Mepacon 50 Review

Let's be honest, Historicon is the pinnacle of conventions for me.  

But by golly, a well-run Mepacon is a close second. 

Even mid-afternoon on a Friday, the place is jumping!

As faithful readers of the blog have seen repeatedly, this past weekend for Mepacon (Originally the Mid-Eastern Pennsylvania Convention).  This year the convention remains outside of Allentown, PA off the PA Route 100 exit, a fine facility that can barely hold the majesty of the local convention.  

In addition to the four different events I was running, I had the pleasure of bringing my daughter, Maja, with me.  She drives now, so she drove down from Albany after work, with a surprise guest: her younger sister, Millie.  Millie games as well, but her plan was to spend a weekend of AAU basketball as a  spectator, watching her best friend play two levels up at 17U during a college coaches showcase.  

Friday

I took all of Friday off, and it was a good idea, as I was still formatting and printing off handouts for my games up until noon.   We finally ventured down the PA Turnpike, with no issues and arrived at the The Delta by Marriott Hotel with plenty of time to unload my stuff, let Maja figure out the compact arrangement of the convention, and for me to set up my afternoon Burning Plastic game. 

Burning Plastic, a game where green army guys represent robots on a futuristic landscape where 100% casualty rates aren't just acceptable... they're expected.  We started playing this at cons in the mid-90's, sold a few books along the way, and for the 50th (and nostalgia-fueled) Mepacon, it was a no brainer.  

I was placed within the "hallway" area, mixed within the solid Battletech contingent, although my request for a square/rectangular table was seized by the B'Tech boys for a layout that I never saw an actual game at.

Note to self: Specifically request Table #52 for Mepacon 51... all slots.

The infamous table 52....

I had the best of both world in my first game.  Two brand new players who slowly learned the twisted insanity of Burning Plastic... and two old buddies, Cyrus and George, who played the game back in the 90s.  

I have finally joined the internet trend of taking a picture with my players, post-game (and post-clean up!)

No matter your experience, when robots start self-destructing, and air strikes (chucked dice) make the men line up like it's a penalty kick, you can throw that right out the window.  

Friday night was supposed to be my Talislanta "The Crystle Dungeon" game.  This was my first ever convention game I GM'ed back at Lehicon IV in March of 1991.    The plot was the same, with lots of wiggle room, the characters still pulled off of the 1988 2nd edition rules (the classic heavily tattooed Thrall on the cover).   I was prepped for a classic, successful convention game, updated to more modern accoutrements and set-up. 

Despite the "Looking for Players" placard, I had none, and after 45 minutes or so, I packed that up and wandered the con.  

The silver lining?  The entire game is finally in a file folder, and two separate files digitally.  

Maja participated in an Improv seminar and played in a playtest promo of a fun game called Community Cats, which, when it becomes available, will end up at her house, to be gleefully played by her sister and mother. 

The one thing that always impresses me about the Mepacon is its history giving burgeoning game designers and companies a platform to show off their games, and playtest their new ideas.  There was quite literally a corner of the main ballroom labelled "Break My Game" were designers gleefully recruited players of all sorts to try out their concepts, some with simple mock-ups, others with more elaborate set-ups and specific artwork.  It's always full of players, but always looking for more.

I spent a good portion of the night waiting for Maja to finish the nightly LARP.  I can probably blame Carcosa Creations with Maja quitting basketball and focusing on drama and music more.  It's not a complete coincidence that the timelines converged after her first LARP experience at an earlier Mepacon back at the Bar with No Name at the (former) Holiday Inn off PA 512 in Bethlehem.  The only thing she asked about going to Mepacon was if there was a LARP.  She was in her glory when she found out there was one each night!

After midnight, we got in the car and drove over to my Mom's in Easton to crash for a few hours.

Saturday

Pure nostalgia for me, as we left my Mom's early and drove 2 1/2 blocks to the Palmer Diner for breakfast.  It's always been a little hole in the wall diner, with fond memories of the 80's, my sub-zero weekend deliveries of the newspapers, always had my Dad sitting in the truck, keeping the cab toasty, just in case I need a moment or two to get warm, then, as I finished the last paper on the top of Greenwood Ave and John St, we'd turn around and grab breakfast at the diner.  There's nothing particularly special about those memories, or perhaps that's what makes them special.

After a solid breakfast, we made record time back to Fogelsville and I set-up for round two of Burning Plastic.  This time I was away from the Battletech crew, and sort of shoved in  corner.  But if the corner involves the "cupcake ladies" aka Quigley's Cakes.  There have been professional geek-themed cupcakes at Mepacon for the better part of ten years, maybe more, and even if money is tight that weekend, there's a two cupcake minimum.  

At better yet, for my own health's sake, no random Burning Plastic airstrikes made their way over to take out the cupcake displays.

A low-key casual ViscountEric, sporting a Next Gen jersey.

