[Gencon AAR] Part 6

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Ozaka Outcomes

A Stolen Daisho by Chris-K
- Heroes traveled the low road
- Azaki Sadaharu was saved

Fiends of Dreams by JP Chapleau
- The yokai was not fully released within Shiro Azaki
- The Child remains a strange point of focus... Who is (s)he?

Friends we make by JP Chapleau
- The Princesses sided with Lord Tetsukabe
- The Princesses received a magical sword for slaying the Oni hound
- Azaki Tsukiko insulted Lord Tetsukabe's character in open court
- Shiro Tetsukabe was damaged by Ozakan forces

Battle of Shiro Azaki by JP Chapleau
- Lord Azaki Taro was killed by foreign allies of the Amicho Clane
- Lady Sazame Tomoe, the earth shugenja was killed in the sewers beneath Shiro Azaki
- Lord Tetsukabe Masanori was killed by foreign allies of the Sazame Clan
- The head diplomat of the Kobochi forces, Sister Ayame, was killed in battle
- Lady Azaki escaped to safety
- Iwazaki Aguro, the water shugenja survived the battle
- The head diplomat of the Kobochi forces, Sister Ayame, was killed in battle
- Lord Azaki's horse was returned to the Azaki forces
- Part of the walls were blown up
- Despite losing the city, Sazame forces succeeded in withdrawing in good order.

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[Gencon AAR] Part 5

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Olympia Outcomes

Heart of Decisions by Bill-C
- The Heart of the Colossus was shattered by the heroes, preventing the Titans from recovering it.
- No doppelgangers were located.
- Paranoia ruled the day!

What the Titans Leave Behind By JP Chapleau (with Brandon-A)
- Mytenian forces made a deal with Bazros
- The mirror was brought back to Queen Kreomene
- Nerissa's correspondence with Kymaros and Pelagene were read and uncovered.
- No one dared to read the rune on the floor
- Timon was not roused

To Find and Enchantress by JP Chapleau
- No one went after the war chest, so it is still in possession of the Titanic forces
- Nerissa was captured
- War golems damaged the city before they got depowered. They are now frozen in the city
- Some war machines were damaged
- Heroes chose Ares' solution to deal with the Titans: have his dogs Deimos and Phobos devour parts of the Titans every morning to keep them from rising again
- Both Zeus and Hera made a surprise visit to Mytenia, rewarding those who praised them!

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[Gencon AAR] Part 4

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Akhamet Outcomes

The Mirror of Bast by Brandon-A and JP Chapleau
- Grom was brought back safely
- The mirror is now in the possession of Meketra at the temple of Bast
- The Queen-of-Cats is still at large

Sifting the Sands of Obscurity by Matt-A
- Adjet was not resurrected
- The Shroud was returned to its hiding place

River Run by JP Chapleau
- The Portal Sigil was depowered
- The lock doors were not repaired, leading to damage
- The Portal Sigil was depowered
- Neferhana was killed by the emerging nightcrawler

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[Gencon AAR] Part 3

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Saturday

Just like that, we were already passed the halfway point.

I had a slot to run, but did not have players. So I got a "free" slot.

The day went fine. A lot of repeat customers from previous years, but also from within the con. A testament to the great work my GMs did. I got to be entertained this year again by listening to them wield they craft. I am always fascinated by how each GM has a different touch, a different flavor, which DOES change and alter with the table. I know many of you love to listen to the great podcasts, but I still maintain that the best work is done by normal people, doing their best and crafting stories with their players.

If you haven't, thank you GM(s) today.

Thank you, Randy! (who tolerates my antics in his Vampire: Dark Ages chronicle)

The evening was, to me, The Big One, the second Ozaka special, called The Battle of Shiro Azaki. With this one, I was planning to shake the status quo in Ozaka. Advance the plot and allow me to tell different stories that would really separate it form the situation in Olympia.

