Worldbuilding – There Be Dragons here… (part Four in a series of unknown length)

Ah Dragons.

Majestic Magical Beasts, with hoards of gold and other riches, and running powerful entities in the worlds they live?  Or are they merely really big monster lizards who are a threat or hazard to the areas they inhabit, a constant danger to man and beast?

The answer, really, is kind of both.  And their portrayal can vary.  The same goes for their morality, their alignment, to borrow from Dungeons and Dragons (and other games)

One of the things that kinda bugged me the longer I game mastered was that Dragons were pretty typecast by colors, with the metallic being considered the Good Ones and the Chromatic automatically their opposite.  And my like humans, one would thing there was a far greater variance in that.

Some assumed certain colors were stupid too…  which is something else I thought was wrong.  Dragons are magical beasts and all of them are spell casters (though the books vary their power/potential).  While I could accept the limits on overall ability (even in real life, some folks just can’t learn past a certain point) I felt this should not be a limit to their mental capacity.  Or a specific world view, either.

I got to thinking on the morality and world view thing.  Much like player characters, I figured Dragons would have some very pragmatic views on a great many things… and if presented opportunity, perhaps act on them.  Not all Chromatic Dragons wanna eat you…  as well as not all Metallics are all that good of heart.

Abilities too… were adjusted.  Dragons of a certain power level and age, I decided to allow basic to complicated shape change into things like Humans or Elves.  The younger/weaker dragons were able to do animals but as they got older, Human and other racial forms were possible.  And being able to do so enabled them to learn about the “Lesser” Races and experience life from a different perspective…  I mean, Dragons have their own world view but the smart ones learn about those that could give them grief… and gaining perspective on such is a powerful thing.

The same with what constitutes their hoards.  Gobs of Coin was one thing.  Art objects and items were another… but not all wealth is such things; one man’s waste is another’s treasure.  Why should Dragons be different?

So, in my world, you have the Stereotypical Fantasy Dragons out there… but along with them, you had ones with variant personality and views on various things.  I’ve had the haughty Metallics who are species-ist to the core as well as the very Brutal Red who is all about killing shit- sometimes for no reason…. But if asked in the right fashion, will sit for a cup of good Tea and pleasant conversation.  Killing is fun, but there is no intellectual benefit…

Then there is this one…

In taking these ideas forward, I decided to take one of my favorite dragon colors and incorporate one into my setting…  and not make him a Typical version of his color.  Thus was borne into my game world the Ancient Blue known by his Common Name- Voltaire.

Voltaire was an Ancient Blue Dragon and had been unusual in liking the Mountains of the Central Divide.  He had over the years had many an interaction with various groups of adventurers.  Many of those groups attempted to kill him for his hoard…  and he had grown Tired of it.  Being the pragmatic sort, a decision was made to try and rectify this issue.  And one of the beings he’d tangled with ran a city not terribly far (by dragon standards) from where he was.

A meeting of the minds, so to speak, between this dragon and the Mighty Paladin of Torm was had.  There was no combat- as Voltaire made it plan when he landed in the middle of the city he wasn’t there to fight but to Talk.

  Several hours of discussion between the Paladin and the Dragon were had…  and a deal struck.  The city would gain a defender against the rash of Goblinoid and Giant attacks and the Dragon would gain a place to call home, free of various groups coming to kill him just cause he was a Dragon.  Voltaire, like most dragons, liked money and gems…. And other things magical.

  But he prized Knowledge.  Books, tomes, manuscripts… and his hoard was a mixture of the traditional and his substantial collection of books.

Taking up a large section of the center of the city, he actually *paid* those who were displaced in the creation of his residence and also contracted residents to help build it.  The Paladin was the arbitrator for interactions… and once the overall fear/panic of a DRAGON taking up residence dissipated some, the populous eventually embraced the Dragon as a fellow Citizen.

Over the years, Voltaire looked out after the City- he might have been Dragon Greedy and arrogant… but protecting the city was insurance for a mostly trouble free life.

Players in my games have had opportunity to meet him and many have loved their interaction.  Two groups have wound up doing work for him, pursuing items of interest on his behalf.  And one of thse groups wound up being part of a Dragon’s Only Auction… where many different colors of Dragons showed up to barter and bid on things of interest to those of Dragon Kind.

