DCC @ CincyCon report
Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 7:35 pm
CincyCon took place this past weekend in (where else?) Cincinnati, Ohio. I’ve lived in this area since 2004 but this was my first go at this particular con.
It was held at the Atrium Hotel & Convention Center. Not bad for a smaller con (though being local I didn’t book a room); in fact I liked the main gaming area, the atrium itself (which I’m told formerly housed a pool).
As an on-site badge purchaser, my GF & I were only allowed to select 1 Event ticket each per day (having a ticket was not mandatory to play, but it guaranteed you a seat at the table if too many interested parties showed up). I chose two DCC games run by Michael Curtis; a preview of DCC #77 The Croaking Fane on Saturday night and the city crawl “A Night on the Town” on Sunday morning.
Saturday
We arrived 2-3 hours before the game started to look around at what else the con had to offer. Their dealers room was fair sized (about the size of the auction area at GenCon (Indy)) but a lot of it was devoted to gaming, so one table would have a vendor selling games and the next would be surrounded by guys playing X-Wing Battles.
Other than a few of the older 3/3.5 DCC adventures, no one was selling Goodman Games products. In fact I didn’t really see any new rpg products, just bins of odds & ends.
Wargames seemed to be the product of choice. I’m not much of a wargamer, but I did buy an unpunched copy of Fasa’s The Last Starfighter (what can I say, I love that movie) for $15 and a like new copy of Gladiator by Avalon Hill for $30.
Finally, it won’t see any use in my DCC games (in which I don’t use minis) but I couldn’t pass up buying a couple of these Gelatinous Cubes made by Dungeon Master Mark.
“The Croaking Fane”
Three players: Ed, my GF, and me.
The game was due to start in approx a half-hour, so we headed to the atrium to take our seats. Michael was already there, and after introductions was nice enough to sign my copy of Stonehell Dungeon, and my copy of The Dungeon Alphabet, and my other (gold foil) copy of The Dungeon Alphabet, and my DCC core book, etc, etc.
Only one other player winded up joining us (Ed, who had never played DCC before), so he played one 3rd level pre-gen (the Elf) and my GF & I took 2 each – she chose the Halfling & one of the two Warriors, and I took the Cleric & the Thief.
On a whim (or because I had Crawl! #6 w/ me) I named the Cleric “Reverend Dak” and the Thief “Colin”
Then it was full disclosure time – I told Michael I’d previously run an earlier version of his adventure (back when it was for OD&D and called The Fane of St. Toad) – but I promised I’d “play dumb” (which worked out well since my 2 pre-gens shared low Intelligence scores). I think I kept my promise.
So, this is about where to go any further would involve some pretty serious spoilers.
We didn’t finish (time). There were two fatalities (Ed’s Elf and Colin the Thief) but they fortunately weren’t permanent -- Rev Dak the Cleric was able to snatch both from Death’s grasp with some quick laying on of hands.
Sunday
“A Night on the Town”
Five players (Jim “Marvin the Mage” Wampler, Colin & Matt (both new to DCC), my GF & me).
3rd level pre-gens (the same from the day before). Jim (naturally) played a Wizard, Colin & Matt played Warrior #1 & Warrior #2 (who they named Nick & Dent), my GF played the Cleric (Sister Evelyn), & I played the Elf (who, continuing my trend from the day before, I named Raven Crowking.
We kinda hit the ground (or cobblestone streets) running – we found ourselves in a city (Oolvanvar) after nightfall on “Dead Night” – the night each year that all the dead rise and stalk the streets and anyone that’s not crazy or stupid or your average group of DCC PCs wisely stays behind locked doors.
We were told that we had 3 options to find shelter (I) a temple dedicated to a Lawful goddess that allows any and all to shelter there (II) a local noble’s villa that welcomes all to spend that night feasting and celebrating (whistling past the graveyard, as it were), or (III) the thieves guild which demanded a price of seven unbent coffin nails from anyone seeking to hide out there.
