Forsooth, SATLOF is Upon Us!

(Kickstarter) Car Wars 6th Edition by Steve Jackson Games

The biggest news out of a Black Friday of sales and specials is, of course, the Kickstarter for Car Wars 6th Edition.

The scale bounces up from the tiny chits we know and love to 1/64 scale (25mm-ish 1/72 is 20mm)

A Black Friday-only pledge level include a very special Uncle Al's Upgrade pack with more cards.  That becomes a $15 add-on after the 29th. 

I may have pledged for the Black Friday Four-Player game (Maja is a big fan of the card game) but I'm still not sold on the "oversized" scale, Gaslands be damned.  

It's Black Friday, Roll for Initiative!

Happy Thanksgiving 2019!

If your turkey is too big, an open pit fire might speed up the cooking. 

Yub-Yum!

(Kickstarter) Women of WW2 Miniatures by Bad Squiddo Game

Bad Squiddo Games continues to make good on one or their slogans, "Believable Female Miniatures," by launching the Women of WW2 Miniatures Kickstarter. 

This campaign is an expansion of their existing WW2 range, which is available as add-ons to the Kickstarter.

S&H will be calculated after the Kickstarter is over.  

Another Month of New Gaming (December 2019)

ViscountEric's Must-Have Want List
Monkeyfun Studios
Spirit of 77- Greatest Hits - Vol 2 .................................... $24.99

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List
Fat Goblin Games
Stranger Stuff (Tiny d6) ............................................... $19.95

WizKids
DC Heroclix: Justice League Unlimited
Yeah, this would lure me back into buying a few Heroclix.

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)
Alderac Entertainment Group
Tiny Towns:  Fortune ..................................................... $29.99

Arc Dream Publishing
Delta Green: Ex Oblivione ............................................. $14.99

Army Painter 
Wet Palette ...................................................................... $24.99

Asmodee Editions
15 Men ........................................................................... $29.99
7 Wonders:  Wonder Pack Expansion ............................ $14.99
Bandido .......................................................................... $12.99
Beer IQ ........................................................................... $19.99
Dragon Boats of the Four Seas ...................................... $49.99
Top Gun: Strategy Game ............................................... $24.99

Atlas Games
Feng Shui 2 HC .............................................................. $49.95

Bedrock Games
Strange Tales .............................................................. $29.99

Chaosium
Call of Cthulhu: Alone Against the Frost .................... $19.99

Dork Storm Press
Dork Tower X:  The Tao of Igor ................................. $24.99

Fat Goblin Games
Pathfinder RPG: Fellow Travelers - Animal Companions ...... $15.95
Pathfinder RPG: Game Changer- Alchemical Tools ............... $15.95
US Marshalls RPG .................................................................. $19.95

Gale Force Nine 
D&D Eberron - DM Screen ................................................... $15.00

Gallant Knight 
Zorro: The RPG ....................................................................... $50.00

Games Workshop
Dark Imperium (40k)   ............................................................ $160.00
Know No Fear Starter Set (40k) ............................................. $ 80.00
First Strike Starter Set (40k) ................................................... $ 40.00
Storm Strike (Age of Sigmar) ................................................. $ 40.00
Beastgrave (AoS) .................................................................... $ 70.00
The Grymwatch (AoS) ........................................................... $ 30.00

Green Ronin Publishing
The Expanse: Abzus Bounty ...............................................  $32.95

Kobold Press
D&D: Warlock Grimoire HC ............................................... $24.95

Konami Digital Entertainment
Yu-Gi-Oh! Ignition Assault Boosters
Yu-Gi-Oh! Ignition Assault Special Edition Box Display
Yu-Gi-Oh! - Legendary Duelists - Magical Hero Booster

Monkeyfun Studios
A Town Called Malice ........................................................ $24.99

Monster Fight Club
If it comes pre-assembled and painted, their Monster Scenery line looks like a decent investment. 

Onyx Path Publishing
Trinity Continuum RPG:  Core .................................................................... $39.99
Trinity Continuum RPG: Reference Screen ................................................  $19.99
Trinity Continuum RPG: Aeon ....................................................................  $49.99
Trinity Continuum RPG: Aeon Reference Screen ........................................ $19.99

Trinity (Aeon) is back? What the heck?  And if I read things right the Core Trinity book can be used to run other Onyx Path Products.  Aeon is setting.