The roleplay of reaction to a near Dozen Dragons descending on the city was fun to do and the level of nervousness on the players was epic.  A Blue hosting the auction at the Trading House owned by the Councilwoman Drow-ess was one thing….  The Various Dragons that showed up (all different personalities too!  I thought I was schitzo at one point) was fun to RP too… and some stereotypes were screwed with.

  All the Metallics had a rep there- to include two Silvers who were rivals… and a few Chromatics came too.  Among them was Voltaire’s former Mate and a Red Dragon’s Pact Knight attending on his master’s behalf- his Master taking up residence in an empty Stone/Wood warehouse near the City’s Forges. (He could shapeshift but hated doing so.  It gave mortals the wrong ideas…).  One of the metallics, a Gold, tried to pick a fight too… and was promptly scolded by the Paladin who was there when it happened.  Fun times….

But in running that game and auction, it presented ideas to the players who would go on to GM their own campaigns for folks… and leave lasting impressions on the players on how to look at things different.

And its specialness came from taking a normal thing (dragons) and flipping it on its side, adding a bit of a twist to the standard perception.  And its this re-working (of a sort) of Dragons that really added to my world’s setting.

Doing stuff like this can really set your campaign world apart.  And I whole heartedly recommend doing stuff like this; it can add serious life to your game… and maybe help players get pulled into the game world instead of the session being “Kill more (insert goblin race here) and free the town” game.

World Building – Magic and Your World… What’s the best idea for it?

Magic.

A staple of fantasy campaigns, either as High Magic (great wizard duels, powerful magic items and spells a plenty) or Low Magic (rare items, mages are few or powers blunted).  Both ways of play are 100% valid and both can be/are fun.  And in creating your campaign world, a person gotta decide which they want.

Its easy for High Magic campaigns to become One Upmanship affairs and players can become very powerful.  Sometimes enough that they can run roughshod over everything they encounter that isn’t a monster.  Oft times, this is the deathknell of a game, when the PC’s become marauding forces.

  Its happened to me, its happened to others… and collectively, the sign of an adaptable GM is one who can mitigate this mess that, admittedly or not, they helped foster.  A solid means of reigning some of this is putting a cap on what you dole out as treasure.  The error was made in letting so much out and as the party burns through the Consumable sorts, they will find replacing it no so easy a thing.   Other means include building a treasure hunter party to mess with them but that can backfire….

But the best means to avoid this is really think about what treasure or magic you have available for the party.  Remember, you have to deal with whatever they acquire…  and the less headache the better.  Give out one or two powerful items… but unless its Save The World, heroes don’t need the sort of power to flatten a regiment of Orcs on their own.

Spell use and type is also a question mark… and this is answered during character creations.  Are you the GM who will enforce component use or the old method of PICKING spells for the day?   Or are your mages like the Sorcerer where whatever spell is in inventory can be cast?  With or without components?  Trust me when I say that is a ton of book keeping.  Mind you, it can make for some adventures to acquire the rare materials for some of these spells (“No really, I need some wyvern claws for this spell otherwise its just dead to us…”) but not everyone is big on that.  Its why wands and such are so damn popular….  The work is done.

It’s the same for Priestly magics too..

What I did was kind of a combination.  I allow players to act much like the Sorcerer in spell use though highest level spells must be picked (kinda a minor controls, really)… but I have those spells that require expensive components to be kept track of.  Its worked so far and the players have been fine with the low level book keeping.  Only for the dedicated casters though.  Paladins and Rangers…  still pick because the casting is an accent, not a primary means of function for a character.  This process has worked well for me and my group…

One of the means that has been used is the concept of Spell Points.  Each slot is worth so many points (level of spell) and the spell caster gets their level as bonus points.  So a Fifth Level wizard who can cast 3 first, 2 second and 1 single 3^rd has 15 points to play with to cast ANY combination of spells not to exceed his pool.  So if he wanted to toss all fifteen in first level spells, he can.  One of the drawbacks to this is the potential to spam powerful spells.  Yeah, it eats power but think on this- fireball is a third level spell… and using this method, your mage can now toss five of them.  Mind you, he’s spent for the day until rest but that’s huge.

My group has used this one and I was in two others that did.  Mostly as an experiment…. And EVERY TIME, groups migrated back to an older method like book, the free cast or the combo method above.  No game master wants to deal with that kind of power.  Yes, he can have an enemy mage do the same… but its additional bookkeeping… and the smart party has a means available for dealing with enemy mages.  It also can sideline your other classes fairly quickly- as the mage can pretty much kill everything.  Whatever it can’t, it can set up for failure.

