First pictures from Gen Con!
The annual Acaeum dinner was Wednesday night at Buca di Beppo, arranged by Prufrock. Tim is on the left, stratochamp on the right, and increment (of
Playing at the World fame) is to strat's right. I'm afraid I don't recall the name of the fellow in the yellow shirt on the left; next to him is Ligmancer.
At the other end of the table is Contrarian (on the right) with his companion (on the left). Prufrock is in the white shirt on the left, and the Burntwires are in the baseball hats on the right.
We had so many in attendance, some had to sit at a separate table. That's Bill Barsh on the left, sitting across from Blackmoor and his wife, Saxonangel.
Here's Bill Barsh again, behind the table at the
OSR booth. This was before a lot more product arrived, and another table had to be added. That may be the reason for the apparently disapproving look on Bill's face.
I picked up a few nice little items at the
OSR booth.
I backed Mike Nystul's
Infinite Dungeon Kickstarter. Mike decided to hold an informal gathering of those of his supporters at Gen Con at the Ram Thursday night. Mike is third from the right.
I also backed the
Shadows of Esteren Kickstarter. The author, artist and translator, who live in France, attended Gen Con. We were able to pick up our product at the convention. At the level I supported, I got two copies of the main book (one normal, one a signed and numbered limited edition), a map, character sheets, a
DM screen, art prints and a music CD. The artist also agreed to do some original artwork in a certain number of the limited editions per day. I got to their booth early on Thursday to make sure I was covered. This is me, with the artist on the left and the author on the right, and my book. I'll post some additional pictures in the Kickstarter thread.
Someone made this enormous dragon out of balloons. The right to destroy it at the end of the convention was auctioned off for charity.
In an effort to prove that Acaeum members know how to wear a kilt, here are yours truly and Blackmoor. [
Insert your preferred snarky comment here.]
I played in a
DCC RPG game, with Harley Stroh as
DM. For the fourth time in a row, Harley killed my character. This time, I was ripped apart by a 700 foot tall skeletal monster. Somehow, Harley managed to express both regret and pleasure about this at the same time.
The auction this year was, as a general matter, pretty disappointing, with only a few rare items. The auction of the TSR archives materials went pretty well, and did raise a good bit of money for the Gygax Memorial. But good or bad, Acaeum members were at the ready at the auction.
Frank and Tim were, as usual, auctioning the best of the lots.
There was an issue number one of
The Dragon, here held by its editor.
One interesting item was an
OCE, with signatures of both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson on the box, each booklet and the reference sheets. Having something signed by each of them on the same page is unusual; this is potentially unique. That being said, I think a number of us were surprised when it sold for $1400.
I did pick up a couple things at the auction (though a LOT less than I usually do). Best purchase was probably the
War of Wizards, which for some reason was sold in the middle of the regular
RPGs auction, rather than collectibles. $30.
Also, after a post-auction exchange, I did pick up the TSR Hex Book, Hex Pad and Hexagonal Mapping Booklet that stratochamp won over the Burntwires. I don't have a picture, but stratochamp picked up a copy of the original
Kalifax, including the supplement, for $18.
As usual, I made sure to make it to Hickman's Killer Breakfast.
This year, stratochamp decided to get into the action and go on stage to be killed.
As did Frank and Tim.
Frank managed to take over the
DM role for a while (no surprise to those of us who regularly sit at his table), but in the end, Tracy did kill him. Twice, thus taking care of Frank's prior history as the only known survivor of the Killer Breakfast.
