TSR LaNasa is back, and working with TSR Hobbies

[Dausuul]

Even if they were it has been hateful and ham fisted.

being parasites on GaryCon is super distasteful.

Well, it's clearly an evil campaign.

 

[Bill Zebub]

The term for this I know of is "house con". A friend of mine runs an invite-only house con each year. We take over most of his home for a weekend. He can manage up to 8 games per slot, I think, including a garage and tents in the yard as play spaces.

So, 30 to 50 people, I think. Not what you'd call a major commercial venture.

That appeals to me more than a huge commercial con.

 

[J.Quondam]

Even if they were it has been hateful and ham fisted.

being parasites on GaryCon is super distasteful.

They should just cut to the chase and call it Con-con

 

[Charlaquin]

They should just cut to the chase and call it Con-con

Perhaps Non-con would be fitting for one run by LaNassa

 

[Mannahnin]

Jason Spracklin reopened it in 2016, though it doesn't seem to make much money. Might just be an online retailer type setup where he sells game stuff on EBay for all I know.

Ah; I think I know him. I believe you're right that it's just an online sales thing. As far as I'm aware there hasn't been a gaming store of that name in NH since the Tower in Nashua closed.

 

[schneeland]

They’re so convinced they can dig their way out of this hole.

Well, maybe they hope if they keep digging, they come out in Australia or so

 

[Mannahnin]

The term for this I know of is "house con". A friend of mine runs an invite-only house con each year. We take over most of his home for a weekend. He can manage up to 8 games per slot, I think, including a garage and tents in the yard as play spaces.

So, 30 to 50 people, I think. Not what you'd call a major commercial venture.

That appeals to me more than a huge commercial con.

Paul Siegel of Wandering DMs has been running a private house con where they rent a vacation house every year (for 12 years, until COVID), and had written game scheduling software for it once they got too big to just sort out between the players and GMs without losing valuable gaming time. And in 2019 even released a beta test of a commercial version of the software.

House Conventions

My news feed recently served up this blog post entitled Run Your Own Damn Convention! I’m actually really glad to see some evidence that I’m not the only lunatic doing this. For 12 year…

www.paulsgameblog.com

HouseCon.Net

I finally got around to getting housecon.net ready for beta testers. At this point anyone can pop over there and sign up for an account, but only approved beta testers can host new conventions. The…

www.paulsgameblog.com

It does sound pretty awesome.

 

[Umbran]

That appeals to me more than a huge commercial con.

Yeah. There are reasons I have gone to the house con every year, but have never been to GenCon.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Good lord, it keeps getting better (worse). Apparently they posted an image of their game, using images from Heroforge's site of the minis and were called out on it. So they replied with this:

Figures we posted for our board game that we were told from Anvl may have been from another site. We are getting with the person who made them, and determining what the heck? Will update in a few on this one.

Check with the person? Who? Michael from the treehouse again? Certainly are a lot of mysterious people making mistakes around these people.

 

[Steampunkette]

That appeals to me more than a huge commercial con.

Yeah. There are reasons I have gone to the house con every year, but have never been to GenCon.

You know...

You could probably do a VRBO style House Con in a mansion type environment with private pools and stuff. Do a whole weekend thing, or even a week-long thing. Something like...

Historic Downtown Savannah, Savannah Vacation Rentals: house rentals & more | Vrbo

Explore an array of Historic Downtown Savannah, Savannah vacation rentals, including houses, cottages & more bookable online. Choose from more than 1,000 properties, ideal house rentals for families, groups and couples. Rent a whole home for your next weekend or holiday.

www.vrbo.com

7 bedrooms. "Sleeps" 14. Rent it for $700/night, that's $50/person.

🏘 3-Homes Resort-Style Staycation w/Pool & Spa 🏖 - Woodland Hills

Private Compound w/ Heated Pool & Spa!! - $985 avg/night - Woodland Hills - Amenities include: Swimming pool, Internet, Air conditioning, Hot tub, TV, Washer & dryer, Parking, No smoking, Heater ✓ Bedrooms: 9 ✓ Sleeps: 20 ✓ Minimum stay from 2 night(s) ✓ Bookable directly online - Book vacation...

www.vrbo.com

9 Bedrooms. "Sleeps" 20. Rent it for $589/night. That's $30/night, Would be craaaazy.

 

[Faolyn]

One of their games is Dungeon Crawl. And... I cannot with this tag line.

... yup.

This reminds me of FATAL, which bragged about how difficult it was to play. Like that's a selling point or something.

 

[Arilyn]

You know...

You could probably do a VRBO style House Con in a mansion type environment with private pools and stuff. Do a whole weekend thing, or even a week-long thing. Something like...

Historic Downtown Savannah, Savannah Vacation Rentals: house rentals & more | Vrbo

Explore an array of Historic Downtown Savannah, Savannah vacation rentals, including houses, cottages & more bookable online. Choose from more than 1,000 properties, ideal house rentals for families, groups and couples. Rent a whole home for your next weekend or holiday.

www.vrbo.com

7 bedrooms. "Sleeps" 14. Rent it for $700/night, that's $50/person.

