GaryCon IV was a blast!

Downside of this past weekend: I had been unsure if I was going to make it to GaryCon, so I had not registered to run any events.

Upside of this past weekend: it didn't matter. :):):)

When I arrived at GaryCon on Thursday, I brought along a whole bunch of material: Empire of the Petal Throne, Classic Traveller, Mutant Future, and Labyrinth Lord.  The only game I ran was the very first one.  Planning for the MAR Barker Memorial occupied a decent part of Friday, but eventually everything got resolved.  By Friday evening, I had gathered a number of players in the Open Gaming Area, and we started to adventure in Old Jakalla.  Over the course of the convention, I ended up running EPT for about 20 hours.  Some highlights included:

• The party of adventurers who got themselves stuck inside an old Bednalljan tomb, and the one priest of Sarku decided to call for divine intervention.  When the Lord of Worms responded with the question, "what would you have me do?" the anguished priest said, "open ALL the portals to this place!"  Lord Sarku promptly did so - and four player characters joined the ranks of the Legions of the Despairing Dead.
• Another party of adventurers were given a mission to escort a priestess from Jakalla to Tumissa, and got sidetracked by the agents of the Temple of Chiteng. The battle aboard the ship involved an Excellent Ruby Eye, two drugged player-characters in the captain's cabin, and the ship being set on fire by the sailors who were abandoning ship.  The party eventually made it to Prince Rereshqala's palace, however.

Next stop: North Texas RPG Con.  Looking forward to it!

Last Chance to Donate!

Over at the RetroRoleplaying Blog, Randall Stukey notes:  "Today is the last day of the Leap Month RetroRoleplaying Cancer fund drive. Donations arriving before I get up Monday morning (say 7am CDT on March 19th) will count as donated on the 18th of March."  I encourage everyone who has not donated to think about doing so.

Another friend passes away

Professor Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman (MAR) Barker, known to his friends as “Phil,” died peacefully in home hospice on March 16, 2012 with his wife Ambereen Barker at his side. Professor Barker is survived by his wife of 53 years, Ambereen. Details on memorial services will follow. In lieu of flowers, memorials to the Tékumel Foundation are preferred: http://www.tekumelfoundation.org

For more information: http://www.tekumelfoundation.org/PressRelease-MARBARKER-1929-2012.pdf

Traveller Tuesday: 2300AD reborn!

This looks rather interesting. I've always had something of a soft spot for 2300AD, after originally rejecting it as "that weird game that was mislabeled as 'Traveller'." Once I figured out what the game was about, I rather liked the connection between it and Twilight:2000. I never really had a chance to play, and now seeing it connected to the RTT rules set makes me think harder about digging out the old stuff and rolling up some characters.