Vampire: Chicago by Night ......................................................................... $45.00
Everything old is new again... and adjusted for inflation.

Paizo Publishing
Pathfinder RPG: Adventure Gear Deck (P2) ............................... $22.99...
Pathfinder RPG: AP Extinction Curse Pt 2 - Legacy of the Lost God .... $24.99
Pathfinder RPG: AP Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition (1st) .... $29.99
Pathfinder RPG: Pawns Base Assortment (P2) ........................ $14.99
Pathfinder RPG: Flip-Mat The Dead God's Hand Multi-Pack .... $24.99
Pathfinder RPG: Adventure - The Dead God's Hand HC .......... $34.99
Pathfinder RPG: Weapons and Armor Deck .............................. $22.99
Starfinder RPG: AP The Threefold Conspiracy 1 - The Chimera Mystery ..... $22.9
Starfinder RPG: Pawns Alien Archive 3 Pawn Box .................... $44.99

Rio Grande Games
Monster Baby Rescue ............................................................ $64.95
Robin of Locksley ................................................................... $34.95

Sanguine Productions
Usagi Yojimbo RPG 2nd Edition ............................................ $34.95
Wow, the Kickstarter was just in August.  Pretty impressive turnaround for a December release!

Steve Jackson Games
Le Boomb! ............................................................................. $ 6.95
Kitten d6 Dice Set .................................................................. $13.95
Munchkin Cthulhu: Sanity Check ........................................... $ 9.95
Munchkin Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Death and Destrutction .... $19.95

Tasty Minstrel
Mini Rails ............................................................................. $39.95
Solar Draft ...........................................................................  $19.95

Troll Lord Games
5th Edition Adventures Archives Vol 2 ................................  $79.99

WizKids
D&D Fantasy Minis:  Icons of the Realms - Cave Defenders .... $24.99
D&D Fantasy Minis:  Halaster's Tumultuous Templates ...........  $59.99
D&D Fantasy Minis: Spell Effects Mighty Conjuration ............... $49.99
D&D - The Falling Star .............................................................. $104.00
DC Heroclix Justice League Unlimited Dice and Tokens .......... $ 9.99
DC Heroclix Justice League Unlimited Starter Set .................... $34.99
Warlock Dungeon Tiles Core Set .............................................. $99.99
Warlock Dungeon Tiles Starter Set ........................................... $49.99

Word Forge Games
Chivalry & Sorcery 5th Edition ................................................ $70.00

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #54 - Krasimir Tower

The 14th Day of Sepdec in the Year 1037

The Village of Mechitbayeva, Land of Hermetus

To His Lordship, Eger, Viscount of Verbobonc

Greetings again from beyond the eastern border of the Empire.  After a long hiatus, my dwarven companion, Murag Mountainhammer and I are again traveling to visit our friend Alwin Warmark deep within The Weissmach.

After a lackluster reunion and yet another boring stay filled with discussion on jurisprudence, the dwarf and I traveled south to the meeting of the borders of  Hermetus, Vlachia, and Ras-Prythax, to the respite and study for our dear friend and magic-user, Andrei Krasimir.

When we first heard the adventurers quest to clear the tower, I pictured the hundreds of mechanical spiders skittering to and fro.  I never had a chance to visit the tower, and Andrei quickly left after securing the structure.  It's a solid structure now full of Andrei's tomes and treasures.  In a bit of a surprise, the concept of a country run by magic-users includes such property laws such as purchasing a wizard's tower gets you the neighboring town for free!   Mechitbeyeva pays homage to Andrei, a humble amount, but one that guarantees the protection of the area.

Two days into our visit, we had caught up enugh to venture into town and further celebrate.  Returning to The Fluffy Cashew after a decades's absence, we grabbed the same mediocre ales and soon realized we were not going to encounter any interesting personalities, for WE were the interesting personalities.  We obviously attracted a crowd, interested in the appearance of their arcane overlord, and two friends he had never mentioned.   Murag quickly became  dour, Andrei became  congenial in spite of himself, and I performed as a proper representation of the Viscounty and the Krugraf at large.

Then she happened.

I don't know what caused it.  You could tell from her face that there should have been a line or two on her face, but the either magic or her natural seething anger smoothed everything over

She walked up, and I was worried, but as I glanced to Murag next to me, I found him and a number of patrons,  immobilized.  His flagon of ale hovering less than inch above the table.

