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Conclave of Gamers Wrapup

This past weekend I attended the Conclave of Gamers. This was my first gaming convention as both an attendee and a vendor, representing Adventureaweek.com and AAW Games. Here are some details about how the whole thing went.

 

Con registration opened at 10 AM Friday morning, but vendors were allowed in as early as 8:30 in order to set up. Since I didn’t have a lot of product or much in the way of signing, I showed up about 9:15, just because I didn’t know what kind of set up I would have. Turns out that I had three standard 2 1/2′ by 6′ tables. I had six adventures and enough holders for them and the two signs I had brought along.

As I was trying to figure out how exactly to arrange my tables, Benjamin and Donna from Crystal Spider Games, arrived and started piling stuff on their tables. As they kept at it I realized that they didn’t have nearly enough room for all of their products and themselves. So, being the friendly, neighborly sort, I offered them one of my tables, as two tables were plenty for me to display the adventures and still have room left to move around, talk to people, and even have space for my laptop. This quickly setup a relationship that would last throughout the Conclave of Gamers, benefitting both of us.

bejinx cardsNot too long after Crystal Spider Games showed up, a couple, Bob and Kris, arrived and set up on the left side. They designed and created the card game called BeJinx, a “partner game” that you can use to alter how games like Monopoly, Yahtzee, and other board games are played. They were great people and we had many wonderful conversations.

The Conclave opened its doors promptly at 10 AM and to be honest, not a lot of people showed up. It was a bit before lunch on a Friday, so this wasn’t very surprising. More people arrived in the late afternoon around 4 PM as they got off of work, and the room filled up even more later in the evening.

I attempted to run Crow’s Rest Island at 1 pm on Friday but sadly, no one showed up. I used the time allotted for that to wander around the convention and check out other games and games systems used by the other vendors. I ended up talking to the owner of Rocky Mountain Geeks, which collects information about geeky things happening in the Rocky Mountain region. Robert and his wife Rachel (along with their adorable four-month old, Asher) also run a shop: Dune Trader Games. He ran multiple sessions of “Learn How to Play Dungeons and Dragons” using different sets of rules; a 3.5 game, a Pathfinder game, a 4E, and a 5E game, with tables that were always crowded. It was good to see people sitting down and playing the game, no matter which rules they were using.

 

crystal_spider_logoOn Saturday we arrived and set up earlier, since doors opened at 9 AM. Saturday had a much higher attendance rate than Friday, with nearly as many people in the room by 10 AM Saturday as their had been at the peak time on Friday. I had a lot more people come up to the table and ask about Adventureaweek in general and a couple that expressed interest in the adventure modules I had for sale.

Just before my game on Saturday I had a man named Brett (later to be named Brett Uno) come over and introduce himself as the person who had signed up for the game in advance. He was interested in taking part in the session because he has two daughters (aged four and five) interested in roleplaying games, but he hadn’t really played before so he wanted to talk to me about being a GM, so that he might run a game for his children. I went over and claimed my table at 1 PM, but Brett was the only person there at the time so we sat and talked for a few minutes before another player, Josiah, showed up.

Instead of Crypt of the Sun Lord, which I had scheduled to run on Friday, I decided to run Crow’s Rest Island since I hadn’t had the chance to the day before. I used Pathfinder Society first level pregenerated characters, making sure to have enough dice and pencils for everything—here is how being friendly with Benjamin and Donna from Crystal Spider Games helped me out.

That morning I realized I didn’t bring any miniatures for the players to use! I emailed a friend who lived in the area and had a previous set of my minis, but he was away from home and couldn’t lend them out. I checked the games in the game library and none of them had minis I could use. With a sigh of frustration, I went over to Crystal Spider and began looking through their minis, finding everything I needed, except that I used goblins instead of kobolds. I was getting ready to fork over about $20 for a five-piece set of pewter minis, a handful of plastic goblins, and what I think was a really small gold dragon to use in place of the “Big Bad Monster” at the end. Instead Benjamin asked what I needed them for and I told him; I was hoping for a little discount (us being friendly and all) but he says, “just go ahead and borrow them. I think I have plenty of goblins to sell, if anybody wants them.” The man just saved my life!

DOWNLOAD A FREE ADVENTURE!  Crow's Rest IslandI started with those two players and had a third show up—Brett (a second Brett, now named Brett Dos) came and joined us. At this point, things started going off the rails, plotwise, for Crow’s Rest Island. Josiah didn’t trust the White Crow (who is a major plot point), and so sneaked up on her and tackled her. She told him of the plot and what needed to be done, just as a fourth player, Hugh, arrived. Giving him the brief rundown of the plot so far, everything seemed to be in order; the problem was Frank.

