grodog's Quick NTX Con After Action Report
Wednesday, 1 June: I'm up until ~3am Thursday morning packing and organizing things, which is not the recommended way to start a convention....
Thursday, 2 June: I wake at 6am to eat and finish packing/loading, since Jon and I are planning to leave his place ~8am, which means I need to leave home ~7:10 so we can start loading OSRIC, MoM, hex paper, etc. in my van at 7:30. Jon and I leave his home at 8am, and arrive ~2:30pm or so---only to discover as we're finishing unloading the van that the Charity game that Jon's running for the Old TSR Guard (as opposed to the TSR Old Guard!) is slotted to begin at 3pm! So, Jon heads in there to start getting set up, while I set up the table, banners, and backdrop. Lots of catching up with folks in the evening, and a few sales too. During that time I find out the the K&K Social has been postponed from 7:30pm to at least 9pm, due to a conflict with the Staybridge's Thursday night Happy Hour (free beer!). Pizza is ordered for dinner during the Social---which starts late, but earlier than 9pm---and the Aliens battle is fought while some excellent homebrews are imbibed.
Friday, 3 June: I run my Castle Greyhawk "Black Reservoir" level from 8am to 4pm or so, with a break in there for some food (I unwillingly stop at Chilis for a burger, not knowing that Whataburger was just a few blocks further along the same road; oh well...). At 6pm, Paul Jaquays starts his Runequest 2e game, which runs until midnight, but I had to bow out around 11pm since I was still so sleep deprived coming into the con. Paul's game was quite fun---exploring a ruined city that sank into a number of pits/sinkholes, from which various things lurked/attacked. We were stalked by an invisible
something, and trailed it (probably its intention...) to one of the sinkholes, which we descended into and explored. DungeonDork and I attempt to walk off with these huge bronze bars, through which the rest of the party descended (we were the rear-guard: I was starting to fade at this point, and wasn't much use anyway); we're convinved the rest of the PCs are dead (that they'll be eaten by some eldritch horror lurking down there...), so we bar them in with spikes and other stuff, and haul the large bronze bars back to town as our loot! Not my most chivlarous moment as a PC*, but I can live with that
(*In character justification: they were all going to die, and Brian was playing an gloriously obnoxious noble townsman, whom my PC was convinced was somehow going to survive, which just wasn't an option to permit!).
Saturday, 4 June: I sleep in until ~8am, which is wonderful, breakfast and man the table for a little while. Jim Ward's 10am Metamorphosis Alpha game (suitably christened "The Outpost of Doom"!) is great---easily one of the best convention games I've ever played. Jim's game ends ~2pm, and John Lile and Paul Jaquays and I run out for a quick lunch at Subway. Rob Kuntz and I are able to catch up a bit in the afternoon, before my evening Black Reservoir game begins at 6pm. That runs to ~midnight, and I run around and socialize with folks until ~1:30am.
Sunday, 5 June: I sleep in again to ~9am, which is even more wonderful than sleeping to 8am, and mostly spend the day manning the table. During that time I catch up with Victor Raymond a bit on Tekumel/EPT mega-dungeons, sell some more books, and chat for awhile with Erol Otus, Paul Jaquays, and Steve Winter as the con starts to wind down in the afternoon. Around 4pm or so, Jon and I start to tear the table down and pack our books up (which takes until to 5:30 or 6pm); then Jon and I help Doug and Mike and several other Acaeum stalwarts to break down the registration area. Doug kindly takes us out to dinner afterward at a Cajun restaurant, during which we're regaled with the Dallas fans rooting rather loudly for the Mavericks (though the lost that game in the end, IIRC). After returning to the hotel, we found a conference room, and played Aliens for a few hours, wrapping up by ~12:30 or 1am or so. In space, no one can hear you scream
Monday, 6 June: Jon and I sleep in, then breakfast with Victor, and Badmike and his grandson, and end up leaving the hotel at ~11am. We return to Wichita in time for dinner.
If you're not aware, Doug only enabled the
NTX Zazzle swag store after the con, and items there are only available until 15 July. And many of the convention modules are available for purchase at
www.RPGMarketplace.com (toward the bottom of the linked page, and the next one too).
I'm already looking forward to next year: 7-10 June 2012! Mark your calendars now, and
registration is already available for 2012 (In addition to registering for $5 less than when standard registration opens in August 2011, you can also pre-pay for discounted raffle tickets).
And that's all for now. I'll add some more details and such as I remember stuff, and will write up some summaries and post maps for my Black Reservoir levels over in the GH forum later.
But seriously man, you need to do something about that hair!