OwlCon XXX Report

  Reporting from the trenches... Okay, well, not from the trenches. More like in the safety of my classroom during my conference period a few days after the fact... but I digress. I think I will break the day we spent at OwlCon into three segments, just like the Con itself is!

  We arrived at about 0900. Registration was easy enough (though they only take cash, kind of a bummer). Game signup was likewise very simple, and unrestricted. If there was an opening, you could grab it, as long as you didn't have a game in that timeslot already. Walk-ons were also allowed if there were no-shows or room to grow.

1000 - 1400

  Dane and Greyson play in a large dungeoncrawl (really impressive layout) of Reaper's Warlord, 2nd Ed. Dane won that round, and Grey came in second. Alas, they were short on time, the GM having arrived almost an hour late, and so they were eclipsed in their points by the end of the day. No Major Award for either of them. But they had fun, and will likely want to play again next year. Plus, they are now pestering me to get a game of that pulled together. I shopped during this period, not having a game I was overly excited about. Swag report will be later this week, so stay tuned.

1500 - 1900

  Dane was involved in a game of Uncharted Seas, the fantasy naval combat game. He played part of a Dragon Lords force, and was the only kid at the table. I think he got used by the other 'adult' players to soak up fire, and it seems like one guy on the opposing force may have been cheating some, but he still had fun. Greyson shopped and kind of kept an eye on his brother, just hanging out with no game this session.

  I played a game of Atomic Highway, a post-apocalypse RPG. My character, Brewer, was a beer-guzzzling mutant scavenger with a chainsaw. My new DROID came in handy here, as I downloaded a chainsaw sound app for special efects. The game is supposed to be podcast on Swing and a Miss, I think. I actually won the award for "best roleplaying" at this game - a first for me!

2000 - 2400

  The last session of the day was very full for us. Greyson and Dane were, as usual, at the Gutshot! game run by our friend and game author, Mike Mitchell (not the only author, but he's the onliest what wuz there, pard!) . Again, the unquiet dead rose from their graves, hungering for human flesh. This time, the cowboys, preachers, saloon gals, et al, managed to suppress the whole durn lot of them, without losing a single human to the stinking hordes of braineating shamblers!

  Meanwhile, I was in the year 2061, driving a car in a mad race around an arena, with bullets and rockets flying everywhere! Yep, that's right: Car Wars, the classic car combat game from Steve Jackson Games. Loads of fun, and crashes galore! Ever seen what happens to a car when it rams a rolling car at a combined speed of 180 mph? Now figure in the hit was on the roof of the rolling car. Totalled out (as in every single point of armor, and everything in between) both cars, and still had more than 35 points of damage left over! Confetti! I was taken out, but at least I didn't stab the 8-year-old kid playing with us in the back, despite ample opportunity and temptation (he got a bit mouthy). Still, had a lot of fun, and had the option of coming back into the game as a revived clone in a crappy car. I came in for a turn, but decided that it was getting to be time to go.

  The last thing we all did before we left was to hit the BattleTech MechForce pods. If you ahve never seen these, they are big, well, pods, in which a multi-player BattleTech simulator is run. Loads of fun, and they're interlinked, so you can blast each other, 'bot' players, and so on. They have a location here in town with 16 pods, but they only brought 4 to the con for space reasons. Look them up if you live in the Houston area - its a lot of fun!

Con Miscellanea:

  The food was decent at the deli onsite (hot sandwiches, sodas, smoothies, snacks), and prices were not too bad. Parking still sucks there. I recommend the parking garage, even at $11 a day, because it is loads closer to the site than any other lot.   The FOG Ancients tournament and Warhammer tournaments seemed popular and well-attended. I thought several people were going to be there for the FOG, but not one of them showed for that. I did see two of the regulars from my gaming group, but not in the tournaments.