In all my years of traveling, I've successfully evaded becoming enveloped in a ball of fire.  That record fell last night.

The whole world lit up in flame.

I woke up in pain, the whole bar was engulfed in flames.  Those who hadn't escaped were quite dead... except myself and Murag.

Andrei was one of those quite dead.

I know not the extent of the relationship with the woman and Andrei, but just from her countenance, and the power of her spellcasting, it was not one that could be amicably reconciled.

I dragged Murag from the inn and he quickly came to.

There is little reason to stay in the town.  I found an undertaker to handle Andrei's burial, and a barrister to handle to liquidation of Andrei's estate.  His will bequeath all profits from his estate to be sent to his home village back in Nevskia.

We are heading home.  There is nothing left for us to visit out here.  It is indeed better to stay in Verbobonc and perform our assigned duties for the crown.

Yours in Service

Sir Elsderth Greyhawk, Baron of Greyhawk

DM Notes:  A rather curt letter from Elsderth, and I don't think it's entirely the ten year gap in letters.  Andrei was murdered by some female mage (let's not forget the dozens of locals as innocent bystanders),  one would expect a much more emotional response from the death of a dear friend.

Next: #55 Wandsregal

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Week 3

Oh good God, it's Hell Week, at least for Dads.

It was the final week of overlapping schedules between Fall Basketball and the Winter League.   That also means it's playoff time at one location and opening day for the other.

Did I mention we also had minor-league hockey tickets Saturday night?  It was a long weekend.  

Our weekly practice went much smoother than the previous.  Of course, our newest player was late and most of my early warm-up drills were designed with her in mind.  Regardless, we ran lots of passing drills, lots of 4-on-4 drills, and lots of forcing the girls to actually look up at the dagnab basket when they got the ball.  It was a personal crusade of one of Maja's travel team coaches last year to keep the girls from grabbing a pass and dribbling away from a good play without physically looking at the basket before going on their merry way.  It's a crusade I'll gladly take up for Millie's team.

The girls didn't have a game until after lunch, but by 8:00am I was at the closest elementary school, making sure everything was up and running.  

And in a major sigh of relief, it was running like clockwork.  Outside of realizing we needed a laminated copy of the update league rules at the scorer's tables, and some coaches hadn't printed out "official" roster sheets for fouls, the games themselves were things of beauty.  The 5th and 6th grade boys playing early in the morning were well-behaved, played aggressively but not too carelessly, the coaches coached at a low roar, and the referees were great at addressing rule differences between the PIAA rules largely use for games and the NBA they watched at home. 

I haven't mentioned the Fall league yet because it's a rant I didn't really want to go down.   One of the other basketball parents discovered an 8-week Fall league for grades 3-5.  I personally protested (a little) because (a) it was a 25-minute highway drive to get there and (b) weeknight practice times turned that into a much longer commute, but my wife was willing to do so, so we signed up with the caveat the Millie and Maja stay together. 

After the first game problem (c) came up:  Out of the 30 girls in the league, those two were Top 4 players, and those Top 4 players were vastly superior to the rest. 

The blowout wins, with Maja scoring 20 and Millie 10 were enjoyable for at least two parents in the stands, but things have not improved team-wise.  Their entire division had a problem where this much be the second or third option for kids and they simply don't show up for games, so much so that 4-on-4 matches with no substitutions were not unusual, but even if the kids show up, Maja and Millie's passes are "too hard."  Blame good ol' Dad for teaching them in Kindergarten that soft, floating passes are bad and that each of them should know how to take a full-speed pass from Dad.  With this issue, to concept of getting every teammate a chance to score becomes difficult when they can't handle full-speed passes and everything slower will be picked off.... 

But we finally got to the last week, Saturday play-in games for the championship on Sunday.  And it was Maja and Millie against the world.

30-4, Maja with 18 points, Millie with 10, one of the other girls with a nice lay-up for the other.  

Fun embarrassing fact for Maja, she got turned around and made a shot in the opponent's basket.  With the other team only making two foul shots from two different players, Maja was their leading scorer.

My wife enjoys the girls dominating, but it's not fun for the team losing.  Even the parents on our team got ornery,  but as I said before, if the kids can't get open or take a pass, eventually the girl's coach just tells them to stop trying and not let up on their own game.

