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North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9
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Kingofpain89
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Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2013 11:07 pm

Badmike wrote in North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9:Anyone that is interested in how the Trivia Quiz went at the con...

I was overly optimistic, I printed off 50 copies of my 70 question quiz that covered many random categories (Artists, Weapons, Bad Guys, Chainmail, Influential Literature, Magic Items, Encounters, Forgotten Realms, etc). When people started reading, they immediately handed the test back. Average number of questions got right was something under 10. However, even the wrong answers gave me some good insight as to what are good and bad categories to concentrate on if we get to do a Trivia Contest next year. Anyway, I only handed about MAYBE a dozen of these, which is too bad, I thought more people would be eager to try these.

I felt the only really difficult section was "Chainmail", and I admit that the rules set is NOT on most people's menu of things to know about D&D. People did the best under Literary Influences (which was cool), and I was actually surprised how much trivial knowledge most of you have about encounters, creatures and magic items in old school modules (Example: Pretty much everyone knew "The limed over skeleton of the Abbot" made an appearance in the sample dungeon of the DMG, which I thought would be a toughie....just goes to show everyone reads their 1E DMG front to back!)

Grodog, you were far and away the best score with FIFTY out of 70 (congrats!). I actually made the test with Allen in mind, thinking what kinds of things might stump him, and so it served it's purpose, sort of (I did stump him 20 times!!!). Michael Curtis had a very nice showing at 33 right (almost half). Michael and Allen almost aced the literary influence section (of course), while Allen also missed only one under weapons and Michael had some great guesses and by FAR the funniest wrong answers on the planet (sample: "What kind of creature is Sakatha?" Answer: "An Ex-wife" .....and "Name four figurines of wondrous power" Answer: "Ebony Fly, Chicken of the Seas, Scooby-Doo, and Super Car".

The next closest right was Joe Browning with 22, and he didn't answer most of the questions, but the ones he knew he aced. I'm sure some others at the con could have done as well but most people were plain just intimidated by the first questions (they actually got somewhat easier as they went along, I shouldn't have led off with some of the hardest ones). Anyway, Allen and Michael will definitely be invited to the Trivia contest should it be held, I'll still be looking for a couple more contestants and maybe a celebrity ringer on the panel for fun. But thanks to everyone who took the test as it helps immensely in seeing what questions worked and what didn't, which are too difficult and which were too easy. If you are planning to attend the con next year and think you can match up to the gaming brains of myself, Allen Grohe and Michael Curtis, let me know and we'll see about administering you a test before then (I don't want to send a copy as I may want to re-use or re-purpose some of my questions, so you may just have to impress me with your general D&D knowledge). Thanks!

Mike B.

Ack! I completely forgot about this. I spent a good hour on Thursday or Friday afternoon going through the questions and seeing which ones I could do from memory. I answered 41 out of 70 before I finally said enough. The Chainmail section was definitely the most difficult as I didn't bother to answer a single question. The Artists section was also difficult for me but may be very easy for someone that pays attention more than I do when it comes to "which artist drew that?". The section "Influences From Literature" I managed to put down an answer for every question. The section on Greyhawk was only three questions?

While the Forgotten Realms questions were either way too easy (#30) or way too hard (#34). The section on Magical Items was a good mix and I was able to answer all but one (#35). The other sections were hit or miss. General TSR Trivia could easily be axed or expanded depending on the direction of the questions. Obsure and Dangerous Encounters, Wacky Weapons, and the Big Bads section were challenging for the most part. No idea on #62 and I even pulled out the book to see which and still could not find it.

Good idea for next year though. One idea you might consider if there is enough interest...and time....is have a panel of three people answering questions. The questions come from the audience and if an audience member stumps a panel member, the audience member gets to take their place. Saw something similar at a Star Trek convention a couple of decades ago. It was a lot of fun and it got the people in the audience to participate more and kept it from being a snore-fest.

You don't like your job, you don't strike. You go in every day and do it really half-assed. That's the American way. - Homer Simpson

grodog
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 2:18 am

Badmike wrote in North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9:Anyone that is interested in how the Trivia Quiz went at the con... [snip]

Grodog, you were far and away the best score with FIFTY out of 70 (congrats!).

