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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WizarDru" data-source="post: 2645855" data-attributes="member: 151">The FINAL Chapter(cue "The Final Countdown" keyboard hook)Confession time: Every year, I promise myself I'll prepare more for the gathering, and every year I DON'T.  This year was no exception.  I should have printed signs up ahead of time.  Didn't.  I should have posted said unprinted signs ahead of time.  Didn't.  I should have checked with the 'con about a specific room ahead of time.  Didn't.  I should have printed all the necessary materials for the game ahead of time.  DIDN'T. So, where was I?  Oh yeah, Saturday.  Well, after I finished my game of Amun-Re and gm_scorch and Dylan (WMLJC) finished their Space Hulk game, we decided to go get some grub.  As we're walking out, our friend Jay shows up.  Instead of register, he heads out with us to Quizno's for a quick bite.  We get back and scatter in different directions (Dylan eyes up the Cults Across America game, but notices the price tag and decides that's not an impulse buy).  I steer away from some Z-man games and note my lack of love for Atlas Games, as well.  Last year I picked up Dungeoneer: Dungeon of the Lich Lord from them...and haven't played it yet.  Not only is it terribly complicated for a card game, but they actually wanted me to cut up some of the cards!  Jackasses.  The previous night I had spent about an hour memorizing the module I'd purchased from RPGshop, "A Matter of Family".  I knew that I'd need to scale it down a little to use it.  I hadn't really considered the fact that it didn't have any maps.  This led to me running around like a chicken with my head cut-off trying to print out M&M character sheets and creating the map of the condo that the battle would end up taking place in.(Side note: I don't consider myself a snob, but I really, really wanted to smack the crap out of the LARPers, here.  I know they have their games to play, and I don't begrudge them that.  I've tried a LARP or two in my time, and enjoyed them well enough.  But there's little call to block the hallways while doing so, and to be inordinately rude at it, to boot.  During our gathering, some dope wandered into the room, sneered at us and then tried to cut through our room to the pool area beyond when a public access door was a few feet from his position in the hallway.  We'd locked the door, though, which confounded him and he promptly left).At the start of the gathering, we had Valanthe, Scorch, Aethramyr, dravot and myself.  To quote Dylan (a.k.a. dravot): "Cool.  I paid $40 to come to a hotel and sit around with...my normal gaming group.  Why did we do this, again?" =)  I declared the gathering an abject failure, and we moved on.  We still had hours until supper, so we proceeded apace with my planned activity, a Mutants and Masterminds adventure.  About a half-hour in, Michael Tree showed up, making him the only person to show, three years running....other than us, anyhow. About a half-hour after that, 3catcircus popped in.  Heirodule snuck in for a few minutes to say high (but had to depart back out, since he was in a Living RPGA game at that very moment).  3catcircus had a preganant wife to see to, but he stuck around to gab for a little while (and thank you very much!).Regretfully, we were having so much fun, we forgot to take pictures.  Well, not entirely, but we didn't get as many as we'd have liked. Here we see a Monkey and Englishman.  I'll leave it to the practiced reader to decide which is which.  That's Scorch in the appropriately fiery red, and Michael Tree nearby.  Aethramyr's hair can be seen nearby. <img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_17.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Amidst the Axis and Allies minis and the Pepsi can, we see our valiant heroes engaged in battle.  Spitfire charges into battle with the evil Buzzbomb, while Ember prepares to enter the fray.  MoFo (the Gorilla) rescues the civilians while Grease Monkey raid the refrigerator.  Gravitar wonders what to do when you can't fly, whlie Don Maggio and his moll brace for impact.  EXCELSIOR!!!  (Sharp eyed individuals will not the Lindt Truffle wrappers on the table, procurred from the con suite...none of which were offered to ME.  I'm just saying.)<img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_18.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />While Michael Tree and dravot discuss the finer points of Baron Munchausen and the Phillies (in no particular order), I enjoy that rarest of delicacies...the Guinness perfect pint.  Mere moments before this photo had been taken, Scorch and I had played our traditional Elephant&Castle game of pool.  And making up for last year's embarrassing scratch, I schooled him handily.  Yes, that is Strong Bad, and as usual, I got comments on how cool he is.  So there.<img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_19.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />It's TEEN GIRL SQUAD.  Oh, wait, NO, it's us.  Now you can see more than just Aethramyr's hair, this time.  Despite outward appearances, we were having a grand old time here.  This was the "Oh look, the Phillies have screwed it up AGAIN" shot.<img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_20.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />After supper, komochiko had signed up for the Bootlegger's finals.  The rest of us, who could, finished out the M&M adventure. The good guys prevailed!  After that, Dylan had to make tracks, so Michael Tree and I played a few quick games of Anachronism.  You may know it better as the game that takes longer to explain than to play....and it takes 6 minutes to explain.  In an epic battle, Ramses II was defeated by Genghis Khan, just as history shows us.<img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_21.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />After that, Aethramyr/Jay and I went walking around to the LAN game room.  Yes, at 11PM, vgabb was STILL THERE.  But while talking, Jay noticed the guy who ran the room had some City of Heroes TCG cards.  Apparently, they were giving out free demo decks in the CCG room next door.  A few moments later, we were figuring out how to play.  My general reaction?  It was OK.  Timing issues are mostly avoided, but not entirely.  The art wasn't that great, and the system seemed really convoluted.  However, I liked some of the card mechanics...but I could see it becoming too much to keep track of, eventually.More of an irritation, however, was the fact that the residents of the CCG room were a bunch of infantile morons.  Yelling curses and epithets up and down the room (with all the wit of "F*%k You, Retard!"; "No, F@#K YOU, FAG!").  When they started throwing Warlord cards around, I was ready to leave.  As it was, it took restraint not to let loose with the bitch-slappins.  Meanwhile, komochiko had started playing We Love Katamari, I think...or watching it.  Before Michael Tree hit the road, we showed him the game and explained it's singular awesomeness, then bid him a fond adieu.Here we see three of the tireless souls who kept the gameroom up and running the whole time: June, Craig and Eileen, iirc.  Folks like these are the kinds of people who make going to a convention worth doing.  They're there to enjoy the games as much as you are, often at the sacrifice of sleep.  We played with each one of them at least twice during the convention in one game or another and I doff the old WizarDru cap in their direction.  SALUTE!<img src="http://www.wizardru.net/img/se2005/se2005_22.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Sunday, regretably, found me at work all day.  komochiko and gm_scorch still managed to get several more games in, including Dawn Under, more Alhambra and some others.  The discovery that our prize tickets can carry over to other Double Exposure conventions was a happy discovery...and one that is making us seriously consider their bigger cons, Dreamation and Dexcon.So in summary, I found the con to be small but fun.  I don't regret going...and in fact had a blast.  While I was disappointed at the size, I was thrilled at the folks we got to play with, and the fun we had.  I'll return next year, that's for sure.</blockquote>

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