Gary Con XVIII

My friends and I attended Gary Con once again, this year, held from March 19-22 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Artwork by Jeff Easley

This time around, we drove up a few days early, in order to settle in and playtest a couple of the games that I was planning to run.

Lankhmar: City of Adventure

Lankhmar: City of Adventure (1993)

Our first game of the con was actually on Wednesday, March 18 - a game run by the legendary Harold Johnson, organized by a friend.

Harold was the project coordinator for the AD&D 2e revision of "Lankhmar: City of Adventure" (originally published for 1e, in 1985) and is a fan of Leiber's stories.

It was my third time in three years playing in a game run by Harold, and it was great fun, as usual, with lots of memorable situations.

RuneQuest: Cattle Raid

RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha (2018)

I've always been intrigued by RuneQuest, and so was looking forward to playing a game.

The scenario was "Cattle Raid" from the "RuneQuest: Roleplaying in Glorantha" GM's adventure book, included with the GM's screen.

The mechanics were, not surprisingly, similar to Call of Cthulhu, since both use the Basic Role-Playing (BRP) system.

It was a fun game, and I'm looking forward to revisiting Glorantha.

Night's Dark Terror: Siege at Sukiskyn

Illustration by Helen Bedford

This year, I ran two scenarios drawn from B10 "Night's Dark Terror" (1986).  The first was the Siege of Sukiskyn, a fortified homestead in a goblin-haunted forest.

I pre-printed the foldout map of Sukiskyn and various counters on hardstock, and they worked great in practice.  The PCs were ultimately successful in defending the homestead.

For the pregens, I used the thief from M1 "Blizzard Pass" (1983) as well as the pre-generated characters from B6 "The Veiled Society" (1984).

Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu (7th ed.)

Friday was my "Call of Cthulhu" day of the con, with four consecutive Call of Cthulhu scenarios.

I played in "High Water", "Shaolin Ghost Story", and "Facemaker" (each run by the "You Too Can Cthulhu" gang) and finished with "The Shadow Beneath the Ice" over at Timber Ridge.

All scenarios were run using the 7th ed. rules, published in 2016, and each was memorable in its own way (my character survived 2/4 times).

Immortality: Exploring the Unknown

Illustration by Larry Elmore

On Saturday morning, I hosted what was surely the highest level game of the con - a part workshop/part one-shot Immortals session.

We spent much of the time reviewing the paths to Immortality, in the context of BECMI cosmology, as players transformed a favorite character of the past into a rookie Immortal.

Towards the end, we rolled for a random event on the astral plane, and ran through a short encounter with a draeden.

Oerthbound: Beyond The Void (Part 1)

My friends and I signed up for an interesting AD&D 2e scenario, involving a group of marines stranded on an alien planet.

Our host skillfully wove us into a prequel to "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks".

Our marines fought creatures like bulettes and umber hulks, and we're looking forward to participating in "Part 2" at next year's Gary Con.

Night's Dark Terror: The Lost Valley

Illustration by Geoff Wingate

My second scenario from B10 "Night's Dark Terror" involved an expedition to the Lost Valley of Hutaaka, the domain of Kartoeba "the Thing in the Pit".

While the game was initially full with 8 players and 9 on the waiting list, 5 players canceled.  I was grateful to the 3 who showed up, including Zach Howard (of Zenopus Archives) and his son.

Fortunately, we were soon joined by 3 walk-ups, who joined the scenario with role-playing gusto, resulting in a truly memorable adventure for all concerned!

For pregens, I used the prerolled characters from B5 "Horror on the Hill", with magic items drawn from that adventure.

Knights of Camelot

Knights of Camelot (1980)

On Sunday morning, I helped the inimitable Doug Waltman run one of his famed "Knights of Camelot" sessions.

My friend Vince stepped in when someone who had previously signed up decided to cancel, and Vince ended up winning the game.

"Knights of Camelot" remains one of my favorite games, and I only wish that I could track down one of those hard-to-find sets.