We went with the temple. No sooner had we started in that direction than a bunch of free floating partial torsoed vaporous apparitions (like the ones that wiped out all the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark)
...swept down on us. One of the Warriors and my Elf were not only attacked but grabbed and hauled high up into the air. I cast Color Spray, chiefly because its mercurial magic effect was to slip me out of phase for 1d6 rounds, which allowed me to escape both my captor and any damage from the fall. The Warrior (Dent?) escaped by bashing the thing with his sword, which proved to be pretty effective, too. He took some damage from the fall onto a 3rd story roof but was ballsy enough to leap down “Death from Above!”-style onto another semi-spectral foe. Several of the party were pretty dinged up at the battle’s end but Sister Evelyn was batting .1000 with her lay on hands checks.
Next up I think we narrowly avoided running with the (undead) bulls because we didn’t linger when we heard ghastly moos and saw a rotting hoof smash through the door of what I think was the local butcher shop.
We couldn’t easily evade the next obstacle: 6 or so soaking wet zombie sailors risen from the docks. Since there were 4 ahead of us and only 2 behind, we turned and fought our way through the smaller group (Nick critted one of ‘em doing a whopping 34 points or so of damage; his buddy Dent took a harpoon to the chest, but it didn’t seem to slow him down any) and outran the others, taking a side street to keep on in what we hoped was the general direction of the temple.
We finally spot the temple ( a converted warehouse painted in the church’s colors and with her sigil posted above the door). We knock ( it seemed the polite thing to do) and we’re quickly ushered in.
Jim’s Wizard, in particular, was sure something was not right. An Intelligence check revealed that the “initiate” that had let us in had a hastily shaven head with fresh nicks & cuts, and that the elder “priest” appeared to be using the wide sleeves of his robe to hide the fact that he was casting a spell (my Elf failed the check so was blissfully unaware of all that until it was too late). The fake priest cast choking cloud (everyone took 1 pt of damage/round and -2 to all actions) and the initiate/assassins tried to backstab the Wizard and my Elf. Jim’s Wizard noticed the knife coming but still got stabbed; I didn’t see it coming but luckily the bastard missed me. More bad guys rained arrows down on us (pretty unsuccessfully, as I recall) from a loft above.
I decided to dust off my Sleep spell and for once didn’t disappoint – my total result of 24 put the whole gang under.
That was about all we had time for. Michael is a great DCC Judge and a great ambassador for Goodman Games. I'm really hoping it works out that I can go to GaryCon next week so I can play in a game or two run by him again!
It was held at the Atrium Hotel & Convention Center. Not bad for a smaller con (though being local I didn’t book a room); in fact I liked the main gaming area, the atrium itself (which I’m told formerly housed a pool).
As an on-site badge purchaser, my GF & I were only allowed to select 1 Event ticket each per day (having a ticket was not mandatory to play, but it guaranteed you a seat at the table if too many interested parties showed up). I chose two DCC games run by Michael Curtis; a preview of DCC #77 The Croaking Fane on Saturday night and the city crawl “A Night on the Town” on Sunday morning.
Saturday
We arrived 2-3 hours before the game started to look around at what else the con had to offer. Their dealers room was fair sized (about the size of the auction area at GenCon (Indy)) but a lot of it was devoted to gaming, so one table would have a vendor selling games and the next would be surrounded by guys playing X-Wing Battles.
Other than a few of the older 3/3.5 DCC adventures, no one was selling Goodman Games products. In fact I didn’t really see any new rpg products, just bins of odds & ends.
Wargames seemed to be the product of choice. I’m not much of a wargamer, but I did buy an unpunched copy of Fasa’s The Last Starfighter (what can I say, I love that movie) for $15 and a like new copy of Gladiator by Avalon Hill for $30.
Finally, it won’t see any use in my DCC games (in which I don’t use minis) but I couldn’t pass up buying a couple of these Gelatinous Cubes made by Dungeon Master Mark.
“The Croaking Fane”
Three players: Ed, my GF, and me.
The game was due to start in approx a half-hour, so we headed to the atrium to take our seats. Michael was already there, and after introductions was nice enough to sign my copy of Stonehell Dungeon, and my copy of The Dungeon Alphabet, and my other (gold foil) copy of The Dungeon Alphabet, and my DCC core book, etc, etc.
Only one other player winded up joining us (Ed, who had never played DCC before), so he played one 3rd level pre-gen (the Elf) and my GF & I took 2 each – she chose the Halfling & one of the two Warriors, and I took the Cleric & the Thief.
