Tad & Craig's convention was held over the 1999 Labor Day weekend. A four-day gaming convention, attendence was low but spirits were high. A lot of people had a lot of fun, including myself. I am a lot of people. 8^)
As usual, if you want more detail than these pix show, click on them to get more detail.
Official company gaming support by SJ Games and Cheapass Games was brought to you by these three button-wearing, very hairy men. Standing is Fuzzface and yours truly; seated is Steve Brinich. I was feeling especially foolish, which may explain the long face.
It's entirely possible to have way too much fun while playing Get Out. Greyhawk (right) has been attacked by the Cheapass Meme; Monkeyhood isn't far away.
When I heard that all the LARPers were away at another convention, I
(perhaps foolishly, but it turned out not to be so) volunteered to run
a Kill Dr. Lucky LARP. I instituted a couple of rules changes: Players
could try to kill other players if they were alone in a room with them
(and the other player could use their failure to prevent the attack), and
Dr. Lucky (played by Tad) could snoop for failure if he was alone in a
room.
In this picture, a helpful volunteer (one of several) helps place masking
tape on the floor in order to set up the board. She also did room
signs for the board, and even preserved the font when copying!
Here's another shot of the board, much later along. We're seeing the central corridor of the board; starting from the bottom of the photo is the Piazza, the Foyer, the Drawing Room, the Dining Hall, the Gallery, and the Armory. In the Dining Hall are the letters "KDL" and "CAG". If you don't know what those mean, please go find out. Fuzz set up his computer cam to take photos during the game. In a perfect world, he'd post these where folks could take a look at them. I think it'd be cool to see how the 12 players, moderator, Dr. Lucky and others participated!
Here folks are playing a game of Button Men, with one onlooker in the middle. For TCEP, Fuzz licensed and created a "Fuzzface" Button Man, which he distributed for free during the convention. Many people used his button when fighting, or borrowed a button from one of the many available sets.
Here's using your brain...well, *my* brain, for example. I always bring my backup brain for Give Me The Brain. Steve wears it well.
Here some fine folks are playing Dino Hunt. Some of them are having more fun than others. I'd say more on the matter, but sometimes I just shoot inopportune moments. *sigh*
Here, we can see how much fun it is to run a tournament of Button Men. Not as much fun as it is to *participate* in a tournament of Button Men. Fuzz is relaxing in the other gaming suite, which is still at this point being set up for Live-Action Kill Dr. Lucky ("Killer Dr. Lucky"?) The signup sheet and KDL board are sharing the table with Fuzz.
Kids, do *not* try this at home. The Bunnies Vs. The Lab Rat. Fuzz and I competed. Guess what won? These are so scary to play with, they're illegal. Our game results didn't end up in the tournament results.
I didn't get any pictures during the KDL LARP. I was too busy moderating it. Here, some of the players (and my loyal assistant Steve, standing) look on as Fuzz awards the prize to the one murderer capable enough to bring down the dastardly Dr. Lucky...
Yes, Heather was the one to bring down game 10 times her size. Fuzz (at right) gives Heather her reward, while Tad (as the corpse of Dr. Lucky) examines the goodies.
And here's the signup sheet, listing participants (12! Way too many for a normal game of KDL), their kills, and the big winner! I'm so glad the fan I drafted to help me with this signup sheet had copious art talent...
Here we're playing (or playtesting) a new Cheapass game called "Escape from Elba". Pictured here are (left to right) Mike, Steve, and Brian...or, Napoleon, Napoleon, and Napoleon, in no particular order. We had fun, but we also expected another iteration of testing before the game was finalized. And we were right! The finalized game when it was produced had several differences with the playtest.
And here is one of the tables of Fuzz's Starbase Jeff tourney. This table actually didn't complete this station...it went all the way to the bloody end, with one crucial piece Sabotaged to oblivion. Yours Truly is in the background, participating in a Men In Black roleplaying game, made by another company, run by someone else. (See, I did get to do other stuff!)
Here's my fine table of opponents for round 1 of the TCEP INWO tournament. I heard they were all tough, so I crushed them mercilessly (well, what *else* was I supposed to do? My Illuminati *was* the Servants of Cthulhu...) and went on to Round 2, where I crushed again, winning by eliminating the Lawyers off the face of the planet. Sometimes it's good to be evil. Mua-ha-ha-ha.
And finally...So, Fuzz, what did it feel like to organize a gaming convention and run it for 4 days?
'nuff said.
Wanna see bits of Philcon? And demoing in Dundalk?
