Historicon 2019: Snow Queens and Swamp Monsters

So I was able to attend Historicon this year, from Thursday through Sunday, at its new venue, the Lancaster County Convention Center in downtown Lancaster.  The new venue is wonderful!  I was lucky enough to get a room at the attached Marriot.  The view from the floor I stayed on was a bit different from that of the old Host:

I heard several complaints about parking and loading and unloading but as I was staying at the Marriot, I didn't have any problems.

The Games I Ran:

This was the seventh year that Nick and I ran a musical-themed wargame.  This time it was a mash-up of Frozen and Anastasia, called "Let It Go, Rasputin."  I was too busy to take many pictures from the game but I think it was quite the success. 

As in previous years, we both wore iconic costumes during the game.  I must say the looks I got from other gamers as I crossed the game room were priceless. 

This is essentially what the table set-up was:

A first for our musical games, we had two young ladies playing who were given the roles of Anna and Elsa.  As a result, the game was probably not as raucous as in previous years but was still very fun.  "Anna" who despite being only 8, was a really excellent player and won the coveted Wazzi award for best actor.

The other game I ran was the Creatures of Croatoan.  This was part of a series of Elizabethan fantasy/horror games using the Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago rules.  I had run a game last year about the death of Christopher Marlowe and the search for a lost manuscript of Marlow's Dr. Faustus that could actually open a portal to hell.  This year's game was about the search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

 As with the previous game, this one had the players controlling distinct warbands with different goals.  This shows the two Spanish bands.

 This is Grace O'Malley's Irish pirates

 There were three different tribes of Native Americans: Croatoans, Secotans, and Powhatans

There were about half a dozen English warbands

 Including Sir Edmund Blackadder

 The players had to investigate various sites around the island, while fending off some of the strange creatures there as well as the other warbands.

The players could interact with various markers on the board that would give them clues as to the fate of the Lost Colony as well as encounters

 Things escalated pretty quickly:

Games in Which I Played

 I got a chance to play in a number of games.

The first was Last Kids on Earth, based on a YA novel series, in which a small group of kids try to survive a zombie apocalypse. We proved remarkable lucky and successful with all of our survivors making it back to our tree-house fortress with snacks.  A fun game.

I also played in Zeb Cook's dog-sled race game, a sort of Wacky Racers on Ice.  Another fun game, I was Santa Claus.

A magic sled pulled by 8 tiny reindeer is not as maneuverable as you would think.

I also played in one of the iterations of To Catch a King which was put on by Little Wars TV all weekend.  I usually avoid Napoleonic games as not quite my cup of tea.  However, this game was run by Miles Reidy who's an excellent and funny GM.  In this game, the French had successfully invaded England and the British were attempting to get George III onto a ship to reach safety in the colonies.  

A beautiful board and a fun scenario. I was one of the British players and we had to hold open a road to sea against furious French attacks while trying to get the less than mentally stable King to a Royal Navy ship.

We managed pretty well for a while and the King was about half-way to the sea when the French made a sudden break through and were able to capture him.  Fun and quick moving for a game of this magnitude.

The last game I played in was Howard Whitehouse's Gentleman's War, a visual feast of old-fashion shiny toy soldiers.  Given that I played this on Saturday night, it was a delightful end to the convention that gave a lot of laugh without taxing my exhausted brain too much.

Some Games I spotted:

Have Gun Will Travel - they were using a 1950s era board game as the campaign system. It look like a fun game with a great table.

This was a VSF race game.

Some sort of SciFi

Not sure what some of these games were but the terrain was beautiful

 There seemed to be at least two Pegasus Bridge games that I saw.

The magnificent Battle of Hoth game put on by the HAWKS

Pacific landing game.

Historicon 2018: Ogres, Donkeys, Giants, and Shakespearean Shenanigans.

Nick and I had another great Historicon!  This was the 6th Annual Historicon Musical, this time a mash-up of Into the Woods and Shrek.  We had 16 players and the action was non-stop and crazy.  Plotwise, the Shrek characters were attempting to free Fiona from Lord Farquad's clutches, while the Into the Woods characters were attempting to escape the angry Giant.  The Giant was an NPC whose movement across the board was randomly determined.

Here's a partial cast photo:
















Some shots of the table

Shrek's band of fairy folk massing to attack Lord Farquad's castle.

 For some reason, a lot of the players focused on trying to get Rapuzel out of her Tower.  This nearly resulted in disaster for many when Jack (of beanstock game) tried to lure the giant after him, causing the giant to turn ominously toward the tower.  Thanks to the frantic pleas of Donkey following by attack by Cinderella's black birds and the red dragon's flame, the Giant was forced back and tripped over Rapunzel's hair that was stretched between the tower and the beanstock.  This caused the Giant to fall, impaling herself on the numerous tall pines of the Woods.  The dragon went on to rescue Fiona from Farquad's castle and the princess shared True Love's First Kiss with Shrek.

There were a lot of great performances, such as completely smarming and hate-inducing Prince Charming and enthusiastic Gingerbread Man, the coveted Wazi award for Best Actor went to Donkey, who did a spot impression of Eddie Murphy.

Our other game was a reprise of our Elizabethan Frostgrave game, A Dead Man in Deptford, where various factions were searching for the lost manuscript of Dr. Faustus shortly after the murder of Kit Marlowe.

We had 16 players for this game and so got to use all of the possible factions I had created, including Puck and the faeries, and 

the Scottish Weird Sisters

The scene is Southwark, on the south side of the Thames.  The Rose Theatre and bear-baiting rink are just a few of its charms.

We got a great compliment on our table from a professor of English Lit at a local college who was attending the convention, who absolutely loved the look of it.

Here's some shots from in the game.

As always happens, the Rose was burned.

 Ultimately, Solomon Kane destroyed the spell book that allowed for the creation of dramaturgical magic while the manuscript of Dr. Faustus was taken by Grace O'Malley's Irish pirates, with the aid of both the Lord Chamberlains' Men and the Lord Admiral's Men acting troups.  They all escaped in Grace's ship to found the Irish National Theatre.

I also played in a number of games.  Here's the magnificent SOCCOM and sorcery.  It was western Coalition troops vs various shady forces that we dubbed the Axis of Evil, all searching for a hiding cultist in a underground Egyptian Lair. A fun, fast moving game despite its size with great scenery.

I ran some Afghan Mujaheddin troops

 My motorcycle-riding RPG proved to be the MVP of the game, careening through the corridors of the lair to snatch the cult leader from under the noses of the Coalition and monsters.

I also played in a couple of Lion Rampant/Dragon Rampant games, which were great fun despite my doing absolutely abysmally in both games.

I also played in the incredible Ghost Archipelago game, unbelievably beautiful table.

The high point of my game was slaying the Fire Element in the belly of Vaal

Here's some other games that caught my eye.  A beautiful Necromunda table

ACW game.

Minas Tirath

The Siege of Fort St. Elmo in Malta

FIW game with great waterfall:

An impressive Battletech game.