On a whim (or because I had Crawl! #6 w/ me) I named the Cleric “Reverend Dak” and the Thief “Colin”
Then it was full disclosure time – I told Michael I’d previously run an earlier version of his adventure (back when it was for OD&D and called The Fane of St. Toad) – but I promised I’d “play dumb” (which worked out well since my 2 pre-gens shared low Intelligence scores). I think I kept my promise.
So, this is about where to go any further would involve some pretty serious spoilers.
We didn’t finish (time). There were two fatalities (Ed’s Elf and Colin the Thief) but they fortunately weren’t permanent -- Rev Dak the Cleric was able to snatch both from Death’s grasp with some quick laying on of hands.
Sunday
“A Night on the Town”
Five players (Jim “Marvin the Mage” Wampler, Colin & Matt (both new to DCC), my GF & me).
3rd level pre-gens (the same from the day before). Jim (naturally) played a Wizard, Colin & Matt played Warrior #1 & Warrior #2 (who they named Nick & Dent), my GF played the Cleric (Sister Evelyn), & I played the Elf (who, continuing my trend from the day before, I named Raven Crowking.
We kinda hit the ground (or cobblestone streets) running – we found ourselves in a city (Oolvanvar) after nightfall on “Dead Night” – the night each year that all the dead rise and stalk the streets and anyone that’s not crazy or stupid or your average group of DCC PCs wisely stays behind locked doors.
We were told that we had 3 options to find shelter (I) a temple dedicated to a Lawful goddess that allows any and all to shelter there (II) a local noble’s villa that welcomes all to spend that night feasting and celebrating (whistling past the graveyard, as it were), or (III) the thieves guild which demanded a price of seven unbent coffin nails from anyone seeking to hide out there.
We went with the temple. No sooner had we started in that direction than a bunch of free floating partial torsoed vaporous apparitions (like the ones that wiped out all the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark)
...swept down on us. One of the Warriors and my Elf were not only attacked but grabbed and hauled high up into the air. I cast Color Spray, chiefly because its mercurial magic effect was to slip me out of phase for 1d6 rounds, which allowed me to escape both my captor and any damage from the fall. The Warrior (Dent?) escaped by bashing the thing with his sword, which proved to be pretty effective, too. He took some damage from the fall onto a 3rd story roof but was ballsy enough to leap down “Death from Above!”-style onto another semi-spectral foe. Several of the party were pretty dinged up at the battle’s end but Sister Evelyn was batting .1000 with her lay on hands checks.
Next up I think we narrowly avoided running with the (undead) bulls because we didn’t linger when we heard ghastly moos and saw a rotting hoof smash through the door of what I think was the local butcher shop.
We couldn’t easily evade the next obstacle: 6 or so soaking wet zombie sailors risen from the docks. Since there were 4 ahead of us and only 2 behind, we turned and fought our way through the smaller group (Nick critted one of ‘em doing a whopping 34 points or so of damage; his buddy Dent took a harpoon to the chest, but it didn’t seem to slow him down any) and outran the others, taking a side street to keep on in what we hoped was the general direction of the temple.
We finally spot the temple ( a converted warehouse painted in the church’s colors and with her sigil posted above the door). We knock ( it seemed the polite thing to do) and we’re quickly ushered in.
Jim’s Wizard, in particular, was sure something was not right. An Intelligence check revealed that the “initiate” that had let us in had a hastily shaven head with fresh nicks & cuts, and that the elder “priest” appeared to be using the wide sleeves of his robe to hide the fact that he was casting a spell (my Elf failed the check so was blissfully unaware of all that until it was too late). The fake priest cast choking cloud (everyone took 1 pt of damage/round and -2 to all actions) and the initiate/assassins tried to backstab the Wizard and my Elf. Jim’s Wizard noticed the knife coming but still got stabbed; I didn’t see it coming but luckily the bastard missed me. More bad guys rained arrows down on us (pretty unsuccessfully, as I recall) from a loft above.
I decided to dust off my Sleep spell and for once didn’t disappoint – my total result of 24 put the whole gang under.
That was about all we had time for. Michael is a great DCC Judge and a great ambassador for Goodman Games. I'm really hoping it works out that I can go to GaryCon next week so I can play in a game or two run by him again!