Stratochamp and I went up to Lake Geneva for the afternoon, since that was all the time we could spare.  This was my first time at GaryCon.  But it was definitely worth it, even though very little gaming was involved.

Got to see a bunch of the Old Guard:  Tim, Frank, Tom Wham, Harold Johnson and Jim Ward, among others.  Jeff Easley and Jolly Blackburn were there, though I didn't see them.  Harley Stroh introduced me to Joe Goodman.  And I also got to shake Luke Gygax's hand.  Gary sure raised one heckuva son.    The Acaeum was fairly well represented too, including the Burntwires, Contrarian, Tacojohn, and Grodog.  Paul Stormberg introduced me to a jousting game Gary invented, and I beat Harold Johnson on a tiebreaker (he broke two lances, I only broke one).

Other than chatting, all we really had time to do was attend the auction.  Frank and Tim led it as usual.  Proceeds from most of the items went to the Gygax memorial.  But a section of the auction was reserved to raise funds for Jim Roslof's family.  Interesting items included one of Gary's Hawaiian shirts (which sold for $800) and a cigar box (for $200, to the Burntwires).  I tried to win the DM copy of the module Tim wrote for the convention, but lost to the same guy who won Tim's modules from GaryCon I and GaryCon II (at $600).

Stratochamp picked up the biggest item at the auction.  It's a hand-made model of a castle, mounted on four-by-four plywood, and with real stones making up the walls.  Problem is, it is being used for a game tomorrow.  So we couldn't take it home today, and neither he nor I are attending the con tomorrow.  So, how to get it home?  That shall be a tale to be told about campfires in the evening, but until the journey is complete, I shall not tell . . .

I asked when I bought my day pass about attendance.  As of then, they had over 300 total attendees, registered and walk-ins.  It's really great to see such an old-style gathering of gamers.  In certain respects, it reminds me a bit of my first GenCons, back at UW Parkside.  Maybe next year, I will be able to go for more than just an afternoon.

I didn't bring my camera, but Contrarian did . . . so pictures should hopefully be forthcoming.

I'm probably going to miss something . . .

I think all of the art was part of the auction for Jim Roslof's family.  There were three original sketches by Jolly Blackburn (one of which I picked up), and two original Roslof's.  I don't recall what the first went for; it was a drawing of a dwarven woman (or so it appeared).  The other one was a double, two original drawings he did for a late Dragon magazine.  That one went for $400, to the same guy who bought the DM copy of Tim's adventure at the Con.  (No one I asked knew him, though he obviously came ready to drop a few nickels.   )  Last, there was a print of the GaryCon III  artwork by Jeff Easley, which was signed by Frank, Tim and Jim (I think).  I don't recall what that went for either.  Sorry.  Anyone else who attended remember?

Bracton wrote:I asked when I bought my day pass about attendance.  As of then, they had over 300 total attendees, registered and walk-ins.  It's really great to see such an old-style gathering of gamers.  In certain respects, it reminds me a bit of my first GenCons, back at UW Parkside.  Maybe next year, I will be able to go for more than just an afternoon.

Saturday or Sunday someone (Dale?) said 396, I believe

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here's a small album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3001365&id=2250783&l=2b27048a63

Here are my pics from GaryCon:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=79 ... aid=377031

dndgeek wrote:More pics here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1622892@N24/ .

Awesome pics.  Looks like a group playing Aliens here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27021778@N ... 22892@N24/

Grodog making his move:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27021778@N ... 22892@N24/

I just picked up a copy of this plus the expansion.  I might just have to bring it to NTRPG.  Just dont let me play Hudson.  I'll be yelling "Game over man!" and "I dont know if you've been keeping up on current events pal, but we just got our asses kicked!" all game long.  

Kingofpain89 wrote:I just picked up a copy of this plus the expansion.  I might just have to bring it to NTRPG.  Just dont let me play Hudson.  I'll be yelling "Game over man!" and "I dont know if you've been keeping up on current events pal, but we just got our asses kicked!" all game long.  

John,
Where did you get your copy? I am very out of touch with this product and the only copies I can find are $200+  

Somebody needs to clue me in on this one, please!

dndgeek wrote:More pics here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1622892@N24/ .

Two observations:

1)  Who's that guy in the hoodie and sunglasses at Frank's game?  Is he that insecure or does he think he's playing Texas Hold 'Em on TV?

2)  James Ward has lost weight...and I guess that's not a good thing.

Hi Folks,
 We had a great time at the con.  Our friend Rob (Strahd's Minion here on the forums) also attended for his first time and had a blast playing with some of the D&D celebs.  Due to scheduling I played in Tim Kask's OD&D game while Shawn and Rob played in Frank Mentzer's "Mystery at the Acaeum" adventure.  Maybe next year they can stagger some of the celebrity games.  
  The auction was attended by at least half a dozen Acaeum members.  Tim Kask and Frank Mentzer handled the auctioneering and there was plenty of action and laughs.  Not a lot of items but what they had was nice (see Bracton's post).  We really wanted a "personal" piece of Gary Gygax's gaming life and were lucky enough to win his dice/gaming supply box (a cigar box).  It comes complete with the "dice lice" that are known to infect dice and make them roll better for you.  I will be storing my gaming dice in there in hope that they get infected.
   The three of us were able to get into the 1st GaryCon AD&D Open Tournament.  Our DM was Harold Johnson (hope that name is familiar).  The bad news was we had an unusually large team and some of them were practically D&D virgins.  Needless to say things didn't move well.  When the list for the team that advanced to the 2nd round was posted our team wasn't there.        When it came time to play the 2nd round several of the people were no shows and Harold saw me and my brother and we were asked to play.  The team consisted of me, Shawn, Harold Johnson's son, the GaryCon official photographer, a guy who was role-playing for the first time the day before, and one other "alternate".  Things went amazingly well.  We were all scoring points and kept moving towards our "destination" while minimizing distractions.  While we didn't quite make it all the way through, Harold explained what was left and said that everyone had done very well.  He said he had a couple of gifts but since we all did so well we would have a dice-off with a d20.  The "gifts" turned out to be his extra 2 DM copies of round 1!  Only 4 of us were rolling.  I went first and rolled an 11.  My heart sunk.  Shawn rolled and got a 12.  Hopes sunk even more.  Next guy rolled a 1.  Things were looking better.  The "rookie role-player" rolled and got a 4.  I couldn't believe we had each won a copy with such crappy rolls.  After that they took a photo of the team for the site/program.

Looking forward to GaryCon IV!!!
-Devon