I went to Mepacon last weekend and had a great time, but before I get into that, a little side story.
My mom never had a problem with me gaming as a teenager, so long as my homework was done, and I didn't have to ask for money because I spent it all on books and dice. In fact, her and my dad drove me back and forth from my first two cons, Lehicons III and IV.
So, it's a bit of a surprise that in her later years, she's decided to interrupt my limited convention schedule.
Back in March, she scared me with what could first be described as stroke symptoms while I was at Cold Wars in Lancaster. I already covered that story here.
We got through that, and a re-admittance a bit later, where they discovered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Imagine your main artery to your lower half as a long balloon. Then picture a weakening bulge on the side and you have the concept. Not something you want to burst, but it wasn't something so bad that they needed to resolve it that second. So, a few more tests later and they scheduled non-invasive surgery for this upcoming Friday the 4th.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday, and as I was preparing to make some pre-gens for the convention, I get a call from the ER of my mom's hospital. She called the ambulance for sudden and drastic GI issues, and when she arrived, they discovered the aneurysm did not understand the concept of schedules. It had already burst and they were rushing her to the OR for emergency surgery.
Reading stats on this type of event, a blown abdominal aneurysm has something like a 10% chance of survival and the surgery is very invasive, with most patients requiring a longer hospital stay and possibly rehab.
To make an already long side story shorter, my mom was not only part of the 10% that survived, but the even smaller group that recovered amazingly well. So well, in fact, that by Thursday afternoon, I was able to go home and game a little, so long as I could take her home Sunday afternoon from the hospital.
I'll admit my mom is a tough ol' stubborn broad, and this past week was certainly a confirmation of that. She's currently at home, resting.
Definitely not going to GenCon this year. I can't imagine what would happen to her then!
Friday, I was in nearby Moosic for work, and to volunteer to help set up for the American Heart Association Walk for that Saturday. Once everything was set up, I was able to zip up 81 for a few minutes to the Hilton in Scranton, arriving just after the 2pm session.
The first major change I noticed was that the remodeling on the floor had been completed. While the main ballroom seemed unchanged, many of the business/meeting rooms were completely redone, as well as an entire hallway of rooms added to floor!
While this re-distributed the Organized Play games a bit, the second noticeable change was the expansion of the dealer hall! There were at least eight traditional vendors, with a few writers/creators running demos and hawking their wares as well. There were plenty of options and I easily hit my measly budget in no time flat.
I wandered about, caught up with a number of the Old Guard that knew each other well before the con started seventeen years ago, grabbed my complimentary t-shirt, and eventually got ready for my game.
For the second straight con, I was "The Pony Guy," running the My Little Pony - Tails of Equestria game in six two-hour slots. To mix it up, I alternated between the "Learn How to Play" games and the "Infinite League of Avenging Justice" Power Pony game to fit the "Heroes and Villains" theme of the con.
My 4-6 session Friday had a few returning ladies from last con. Alas, they didn't bring their character sheets (I do allow players to use the ones we made from previous session), so we made up new Ponies, rolled my newest Rory's Story Cubes for inspiration and played a high-paced session involving a magic harp, an angry ogre, and literally herding cats.
Fun was had by all.
For dinner, I had purchased a ticket to their all-you-can-eat pasta buffet/welcome reception. All proceeds go to the con, and with free admission from GMing enough hours, I don't mind donating to the cause.
Friday night, I ran my first super-hero Pony with two great test subject, returning players James and Neve. They both brought their characters from November, Harmony and Silas. We transferred them onto new sheets and proceeded to turn them into heroic personas. Silas was tough but sneaky hero, while we took full advantage of Harmony's unicorn to turn her into a Turquoise Canary with sonic powers.
*Spoilers* it was the only session of pony super-heroes to go off, but I did complete part one of the storyline based off the first three issue of Justice League (1987). Lots of confusion, steampunk mechanical dragons, hot chocolate, cloaks of exploding confetti... and puppies.
Post-game I spent some more time shooting the breeze with the fellas who are inching closer to closer to "old timers."
