I took a lot of pictures of these two, hoping some would come out well. Unfortunately this was the best of the lot. It had snowed some and the glare from outside was pretty bad.
This photo is a bit blurry. You can see the massive amount of snackage in front of the D-Team corner. If you look at the digital battle board closely you'll notice the left-most figure is down. That is my PC. I got ToP'd (Threshold of Pain) while bum-rushing the orc's defenses. At least I accomplished my part in the early mission before going down.
Barbara Blackburn, Matt & Nathan Leonard, and.....I cannot remember his name, watching the game. One HUGE problem I have is remembering people's names. Faces and rough affiliations, no problem, but names.....problem. It doesn't help that most everyone has a forum name/handle that gets used just as much as the real names. That just means I have two names to forget.
Carolyn and I got to get in on a Saturday night game hosted by GuntherFuzz. Here Matt is stuffing his face after ordering a cheeseburger. The convention food was severely lacking in any fruits or vegetables, not counting potatoes, but if you wanted something cheesy, meaty, or fried, they had you covered with table service. I like this picture because it makes Matt look bad and I get a chuckle out of imagining what he will say when he sees this. I love you too buddy!
Most of the rest of the table. There is a player hidden to the left and Carolyn was away from the table when I took the photos from this game. We had a brief break where I was able to sap a few pics. If you look closely you'll see Matt's elbow clearly off of the table. How marvelously dainty and polite of
At an impromptu pick-up game Sunday morning I was rooting through Stevil's (Steve Johansson) miniature dump bins and dug out a squad of pig-faced orcs.
I like the pig-faced orcs, always have, and now whenever I see them I immediately think of Will from the Roll for Initiative podcast.
This was hilarious.....two PCs, including Matt's, had suffered an attack from Flesh-eating slime (Green Slime). Fortunately both were saved from death, but Matt's PC was nekkid as a result from the attack.
Steve pulled some content out from an archive copy of the HackMaster 4th Edition Temple of Existential Evil. He modified it on the fly. Brian is running a spellcaster and is reading up on his spell selection.
Matt's PC no longer has to run around nekkid because we found underwear. Have some self-respect man! The other PC, a barbarian, was more than happy to go au naturale, but he probably had something worth showing off......
We gave him so much crap for gleefully putting on found, used underwear. "Eeeewwww" doesn't begin to describe it. You know he lost some Honor with that fashion choice.
One of my favorite pics from the convention is after we had packed up Steve's car. He put the BA cut-out in the front seat, probably hoping for a chance to use the HOV lane.
Don't worry, Steve was safe & sane. This was just a set-up photo opp, but a good one.
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