Garycon.... Aftermath.. Swag and Sigs

Con Swag Bag

Upon my Check in at GaryCon, I got the Gold badge level ($130.00) Swag bag

The content as Follows: 

GaryCon Events Guide

Badge and badge holder

Pathfinder hard cover Module

KODT Comic (Forgot to get this signed while I was there)

DCC Module

3 Chaos Wars Miniatures

1 Set of Gemstones dice

Dwarven Forge Kickstarter Card

Dragonlock downloads for a 3d Printer (Not that I have one)

Goodman games Scratch off adventure

Mission I.S.S card game for 1 to 4 players

Gary Con Shirt

 Gary Con GM Shirt

4 Cups, the black one is the GM Cup and has the perks of all the cups

My Purchases

I was actually hoping to sell more cookies in order to finance my purchases at the con, but that did not happen so I only made a few purchases, they were very calculated for a few reasons... 

One, for a signature and I was impressed with the Firefly game system

Two, To help out a budding artist and show her some support

Three - To buy a print I have loved since opening the red box when it first arrived in our hobby shops.

Fourth - To show additional support to our Aussie Friend

This is the probably the only con I have went to where I did not come home with all sorts of dice, I even missed out on the Gary Con 8 sided dice because I thought Saturday morning I would be safe to get them so I did not even get any additional con swag

By Simon Todd's daughter Bernie

I actually only bought the one Dice and the Pic, Heath knew I was was pretty bummed out Saturday and gave me 2 dice (these are better than the GaryCon Dice anyway) 

THE AUTOGRAPHS

Other people value autographs a lot more than I do, that is one of the reasons I miss out on getting things signed, I would rather pick someone brains than ask them to sign anything... 

Ended up selling this because I need Funds for my Home Heating System Replacement fund.

Jason Bulmahn, Lead Designer @ Paizo

Larry Elmore, Artist  and Frank Mentzer

Luke Gygax

Larry Elmore, Artist
Merle Rasmussen, original creator of Top Secret who sold the rights to TSR

Ernie Gygax

 This is my travel copy of the PHB, I will still use it and not think twice is the sig gets ruined


The Character is the one I played in the Hobby Shop Dungeon at Garycon, also signed...

WRAP UP

  It is a memory and I love to game with many of the people I met at another time... 



The Drive home simply was tough and horrible, I will never do that again by myself. I would have to trust the person who agrees to drive with me that they would not back out... 


I had an amazing time for the most part and was treated fairly well by everyone. It is not something I feel compelled to repeat even though I missed out on several things I wanted to attend.  


I heard a lot of complaints that no one was finishing the game objectives, I was very bored in the Hobby Shop dungeon that took forever for me to get into the game and then ended after a short time..The highlight was throwing the doggy toys for Kaecie, Ernie Gygax' service dog

Update... this was no reflection on Ernie or the game itself... The players as a whole made a HUGE blunder that led to boredom... and someone used Burning hands on the Fire Giant DOOOHHH


All of my other games completed their objective and although I wish I could have stayed for the rest of my Minion game, the Firefly game by Daniel was FN Awesome... Not to mention Margaret Weis took real joy in playing with all of us. She made feel special by seeking my out the next day as she said she would in order to sign my Firefly book....  


Talking to VIPs several times, not once did any of them ask what games I was running. I understand they really don't care, but some polite conversation might be nice, I am sure I came off as either a total fan or someone who has disdain for their status

Maybe my expectations were higher, but while it was GREAT, Saturday was jut a mostly bad day for me... and Driving through Chicago with the full blown Flu was absolutely miserable and I felt I was going to die

The entire crew at the Party on Saturday night was pretty awesome 



Before I came to my decision, I was even thinking about a few games that I would develop for next year (or any Cons i may attend)




UPDATE  - A year later  March 2017
I plan on going back to GaryCon in 2018. I have started to write my games. 
I will doing a 4 hour Toon game
A Dangerous Journeys game
"So you think you have an Attitude" "So you think you have an Attitude , Too"
PODW
Aaaahhhhhh
Quest for the Gate Between Worlds(all games subject to change)

Sunday.... one game and Homeward bound

So, the one  Sunday game I wanted to get into and did not left me with time on my hands as I did not want to play Pathfinder that day

Apparently I did not get any pics of my Sunday game....

AAAHHHH

Using the suggestions from the previous crew, this worked out very well, we had nearly a full table and everyone really enjoyed the game...

