Dragon Con 2007 - Part One

I realized that this year was going to be my 10th Dragon Con. So I'm a little nostalgic on how it all started. We moved to North Carolina in 2005, but after Dragon Con had already happened. In 2006, I didn't go because of going to Michigan for my wedding. But finally 2007 I got to go for the first time.

I stayed with friends and Todd didn't go because he didn't have the time off because that was the year we took our honeymoon. I wrote about the experience in my LJ. Here are some of the highlights!

The drive was fairly uneventful, and we arrived about 5-ish to the Marriott. We tried to check in, but had to wait for my friend Kathleen to arrive. We filled up the time by hanging out with another friend, Nicole and her husband - they were fun to hang out with. We also grabbed dinner, and got our badges. Oddly enough, the line didn't seem that bad to me.

After we got our badges, Kathleen had arrived, and we were able to get into the room. It was a fairly standard hotel room with two double beds (which I think we were lucky to get, because we had been told earlier that only king rooms were left), and it had enough room for me to set up my blow up bed (I brought this because I'm an odd sleeper and that way Kathleen and I could each have our own bed.)

We were on the 41st floor which was very cool, though the elevator rides did make me dizzy almost every time.

Friday dawned very, very early - mostly because the alarm went off at 7:30. I was awake quickly, mostly because I'm used to getting up this early, and I quickly got into my costume, which was my Hogwarts costume.

It was a very hot costume, and I didn't wear it all day. Everyone else got ready and we went downstairs to find out where open gaming was since friends I was staying with were running a one-shot sword and socery Hero game set in Via, which is a world we play in every other Sunday.

Apparently open gaming was not available at that time, so we just took over a table in one of the gaming rooms, expecting to be kicked out. We must have been truly early birds because we weren't bothered at all.

After the game, we headed over to see the stars of Buffy (which included James Marsters, Juliet Landau, Elisabeth Rohm and some random guy who played a demon on the show).

Before the panel though, my friend Alic walked with me to the Hilton to try and find Trader Vic's, where the Bpal meet & sniff was going to be later that night. I thought I had a fairly good grip on how to find it, but alas I was wrong. More on that later

I parted ways with everyone, and went to the Andromeda panel that had Kevin Sorbo and Gordon Michael Woolvett. Gordon Michael Woolvett had a prop from the show and he passed it around. It was neat and I got a fairly good picture of that.

Next up was the Firefly panel - I got in line, waited and managed to get a very good seat because I was alone. Though as the room filled up, I noticed my friend Carmen looking for a seat, and I happened to have one next to me, so we got to sit next to each other.

Unfortunately, Ron Glass was late, so the panel was just Mark Sheppard. It was still a very good panel, and the closest I was for any panel all weekend.

After that, Carmen and I went on the search for Trader Vic's. We got some conflicting directions, and the fact that it was just confusing to find didn't help. We did manage to find it.

We also stopped at both our hotel rooms. I was dying because my costume was so warm, and I had planned on changing before the meet & sniff anyway. So I was very glad to get out of that costume.

Directly before the meet & sniff, Carmen and I went to a Harry Potter panel called "Mourning Potter". It was about the characters who had died and the end of the series in general. It was a very interesting panel.

We then went to the meet & sniff, which was fun - though I have no clue who any of the people were except a couple.

Now, I had had a donut in the room before we left for the game, and we had stopped in the con suite right after the Buffy panel, but I hadn't eaten anything else all day, and everything I had eaten was not good food. I had planned on getting something from Trader Vic's but nothing on their menu looked good, and it was expensive. Carmen got a chicken caeser salad that was very small for what they charged. And she had to get it to go, since the service was slow, and we had wanted to go to the Buffy Horror Picture Show at 10 pm. I had planned on stopping at the con suite after the Buffy show.

We left the Hilton at a little before 10, but managed to make it to the Hyatt just after 10 when we came across a huge line. We asked what it was for, and we were told it was for the 11:30 pm show of Buffy. The line was already really long, so we joined.

This was the longest time I stood in line all weekend - since we had an hour and a half before the show started. It was okay, we talked to some of the people in line. The strangest thing was two cups, at different times, came soaring out of the sky. Luckily they didn't hit anything but the ground.

Finally the line started moving, and we did get in. Though tons of people were turned away from what I heard.