🏘 3-Homes Resort-Style Staycation w/Pool & Spa 🏖 - Woodland Hills

Private Compound w/ Heated Pool & Spa!! - $985 avg/night - Woodland Hills - Amenities include: Swimming pool, Internet, Air conditioning, Hot tub, TV, Washer & dryer, Parking, No smoking, Heater ✓ Bedrooms: 9 ✓ Sleeps: 20 ✓ Minimum stay from 2 night(s) ✓ Bookable directly online - Book vacation...

www.vrbo.com

9 Bedrooms. "Sleeps" 20. Rent it for $589/night. That's $30/night, Would be craaaazy.

What??? You're just asking for someone to get murdered.

It does actually look awesome!

 

[LordEntrails]

That's a separate Canadian company. Different logo, too.

How come it's linked/embedded in the website that they linked from their FB page? I didn't get there randomly.

There are dead fish under every corner.

 

[Steampunkette]

What??? You're just asking for someone to get murdered.

It does actually look awesome!

Stay in a Castle in "Little Norway's" Quiet Countryside - Kitsap County

Nordic Hill Manor - $900 avg/night - Kitsap County - Amenities include: Internet, Air conditioning, Hot tub, Fireplace, TV, Satellite or cable, Washer & dryer, Parking, No smoking, Accessible, Heater ✓ Bedrooms: 7 ✓ Sleeps: 25 ✓ Minimum stay from 2 night(s) ✓ Bookable directly online - Book...

www.vrbo.com

PERFECT. Seattle Washington "Castle".

$650/night, sleeps 25. $26 a night per person.

Set that up for a 4-day Weekend, get 40-50 people to show up. Put the excess toward Food, Drinks, and Entertainment...

Heck... we could launch a Kickstarter for the "Level Up Team" to get a 4-day Weekend hanging out there... That would probably be well loved be the whole team.

 

[Steampunkette]

How come it's linked/embedded in the website that they linked from their FB page? I didn't get there randomly.

There are dead fish under every corner.

Honestly... I don't know.

Maybe they planned to have WizardTower.com, or just put it in as a placeholder, and didn't know it was occupied? 'Cause it says it's Canadian at the bottom of the website.

 

[Ancalagon]

No idea, not a lawyer. Maybe they registered it somewhere else, but Wizards Tower Games is not a registered LLC in MI, WI, SC, or NC (the states where they live or lived in).


Don Semora is a real person. An artist (not a bad one either from what I can tell), but it seems like he's letting Justin do all the web design and graphic design work on his games, because the really bad grammar and spelling issues are exactly how Justin writes. That, or part of Justin is rubbing off on him.

Whoever wrote that threatening email (if anyone really did; I'm dubious) is an idiot. Not only for making a dumb threat in the first place, but it's also written in the same bad grammar as Justin, and apparently Don and Justin are "great friends" according to Don, so an email like that would just reinforce the partnership, not split it apart. Also, AFAICT, Wizard Tower Games doesn't have any actual products for sale (imagine the surprise there), so what's to boycott and talk bad about in the first place?

Just look at the flyer they have for TSR CON (still not buying the excuse they gave for moving it to the same date as Garycon). Most of these "sponsors" were registered by Justin. Wizard Tower Games says they aren't affiliated with Justin at all (but also say they are partnered??), but they were created the same time the other two were (June/July) when nuTSR blew up in their faces, by the same circle of people. Funny coincidence, that. Out of all of them is the coffee place the only one with actual products to sell? Besides dollar store dice at 4x the markup?

View attachment 145743

Thank you for the information - I had missed the Semora bit, and only saw a nameless Don - I was wondering if he was another Michael, but not, it's a real person.

Anyway, I found another twist!

Apparently smuggler's coffee is not sponsoring them.

 

[J.Quondam]

How come it's linked/embedded in the website that they linked from their FB page? I didn't get there randomly.

There are dead fish under every corner.

Weird that it's linked in their own FB page. (I can't see the FB page.)
But the actual URL is:

Wizard Tower Games

This is the home of Wizard Tower Games, where gamers make games

wizardtowergames.com

I don't think the two are related. The logos do appear to be different.

 

[darjr]

Thank you for the information - I had missed the Semora bit, and only saw a nameless Don - I was wondering if he was another Michael, but not, it's a real person.

Anyway, I found another twist!

Apparently smuggler's coffee is not sponsoring them.

What? Have a link?

 

[J.Quondam]

What??? You're just asking for someone to get murdered.

Ooh! What an exciting twist on the whole "murder-hobo" thing!

"40 gamers go in. Only one comes out!"

 

[Steampunkette]

Ooh! What an exciting twist on the whole "murder-hobo" thing!

"40 gamers go in. Only one comes out!"

Honestly that castle would be amazing for a Murder Mystery Live Action game...

Weird that it's linked in their own FB page. (I can't see the FB page.)
But the actual URL is:

Wizard Tower Games

This is the home of Wizard Tower Games, where gamers make games

wizardtowergames.com

I don't think the two are related. The logos do appear to be different.

Well, y'know, clown-show of coordination...