As always - despite the challenges, the long nights, the endless fretting over budgets and schedules and promotional details - organizing our community's annual tabletop gaming convention has been an honor and a genuine pleasure. Since our earliest days we have struggled to evolve, reaching beyond the boundaries of our local paradigm and welcoming gamers and guests from across the nation to join us at our tables and help make our con a truly memorable experience. We strive to provide a broad range of activities, games new and old, popular and virtually unknown, both at the table and more socially invested, with world-class entertainment, service to our broader geek community, and an excellent and eclectic marketplace.
With only a few days to go, I'd like to highlight a few of our special gaming events:
ALIENS is a fast-paced and easy-to-learn miniatures war game set in the universe of Alien, Aliens, and Prometheus. You portray Colonial Marines trying to save the missing Hadley's Hope colonists of LV426. Game Master Allan Grohe from Black Blade Publishing supplies the minis and terrain; bring your own d10s and Pulse Rifles! The game is quick-moving, very easy to learn, and ridiculously fun, and kids are welcome to join in the fight. Allan's custom-made terrain and cool minis make it and immersive and exciting experience, and you'll have a good time whether you win the challenge or all die trying. You can find the setup near the Black Blade Publishing booth in the Great Hall; just drop by with your friends and let Allan know you're ready to play. You can also sign for a game in advance via our event registration page.
Mounting Pitons to Hold the Grill is a fun and hilarious live-action roleplaying event running all weekend during the con. It only takes four players to run a session, and several sessions are scheduled on Friday and Saturday. Players choose a character class with unique powers and adventure across various locations throughout the venue. Each party will have two hours to complete a Major Quest and several minor Quests, and then everyone is welcome to return on Sunday afternoon for the grand finale! Mounting Pitons is a mashup of Lord of the Rings and Monty Python's classic Arthurian farce, and promises to be an unforgettable experience! You can sign up now via our event registration page.
No Thank You, Evil! is an extraordinary tabletop game of creative make-believe, adventure, and storytelling designed to introduce children of all ages to the world of roleplaying games. Each player creates a character based on a couple of cool, descriptive, imagination-firing traits. You could play a princess, a robot, a spaceman, a dinosaur... all sorts of fun character concepts with cool abilities to help them save the day. Jonikka will be demoing No Thank You, Evil! throughout the morning on Saturday, and parents are welcome to sit in with the kids and even create characters of your own. Demos will usually only take around 60 minutes. Bring your kids out to play and you can even enter a drawing to win a deluxe edition of the game, so you can continue the adventure at home!
Lots of cool events are happening this weekend at the con! Get your badges early at a discount and plan to join us for a fun and fantastic weekend of gaming goodness!