Fire & Ice
So this past weekend was Fire & Ice Con in Manitowac, WI. This was purely a gaming convention, and while there was a costume contest (which Anime girl took 3rd place in) this was by no means a multi-genre convention as most other conventions tend to be. As time grew closer, I naturally grew more apprehensive. Not only was I set to run 5 different games, but I was also going to be seeing an old high school friend.
It's not that high school was the pinnacle of either our lives so that reliving such times was a highlight, but it was still a set of good times that we had. Anyway.. those stories can come later.. in person.. after several drinks.
Anime girl and I left around 10 30 am for the 2 hr drive out to the coast, it was mostly an uneventful drive with only one minor detour that took us through the downtown area. We were both quite impressed with the city, especially the city hall which was one of those highly ornate structures from the turn of the previous century. However, a quick check of a gps unit and we were soon back on the right track and we arrived at the convention. At this point I was getting excited, not only was the convention looming but I was going to bump into one of my oldest friends.
I checked into convention and received some schwag for running stuff..
That's it Zombie Nix..
strike a pose!
Zombie Nix was excited.. it had been far too long since he had a chance to be out and about
Here we see Bryant and I..
Bryant was the 'jock' of our group cause he played football. He is now the proud papa or two very sweet girls and is expecting his first son in just a few weeks. He does some weird stuff with computers and programs and stuff.. but.. most importantly.. he now owns and runs a game store. Anime girl was nice enough to snap the photo, but had to turn the camera at an angle to fit the both of us in. I am modeling my Monte Cook t-shirt that I received at OddCon last year.. from Monte Cook himself.
I had spoken to Bryant of OddCon and my desire to run Brave New World, but how I lacked the core book and how I planned to pick it up on ebay. He remembered that he still had a couple in storage from when he took over the store, so I bought them from him. He had recalled enjoying reading them and was disappointed to see that they were now out-of-print. I lamented that fact with him, and pointed out that Matt Forbeck is to attend OddCon.. but.. since he will have a new born he is doubtful he will be able to attend. After all.. it's not all that wise to tell your wife that just recently gave birth, "Hey, baby, I"m off to sit around.. have fun.. and sleep late.. take care of the all the kids.. luvs ya bunches!"
At the convention there were daily drawings in a raffle..
on the first day I won some d20 supplements for a world called Diomin. It looked fairly interesting as I flipped through it.
The main win though, of that day, was the core book to the newest edition of Paranoia!
This means I now have every edition!!
I recently bought a boxed set of 1st ed. Paranoia off ebay (yes.. at an uber deal)
which means I have 1st, 2nd, 5th, and XP (ok, technically there are a couple of core books for XP..)
Still, it's was a freaking awesome snag!
The first game I was to run was Star Wars. The old West End Games version that used only d6's. I was to run at 2pm on Friday, and with the convention having only started an hour prior I was nervous that I would not really have any players. I did have Anime girl, and then a mom and her son sat in. 'It's alright.. I can work with that.. I freakin' rock as a GM.. I can do it!', I thought to myself. Anime girl chose a half-vamp character that I wrote up for her so that she would have some way to connect to the game. The son, whom I am guessing was 8.. maybe 9 years old, chose the 'Brash Pilot' while his mother, who also hadn't ever rp'ed before, chose the Chandra-Fan character.
I was just starting out, explaining the very light rule system when three others came over.. at first they timidly made sure that I was indeed running the classic version, and were all pleased when I confirmed that I was. They joined the party and I now had six players!
At a time slot when people were still arriving!.
I did snag a pic of the session, but it's on my phone and I can't send it to anything from where I live. Even though the young kid was sort of a distraction, we were all able to work his distractions into the game and it was an awesome session.
After that I had an hour break and set up to run 7th Sea. I had three players, and while it was fun.. two of the players had trouble getting into the swashbuckling cinematic genre. Over-all, it was a good game. Mission was accomplished, laughs were had, and good times were had.
That night Bryant and I sat up for a while laughing at our childhood hijinks and Anime girl was astonished at our exploits..
The next morning I was set to run Little Fears..
we see Zombie Nix posing with the book and some of the character sheets.. and some of the toys I spread about.
Sadly, no players..
The other GM's that were set to run had similar problems. A guy was running GURPS 4th ed, had two players.. then two kids sat in to play, and another GM was running Deadlands: Wasted West. The GM had played in my 7th Sea game, and it was a pretty good session. The other players were a husband and wife duo..
which gave me hopes of finding my own geek girl to geek out with
so I sat in on his game..
it was a good game
I told the GM of Matt Forbeck possibly being at OddCon..
Yes.. I did try n pimp out OddCon as much as possible.. but I also tried my damnedest to let others know of what some of the game designer and authors I know are up to
That night was the auction.. and another raffle. That night I won the hard cover of Sovereign Stone and a game called Karma: the RPG..
in the auction I bought Red Shift (1$)
a couple of boardgames..
That night was Vampire: Dark Ages..
again had a full table with 6 players. I didn't manage to snag a picture of this.. cause prior to the game a couple of little girls spotted Zombie Nix and rushed over to start playing with him. Ripping off limbs.. clothes.. brain matter.. etc.. but once they were done they put him back together and wandered off again. The game went great. Everyone seemed to have a good time even though the adventure was basically a failure..
Here we see Zombie Nix showing off one of the other auction wins..
Fuzzy Heroes (and the supplement Fuzzy Sooper Heroes)..
Zombie Nix and I couldn't go to a convention without picking up some dice... now could we??
Sunday was the final day..
Bryant, Anime girl, and I went to some breakfast before heading to the convention. It was good to have a full meal by that point..
Anime girl picked up the Ravenloft Boardgame, so Bryant demo'ed it for us..
At 2 I had a Traveller game to run.. had one player, but.. getting people to come in to play a game from 1977 is tricky..
but we got through the adventure and he said he enjoyed it, so that was good
I bid on a couple of other items on Sunday.. won another raffle.. and we got ready to go, said good-bye to Bryant and I'm sure it won't be nearly so long till we bump into one another again..
Other than spending time gaming.. and spending time catching up with a friend.. the BIG find..
the find that had me shaking and jittery..
was this..
yes..
I managed to find a mint condition Ysgarth set!
I was wandering through the auction and saw it with a Tunnels and Trolls booklet
it didn't look like anyone knew what a find it was that was sitting there.. so I hovered over it as much as I could. Adding it to my collection is a nice feather. It was a very cool win at only 4 bucks for the lot
Fire & Ice was a great convention..
a large stack of rp's has to be added to my list..
spread the word about OSR to some people..
had some good times gaming..
yet, I would still say the best part was spending time with Bryant.. maybe another year Ronnie and some of the others can make it