Mall Maul Yesterday...

     Got down to Cincinnati on time, started setting up. Felt a bit nervous, just performance anxiety, new venue, new crowd. There were at least one, maybe two of my friends who would be attending (they both made it) Otherwise it was people I may have spoken briefly to or complete strangers. Once we got rolling, there were seven people in attendance. 

As I have noted previously, I am not good at getting pictures taken. This was snapped as people were getting their stuff together to head out the door. All of the players were fantastic, and really got into the setting. Here is all who showed up; Andy Fix, Chris Schieffer, James Smith, Rick Hull, Jim Wampler, Beth and her son Luke.

     They made their way to the mall and 28 entered, eventually they came out with only a handful (five, maybe) of casualties and Jim Wampler's dwarf shepherd had a stylish sheep. It wore a pink scarf/bandanna and pink tutu. I'll have to work harder next time.

     Of course, I had to do a little exploring while I was down there. Apparently there is this amazing store (Jungle Jim's) with a fantastic international foods section (I will be taste testing the different bags of jelly babies I got there) and a monster beer section.

This was one of the beers I picked up last night, and I drank it while typing this up, yay. Here are a few pictures of some of the animatronics they had around the store. They were set to start up every five minutes or so.

Robin Hood here was above the British food section, cute. Catch you all later, and remember I am running a Doctor Who game next Friday at Ground Hog Day gaming retreat. Still need to get the pre gens together. Take care!

Mall Maul, This Saturday!! Gateway Games and More!!

     Here we are, counting down the last few days until the big game. Looking forward to running this down in Cincinnati, hopefully it will be a hit and I will do it more often. Got my kit almost set up, here is a peek at my set up, so to speak.

     I have forty 0 level pre gens, so if someone burns through their initial three or four they can find a new one. Now zero level funnels typically don't need all the fancy dice, maybe a d3, but like having all of them there. I printed off eight 0 level enthusiast sheets from Purple Sorcerer's website which also is where the pre gens came from. So everyone who rolls a crit/fumble can know whether to cheer or groan. I'll bring all of my Crawling Under a Broken Moon zines, the most important being #3 where the adventure is.

     I am very excited, so if you are able you should come on over to Gateway Games this Saturday the 23rd at noon and join us. I have plenty of characters to go around and there will be some Road Crew swag available from this past year. Take care and I hope to see you all there!

Origins 2016!

     So here we are, 2016 and nothing happening(for me) during Origins weekend. So I will be able to attend Origins in my capacity as blogger. Is there something going on that you would like to hear more about, anyone you would me to interview? Let me know and I will see what I can do. I may be talked into running a game or two there, as well.

     Which brings me to next weekend and Reid San Filippo's Mall Maul DCC funnel that I will be running at noon, Saturday the 23rd of January. The amazing Gateway Games & more is the place to be for this great experience, pregens will be available (courtesy of the Purple Sorcerer) so come on over to 960 Kennedys Lndg, Cincinnati, Ohio 45245. I'll be waiting for ya. Take care, and I can't wait to see you there!

PS. There will be some freebies available, just letting you guys know.

Happy (day after the) Fourth of July

     Past couple of days have been a roller coaster. Things are looking up, just need to keep it going that way. Doing some more art for Crawling Under a Broken Moon, wishing my scanner still worked and tempted to mail my art to Reid in the case to avoid the using inadequate scanners again. Work is going the way it has been, slowly into the ground, with the higher ups having no clue what is happening on the ground level. They tend to make ill informed and asinine decisions that just further that spiral. This really does not help with anyone's disposition, let alone mine. House related issues have improved, gas leak meant we had no hot water and could not cook on the stove for three weeks. Thankfully it was spring, so freezing was not an issue.

