Alright, the last client call is done.  Should be on the road to Madison soon.     (. . . he types, as another email comes in . . . .)  

Back at the hotel room.  Started with a game this morning with Rob Schwalb playing his Shadow of the Demon Lord system.  I was the first person to die in the last encounter, but at least got to do some damage to the big baddie.  The rest of the party either died or was enslaved.  Good times!

Then True Dungeon in the afternoon.  I went solo, but got lucky and played with a good group.  We pretty much waltzed through, only missing the solution to one puzzle room.  None of the monsters lasted more than two rounds.  We were badass.

Then I played in a round of the Cthulhu masters tournament, which ended around midnight.  It was a blast, playing the crew of a PT boat during WW2, sent to check on some mysterious Japanese activity on a Pacific atoll.  You can probably guess where that was headed.  

Not as many Acaeumites here as other cons.  I've run into Nogrod, Chainsaw, bbarsh and son, as well as Jeff Talanian, Frank, Tim and Jim.

The most amazing part was the total of five minutes I waited in the will call line to get my tickets and swag.  Alex really knows how to run a well-organized con.

I have been attending Gary Con (March) and NTRPG Con (June) since 2010, but this year I added one more - GameHole (November). This Madison, WI-based convention caters to a broader audience of hobbyists and has more people (I want to say 2k?) than GC (1200?) or NTRPG (350-450?). Anyway, here's a quick download (and pics).

Quite frankly, given the larger, broader target audience, I figured I'd be one of only a very few old school dudes, so I had some reservations about the demand for my three AS&SH games, but I ended up having a great time. I think 5E and PF had their own big rooms on floor one of convention center, while most other games got grouped into smaller rooms on floor two. All of easily recognizable folks I normally see at GC and NTRPG were floating around, running games. Definitely had more new schoolers than GC or NTRPG, but still seemed like a place receptive to old school games and cheer. For example, I had 2-3 people in each of my three AS&SH games that were 5e/PF people who said they wanted to try something new and ended up having a very good time. Special thanks to Bracton for giving my adventure a chance!

Overall, it felt very "small con-ish" despite having like 2,000 attendees. Rooms were full, but not too noisy. Seemed like a solid, well-organized convention. They also arranged a bunch of really good food carts out front, so you weren't limited to food from the convention center's concession stand. Like I said, overall, pretty good event, I thought.  I would go next year for sure, but it falls at a horrible, horrible time for me at work. We'll see!

View of lobby area of floor one from the stairs - enter building from left, register,  concession/PF/5E/vendors/board games on right, smaller old school game rooms upstairs.


Registration desk


Mythmere and Ghul Thursday morning near registration


Greyhawk map near registration






To the right of registration past this robot leads to the concession area were the vendor room, board game room, PF society and 5e rooms were


Featured table schedule (right past the robot thing, video streamed)


The setup for Stefan Pokorny's game


Concession area behind that robot thing, PF/5E to the left, vendors/board games right


PF Society room (left of concession area on one)


5E Adventurers' League (left of concession area on one).


Board game room (right of concession area on one)


Nice little referee's refuge with complimentary coffee and snacks


Some dude's pretty sweet Star Wars set up on one




Seminar schedule (on two)


Some dudes on two in the hallway


All old school people from what I could tell








entrance to one of the rooms upstairs holding old school games










Food carts outside (all surprisingly good)


Vendor room pics all below

Great meeting you mrmanowar. Looking forward to games and beers at Gary Con!  

Anyone who attended GameHole Con...
Have you ever attended ConFlict in La Crosse, WI?
If you did, send me a PM please!

dndgeek wrote in GameHole Con:Great pics, Chainsaw!

You bet! Happy to share them. As I said, I had a great time. Those folks do a really good job organizing their event.

Anybody hear any Numbers yet?

Alex, got anything for a panting public?

ExTSR wrote in GameHole Con:Anybody hear any Numbers yet?

Alex, got anything for a panting public?

Does anyone have auction information.  I heard the woody went for $2k?

Thanks