North Texas RPG Con: Day 3 Report

Ok folks, this is a down & dirty day 3 report because it is almost 2 AM, I want to game in the morning, and I'm beat.

Had a "straight" Dungeon Crawl Classics game right after breakfast, a game with the esteemed Tim Kask, then a charity auction, then a 1st Edition AD&D game with Lloyd Metcalf , then the wild & crazy Midnight auction.

The only "haul" from today were three items I won at the Midnight Auction. These pics are fuzzier than I'd like and I really should explain, but it is almost 2 AM......

I'll try to cover everything in a convention wrap-up post. Until then.....good night.

North Texas RPG Con: Day 2 Report

Today was a busy day at North Texas RPG Con. It's late and I have an early game tomorrow, so this will be a brief brief, as it were.

Started the morning with a Swords & Wizardry game, specifically the Mythrus Tower setting for low level PCs. The game was run by the main man himself, Matt Finch. We finished a bit early and we were to have a good four hours until our next scheduled game, but we had a different Swords & Wizardry Mythrus Tower game as an ad hoc session with another GM.

We got about an hour before our next game, which was a BX d30 centric game. I bit the big one by failing a saving throw for Dragon's Breath in the final encounter. Actually I made the 1st roll, kind of, but since the die skipped out of my designated Die-Rolling-Zone I didn't count it and re-rolled appropriately, going from a 17 to a 4. Still had a lot of fun, so no big loss.

I just realized that my gaming buddy Shad has not lost a game or PC yet this convention......the bastard. He's in bed snoring away right now and it'd be too easy to break out the bowl of warm water........

Today's "haul" of gaming goodness was me going for quality over quantity. I picked up the World Map and Gazetteer for $15. I just really liked the map. I thought the adventures were a bit much at $10 a pop, but I'll probably break down and buy them anyway. I also try to pick up some new art pieces at every convention. If I can afford it I'll go for an original over a print. I managed to pick up Doug Kovacs' "Knight Dragging Ogre", which is in the core Dungeon Crawl Classics book. It isn't a large piece, but I really like it. While I love his work, most seems to scream "DCC" to me, so this piece strikes me as more system neutral.

North Texas RPG Con: Day 1 Report

Day 1 of North Texas RPG Con is finished, at least for me. The day started with and unexpected run to Walmart for deodorant because for some inexplicable reason the deodorant was missing from my pre-packed ditty bag. I travel a lot for work so I have my toiletries pre-packed and I should be good to go. No biggie since I didn't schedule any games until the afternoon.

I picked my buddy up at the airport around 1230 and after check-in and lunch we played our first game of the con, which was War Pigs. I started out the game at a severe disadvantage, but by playing defensively until the end I managed to almost win.......my buddy finally got his Naval Gunfire to work right and waxed me just as I was about to take out his tank full of troops. It was more fun than I had expected and I could see War Pigs be a good first-step for getting kids into war-games, assuming that was a goal.

Later we played in a Planet Meat adventure (I think it was part of a new supplement) for Dungeon Crawl Classics. It was hella gonzo and just off-the-way crazy....and fun. I'm usually more of a fan of "serious" RPGs, but if you get to play in one of Doug Kovacs' games......DO IT! I don't think I'd enjoy him as a regular GM, just because of a clash of styles, but I'll be the first to say that I could not run, even with a Co-GM, the number of players he does while having everyone enjoy the game. We had one survivor in the game and it sure wasn't my poor PC, but again I did make it almost to the very end. I ended up missing a critical Luck roll by 1, or we could have had two survivors.

Not too much loot picked up today. I had a set of metal dice, including a d30, to give to my favorite d30 Table Generator, Richard LeBlanc, Jr./New Big Dragon Games. He, in turn, gifted me some of his new stuff, which I am so looking forward to viewing/reviewing.

Not a bad 1st day of the con.......

North Texas RPG Con: Day 0 Report

Hoody-Hoo.....I'm on vacation at North Texas RPG Con. Today's already been a bit of a challenge, even though it is just under a 3 hour drive. The challenge is....well...because....it's self-inflicted. I forgot an important piece of clothing back home and had to drive across Dallas to pick up a replacement.

That kind of sucks....BUT there just happens to be a Half-Priced Books in the same shopping complex. I managed to score quite a few books including the Grimtooth's Ultimate Traps Collection in hardcover, along with some Appendix N paperbacks.

Free GM Resource: OSR Character Generators (Compiled by The Smoldering Wizard)

This week's Free GM Resource is something that I hope to get use out of this week at NTRPGCon: a listing of OSR Character Generators assembled over at The Smoldering Wizard.

There are a good 20ish generators listed in the one blog post and while it is tempting to just pluck a few choice generators  and post them here.......I don't really play that way.

Head over to this post on The Smoldering Wizard and check them out!

Gearing up for NTRPGCon

For those of you who don't know, next week is North Texas RPG Con. Last time I was at this convention was 2015 and it happens to be the last time I got to sling some dice. Between my divorce, move across country, and a new job.....let's just say I don't have a home group anymore and haven't really been able to even look for one.

Needless to say North Texas RPG Con 2019 is a big deal for me. I've spent a lot of my free time last week working on some thank you gifts for the GMs running my games. It's just a little something I like to do, a thank you card and a small something-something. Last time I made some gaming boxes out of some wooden boxes for high-end booze. It helped that I was working at a couple Liquor Stores at the time. I like to think my personal gaming box is the coolest, followed up by the one that "Mrs. Tenkar" got, but only because they were made from cases for really expensive Scotch.

A Twofer of Free GM Resources from Lord Zsezse Works

My unfortunate vacation lasted a day longer than expected because the new laptop charger arrived a day later than expected.

That's ok I guess because my hotel has HBO Go so I can catch up on the final season of Game of Thrones. I also found an awesome local comic book/game store and found some gems that are going to cause me to have to check an extra bag on the way home. I'll have to post about that later.....

Anyway, this week's Free GM Resource is a quartet of (freebie) cardstock models from Lord Zsezse Works. You can find models for a tuck box (I could see changing the dimensions for other sized boxes), armor stand, Crystal chamber, and a Cloister.

You can find the freebies here.

Now I'm not sure how well received four paper models are these days, so maybe I should also highlight some of Lord Zsezse Works other freebies. On this second page are a couple more paper models, some cut files (assuming you have a Robocutter), some maps, and a few free tiles.

The good thing about these freebies is that if you like them, then you'll probably enjoy Lord Zsezse Work's for-sale products.

Unexpected "Vacation" for the Frugal GM until May 20th.

Guess who went on a business trip and forgot his laptop charger? The same guy who also bought a replacement "universal" charger at the airport that didn't have the correct tip for his system. To top it all off the internet in my room doesn't work anyway and only one of my four other devices wants to connect to the crappy WiFi.

Another new charger has been ordered from Amazon, but I'm remote enough that the "next day" delivery will actually be a week.

Assuming nothing else goes wrong, and that both my internet connection and power issues get resolved, the next Free GM Resource should be posted Monday, May 20th.

Side note: trying to post from a small tablet blows.