Frank (named by the players) was a goblin that, in order to prod the group toward the longhouse (more plot devices), lead a group of four goblins toward the shore to check out a boat. Instead, they came across the PCs. Two goblins got scared off by Intimidation, one was killed in the ensuing panic, and Frank…poor, poor Frank…was rendered unconscious by virtue of reaching exactly zero hit points. The party then decided to question Frank and ask about the goblin forces on the island, since the PCs had seen visions of a goblin horde runnin’ wild all over the island. Being the supremely adaptable GM that I am, Frank answered their questions and the party decided to follow the goblins that ran away back to their warren.

The party (and poor, bound and gagged Frank) came upon a section of the trail where there seemed like there might be an ambush. Glib, a gnome rogue played by Josiah, came up with the great plan of dressing himself up as Frank, since they were the same size, and sneaking over the hill to join the ranks of the goblin ambushers, thus gaining a decisive advantage over the attackers, able to attack from behind.

So, the long and short of it was that, despite being outnumbered 9-to-4, the PCs managed to survive (no dice fudging on my part), and make their way to the goblin warren where there were only women and children left, as well as the Big Bad Monster, who explained that the PCs had basically won the day—except that there was still the plot with the longhouse, the crows, and the curse to contend with.

By this point, it was just after 4 PM, which was the end of my allotted time. To wrap everything up with the pretty bow, we had AN EIGHTIES ACTION MONTAGE! The players defeated more goblins, they found what needed to be found, and completed the ritual freeing the crows to head to their final resting place! Hooray! [Sorry if I’m being vague about what happened in the adventure. I’m trying to avoid spoilers. -WM]

Everyone, except Frank, seemed to have a great time, but the surprises weren’t done yet.

snow white coverAs I was packing up, Hugh asked if he could ask me a question. I said sure. He then said that he was from the Denver Post, covering the Conclave of Gamers, and wondered if he could do a quick interview with me. Honestly I was shocked, because I wasn’t expecting that particular question. I agreed and we had a good five minute conversation about AdventureAWeek.com, the Snow White Kickstarter, and the Conclave itself. I haven’t seen or heard the interview yet, but I’m sure he has a lot of stuff to go through. Once I find it, I’ll post a link! The rest of Saturday went smoothly, talking to people, wandering the hall at some points, playing or observing more games.

 

Sunday was an interesting day. Doors opened at 9 AM but there weren’t a lot of people there until after the lunch rush, with the room filling up at about noon. Three interesting things happened on Sunday:

  1. I spoke to a man named DJ and his significant other (I apologize for not remembering her name) about AAW and what we do, the Snow White Kickstarter, and various other mundane things. DJ ended up taking one of my business cards and one of my slips of paper relating to submitting an adventure pitch to AAW, which might lead to something.
  2. A while after DJ left the booth, Josiah from Saturday’s Crow’s Rest Island game came by and we chatted, mostly about how he doesn’t like using adventures because the players tend to go some other way that the adventure doesn’t plan for—the fact that he did the same thing the day before was not lost on him. He also took a business card and, surprisingly, asked if he could send me his ruleset to look over, which I said would be fine; I’m interested to see what he has.
  3. While speaking to DJ and his lady friend, a man came up to the booth, looked around for a second, took one of my business cards and then gave me one of his. A little bit later I actually got to talk to him—his name is Ross Watson, a graphic designer and RPG designer. He complimented AAW on their artwork and the layout of the adventures that I had in print. Turns out that Ross recently moved to Denver from Texas and has his own podcast called Gamer’s Tavern and told me that if I ever had anything to talk about, that I should give him a shout and we’ll see what we can put together. I am definitely keeping that in mind, especially as the Snow White Kickstarter reaches it’s final days of funding!

 

All in all I had a great time at the Conclave of Gamers, and it was a wonderful opportunity for good exposure and got the AdventureAWeek.com name out there some more. In a show of loyalty I bought the five pack of minis from Crystal Spider Games and when I won a prize for filling out the vendor survey, I took a pack of BeJinx cards. In the future I’ll be back and might go to another semi-local convention, but for right now, we just have to wait and see what the future holds.

Will Myers

Don’t forget to be awesome to each other.

 

–Will Myers

 

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Will Myers and AdventureAWeek.com at the Colorado Conclave of Gamers this weekend!