One thing I'm entirely grateful for is that after all these years, many of the convention attendees are good friends I see infrequently, and an extended family. Most asked about my mom and let me blow off steam telling the story numerous times. I'm grateful to be in such a great hobby with great people.
Saturday I usually take my girls Maja (8) and Millie (7) to the con for the day, but I discovered Millie had gone to a sleepover! I woke up Maja nice and early, grabbed a hearty breakfast, drove to Scranton, and got her registered by exactly 9:01am, where we rushed to our table to find it completely empty.
But our pony fanatics James and Neve were at the table behind me ready to play a Kid's Cthulhu game run by Jazim Ospa.
This was Maja's first Call of Cthulhu character:
With a teenager, a seven-year old boy and his imaginary friend, and a friendly bus driver, I think we solved the mystery of strange fireworks, fog, and a bus ride to Newark but we had a great time doing it, regardless.
The Cthulhu game ran about three hours, and I kept looking over for players for Pony session #4, but no one came.
For the remaining time before lunch I dropped Maja off at the Kid's LARP, where they were mixing up chemicals. There were goggles involved and white lab coats. I did not hear any explosions.
While I waited for Maja, I perused the growing auctions. Thanks to increased attendance, the quantity and quality of the auction items people bring in continues to impress me. I'll cover my auction finds later, but *spoilers* I didn't actually bid on anything, just grabbed stuff with a reasonable buy-out price pre-auction.
For lunch, Maja always wants to walk over the Pizza by Pappas and a chance to play a few "antique" games....
We also swung over to Comics on the Green, where Maja not only got a comic book, but also a lengthy conversation with the owner about Scrooge McDuck.
For Pony slot #5, it was yet another returning player (with Pony Sheet!) and Maja with a new character. A simple theft of some pony balm led to a hijinks filled chase, investigations in an abandoned fun house, and my first 3rd level pony afterward.
With a few minutes before the sixth and final slot, I hit the bathroom and auction one more time, only to return to find five people at my table and Maja frantically handing out sheets and starting character creation.
Soon Maja, very very soon, you can start running games (especially when you're over ten and no longer free!)
Thanks to Helen, Grace, and the young man running "The Pony of DOOM!!!!" we managed to navigate the Equestrian Pet Show, find appropriate pets, and successfully navigate the pet dance party.
At six o'clock the raffle, contest winners, and auction normally commence, but not without repeating the biggest announcement of the convention, Ed Lehman, the indomitable Convention Director for Mepacon from the start, was retiring from the Convention business after 34 cons, two a year, for 17 years straight. If anything can be said of Ed that I haven't heard already, it is that we wisely conned a bunch of good friends into helping him run those first few conventions in Wind Gap, and they have gelled into a well-run convention staff. The team effectively splitting his duties is a team that's been together for a very long time. And he won't be missed too much.... he'll be running and playing games, just without the fancy "Convention Director" shirt.
The charity raffle was a bust for me, but when some fella is rumored to drop hundreds of dollars (or donate a ton of food/pet food) support a charity he loves, he's going to get a good swath of the tickets, and win more than a few times. Good for him!
And Maja regained her title of Color Contest Champion with her rendition of The Flash...
A completely self-serving gripe about the auction. For the sake of time and other reasons, the famous dollar auction has each item start at half the buyout price the person put on the item (Starting bid of $1 for items without buyouts). I completely understand the reasons why this was done, but it does prevent me from bottom feeding a few odd items, and save my money for fun gems like the HR Puffenstuff board game from last con. Regardless, it works for everyone else and will remain, another part of my "youth" destroyed. Boo-hoo-hoo.
With a hungry Maja, we hit the road early, grabbed some food, and went to the local cinema to see Avengers: Infinity War. Little Maja was beat when we pulled into driveway at Midnight, but she kept repeating the same thing she said all day, "Today is a perfect day."
I couldn't agree more.
Swag: Maja got some stuff from Lemonlime crafts, I snagged some moderately water-damaged books that included the Dark Folk Role Aids supplement for a whopping two bucks, but my biggest deal of the con was the Star Wars Edge of the Empire game from Fantasy Flight for a ten dollar auction buyout. It actually made me buy the funky FFG dice from The Portal. Still may never play it, but given the great example of play I've listened to on actual play podcasts like Campaign, I really should give it a try.
