Castlecon this year was held in the same location as Evecon by the same staff. There were similarities, but this time we stayed longer, did more, and had more fun!
I'd like to apologise in advance for the quality of the pictures. I took a whole roll, but many were over- or under-exposed. These 7 pictures were the best of the bunch. Click on these smaller pictures to see a larger image, as usual.
INWO, as usual. A barrage of butt-kicking. 8^)
Yet more INWO.
It's not easy to see, but these Cheapass fans are playing Deadwood, a game that's new this year and illustrated by Phil Foglio. And it's funny as hell! 8^)
In the right hand side of this picture, facing away from us, is MIB Marc Chalmers. Mark is running 4-person Knightmare Chess on his extremely psychotic 4-person chess board. I played in an earlier game of this, and it made my brain explode. But it was very fun!
Featured here is Parts Unknown, a Cheapass game of rampant capitalism in the body parts business.
Here is a shot of a different game of Knightmare Chess, run by Marc Chalmers.
Finally we have Hacker, as moderated by Ed Elder (in the In Nomine t-shirt).
Castlecon 12 Report (July 9-11, 1999, Frederick, MD)
I was easily enticed to go back to Frederick after my pleasurable experience earlier this year at the other convention Fantek runs, Evecon. I was updated as to what needed to be done by my contact there, and plans to room with friends at the hotel were made.
I made it up to Frederick by about 5:30 on Friday. Traffic was heavy, but we're talking about DC rush hour. I unpacked my stuff into the room and spent a few minutes setting up stuff for a friend at the art show, and then headed to gaming.
This hotel (Holiday Inn Holidome) has a courtyard shape, with a ring of hotel rooms looking in on a atrium and the pool and hot tub. This is an excellent design for gaming, as it means that there was endless room for games and virtually everyone who wanted to go to the pool walked past the games in progress.
When I got there, Marc Chalmers (a member of the Baltimore Cell) had
been running Knightmare Chess on one of his 4-player chessboards.
I set up signs for INWO and Dino Hunt, as well as put out a couple of posters,
and then tagged in on his space so he could run other stuff. Needless
to say, it was interesting coming in on a game of KC Chess after an hour
or two of play. I'm a hopeless chess player, and it took me almost
10 minutes to realize that I still had a queen. *blush*
But luck and one good card was on my side; I succeeded in pulling out
a win. None of the players were interested in the prizes on hand,
but that's no skin off our noses. They got to play other stuff, too.
I set up a game of INWO at the scheduled time; my only player was a
friend. Of course, once you *start* INWO, others want to join in.
Shortly we had 4 players, all doing built-deck INWO. I succeeded
in pulling out a 2nd-turn win, as I and another player were both playing
Shangri-La. We
started a second game, and I switched decks...but there was no hope.
My Cthulhu deck ("No One Is Safe") trounced the competition.
Prizes were awarded for INWO. Nothing showed up from SJ Games;
I don't know if this is because of general June/July craziness, or that
I got my request in too late. Nevertheless, I
had prizes left over from JohnCon/Balticon, which were happily snapped
up. (Thanks should go to Steve Brinich, who donated some of the prizes
earlier this year. I think his little bag of links and number changers
would be grabbed for money if they could be sold by someone...)
By this point, things were getting late. Not that I noticed; the light in the atrium was quite natural, and it decieved the brain into thinking it was earlier.
To round the evening out, I enticed folks into Kill Dr. Lucky. Sadly, I'm afraid that I won there as well. I didn't have my prizes handy for that (the prizes showed up, handily, on Friday. Good timing, Nicole!) but I hunted the gamers down later on Saturday.
Saturday gaming kicked off in the afternoon, after the dead...er, the
gamers arose. Marc did another 4-player game of KC Chess, which lasted
several hours. I laid out all my games (they covered a whole 8-seat
round table) and enticed people to stop, look, and pick up free stuff (Cheapass
Catalogs & Fight business cards, SJG stickers, cards, & posters,
and Discordian Pope cards donated by a friend.) This allowed some
folks to pick up and play with Deadwood and my set of
Cheapass Money while I ran INWO (as a one-big deck, using the "It's
more powerful than France!" deck). The Deadwood game heated up when
I offered a copy of Falling as a prize.
While that was going on, more folks picked up Fight City and did a game of that...and while they were doing that, I had my head handed to me in INWO, and started a game of Parts Unknown. I was also trounced there, but the folks there weren't interested in my remaining Cheapass prizes. They're on the subscription list, and thus get stuff sent to them directly from Cheapass.
Ed Elder also showed; he ran a game of Hacker, and then sat in on some other stuff. His Hacker game was full, and ran happily for several hours.
Sunday I had expected to have to start things late, but ended up cooking into Dino Hunt almost right when I expected at 11 am. I had 4 players in no time, and no trouble finding others when some folks had to leave. I really should get another copy of Demo Hunt so I can throw in more players. Prizes were given out at the end to all (DH boosters) and everyone was satisfied with their hunting. A comment was made that folks wanted a game with more skill...so I pulled out Starbase Jeff. I didn't want the game to be endless, so I dealt everyone $30 rather than $50 for starting cash...and when one person had to leave and a new gamer sat down, I gave him $15 out of my stash to cover the losses of the player that had left.
It went on *forever*. But one player left happy with a Cheapass game (long day, can't remember which one) and it all worked out well. While Starbase Jeff went on, Marc finished what he was doing and had all his In Nomine stuff out and was showing it off to people.
This convention was small, but folks were happy and had a good time. If I've left anything out of value, I'm sure someone will mention it.
Love,
Seth
Your friendly neighborhood MIB (if you live in the Baltimore/DC corridor)
And now, here's what went on at TCEP 6!
