MisCon 25: con report
Pre-MisCon 25 - Thursday May 26 - Traveled with Robert & Connie Thomson to Missoula (Connie was recovering from a cold). The day was gloomy and it was snowing on Rogers Pass. Stopped and ate at 5 Guys Burgers & Fries upon arriving in Missoula. Checked into Ruby's Inn. I had a giant room with a king sized bed, hmmm, a mistake may have been made, I'm not a GoH, but I went with it.
Changed into my Sandbaggers' Game Club - MisCon 25 - Silver Anniversary tee-shirt and promptly ran into Carol Berg (the actual GoH) and C'Bob at the barbeque pit. C'Bob was cooking frozen burger patties over an ample flame. We talked about writing and stuff. I had brought another Sandbaggers' tee along to give to a friend, but found out that Carol Berg wore the same size. My pal would have to wait until the full shipment arrived Friday. I gave the tee to Carol, I think she liked it.
Made my way around Ruby's Inn and chatted with con com members, helped with things if I could. Spoke with facebook friend Amy Farrington face-to-face for the first time. Went to dinner at the Stone of Accord Irish Pub with 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming's writer Sean O'Conner and other Sandbaggers Game Club (SGC) members. The food and adult beverages were great. Then I went barhopping in downtown Missoula with Steve Scoggins, recently returned from Afghanistan, we had fun... maybe a wee bit too much, but made it back to Ruby's okay. Ran into Lee Shinabery and the Arkansas Southern Sandbaggers in the lobby and then went to bed.
Friday May 27 - Opening day of MisCon 25 - Had the typically fine Ruby's Inn breakfast and then helped set up the 4 Winds Fantasy Gaming merchant's table. Connie brought me my Con badge and we waited for the Con to open. Finally got to meet Justin Farrington face-to-face, was disappointed that we wouldn't be able to play in any scheduled games, but I did attend a few gaming panels that Justin was on.
Friday evening I ran an unscheduled game of Exploding Aces for Sean O'Conner, Lee Shinabery, Matthew and Tony Ridlon. They said, they had fun, and I learned not to give too much info before starting game play. Went by the SGC room and played Apples to Apples and off to bed.
Saturday May 28 - day two - At 11am ran another Exploding Aces game with Jay Peters, Steve Scoggins, Kyle Hood, and Nick Beckstrom. It went much smoother. I edited my rules comments and jumped into game play. Had a great time and then played in a Jay Peters' API game with Connie Thomson and Ryan Goble. It was a typical Jay Peters' event he rolled awful and the players die rolls were spectacular - I saw my first triple natural 20, an 8,000 to one occurrence - Awesome! We thwarted Jay's evil schemes and saved the world.
I missed the character building auction for Keith Seyffarth's Amber LARP, so I caught a gaming panel with John Goff, Justin Farrington, and Robert Thomson on problem players. Got into a couple games of Dominion - I later picked up a copy, it's so much fun. Stopped by Justin Farrington's Pathfinder game and watched, it was hilarious, the players seemed a bit gun-shy and were planning like it was a major Shadowrun style heist. Chilled at the SGC bash and got to bed around 3am.
Sunday May 29 - day three - Up early (7am) for breakfast, chatted with friends old and new. Prepared for the last Exploding Aces game session at 11am with: Chad Davis (SpoCon game chair), Ryan Goble (probability guru), Forrest and Tristan Leder (role-players extraordinaire). Third time's a charm, my GMing was much improved and the players immersed themselves in their roles (Forrest's French accent and Tristan's stutter nearly had me rolling on the floor). John Goff, Jay Peters and Amy Farrington stopped in to watch. I gave John a SGC tee since he had to leave the con early. Found out later that he's the writer of my favorite Deadlands RPG setting - pretty cool. It was a great session, even though no player character sustained a hurt. My favorite scene was when Forrest asked if he could grab his ax and attack, “only if you do something amazing,” I replied. He did.
I then played in a Jay Peters hosted Savage Worlds game. Again, it was typical Jay Peters fare, fine storytelling, but the antagonists dice and card draws went overwhelmingly in the players favor (probability takes a holiday when Jay hosts a game - he gives out the best swag and makes the worst die rolls). Richard Peppers made the best impromptu super-hero ever, Shadow Monkey. All I could come up with was a hobo, Hobo Joe. Lindsay, Jeffrey, and (Clark or Mark, maybe neither, sorry I lost my game notes) were terrific as well. I almost killed Stitch, Jeffrey's character, with a point-blank shotgun blast. Hey, I was trying to put down the villain (Stitch survived). Hudson City was saved anyway, for now.
Went to Stone of Accord for supper with Lee and friends (I love that place). Went to another SGC party and played Zombie Dice with JP, Lee, Amy and Justin Farrington. Amy had some terrific rolls with her Farrington flop dice rolling method. Played games and wandered from party to party until well in the am, then off to bed.
Monday May 30, final day of MisCon 25 - Up at 8am for breakfast and early morning visiting. Helped break down and pack the SGC room and then went to a panel on Blogging by Connie Thomson and Maggie Bonham, and then stayed for the Long Running RPG panel with Justin Farrington, C'Bob Lovely, and John Bromley, finally went to my only writing panel of the Con with Jim Glass, Maggie Bonham, C'Bob, and Justin Farrington (he must have been on every panel).
Closing ceremonies were once again a spiritual high, perfect for the sweet sad ending of another successful MisCon. Many of the Sandbaggers stayed for the after Con dinner at, you guessed it, Stone of Accord. My good friend Jay Peters gave me his copy of “A Song of Ice and Fire RPG” - Jay is one of the most generous people I know. I swear he would give you a kidney if you needed it. He's the best.
After dinner we had a Dead Dog party in the SGC suite. I got to spend time with William Mattross and Britain Tillar, Josh Stribling, Greg Eitzen, Robert, Connie, Stewart Fleming, Amy, Justin, Sean, Lee, Tony, and Matthew. We all played Apples to Apples until I finally couldn't keep my eyes open. I went down to the lobby to get a fork to eat my left over pasta with and ran into Justin Barba and Carol Berg. I sat down and talked writing and stuff with them until midnight. Wow.
Tuesday May 31 - the ride home - Got up at 8am to eat and see Lee and the boys off to the airport. Packed and headed back to Great Falls with Robert and Connie. We stopped in Helena and ate lunch at the Staggering Ox, yum, and Phil Hatfield stopped by to visit. Got home and my kitty, Manny, was so happy to see me (I was happy to see him too). Vegged out and watched Game of Thrones...
MisCon 25 was the best yet, it is truly a spiritual revival for artists, writers and gamers. I can't wait to see all my friends, old and new, at MisCon 26. And I hope to see them, before then, at the Sandbaggers Game Faire (Oct. 7-8), or at some other event (or non-event).