Next Year's Con on the Cob and Ground Hog Day Gaming Retreat

     Just finished Con on the Cob 2015 and I am already planning for 2016, what is wrong with me? I am hoping to get together some amazing rpg zine goodness, that's what. Already casting my net to try and wrangle zine creators, contributors and artists. So if you have anyone in mind, who would be willing to make the trek to North East Ohio in November 2016, let me know. I will bring along some of my art, including pieces from Crawling Under a Broken Moon, but I don't want to be the only zinester there. I know Tim Shorts (creator of the Manor) resides here, and there are some folks in nearby states. Give me your suggestions and I will see what I can do.

     I also am committed to running a game of Doctor Who at Ground Hog Day Gaming Retreat early next year. Just playing and running games, should be a blast. All for now, later.

Die Drop or Drop Die Tables

     In recent months I have been seeing these more often, especially on G+. Some are plain, with sections blocked out and simply one word or a short phrase to let you know what happens. Then there are the elaborately illustrated and everything just looks beautiful, maybe there are no words, just an image to incite the mind. It was not until this past week that Tim Shorts posted one he had put together that I started wanting to do my own. Firmly fixed in my current DCC zine mania, I started with a table for Street Kids of Ur-Hadad and will get one together for Crawling Under a Broken Moon. I have a cigar box I like to stick whatever zines I am using for the game into, as well as rolling dice inside of it. Well that would be perfect to stick a paper with the appropriate table in the bottom of. Thanks for the idea, Jaques van der Merwe, I saw it in response to Tim's post.

     The purpose of my table will be to add a little something different when I next run folks through the neighborhoods of Ur-Hadad. I began with a list of things that I feel would be interesting for the PC's to encounter while winding along the streets, sewers and side alleys.

I ended up with eight different things
1.Locals
2.Gang Member
3.Guard/Official
4.Gliding Monk/Immaculate Priest (weird/sci-fantasy element)
5.Food
6.Debris (on a min or max die roll, it is something actually useful)
7.Screech Weasel Attack
8.Time/Space Event

Used a piece of scrap paper to block out where everything will go. This isn't necessary, you could just draw squares (or any shape, really) and write what you want each one to be.

My next step was to get my sketch pad out and get started, making it look like a street scene and I will add little things to the background to liven it up. When I finish it up, I'll post it here so you can get a good look at it.

Con on the Cob 2014!!

    

Tim, Ken, and Dave

     Things have been busy around here with conventions, artwork and real life taking my time. Last weekend was Con the Cob 2014, and man was it fun. I ran two scheduled games plus a pick up game, and played in two games. I arrived Thursday just in time to run my first game, Dwimmermount using Labyrinth Lord. Three people showed up including Tim shorts (Gothridge Manor), Ken H. (Rusty Battleaxe), and Dave (Forgotten Runes). The session went well, the group made two forays into the dungeon, their characters needed a break midway through the session. Just before the end, one of them got a bit greedy and died from a trap. Later that evening I got to play in Tim Snider's (Savage Afterworld) Death in the Dust Cryptworld game. The Pacesetter system is amazing, plus Tim runs a fantastic game. Our Pc's were investigating an old mining town being turned into a theme park(?) where terrible vandalism has taken place. A couple friends of mine joined me, as well as Tim Shorts and Ken H. Everyone had a great time, if you have a chance to play in a game run by Mr. Snider then I highly recommend it.

     Now, before I get into Friday, I should talk about two important aspects of the dealer's room. Tim Snider was manning the Goblinoid Games/Pacesetter booth and Roy Snider was in charge of the Goodman Games booth. From Tim I acquired Rotworld and Time Master, and from Roy I worked on completing my DCC fanzine collection, I'll write more about what I got later.

     First thing Friday, I played in Tim's Thundarr the Barbarian game. I got to play the mokk in training,Oosoo the mokk. My die rolls fit in with the neophyte angle, since I couldn't make any decent rolls. Oddly I was the only person to damage Thundarr. Thankfully my luck turned around and I dealt the final blow to the villain. Next I ran Mutant Future for four, this was one of the scheduled games but apparently I talked it enough that they were all my friends. We had a great time as they explored the last tower of Ol' Bus, scavenging for supplies and artifacts.

My friends Jason, Chuck

Mysti and Derrick

     I was really looking forward to Saturday, since that was when I would unveil my Patrick Troughton second Doctor costume.

Wow, look at those pants! The next thing I was looking forward to was three of my friends (Jason, Chuck and Derrick) wanted to play Dwimmermount. I had my notes from the previous game, since my plan was to run subsequent games as if they had occurred in real time (ie. doors that were battered down would be that way, dead monsters would be laying wherever they fell) Ironically the entered a different way and therefore it never came into play. It was lots of fun and ended on a tpk.

     Con on the Cob, once again, was awesome. This year even more so, and I will be back next year, definitely running games again. Hopefully showing some artwork as well.