GaryCon Boise

GaryCon Boise started for most participants at the new TownePlace Suites in Boise. The staff was most accomodating (thanks Katie!) an we all got adjacent rooms, two of which had been upgraded to 2 bedroom suites. One room had actually been downgraded to just a king-size suite, but it was a good room and our guests didn't mind.

HMA Members in attendance:

Christopher Stogdill HMGMA 1339

Carolyn Stogdill HMGMA 1415

Topher Kersting HMGMA 1344

Zari Kersting HMA 10167

Andrew Franklin HMGMA 193

Joe Tolman HMGMA 439

Shad Ward HMGMA 1949

Cristina Ward HMA 10222

The whole weekend came together primarily because Andrew was in town (from Norman, OK)for a conference that occured just before his school's spring break. Topher and Zari were last-minute suprise guests from Chattanooga, TN. We all met at the hotel on Saturday morning once those from Salt Lake City, UT made the drive up. We BSed a bit, ate lunch at Guido's, and then headed over to the student union at Boise State University.

The original plan was to just get some open table space, but when we discovered that a certain nook, complete with conference table, was free and clear we took that space over.

First on the menu was Andrew Franklin's adventure "Pike's Princess", a level 4-6 adventure set in the Kingdom of Kalamer. We played pretty good (and smart) as a group and although we didn't complete the adventure, we did manage to complete the main objective of the adventure, thanks to a Honor Purge from Topher's Anti-Mage. Topher was voted MVP, as could have been expected.

We got a slightly later start than anticipated and it was decided that instead of running the second scheduled tournament we'd go have a good dinner at Tablerock BrewPub and then retire back to the hotel. If we didn't, we'd have had to jump right into the second game and get out ASAP since the sub would close in 4 hours. I don't think anyone wanted to feel rushed.

Dinner was great and we all met up back in Topher's room to have a drink in Gary's honor while rolling up 1st level PCs to play tomorrow. Topher had a die obtained from EGG and we all rolled it during the toast. As the "GM" I offerred a free +1 stat bump to the highest roller, which was Andrew. I don't recall everyone's rolls, but Topher and I (the first two rollers coincidentally) rolled "1's". I also rolled up a PC, a pretty crappy fighter that started off with no weapon proficiencies and a permant -4 non-weapon proficiency penalty. I tried my best to not spend a single BP on any re-rolls, except to keep all of my Q&F off of one table (didn't want all of them to be from the same fighter sub-table). The rest of the night was filled with die rolling, page flipping, and a few stories of games long since past.

Most of us took our sweet time getting up in the AM (I think Zari had other plans though) and after a breakfast in the hotel, those who needed to checked out of the hotel and stored their bags in Topher's and Andrew's rooms. Again we headed off to BSU and nabbed the sweet spot on the second floor. Some finished their PCs and eventually I was able to start everyone off in my familiar town of Goblin's Tooth. My town has had some adjustments made to it, mostly from past adventurers, and I think the party had fun getting to know the town and each other's PCs. The role-playing was....interesting. The most notable event in town was Shad's DS Invoker getting forced to enter a bare-knuckle boxing match and winning. Eventually the group got together and headed out into the wilderness to discover the source of some recent problems.

The group worked together and faced 4 combats before it was decided to pack things up so the Salt Lake City folks could return back home. Like the day before, the group did not finish the adventure, but they did complete the objective given them. In this adventure the given objective was pretty simple and easily finished, but the party would be drawn into the larger adventure. The party was beginning the larger adventure, but we ran out of time.

We all headed back to the hotel and said our goodbyes.

I would like to thank everyone who managed to attend our event and I hope that everyone had fun despite the fact (or maybe because) we decided as a group to forgo two tournaments to have a more open home-style game. I knew I had more fun!