On Sunday a gaggle of old school roleplayers took over a corner of the Olde Ship British Pub in Santa Ana, California. I counted a total of 16 attendees with gaming going on for 11 hours. Tables were filled with ales, meat pies, polyhedral dice, and character sheets. The hilarious British manager Jackie kept the provisions flowing while she was listening in and checking up on the progress of each game.

There were two concurrent afternoon sessions. There was a large D&D game of the Judge's Guild classic Tegel Manor (a prequel, actually) run by Brunomac of the Temple of Demogorgon blog (CLICK HERE to read Brunomac's report ). At the same time Trent Foster ran a D&D session of his massive homebrewed Castle Xanadu dungeon. In Trent's game I played a flying fairy named Sprincus and at one point we tangled with a gremlin witch doctor! Can't beat that, huh? It was super cool! CLICK HERE to read a thorough session recap Trent wrote up.

For the 6 players remaining after dinner I ran a session of the original Gamma World. I took the group through the Floating Castle of the Wasp Women - a scenario I ran at Gamex last year. The players started out trying to capture an anti-gravity-generating brain from a hive of giant wasp women, and found themselves in the middle of an insect revolution. I had fun and I hope they did too!

Everyone said they had a blast and want to do it again. The Olde Ship even offered to set up a private buffet for our group the next time we come. Maybe we can turn this into a semi-regular thing...?

Thanks to Saint Yossarian and The European for pictures!

This is just a reminder that we are having an old school RPG day in Santa Ana (California) this Sunday! Three games will be going down. Two OD&D sessions run by Brunomac and Trent Foster, respectively, and a Gamma World session run by yours truly. Gaming starts at 11am and will probably go until 10 or 11pm.

One of the coolest aspects of this event is the location: The Olde Ship British Pub and Restaurant in Santa Ana. This place has awesome atmosphere, food, and ale. The event is FREE but we ask that you please purchase food and drink and tip the servers well if you attend.

CLICK HERE for further details and to check the RSVP status for the various games. As of now there are still a few seats open for OD&D, but the Gamma World session is full. I will jot down alternate names for any events in case of no shows.

Even if you can't break off time to game with us feel free to come by to say "Hi!" and put an ale or meat pie in your face!

Attention Southern California!

We are going to have an informal old school RPG game day at the Olde Ship British Pub in Santa Ana on Sunday March 20.

So far on the menu - besides English ales and meat pies - we have Original D&D sessions being run by Brunomac and Trent Foster, and a Gamma World session being run by yours truly. The event is still a few months away, so be sure to keep checking THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE for details and updates. If you want to play or run a session please also refer to THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE.

The event will be FREE, but participants are asked to please buy meals and drinks to make it worthwhile for The Olde Ship. Don't worry - their food (and atmosphere) is quite awesome!

Just a few brief items for local gamers:

1. Starship Valkyrie, the incredible sci-fi LARP/simulation by Christian Brown, has announced games for the Saturdays of Oct 23, Nov 6, and Nov 13. These games will be from 6-11pm, and will occur in Culver City. The turnout was high for the last two games, and they are now charging $20/ head. These games should be fabulous and I will try very hard to attend at least one of them. Click here for contact and RSVP info.

2. Joe Goodman will be running playtests of his new AD&D-inspired Dungeon Crawl Classics game on Sunday October 24 at DiceHouse Games in Fullerton. I understand that there will be a morning session and an afternoon session. This is being hosted by the Dead Gamers Society meetup group. Click here to sign up for the 10:00am session. Click here to sign up for the 3pm session.

3. The U.C. Irvine roleplaying club will begin its Monday 7pm meetings today. This group is open anyone and everyone - no affiliation with UCI is required. If there is interest, I might try to run a biweekly game of OD&D or Empire of the Petal Throne at this event. I will update you all if this happens. Click here for the club's Facebook page.

Yesterday was the SoCal Mini-Con III in Anaheim, California. Everything seemed to go perfectly great and everyone I talked to had a blast. Special thanks to Bedivere for arranging the event!

There were six games and over 30 people total:

• Tavis Allison running OD&D
• Trent Foster running AD&D
• Joe Goodman running Dungeon Crawl Classics
• Telecenter running Swords and Wizardry
• Cyclopeatron (me!) running Gamma World
• Brunomac running OD&D

I was able to get  few pictures of the Mini-Con. Also, special thanks are due to David B. for the Gamma World pics. I tried my best to attach names to people in the pictures, but I couldn't remember everyone's name. Please let me know if I got your name wrong and I'll correct it. Sadly, I wasn't able to get pictures of Telecanter's or Brunomac's games...

Tomorrow is the SoCal Mini-Con! Here are eight pregen characters for my Gamma World game. If you are a player and want to reserve one of these characters, leave your request in a comment. First come, first served! Possessions and mutations will be determined by drawing cards at the beginning of the game.