The game was another rousing success, with my players pushing the limits of the ruleset (adding buildings to the table brings up new questions that a traditional empty expanse of microchip and hydraulic fluid death do not.  

Saturday afternoon was thwarted by the most adorable six-year old girl.  

Going for nostalgia, I went with running the older River Horse Press version of the My Little Pony RPG.  I ran plenty of two-hour sessions of it back in the day, and I thought I had the perfect set-up.  

A mom, a dad, and their simple brilliant and delightful six-year girl... and my 17 years old Maja, feeling nostalgic for the game.  We had made Ponies, we were two seconds from rolling some Rory's Story Cubes to set up the plot for the adventure, and the youngest lady had a "Code Brown (Upper)" that made quite a mess.  

Obviously, the game was scrapped, the parents could attend to her.  The con staff (as always) was super responsive and within twenty minutes the hotel staff had the area cleaned, sanitized, and a new tablecloth on the table.  

No pictures of the catastrophe, but here's an explosion on a SILENT DEATH (!) table.

6pm-8pm Auction Time:  For the times before Mepacon there has always been a two hour mandatory break, with no games.  Some grab food, some take a nap, but most show up in the ballroom for the raffle, the winners of the dice guess, and the costume and coloring contests, and the auction.  

I've ranted about the auction in my Mepacon 49 review.  It's a different time, a different economy, and with that, there was a lot of mid-range stuff that simply did not garner bids because the opening bids were too high.  Not the fault of the auction rules, just a newer group of folks trying to use the auction to make money.  

The most heartfelt part of the two hours and Katie Brad, the convention director, holding back just the right amount of tears to thank everyone who had helped the con achieve it's success over the last twenty-five years.  The same extended group of friends volunteer and operate the con in some capacity since 2001.  In fact, when Katie did ask for a number of showing of hands for the classic "Raise your hand if it's your first Mepacon... Raise your hand if you've only been at Mepacon at the Delta... or if you were at White Haven... Scranton, Clarks, Summit.. or even the lone con in Jersey."

When she got to Mepacon 1, she brought those folks up... Of that small contingent of less than a dozen, only my friend Scott and I were not wearing current con staff (Ed Leheman, who retired from con, is con director emeritus by default).

And then I remember I was auction director for that first con.. so Scott was just a normal paying attendee...

The back of this year's con t-shirt.  It's been a most unusual ride....

And since we're old enough to remember "the good old days," we realized afterwards that for genealogical sake, there are only a half-dozen of us who can trace our con lineage to Lehicon 2 or 3 in the early 90s.  

God I'm old. 

I ended Saturday night with another much-demanded event: TOON - Cthulhu Comes to Springfield. What was once multiple one-hour "episodes" has been shrunk down to a two-hour "very special episode" of "Krusty the Kultist."

The first hour, the Springfield kids worked hard to make their secret prize to Krusty's sleep-away camp a nuisance for the adults to find them.  In the end it was the heroic group of Marge Simpson, Grandpa Simpson, Principal Skinner, Groundskeeper Willie, and Duff-Man who may have saved most of the wee children.  There were heroic but gruesome deaths for Grandpa and Nelson... but the most sanity shredding was the complete murder of Maggie. 

I'm proud to say that there were a circle of at least four more old players of the scenario, playing at the adjacent tables. 

Maja's day was lounging about in the morning, hanging out between the Burning Plastic and the cupcake ladies, played a game of Rock-n-Roll Brouhaha, took a nap in the car before dinner with me, snagged a game of Penny Black from the board game library, and made me stay till midnight with the LARP.  After a Wawa stop, we were home by 1am.

Nothing like waiting for the LARP wrap-up (This was Friday).

SUNDAY

Unlike Mepacon 49, I did not go Sunday, preferring to clean out the car, and coordinate the return of the youngest child, Millie, from her friend's basketball tournament in Lancaster.  As it was my birthday, we had some ice cream cake, the girls got me some extremely practical minis from the local game store, and I got to hang out with them before they headed back to upstate New York.

SWAG:  I honestly tried to peruse the multiple vendors, but, in the end, I grabbed some Car Wars stuff from the Auction buyout.   

Maja, I realized, is the bloody demographic they're looking for with the vendors I would call "peripheral"  She bought crafts and book pouches, and even some stuff for her sister, coming back to dear old dad to fill up her coffers again. 

Let's not take my downplaying of the vendors fool you, there were some heavy hitters showing up for a 500 person con. 

Mepacon 51 will be back at the Delta, November 13-15, 2026 | Lehigh Valley, PA.  The theme will be sci-fi, so I'm thinking about claiming Table 52 early and running on-going Fistful of Lead, although I still have a contingent that wants to me to run more and more Burning Plastic.   I guess it will be time to set up another poll!

My Events for Mepacon 50! April 17-19, 2026 - Outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania

Alright, party people, the events are getting posted fast and furious for Mepacon 50,  this April 17-19, 2026, at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Allentown Lehigh Valley. 

