Troll Con VII recap
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:09 am
Back in the Free State now, despite a few nail-biting moments waiting for a what looked like a two-mile-long train to pass the only road we knew of to the Little Rock Airport this afternoon. Here's a quick re-cap of the Appel family (me, Ben (11 & gamer), Alexa (16 and sometime-gamer), & Michelle (spouse and total non-gamer) trek to Troll Con!
Thursday: Arrived at the hotel, checked in and got the gaming gear unpacked. We'd had a long flight to Little Rock from Baltimore via Chicago and everyone was hungry. We took the excellent advice of the man at the front desk and got burgers and shakes from the Purple Cow. (Too bad the closest one to us is in Virginia Beach!) Back to the hotel to hang out, relax and work on the two C&C games I'm scheduled to run.
Friday: Plus for the Hampton Inn - complimentary breakfast. Double-plus - it's sausage gravy & biscuits! Fuel up, head back up to the second floor and spot someone who turns out to be Richard McBain. Ben & I have a nice chat with him and... I forget who that was helping with the name badges. We helped carry a few pieces of fantasy terrain pieces up from the parking lot; they insist they don't need any further help, so we head back to the room while the girls duck out for some site-seeing.
1 PM rolls around and the game room opens, along with the registration room in the suite next door. We pick up our badges and a 4th-printing PHB and mingle with the other folks. After chatting with Steve, Richard & some other folks, we wind up playing several games of Munchkin (original and Cthulu version) with Matt Holiday (sp?) and Rhiannon, Treebore's daughter. By the time the third game of that wraps up it's dinner time, so Matt joins my crew at a nearby Jason's Deli for dinner. We get back in time for Matt to join his 8 PM game (one of Davis' I believe); Ben & I wind up playing a pick-up game with Robert (Treebore) and his kids. Somewhere along the line Ben also plays a few games of Cookie Fu with Brian Kowalski and discovers a new obsession. We snag a basic set and a booster and Ben drops from my Saturday game in favor of the Wizard's Tower C&C game Steve runs on Saturday, and the planned Cookie Fu tournament to follow. Our pick-up game continues right up until 11:45; exeunt, with Trolls.
Saturday: I haven't been able to get a Waffle House breakfast since about 1987, and knowing my kids' appreciation for both waffles & hash browns we skip the free breakfast in favor of Scattered & Smothered goodness. Back to the hotel, and the girls take off for another round of site-seeing while Ben & I hook up with Robert & his kids for a bit more of our pickup game. We break in time for me to find a table and set up my Kobold Raiders C&C game which kicks off at noon. Alexa joins me to play and makes it about 2/3rs through before having to head back to the room - a combination of tiredness and sensory overload from what's become a very crowded room, complete with Storm Troopers, fantasy combat re-enactors, a Marvel Comics artist, a Warhammer 40K game, Jim Ward running Tainted Lands, some Savage Worlds/Slipstream and I don't know what else!
The Kobold Raiders survive (despite some scary moments early when I almost TPK them with a trio of Lizardmen!) and manage to actually accomplish their mission. Feedback was overall positive, so I believe I'll a) write this up for Crusader and b) start planning for "Kobold Raiders: Reloaded!" next year.
Ben meanwhile has played in Steve's game, but the Cookie Fu tournament has been pushed back due to lack of sign-ups; he winds up in a game with the Treebore clan that Casey Christoferson (sp) is running. That wraps and we connect back up with the girls for dinner. My wife is spending our 17th anniversary at a gaming convention, so prudence dictates letting her select where we eat even if it means likely not making it back in time for Davis' game that I'm scheduled to play in at 6. We get directions from Steve's wife via Steve on how to get to Damgoode Pies, a local pizza establishment. The pizza lives up to it's name, and I manage to score some brownie points by reminding my wife that we'd eaten pizza for dinner on our wedding night as well.
We do get back too late for me to join Davis' game but Ben helps Brian playtest the next Cookie Fu expansion while I get to snag a couple copies of Gods & Monsters (one for me, one for the players!) and Jim graciously signs them. We pick up some more Cookie Fu sets (one for me, one for a friend of Ben's whose birthday is this week) and settle in to observe Matt Hoover running a game of Swords & Wizardry.
