Wednesday FrankenParty update:

garycon.com • View topic - PRE-CON PARTY & Gaming @ Frank's

Email me for a PDF (directions & tips) at: ExTSR at aol com

AAR's? Stories? +/- ?

GaryCon was once again an awesome time. It was nice being a vendor since we met a lot of great people. We only got to be in 2 games, Bill Barsh's Palace of the Vampire Queen playtest and Paul's Return to the Beginning at Gary's old house on 330 Center Street. Both games were a lot of fun. Playing in Gary's old house was the highlight of the con for us, we met Terry Kuntz and Mike Mornard while they were getting ready to play Tractics on the sand table in the basement. Paul also showed us the "Entrance Wargames Room written on the door in the basement. Cindy Gygax showed up with her family while we were playing and said she hadn't been in the house since she was 11. Another great event was going to the TSR artists seminar with Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Diesel, and Jeff Butler. They told many funny stories, the best was when Parkinson was running an adventure with many of the TSR artists and Jeff cast a fireball in a very small room killing everyone(except Larry and Diesel's characters who were in a tunnel under the room) including himself.

-Shawn

Hey All,


I have a larger report with pictures but have not quite finished it yet. However, there is this tale:

Jon Peterson rolled up what must be the most hopeless character I have ever seen and immediately started planning the imminent suicide of his hapless magic-user named Lyrax. However, a funny thing happened on the way to Lyrax's ignonimus end - he became a hero. As the party was surrounded by armored fighting men a massive ogre shook the room as he bellowed into battle. Not one of the other characters landed a blow as the ogre leveled devastating swings of his tree-bough club. Then it came down to the utterly hopeless Lyrax who made his foolhardy entrance into melee with the towering beast. His first blow pierced the ogre's thigh through its elephant-thick hide. The beast howled, leveling all of his fury against the diminutive elf, the bough sent shockwaves through the foundation of Greyhawk Castle. Again Lyrax struck home with his keen poniard, burying it to the hilt in the meaty portion of the ogre's thigh. Again the the ogre missed and his mighty blow sent thunder through the stones. As he leaned into the swing Lyrax struck at the exposed neck of the behemoth and felled it like kine beneath the poleaxe. The giant plowed into the floor and cheers erupted from the jubilant victors. Lyrax had made the hero's journey from nothing to legend in a single delve beneath the ruined piles of Greyhawk Castle.

Jon's choice of names immediately brought to mind Dr. Seuss's Lorax but other than a few words, none of us had the rhyme. With some whimsy and time to reflect, I came up with this homage:

"Mister!", he said with a real low-Con sneeze,
"I am elf Lyrax, I speak for hopeless PCs.
I speak for poor PCs, for the PCs have no tongues,
And I'm asking you, sir, at the top of my lungs" --
He was very upset as he shouted and yelled --
"What's that PC you've tossed for the bad dice you rolled?"
I am elf Lyrax! I speak for hopeless PCs,
Which you seem to be dropping as fast as you please.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
hopless PCs won't be heroes. They'll not.

Catch! calls the DM.
He lets something fall.
It's a 3 x 5 index card.
It's the last one of all!
You're in charge of the last of the PC index cards.
And PC index cards are what everyone needs.
Start a new PC index card. Treat it with care.
Buy some holy water. And rope packed with care.
Buy some rations. Include some hand axes that hack.
Then elf Lyrax
and adventurers
may come back.

Now all that was left 'neath the sad-telling sky
was some big empty ruins...
Elf Lyrax...
and I.
Elf Lyrax said nothing
just gave me a glance.
Just gave me a very sad, sad backward glance.
He lifted himself by the seat of his pants
and I'll never forget the grim look on his face
as he hoisted himself and took leave of this place
through a hole in the fog without leaving a trace
and all that elf Lyrax left here in the ruins was a small pile of rocks with one word.
UNLESS

Gary Con VI was lots of fun.
Degassy31 stopped by my house on Wednesday and I got to show him my collection. We then drove up to Lake Geneva, where I met up with Bracton and Blackmoor and we carpooled over to ExTSR's house for his Frankenparty. A good time was had by all, including dinner prepared by Frank's lovely wife Debbie. if Frank is kind enough to repeat his party, we will have real poker chips at our disposal and play for dollars instead of Quatloos. Thursday afternoon Bracton & I played in the GaryCon open, which was a lot of fun. We finished our objective with 45 minutes to spare, but as we lost 2 characters (to a poison that kills in d3 rounds!) we did not advance. Thursday evening Bracton & I played in Castle of Doom, by Frank Mentzer. It was one of his classic Rod of 7 Parts adventures, and we had a great time. We played from 6 pm until past 11 pm and got to the last encounter (alas we did not prevent the lead baddie from fleeing). As no one else wanted him, i was going to play the mage, but a late walk-up decided he wanted to, so I played a Cleric/Ranger (I played a Cleric/Ranger for 3 years in Frank's campaign, so it was like slipping on Elfin Chain). I'm not going to mention any details, in case Frank runs it again, and you should all spend 2 Gold Pieces and play with him.