Cool, Mike, and thanks for the heads-up. I'm definitely curious to know what I got and what I missed, sometime---can you please copy my answers for me to dig around in the future? (I didn't think to copy my responses before giving them to you).

Kingofpain89 wrote in North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9:The Chainmail section was definitely the most difficult as I didn't bother to answer a single question. The Artists section was also difficult for me but may be very easy for someone that pays attention more than I do when it comes to "which artist drew that?". The section "Influences From Literature" I managed to put down an answer for every question. The section on Greyhawk was only three questions? :| While the Forgotten Realms questions were either way too easy (#30) or way too hard (#34). The section on Magical Items was a good mix and I was able to answer all but one (#35). The other sections were hit or miss. General TSR Trivia could easily be axed or expanded depending on the direction of the questions. Obsure and Dangerous Encounters, Wacky Weapons, and the Big Bads section were challenging for the most part. No idea on #62 and I even pulled out the book to see which and still could not find it.

I thought the Chainmail Qs were also tough, along with the FR Qs (I just don't have as much of that soaked into my spinal fluid). Several of the Encounters and Weapons Qs were hard too.

Kingofpain89 wrote in North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9:Good idea for next year though. One idea you might consider if there is enough interest...and time....is have a panel of three people answering questions. The questions come from the audience and if an audience member stumps a panel member, the audience member gets to take their place. Saw something similar at a Star Trek convention a couple of decades ago. It was a lot of fun and it got the people in the audience to participate more and kept it from being a snore-fest. :)

That's a good idea, John---also takes the pressure off, too!

Allan Grohe (grodog@gmail.com)
Greyhawk, grodog Style

Editor and Project Manager, Black Blade Publishing
https://www.facebook.com/BlackBladePublishing/

bbarsh
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 8:35 am

I still have not filled mine out. I am ignoring the previous posts. Sorry, Mike, just got very busy at the con.

And I could've bought these damn modules off the 1$ rack!!!

New modules for your Old School game http://pacesettergames.com/

Everything Pacesetter at http://pacesettergames.blog.com/

Badmike
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Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 12:48 am

I forgot to finish my totally half-ass con report, but I'll just touch on a few other things here:

The auction got off to a rough start when I noticed about 30 min prior that the room we had designation (the Centreport Room) held 60 people max and we already had over 30 people jammed up in the halway outside. So I made an executive decision to move the raffle/awards/auction to one half of the big ballroom. The next 30 min were frantically moving tables, chairs and dividers to make room for the festivities. Thanks to everyone that facilitated this fubar! We eneded up with over 100 in the room so I am very glad it was moved, the smaller room would not have been able to hold all the interested parties.

As usual we gave out Free Auction tickets and had 9 prize packets this year; also, many raffle goodies for the masses who bought tickets in the Paid Raffle (thanks to everyone who drop a five spot or more to buy tickets this year!). The trophies were presented for Gladiator champ (Ben Burns) and Chariot Champ (Zach/Nogrod), and the annual Three Castles Award was given out to Jeff Dee's Cavemaster system (which narrowly beat out Greg Gillespie's Barrowmaze) in some very close voiting. The art panel this year drew a "group" scene, with each artist (Jaquays, Easley, Dee, Otus, LaForce and Kovacs) drawing one member of an adventuring party then passing it on, we auctioned these off and were very happy to have collected over $1000 for the con from the bids!

The auction was great as ever, unfortunately my inability to say "no" to many fine items offered up made the auction run over by 30 min, I'd still say it was a success. I got to auction off most of the little guppies before making way to Frank Mentzer who took care of the big fishes, many thanks to Frank for bringing his Gencon expertise to our tiny little extravaganza. As many heavy hitters make their way to our con, there was some spirited and eye-opening bids for some of the goodies. Some interesting prices: TSR Silver Anniversary Set (Easley signed print) for $225; DCC #1 Idylls of Rat King 1st print for $100; War of the Wizards Mint SW boxed set for $400; RPGA2 Black Opal Eye NM for $700; Bottle City Author's Copy for $400; 1st print Dungeon Geomorphs #1 for $75, and the big item of the night was a Quest for the Golden Orb tournament mod (only 50 copies ever made, played/sold at Origins '84 in Dallas) for a whopping $2100! Many thanks to everyone who bid in the auction. I was told by more than one attendee that our auction featured cooler items than the rares auction at Gencon the last couple of years; don't know if I believe that was true, but the guys who told me are people who I trust to know these things, maybe they were just being nice. I do know that for a "smaller" con we have some of the most unusual, valuable and interesting items out there. And there are STILL some really unique items sitting on the shelves of the warehouse for future auctions, seeing as we can only do 25-30 items a year in the time allotted I always try to find a good mixture of unique and rare to amuse the masses, hope I succeeded again this year.

