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

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.