[tldr; you should have gone]
Some
other people's
reports on NTRPG 2011
Yeehaw! That was a blast. Over sooooo fast I couldn't believe it was already Sunday. 2nd time attending and will definitely be back next year. Nice to see more of the Austin Region Crew. Will try harder to convince more of them to go next year. It's a fun con, run by great guys, at a really nice and convenient hotel. But, for me at least, (even though I'm not a celeb chaser or signature collector) I get one hell of a kick out of being DM'd by and playing with people who wrote the games, modules, and magazines that thrilled me so much as a teenager it started a life long hobby. I healed the guy who wrote the original Druid class. That's bad ass in my book.
Thursday morning I was too excited I couldn't sleep so I headed north around 3:30 am, only took a few hours and had to spend the morning dozing in my car until I could check in. That night Ben Burns ran my very first game ever of
Paranoia. A game that I've been curious about since first seeing ads in Dragon Magazine. My communist mutant only lost two clones and succeeded in recruiting two comrades. Power to the Infrareds, down with the computer!
Friday I returned to
Matt Finch's Mythrus Tower. An ongoing convention S&W campaign.
Father John (my character from last year) and party futz around on 1st level for a while before plunging to the 3rd level and totally p0wning some ghouls. Early edition clerics turn undead is darn powerful. Later on I played in Bill Web's Mythrus game which was wilderness adventure. I died. Fortunately I had made a pact with another cleric to use my
raise dead scroll if I died. Oh, death by Giant Coral snake bite, 1pt of damage save or die vs poison. Over all this con was costly for Father John. He expended all three potions of heal he had, a scroll of raise dead. Otoh, he gained a+1 mace, several thousands of gold ;), and a level. Now 5th and able to cast 3rd level spells, woot!
That evening
Dennis Sustare ran me and several others through his great module (written for NTRPG Con 2011)
"Tourist Traps". Emphasis on the plural in traps.
Swords & Wizardy rules. Fun and different module where characters are at a resort town, Fort Charles, for some rest and relaxation. Fun, funny and filled with "references" such as my favorite two crows
Munin and Hugin. I liked playing in this module so much I bought a copy and I'm not much of a module purchaser. Btw
Grognardia's interview with Dennis.
Saturday was the before mentioned Mythrus Wilderness, the auction in which I bought lots of art (more on that later). After dinner I and several other brave Millenians plundered the Tomb of Amemnes, a Basic/Expert
Hollow World adventure written and DM'd by
Steve Winter for NTRPG 2011. Travis was one of the funniest thieves I've every gamed with. Several other good role-players eliminated the potential tedium of exploring trap infested tombs. The well written module helped there as well. Short, but varied and interesting. I actually won a copy of this module in the raffle. Pretty darn cool.
Sunday, wow already. It came fast but 3 days of junk food and 9am till midnight gaming was wearing heavy on me. I lasted for a few more hours in which I explored a too small portion of
Castle of the Mad Archmage DM'd by
Jon Hershberger. AD&D. I'm very proud that my Paladin was able to topple the blasphemous rat god temple before I left early to drive home before I passed out.
See ya next year.