We heard a lot of praise for the two serving wenchs, Oliviah and Jessica. It was their job to take care of the tables during the con and they did an incredible job. They were fun and always helpful and really got into the spirit of the con. One thing was that they were promotional professionals and being so good at their jobs really added to the con running smoothly. Hopefully we can include one or both again next year to help us out again, they were a big hit....if you didn't make it, here's what you missed:

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/ ... fc55a6.jpg

We once again had the pleasure of watching Grodog set up his incredible Aliens miniature dioramas and game tables. Unbelievably we were apparently treated to a run one day where the space marines made it out completely intact with no casualties, the first time I ever heard of that happening. Obviously Allan is losing his touch so he made up for it the next session with a marine TPK, nice to get back in the swing of things there, Grodog.

Sunday night after we had packed up Doug once again treated us all to dinner at a great Mexican place right around the corner. Afterwards I went with Blackmoor, Smarmy, Grodog and Rob Kuntz to watch the new Star Trek flick. It was the last showing of the night and we didn't walk out until after midnight! Nice wrap up to a wonderful con.

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

lucyjoyce
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 6:47 am

Before any more time passes, I just want to take a minute to say how great the Con was. Saw old friends, made new ones. Badmike almost killed me, Bill Barsh DID kill me (turning me into a garter snake and then stepping on me), Jennell Jaquays transformed my buff dwarven fighter into dirt, Rob Kuntz gave me nightmares (this black amorphous blob of his creation was creepily attracted to me), and Alan Grohe killed me twice (Spunkmeyer, I hardly knew ye). Sunday morning was a highlight, with Harley Stroh's Black Manse. I invoked the name of my great-aunt Palestine for my character name. Don't know what inspired my great great grandparents in the naming of their offspring, but aunt Pallie and her brothers Thomas Jefferson Anderson, George Washington Anderson, and Lafayette Anderson were some tough customers. Our party was the infamous Renaldo's Raiders, Renaldo being played by a very nice guy named Paul, who led us valiantly. Pallie came through for me, thanks to brave Stratochamp charging into grave dirt, Bracton exploring evil contraptions and Smarmy intrepidly investigating. Tacojon went over to the dark side for a bit, but we all came out of the adventure alive.

The hotel was really nice, with super comfy rooms and public areas. The noise level was pretty subdued, considering the number of tables and general mayhem gaming requires. Jeff Easley drew a nifty little dragon on my Acaeum limited print, benjoshua signed the mini-module that he wrote to include with it, and I scored a beautiful box with a fairie sleeping on it made by Diesel LaForce. Nogrod set me up with some very cool Lesser Gnome stuff, I won some interesting dungeon tile dice at the raffle, and also won a really nice wall hanging from Bill Barsh's Pacestter booth. Almost made up for him turning me into a snake. Almost.

Anyhoo, just want to thank Doug and Mike for a wonderful time. See you next year, I hope.

If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error. - John Kenneth Galbraith

Badmike
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Posted: Mon Jul 08, 2013 10:21 am

I feel like I failed. I will do everything in my power to kill you next time (although that bite from the giant rattlesnake probably should have ended you, the party showed some good thinking skills in dropping you into the Pool of Healing in the Room of Pools so I thought it should be rewarded!). Don't wait two years to show up again!