Since I was part of Mepacon 1 and 2, and a whole lot more as it bounced around mid-east and northeast Pennsylvania, I decided to do some of my "best of" convention games from Mepacon (and the decade of con games I ran prior to Mepacon's founding, the Antideluvian era of gaming that filled up Legions Halls, full of dollar auctions, TORG, impromptu swords fights, and a host of other things I'm not quite sure if the statute of limitations has run out. 

I had set up a survey way back in November, and did get a few responses.  So without further ado, here are my submitted events:  (Edit: 2/23/2026 - My events are officially up on TabletopEvents after some minor corrections and some incredible logistical work by the convention staff.) 

Friday

4pm - Burning Plastic "Polymers in Flames"  8+ players      4 hrs   (Event #202 - Hallway 52)

Burning Plastic is the miniature game using green plastic army guys for mayhem and carnage.  Tanks! Explosions! Air Strikes!   Lots of d6's to chuck, rulers to measure, and no worry about chipping the GM's paint job!  Children under 12 welcome with a playing adult (Don't worry parents, the kids will help you with the math...)

9pm - Talislanta 2nd Edition   "The Crystle Dungeon"  6 players    3hrs    (#212 - Table 32)

The classic Fantasy RPG known for it's ads in Dragon Magazine "No Elves..."    Most of the Gnome-Kin Kingdom of Durne is underground, so why is your party investigating an above-ground outpost that hasn't responded in weeks... and what happened to the first two scouting parties they sent to check it out?  (Originally run March 1991 at Lehicon IV). 

Saturday

10am - Burning Plastic "Polymers in Flames"  8+ players      4 hrs.    (#203 - Hallway 57)

Burning Plastic is the miniature game using green plastic army guys for mayhem and carnage.  Tanks! Explosions! Air Strikes!   Lots of d6's to chuck, rulers to measure, and no worry about chipping the GM's paint job!  Children under 12 welcome with a playing adult (Don't worry parents, the kids will help you with the math...)

Okay, no beer at the table at the con, but it is a "beer and pretzels" game...

2pm - My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria  "Tokens of Friendship"   5 players 2hrs.    (#203  Table 23)

My Little Pony - Tails of Equestria (RiverHorse Press) is a role-playing game that's  as magical as the power of friendship! Each session you can create your very own pony and share adventures with your friends in Ponyville, Canterlot, and beyond! Or bring back your pony from a previous session (or previous Mepacon) to play some more! Parents welcome to help their child or play alongside them.

4pm - My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria  "Tokens of Friendship"   5 players 2hrs      (#207 - Table 23)

My Little Pony - Tails of Equestria (RiverHorse Press) is a role-playing game that's  as magical as the power of friendship! Each session you can create your very own pony and share adventures with your friends in Ponyville, Canterlot, and beyond! Or bring back your pony from a previous session (or previous Mepacon) to play some more! Parents welcome to help their child or play alongside them.

8pm - Toon - "Krusty the Kultist"  8 players  2 hrs.       (#218  - Table 33)

Cthulhu comes to Springfield!   Classic Simpsons characters with a healthy mix of Lovecraft  Something's amiss!  Krusty is giving away trips to kids? That's Unpossible!  Will the parents catch on and save the wee children, or will the kids have to do it themselves?

Nothing crazy, nothing wild... simply four of my most memorable games I've run in 35+ years of GM con games. 

(My Little Pony) Apple Cider Vinegar - Holistic Pony #CharacterCreationChallenge

Let's be honest, this year's #CharacterCreationChallenge has a number of concepts that didn't make it to last years and I carried them over. 

I'm very happy the Apple Cider Vinegar is not one of them.  This is him statted out for My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria by River Horse Press, not just the best pony-based RPG, but one of the finest RPGs I've encountered in the past 40 years.  

Pony Name: Apple Cider Vinegar

Pony Type:  Earth Pony

Level:  4

Element of Harmony:  Honesty 

Body:   D6

Mind:   D8

Charm: D10

Stamina: 14

Talents:

Stout Heart   D12

Healing Touch D10

Pony of All Trades D8

Keen Knowledge:  Cooking  D6

Keen Knowledge:  Biology D4

Quirks:  

Overenthusiastic

Equipment: 

Cart containing an assortment of elixirs, poultices, and tinctures, as well as a small library of tomes.

Kit (Cooking supplies)

Yes, Friendship is Magic, but have you ever woken up after a night of wearing a chamomile mask laced with pine nuts?  THAT is truly magical.  

Apple Cider Vinegar is a pony always seeking alternative forms of medicine, beyond first aid, beyond magic.  You can regularly see hit pulling his cart, filled with herbs and "rare" substances that he uses to concoct his creations.  

And the crazy thing?  Nothing is harmful, and sometimes, just sometimes, it all seems to work.  And he's a Earth pony with Honesty as their Element of Harmony.  