Will MyersIt’s hard to believe that in my roughly 30 years of off-and-on gaming that I’ll be attending my first ever gaming convention on Friday, July 25th: the third annual Conclave of Gamers at the DIA Crowne Plaza Hotel in Denver, Colorado. I’ve been to other conventions before, but never to a gaming convention, and though it isn’t one of the bigger cons, I’m looking forward to it!

I think that having a smaller gaming convention to start with is good for me; the previous two Conclaves have had around 100 people. This year, there are that many people pre-registered, which makes this the biggest Conclave so far. I wish I could take the credit for that by my being there, but…

The Conclave could be a useful thing for me as a stepping stone to eventually attend something like PaizoCon or GenCon, an opportunity to get used to the ebb and flow of people and the ups and downs of a different type of convention than I’ve been to before. Meeting other gamers and the representatives from other companies to talk shop or just to prattle on about our 12th level paladins could be fun. Trying out different games will certainly be entertaining as well.

bannerThe most interesting part for me at this convention is that I’m going to be Gamemaster for two AdventureAWeek.com modules. On Friday, I’m running Crow’s Rest Island and on Saturday, I’m GMing Crypt of the Sun Lord. With all of the various projects that we’ve worked on since those two came out (including the Snow White Kickstarter), I’ve been hard pressed to keep up with some of the older projects but am excited to bring out a few favorites from my past.

A0 Crow's Rest IslandAlong with running those two games, I will also be in the vendor area selling AAW Games products, including those two adventures, plus the following four adventures, Devil of Dark Wood, Champion’s Rest, Forest for the Trees, and Winterflower.

One thing I noticed on the Conclave schedule is that there are three sessions—one each on Friday morning, Saturday morning, and Sunday morning—for learning how to play Dungeons & Dragons. It doesn’t say what edition, but I think having a session like that would be really great at a small con because it’s in a more comfortable atmosphere than you might find at a larger con.

 

Distant FarmlandsThere are plenty of games to be had (though seating is limited!), so if you’re going to be there make sure to sign up soon! Playtests abound as well, and one group, Dark Infinity Software, is using a touch table to display their video board games.

Passes for the Conclave are still available at the door: $46 for the whole weekend, $26 for either Friday or Saturday, and $16 for Sunday only.

Stop by the vendor’s area and say hi or reserve your seat at one of the two games I’m running. It’ll be great to see you!

 

-Will Myers

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C3: Sufferhorn Castle

Today I’ll take a look at AaW’s latest classic play module,

 

Sufferhorn Castle

 

This module is 27 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial/ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a total of 24 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

 

This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

 

All right, still here? The Sufferhorn Orc clan, leaders of the Gorrok empire of Orcs (also having subjugated ogres, trolls etc.) is trying to expand the borders of their empire and unfortunately for all other races, they seem to be succeeding: The PCs are hired to take Mosshammer castle, which has fallen to the Boarhut tribe, themselves related to the Sufferhorns.

Now logic dictates that retaking a castle, even when manned by orcs, is not that simple and indeed, the approach of the PCs can be rather sandboxy, enabling them to e.g. take out a hunting group to thin the ranks, pass undead former human soldiers guarding the castle unharmed  etc. Smart thinking is rewarded – a sidequest, for example, would have the PCs enter the former chapel of the castle to retrieve a relic – unfortunately, the chapel is now home to not one, but 4 dire boars. If the PCs have found a particular set of bottles and douse foes with the “pig sweat”, they can actually have the creatures attack the doused foe exclusively – great way to reward smart thinking. Speaking of side-quests – a treasure map (provided as a hand-out – the second after a one-page rendition of the castle exterior) could lead the PCs to a place where they can unearth a treasure – provided they survive the journey.

 

But back to the castle: The orcs have truly created a monstrosity: A *drum roll* DEMON SHEEP! (which is actually undead) -hilarious and awesome and yet another way for stealthy characters to sow discord and sabotage their foes! To triumph truly, though, they’ll have to vanquish chief Dolaken Boarhut and his sorcerous brother Harveken – once these two are done for, they castle will finally be back in non-green hands: But for how long?

 

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good, I didn’t notice any significant glitches. Layout adheres to AaW’s two-column standard and the module comes in two versions: One with a background and one rather printer-friendly one sans the background. The module is extensively bookmarked with nested bookmarks and comes with two nice player’s handouts as well as a player-friendly map of the castle, which is nice to have.