If there is a positive with signing up to this league, it was getting introduced to their coach, Mia.   Mia was a local talent who continued to play not only college but professionally in Europe.  A long-term rehab of an injury brought her back to the area and were lucky enough to have her as a coach, and, until she goes back in February, some 2-on-1 coaching (tutoring? mentoring?) on Tuesday nights.  She's going over stuff well above me helping the girls in the driveway, and it's boosted each of their games tremendously.

We finally got back home for the local community league opening games for the girls, and although I missed a portion of Maja's opening, due to coach's duties and board duties, I can safely say she's happy playing with the Bucks of the 5th and 6th grade Division.  She's playing against older competition, but she doesn't feel like she needs to carry the team on her shoulders.  Heck, she didn't even start, and didn't get her points until the second half.   She's been playing with (and against) friends, and coming out of the game with a different type of style.

And then there was Millie's team.

The Spurs opened season with the same team that blew them out 26-4.  I intentionally told the girls that I didn't expect them to beat the Sixes, but I sure as heck wanted them punch back this time...  harder passes, more forceful rebounds, and most importantly, stop the Sixers finely tuned fast break play.  

We also had a secret weapon.  Coach Jeanie, our third coach, fighting scheduling conflicts and in the midst of a pregnancy, finally made it to a game/practice, and not a moment too soon. 

The girls battled, they played lights out defense, stopped most of the fast breaks, and the didn't back down from the Sixers phenomenal center.  Coach Jeanie would break things down into even smaller, quicker points for the girls and they adjusted like champs.  

Millie played her best game ever, and I'm not even sure she score a point, beyond her two foul shots she made, She was fearless at driving to the basket and did a great job trying to orchestrate the rest of the team, while playing point guard.  I even let her do two-three point attempts while time was running out.  Her range is inside the arc, but we'll get there.  

We lost 20-14.

It's exactly what I expected, a loss, but a major confidence boost the entire team.  There are a ton of things to continue to work on: developing confident guards, basic dribbling, and general movement around the court.  We didn't back down, we pushed back when we got pushed

The one thing I'm happy to say:  We have a chance to win every game this season.  All we need is a chance.

Now I just have to worry about a scheduling debacle in the Middle School Division, but that rant is for after the holidays.

EDIT:  Of course, as I typed this up, I completely forgot about "Championship Sunday" for the Fall League.

It made sense that ,for the finals, Maja and Millie faced the only team that beat them all season.  It was a tough go at first, but they prevailed 14-10 with Millie with 7, Maja only 5, and the one girl 2.

The Power d4 Can Barely Be Contained!

A pleasant surprise this week was a small package containing the five Power d4 dice I pledged for on Kickstarter. 

It was nearly the perfect Kickstarter, clear goals, no stretch goals, and even a *gasp* limitation on the rewards. 

The only problem?  My one Power d4 immediately jumped out of the packaging and onto the floor.  That same die has subsequently bounced off the table numerous times in my test rolls and dice rub mojo tests. 

I'm hoping it's just a factory defect and not curse, but while I'm away most of the weekend, I've kept it away from the other dice.

(Kickstarter) Introducing the "F6" Die

Do you need for your dice to me as emotional as you are on a failed roll!  Fear no more, for there is now a Kickstarter for dice I will only call F6's.

(Kickstarter) Pulp Sci-Fi Heroes & Villains

Classic pulp gets a lot of love, put classic pulp sci-fi not so much, especially more generic use figures.

Crooked Dice Game Design Studio has launched a Kickstarter for Pulp Sci-Fi Heroes & Villains, a set of 8 heroes and 8 villains cast in white metal.

Lost Dispatches of Feraso #53 - To the Late Viscount's Daughter

11th Day of QuaDec in the Imperial Year of 1028

Feldkurton, Barony of Greyhawk, Viscounty of Verbobonc

To the Fair Lady Helena of Verbobonc

Again, my heartfelt condolences for the loss of your father.  It has been a trying time for all of us who were loyal to and loved him.  I can only hope Eger can continue his wise path of governance.

It was a pleasure to see you again, and I greatly appreciated your attendance in the Viscount's Court upon my impromptu installation as Baron of Greyhawk.   I had not been properly briefed on such an appointment prior to my recall to Verbobonc.