At some point early one,  Apple Cider Vinegar somehow transferred his healing touch into one of his remedies.  He doesn't necessarily know how it happens, or how often, but he now can't use that talent without using the remedies as his vessel. 

#RPGaDay2025 - Day 2 - What Rule Excited Me?

Day 2 of #RPGaDay was the somewhat awkward "Prompt" and rather than discussing a statistical breakdown of pizza delivery time to the gaming tables, I gave the random tables at the bottom a roll (or three technically).

Effectively, the question became "What Rule Exited Me? " 

I've got to admit, there are far too many rules that have displeased me recently, so I'll continue the trend from years past and talk about the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling game.

Please note: I'm not talking about the Renegade Games My Little Pony RPG.  All the Hasbro RPG properties are bloated and overpriced. 

Tails of Equestria was the River Horse Productions licensed version.  It was 152-pages of concise perfection.  

I'll clarify that I'm not a brony.  Just happened to have two girls who were 5 and 7 who had already watched the modern show when the game came out... as well as sitting through my younger sister's 80's cartoons so I could get GI Joe and Transformers.  

The system is crisp, Savage Worlds-y, if you might.  The small book covers everything an 8-year old Pony fan, or some stumbling parent would need to know about the general rules of role-playing.  It covers the main characters from the show, your own ponies, epic play, and even "Level-0".  

My personal favorite are Tokens of Friendships.

Tokens, at a glance, are Bennies... rerolls.   But their acquisition and use is what won me over. 

• Each character starts with 1 Token of Friendship per person at the table, GM included.

Like a Bennie, it can be used to change the dice 

• Using one token is essentially a re-roll
• Using two tokens, re-roll, but use a d20 for the result (most basic stats are d6-d12)
• Using three tokens, you ignore the dice and pass the test or win the challenge automatically!

You earn tokens by levelling up or behaving as an excellent friend, or, even better, you invite a new player to the table for the first time, if you're playing over and over.

My favorite part, so fitting for the game?  You may share you tokens with other ponies, so that end game encounter/big-bad, when the group is down to the last die rolls and there's three Tokens of Friendship amongst all the ponies?   

Combine them all.  Automatically succeed. Win the day.  

I always mention my one game from Mepacon Fall 2017, because out of the a collection of kids, parents, one brony, and two random college bros who had time to kill?  That's exactly what happened, and it was the dudes enthusiastically tossing their last two Tokens of Friendship across the table to let the young girl staring down evil to win the day!   After all my years of GMing, it may have been the most perfect moment. 

Alas, a quick check with River Horse and the game is finally out of print, and even worse, the company is pretty close to being defunct. 

My girls are now teenagers, one still goes to conventions with me and just ran four events at Historicon.  

Both still paint up ponies when the get a chance to visit. 

Millie

Maja

(Painting of Millie) Rarity from My Little Pony #Wizkids

 I had the good fortune this weekend to see my eldest daughter Maja, perform in two showings of Willy Wonka.  Friday into Saturday I had Millie, and had a happy mixture of watching basketball, Christmas shopping, and in a rare act, yelling at Dunkin' employees who had misplaced my order not once, not twice, but thrice!  Time to go back to the local donut shop...

Oh yeah, Millie and I got painting time.  A decent portion of that time devolved into Millie cleaning the accumulated crud in the caps of my craft paint bottles, but she did finally finish the second of her WizKids My Little Pony miniatures.

Here's Rarity, 

Her Jackson Pollock technique remains strong, and while we had no good concept for the base, breaking out some of my "Objective Jewels" for the base seems like a good direction.  Of course, I put them on the base before spray sealing them, but they are just white glued on.  I'll probably research some different options for her (diamond patterns, etc), but I'll probably just Zap-A-Gap fresher, shinier jewels on.

(Painting of Millie) Applejack from My Little Pony #Wizkids

With Fall sports officially ended, I got the girls for a portion of the weekend finally.  There was was much-needed napping, and once they were even keel, the painting broke out, namely, they found all the blisters of WizKids My Little Pony miniatures and went to town.  

The only one they finished before they needed to leave was Applejack, by Millie.    She likes a certain Jackson Pollack aspect to the large open expanses of color on all of the ponies she started painting. 

The eyes and cutie mark come as stickers AND water decals.  I much prefer the decals to the sticks, as Applejacks eyes are not perfect (the cutie marks were decals with zero issue).

We may have a commission for Millie, painting a generic pony named Peanut Butter.  More to come.  

I was responsible for the stickers/decals and the basing.  

Between Fall-In!, Mepacon, and the start of winter sports/holidays, I don't know when we'll have quiet time again, but the rest of the ponies are safely stowed away for this to continue...

