grodog's Founders & Legends and GaryCon XVI Convention Reports - 14-25 March 2024 - Part 3

GaryCon XVI – Thank YOUs and Swag

Continued from Part 1 – Arrival through Founders & Legends and Interregnum Tuesday and from Part 2 - GaryCon XVI – 20-25 March 2024.

Founders & Legends convention logo

grodog's Thank YOUs and Appreciations!

My attendance at both Founders & Legends and GaryCon was supported by a number of important folks, without some of whom I would literally have not been able to be there*.  

GaryCon XVI convention logo

Therefore, I'd like to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to:

• Luke and Bochura Gygax, for managing both conventions, providing my F&L badge (and other folks in the Legio V who ran many games supporting the 50th anniversary extra weekend), and for making the conventions appear smooth and easy!
• Robert Brandon, for graciously inviting me to share his B&B for F&L, which was conveniently situated next door to Gary's old house at 330 Center Street, and without which I would not have been able to attend F&L at all
• Joe Kline, for graciously providing a PC for my use after the convention
• Rich Franks, for his unexpected help in manning the Black Blade booth, for wrangling the Legio V cats, and for delivering Joe's donated PC
• Victor Raymond, for yet-again splitting a room at GaryCon, continuing excellent company, and good conversations before, throughout, and after the conventions
• Jon Hershberger, my business partner in Black Blade Publishing over the past 15 years, for his hard work before, during, and after our conventions that goes largely unrecognized

Among the Greyhawk and convention communities, I'd like to thank: 

• Darlene, for her wonderful and continuing to inspire artwork, and for signing my now-five-year-old niece's coloring book (she loved it!! :D )
• Tony Rosten, for trekking down to Lake Geneva on Friday evening during F&L, inviting  and treating Robert and I to dinner, and for breathing a new hope into our mega-dungeon zine, The Twisting Stair (work on issue #4 begins in May!)
• Carlos Lising and the Wednesday night “Wolves of St. Cuthbert” crew---Greg, Danny, Triet, Dan, Nick, and Jeremy---for a fun off-grid game, picking up where we left off 2 years ago, and to Carlos for the gift of two of his unpublished modules, a casl Entertainment tote bag, and for all of the Greyhawk inspiration that he creates and shares with the community year-in and year-out
• The Lenard Lakofka Archive crew---Anna, Jay, Josh, Lee, Troy, David, Dan, Rich, and the rest of the Lakofka Archive crew for the two new Lakofka adventures modules, now freely available for download (with more in the pipeline!)
• Paul Stormberg of The Collector's Trove, TLB Games, and Legends of Roleplaying (and Wargaming!) and his ever-helpful partner in gaming, Kevin Maurice,  for squeezing me into the museum game (my 2nd time in Rob’s boreal level, 1st at NTX in 2019)
• Jay Scott (who streamed live throughout GaryCon, including the Legends & Lore seminar show with Mike and Anna), Kristoph Nolen, Mike Bridges, Joe Bloch, Troy Alleman's Cannibaal Publishing, and the multitudinous World of Greyhawk fan community for keeping the setting alive through continuing content creation, sharing, and support via Canonfire!, Greyhawk Online and The Oerth Journal, The Grey Grimoire, Visions of Greyhawk, Virtual Greyhawk Con (4-6 October 2024!), and so much more :D
• Jim Kitchen for securing the means for future grodog's escapes, and continuing to spread the good word!
• Ed Greenwood, for kindly signing my copies of The Grand History of the Realms, Secrets of the Sages, and The Dragon #37 (somehow I couldn't find my copy previously-signed by Gary way back at Lake Geneva Gaming Con #3 in 2007---I need to rummage around in my office more!); TD#37 contains Ed's seminal article, "From the City of Brass... to Dead Orc Pass... in One Small Step...:  The Theory and Use of Gates", which is one of my favorite articles ever published in Dragon Magazine
• GaryCon volunteers Jeff MacKay, Mark (first time attendee, flew in from Wales!), Dirk Collins and his son, and a couple other folks for loading up my minivan on Sunday afternoon while I finished the last of the booth breakdown!  Thank you all:  that was the quietest, easiest Sunday afternoon I've had at GaryCon in ages :D

A warm thank you to the many players who chose to spend their precious conventioneering time in my games, providing feedback on the playtests, and continuing to surprise an old grodog who sometimes thinks he's seen all the tricks:

• LEGIO V Presents: grodog's Castle Greyhawk
• Saturday night (The Black Reservoir):  Rich Franks, Scott Peterson, Jason Azze, Scott Hadaller, Scott Greig (Dog of War), Maurice Ktrejczyk, Greg Naughton, David Ferguson, Rich Bush
• Sunday night (The Heretical Temple of Wee Jas):  Robert Brandon (R.R. Brando), Rich Franks, Robert Kropiewnicki, Steven Danielson, Thomas Quigley, Rich Bush
• Monday night (The Black Reservoir):  Steven Wright, Robert Brandon (R.R. Brando), Michael Newman, Rick Winslow, Jim Stewart, Steve Jumper, Sharon Reed, Mitchell Clements, Dave "darjr" Rosser, Carlos Mondragon
• Legio V Presents: Abyssal Rift in Greyhawk Wilderness
• Thursday night:  William Meinhardt, Bill Meinhardt, Shiv Chopra, Steven Danielson, Raymond Fleming, Lee Capps; in absentia:  Kim George, Jim Kitchen
• Saturday night:  Vince Vaughn, Tom Morello, Paul Wight, Dan Weiss, Joe Manganiello, John W. Roberts, Greg Joseph, Aron Clark
• Legends of Roleplaying tournament:  LR10 Nexus of Elder Evil
• Friday night, team #4:  Vince Lok, Devon Hibbs, Shawn Hibbs, Steve, Erika, Scott McKinley, Demos Sachlas, Joe, Zach Howard

Lastly, my eternal thanks to my family for supporting my fun and games, my publishing projects, and for putting up with my absence for a much longer time than usual this year!  All of my love to Heather, Ethan, and Henry (and Muffin and Felix too, who, being cats, probably didn't miss me very much ;) )!

The Glorious, the Goods, the Swag

Founders & Legends and GaryCon were fun and games, and some of that fun came home with me.  Highlights are pictured below, and included:

grodog's F&L and GaryCon loot!

• a swank and eminently useful casl Entertainment tote bag (and two unpictured and  unpublished books as well!)
• Forge of Ice miniatures catalog and encounter map from Alex Bates for his new zine adventure, The Corpse Eaters, as well as one figure from the adventure, two new crossbow-wielding sleestak, and three Bakshi goblin minis; it looks like he may still have a few of his awesome dragon turtles by John Dennett, too, so grab one before they're gone; the artist Shalya Sackinger was helping Alex with his booth, and gave me a copy of her artwork zine portfolio, as well as A Practical Guide to Xinevan Birds (volume 1, which suggests a volume 2 in the future!)
• Two of the newest Greyhawk community publications:  LA3 A Minor Threat and LA4 The Gift, from the Lenard Lakofka Archive (several other Greyhawk publications debuted at the show too but I did not get copies of all of them yet)
• Darlene's Color Me Fantasy coloring book (a birthday gift for Regina, my wonderful niece!), and her first volume kicking off The Story of Jasmine graphic novel series (which first appeared in The Dragon #37)
• Merle Rasmussen's newest design, I Choose to RISE---a card game released in February to honor Black History Month, and co-designed with Dr. Aritka Tyner "to support youth in developing their leadership skills and making a difference in the world around them"---for more information, see the Planting People Growing Justice Leadership Institute

grodog's F&L and GaryCon loot!

• Aron Clark's Holmes & Clark clone and new edition of Albie Fiorie's classic White Dwarf introductory adventure, "The Lichway" (look for an interview with Aron in the coming soon Fight On! Magazine #15)
• Jennell-Jaquays-dedicated DCC adventure #105 By Mitra's Bones, Meet Thy Doom! 
• Jay Scott's The Free City of Altimira (a promotional gazetteer preview)
• the F&L swag bag included a winter cap (made me think of Carlos Lising!), some soda/beer cups, dice, a chocolate coin, and a shot glass
• Victor Raymond's Doomground rules and setting booklet for his new OD&D+Greyhawk mega-dungeon campaign

And that's a wrap---until next year! =)

Allan.

==

* My job at Amazon Web Services ended in September when AWS moved my formerly-remote role to Seattle as part of their company-wide "return to office" policy changes, and I've not yet found new work.  

So, if you know of anyone looking to hire for remote roles in Knowledge Management, CRM, Customer/User Experience, Content Management, Taxonomy/Ontology, Information Architecture, Search Engines, Community Forums, Chat, Wiki, and similar self-help/customer support functions, please send them to my Linked In profile and let me know! :D

ATGj