Now that casting is out of the way….  What do you allow Magics to *do*?  Its magic and through magic almost anything is possible… so is things and effects via player creativity.  In some of my games, I’ve allowed colors to change on some spells (bright pink magic missile being one) and in one person’s case, they asked for a screaming sound attached to their spell.  Some of the higher-level spells get monkeyed with but not terribly much… though the concept of magic spectacles (sunglasses) was created for a drow party member, so she didn’t suffer daylight penalties.  Pretty slick, really.

Sky is the limit on stuff, really.  The only curb on it is you as the world builder and GM.

Remember, you also don’t need to be too simple in treasure types either.  Wit hteh plethora of books out there with treasures, one doesn’t necessarily need to make their own.  But sometimes, those wonderful lists don’t have the right…. Something.  Then its creative time…

One of the neat items from 1^st Edition Dungeons and Dragons was the Final Word Broad Sword.  You swung last in the round no matter what but you ALWAYS hit the last person or anyone who did up to your maximum attacks.  Pretty cool item I thought, (though it had a a minor curse) but it was a cool thing.  I eventually took it and changed its concept some to the following:

Swords of The Final Word: The Final Word Swords are weapons that appear to be normal Weapons of Quality (basic Masterwork to +1 through +3 enchantment).  It’s when the user is truck down that their true enchantment comes into play.

  Should a bearer be killed in a battle, they will rise up from death on the following turn and return to the fight.  The bearer will have access to all normal abilities not spell casting based and without any normal initiative bonus.  They may still use magical items as normal.

  The sword then becomes a +4 weapon for purposes of To Hit and Damage bonuses.  The bearer will continue to battle until the opponents being fought are defeated or the enemy has run away, shrugging off all damage suffered.  Damage still must be recorded for resolution of the weapon’s Price.

  Once the battle ends, one round later the bearer will drop into Final Death and may only be brought back to life via Resurrection.  This can be avoided if healing is done that is at least five HP more than what was suffered under the Weapon’s control during that final round.

  These swords may take any shape and type though most (75%) are long swords.

Fairly strong weapon… and its potency is situational dependant.  The player in my group that has one has only triggered the ability once- and he managed to avoid the Resurrection price via consumption of a healing potion that was just enough to dodge the drop.  Made for a tense time… and he loved it.

Its items like this that can add flavor…  And even taking something standard and adding a twist (the Sunblade needing two hours of sunshine to “charge” is one I’ve seen) can add to your game and or reign in potent equipment.

I know I mentioned Dragons in the last post… and I will write on them soon.  I promise.  But as a teaser or food for thought….

Do Dragons have to be the stereotype as in the Manual for personality?  I say no and will explain next time.

World Building – I got a map…. what /who lives where? (part the second)

So….  Once I picked the map, I needed to basically flesh out specific areas.  And not all at once- areas I was setting the party to run around in were done first.  And for inspiration, I pulled upon historical things.  And names in some cases.

For the first run of players through my game world, it was set in the Northeast. NJ, NY, Eastern PA areas as that was the area most of us were from so made sense.  Major Town and Cities were in the world- often much smaller of population for my game but they were handy reference spots.  And in real life, major cities/towns were founded in areas of ease of travel or commerce.

New Brunswick NJ became Two Forks, a trading town of import on the major routes between Armfold (Philly) and New Amsterdam (NYC).  Sparta NJ became Duncan’s Hold- a sleepy town run by a Paladin of Torm.  An irony for me is the mental model/map of the ville I had matched up more or less with a real-life camp (Camp Sacajawea) in NJ I had never been to until a few years ago.  And I created Duncan’s hold a good 15 years or so before ever going there.  Spooky.

Some place names stayed- New Hope being one of them and the world personalities fleshed out.

A thing most GM’s are faced with is the prospect of including tech items like black-powder weapons. Do you or don’t you?  Fantasy RPG’s have long struggled with a means of incorporating them and being balanced about it.  And for the most part, attempts have been reasonable.  The latest version within the 3.5 DMG had it right…. Then I played Pathfinder.