#RPGaDay2024 - Day 19 - Sensational Session

 Day 19 of  #RPGaDay2024 and we move from a Memorable Moment to "Sensational Session"

I know if I dig through 35 years of gaming, I'll find that one perfect four hour timeslot, but why do that when I've already mentioned my favorite two-hour time slot... and a convention. 

I know I've repeatedly sung the praises of River Horse Press' licensed My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling game. It's beautiful in it's simplicity and is far superior to the overproduced and overpriced Renegade Studios attempt.  For years I actively ran multiple sessions of Tails of Equestria at a local convention, MEPACON.  

I would run games in two hour time slots.  I always placed the games in children's track, although everyone was welcome to play.  Better yet, I allowed the kids to keep the pony they made at the table, and "level them up" each time they played at my table, be it that con, or a future one.  

While most of my players were kids, their parents, and the occasional tolerable Brony, things didn't escalate into awesomeness until the BRO-nies showed up.  

Brandon and Anthony were two college-age guys who had two open hours and signed up for the game, partly for fun, partly for a challenge.  

Everyone was having a good time, but as the game progressed, it was obvious the young girl playing the pony Harmony was heading for direct show-down with the captain of the gnome legion threatening Ponyville.   When that showdown took place, I expected her father on his feet, cheering his own ,  I expected the other kids hopping up and down, but the Bros were the first ones on their feet, standing on chairs, tossing Tokens of Friendship (think Savage World super-bennies) to improve her rolls every time she faltered, cheering raucously with each success until the gnome legion was vanquished.

It was like Barstool: The RPG.

Kids get excited when they can play a game with their parents.  

Parents are excited to play with their kids.  

These two guys took that energy, and the developing drama,  and ran with it.  

It also helps that gnomes were involved in my favorite convention game, even if they were the bad guys. 

That is the reason I run kids events as RPG and wargaming conventions.... and sometimes, if you're lucky, the big kids show up in the right way. 

#RPGaDay2023 - Day 15 - Favorite Convention Event/One-Shot

Day 15 of #RPGaDay2023!  Two weeks down! 

For each day I'll be answering the question provided, and for fun, review how I answered a similar question during #RPGaDay a decade ago.  Scout's Honor, I have not peeked at the older answer.

Day 15's prompt is "Favorite Convention Event" 

Not that I want to wave my dice bag in your face, but after 33 years of cons, I've got a few choice events to choose from.  Sadly, a good number of them are forgetable, and even some decent ones blur into one another.  

Following my Scout's Honor pledge, I guarantee you that without looking, my favorite event from ten years years ago was "Scavenger Hunt" using GURPS-IOU at CoveCon, Blue Valley Farm Show Building, Bangor, Pennsylvania, circa 1996(?).  

The characters I put together were fantastic, my players were simply top-notch, and the looks on my friends faces as they ran their own games, but all knew the students were close to obtaining the disco ball from the 1977 IOU Winter Social, only to face off against the Village People and their Disco Zombie minions.... culminating to when I played a Village People Greatest hits cassette as background music for the final combat.  

It holds a dear place in my heart, but I kept no notes from the game, and every years, the memories get vaguer and vaguer.  

That being said, I have two more recent events that warm the cockles of the my heart, both from Mepacon. 

Monster of the Week - Mepacon 41 - November 2021 -  That weekend I had spent Friday and Saturday at Historicon in King of Prussia, playing and running wargames for the masses willing to leave their homes.   I came home Saturday night so I could take my daughter to Mepacon, a mixed-game convention, since it was 20 minutes away.  Mandatory masking AND proof of vaccination were annoying to hear other players on an active table, but otherwise understandable and tolerable.  

I let Maja choose her game, and the only words I remember her describing it were "mature audience", "mystery", and "children's teeth."  I thought the worst, but was relieved to find out it was Monster of the Week, and we were saving children from corrupted tooth fairies.  

The game itself isn't too important, it's that, despite masking and other inconveniences, this was the first time we played together in a game as equals, rather than one of us as sidekicks.   That itself warms a burnt out portion of this old man's heart. 

My Little Pony - Mepacon 34-ish - November 2017 - COVID screwed up the numbering for the bi-annual convention, but there's a full write-up of the weekend here.  With my daughters 8 and 6, my search for a good RPG for them was always in full effect.  I had found a great game, My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game and would run it every two hours when I could make it the Mepacon.  Better yet, I allowed the kids to keep the pony they made at the table, and "level them up" each time they played at my table, be it that con, or a future one.  

While most of my players were always kids, their parents, and two tolerable Bronies, things didn't escalate into awesomeness until the bro-nies showed up.  

Brandon and Anthony were two college-age guys who had two open hours and signed up for the game, partly for fun, partly for the challenge.  

Everyone was having a good time, but as the game progressed, it was obvious the young girl playing the pony Harmony was heading for direct show-down with the captain of the gnome legion.   When that showdown took place, I expected her father on his feet, cheering her own,  I expected the other kids, but the bros were the ones on their feet, standing on chairs, tossing Tokens of Friendship (think Savage World super-bennies) to improve her rolls every time she falter, cheering raucously with each success until the gnome legion was vanquished.

