I felt that after a two-part tale of my GaryCon VI
adventure, I may have been lacking in informing some of you gamers (and even
you non-gamers) of the great goods and incredibly talented folk that bulk up
the convention itself. If I leave anyone off this list, it’s unintentional.
I’ll try again next time.
I’m going to start with Creative Mountain Games two adventures,
FIGHTING FIRE and COLD, COLD HEART. Mark of CMG created FIGHTING FIRE to
benefit Ernie Gygax, Jr. after his devastating home fire that occurred just
before GaryCon V in 2013. Received with great applause, it is now available on
RPGNOW for purchase, with funds going to Ernie. COLD, COLD HEART was run this
year and Mark says he’ll make it available soon, to do much the same as
FIGHTING FIRE. Apparently, they can be run together, or separately, to the DM’s
choice. (Go on, you know you want to… http://www.rpgnow.com/product/127392/Fighting-Fire--Ernie-Gygax-Benefit-Adventure)
I can’t say enough about Mark and his quick, fun game designs. In fact, if you
head on over to his page, you may get to see his work on resurrecting an old
boardgame classic, Steal Dabrony’s Coffee. It’ll return to glory for GaryCon
VII, I’m certain. http://www.creativemountaingames.com/
for fun and games!
Speaking of Ernie Gygax, he’s got a new book out called
SAMMI-ZOWA VERSUS THE DUELING DRAGONS. It’s published by GP Adventures, an imprint
I’m sure many of you will be hearing about in the coming months, if not
already. For now, head over to https://www.facebook.com/gp.adventures to check it out, as
the regular website http://www.gp-adventures.com/
is not fully active yet. If you’ve got kids, here’s a way to introduce them to
that wild Gygax imagination.
The vendor room had so much to offer the gamers this year.
The companies that impressed me the most (if you’re not on the list, don’t be
angry – I just didn’t get to your table!) were, in no particular order: Troll
Lord Games, Black Blade Publishing, North Wind Adventures, Goodman Games and
Lesser Gnome Games.
n
Troll Lord (https://www.trolllord.com/)
is a great operation, with the improbably charismatic Steve Chenault at the
fore. Steve has done some wonderfully over-the-top things for GaryCon for some
time and I can’t imagine my gaming materials being without some of the fine
books they’ve produced. Keep an eye out, as they have some new Kickstarters
coming up soon, which should be investigated fully. You won’t be sorry.
n
When considering Kickstarter, you have to head
over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1409961192/metamorphosis-alpha-deluxe-hardcover-collectors-ed
for Goodman Games excellent project to put the original Metamorphosis Alpha
game into a collector’s print edition. It ends in 9 days and honestly, it’s a
pretty interesting idea from the folks at Goodman Games, who really get the Old
School Renaissance. Bully on them.
n
The OSR cannot be mentioned without Black Blade
(http://www.black-blade-publishing.com/)
and their OSRIC books. Not only are they good, comprehensive and worthy to
play, Jon Hershberger and Allen Grohe are excellent people and gamers of note.
Plus, Jon sold me some of the best hex paper I’ve seen in a long time. My
future games needed it, but the players in my games may regret it… mwahahahaha!
n
You like OSR? You hear Basil Poledouris’ CONAN
soundtrack in your head as you weave your way through traffic? You prefer your
games called Sword and Sorcery instead of High Fantasy? Then you should be
aware of Jeff Talanian’s North Wind Adventures ASTONISHING SWORDSMEN AND
SORCERERS OF HYPERBOREA! If you aren’t, you should be ashamed and go back to
playing diceless systems. See http://www.swordsmen-and-sorcerers.com/
for more information than I’m giving you.
n
Lastly, there is Lesser Gnome, the little
company that could… and does. It’s new, it’s as OSR as you are likely going to
get and I can’t talk up the box set enough. And, if you’re completely bored
with OSR and just want to roll 20-siders all day long, they’ve got a
Pathfinder-friendly version headed out soon, if not already. Do yourself a
favor, go to the site https://lessergnome.com/
and see for yourself. Why do you need me to tell you any more than that?
Yes, there were more people jammed in that tiny vendor space
than should have been. Or, more likely, it was a perfect collection of folks. I’m
aiming for the latter. Isn’t it good, then, that organizations like the Dead
Games Society (http://dgsociety.com/) don’t
need a table. Are you one of the few that got a special pin? Are you one of the
lucky that got to play in their wonderfully wacky games? Did any of them grope
you inappropriately? O wait… that was asked for, never mind that. I push their
presence because they bring out some of the best things in table top
role-playing… creativity. Want to learn more about them? They’ve got a podcast:
http://dgsociety.net/ ! Tell them Kristy
McNichol sent you…
My final note will be on a forthcoming convention that isn’t GaryCon. Last year, some really
weird guys put together a convention called GAMEHOLE. When I was handed a nice,
shiny, thick paper stock promo card at GaryCon V, I had to chuckle at the name.
It’s almost rude. I liked it immediately. They also had an incredible list of
guests lined up – I just wish I could’ve gone. They are prepping now for
Gamehole II, in November. I highly recommend going to their site (https://www.gameholecon.com/) and
seeing what they’ve planned for this year. And then, attend in my stead, as its
99.99% unlikely I’ll be getting to Wisconsin again this year. Sigh. Sorry, Alex…
I do owe you a game, though.
That’s it. I’m done with mentioning GC VI for a few months.
It’s time to start on GC VII and other projects. Check in tomorrow, I’ll have
something special.
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