GenCon 2014:

Hey True Believers!


What can I say about GenCon? Its my Superbowl, my pole star, my New Year's Eve. I see most of my friends one time a year in Indiana, run for the majority of the gaming groups I will play with, get most of my work.

Also I get hot wings with the Blue Grass Brawlers. Its a tradition, and I hate to miss it. 

I had a brilliant time.  I considered writing up a play by play, but decided that it would be kind of dull. I ran a lot of games, did the Goodman Games seminar, worked the Fat Dragon Booth, and caught up with lots of folks. So I will distill my post to the following

The Book

I needed a copy of the new Maximum Xcrawl book for my Wednesday games, so I met Joseph out in front of his hotel way early. He let me actually unbox the first book.

And snapped a pic. 

Cue Unchained Melody 

What can I say? I had waited so long to actually have a copy in my hand that when it happened I kind of blanked. I can say this . . . it sure felt good.

Tournament 2014: BostonCrawl

 Goodman Games, Xcrawl, and Emperor Ronald I are proud to announce the winners of this years Xcrawl: Boston Crawl 2014 tournament!

1st Place Grand Winners: Dead or Millionaires! Huge congratulations on excellent teamwork, crowd pumping, and beating down monsters.

People's Choice Award: Death Clap, who only finished one room, but were plucky, courageous, and brilliant roleplayers.

The Award for Excellence Under Haywire Conditions: The Blood Wranglers, who had to deal with escaped monsters backstage, off-the-grid hazards, and GenCon RPG HQ itself!

Tournament MVP: Laura "Betty Badonkadonk Bukowski" Tank, AKA Boom-Boom, for outstanding achievements in mayhem and bare-handed brutality.

Order of the Empire 1st Class: Guest DJ Cameron Hays, for stepping up in a pinch and performing with fearlessness and inspiration.

Thanks you to all participants! This was a brilliant tournament and it was an honor to play with each and every one of you.


Here are the tournament winners and their scores:

Dead or Millionaires! 60.14
Surgical Strike - 54.7
Midnight Riders - 32.8
Team Ramrod - 28
Pork on a Spork - 24.4
The Not Dead Yets - 24.33
The Replacements - 23.6
Death Clap - 16.6
The Blood Wranglers - ??? 

I feel like these numbers need some clarification. 

Dead or Millionaires! tremendous score can be attributed to the fact that they completed four rooms (most teams just hit three), and earned all possible bonus points in the fourth rooms. They were organized and efficient, and they made sure they worked the crowd. But most of all they earned and spent Mojo points - great use of Bring the Noise and its related feats kept their Mojo pool full, and they were not at all shy about spending them.

Considering the fact that they only reached three rooms, Surgical Strike put up an amazing score, mostly due to the fact that they earned all possible bonus points, and did a brilliant job of both pumping up the crowd and spending Mojo.

Death Clap and The Blood Wranglers are a special case. GenCon RPG HQ screwed up and told a lot of folks that I had only sold two of my six tickets, so I had seven people show up with generics . . . along with the five who had signed up for the game. I hated the idea of turning anyone who had showed up to play Xcrawl so I started scrambling for a solution. Lucky for me, Cameron Hays was among the  crowd who came to play. He volunteered to take half the players and run for them. So Cameron took my hand written notes and ran the Boston Crawl, and I ran an improv Xcrawl game for the Blood Wranglers.

And I want to once more thank Cameron Hays for stepping up like a boss and running what sounded like an amazingly fun game, and also thank the Death Clap and Blood Wranglers for being ultra good sports and great gamers. Every one of y'all are always welcome at my table.

And I apologize for all of this tournaments shortcomings. Which brings me to . . .

WHAT I LEARNED from the 2014 Tournament

I made mistakes with this tournament. Going forward, I won't run tournament games at Scotties (too distracting - its hard to focus when hot wings and shots keep showing up at the table), I won't include pick-up games (much harder to get organized and fairly adjudicate), and I'll come up with a time limit for how late you can be to a tournament game - several teams suffered through late players, or my having to wander down to RPG HQ to find substitutes.

I am already working on next year's Xcrawl tournament, and I promise that it will be better organized. Consider every score from this year to have an astrix behind it.

I deserve 1d8+3 at least

OTHER THAN THAT

It was a great convention. Always great to hang with the Goodman Crew, always great to hang with the Fat Dragon Crew, and to see all my wonderful once-a-year friends that I only ever see at GenCon.

See you next year!