Kids get excited when they can play a game with their parents.  

Parents are excited to play with their kids.  

These two guys took that energy and ran with it.  

It also helps that gnomes were involved in my favorite convention game, even if they were the bad guys. 

Ten Years Ago Today:  My original guess stands.   GURPS: IOU - Scavenger Hunt, with a bit more detail.

(My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria) Sapphire Twister - Pegasus

For Day 26 of the #CharacterCreationChallenge, I break out a reliable My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria by River Horse.  Accept no substitution, even the new version.  Not only do I think it's a great iteration of a My Little Pony game, but it may be one of the most complete one-book RPGs from top to bottom.

Sapphire Twister - Pegasus

Element of Harmony: Laughter

Strong d4

Mind  d6

Charm d6

Stamina: 10

Talents: 

Fly d6

Cloud Wrangling d6

Quirk: 

Messy

Sapphire Twister, generated by Hotpot.ai

#RPGaDay2022 - Day 7 - System Sunday - A Cool Part of a Game I Love

The seventh day of the #RPGaDAY2022 is labelled System Sunday, with a simple question:  "Talk About a Cool Part of a Game I Love."

Let's talk Tokens of Friendship for the My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game

For the system fluent, Tokens of Friendship are a combination of Bennies from Savage Worlds and Fantasy Flights' Star Wars Force & Destiny Dice (Light Side/Dark Side).  

In regards to affecting die rolls:

• If a player turns in 1 Token of Friendship, they can ignore their last die result and roll again.
• If a player turns in 2 Tokens of Friendship, they can ignore their last die result and roll again, this time using a d20, rather than their lower trait/skill die.
• If a player turns in 3 Tokens of Friendship, they automatically pass the test - no re-roll is needed.

In regards to changing the story:

• If a player turns in 1 Token of Friendship, they ask the gamemaster to slightly change what happens in the story.  This can be used to suggest an alternative direction of the story.  This reminds me of using Light Side Points in FFG Star Wars to adjust the environment, or place a handy (and impromptu) getaway vehicle to escape.

Friendship is Magic:

• Other players may give their Tokens to other Ponies to help them succeed.  Sharing is Caring, Caring is Friendship, and Friendship is Truly Magic.
• These concepts are in a number of games, but I personally love how the initial number of Tokens are generated.  A pony character at level 1 starts with 1 Token of Friendship per person in the group, including all players and the gamemaster.

#RPGaDay2022 - Day 2 - What is a Great Introductory RPG?

 Day 2 of the #RPGaDay2022 brings up a valid question to the new group of players interested in learning RPGs, "What is a Great Introductory RPG?"

After years of playing D&D, GURPS, Fantasy Games Unlimited products, Savage Worlds, World of Darkeness, Call of Cthulhu, and a host of indy press, the best introductory game I have ever seen has been My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria Storytelling Game by River Horse Productions.

Yes, it's a children's cartoon franchise, but River Horse has done an excellent job with their core rulebook.  It explains role-playing far better than any game I've seen in the past 30 years or so, the mechanics are simple, yet still use the full polyhedrals, character creation is fast and easy, and best of all Friendship might be Magic, but Tokens of Friendship allow for re-rolls, re-rolls with bonuses, and if enough are used, automatic successes.  Even better, the tokens are determined at the beginning of each session based on how many players there are.  The more people you invite to enjoy the game, the more friendship tokens you can use.  

Best yet,  My Little Pony tends to avoid all-out battles, focusing on alternative solutions, and if need be, quick skirmishes, so new gamers won't be dragged into the combat machine that D&D can be presented as. 

My biggest fear is the immediate future.  My Little Pony is a Hasbro Franchise (re: the company that owns Wizards of the Coast) and their Renegade Game Studios has already done Power Rangers, Transformers, and  GI Joe RPGs.  Their version the My Little Pony RPG is currently available for pre-order, but there's no mention of system or the what's happening to River Horse's license.   Having read up on Renegade's Essence20 system for the the products, it seems wildly complicated for something that the River Horse version handled so elegantly and minimalistic.   That might also explain why the new version of the game is recommended for ages 13-up, where I've run dozens of convention game in the kids track with River Horse, and the 5-year olds can explain the rules to me.  

The River Horse Horse version was the perfect price point for a thin modern hardcover ($35), where the new Renegade will be $55.  Trust me, my job makes me fully aware of the insane and skyrocketing paper costs, and I completely understand the relative inexpensive cost versus hours of enjoyment, but that is ridiculous.  

Another Month of Games (Mar '21)

The full issue of Game Trade Magazine #253 from Alliance is available here.

ViscountEric's Want List

River Horse

My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria RPG - The Compendium of Equestria .................. $20.00

ViscountEric's Money-Is-No-Object Want List

Nothing Really. Kinda disappointing. 

