Heading off to Gamehole Con...

[payn]

Picked up some fun stuff:
Pendragon Starter Set
Traveller Customizable Card Game
Mordenkainen's Monsters of the Multiverse (Chimera Hobby Shop had RPG items at 50% off)

And the most unexpected find: Manhunt: Onnesium Quest Volume 1. Marc Miller had a hard copy on hand so I jumped on it like Steve Rogers on a grenade (metaphorically). I had been itching for this one since the early 1990s but Digest Group Publications stepped back from supporting Traveller with the New Era revision and the project was mothballed and eventually reported lost. Apparently they were able to recover it from a 3.5" floppy and finish it up last year. Either way, it was a totally unexpected addition to my MegaTraveller collection and I am thrilled.

For running 16 hours of Adventurer's League, I also received some premiums including a nice Gamehole Con X pint glass and a copy of Phandelver and Below (as well as a refund on my badge). They had copies of Planescape for DMs who ran 24+ hours of AL. So let it never be said that Gamehole Con doesn't treat it's AL DMs right. They very much do.

Gamehole Con XI in 2024 will be October 17-20. Alex and Co usually schedule opposite Badger football home games to reduce conflict over hotel rooms, but they had to settle on firm dates while the Big 10 is still in the process of effing the schedule up to accommodate the greed for football money of places like UCLA and USC. So plan as early as you can.

How was Bladerunner?

 

[darjr]

The AL crew sure know how to take care of folks. I was spoiled by them! This year I ran my own games and I miss getting a room at the venue, having all my adventures being pre written premiers, and my schedule all setup by Thomas.

 

[darjr]

I did get a whole pile of loot though

 

[billd91]

How was Bladerunner?

Blade Runner was fun. The task system is pretty easy (roll skill die and stat die, looking for 6+ is a success, 2 for 10+) to grasp. Combat can be deadly. Game is fairly rich with opportunities to choose expediency or morality. And the boxed starter set materials are top notch and evocative.
I played a Nexus-8 under pretty deep cover working with the blade runner team, doing my best to help the replicant underground and avoid getting retired myself. Only drawback was we could have used a longer time slot (and as it was Saturday night, some of our voices were getting a bit raw).

 

[SteveC]

It was a great Con! If you saw the guy in the Vault Dweller costume at the front of the exhibit hall, that was a friend of mine running the Fallout RPG. Had a great time and picked up one of the last three copies of Fabula Ultima in North America at the moment. This truly is a great experience where you have a ton of the old guard of D&D running games and you get to embarrass Steve Jackson for providing all these years of entertainment. And there are many events that have pizza and beer too.

If you want to try a gaming convention, but don't want something that's big beyond belief, this is the one to go to.

 

[billd91]

One of the events I signed up for was presented by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It was Wisconsin Adventures: The Hunt for the Hodag. This adventure is part of a publication of 1-5th level adventures, being printed in February 2024, as part of the WHS's educational department. I think it's amazing that the organization is incorporating both Wisconsin folklore and whimsy into a publication that they will be selling. Even more amazing - it's the first of three planned installments. The second volume has apparently already been given the green light and will cover the next grouping of levels (my guess 5-10).
The adventure was good fun and won the approval of a bunch of us 'Sconnies, including a trio of players from Rhinelander where you do NOT dismiss the hodag as "just a bear with mange". Seriously.

Since this was Sunday at 1pm, the only thing really missing from my experience was a bottle or two of local beer. Even the farmers whose herds were beset by the hodag were named Ole and Lena.

 

[billd91]

It was nice to see other game table makers in the dealer hall other than Wyrmwood, given Wyrmwood's well-documented asshat behavior (discussed at ENWorld here: https://www.enworld.org/threads/eve...yrmwood-gamings-narcissistic-funhouse.696872/).
I mean, I don't have the scratch for a fancy gaming table right now anyway, the dining room table will do fine. But it's good to know there are options out there.

 

[billd91]

Gamehole Con XI in 2024 will be October 17-20. Alex and Co usually schedule opposite Badger football home games to reduce conflict over hotel rooms, but they had to settle on firm dates while the Big 10 is still in the process of effing the schedule up to accommodate the greed for football money of places like UCLA and USC. So plan as early as you can.

For those of you who might have noticed this thread but don't follow Gamehole Con on Facebook, the Big 10 finally published its football schedule for 2024. And Gamehole's October 17-20 dates will coincide with an AWAY Badger game. That should keep Badger fans from competing with Gamehole Con for hotel rooms.