Gencon 2009 Day 1

Special Note: Due to Tales of Zobeck winning an ENnie award it will soon be available for purchase.

Thursday: Bill Collin’s ran a Jade Oath adventure called 10,000 Demons of Demon Mountain. The quick and dirty version of the plot is our heroes are hunting down the 8^th and Last Son of The Demon, who has fled to his mother’s bastion of power: Demon Mountain and the 8 Infernal Valleys (some highlights include the river of blood that the demon’s mother spits out, and a land where obsidian shards fall upwards). This land is surrounded by a wall and a number of fortresses that encircle the valleys, and are manned by desperate but valiant guardian troops of the empire.

We had a great group of folks including Monte Cook, “Contraserrene”, amongst many other fine folks. I got to show off our print proof of Jade Oath which many folks joking spoke of stealing, along with a lot of praise on how lovely it turned out; I presented Bill and Monte with their Jade Oath t-shirts. I also had Bill sign his ENnie award winning design in Tales of Zobeck (before it won the silver).

Cute story in the middle of the game a fan recognized Monte, and was talking to him and thanking him for all the great games he has designed. Monte was patient, kind and courteous and as always was a shining example of how you wish every person you are a fan of would act when you meet them. This fan then started talking to Monte about Rite Publishing and praising our work. Please excuse me as it was very proud geek moment for me that someone was praising our work to Monte Cook, most days I do this due to my love for Arcana Evolved, but at that moment it was nice to see our hard work appreciated. I was sitting two seats over with my back to him when Miranda who was sitting next to Monte taps me on the shoulder and introduces me too him.

Turns out it was Ben McFarland one of Bill’s Co-Designer’s on the ENnie award winning Tales of Zobeck (soon you too can buy it in PDF or Print, I own a copy you should too). So I had him sign it too, now remember that is all before it had won the award J

I don’t want to go to nuts with this in case you ever play in this demo, but highlights included a Contraserrene’s negotiation to get us past the entrance, super jumps from mantis warrior on to slave barges in the river of blood, me breathing fire with the help ch’i, a hero point, and some sake; The Crowning Moment of Awesome: one fight before the climactic battle Monte realizes we need to hurry up because its almost 5 the point where the game was supposed to end, so a big nasty Poison Dragon rises up out of the river of blood and Monte says “We don’t have time for you.” casts vivification and turns it into glass.

Our next game that day was “Trolls at Large” again run by Bill Collins this one in Zobeck; we play really dumb trolls who are going to town in search of mom. It really was one of the best comedy games I have played in. Some of the highlights from this was Miranda’s troll having ADD, bad things always happening to the two smart trolls which led to the saying “Look what smart gets you.”, PCs grabbing hapless humans and saying in their best gruff troll voice. “Where’s Mom?!” Turning a darkmantle into a balloon, and us tearing down the clock tower of Zobeck and one of the great cathedrals, and the ultimate fate of Mom (again no spoilers).

By this time it was 9 pm and the quest for food began, a day just chucked full of awesome more tomorrow.