Gamehole Con!

I spent the last three days at my very first gaming convention (well, my first as a patron). Having gone to San Diego Comic-Con for 11 years straight, Gamehole was refreshingly underwhelming. What I mean is that it wasn’t packed to the gills with people and things, leaving no time to see and do all I wanted. No, Gamehole was just about perfect.

As far as the Con itself, I had no complaints, and saw no flaws. The staff were all very nice and enthusiastic. They treated everyone well, and it was cool when my friend and I stopped in the hall to chat with one of the main organizers, and he spilled some secret beans about next year.

The Swag Bag wasn’t stuffed with crap, but I got a nice t-shirt, a couple of buttons, and I even bought a souvenir cup that I could get refilled with the soda of my choice all weekend long. The facilities were very nice, and well planned out. Apparently next year will get even more rooms, for more games and a bigger dealer floor.

The dealer floor was small but cool. Got to oogle and fondle some awesome swords (including Conan’s father’s from the 1982 Conan the Barbarian, my all-time favorite movie sword). They were beautiful and very pricey. A few of the local game stores had a presence, and we bought a couple of things, including a copy of the Gen Con preview version of the Firefly RPG, by Margaret Weis’ company.

On Friday, I played a B/X game run by David “Zeb” Cook. Very fun! Zeb is a neat guy, very laid back and friendly. And the adventure was an “off the cuff” game he made up as we went along, but you would never have known it. That was some quality gaming. And Zeb signed my Expert Rulebook!

Friday evening we sat in on a panel with Terry Pavlet and Jeff Easley, both veteran artists of the TSR days. A lot of funny stories, and cool insights into those days. Jeff had a story about a painting for the cover of a Star Frontiers module he did, and I remembered I had that one. So the next day I brought it in and he signed it for me. We also bought a commissioned picture from Terry. Both were very nice guys.

Saturday my wife and I sat in on a panel with Jim Ward on game design and marketing. Very informative and had me excited about getting some game stuff professionally published. After Jim was a small panel with Zeb Cook, who expounded on all that he had been involved in since leaving TSR. Then we played in a Call of Cthulhu game set in 1885, in the Khyber Pass. We all went insane and/or died. Perfect CoC game. Over all, Saturday was a great day.

Sunday was a kind of a wind-down. Took part in a Pathfinder Society game. That was fun, but I wish I had been more prepared. I was the only person who was using a pregen character. The adventure itself could have been more involved, but it was still fun. In the afternoon my friend and I got into a “DCC” game of “Liberation of the Demon Slayer,” run by the author. It was fun, though the DMing could have been a little more polished. And the adventure seemed kind of loose. I’m sure it’s probably better when run seriously, and not as a one-off Con game. All in all, Sunday was the least fun of the three days, and yet, still very enjoyable.

I met some cool people, and got a line on a local group that meets regularly. I’m going to see if I can work in a game here and there with them. My wife had a great time on Saturday, and has now decided that we are going to go to GaryCon in Lake Geneva for her birthday next year. That will be fun and exciting!

I see a lot more gaming in my future. Which is always a good thing.