The Imaginary Store List (The Pegleg Gnome)

Atlas Games

Dice Miner ............................................................... $29.95

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Alien Invasion ........ $14.95

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Mars Colony ........... $14.95

Magical Kitties Save the Day: Wild Ones ............... $14.95

Unknown Armies - Bring Me the Head of Comte de Saint-Germaine .................... $19.95

Avalanche Press

Panzer Grenadier: The book of Armaments Volume One: The Eastern Front ......... $34.95

Beadle and Grimm's

Class-Specific Dice Set  ........................................... $20.00

The theme of this months solicitations seems to be dice.  There a a lot of solicitations, and the pricing seems to vary.  The first solicitations alphabetically are these class-themed dice sets.  It looks like two separate pearl-style polyhedral dice sets in what looks to be a metal tin. Each class gets it's own two-colors of fourteen dice total.  For twenty bucks, it's a fair price point, and a perfect gimmick for gamer who wants more dice (That would be all of them).  Only issues I see are displaying all 14 sets, and making sure reorders are available, as well as extra stock for the popular ones.  

Chessex Manufacturing

Chessex is still one of the dice behemoths, but they also have a vast selection of colors and styles.  This month focuses on their Nebula-Luminary-style dice, with six different color palettes.  The style below is called Primary/Blue:

The advantage of having mass production is that they can offer multiple sizes and groupings of dice at a fairly reasonable price.   Polyhedral sets, D6 dice blocks of different sizes, even ten of the D10s.  Prices range from $9.98-$13.98 for a good number of dice.  Use that as your base as other providers solicit their products, then remember that you can still find all-metal polyhedral sets for $30 or so.  I'm certainly cheap, but I wouldn't pay five bucks extra for the same candy bar, so to speak.

Devir Games

Crazy Fishing ..................................................... $19.99

Dr Finn's Games

Biblios: Quill and Parchment ............................. $25.00
Mining Colony ................................................... $25.00

Naga Parbat ........................................................ $23.00

The Butterfly Garden, 2nd Ed ............................ $23.00

Gale Force Nine

D&D Forgotten Realms - Savage Frontier Map .................... $30.00

D&D Out of the Abyss Map Set ............................................ $30.00

D&D Legends of Drizzt Companions of the Hall ................. $40.00

D&D Legends of Drizzt - Drizzt and Guenhwyar ................  $40.00

Gate Keeper Games

Eclipse Dice Sets (7) .......................................... $15.95

Funky designs for polyhedral dice, but I have trouble with the sixteen dollar price tag.  Four different designs.

Greater Than Games

Kill Doctor Lucky: 24 3/4th Anniversary Edition ................ $39.95

Iello

Khora .................................................................................. $54.99

Konami Digital Entertainment

Yu-Gi-Oh! Lightning Overdrive Boosters

Mantic Entertainment

Terrain Crate: Ancient Columns ........................... $4.99

Terrain Crate:  Holy Tome .................................... $4.99

Terrain Crate: Noble's Finery ............................... $4.99

Terrain Crate: Plaza Fountain .............................. $4.99

Terrain Crate: Royal Thrones ............................... $4.99

Terrain Crate: Sacred Altar ................................... $4.99

Modiphius

Dune RPG: Core Book ....................................... $59.99

Dune RPG: Collector's Edition Core Rulebook .. $109.99

Dune RPG: Dice Set - Arrakis ............................ $19.99

Dune RPG: Gamemaster's Toolkit ...................... $34.99

Dune RPG: Player's Journal ................................ $19.99

Monster Fight Club

Cyberpunk Red Minis ........................................ $20.00

I'll need to do more research on these, but I daresay the figure look great and they might fit my demographic, and if they aren't cheap plastic, I may not have a seizure spending $20 for 3 figures.

Generation Red A

Monte Cook Games

Ptolus: A Player's Guide to Ptolus ............................................. $17.99

Paizo Publsihing

Pathfinder RPG: AP - Fists of the Ruby Phoenix 2 - Ready? Fight! .................... $24.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip-Mat Classics - Twisted Caverns ........................................ $14.99

Pathfinder RPG: Flip-Tiles - Urban Waterfront Expansion ................................. $19.99

Pathfinder RPG: Pawns- Bestiary 3 Pawn Collection ......................................... $39.99

Starfinder RPG: Flip- Mat Crashed Ship ............................................................. $14.99

Starfinder RPG: Galaxy Exploration Manual HC ............................................... $39.99

Palladium Books

Rifts: Hammer of the Forge Vol 1 - The Cosmo-Knight ..................................... $13.99

Rifts: Hammer of the Forge Vol 2 - The Reckoning ........................................... $13.99

Phalanx

Rocketmen .............................................................. $39.95

Playmonster

Windward ................................................................ $49.99

Zombie Chase .......................................................... $19.99

Sirius Dice

RPG Dice Sets (7) ................................................ $8.99

Fairly basic-looking dice sets for nine bucks?  Well, back in my day.....

