Whew, what a week it's been.Back from Gary Con!

​Whew, what a week it's been.

Back from Gary Con!

What to say, hmmm...

Gary Con is the finest convention one can go to, an incredible job was accomplished by Luke Gygax and Co.

READ THIS WHOLE RANT - WE'RE GIVING AWAY POSTERS

First off, that's me photo bombing a picture of a Chain Mail game at Gary Con. (Photo credit: Patrick Bobeck) I'm the standing guy at the far table playing Strategos-N.

It had been decades since my last convention and I was very surprised at how this convention was run. I'm sure that there was a lot of running around by staff to deal with the various fires that arise at an event this big, but from my perspective Gary Con is the smoothest running convention I have ever witnessed.

The setting for the event is amazing. And the table service for drinks and snacks is excellent.

Although the primary objective was to screen 35 minutes of the film draft, I also managed to get in on a couple of games.

An Empire of the Petal Throne game where I got to be a Pei Choi priestess; my favorite alien race from Tekumel.

A napoleonic minis battle with Ross Maker; he was using Strategos N as the rules system. Five of us were pitted against David Wesely who was defending a town with his army, there is a blog post about it here.

Perhaps most interesting about the napoleonic battle was the team play aspect. Sure it's nitty gritty historical war gaming, but it's also very social as the linked blogger noted.

I would say that the one thing many of the gamers at the convention did not do, is explore things they were not familiar with. So while all the RPG games were loaded with players, the Legends of Gaming room had some games that came up short on players. If you ever go to Gary Con, make an effort to try something you would normally never play.

For instance, if one of the directors of Secrets of Blackmoor walks up to you and says: "You want to play a napoleonics battle with Ross Maker and David Wesely don't-cha?" You say yes, and follow me to the table for some awesome gaming. Sad to say, most did not. :(

I also got roped into a game of Braunstein with David Wesely. That was really fun. Since the player turnout was low, we all ended up playing 2 factions, which made for some crazy flip flop role playing. Even more fun: The farm worker's union and the factory worker's union conspired to create havoc, by burning down a fancy hotel, so that the arms dealer would negotiate in our favor, while also being able to prove that the local militaries really needed to buy more guns to suppress all the insurrections that we were fomenting as a ruse. Again, what a shame to see the original RPG being played and so few signing up for it.

A heartfelt SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to those who could make it to the first screening of Secrets of Blackmoor. Let us know where you display that autographed limited edition poster once you get it home. ;) Better yet, send us a picture of it in situ!

It was really nice to meet everyone in person. :)

Also, a THANK YOU to Kevin McColl for providing tech support during the screening.

Kevin posted some shots here.

POSTERS:

I really wanted a limited edition color poster with only 150 copies printed -- But I couldn't make it to GaryCon you say?

Well, here's the deal, we saved some for our online fans. Fifty of you will be lucky winners of these posters. Not only that, but we had these posters signed by the people who are in the movie: David Wesely, David Megarry; Ross Maker; Bill Hoyt, and Ken Shepro. Maybe we can get the directors to sign it as well.

Ken couldn't make it up to the convention, so I drove to his home and had him sign the remaining posters; only winners of the giveaway will get his signature.

So how do you win a poster? FOLLOW OUR FACEBOOK PAGE (Check! you've done that right?) ;)

...and GET on our MAILING LIST at the website here.

We will be posting some Gary Con photos through the week. Right now I am in recovery from all the socializing, gaming, and driving.

We are a self funded indy feature film production and we rely on our fan base...

- :) YOUR FACE HERE :) -

...to help get the word out about this film.

All it takes is a single click!

Watch the Movie Trailer here:

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