  Theirs was even better…. But then, that system was supposed to have been 4^th Ed D&D instead of that atrocity we did get.  But I digress…

I chose to incorporate them….  But after a good discussion with a fellow GM, it was a limited availability and also created a class to use them properly (I’ll have the class at the end of this post).  My players were fine with the rarity and for the most part, they did not seek out.  Didn’t need to as there was a master archer among the party… and she did far more damage.  For those interested, I’ll have the class at the end of this post.

Other things incorporated/borrowed from Real Life and History…. Were The Confederacy (elves being the enslaved beings), The Mob and chain establishments like Hilton Inns and Ye Olde Motel 6 (“we’ll leave a lantern on for you”).  Good for laughs, I assure you.  I also used some of the lands that comprise the Lands of the SCA for identifying kingdoms and regions.  Easy stuff really and handy for determining borders.

I also used places from established modules to help flesh things out.  An adventure from Dungeon Magazine (The Ghost of Mistmoor) and its town served to become a place within my eastern Kingdom- becoming Morristown in my setting.  And the resulting adventures of the party that went through that module… became retold over time as they became Knights of the Town and famous for doing Good ™ things.  Eventually, their fame became problematic… But that was the beauty of the campaign in home brew versus a company one- player actions have a greater chance of affecting things in small to big ways.

And that’s an important thing- having the world be malleable enough for players to effect stuff… and yet, not run the place.  It’s a fine balance… but worth it for the potential stories to be told.

The other thing I decided later on was to have various levels of power in NPC’s.  One of the tropes (?) in many a product is to have non-player characters of import be powerful characters.  This works to a degree in some situations… but not doing that all the time makes for some unexpected fun and player responses.

For example- I had a Baron who was pro-Confederacy attempt to have the party taken down when they discovered his sympathies.  The group’s rogue threw a pair of daggers at his retreating back as His Minions closed in to smash the party.  When he dropped, the player (and party) was surprised…  but events overtook their ability to investigate why.

Later on, after the game, I was badgered with question about how dude died so easy…  the Rogue player stating she had done crap damage and so little shouldn’t have killed a powerful NPC.  When I reminded them not all powerful people are powerful characters….  Huge realization for them, it was… and this lesson carried on afterward- and even into their own campaigns run.

Other things to consider…  some of the stereotypical Racial Norms.  Did I want the Drow to remain the stereotype it was in regular D&D or did I want to make them just another option?  Ultimately, I went for a mix.  Good Drow, Bad Drow and flavors inbetween.

I guess you could say I wanted to upend perceptions…. And poke holes in preconceived notions.  And yes, I had fun doing so.  Still had some of the “fear” factor of dealing with them… but it made for better RP with NPC Drow as you never were !00% sure which side of the Good/Bad divide they were.

And I did this with everything as much as I could for flavor, change of pace… and a bit of unpredictability.

As far as I can tell, my players loved it.

Part Three will touch on Gods and Magic choices…. And maybe how I presented Dragons to my players…

Musketeer Class

Alignment:  Any

Hit Die: D10

Class Skills

The musketeer’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Chr),  Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nobility) (Int), Knowledge (geography) (Int), Knowledge (local) (Int), Knowledge (alchemy) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive(Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Swim (Str), and Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at 1st Level

(6 + Int modifier) ×4.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level

6 + Int modifier.

Level	BAB	Fort	Reflex	Will	Special
1	1	2	2	0	Bonus Feat/Exotic Weapon Blackpowder
2	2	3	3	1
3	3	3	3	1	Evasion
4	4	4	4	1	Bonus Feat
5	5	4	4	2	Steady Hand
6	6/1	5	5	2	Acrobatic
7	7/2	5	5	2
8	8/3	6	6	3	Bonus Feat
9	9/4	6	6	3
10	10/5	7	7	3	Improved Evasion
11	11/6/1	7	7	4	Improved Steady Hand
12	12/7/2	8	8	4	Bonus Feat
13	13/8/3	8	8	4
14	14/9/4	9	9	5
15	15/10/5	9	9	5
16	16/11/6	10	10	6	Bonus Feat

Armor and Weapons

  The Musketeer is proficient with all simple and martial weapons plus the Exotic Weapon Musket. (Feat awarded for 1^st Level).  May wear Light and Breastplate armors.

Steady Hand:  Allows aiming while moving or allows shooting/reloading while running at no more than 2x move rate.  Reduces firing two pistol penalty to -2 from -4

Improved Steady Hand allows reload while running at x2 Rate.  Removes firing two pistol penalty completely

World Building- or “my game world is the bomb, you should play it!” (part the first)

No really it is…

Kidding…. Everyone has ideas and concepts that are perfect for them in their creation. Folks will like and dislike them- the ones that choose to really get into it are the ones who obviously like the setting.

