Gencon 2024 After Action Report Part 2

Parts 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Thursday Aug 1st

I woke up real early (remember the "passed out" of yesterday?) and began working on my second novel.

The time came. The convention began!

First slot, I mis-entered one event. A little on-site work and we were ready to roll. Five tables. It was beautiful.

Of the five tables, three were written by others. This year, Bill-C, Steve-E, and Rebecca-P all wrote and ran their own adventures. Each of them showcased the setting in ways that were very different from my own style, showcasing the versatility of the settings. Different adventure styles make for a much more interesting experience IMO.

Bill's Labyrinthine adventure contrasted with the event-based adventure from Rebecca, as both we set in Olympia. Same thing between my travel adventure to Steve's puzzle-filled dungeoncrawl. The different groups experiencing the same adventure.

In the evening, the first special: Re-leash the Kraken took place. I was nervous because we were running a special with many new GMs. Mike-B and Matt-R were the newbs joining a team of now veterans featuring Adam-G, Jason-R, and Logan-Y. I always worry how they will be able to deal with the craziness these specials are.

The adventure featured the Kraken. YES, The Kraken. The one whose stats appear in the Monster Manual. That CR20+ monstrosity! I had tentacles painted and done. I had terrain (see this post for pictures). And the combats turned out to be rather dynamic and surprised more than one player, which was a great bonus. Awesome to see!

Concerns unfounded. By the end, both newbs were veterans.

A Gallery of the action

Friday Aug 2nd

In the morning, it turns out I had entered another snafu in the system. No worries, I took the table and ran The Lost Hall of Khuf-Thanat myself! I really enjoy that adventure because of that final encounter and the choice the PCs get to do. What makes it particularly interesting is that there are multiple ways to accomplish the goal, it's not just a "straight fight."

An interesting event happened in the morning. There was a gentleman scheduled to play Rebecca's adventure and his girlfriend (sorry I did not record your names). She was unwilling to come in because [reasons]. I told her that the adventure he was scheduled to play was not the usual D&D fare and that it had much more behind it.

I was not over-selling it, Rebecca's adventure is tortuous and allows for MANY interpretations. There is much deviousness in that charming little package!

During the afternoon, I stood outside the room, talking to a charming couple (Shout-out to Anita and Matthew) when we saw a young lady in distress. We talked to her and she was having an anxiety attack. She came to the JW looking from the Marriott. I did a quick look around the room and saw that Bill's table was still at the first room. He accepted to take her in and I sat her to play. I never knew her name, but can dream that by making her play something, it brightened her Gencon. She seemed quite pleased when she left and in a better mood.

For the evening, we headed to Ozaka for a friendly meeting between Ozaka and the FOEniverse. I did not know but this event happened at the same time as the big 50th event. But undeterred, we condensed the five tables into four. A number of people with generics joined us and a few FOE GMs got to sit down and play as well! That was a common theme throughout the con: no-shows but very invested people with generics returning throughout the con.

Ahhhh the joys of planning in a modular way for specials!

So the Ozaka adventure idea came to be from the Ozaka special from 2023 (aka "The Godzilla Special"). At one point, a you player (shout-out Asher) decided to run off into the Ozakan forest. Fleeing.

That got me thinking... His character (my notes have him as playing Thutmoses the bard from Akhamet) would HAVE to come out of the woods for food. Sparking an interest in all things foreign. So Lord Azaki would try to meet and learn from these foreigners and obtain things he wants from them... I had a setup. Now, I needed an adventure...

That setup became "Cuts Petals in Pools of Blood"

The adventure had a lot of twists with an interesting twist at the end... one that ended in disaster for the Ozakans... Still peopole

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