Then it's Raffle Time! A local store, Imagine (Hobbies? Games?) donated something like $500 of merchandise, and the Trolls have a pile of their material as well. Everyone got a ticket at sign-in. I was hoping one of the three of us would win the Arkham Horror set for my daughter, who is a big HP Lovecraft fan, but she does win a set of Towers of Adventure and Ben gets two CCGs (Spoils and Huevos, the latter of which may be packed away for a bit). We hang for a bit longer observing the S&W game but Ben's tired & I have a headache, so we call it an evening and retire for some Mythbusters & work on the Sunday C&C game.
Sunday: Ben & Michelle head down to breakfast while I finish tweaking things for my Sunday C&C game, which has Zane & Neal Chenault signed up. Richard McBain joins us and Ben shifts from "assistant CK" to play a druid so the group will have a healer. Since time is a bit short and we have a hard 1 PM departure for the airport, I streamline things and drop a few of the encounters. While I'm not exactly happy with my NPC tactics in the final confrontation - should have put one particular NPC in a different location, which would have made things vastly more interesting - it still seems to go well and everyone has fun. We finish up just before 1, say our farewells (during which Brian Kowalski awards Ben the prize for the tournament-that-wasn't - sometimes it pays just to sign up!) and we scoot downstairs to where the girls have lunch waiting for is in the car. Other than the minor bit of anxiety from the train blocking the only path we knew of to the airport for a while, smooth sailing and back home around 6 PM.
This was a great little convention. All sorts of friendly folks - Jason, Steve, Richard & the rest of the Trolls, the Treebore Clan, Tyler, Matt & Matt, etc. - and everyone seemed to be having fun.
Should also mention the nice gent from Castle Perilous in Carbondale, Illinois I believe, who set up an in-con game store (and I hope he made enough to break even on this travel!).
New products picked up from TLG: the 4th printing PHB (softcover, complete with color plates!) and Gods & Monsters (also softcover with color plates!). Got a chance to flip through the mock-up CKG and I can testify that it is, indeed, real and seems to be nearing completion! (As I remarked elsewhere, those convinced this is a sign of coming apocalypse should check the stocks in their bunkers now.)
The only negatives: space and to some extent noise (from so many folks packed into a relatively small room). Richard mentioned this AM that he & Steve had already talked about needing bigger space for next year, and while the Hampton Inn was otherwise a great hotel, I suspect they don't have a room big enough, and moving the dealer stuff down to the first-floor meeting room would destroy the synergy (poor abused word, but it fits here) of having things co-located. But I'm sure the TLG crew will work it all out.
Definitely planning to return for Troll Con VIII!
- John
_________________
"I don't wanna be remembered as the guy who died because he underestimated the threat posed by a monkey."
Thursday: Arrived at the hotel, checked in and got the gaming gear unpacked. We'd had a long flight to Little Rock from Baltimore via Chicago and everyone was hungry. We took the excellent advice of the man at the front desk and got burgers and shakes from the Purple Cow. (Too bad the closest one to us is in Virginia Beach!) Back to the hotel to hang out, relax and work on the two C&C games I'm scheduled to run.
Friday: Plus for the Hampton Inn - complimentary breakfast. Double-plus - it's sausage gravy & biscuits! Fuel up, head back up to the second floor and spot someone who turns out to be Richard McBain. Ben & I have a nice chat with him and... I forget who that was helping with the name badges. We helped carry a few pieces of fantasy terrain pieces up from the parking lot; they insist they don't need any further help, so we head back to the room while the girls duck out for some site-seeing.
1 PM rolls around and the game room opens, along with the registration room in the suite next door. We pick up our badges and a 4th-printing PHB and mingle with the other folks. After chatting with Steve, Richard & some other folks, we wind up playing several games of Munchkin (original and Cthulu version) with Matt Holiday (sp?) and Rhiannon, Treebore's daughter. By the time the third game of that wraps up it's dinner time, so Matt joins my crew at a nearby Jason's Deli for dinner. We get back in time for Matt to join his 8 PM game (one of Davis' I believe); Ben & I wind up playing a pick-up game with Robert (Treebore) and his kids. Somewhere along the line Ben also plays a few games of Cookie Fu with Brian Kowalski and discovers a new obsession. We snag a basic set and a booster and Ben drops from my Saturday game in favor of the Wizard's Tower C&C game Steve runs on Saturday, and the planned Cookie Fu tournament to follow. Our pick-up game continues right up until 11:45; exeunt, with Trolls.