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

Badmike
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Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:12 am

EDITED

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

Last edited by Badmike on Fri Oct 25, 2013 12:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

stratochamp
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Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 12:38 am

lucyjoyce, you have a great aunt named Palestine? that's awesome!
that was a fun game with Harley. i wish i could have stayed unto the very end, but i had a 7 hour drive back to Missouri with Invincible Overlord and my mother-in-law had strongly requested that we be there in time for dinner. great con, great organizers, great friends old and new, great adventures. looking forward to 2014!

Shrink is not a condition

SmokestackJones
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Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2013 1:37 am

lucyjoyce wrote in North Texas RPG Convention 2013: June 6-9:Before any more time passes, I just want to take a minute to say how great the Con was. Saw old friends, made new ones. Badmike almost killed me, Bill Barsh DID kill me (turning me into a garter snake and then stepping on me), Jennell Jaquays transformed my buff dwarven fighter into dirt, Rob Kuntz gave me nightmares (this black amorphous blob of his creation was creepily attracted to me), and Alan Grohe killed me twice (Spunkmeyer, I hardly knew ye). Sunday morning was a highlight, with Harley Stroh's Black Manse. I invoked the name of my great-aunt Palestine for my character name. Don't know what inspired my great great grandparents in the naming of their offspring, but aunt Pallie and her brothers Thomas Jefferson Anderson, George Washington Anderson, and Lafayette Anderson were some tough customers. Our party was the infamous Renaldo's Raiders, Renaldo being played by a very nice guy named Paul, who led us valiantly. Pallie came through for me, thanks to brave Stratochamp charging into grave dirt, Bracton exploring evil contraptions and Smarmy intrepidly investigating. Tacojon went over to the dark side for a bit, but we all came out of the adventure alive.

The hotel was really nice, with super comfy rooms and public areas. The noise level was pretty subdued, considering the number of tables and general mayhem gaming requires. Jeff Easley drew a nifty little dragon on my Acaeum limited print, benjoshua signed the mini-module that he wrote to include with it, and I scored a beautiful box with a fairie sleeping on it made by Diesel LaForce. Nogrod set me up with some very cool Lesser Gnome stuff, I won some interesting dungeon tile dice at the raffle, and also won a really nice wall hanging from Bill Barsh's Pacestter booth. Almost made up for him turning me into a snake. Almost.

Anyhoo, just want to thank Doug and Mike for a wonderful time. See you next year, I hope.

Advice for BadMike's games: if the general store offers a dog, BUY IT! IT will die before you (at least it'll give your character a bit more play time).

-SJ

If I'm not me, who am I? And if I'm somebody else, why do I look like me?
-Popeye

Beblach!

Badmike
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Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 12:57 pm

The month of November is nearly upon us, and there will be a unique event that may interest members of this forum. I have been slowly selling a wonderful collection of RPGs by a friend, but the sales are going too slowly and I am afraid of the hit I will have for fees once I move the sale to Ebay. Some of the items auctioned at this year's NTRPG con (RPGA2 Black Opal Eye and Quest for the Golden Orb being two of the most visible) were from this collection, as was the ST1 and Brown Box on display in the glass case behind the counter.

Thus, for two-three weekends in November I am moving the sale to my garage! For at least two weekends in November, I'll open my garage to buyers with several tables of hundreds of gaming items, all priced and ready to sell. Included will be comics, boxed war games, paperbacks, and of course boxes and boxes of RPG goodies (including many SW D&D modules, boxes of miniatures, Dwarven Forged sets, and gaming magazines). One weekend will be exclusively for my NTRPG con friends and attendees; the other weekend(s) will be opened to all (and advertised via Craigslist).

If you are out of town this might be a good weekend to think about driving/flying in to see the items offered, as many of them are highly collectible (lists will follow). I will accept any sort of payment (cash, check, paypal) from those of you I know personally (from the convention or otherwise) while all others will be cash only. So far I am looking at Nov 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24. The sale will be from 9 am until dark (7 pm?) with perhaps gaming to follow if enough people show up and plan to do so on one of the days. This is only in the preliminary stages so if you have a preference for the two weekends let me know!

Mike B.

"THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT WHY i DONE WHAT i DONE THE MORE i LAUGH" Cougar
"The Acaeum hates fun" Sir Allen
"I had a collecting emergency" Nogrod
Co-founder of the North Texas RPG Con
NTRPGCON

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