Friday, November 20, 2015

U-Con Day 0: Fighting Zombies In My Room And Giant Beetles In The Lobby

https://www.ucon-gaming.org/

Hey gang, Your Friendly Neighborhood Sniderman is attending his last gaming convention of 2015 -- U-Con Gaming Convention way up north in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Had a great time last year, so I decided to make a return visit this year. As I mentioned in a previous post, I won't be manning a booth in the vendor's hall, but Roy Snyder will be carrying Goblinoid Games/Pacesetter goodies in his booth, and I am truly appreciative of his offer to do so.

As always, I'll be live-blogging from the event, giving you the lowdown on what I've done, seen, played, and experienced. So stop by for the next few days to get a attendee's-eye-view of U-Con! I'm here a day early to settle in and get ready, so here's a bit of a preview of what's happening during the setting up hours leading up to tomorrow's convention:
  • For my last con of the year, I'm planning on running as many games -- and playing in as many games -- as I possibly can in the 2 1/2 days of the convention. By my count, I'll be running/playing in 8 separate gaming events over the next 60 hours. It's been a while since I've tried to cram so much in. I even hope to play in a few after-hours games. Pray for me.
  • Sadly, my Cryptworld game script for "Wasted" didn't come together in time to a stage where I was happy with it. So I'll be running "Unquenchable" in its place. It's still a horrific romp for the players, and I wish them well on their "rescue" mission. (Mwah-ha-haaaa...)
  • Game stuff aside, I just learned that the first true snow of the season is to hit sometime tomorrow/Saturday. Groovy. I was hoping to drive home to Ohio in the first snow of the season, just in time for all drivers to careen and skid randomly.
  • The TV in my room doesn't work. DAMMIT.
  • I left an important piece of equipment at home. DOUBLE DAMMIT.
  • Just got a text from Roy. He and Kevin will be getting in around midnight tonight. I'll be unconscious by then, but hope to meet the guys for breakfast in the morning.
  • I learned some time ago to always bring some nifty solo games to play in my room/in the hotel lobby during downtimes so you keep in that fresh "always gaming" mindset while at a game con. This time, it's Run, Fight, Or Die.
  • Zipped down to the lobby around 8 p.m.-ish to pick up my badge and see if anyone I knew was in yet. Ran into Larry Hamilton of Follow Me and Die, and he and I drank a beer and BS'ed about Games Long Past.
  • A little later, Bill Webb of Frog God Games walked over, pointed at Larry and I and said "C'mon, we're playing Swords and Wizardry over here." Not one to turn down a pick-up game tossed into our laps, Larry and I joined 8 other victims for one of Bill's "Everyone will probably die" games. We did pretty well considering we started off naked in a dark, lightless cave. I even managed to crush a giant beetle with a big-ass rock.
  • Around midnight I had to bail since I need to be up early tomorrow to prep and run Stuper Powers, followed by running a game of Ghostbusters RPG, followed by participating in an OSR discussion on urban fantasy, followed by playing a game of Coup, followed by playing in a game of Red Dragon Inn. So I gotta get some sleep...right...NOW.
And here are some photos of today's first "unofficial" day of U-Con!

Everyone who shows up to play in my Thundarr the Barbarian or Stuper Powers games is gonna walk away with one of these!

During a quick in-room game of Run, Fight, or Die, I found two other survivors -- the Mechanic and the Nurse -- then managed to find the Town Line just as I was about to lose my last health point. Good thing too, since the next zombie wave was going to slaughter us all. (But I did have two molotov cocktails on-hand just in case...)

 Adam Muszkiewicz of Dispatches From Kickassistan arrived later in the evening with his 4-month old baby in tow. I didn't catch the kid's name, but Bill kept calling him Baby Frog, so let's go with that. Knowing Adam, that very well may be the child's legal name, I dunno.

Here, Bill Webb explains to us just how horribly we're about to die. Being as we started naked and weaponless, it wasn't hard to believe him.

1 comment:

  1. That was hilarious when Bill walked up and said, "Stay here, we're playing a game when I get back." It was a blast! I'm sure the look on my face was the same as yours, wish I had that moment on video.
    Thanks for the beer! It was great catching up!
    The next con we're both at, I'll have to return the favor, since we weren't near the bar at the same time after that. That may mean you have to come back to UCon next year, well, you have to anyway, but it's an incentive. ;)
    Were you on the 4th floor? Someone next to my room snored really bad Saturday night. It reminded me of my Dad, but I was so tired, it didn't keep me up.

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