Friday Bracton and I played in an Astonishing Swordsmen/Hyperboria game harkening back to A4. A cursed scroll whisked our pc's away to the pit of despair, and we had to spend the next 3.5 hours getting out. It was DMed by Morgan Hazel and it was very well done. One character found an old cloak, he put it on, failed a save, and couldn't remove it (it didn't harm him until the last room as we tried to leave the complex, but we knew it was inevitable). While rummaging threw some old cells, we found a ring (swallowed long ago by a prisoner and hence unnoticed at the time). Bracton did not want to put it on, but I eagerly volunteered, figuring I'm in the blackest pit in the world, how could it get any worse? Well it took my AC from 9 to 2, and gave me +2 saves, so I tried to take point thereafter. And Bracton wanted the ring back (Now if he actually reads this I'll be curious to see how he tells the tale...). We did crawl out at the very end, and felt real accomplishment.

Saturday afternoon Bracton and I went over to 330 Center St. to play at Gary's old house. Paul Stormberg did an amazing job cleaning up/setting up the basement to make it look circa 1973. Terry Kuntz was there when we arrived and I told Terry how buying his Brown Box at a winter fantasy con back in 1980 started me on my collecting path. After a tour of the house we started playing. Jon Petersen and I both decided on Mages. I called mine Morden as an homage to Gary and to Babylon 5, but he came to be called "Pyro". Here I thought I would at least get off a sleep spell before being killed, but Paul told us the spell selection would be random. After being told my 1 spell was Read Magic I grumbled in my character sheet briefly and reminded myself I had a 16 dex and decided to reinvent myself as a napalm delivery system mage from the rear ranks. We went up to the ruins, and sure enough there was an opportunity to use my one spell, which resulted in a +1 one-time boon to all of the party members. In the dungeon we eventually discovered some goblins and after I got a hit on one for 2d6 fire, with some collateral d6 damage to another, well several party members wanted to be chucking greek fire at the Gobbos and some men in Chain. But when the Ogre came out, (and I kept missing with my flame grenades on him) Jon Petersen's Mage with the 4 ST and 6 INT (if IIRC) charged in and did all but 1 point of damage in killing the Ogre. I think he rolled 16 or above on about 5 out of 7 rolls. It was awesome and we all cheered. While this was all happening, different people kept dropping by, getting tours of the house (including Grodog, who posted 3 pictures of our game, and Tacojohn) and then Gail Gygax stopped by and nearly fainted. It was more than a little surreal, but Paul, who was having to keep all of these plates in the air at once, over the whole weekend, did a great job of DMing under trying conditions.

I did not win anything at the auction (no real old RPG content) but Bracton won the GaryCon coin #1 (with GC 5 on one side and GC 6 on the other). During the course of the con I was able to have some nice long talks with old friends (Blackmoor and increment) and new (Melnibonean, who also stopped by my house on Sunday afternoon on his way to the airport. I think he enjoyed the tour...). Jayson Elliot, the editor-in-chief of Gygax Magazine also stopped by Sunday night for a tour. Blackmoor was spending the night here (as he had an early flight out the next morning) and we talked gaming into Monday morning making it a 5 day convention for me. I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the Burntwire Brothers allowed me to sell a box of my extras at their booth (thanks guys!). Bill Barsh also did me a very nice favor, because he's a great guy, and Nogrod (who brought his lovely wife Jennifer to the con) is going to be both visiting in a month AND doing me a favor. Several other acaeumites were at the con as well, but as I have name dropped enough, I will stop here. NTRPG Con is next up!

Dangit, I should have checked here before the Con. I'm mostly a lurker here who spent time helping with the Wiki when it started. GCVI was an amazing time! A truly great group of people.

Thanks for preparing the video and posting it, Jon.  It was quite an experience visiting 330 Center Street, and playing in Gary's old house.  (That's me at the end of the video, to Stratochamp's right.)  And remember, in OD&D, a wizard without any spells can still be the most powerful member of the party!  

Details now available for FrankenParty II (25 March 2015).

Will send detailed PDF instructions when you sign up.
And/or just email a request. ExxTSR [at] google mail

garycon.com • View topic - FrankParty II

The Collector's Trove wrote in GaryCon 2014:Hey All,
I have a larger report with pictures but have not quite finished it yet.

Paul, did you ever finish and/or post your Gary Con VI report/picture anywhere?

Z