Steve Jackson Games

Dice Bag: Munchkin Unicorns ............................... $11.95

Troll Lord Games

5th Edition Adventures: The Lost City of Gaxmoor ............... $49.99

Wizards of the Coast

D&D: Candlekeep Mysteries .................................... $49.95

Hardcover, with an alternate cover available.

Wizkids

D&D Fantasy Minis: Icons of the Realms - Adult Blue Dragon Premium Figure .......... $69.99

Jinja ..................................................... $49.99

(Review) Filly Sized Follies for My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria

It's been a downtime for me running My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria.  The kid's schedules are still crazy and the my primetime  spots at conventions in the kid's track is cut short from COVID.  However, an order in need of padding from Miniatures Market was the perfect ticket to add a book from my want list.

Filly Sized Follies is a collection of three adventures for ponies levels 2-5.  Three different scenarios, three different settings around Equestria, but certainly the same quality straight out of the main rulebook.

Sky Arrow's Big Flight involves some sinister goings-on at a tryout for the famous Wonderbolts.

Cutie Mark Mystery centers around the ponies waking up to their cuties marks simply vanished!

The Secret of Starfall gets the ponies involves a great journey to the far North, a fallen meteorite, and a political conflict only outsiders can resolve.

All three adventures are solid concepts, but the continued delivery of the stories is what impresses me the most.  Each adventure is broken down into multiple parts, and each part is further fleshed out for both beginning GMs and appreciative experienced GMs.

This is not a dungeon crawl with ponies, nor is it some overfilled sourcebook.  The author, James Fleming, and the editorial staff lay out each scene with just enough helpful detail, reinforcing NPC personalities and motives, and carefully scoping out options and alternatives.  Does a bad pony go to (pony) jail, can they be rehabilitated outside a cell, or what if the pony character don't really care.  Options and hints at solutions are included.  Even small sidebars involving how to run a mystery game, or how a GM can handle the passing of time are small morsels of wisdom even the most veteran GM can savor.

My only complaint about the book is that the 66-page softcover has the same dimensions as other softcovers River Horse has produced, yet it feels a little unwieldy... like a Giant-Sized comic.  Given the old school comic feel of the cover art, it might just be my nostalgic sensibilities.

I haven't run any of the adventures, so despite their initial look, there may be issues (although I doubt they are severe).  However, with hints at how to adjust each scenario to handle higher and lower levels, I'm confident it should handle most pony-lovers at the table.

With that I give Filly Sized Follies  four and a half gnomes on the Gaming with the Gnomies 5-Gnome scale.

#RPGaDay2020: Day 27 - Garnering Favour in a Post-COVID World

Day 27 of #RPGaDay2020 is upon us, and again, we have a very non-American prompt, "Favour."

I'll skip the easy, "Favorite RPG" questions and move to something far more positive.

"What do I favour to run when we return to face-to-face gaming?"

Here in the States, we're close to dealing with COVID-19 for a whopping six months.   It's not good, but at some point, we'll be back to some semblance of what normal used to be.  So the question is, with six months (PLUS+!) of no face-to-face gaming, what do I want to make my triumphant return behind the physical screen?

It's an odd-angled shelfie!

#7 - Hackmaster - A complete pie-in-the-sky idea, continuing the dream of reuniting the old gang back together.  #RPGaDay always stokes that flame every year.

#6 - Talislanta - The new Savage Lands edition will fit a very Robert E Howard-esque play style.

#5 - 5e Saltmarsh - My online Star Wars d6 has players hours upon hours away, so face-to-face is out of the question.  However, some of the more local players wouldn't mind a return D&D, and Saltmarsh can be plugged right back into my homebrewed campaign world.

#4 - 5e for Beginners - Before this crazy, mixed-up COVID world, another department manager at work was talking about his kids getting interested in D&D.  I don't know if the quarantine killed that motivation, but setting up something simple with a new bunch of players some appealing.

#3 - BECMI Gulluvia - My Star Wars game might not transition back into face-to-face well, but the story of some goofy adventurers in the Barony of Gulluvia is simple enough.  Best yet, the Theatre-of-the-Mind method will work best using "Basic" D&D.

#2 - Call of Cthulhu - Sleepless City - Returning to New York City for some (technically) one-shots is a great start, one we can possibly use to expand into the old campaign, even if we don't revisit old, beloved survivors, I mean, characters.

#1 Call of Cthulhu - Invictus - I have enough material to run a few games, but the Roman theme will keep the players off their usual path.

And for a bonus question to answer:
"What do I favour to run when we return to face-to-face convention gaming? "

I'll stick with what gets me players:  Kid's games of My Little Pony: Tails of Equestria, and perhaps the Toon game: Cthulhu Comes to Springfield.

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!