Saturday: I haven't been able to get a Waffle House breakfast since about 1987, and knowing my kids' appreciation for both waffles & hash browns we skip the free breakfast in favor of Scattered & Smothered goodness. Back to the hotel, and the girls take off for another round of site-seeing while Ben & I hook up with Robert & his kids for a bit more of our pickup game. We break in time for me to find a table and set up my Kobold Raiders C&C game which kicks off at noon. Alexa joins me to play and makes it about 2/3rs through before having to head back to the room - a combination of tiredness and sensory overload from what's become a very crowded room, complete with Storm Troopers, fantasy combat re-enactors, a Marvel Comics artist, a Warhammer 40K game, Jim Ward running Tainted Lands, some Savage Worlds/Slipstream and I don't know what else!
The Kobold Raiders survive (despite some scary moments early when I almost TPK them with a trio of Lizardmen!) and manage to actually accomplish their mission. Feedback was overall positive, so I believe I'll a) write this up for Crusader and b) start planning for "Kobold Raiders: Reloaded!" next year.
Ben meanwhile has played in Steve's game, but the Cookie Fu tournament has been pushed back due to lack of sign-ups; he winds up in a game with the Treebore clan that Casey Christoferson (sp) is running. That wraps and we connect back up with the girls for dinner. My wife is spending our 17th anniversary at a gaming convention, so prudence dictates letting her select where we eat even if it means likely not making it back in time for Davis' game that I'm scheduled to play in at 6. We get directions from Steve's wife via Steve on how to get to Damgoode Pies, a local pizza establishment. The pizza lives up to it's name, and I manage to score some brownie points by reminding my wife that we'd eaten pizza for dinner on our wedding night as well.
We do get back too late for me to join Davis' game but Ben helps Brian playtest the next Cookie Fu expansion while I get to snag a couple copies of Gods & Monsters (one for me, one for the players!) and Jim graciously signs them. We pick up some more Cookie Fu sets (one for me, one for a friend of Ben's whose birthday is this week) and settle in to observe Matt Hoover running a game of Swords & Wizardry.
Then it's Raffle Time! A local store, Imagine (Hobbies? Games?) donated something like $500 of merchandise, and the Trolls have a pile of their material as well. Everyone got a ticket at sign-in. I was hoping one of the three of us would win the Arkham Horror set for my daughter, who is a big HP Lovecraft fan, but she does win a set of Towers of Adventure and Ben gets two CCGs (Spoils and Huevos, the latter of which may be packed away for a bit). We hang for a bit longer observing the S&W game but Ben's tired & I have a headache, so we call it an evening and retire for some Mythbusters & work on the Sunday C&C game.
Sunday: Ben & Michelle head down to breakfast while I finish tweaking things for my Sunday C&C game, which has Zane & Neal Chenault signed up. Richard McBain joins us and Ben shifts from "assistant CK" to play a druid so the group will have a healer. Since time is a bit short and we have a hard 1 PM departure for the airport, I streamline things and drop a few of the encounters. While I'm not exactly happy with my NPC tactics in the final confrontation - should have put one particular NPC in a different location, which would have made things vastly more interesting - it still seems to go well and everyone has fun. We finish up just before 1, say our farewells (during which Brian Kowalski awards Ben the prize for the tournament-that-wasn't - sometimes it pays just to sign up!) and we scoot downstairs to where the girls have lunch waiting for is in the car. Other than the minor bit of anxiety from the train blocking the only path we knew of to the airport for a while, smooth sailing and back home around 6 PM.
This was a great little convention. All sorts of friendly folks - Jason, Steve, Richard & the rest of the Trolls, the Treebore Clan, Tyler, Matt & Matt, etc. - and everyone seemed to be having fun.
Should also mention the nice gent from Castle Perilous in Carbondale, Illinois I believe, who set up an in-con game store (and I hope he made enough to break even on this travel!).
New products picked up from TLG: the 4th printing PHB (softcover, complete with color plates!) and Gods & Monsters (also softcover with color plates!). Got a chance to flip through the mock-up CKG and I can testify that it is, indeed, real and seems to be nearing completion! (As I remarked elsewhere, those convinced this is a sign of coming apocalypse should check the stocks in their bunkers now.)
The only negatives: space and to some extent noise (from so many folks packed into a relatively small room). Richard mentioned this AM that he & Steve had already talked about needing bigger space for next year, and while the Hampton Inn was otherwise a great hotel, I suspect they don't have a room big enough, and moving the dealer stuff down to the first-floor meeting room would destroy the synergy (poor abused word, but it fits here) of having things co-located. But I'm sure the TLG crew will work it all out.
Definitely planning to return for Troll Con VIII!
- John
_________________
"I don't wanna be remembered as the guy who died because he underestimated the threat posed by a monkey."