Overview: With the remodeling in the hotel finished, the con appears to have some extra space to maneuver, and even without Ed at the helm, I have great faith that the Tabletop Junta taking his place will continue to evolve and expand the con, so long as everyone has fun.
Mepacon Fall 2018 will be November 16-18 at Hilton in Scranton. The convention theme is Underwater Realms....
I'm calling it now, that some of my events for the con will be based on the Octonauts television show.
My mom never had a problem with me gaming as a teenager, so long as my homework was done, and I didn't have to ask for money because I spent it all on books and dice. In fact, her and my dad drove me back and forth from my first two cons, Lehicons III and IV.
So, it's a bit of a surprise that in her later years, she's decided to interrupt my limited convention schedule.
Back in March, she scared me with what could first be described as stroke symptoms while I was at Cold Wars in Lancaster. I already covered that story here.
We got through that, and a re-admittance a bit later, where they discovered an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Imagine your main artery to your lower half as a long balloon. Then picture a weakening bulge on the side and you have the concept. Not something you want to burst, but it wasn't something so bad that they needed to resolve it that second. So, a few more tests later and they scheduled non-invasive surgery for this upcoming Friday the 4th.
Fast forward to this past Wednesday, and as I was preparing to make some pre-gens for the convention, I get a call from the ER of my mom's hospital. She called the ambulance for sudden and drastic GI issues, and when she arrived, they discovered the aneurysm did not understand the concept of schedules. It had already burst and they were rushing her to the OR for emergency surgery.
Reading stats on this type of event, a blown abdominal aneurysm has something like a 10% chance of survival and the surgery is very invasive, with most patients requiring a longer hospital stay and possibly rehab.
To make an already long side story shorter, my mom was not only part of the 10% that survived, but the even smaller group that recovered amazingly well. So well, in fact, that by Thursday afternoon, I was able to go home and game a little, so long as I could take her home Sunday afternoon from the hospital.
I'll admit my mom is a tough ol' stubborn broad, and this past week was certainly a confirmation of that. She's currently at home, resting.
Definitely not going to GenCon this year. I can't imagine what would happen to her then!
Friday, I was in nearby Moosic for work, and to volunteer to help set up for the American Heart Association Walk for that Saturday. Once everything was set up, I was able to zip up 81 for a few minutes to the Hilton in Scranton, arriving just after the 2pm session.
The first major change I noticed was that the remodeling on the floor had been completed. While the main ballroom seemed unchanged, many of the business/meeting rooms were completely redone, as well as an entire hallway of rooms added to floor!
While this re-distributed the Organized Play games a bit, the second noticeable change was the expansion of the dealer hall! There were at least eight traditional vendors, with a few writers/creators running demos and hawking their wares as well. There were plenty of options and I easily hit my measly budget in no time flat.
For the second straight con, I was "The Pony Guy," running the My Little Pony - Tails of Equestria game in six two-hour slots. To mix it up, I alternated between the "Learn How to Play" games and the "Infinite League of Avenging Justice" Power Pony game to fit the "Heroes and Villains" theme of the con.
 |
| Ooooh.... hexless Battletech |
Fun was had by all.
For dinner, I had purchased a ticket to their all-you-can-eat pasta buffet/welcome reception. All proceeds go to the con, and with free admission from GMing enough hours, I don't mind donating to the cause.
Friday night, I ran my first super-hero Pony with two great test subject, returning players James and Neve. They both brought their characters from November, Harmony and Silas. We transferred them onto new sheets and proceeded to turn them into heroic personas. Silas was tough but sneaky hero, while we took full advantage of Harmony's unicorn to turn her into a Turquoise Canary with sonic powers.
*Spoilers* it was the only session of pony super-heroes to go off, but I did complete part one of the storyline based off the first three issue of Justice League (1987). Lots of confusion, steampunk mechanical dragons, hot chocolate, cloaks of exploding confetti... and puppies.
Post-game I spent some more time shooting the breeze with the fellas who are inching closer to closer to "old timers."
