Cal-Con: A Tale of Two Conventions

Cal-Con, the local gaming convention, was this past weekend. After much deliberation, I finally settled on the old school game I was going to run. I chose to use Spire of Iron and Crystal using Original D&D (the first three books only).A couple of months ago, I was also asked if I could help out with DMing a couple of sessions of a 4E tournament.

I had sent numerous emails to the convention organizers following the request to help with the tournament in order to get more information. However, all of these emails went unanswered until the wednesday before when I received the tournament adventure. I spent the next two evenings reading and prepping the adventure.

I was excited. I had a great time at the convention last year and was really looking forward to going again this year.

Saturday - I was scheduled to run an OD&D session at 9:00am and then help out with the 4E tournament in the afternoon. After arriving early I stopped at the ticket desk I learned that 5 of the 6 tickets for my session had been taken. I then went to the gaming room to stake out a good table. Unfortunately, only one of the five showed up. After chatting with the fellow and trying to wrangle up other players, I talked to one of the RPGA guys and found spots for myself and the other fellow at some 4E Living Forgotten Realms tables. After the 4E game I tracked down the gaming coordinator and discovered that my efforts were not needed for the 4E tournament.

While I had fun playing in the LFR game, I was disappointed with the day.

Sunday - I was scheduled to run an OD&D session. Following my disappointment from the previous day, I had also prepared a character for a Pathfinder Society game that was scheduled during the same slot. After staking out a good table I again waited. This time I was approached by a group of seven people. Some of them had seen me DMing the OD&D session last year and decided that they wanted to play.

I had a great time and they all seemed to really enjoy it. Some well placed spells had them explore most of the first and second levels of the Spire. As time was winding down I had them find their way down to the bottom level and face the BBEG. The party won initiative and got a Fireball and Lightening spell off. Two failed saving throws and the BBEG was down to 1 hit point! However, the next round the BBEG got in his own Fireball spell and half of the party were charred bits. A few rounds later the remaining party members were victorious.

Day two left me much happier than day one.

Cal-Con and International Traditional Gaming Week

The local gaming convention, Cal-Con, is held during the final weekend (March 26th-28th) of International Traditional Gaming Week. Last year was the first time I had ever been to a con and I had a great time.

I have been pondering what I am going to run at the con this year and I decided that I am specifically going to run two separate things:

1. I am going to run two sessions of either A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity or S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth using Labyrinth Lord and the new Advanced Edition Companion. Which do you think I should run and why?
EDIT: I am also still considering running Stonehell with the base Labyrinth Lord rules.

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2. I am going to run two sessions of Keep on the Borderlands using 4E.





I am also a herald-level DM so I will likely get roped into running some RPGA stuff as well.

Cal-con is about two months away

Last year was my first time at a gaming convention. I both ran and played in some games.

Cal-con is at the end of March and I am starting to try to figure out what games I would like to run. Some initial possibilities include:

- OD&D Castle Zagyg or one of the old tournament modules (maybe A1) - I know that I should likely use AD&D but it has been so long since I have ran 1E AD&D that I don't think I would be comfortable doing it at a con.

- a B/X game - maybe a section of Curse of Xanathon or of Stonehell

- a Tunnels & Trolls game (any good ideas about scenarios?)

- a Thundarr inspired Mutant Future scenario

- the Burning Wheel scenario "The Gift" using RISUS

Any ideas or suggestions?

Cal-con: My first convention

This weekend was my first gaming convention. I really enjoyed myself. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is from the Tunnels & Trolls game I played on Friday afternoon. The GM is on the left and the other four players were a family. The young lad across the way was enjoying his first ever RPG. It was a lighthearted game and a lot of fun.

This picture is the group in my OD&D game on Saturday. We played through a slightly modified version of the Haunted Keep from Dragonsfoot. The guy on the right in the blue shirt was suppose to be DMing a 3.5 game that was cancelled so I waved him over and he decided to sit in. The gentleman next to him is K-Slacker and is in my Northern Marches campaign. It was the first OD&D experienced for all of the players. The session ended with four of the players dead and one charmed with about 15 minutes left if the allotted time. Everyone seemed to have fun.

I was scheduled to run another old school game this morning but Calgary awoke to

I went over to the hotel where convention was being held and you could tell that between it being the morning of the last day and the weather it was noticeably quieter. I spoke with the guy in charge of roleplaying games and he told me that attendance during the first morning session was down over 50%. He mentioned that my table was sold out but after waiting for a half-hour past the starting time no-one had showed up.

One thing I noticed, and I might have been extra sensitive to this since I was the only guy running old D&D, most of the talk I heard at tables running 3.5 or 4E was about which square to move to.

Cal-Con Update

I am running two sessions at Cal-Con during the last weekend of March. Both sessions I will be using my favorite rules - B/X!

Here is the write-up I gave:

Hop into the way-back machine, go back to 1981 and play the Dungeons & Dragons that was the introduction to role-playing for nearly an entire generation – a Dungeons & Dragons that is fast and furious, and fun is the ultimate goal.

Recently, a tribe of goblins has been raiding the countryside. On their last raid they captured a dozen prisoners. You have banded together to rescue them. The party has tracked the goblins to the Haunted Keep – right up to the only door to the east tower.

I am going to use a modified version of Dragonfoot's The Haunted Keep.

I think that I will do up some posters to put up in some of the local stores and also at the Con itself.

Any suggestions or tips?

EDIT: I also signed up to play in a Tunnels & Trolls game which I am greatly looking forward to.