The world is full of a number of unfortunate things.  You, an accomplished scholar in your own right, was not offered the hereditary title due to your gender and marriage.  Had I not already secured my bride to sire a son and secure a continuance of power in my tiny dominion, I would have offered my own services, and hoped my recent pedigree would be sufficient to be an acceptable spouse to you and the deciding powers.  Perhaps we would both be at far more acceptable stations in our lives.

I apologize for my lack of conversation regarding certain topics of your interest.  Despite my pleadings, Andrei has left me. The Tower of Enerk in Hermetus proved just too tempting and he purchased it outright.  He spends his days carefully re-engineering the Clockwork Horrors that remained in the remote corners of the tower.  Despite being the midst of Spring, I am trapped in Feldkurton with the duties I personally accepted.  Perhaps a trip to Hermetus will be in order for next year.

Yours in Service,

Sir Elsderth Greyhawk, Baron of Greyhawk
Your Friend in Perpetuity

DM Notes:  Lady Helena was never going to be Viscountess.  Too smart for her suitors, too bold to be subservient, it would not her nor her father's generation to change to rules of the title of Viscount.  Alas, that belongs to her cousin, Eger.  Eger is Viscount merely by the patriarchy.  His better qualified cousins, Lady Graham and Lady Graysteel are a famed crusader and adventurer, respectively, but alas, they have no spouse.  Eger, being married, with a son, and an active and quite capable member of the Verbobonc Guard (the infantry company, not the famed Verbobonc Lancers), he would be the "safe" and preferred choice.  

I'm not quite sure of the fate of Lady Helena.  She may continue to fight for the welfare of the Viscounty, she may succumb to social convention.  She might find a mixture of both.  Such is the life of an NPC that did not exist prior to Elsderth's first encounter with the Viscount in this series. 

As this is a short letter, I might as well tackle another topic I've been working through since the original Order traverse the Weissmach:  Elsderth's relationship with Andrei.  

I'm not quite sure, but as I continued to write episodes, I saw opportunities to ensure the relationship between the pair could simply be a true platonic friendship that Elsderth couldn't get from the true warrior caste that dominated the Order.    

Or there could be a simple romantic relationship, possibly hidden by social conventions such as marriage and siring an heir, with all the adventuring and "holidays."  His pining for him in the confidence of Lady Helena might push that to one of the decisions, but in the end, I'll leave it up to the dear reader to decide on the impact and extent of their friendship.    

NEXT: #54 - Krasimir Tower

Mandatory Basketball Rant - Week 2

It's been a week of dealing with coaches scrambling for more practice time, and most find it completely unacceptable that the few time slots I have available are either 5-6pm or 8-9pm. 

Work crushed my enthusiasm for anything this week.  I literally walked away from my computer for my Monday night D&D game with 15 minutes left in the session, simply due to exhaustion... and the week went downhill from here.

I was so rattled by work-related problems, and absolute idiots on the commute home, that by the time I got to practice, I completely forgot to lower the basket for the girls.  Rebounding and dribbling drills went well, but I've got three girls who simply can not grok the concept of a zone defense.  It's worked for the one girl, who simply wandered away from her girl to get to the ball while playing man-to-man.  My wife took the kids to their basketball practices in the West Hazleton league, and sat in the driveway, completely dejected.

To offset that, I also got an email from the mom of our brand new player, thanking me for the time, the patience, and the enthusiasm towards her daughter. 

With no game this week for the community league, all attention was pointed towards the last week of the Fall ball league before the playoffs.  Maja and Millie finally got a chance to play their friend Ary (she missed the last match-up and my girls slaughtered that team). 

This time, it was Ary vs Maja with everyone else watching.  With the girls down 16-14, Ary had 12 of the 16,  Maja 5 of 14 and Millie 3 of 14.  With six seconds left, Millie stripped the ball, streaked down the sideline, and placed a beautiful bounce pass to Maja for the game-tying shot.  Maja added a quick bucket five seconds into overtime, but the other team pulled ahead to win 20-18. 

If I can get the girls to rebound better, and Millie can drive to the basket and draw a number of fouls, week 3 might be a better report.  

