WEGS at Dreamation 2008

Well, the first con of 2008 has come and gone, and it was good. Of the 5 WEGS games we had scheduled, 4 of them ran: Dungeons Or Dragons, Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom, Reservoir Dwoirves and Sunday session of Dingbitt's. We canceled our "midnite quicky" session of Dusk Til Dead ('cause we were bordering on being undead by that point). We ended up not running our pirate rule set (more details on that later this week).

This was the first con that we had an official WEGS booth at, and although this was a small con, it was a critical step for us to figure out "booth-ing". Up to this point, we've just run games at cons, and haven't had the responsibility of a booth. It will be a very real responsibility at the cons this summer. This con was a baby step in that direction and we learned a lot from this test run. We know that we need a box with booth supplies, and were partially prepared there. What I wasn't prepared for was the in-booth demos that Will and Don began to run. I hadn't thought of game supplies at the table (like Ark Kards and dice and minis). At the next con, we'll have a mini-game set for this.

All in all, we learned a lot and had a blast. It was a balance between business and pleasure. We had two outright amazing game sessions (the first and last) - so, we began and ended the con on a high note. A good con.

Two Mo' Cons...

We've submitted our game menu for Ubercon (NJ) and MACE (NC)! These should be the final two cons for the Wegshogs this year (not counting the Wegzoramacon in December). As Ubercon is our home con chances are the full Wegshog team will be there in force. We've got an aggressive game sched - we tend to go bttw at Uber. It's the con where WEGS got its start. This year is extra-special as we finally have a product released!!! Sweetness indeed.

Willy the Second helped with one of the new scenarios we're launching called From Dusk 'til Dead, subtitle "Say 'ello to my little boomstick". It's pretty much Evil Dead (the movie) so it fits in perfect for our traditional midnite quicky on Saturday. I love/dread the midnite quickies... They are anything but quick and at my age, sleep is a precious thing. On a side note, me and Will were floating around in a pool this weekend (not a pretty site), discussing the various mechanics we will be using for the "boomsticks", "chainswords" and the evil book at the center of the horror - the Wegsronomicon... This is gonna be one deadly scenario!

MACE, the other con, will be a first-timer for me. Folks have told me good things about MACE, so it's high on the list of cons to do. Plus it's in one of the 13 colonies and helps us to check off our "First 13" little marketing hit list.

That's all for now, folks!

The Dexcon Dunge O' Doom...

Well, Dexcon has come and gone. Not too sure what to make of it as we only ran 2 of the 8 games we had on the con schedule. Players were few and far between, but we were lucky enough to get a full compliment of excellent players for our Friday midnite special - Dingbitt's Dunge O' Doom! The arks/players were:

Gnobbit Warrior - Will
Elf Ranger - Ken
Goblin Warrior - Jeff
Dwarf Sage - Bill
Humnz Mage - Dave
Humnz Mage - Mel

I ran the game solo, letting Will jump into the game (despite the protests of the players who thought he would be more of a handicap!). Gameplay was fast and furious. After testing the waters on Level 1 where the group of adventurers encountered a demented Dwarf witch and her guards, the group jumped down to Level 5 where they received quite a beating from a Hobgoblin battalion. Taking a moment to heal the wounded and rethink their downward venturing, they decided to retreat up to Level 4 where they handily dispatched a three-headed tentacled horror. For their final encounter, they plunged down to Level 6 where they found the Chamber of the Golden Cow. It was here that all hell broke loose in one final fantastic frenzy.

Without giving too much away for those of you who might encounter such a chamber in your ventures, the game ended with the 2 Warriors and the Ranger pitted against the 2 Mages and the Sage. Yes - the game ended in a grand player-vs-player showdown. Fighters versus Spellcasters! Spoints were flying and Phew points were popping! When things turned really bad for the spellslingers, Dave the Humnz Mage used the spell Jumpin' Jazzophat to jump off the game board, leaving the two other spellcasters scurrying toward the edge. Unfortunately, the edge of the board was too far for Bill's Sage (who was plum out of spell points and Phew!) - the Sage was the first to bite the dust. Mel's Mage made a valiant dash for the exit, but was cut down just two squares away from escape!

There was great character play from beginning to end and it was tremendous fun to see the party unravel so quickly in the final encounter... The game wrapped up around 3:30 a.m. This was the high point for WEGS at the con - from there it was all downhill unfortunately... Players seemed few and far between at this con. I guess most decided to skip this con to stay home and read Harry Potter...

Ya live, ya learn...

The Midnite Quicky, Part 2....

We had our first Midnite Quicky at Ubercon VII in Feb 2006. The games we ran were:

Friday - Dwarf Walks Into A Bar

Saturday - Tomb Raid!

Both sessions were scheduled from midnight until 2 a.m. These games were meant to get folks in and out of their first WEGS adventure in a jiff. Even the descriptions were brief:

"In Tomb Raid, a rag-tag assortment of Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Gnobbits and Humnz stand at the entrance to a long-shunned Goblin Chieftain’s tomb wherein fabulous wealth awaits to be plundered. Sure, there’s a local rumour that things are heard slithering and thumping within, but that’s just a ruse to keep the children away... Scenario will take about an hour and a half to play – or shorter if your Ark decides to just “run off screaming”…

That was it - short and to the point. It was as simple an adventure as could be - go into a king's tomb, try to plunder as much booty as possible, set of some traps, awaken the tomb guard, die or run away... Well, it was anything but quick. The nature of sending players into a perilous tomb is the rub. Ever since TSR's infamous Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure Tomb Of Horrors, rpg players know to tread lightly in tombs... The fact that I designed the tomb with several obvious traps waiting to be triggered didn't help. Everywhere we have run this scenario (Ubercon, Origins, WittCon, GenCon) the results are the same - the game is slow and cautious. That is until the traps are sprung... Once folks set off one trap it generally leads to another and another. It's like a domino effect and it causes the last hour of play to be rapidly wild. It's a scenario that builds slowly, but then pays off in spades.

I love the fact that I promoted it as:

"Scenario will take about an hour and a half to play – or shorter if your Ark decides to just “run off screaming”… "

Doing a tomb an hour...

What was I thinking?!?

To be continued...

The Midnite Quicky..., Part 1

Way, way back in 2006, I had the brilliant idea to start doing special WEGS convention games that started at midnite. That's the perfect time to begin a game, right? I thought so - but then again I was a midnight movie cultist back in my high school and college days. From Eraserhead to Pink Flamingos to RHPS to Romero's Zombie Trilogy (Night, Day, Dawn) to Bloodsucking Freaks (yeah, regretably) to 1960 3D fests. Nothing beat the midnite movies.

In my mind midnite was the perfect time to do a two hour quick-hit game of WEGS. Since the game has a cinematic punch with easily digestable plotlines, it would be the ultimate night cap. What I failed to factor in was the fact that this would be at the end of a day where I did nothing but demo-ed WEGS, taught WEGS, ate WEGS and played WEGS. It would be like going to a midnite movie after watching them all day while standing on your feet...

Yeah, the first couple rocked. The games went according to plan and had the exact ambiance that a midnite game should have. They had that secret vibrant glow that only starts in the dark of a new day with the only threat being dawn... Or something like that. But the problem... The problem was that they were anything but quick... The games were supposed to be two hour quick fixes - but they went on for three hours at least. Sometimes four hours. The games were awesome, but the plan was flawed.

Careful the things you wish for, my friends...

To be continued...