One more thing... Players should bring a few extra 6-sided dice if possible because I use Xd6 ability checks.

See y'all tomorrow...

Hello Player,

Starship Valkyrie, the sci-fi LARP that first ran at Wyrdcon One in June 2010, will be running again in August. The dates for the game are:

Saturday, August 21st, 6:00 to 11:00 at a location in Culver City, CA.

and

Saturday, August 28th, 6:00 to 11:00 at a location in Burbank, CA.

Cost: Free.

The games will use the same rules, but have different plotlines, so you can play in both games and not spoil anything. If you want to play, please respond to this email with the games you wish to play. There is no charge, but contributions of food/drink to share may be solicited from the participants.

Players will be contacted regarding character options.

About Starship Valkyrie

Valkyrie is a cooperative LARP with board game and card game elements. The immersive atmosphere aims at creating urgency and excitement rather than drama or player conflict. After the first run of the game, participants said that the game:

                is effective at making you feel like a crewman on a starship.

                is exciting and engaging.

                has fun props that contribute to the atmosphere.

Valkyrie is driven by the camaraderie of the crew, which is what makes it a cooperative game. There are no traitors, and no back-stabbing. Everyone is trying to do their duty and save the Earth Republic. That may lead to well-meaning conflicts, but no betrayal.

Please contact me with any questions you may have.

Yours sincerely,

Christian Brown

Starship Valkyrie GM

Back by popular demand! I will be running my Gamma World scenario Floating Castle of the Wasp Women at a Dead Gamers Society game day at Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, August 22, starting at 1pm.

Sign up here (may require you make a Meetup.com account if you haven't already):

http://www.meetup.com/Dead-Gamers-Society/calendar/14208965/

There were a lot of great concurrent sessions at Gamex 2010, and it was often difficult to choose what game sessions to attend. On top of that that a lot of the sessions filled up very quickly, so many players had to miss out on some cool roleplaying. Louis of the Dead Gamers Society Meetup group had the great idea to have a Summer Reruns game day where GMs could run their previous convention games for the benefit of those who missed out the first time around. In addition to my Gamma World game, Mike Cantin will be running a 1970s teenage slasher Word of Darkness game, which should be splendid.

Feel free to email me (via my Blogger Profile) if you have any questions.

This "con" is not actually a formal convention - it is  a group of old school gamers hanging out in a rented clubhouse. The details I present here are distilled from the Dragonsfoot thread and email correspondence, and should be considered tentative. If you are interested in attending PLEASE RSVP a spot in the session(s) by leaving a Comment here or emailing me - this will be incredibly helpful for the DMs.
Please read below for further details on location, parking, food, etc. This is a free event!

We'll also be doing a book swap! Bring a box of books that you think people would be willing to trade for, and hopefully we'll all walk away with new reading material.

NOTE: I will continually update this page with details, so you can check back here periodically. More sessions may be added and game RSVPs may change.

DM: T. Foster
DESCRIPTION: I'm going to be running the "Tomb of Rahotep," the finale section of Gary Gygax's Necropolis, which I will be freely converting to 1E AD&D from the original Dangerous Journeys version (there was also a d20 version released by Necromancer Games). The adventure is for high-level (up to 14) characters and is, essentially, "Tomb of Horrors on Egyptian-flavored steroids" -- a pretty much sadistic puzzle-dungeon that Gygax was proud of as the most difficult thing he ever wrote (and which I had the honor of playing in under him in a couple convention/playtest sessions back in the 80s, so I'll be doing my best to capture some of that same feel (only with a lot less unfiltered cigarettes and not as many colorful anecdotes about sharing hottubs with Hollywood starlets and what assholes the Blume brothers are )). I'm providing pre-gen characters.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Thorkhammer
2. wheggi
3. jallison86
4. wheggi's stepson
5. Cimmerian
6. Bedivere
7. The Shaman
8. Rick M.
9. Gary P.
10. open

MORNING SESSION (9am-1pm):
DM: Tavis Allison 
DESCRIPTION: Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974 Whitebox, 3 "little brown books" plus house rules). "Night of the Walking Wet" by Paul Jaquays is an underappreciated classic in its own right & a mini-campaign setting for the other adventures presented in the early issues of the Dungeoneer fanzine. This exploration will set forth in a different corner of its sandbox than the previous all-night run at GaryCon II, and will take place a week after the events of that session (and likely a week before its continuation at GaryCon III). Players are welcome to make new characters beforehand using the guidelines here; to bring existing characters from any game system, who will be adapted to fit in to a party of roughly 6th level OD&D adventurers; or to roll up characters on the spot.
RESERVED SEATS: 6 preferred, 2 alternates possible.