After the game I left for a miserable ride home that took far longer than it should have. I will not make the ride again by myself and unless I have confirmation that someone will ride with me and won't back out, I cannot attend again


---------------------------------------------------------

WRAP UP
I really had a good time for 90% of the con... Issues leading up to the con were frustrating and Saturday left a lot to be desired after I made my schedule to be able to attend certain functions

I am not going to publicly or privately air any issues.

The drive there was not so bad as compared to the ride home


The hotel Room

GaryCon - Saturday... Fun Games, but some things just did not go right

Saturday was a Mix of really good games and lots of frustration, outside of games

For many reasons, I just wanted to leave the con and go home. Some of it was my expectations and some of it was just scheduling issues

Needless to say, I spent a lot less money at the con than I anticipated and will be getting my GM refund in full

This was my day I had pretty much a light schedule, only running 2 games... Daytoona Beach and Quest for the Gate between Worlds..  I wanted to attend some things and unfortunately, one of them was moved to a time I was running games

And that is all I will say about that.
--------------------------------------------

I got to walk around and take pictures that day before my TOON game

TOON - Daytoona Beach Party Bingo Blast

I had 3 players out of 7 show up, but that was fine because it was one player from my previous toon game and Father with his 7 year old daughter...

So I had

Mr FuzzyPants -Cat
a Dog
and the Platypus

Wish I got a pic of the players... anyway both of them loved toon and had their own books with them and the daughter was so cute.... The game is a beach olympics and I list a race at the beginning that I have never gotten to, so I never wrote it up... I ran the race off the top of my head and it was great

During the race the girl, playing Mr. Fuzzypants, the cat, After her father stretched his legs, she pulled out Scissors and tried to cut his legs off.... she tried to cut the dogs head off but he dodged

She reminded me of my Daughter when playing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Pics from Saturday

Firefly Game

Firefly Game

Luke Gygax

James Ward

Frank and Debbie Mentzer

-------------------------------------------------------

AD&D - The Quest for the Gate Between Worlds

So, this was a mixed bag, this was a Great game that I ran many times. One of the players was familiar with the source material and gave it a great review... 2 of the players were not thrilled with the game... I think the style of gaming was just not what they anticipated. 

I did have to force 2 actions to make the game work, but everything was pretty good

I am actually in a Picture !!!! thanks to the great waiter Daniel

The youngster at the table was sharp.. he held his own

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jolly Blackburn's Party (Safe pics only, I did not take any non safe pics)

So there was 2 parts to Jolly's party, I found the need to leave for an hour (for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the party)

Lester Smith and I after Riazul añejo tequila...

OK, So I feel like an idiot, I knew Lester was one of the greats in Gaming, even though he played it down.... I completely forgot he was the Editor for Dangerous Journeys and I had my book in the car.... uuggg

THE SKULL... They dared you to take a drink....

If anyone has any issues with these Photos, let me know and I will remove them....

GaryCon - Friday... More awesomeness - Donuts and Legends

Friday... 

Started the day looking for Bittners Bakery as this was recommended on the GaryCon Facebook page... I made sure to tell them we were in town for GaryCon

We got there, ordered a dozen donuts, and they were very friendly and helpful, Luke (Heller) also got some other pastries... then we got all turned around and it took us 15 minutes to get back (I later found it was only 2 minutes away)

The game I was running that morning was Pizza TOON / TOON, a Love Story. (One of the requirements I stick to when naming my TOON games is that TOON has to be in the title

Pizza TOON was originally written for a Con in New Jersey and featured all the People who were at that Con as well of as other Conventions such as the Star Trac Con with Newkirk and Oldkirk

A few of the players signed away their life to sell Amwait

I had planned on Honoring a longtime Friend who introduced us to the fine art of Donut Dancing when we would gather... this because such a ritual when at cons and anytime we got together... 

Before GaryCon, I contacted Steve Karstensen (the TOON Game Animator within the TOON Game) and he told me what the Donut Dance Music was

He tended to alternate between "Lady is a tramp" by They Might Be Giants and "Java" by Al Hirt.