For me, in the forty (!) years I have been playing in Role Playing Games, I have played in about eight settings, of which one was my own.

The Original Game used a generic setting that morphed into Greyhawk (and all the guys who played with Gygax had their PC’s immortalized- Rary, Otiluke, Bigby…). It was a very expansive setting and I still have my original setting books.
-A more basic game was set in Mystara and that world setting was ok. It used a great many concepts like Hollow World and the like. Very different… and it treated Races as character types. Very Different.

Then Forgotten Realms came about. Talk about an expansive world setting with some compelling storylines supported by Novels! I’ve both played and run games in this Setting…. going so far as to acquire the Volo guides in order to update my primary map with all the little towns on it. Still have them too- though I am not 100% sure I know where they are in storage.

When Darksun came out, we jumped on it with both feet, diving into the setting and soaking up its peculiar rules and color. We didn’t play in this setting long- maybe a year- but concepts from it have been carried into other games run. Especially the Defiler/Preserver concepts. Just… fun stuff.

Between the four settings, I would venture to say for the first fifteen or so years I played, it was in one of the first three settings with some excellent Game Masters… and I ran games set in the Realms- which I still hear from players who remember the stories fondly along with relationships between characters (dude, a nobleman Kensai and a half-elf gypsy bard made for fun IC arguments) to this day.

There was a few outlier settings- while in the Service, I played in a few campaigns and one of them was set in Hell. The place for a mighty paladin to earn his/her chops.

But like many game masters, you always yearn to branch out… or create your OWN MAPS and OWN NATIONS… with flavors and quirks and well… you get it. And sometimes, those creations turn out damn cool. Some turn out ok and others… you wanna forget you even thought of it/played in it.

For me, I tried making the map and building around the drawn world I created, as did some of the others I played with. And for the most part, efforts were a mixed bag. For me, the concepts that stayed were a buddy’s good guy kingdom of Toa and the creation of the Triad/Infernals. Of the two, the one that has gotten the most use of in various campaigns…. has been the latter.

But badguys require a setting…. and in the mixed bag of efforts for custom maps, our collective efforts were just ok at best. Nothing super inspiring of worlds… mostly because no one really *knew* the worlds.

For me… I gave up on the custom map thing…. and decided to go with one that everyone knew.

Terra.

Yep. Earth. And when running a game set on earth, pretty much anyone who has looked at a map or a globe has a GOOD idea of the areas talked about, the terrain and even the weather.

And I was gonna use this.

Being a home campaign world, I could beg/borrow/filch from almost everywhere to populate it, give it flavor… and make it LIVE. For the most part, I have.

In part two- I’ll discuss some of the peculiarities I put in to the world setting.

Been out of it for a bit

A long time health issue was finally dealt with this past week and its been a rough go.

As such, my posting was more sporadic than normal. Figured I’d update folks as to why. Some stuff coming today or tomorrow.

Battletech- has it really been 35 years?

Growing up in the 70’s, the various Japanimation shows started showing up on TV’s in the US. Gundamn Wing, Robotech Macross, the various Voltron shows (dude, there were TWO of them) were all popular at one point or another.

Even Transformers… which waxed and waned over the years then got a Live Action movie (that introduced us to Megan Fox!!) which reignited the Big Bot craze.

All during that time though, a little game produced by a company know at one time as the Freedonian Aeronautics and Space Administration (two points if you know where that’s from) shortened to FASA, began to gain steam.

Battletech- A game of Armored Combat…  was launched in 1985 and gradually expanded both its story and the merchandise connected to the game.  Miniatures of all kinds, Sourcebooks, Art, Fiction Novels, even three sub-games sprang from this particular property.  Heck, one series of books (The Warrior Trilogy) is what got me interested in the game… and I eventually jumped in with both feet the late summer of 1988

I collected models, played the game with friends and even wrote a few stories based around my growing collection of figures. The everr popular motif of former Star League units turned Merc was used early on and how the Phoenix Lancers were a Combined Arms force that sought to maintain the ideals of that bygone era…. And how we specialized in hunting war criminals/rogue units and the like.  Mercs with Standards.

Yeah… I was an idealist then too.

