Gary Con XVII

Gary Con XVII took place in Lake Geneva this past weekend.  A memorial service was held on Sunday, March 23 in honor of Ernie Gygax, who passed away on February 28.

Artwork by Chet Minton

My friends and I were looking forward to the return trip, although one of us got delayed by shifting work deadlines and couldn't make it.

Rendezvous with 'Oumuamua:

Artist’s impression of 'Oumuamua

Our first game was the first of a three-part Savage Worlds scenario involving a scientific expedition to the mysterious interstellar object 'Oumuamua.

We had a lot of fun, despite concluding with a TPK.

It was my first experience playing Savage Worlds, and I immediately saw the possibilities for adapting ERB's lost world settings.

Earthshaker!

A short video, music by Iron Maiden.

Next, I ran CM4 "Earthshaker!" (1985) by David "Zeb" Cook, using its "not entirely serious" pre-rolled characters.

As I suspected, it was possible to run this module in one sitting.  The players were able to foil the dastardly villains' plot, saving the dominion.

Things might have turned out differently, if not for a well-aimed arrow of biting - the villain failed his save vs. poison with a roll of "1".

You Too Can Cthulhu: Black Sun Rising

I always try to play in at least one "Call of Cthulhu" game at Gary Con.

This year's "Black Sun Rising" was marked by constantly rising tension, culminating in our second TPK of the day.

It was one of the best "Call of Cthulhu" games I've ever played (I believe it will be published in the near future).

The Spindle of Heaven:

Illustration by Clyde Caldwell

The next game I ran was the mini-adventure "The Spindle of Heaven" on Friday morning.

Meant for characters of levels 26 to 29, this was undoubtedly the highest level D&D scenario at the con (the 29th level magic-user got to throw a meteor swarm).

I used the pre-rolled characters from M2 "Vengeance of Alphaks" by Skip Williams.

The Black Eagle Banner:

This year, I re-ran two Battlesystem scenarios from years past, along with Douglas Behringer.

The first of these was "The Black Eagle Banner", featuring a revolt in the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, which I first ran in 2023 for Gary Con XV.

The session was a success, thanks to help from my friend Vince.

Dungeons of the Ghost Tower:

Keep Inverness.  Illustration by Erol Otus.

As in previous years, we joined forces with prior teammates to compete in the "Legends of Roleplaying Tourney".

The scenario was a return to Allen Hammack's module C2 "The Ghost Tower of Inverness", featuring plenty of puzzles and strange encounters.

Our DM was Harold Johnson, which made up for placing a dismal 13th (out of 16 teams).

The Cursed Farm:

I was eager to try Chaosium's new "Age of Vikings" RPG, just released last month.

The scenario was originally titled "Horror From the Mound" but switched at the last minute to a related adventure "The Cursed Farm".

Another fun system, well worth checking out.

Against the Legion of Doom!

Goblin cavalry prepares to charge.

The second Battlesystem scenario I ran was "Against the Legion of Doom!", which I previously ran at Gary Con XVI.

The battle represents the final confrontation against the forces of the Master of the Desert Nomads as presented in module X10 "Red Arrow, Black Shield".

We didn't quite finish, but it's always interesting to see how differently things can turn out.

The Future King:

"The Future King" (1985) by Tom Moldvay.

The last game I ran was a small-press one-shot RPG written by the late, great Tom Moldvay.

Doc Holliday, Nostradamus, Bruce Lee, Harald Hardraada, Owen Glendower, and Cyrano de Bergerac are gathered from across time and space to find and wake King Arthur.

The dice rolls were truly amazing in this one, resulting in some unforgettable outcomes.

A Tale of Two Temples

My friend Vince got into a game with Douglas Niles on Sunday morning, so I signed up for a Blueholme adventure.

It was my first time playing this Holmes retroclone, which I'd been tangentially involved in contributing to, back in the day.

The game turned out to be a lot of fun, and a fitting conclusion to another great con.

Gary Con XV

Gary Con is being held again in Lake Geneva from March 23-26, 2023, the first post-pandemic Gary Con without mask requirements.

 “Paladin of Gygantor” by Chris Arneson

As in previous years, I drove up to Lake Geneva with my son, (although this year, he spent most of his time studying for mid-terms, instead of gaming).

The Ghost Tower of Inverness:

Cover to AD&D module C2: "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" (1980) by Alan Hammack

My first big event was on Thursday afternoon, playing in "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" with none other than Alan Hammack, DMing.

Alan nudged us along from time to time, but didn't pull any punches during the grand finale, (my cleric ended up getting sucked into the Soul Gem!)

The Black Eagle Banner:

This year, I really pushed my comfort zone and ran a miniatures wargame (with a lot of help from Doug Behringer and Zach Howard, of Zenopus Archives).

The desert nomads attack!  Miniatures painted by Doug Behringer.

I chose a key Battlesystem scenario from module X10 "Red Arrow, Black Shield" featuring a clash between the Black Eagle Baron and Duke Stefan Karameikos.

The miniatures were kindly loaned to me by Paul Stormberg and Doug Behringer, and the event was made possible with Kevin Maurice's help, as well.

The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave:

Those of you following the development of The Forgotten Smugglers' Cave on Zenopus Archives will be interested to learn this Holmesian adventure has entered the playtest phase.