I feel so honored that when Steve came to NJ from California that I was able to go have dinner with Steve and Shaun several years ago

So at the end of Pizza TOON, In the GAME, in comes Shaun Nelson to Lead Everyone on a Conga Line with Donuts... Put the Donuts on the table, Cue the music (JAVA) and off we were dancing around the table.... All of the players were great in taking the opportunity to honor my Friend and I could not see a better tribute... although if I go next year, I will get more donuts and lead the conga line... It was EPICALLY SILLY

I will have to say, the donuts were AMAZING... My hats off to the OP who posted about Bittners

Dances With Donuts video

Shaun Nelson Facebook Tribute

the Second game was TOON, a Love Story.... Since there was a wedding on the site this year, I made this all about GaryCon and the Notables in attendance...
Luke Gygax was Lugy, the Noble Knight and Defender of the realm

Ernie was Ernie the Spider

Heath Uisge Farnden was HUF, the Koala bear with with Incredible speed... So when I told Heath, he said "Koala Bears are not very fast" that is why he had incredible speed and would show up from time to time take pictures

The Minister was Minister D, the dog

"And this one time I was in the game with Tim the cat and it was a Total TPK"

Eventually after running all over the Con and creating mayhem, they were able to get the Wedding done.... 

Do you?

Do you?

Good, your married, go away !!!

----------------------------------------------------------------

So after the exhilarating conclusion of the TOON game, I was off to play in the Hobby Shop Dungeon with Ernie Gygax Jr... 

I enjoyed being in Ernie's company even if we, as a group messed up (not my fault, I was the druid) I spent most of my time being the thrower of Ducks and Owlbears for Kaecie, Ernie's Dog

Ernie told some great stories and we had a lot of fun... we did not get far in the game and a lot of our rolls were horrible

Side Note: Do not use burning hands on the Fire Giant... 

Kaecie

------------------------------------------------
4:00 PM - 8:00 PM          AD&D - AAAAHHHH

This game went excellent and this group provided probably the best feedback I have ever had on this game.  There are some fairly tough puzzles and they got what the game was meant to be. 

8:00 PM - 12:00 AM      AD&D - By The Light of the Slippery Moon

I have to say, going into this game, I was not confident in the material. I tried to do something ambitious and was hoping it would go one way... either people have a tendency not to read the notes or just ignored them completely...  This is the only game I ran that ended badly. 

I was generally disappointed in the game that I did not take a picture of the players

However Heath found me that day and gave me my Honourary Aussie card for providing some meager funds to make this trip

GaryCon - Thursday - Pathfinder and Firefly and 3 games

So I woke up Thursday having my AD&D game Entrance To Classari

The game went very well and I think everyone was pleased with it

Then I ran to My next game... I was playing in Minion with Jason Bulmahn, lead designer at Paizo
Pathfinder game

I played the Orc and my role was to wear the wizards costume and convince powerful but not too smart and powerful adventurers to come get some gold and magic items in out lair

I had Jason and everyone at the table cracking up and unfortunately needed to leave as I was scheduled to play an NPC in the game I really wanted to play in

So off to the Firefly game I went...I was the bad guy, but honorable to a degree that wanted the Laser prototype that the Malcolm had...  Inarra was intent on wearing me out, but I rolled and 8-4-8... the highest possible roll and wore her out instead... needless to say, my bad guy got messed over in the end and it was a blast... oh, and Margaret Weis was in the game playing Jayne...

As an NPC, I think Daniel had no way to know that I would play this pretty straight up, I gave him a good personality and always prepared for my next move....

Amazingly, they escaped my alliance cruiser with Wash making a super roll to avoid the ship... stating "I am a leaf on the wind !!!"

Daniel (in Grey), his Wife next to him...

Margaret Weis

Margaret Weis and Luke Heller

Margaret told me if I bought the Firefly RPG, she would com by tomorrow and sign it for me because she had to leave 3/4 of the way through the game.... I told her where I was going to be and the next day toward the end of my game, she came by and signed it...



Then it was time for my TOON game, I knew my players were few so it would be quicker than usual...

Toon is usually timed at 20 Minutes per player and I have 2 players... More players, more mayhem, longer game... The game lasted about an hour and a half as they tried to put the FOO-FUU bird in a cage. It was a great warm up for the Toon game the next day

TOON table cover

Finally, the game of the day was "So you think you have an ATTITUDE" my drunken Dwarves bar hopping game

Every time I run this game it is interesting... I think the Dwarves drank less that any other group I have run, The shock was the earthquake on the Final bar where they needed to wait and follow the delivery person so I had to work around that.. All in all, it was a good showing for the players

So, after wrapping up, wandering around, we went back to the hotel to Prepare for the next day