     Game wise, I managed to pull off two DCC Road Crew games so far this year with the hopes that future games will occur here and abroad. Already looking at heading to Cincinnati to run Mall Maul, though at the moment that is as far afield as I am willing to go. I am excited about spreading my love of DCC and expanding the local pool of players. Anyone interested, just let me know! Looking forward to good feelings and fun, and no negativity. So wish me luck, haha. I leave you with a picture of the wooded countryside...

The Game Store in the Middle of Nowhere

     Just got back from the North Carolina/Cherokee area, where I came across a small game store called the Wizard's Guild. It was relatively small (cozy) but it still had a nice selection of board and card games. The big names of role playing were represented, though I imagine the owner could order product for you. It was cool to see this place in the midst of all the camping, hunting, and tourist type stores. The customers and staff were pleasant and there are regular events held there. I picked up a cooperative card game called Hanabi, where you are fireworks pyro technicians getting a fireworks display together. I also picked up a the pocket version of OGRE. I will tell more about Hanabi in a later post.

     On the way home I stopped into Cincinnati's Gateway Games and more. It was fantastic, with a great variety of role playing games. The big thing for me was the selection of fanzines and independent, third party type stuff. I was able to complete my Crawljammer collection. Woot! I am thinking of running Mall Maul down there sometime. Time to get some rest, take care everyone!

[DCC Road Tour 2015] Game One: Mall Maul

     Oh man, what a blast. Had a rocky start, print my pre gens at a certain store, and ended up with seven copies of the same four zero level characters. Then, an hour into the game I started to get a really bad headache. Thankfully we allowed neither of these to ruin our fun. In an effort to endear myself to whomever showed up, I brought a dozen doughnuts. They did not hurt, just saying. I had four players this time including Tim Snider, Rob Lambert, Drew Bergstrom, and my wife Kelly.

So we laughed through having multiple bikers, scientists and livestock ranchers. I used the rules for rolling up post apocalyptic zero levels in Crawling Under a Broken Moon, issue three. We had a plethora of mules that were put to good use.
 
Here are the highlights, since I don't want to give away too much. For our first big battle, Drew used his phone to play Motorhead's "Ace of Spades"while announcing his biker's attack. I felt that merited a plus one to attack. A scientist named Albert decided to stick his head into a room and discovered a crossbow trap early on. The fact that, in order to fit the adventure into a for hour slot, I cut to goal off 200 tribute truck points in half meant that a lot of the mall was unexplored. Now I just need to set up the next game, which only requires a date and time.

This game was extra exciting for me because Rob saw my flyer at the store,which normally does not happen. That is all for now,take care! 

DCC Road Crew 2015 part 1

     I have my first road crew game of the year set up for May 9 th, I'll be running the fun and frenetic adventure"Mall Maul" Reid San Filippo.

Having experienced it as a player, I am excited to be running it. As is tradition, I made a flyer and posted it at the flgs where I will be running it. I needed to keep the momentum going, meaning scheduling the next game or two. I ran Crawljammer last year, and the game on May 9th is from Crawling Under a Broken Moon. I felt I should continue with even more zine love.So my second game will be Street Kids of Ur-Hadad, by Edgar Johnson. I am looking forward to running it and letting you folks hear all about it afterwards.

May 9th, the Mall Maul!

     Saturday, May 9th from 10am until 2pm at Ravenstone Games, I will be running Mall Maul. It is a zero level funnel, so I will have plenty of pre gens on hand. Here is the synopsis, "Due to an unfortunate series of events, you and twenty or so of your fellow villagers have volunteered to search a nearby shopping mall. The goal is to bring back enough loot to appease the raiders who are coming to collect the tribute. You have always been warned to stay away from there, but there are no other options. The raiders are coming and take what they want if they are not satisfied by what is offered."

This is a Crawling Under a Broken Moon adventure by the inimitable Reid San Filippo, so there will be plenty of post apocalyptic weirdness going on. Ravenstone is located at 1675 Karl Ct, Columbus Ohio 43229. So come on in and roll some bones, it'll be fun!