My Day-Trip to Fall-in! 2019

The last three years, I've managed to get Fall-In! into my convention cycle.  Cold Wars is supposed to be my "guys weekend", Historicon is whatever suits the family's schedule, but Fall-In! has been the weekend I take my eldest daughter Maja to the con.

This year, a recent promotion at work and trouble in that paradise kept Fall-In! as a last minute decision.  So last second, in fact, that I didn't register for the con and get things settle until late Thursday afternoon.

The plan was to put my youngest, Millie, on the bus, and take Maja into work with me for an hour so I could leave for Philly with a clear conscience.  We (Maja included) ended up having to deal with every executive in my company with "Chief" and "Officer" wanting to talk to me about issues that could wait, and it was almost Noon before we could dash out of the office and hit the turnipike.

Fifteen bucks in tolls later (and a stop for Roy Rogers), we were in the parking lot for the Radisson, trying to figure out which way the registration desk and pre-reg pick-up scan were.  Its location made perfect sense to me after the fact, but a few more signs to 80% idiot-proof the process would have been greatly appreciated.

When Historicon made the move to Valley Forge in the aftermath of the Baltimore fiasco, I have fond and distinct memories of running and playing games near the dealer hall, in an area which is now the casino proper.  The only noteworthy walks I remember were through the byzantine passages to get from the convention center back to the hotel (first H'con), as well as the horribly steep parking lot (second H'Con).

I'm still amazed the labyrinth-like hallways are still there, and even more amazed that the hallways rise and fall with ramps when I swear the casino/dealers hall is downhill from the Radisson.

We didn't even make it to the dealer's hall on the first attempt over three, as we happened upon Hobby University, and everyone's favorite gnome guy, Jim Stanton.  We hung out there, caught up on things, and were happy to say hi to every other friend who happened by Hobby U.

A LOT more space for Hobby University here than at the Lancaster Convention Center

We made a single foray into the dealer's hall and left half-satisfied.  Literally half of the items I was looking for were available because half of the items weren't brought to the con.  I get that some of the dealers can't  haul their huge catalogs of figures, and I also get the concept of a simple email from me to the company asking if they were going to bring Chilean dragoons or Buddhist monks in thongs ensures that the company will bring something related to the desired item.   But some of the items were brand new releases within the last 90 days, so by Friday at 3:30, we should have some stock available, or at least point at the empty spot where the figures were.

Finally, the dealers!

After a trip to Chili's for dinner, we came back and celebrated Toys for Tots with a Squighopper (aka Gnome) Joust.  The great thing about the joust is that it doesn't matter if it's knights, goblins riding squigs, or gnomes riding roosters, it works. 

Maja was ruthless in her jousting and did far better than me.

I got knocked out early, not by the usual run of kids, but the opposite, a senior citizen brigade that included the Gnome King's mom!  For her first con, she performed more than admirably, finally falling in the finals to the Fall-In! 2019 Joust Champion, Todd Pressley.

The Gnome King working the joust brackets.

Even better than previous years, this year's joust raised funds towards the Toys for Tots program run every year. 

The Toys for Tots volunteers do a great job each and every year.

With that, we were a few minutes short of Wally's Basement (aka the flea market), so Maja and I went back to the car, drove it over to the casino side of of the facility, and by that time, descended in the debauchery of sales already in progress.  Twenty minutes later, we were in the car and heading back home. 

The Valley Forge Casino & Resort/Radisson:  My last two conventions here, I didn't have much time to explore.  This time, I needed to explore to find the bulk of the games.  Most games appeared to be in rooms centralized in the Radisson, but there were so many rooms all over the place.  Air flow and climate control were bearable, although in any warmer weather, I might include a box fan as my gear.   The only on-site food we suffered through was horribly overprice Dunkin Donuts (even for casino fare), which we grabbed on the way out.  My iced coffee was wrong (who screws up cream and sugar?), and my daughters' drink had bits of plastic in it.  An angry letter to the casino and Dunkin were sent before I typed this up, for what it's worth. 

And yes, a few people I know actually won money at the casino.  No one stole any dice.

Parking:  The old bugbear of the Host is a non-issue at this site. I never had a problem finding a reasonable parking spot.

Dealer's Hall:  Good assortment of dealers, a few local vendors.  I didn't have an extensive list built up for the con, but about 1/3 of it was products the dealers didn't bring, and our limited time at the con didn't allow for restful perusing. 

