During Mepacon's triumphant return to the Lehigh Valley, I was contacted by a old-time convention goer, looking for information regarding an ancestor of that con, the Lehicons of the 90s. We were able to get some dates, locations, and highlights together for her... as well as used considerable time meeting up with other old-timers at the con to commiserate those days of yore.
As a gift, I was given photos of her husbands pre-registration book. I know I've discarded or used most of the con books for other purposes over the years, so for today, I'll review the pre-reg page by page and feel all too nostalgic.
 |
| The second half of the page was for the still-attached address label. |
Ok kids, back in the day, when the worldwide intraweb thingy was in its mass-consumption infancy, local cons would assemble their events two months in advance (minimum) and mail out copies of the booklet to previous attendees, in hopes that they would pre-register at a discount and some of the money could be re-couped early.
The Best Western in Easton was the previous sites of Lehicons 2 & 3 (as a Sheraton), as well as a host of other one-day conventions. I'm frightened to realize that it's been five years since it was torn down for a DaVinci science center and Aquarium that never materialized.
The true page 1 is an introductory page that spelled out a ton of fun stuff to draw all sorts of gamers
C Slot continued with Call of Cthulhu, a very professional TORG game (Todd and Russ are awesome), and TWO 40k events! Plus Ron ran a session of some board game called Catan, whatever that is....
Sunday is quite robust, with multiple Battletech events, tons of AD&D, Star Wars d6, and Talisman, plus some of the Ed Greenwood extravaganza.
Artwork was done by the Convention Director Mike Griffith's then-wife Roxy.
- A Magic Type II (now Standard?) tournament, with 1st prize being a box of 5th Edition.
- MechForce North America Battletech Events
- RPGA Living Events (organized play always guaranteed attendance. Still does.), including exclusive first-run games
- Some guy named Ed Greenwood. Funny fact, this was his second appearance at a Lehicon (Lehicon V in Allentown for the first time). Mike and Ed knew each other, so this was a coup the larger, regional cons on the East Coast couldn't pull off.
Two numbers that make me feel old: Full weekend pass, pre-registered: $20. Hotel con rate: $59
Page 2: Directions to the con still work. Not sure why I-78 to the Easton exit wasn't used, that stretch had been open for years. The PA-33 expansion between 22 and 78 wouldn't be finished for another five years. It also covers the obligatory rules that only the most feral local cons did not include, and a reference to the famous everything starts at a dollar gaming auctions. The phenomena survived a few of the local one day conventions and moved into the Lehicon 6 & 7 easily. This may have been on of the last auctions run by Ron Meishker of the Game Trader, but there's a slightly modified descendent over the Saturday dinner break at subsequent Bogglecons and all the Mepacons since then.
Page 3: The Ed Greenwood Events were always sold-out
Friday Night A Session (7pm-11pm): AD&D, Battletech, Magic, Rifts, and World of Darkness. About as 90's as one can get.
Friday B Session (8pm-Midnight) A staggered start that I don't remember much of, but a precursor to the every two hour con slots I've seen for years. More AD&D, Car Wars, INWO, and West End Star Wars!
Saturday morning on that page was a wide variety of AD&D, and a big MechForce NA tourney.
By the nature of games alphabetized by system, lots of AD&D for the start of Session E.
Pager 6: Saturday Afternoon concludes with more Battletech, Magic (Type 1.5 is now called Legacy. It was just a year old at this con), 40k, World of Darkness, and nods to Warzone and Kryomek. And even more AD&D for the evening F-slot.
Page 7: Saturday evening a ton a variety and fun, another Mechforce Tournament, Magic, but also another round of Todd and Russ' great TORG game and an actual TOON game to boot!
The Midnight Madness session seems eclectic with Eric "Jolt" Jacobson (aka me) running Legions of Steel, and another Eric (EricFromNJ on Happy Jacks) running.... the Buck Rogers in the 24th Century boardgame.? The bar was open in the hotel at that time, which may have been needed to play that, but I don't remember the thinking behind it.
 |
| Yep kids, that's how we signed up for cons back in the day. We even used this think call a stamp that cost thirty-two cents to send them back to the con staff. |
A solid convention by any Lehicon standards, and despite being in the program running an event, I have no serious recollection of the con. The con was in '97, and this was right in the timeframe where I quit Dreamscape Comics, lost the girl, the car, and if I had pets, probably the dog. It was a rough time, which might explain why I only ran Midnight Madness. I should also have a better recollection of my friend Charles running a mad number of games, including Council of Wyrms, Cars Wars, and
"Extreme" Talisman (It was the 90's...)
"Extreme" Talisman (It was the 90's...)
This was the pinnacle for Battletech premiere events in the Valley, although Wooly continued to run some awesome Battletech sessions for three or four more years. As we've seen for years, Magic, 40k, and other wargaming tournaments need their own dedicated, segregated events.
No comments:
Post a Comment