An unholy symbol depicting a were-shark; illustration by Lore Suto

It's always a pleasure to play in a Holmes adventure run by Zach - each encounter area contained interesting items, and we battled several original creatures.

Ruins of Elder Evil:

The 5th Annual Gary Con, Legends of Roleplaying Tournament, based on a return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, was held on Friday night.

Unfortunately, our group ended up making a few tactical choices near the beginning that resulted in a slog - only 4/9 characters survived, although the experience was great fun.

Quest for the Heartstone:

A short video I spliced together, from clips appearing in the D&D Saturday morning cartoon.

My final event is taking place this morning, in which I'm running "Quest for the Heartstone" using pregens based on the LJN toy line.

Update (Mar 29, 2021): "Quest for the Heartstone" was such a blast, that I plan to run it again, next year!  Will probably start at the entrance to the dungeon, in a 4 hour time slot.

Wintercon VIII: The Ghost Tower of Inverness

Wintercon VIII, sponsored by the Metro Detroit Gamers, was held at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan in November, 1979.  The AD&D tournament was "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" by Allen Hammack.

Advertisement for Wintercon VIII in the Oakland University campus newspaper "The Oakland Sail" (November 12, 1979)

As with Origins 79, the tournament adventure was made available for sale at the convention, the second in a series of special numbered collector's editions (see this post at Wayne's Books for more details).

In the tournament version, the setting is an unnamed empire,* and the PCs are sent on their mission by the emperor, himself (as opposed to the Duke of Urnst in the subsequent, color version, published the following year).

*the cleric pregen, Zinethar the Wise, is described as the high priest of Osiris, in keeping with the pantheistic nature of Hammack's personal campaign world

(Also, check out this post on the Metal Miniatures blog for a look at painted miniatures used for each of the five pregens)

The dungeon map in the tournament version appears to be the same as in the subsequent, color version (see this post on Dyson Logos blog for more recent, VTT-friendly, versions)

Gaming Origins:

When tasked with writing the tournament adventure for Wintercon VIII, Hammack turned to a previously created dungeon as a starting point:

When my campaign started I had completed one dungeon and Inverness was underway (being built slightly ahead of the players’ explorations), but I was under time pressure to build a world to place them in. Using some techniques from wargame maps, I crammed in countries, rivers, and city names from three or four fantasy series that I was reading onto a large hex-grid posterboard and decided I’d fill in details on the countries and cities if and when players went there. I followed rough similarities to the books—the Witch World areas had a lot of female magic-users, for example.

Allen Hammack, from an interview with James Mishler

(November 24, 2016)

There were deeper levels of the Inverness dungeon, not used in the published version.  Much of this material is now archived* in the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

*Hammack also collaborated upon a subsequent megadungeon inspired by Gormenghast, a part of which was allegedly used in "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" (according to this post on the Strong's website).  However, when I reached out to fact check this, Allen stated that "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" was drawn entirely from his Inverness dungeon, with some new parts

Sources of Inspiration:

In the same interview, Hammack discusses various sources of inspiration for the classic adventure, including the significance behind the name:

What was the greatest literary influence on Ghost Tower? Well, the name (and only the name, not the plot) was suggested by and a hat tip to a weird radio serial. As I’ve said before, it’s not related at all to the real city of Inverness in Scotland. I have always enjoyed time-travel stories, so inspiration was found in "The Time Machine", Bellamy’s "Looking Backward", Heinlein’s "The Door Into Summer", L’Engle’s "A Wrinkle In Time", Vonnegut's "Timequake", and Gerrold's "The Man Who Folded Himself". Cheesy though it was, I also liked the TV show "The Time Tunnel". I was not aware of Doctor Who at the time, but it’s now a favorite of mine.

Allen Hammack, from an interview with James Mishler

(November 24, 2016)

The "weird radio serial" mentioned above was "The Fourth Tower of Inverness", a radio drama that aired on college radio stations from 1972-73.

Poster for "The Fourth Tower of Inverness" (1972) radio drama, which can be downloaded for listening at Moonlight Audio Theatre, here

According to the wikipedia entry, "The Fourth Tower of Inverness" is in reference to a farmhouse in Quebec, Canada named "Inverness" after the original home of the owner in Inverness, Scotland.

The time travel aspect of the adventure may have been suggested to Hammack by his involvement with the 4th Dimension board game, completed prior to his work on the tournament module.

A room involving a giant chessboard also appeared in the AD&D Masters Tournament dungeon "Doomkeep" at Gen Con XII in 1979 (see The Dragon #34).

For those interested, Hammack discusses "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" in an interview on Grogtalk (March 2, 2020) from 45:30 to 54:50

Sequels and Derivative Works:

"Return to the Ghost Tower of Inverness" (2003) by Creighton Broadhurst and Steve Pearce was released as part of the Living Greyhawk campaign in the d20 era.

A 4e adventure "March of the Phantom Brigade" (2011) by Rodney Thompson involved the Ghost Tower of Inverness.

A 5e adventure "Return to the Ghost Tower of Inverness" (2019) by Elisa Teague was released for the D&D Adventurers League.

Other Settings:

Like "White Plume Mountain", I feel that "The Ghost Tower of Inverness" has a B/X aesthetic, and could be run using the Expert Set rules.

The adventure can be situated anywhere within the Empire of Thyatis, possibly using the introduction from the tournament version involving the emperor, himself.