The show itself was great - the audience, including me, sang along with the songs, and a good time was had by nearly all. The only annoying thing was the guys behind us kept talking, and one of the guys behind us was very drunk and got up at one point to find a bathroom to get sick in.

After the Buffy show, Carmen and I parted ways (and I didn't see her the rest of the weekend, which was sad), and I found my way back to the Mariott. I pretty much went to bed because I was exhausted. I didn't ever even eat anything else.

Up Next - Part Two!

Tales From Cuppedia - The Beginning

Image: http://butterheartssugar.blogspot.com/

Last year, I got the Dungeons and Dragons starter pack and started to run a campaign with Emily and Todd. I followed the story that came with the starter pack and it was fun. But there are a lot of stats that come with playing D&D that I was just fudging because I was having issues keeping everything all straight.

So I've been thinking for a bit about designing a really scaled down table top game. Just minimal stats, mostly borrowed from D&D and Hero Games. Something so we can still roll dice and have a combat system, but have it be more story driven.

I was talking to Emily yesterday as we were driving about what kind of story she wanted to do. She came up with something elaborate right away. She wanted it to be a Candyland and she wanted her character to be a catgirl.

So I wrote up the start of our campaign:

Trouble in Cuppedia

King Reyhan and Queen Mora has ruled Cuppedia for many years. Mora is a gingerbread woman and Reyhan is a chocolate man. But several months ago, the King has disappeared and a new King, Medwin, has taken his place. He looks like a Tigerman, but there is something off about him

The Queen has taken her leave from Medwin to summer at the castle in Sorley. King Medwin has stayed at the capital of Zo and is actively ruling the country. He is only making little changes right now, mostly trying to keep candy people and animal people separated. But the Queen fears for Reyhan and her people.

Emily is going to be a Wizard catgirl and Todd is going to be a Warrior Gingerbread Man. Sadly Todd has been working a lot of weekends so we probably won't get to play for several weeks.

I'm going to post recaps of our games because I think it will be interesting! I'm going to be writing the first adventure in the next few days and then plotting where I want the whole campaign to go!

Baby's First D&D Campaign!

Yesterday, we took Family Game Night to a whole new level. Yesterday, Emily played her first Dungeon and Dragons game!

Emily is only six but she has a great imagination. Even though the starter pack I got off Amazon said "12+" I figured we should give it a try.

Todd and Emily picked out characters from the pre-generated ones that came in the starter pack. Emily played a High Elf Wizard, who she decided was male, named Skeleton. Todd was also male, he picked a Cleric Hill Dwarf named Thanagard the Healer. I was the Dungeon Master.

I had read through the rules before we started but I was a little rusty. All the years of playing Hero System games had Todd and I a bit confused for a bit. I honestly fudged some of the finer points - like how many hit points to take in battle. It's something I'll have to look up before our next game session.

Even so, Emily had a blast. She played her character pretty well, even adopting a male sounding voice for when her character talked. We helped her at the beginning but by the time we got to our 3rd combat, she was lobbing magic missiles at goblins like an old pro.

I had been a little afraid that Emily would be bored and want to stop playing. But when we got to a good stopping point, she wanted to keep going! She's looking very forward to our next game.

The starter pack adventure should get us through quite a few more sessions. It's originally divided into five game sessions but we stopped in the middle of the first game session. Once we finish, I'll see how we can branch out!

Dungeons & Dragons and Me

Image: cartoonscrapbook.com 

Dungeons & Dragons - this may bring several images to mind. For some it may be fire and brimstone while others might think of hex maps, figures and 20-sided dice. For me, my first memories are of a cartoon.

When I was a kid in the 80's one of my favorite cartoons was Dungeons & Dragons. It was a lot of fun for a kid and I knew that it was inspired by a game. I always wanted to play it but I never knew anyone who was into D&D.

I didn't get a chance to play until I was in college. My roommate's boyfriend DM'ed a campaign for us. My roommate and I were best friends at the time and the boyfriend was surprised that our characters hated each other. We knew how to role play!

From Dungeons & Dragons, I learned more table top roleplaying games. I also got into live action rpg's which are a ton of fun. Instead of dice, the live action games I played in college used 'rock, paper, scissors'. In college, it was a lot of Vampire: The Masquerade and other games by White Wolf. I like V:TM a lot but Changeling is my favorite.

After college, I didn't play any table top RPG's until after we moved to NC. The first friends we made

down here were also very into table top RPG's and introduced us to Hero Games. I love the Hero Games system in large part because of the disadvantages. Your character has to pick several disadvantages that you have to work into your character - you have to use them.