 

At first, this module may seem simple and uninspired. Take back a castle from orcs. Yeah, ok. There’s something about Sufferhorn, though, that makes it interesting and it’s not only the nice sidequest, but rather it’s the details and the obvious sandboxy intention of confronting the players with a situation and have them either try to grind through it or use their wits and guerrilla warfare to succeed. Smart PCs can avoid the worst battle in the module and even turn a significant potential asset of the orcs against them. If they’re dumb, players could die, yes. But much like “Goblin Cave” (seriously, Goblin Cave?), this module is a solid challenge and a great introduction to the mindset and playstyle of the classics. Add the nice humor inherent in one creature that had me grin and we’re in for a good module, though not one that can stand up to the stellar C1. Much rather, consider this a nice, short sojourn that will provide a fun time for you and your players without taxing them to their utmost limits or being too easy. In the end, it is a solid, good module that can be considered a good piece of writing. It is only due to the module’s shortness that the final verdict will thus be 4 stars.

 

Endzeitgeist out.

 

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EZG reviews the FREE A0 – Crow’s Rest Island

 A0 – Crow’s Rest Island

This module is 23 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with a total of 19 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

Now this being an adventure review, the following review contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here?

After a short introduction to the area in which it is set in the default campaign setting of AdventureaWeek.com – essentially, the PCs will be people of the Klavekian kingdom, largest of the human realms and sent to the icy frontier of the kingdom to help the settlement Rybalka, which lies right at the border of Vikmordere-territory: Feared savages that could be considered a wild blending of Viking and Native American cultures. That out of the way, the module kicks off without much ado – the PCs are traveling en route to Rybalka for fame and fortune and on their way, they’ll need to pass the notorious “Crow’s Rest Island”.

When passing the island on their ship of Vikmordere-build (which comes fully mapped in gorgeous detailed full color with  maps (on deck, below deck, in a snow-storm and in full-blown snow-storm – awesome), they are forced ashore by the weather and see a weird white crow. In the island’s woods, they encounter a party of kobolds and it is also here, the PCs can start to piece together what has happened here. When kobolds were washed ashore on this island, their shaman summoned an ice demon to get rid of the local Vikmordere population. The wild men, confronted with the demonic entity faced annihilation and in order to save them, an adopted Vikmordere attempted a ritual that was interrupted by the kobolds. This ritual gone haywire has trapped the spirits of the Vikmordere on the island. The lavishly illustrated village of the Vikmordere contains the remnants of the kobolds and there, amid ghostly visions, the PCs can secure the missing item for the ritual and help the spirits of the dead find peace.

 

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn’t notice any glitches. Layout adheres to AaW’s latest 2-column standard with its more streamlined boxes and easier to read fonts and the artworks in full color range from awesome (vista of the village) to not-so-awesome (cover). As I’ve come to expect from AaW, the cartography is simply stellar and especially the weather and its effect on the ship is AWESOME. A great idea and something I’d love to see used in other modules as well. If you register at Adventureaweek.com, you can also download for free all artworks (including a handouts through a spyglass), profiles of the AaW-iconics, high-res jpegs of all the maps, png-tokens for NPCs and adversaries and herolab-files. While usually I would complain about a lack of a backgroundless version of the pdf, this module is free, so it gets a pass on this one. The pdf is extensively fitted with nested bookmarks.

There are sometimes modules that as written are not too exciting, but spark the imagination via iconic locales, nice presentation etc. and this is one of them: The location presented in the module is cool, creepy and offers quite some potential for expansion by the DM – and expanded it should be, for the simple encounters fall flat of the awesomeness of the backdrop. Indeed, I wished this was not a free prequel module, but rather a full-blown haunting-investigation. Think about it: Traps in the wood, a deserted village, the sense of being watched, mysterious crows, weather worsening and keeping the PCs stranded on the place and then, the strange hauntings begin – every DM worth his salt can construct a complex investigation from this yarn instead of handing out the solution to what happened on a silver platter to the PCs. Were this a commercial module, that would exactly be what I’d complain about. It’s FREE, though, and every module that excites me enough to even contemplate expanding it like I just described is worth downloading and in fact, does a great job. Were I only to rate the module as it can be seen in the pdf, I’d probably go for 4 or 3 stars, depending on a hypothetical price. But since this pdf is free, comes with good production values and sparks one’s imagination, I’ll instead settle on a solid verdict of 5 stars – come on, it’s free and you know you at least want to scavenge the maps. 😉

Endzeitgeist out.

Link to download A0: Crow’s Rest Island