Swag:  Again, with my limited list, limited stock, and limited patience with the flea market, it really wasn't much:

• The obligatory pint o' mdf bases (with extra mdf "dust" this year).  
• A few Post-Apocalyptic figures from Brigade Games, plus one of the brand new French Gnome Cavalry riding a snail (They are fast in the rules, you should see them escargot!)
• Windsword:  A few Reaper Bones and Wizkids Wardlings figures my local shops simply do not get in, plus some mushrooms and Egyptian terrain 
• Badger: A lone 1898 Teddy Roosevelt mounted figure, but I'll get my old Grenadier dragonmen via an online order. 
• Eureka: Maja got some frogs and a steampunk dog.  She's also excited to get an official HMGS badge holder.   
• Wally's Basement: outside of the sheer pleasure of knocking aside a few absolute jerks of human beings (and confirming why I don't go shopping on Black Friday).  Sixty Wargames Factory zombies on a sprue, a zombie hunter, and an old Hackmaster mini.
• And a big thank you to Kevin, Brad, and any other "Canadians" hiding at the con, who gave Maja a copy of Quarriors.  She greatly appreciated the gesture and is excited to try it out.

For a rushed trip, I had a good time.  I reconnected with a bunch of friends, I have an itinerary for Cold Wars, and I've confirmed a few folks' interest in my "birthday party" at Mepacon in April.

What to Run at Mepacon Spring 2020?

Alright, it's official, my Birthday Extravaganza will be at Mepacon, April 24-26, 2020 at the Mountain Laurel Resort in White Haven, Pennsylvania.

So, the next question I have to figure out is, "What do I want to run/play over the weekend?"

The Mepacon website hasn't even been changed from last weekend's Middle-Earth theme, but theme for Spring 2020 is "Anime and Animation."  The theme isn't a hard, fast rule, but I like to consider them while I ponder my games.

*Theme* Cthulhu Comes to Springfield - The legendary Simpsons Toon game hasn't changed much since the mid-90's, but it's due to be pulled out of the archives.

*Theme* My Little Pony - Seriously, the MLP games I've run before at the con have been short, fun, and well-attended with a mix of players.  Of course, this will be the first con that my daughter Maja is not getting in for free, so I might see if she wants to take over the Pony reins.

*Theme* Octonauts - I got no takers on my version of the Disney Jr show during Mepacon's Aquatic theme.

Car Wars - a - Palooza -   The original birthday concept was a hotel conference room with friends, food, and heavy duty flaming oil jets with the Steve Jackson.  With the Steve Jackson Pocket Box Kickstarter getting fulfilled, I could come in ready to bear...

From wargamedork.blogspot.com

The Battle of Yellowstone - At Mepacon Fall, I spoke about my Gnome Wars game for the Battle of Yellowstone, documenting the US Cavalry's occupation of the National Park during the 19th Century.   It's a high concept game for a convention like Mepacon, that doesn't have a strong wargaming streak, but it might work.  I'm also planning on running this at Cold Wars for the Wargames in Education block, so it should be easy to pack up and transport.

Hackmaster 4th Edition - The Burning Trogs Redux -  With the right attendees to the soiree, I'd love an unofficial evening of crunchy, exploding dice with my favorite Trogs.

Diplomacy - Another unscheduled event, but a potentially horrible idea of running Diplomacy for a select group, preferably in the hotel bar.

Risus (anything) - Risus isn't my go-to convention game, but I'd certainly dig some sort of fun, with the right set-up.  If I have to run it, it might be a great bookend opposite a two-hour My Little Pony game.

Samurai Swords -  Okay, my college roommate Steve would have to bring his copy to run, but my lone game of Samurai Swords is one the fondest (and scariest) moments in the college basement. #AngryHoyce

Maybe some old-school Axis and Allies with 3rd party expansions???

Contemptible Little Armies - Second Samoan Civil War -  It's my birthday, I love skirmishes in the Second Samoan Civil War, I'll run a game if I want to, dagnabbit!

I was running con games for a decade before this picture at Mepacon I, circa 2000.

Anything nostalgic.... We focused on D&D, Battletech, and my Samoa game for the last gala.  More Battletech?  Legions of Steel?  Battlelords of the 23rd Century? A Wrestlerama tournament?  BURNING PLASTIC????

It's maddening!