I even got to meet various personages connected to the company.  Line developers, authors (Even met Stackpole and had drinks with the man) and various studio folks were met/hung out with at various conventions over the years.  Even got to toss dice with one of them back in the day.  Good times…

One idea I hatched with friends on a BBS about freeing Terra from the bastards that were the Word Of Blake (think technologically adept Cultist Army with the manners of the Taliban) and it involved a good number of people using their collections.  Real life got in the way of our fleshing this out… and I eventually drifted away from the game as the Universe forced attentions elsewhere.  You know- deployments, bills, health issues, relationships…  Real Life Stuff. 😊

My amusement at the storyline continuation and what FanPro/Catalyst Labs did to move the story forward was kinda total.  Terra was eventually freed in the story and in a fashion me and the guys who hatched the idea WAY back when had cooked up.  Granted…  the game universe had introduced a shitton more tech and gear since those days we wrote our ideas… but the core methodology was similar.

  And this pleased me, believe it or not.

I would not be surprised at all if some of our early public efforts served as a base for the eventual product… but I was just glad the story moved forward, and some neat tales came of it.

For me now…  I’ve jumped back into playing.  One of the neat things with the game is you can play it solo.  Sounds weird, I know… but as long as you strive for unbiased moves, its possible.  And during the early days of the Pandemic, its what I did.

It also had me go through and hunt down what mechs and models I had left- a theft had cause a large chunk of my 300+ models to disappear- buth what remained in various boxes was a decent amount.  And I began to rebuild.  Even cooked up a story on why my Mercs when from almost three regiments of mechs to little over a Battalion.

I have had some live opponents.  Friends who also play… and re-discovering the game has been a fun time…. And in going over the rules + changes to the storyline since I started, it was kinda hard to believe I’ve been playing this game for as long as I have.

Or that its lasted as long as it has.  I mean, I’ve got game systems that were around for a few years then vanished (Warzone and Chronopia, anyone) and others that have survived about as long (Warhammer 40k) but none that have gone up and down the popularity scale like this game with as rich a history.

One of the guys I play with, he’s been playing about sixteen years or so and now has a chance to play this game with his kids- and without having to hunt stuff down from used game shops.  Pretty heady stuff.

Origins Game Fair

Got back from the Game Fair last night and I’ve a few thoughts…

Chief among them being how screwed it kinda was to timing. Being roughly 10 days after GENCON, the show was not going to get the large numbers of attendees it might have otherwise.

Covid played a hand, certainly… but two major shows so close together? Finances and time were going to be the biggest factors… and it showed, with the far lower attendance (7k?) and some big vendors pulling out due to staffing and supply. But no matter- the show must go on and it did.

Granted, I did not see everything, as I had a Small One and the Missus with me and it was the first time for both. But what I did see… I was both impressed and not impressed at the same time.

The Good- Preregistration was VERY FAST to collect badges. We got in on Thursday and by 1500, had badges and exploring already. Ease of getting to main stuff was excellent; the Convention Center was reasonably laid out, with major rooms marked well and tons of space.

The Bad- site book was electronic only. Good for no paper waste, bad if you didn’t have a smart phone with a big screen or an Ipad. Its a quibble, I know but I was annoyed about it.
You could almost say there was TOO MUCH space. That there was so much empty tables might be blamed on the attendance… but I’m not real sure on this one.

I spent most of my time in the Exhibitor area and in Area C but did get to explore. I do wish there were better signage pointing to seminars and the like… but that may have been an oversight.

***

Exhibitors were eclectic and varied, with some garb dealers (I really hope they did well!!) to artists and bauble dealers. There was a steam-punk themed Tea Seller… and they got my patronage (I like tea!). Boffer weapon dealer and steel weapon sellers were present which was different. Multiple Dice Sellers too…

Board Game dealers, Card Game seller, some miniatures and alot of one-off titles I never heard of. (most were new so never hearing of them makes sense. 🙂 ) and of course, Iron Wind Metals, purveyors of Battletech, was there. And I bought even more mechs….

Quite a few video game demonstrations… of which the Small One went nuts for. She liked all of them but was very big on the first person shooter and the tongue-in-cheek Defend the Toaster game.

All in all, a good weekend and we’ll be back next year- the Small One declaring she wants to go back and so did the Missus; she wants to find an Intro to Dungeons and Dragons seminar so she can better understand the game.