1. cyclopeatron
2. Javi
3. Staples
4. Kirk (Telecanter)
5. Kirk's friend 
6. Alexy (monk)
7. Nick Bielik
8. open

DM: Joseph Goodman (Goodman Games)
DESCRIPTION:  Dungeon Crawl Classics. Atop a craggy peak overlooking the teeming ports, the brilliant emerald tower has watched generations of kings rise and pass. This Citadel of the Emerald Sorcerer goes undisturbed by the king’s subjects, who fear the flapping monstrosities that descend from the dusk – as well as the king’s edict. But you’re not a king’s man, and many a fell beast has fallen to your sword ere tonight’s adventure. Surely a fortune in gemstones awaits you in the Citadel of the Emerald Sorcerer! Join the continuing public playtest of the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game with this new level 2 adventure, introducing some of the new spellcasting rules employed by the game.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Rick M.
2. Gary P.
3. Louis (Jon Archer)
4. Todd
5. Karina
6. Joel A.

DM: Bobby "Cyclopeatron"
DESCRIPTION:  Gamma World (1st edition). MUTANTS OF METAL. It's hard work being in a mutated heavy metal band touring the post-apocalyptic Gamma World. Getting gigs, pleasing fans, keeping your keytar synth in good repair, and fighting rival heavy metal bands and aliens - it's all in a day's work. Pregens will be provided.
RESERVED SEATS: GAME FULL

1. Brunomac (lead vocals)
2. David B. (electronic guitar)
3. Brent W. (drummer)
4. Joshua O. (synth)
5. Nick Bielik
6. Banjo Chris 
7. Troy Z.

DM: Kirk "Telecanter"
DESCRIPTION:  Swords & Wizardry (OD&D clone)
RESERVED SEATS: 3 to 6 players preferred.

1. Staples
2. David Keeton 
3. Mobad Deathprong
4. Kirk's Friend 
5. open
6. open

DM: Chris "Cimmerian"
DESCRIPTION:  Urutsk: World of Mystery.
NOTE: This session might be canceled due to a potential work conflict for the DM. If this happens, Bedivere will instead run an AD&D session.
RESERVED SEATS:

1. Bedivere
2. Kirk (Telecanter)
3. Kirk's friend
4. Tavis A.
5. Mobad Deathprong
6. open

DM: Kevin "Brunomac"
DESCRIPTION: Original D&D. Whitebox by-the-book. Roll up characters and go for it!
RESERVED SEATS:

1. Fred. C. Dobbs 
2. Gary
3. Staples 
4. Mat
5. Alexy (monk)
6. open 

MINI-CON LOCATION: The Mini-Con will be a few blocks from the Anaheim Convention Center. On this Google Map aim for the big clubhouse near the pool on the North side of Orangewood, to the left of the pointer:


View Larger Map
  
OTHER DETAILS - PLEASE READ! 

Parking
Since I'm so close to Disneyland and the convention center, the streets in the area are marked as resident permit parking only. Enforcement is fairly light, but there's no need to risk getting a ticket.

There is guest parking within the Sherwood Village community in any open, marked space (it's pretty obvious - the streets in the community are all either red or marked parking spaces). There's usually plenty, but I've never had 30 guests over before. I also have 4 resident hang tag permits that will allow parking on Orangewood right next to the clubhouse that I can give to people I know - especially anyone bringing tables and chairs or with lots to unload. These would likely go to Tony F, Jeff Allison, and perhaps Cimm, T.Foster, Shaman, Thork, or Wheggi (whoever gets there first, or whoever gives a compelling argument as to why they need it).

I know people are coming from all over, but if it’s possible to carpool, that would help.

Tables and Chairs
The clubhouse has chairs for 20 and tables for 2 games, and a counter top and refrigerator for food. I additionally have a card table and chairs for the book swap, snacks, or whatever we need.

It looks like we’ll need another table for a game session, and 8-10 chairs.

Food
If everyone brings their favorite snacks and drinks there always seems to be enough to share.

We were planning a bbq. There are a lot of people involved now, so I’m not sure how long bbq-ing for 20+ will take. We have 2 large gas bbqs outside the clubhouse. I think we can still do it if we have multiple people manning the grills as long as we limit it to something simple like burgers and dogs, but we just don’t have the space or time to cook spare ribs or whole chickens or stuff like that. We need to coordinate buns, condiments, and any veggies we might want. I don’t know if everyone should bring their own meat to allow for tastes, veggie substitutes, kosher, or whatever, or if we should pool that too. Any suggestions?

If you must bring something else to grill it must be as quick and simple as burgers or hotdogs.

Because there's 3 sessions instead of 2 like before, we also need a lunch. There is all manner of fast food, pizza, and restaurants in the area – obtaining food shouldn’t be a problem. The clubhouse also has a microwave.