Over the next few years, I did also play in some other games including D&D. The last time I played Dungeons & Dragons itself was a one-shot one of my Browncoat friends was running. That was over 6 years ago because I was pregnant with Emily.

Our Hero Games friends moved away but after Emily was born, I made a friend who lived right down the road. Her husband at the time ran a Hero Games campaign for us. My friend had one of the best disadvantages I've ever seen - her character was blind! It was a lot of fun.

They moved as well and we lost contact for a few years. Beyond LARPing once down in GA with my cousin and his wife's group, I haven't been able to play any table top games. Illness, small child and lack of a car are some of the reasons I haven't been able to find a group. Though I miss it a lot.

Emily is now six and she is reading, though definitely at a beginner level. We introduced Settlers of Catan to her because it doesn't require a lot of reading and she loved it. So I got the idea a while ago that I would try and run a game with her and Todd.

I picked Dungeons and Dragons because there is a starter pack that I got off Amazon. I'm an experienced role player but I've never run a game before. So D&D is a good place to start! Tomorrow I run our first game with an adventure from the starter pack.

In a way, I've come full circle and I'm excited to introduce Emily to the fun! Dungeons and Dragons started it all for me and now that's where she'll be starting as well!

HERO Games

Image: www.herogames.com

I’ve played quite a few role-playing games (of the rolling dice sort) over the years. I started out with D&D and then played quite a bit of World of Darkness in college. But of all the systems I’ve ever played, HERO Games is my favorite.

I was introduced to HERO Games when my husband and I made our first friends after moving to North Carolina. They were a geeky couple like we were and they were looking for some gamers to join them in a weekly game. I jumped at the chance because it had been years since I had been in a regular game. The system they played in was HERO Games.

It took a little while to get used to the new system, but I quickly fell in love. Character creation can take a while because it is a system that is very character orientated. But there is a computer program,HERO Designer, that speeds up the process a great deal.

You can play any sort of game you want in HERO from fantasy games to superhero ones to anything in between. There is combat like in other role-playing games, but the stories tend to be more character driven. I’ve played in games that there was little to no combat but it’s still very fun.

When you create your character, you decide on a variety of things like strength, intelligence and other things you would find in other games. You can put points into how attractive your character as well, which is a neat little quirk of the system. But the most interesting thing, to me, is that you get to give your character advantages and disadvantages.

The disadvantages can make the games very interesting, especially if your GM uses them. I think the most unique disadvantage I’ve seen was in one of my friend's characters. Her character was completely blind, which is a huge disadvantage. It made things difficult for the whole party sometimes, but it made things interesting as well.

For anyone who might be looking for a new role-playing system to play in, I would greatly recommend HERO Games. It will probably always be my favorite system because of the story and character driven elements to it.

HERO Games

Image: www.herogames.com

I've played quite a few role-playing games (of the rolling dice sort) over the years. I started out with D&D and then played quite a bit of World of Darkness in college. But of all the systems I've ever played, HERO Games is my favorite.

I was introduced to HERO Games when my husband and I made our first friends after moving to North Carolina. They were a geeky couple like we were and they were looking for some gamers to join them in a weekly game. I jumped at the chance because it had been years since I had been in a regular game. The system they played in was HERO Games.

It took a little while to get used to the new system, but I quickly fell in love. Character creation can take a while because it is a system that is very character orientated. But there is a computer program,HERO Designer, that speeds up the process a great deal.

You can play any sort of game you want in HERO from fantasy games to superhero ones to anything in between. There is combat like in other role-playing games, but the stories tend to be more character driven. I've played in games that there was little to no combat but it’s still very fun.

When you create your character, you decide on a variety of things like strength, intelligence and other things you would find in other games. You can put points into how attractive your character as well, which is a neat little quirk of the system. But the most interesting thing, to me, is that you get to give your character advantages and disadvantages.

The disadvantages can make the games very interesting, especially if your GM uses them. I think the most unique disadvantage I've seen was when a friend of mine played in her first game Her character was completely blind, which is a huge disadvantage. It made things difficult for the whole party sometimes, but it made things interesting as well.

For anyone who might be looking for a new role-playing system to play in, I would greatly recommend HERO Games. It will probably always be my favorite system because of the story and character driven elements to it.