Gary Con 2022: Day 1

Promo featuring "Beyond the Cosmic Veil" illustration by Doug Kovacs.
See a larger version of the art here on FB.

Last weekend Gary Con returned as an in-person event, after going virtual ("ethereal") for two years due to the pandemic, and was once again held at the enormous Grand Geneva hotel near the town of Lake Geneva, once home to Gary Gygax and TSR. I too returned, attending for my third time in-person, and fifth overall, and running two different D&D scenarios for the first time ever. 

Here are the highlights of my first day, Thursday the 24th, when I joined in three games:

The Tower of Ulission, the first part of an OD&D tournament written by Dave Emigh for Winter War in the 1977, and then later published as a module by Judges Guild in 1979, which was run by Demos, who blogs at the OSR Grimoire. Lots of riddles and problem-solving in this one, as well as combat. There was a heavy Tolkien influence to the under-appreciated Emigh's world-building, including the inclusion of verse (!). Our party finished our mission, but there was a shocking unexpected twist at the end that I've never encountered in a D&D adventure before! Demos, who also goes by paleologos, has an extensive review of the published module over here at Dragonsfoot. I also played in the second round of this tournament, which will covered in my post for Day 3.

Hell's Highway

I like to play miniatures games between RPG sessions for a break, so my next event was Hell's Highway, a Mad Max/Fury Road-inspired miniatures racing game using modded matchbox cars, the rules for which were developed and run at the con by Brad Poikonen. In this scenario we raced between checkpoints on a cloth gameboard covering the entire table, attempting to earn fuel for our tribe while battling with the other contestants. Brad mentioned that they were hoping to run a Kickstarter to produce the game.

Paul Stormberg DMing with his custom screen;
photo by fellow player Jonathan B.

In evening I played in Lost Crypts of the Fire Opal, a fleshed-out version of the Sample Dungeon from the AD&D Dungeon Masters Guide (1979). The expansion and running of the game was done by Paul Stormberg, the maestro who organizes the entire Legends of Wargaming and Legends of Role-playing Game Halls for Gary Con. 

Slepni Svenhaas with character portrait by Jeff Dee

I ran the pre-gen Slepni Svenhaas, a mountain dwarf who was assisting his brother Grupni, also in the party in finding the Fire Opal in hopes of becoming the next king of their kingdom. The party was large and played great, with lots of problem-solving, but we ended abruptly with a near-TPK caused by use of Unseen Servant! We were too clever for our own good. 

This series continues with Day 2 of Gary Con.