U-Con Day 2: Punching A Wizard, Fighting A Monster, And Watching The Snowfall

Hey gang, Day 2 of Michigan's U-Con Gaming Convention is now coming to a close. Well, actually the gaming will go on overnight, most likely. But for Yours Truly, I am well and truly destroyed...but in a good way! I have gotten a lot of gaming under my belt, and I have one or two final games to play tomorrow before heading out. So here's today's missive from The Frozen North! (And I mean that literally. Read on...)

• Woke up this morning a bit sore, but otherwise well-rested. Met Larry Hamilton in the convention center lobby. We ate some muffins, drank some coffee, and BS'ed about our mutual lousy chess-playing abilities.
• Saturday morning is here, so it's time for THUNDARR!!! I had three players for "Warlord of the Sacred Library", and they each played two copies of their respective characters. (Read the adventure and it'll make sense.) Some highlights: Ookla threw his counterpart to the top of the Washington Monument to tackle the wizard lurking there. Sadly, he overthrew his target and Ookla sailed up and over. Later, both Thundarrs -- currently hidden in a giant robot -- kicked open the chest panel and lept into action, catching the guards by surprise! Princess Arial managed to use her magic to wrest control of the wizard's magic tome while her counterpart fired magic blasts of light at the evil warlord. And -- my favorite -- Ookla 1 throws the warlord across the room. The warlord goes to stand up and Ookla 2 standing nearby picks him up and throws him across the room again in the OTHER direction. When the warlord landed, both Thundarrs were there to deliver twin face-punches, effectively knocking him out. Lords of Light, what a game!
• I'm of the opinion that this might be the last convention where I run two back-to-back games on two back-to-back days. I just can NOT spring back as fast as I used to.
• After swinging by my room for a quick rest-and-recoup session, I sauntered back to the gaming area to run a horror-filled game of Cryptworld! I was planning to run a new adventure, "Wasted," but I didn't get it hammered together in time for the event. So I ran a game I've run before, "Unquenchable." My intrepid group of six rescuers were sent into the woods near Akron to find three hunters that had gone missing. Not to spoil anything, but the party did quite well, taking on most of the shadowy horrors with ease. It got dicey at the end when I nearly killed a player by having a giant THING score two critical hits as it chewed on him, literally beginning to swallow him alive. The final killing blow was the only thing that saved him. I hope my players enjoyed the game! 
• When my CW game began at 2 p.m., there was a steady snowfall...the first of the season. When my game ended four hours later, I saw that the weather had mutated into the first OMGWE'REALLGONNADIE snowstorm of the season. This area has 6 inches of snow and it's still coming down. Leaving tomorrow will be...interesting.
• Came back to the room to rest for a bit before playing some games later in the evening. Got wrapped up napping and watching Daredevil on Netflix. Just realized that a game I have tickets for started 20 minutes ago. Damn, sorry Mark. I was really looking forward to defending my Road Kill Rally title from last year's game.
• As I climb into bed, I can hear snowplows in the parking lot trying to clear off the still-falling snow. Tomorrow morning, I'll get up early to assess the road conditions as I figure out when I'm leaving...or even IF I can leave! I'll have a third and final day entry when I get home, so watch for a delayed "Day 3" report to come later!

And here are today's photos from U-Con!

 Lines for today's con were lined up at 9 a.m. sharp when the doors opened. About an hour after this photo was taken, that entire lobby was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with attendees getting badges and signing up for games.

 While Thundarr raged at a nearby table, Jim Wampler ran a group through Mutant Crawl Classics, the upcoming post-apocalyptic RPG written by him. Would love to play in the game some day.

 The OSR Track had its own room here at U-Con. There were some amazing swag bottles set out on one of the tables for folks. Snagged one for myself, and it will become a part of my convention travelling pack.

 The boardgame room filled the ballroom. Every table was filled with players from the moment it opened to the moment it closed each day.

I took this photo of the snowfall when it began around noon. By that time, there were a couple of inches on the ground. By evening, we had hit 6 inches, and the snow was continuing to fall as evening fell.

 Six investigators faced the lurking woodland horrors found in "Unquenchable," one of my favorite adventures for Cryptworld.

Stopped by the Goodman Games booth to pick up some DCC RPG stuff I didn't yet have. Lots of new stuff was offered, including "Synthetic Swordsmen of the Purple Planet", a new Purple Planet adventure by Jim Wampler!