One thing I'm entirely grateful for is that after all these years, many of the convention attendees are good friends I see infrequently, and an extended family. Most asked about my mom and let me blow off steam telling the story numerous times. I'm grateful to be in such a great hobby with great people.
Saturday I usually take my girls Maja (8) and Millie (7) to the con for the day, but I discovered Millie had gone to a sleepover! I woke up Maja nice and early, grabbed a hearty breakfast, drove to Scranton, and got her registered by exactly 9:01am, where we rushed to our table to find it completely empty.
But our pony fanatics James and Neve were at the table behind me ready to play a Kid's Cthulhu game run by Jazim Ospa.
This was Maja's first Call of Cthulhu character:
The Cthulhu game ran about three hours, and I kept looking over for players for Pony session #4, but no one came.
For the remaining time before lunch I dropped Maja off at the Kid's LARP, where they were mixing up chemicals. There were goggles involved and white lab coats. I did not hear any explosions.
While I waited for Maja, I perused the growing auctions. Thanks to increased attendance, the quantity and quality of the auction items people bring in continues to impress me. I'll cover my auction finds later, but *spoilers* I didn't actually bid on anything, just grabbed stuff with a reasonable buy-out price pre-auction.
 |
| Some of the less choice, but awesome items in the auction |
 |
| A lot of WEG d6 Star Wars |
For lunch, Maja always wants to walk over the Pizza by Pappas and a chance to play a few "antique" games....
 |
| Maja in Action... |
For Pony slot #5, it was yet another returning player (with Pony Sheet!) and Maja with a new character. A simple theft of some pony balm led to a hijinks filled chase, investigations in an abandoned fun house, and my first 3rd level pony afterward.
With a few minutes before the sixth and final slot, I hit the bathroom and auction one more time, only to return to find five people at my table and Maja frantically handing out sheets and starting character creation.
Soon Maja, very very soon, you can start running games (especially when you're over ten and no longer free!)
Thanks to Helen, Grace, and the young man running "The Pony of DOOM!!!!" we managed to navigate the Equestrian Pet Show, find appropriate pets, and successfully navigate the pet dance party.
At six o'clock the raffle, contest winners, and auction normally commence, but not without repeating the biggest announcement of the convention, Ed Lehman, the indomitable Convention Director for Mepacon from the start, was retiring from the Convention business after 34 cons, two a year, for 17 years straight. If anything can be said of Ed that I haven't heard already, it is that we wisely conned a bunch of good friends into helping him run those first few conventions in Wind Gap, and they have gelled into a well-run convention staff. The team effectively splitting his duties is a team that's been together for a very long time. And he won't be missed too much.... he'll be running and playing games, just without the fancy "Convention Director" shirt.
The charity raffle was a bust for me, but when some fella is rumored to drop hundreds of dollars (or donate a ton of food/pet food) support a charity he loves, he's going to get a good swath of the tickets, and win more than a few times. Good for him!
And Maja regained her title of Color Contest Champion with her rendition of The Flash...
 |
| Steve (and his sidekick Cyclops) at the helm of the auction. |
I couldn't agree more.
Swag: Maja got some stuff from Lemonlime crafts, I snagged some moderately water-damaged books that included the Dark Folk Role Aids supplement for a whopping two bucks, but my biggest deal of the con was the Star Wars Edge of the Empire game from Fantasy Flight for a ten dollar auction buyout. It actually made me buy the funky FFG dice from The Portal. Still may never play it, but given the great example of play I've listened to on actual play podcasts like Campaign, I really should give it a try.
Overview: With the remodeling in the hotel finished, the con appears to have some extra space to maneuver, and even without Ed at the helm, I have great faith that the Tabletop Junta taking his place will continue to evolve and expand the con, so long as everyone has fun.
Mepacon Fall 2018 will be November 16-18 at Hilton in Scranton. The convention theme is Underwater Realms....
And always, thanks to the ponies in attendance:
*Crystal Princess
*Tangerine Dream
*Super-Silas
*Super-Harmony
*Cleft
*Sapphire Symphony
*Future Cop
*Limelilly
*Flutter
and
*THE PONY OF DOOM!*
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