Sunday

Sunday... Always sad to see it come. It's always a strange day... Who will show up? This year, I kept the Akhamet Special River Run, the special I had to re-write from scratch after I wrote myself in a corner. The resulting adventure was much stronger, though my main fear was that it was overly ambitious with two distinct parts. Each could've been its own adventure. One with the Sobekites raising hell. And then the source of the problem, as Saggakara plots to destroy Ophara. Limited slots.

Despite everyone being really tired, there was a strong energy in the room.

In the end, we made several new converts to FOE games.

We did a quick pit stop to the dealer hall and it was time to drive back to Tennessee.

I don't remember much after that... Once home, I slept for... about 20 of the next hours. Took me three tries to get through WWE Smackdown.

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[Gencon AAR] Part 2

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Thursday

I was excited to get there and start the show. Several new GMs would run for FOE this year, and I was curious to hear them run, and see their style, and where/how I could best use them in the future. Since they all came recommended by trusted people... Trusting Brandon had yielded good results so far, so I pushed my luck.

The games went off without a hitch, we adapted a few things and all was well in the world.

The evening had the first special set in Ozaka. A mix of social and politics called Friends we make had a number of unique elements I was trying:
- the GMs (including myself) had some mini-larp elements to pass rumors/ stories
- the adventure ended with each tables choosing which side of the coming battle they would pick: the Kobochi, or Sazame.

I think it went well enough and the players left in good spirits.

One day in the bag.

Friday

Friday, I had to run my first table since 2022 or 2023... I was pretty excited and I had practiced the voice of my main NPC until my wife told me to stop doing it. (I didn't, I just did it when she wasn't around.) I had a lot of fun running the game and seeing the choices and decisions weigh on the players. Especially when the Epilogue was read...

The afternoon was pretty light on ticket sales, but the tables that played had a great time.

The evening had the one Olympia special this year, To Find an Enchantress where the PCs had to deal with the rather troublesome enchantress who came up with a pretty good plan to confound the heroes.

I had a great time watching their faces, especially Rees' table that somehow pulled themselves from the brink using a bane spell. The Ancient War Golem had most of the table unconscious at one point! Bravo.

Bravo.

Now I have a story. The kind of things that can only happen at Gencon. During the event, I went to GM HQ (for some reason) and as I returned, just outside our room, a couple cosplaying as Zeus and Hera were eating. I approached them, asking for a picture. As we briefly talked, I told them that we were running a game in there dealing with the Greek gods. I asked them if they would like to appear in the game as their alter egos. They were both as excited as I was. We plotted a little surprise for the players (and GMs).

I introduced them briefly, they entered the room. The first table to praise/call their name immediately were fully healed. It was great to see the GMs going "WTF?"

Since they had to attend some other event, they left quickly. Another Gencon gem!

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[Gencon AAR] Part 1

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Before Gencon

Another Year's Gen Con has come and gone and with it a lot of challenges and fun times so let's start gencon started in September of 2025 when I started putting on my cork board all the adventures that I wanted to run I first put the settings I put two adventures per setting on the board and then try to break it down into different styles of adventures.

Different styles so I wanted some exploration based I wanted some investigation adventures I wanted a dungeoncrawl I wanted some site-based to explore the setting. Some point crawls where the PCs went from one situation to another give you some choices along the way. As a software man, make this into a finite-state machine

I reached out to the GM crew about writing adventures for Gencon, and now-veteran writers Bill (Olympia), Brandon (Akhamet and Olympia)Chris (Ozaka), and Rebecca (Tarsyn) stepped up. Newcomer Matt-A stepped up for an Akhamet adventure. Every year, I plan to have all the "regular" adventures I am writing done by Memorial Day Weekend (last weekend of May), and the Specials done by the weekend after the 4th of July. This gives the GMs time to review, comment, and address any weird issues.

Jumping forward to Memorial Day, I got all the regular adventures done. Rebecca could not attend and continue her series of adventures. So I made the decision to have "only" a single Tarsyn adventure. I took one adventure from Brandon, since I had a great idea for it. His idea may get developed next year. I still had some work to do (formatting and cleaning) on others. All good news.

During June, I worked on the four specials I had to complete, getting the last one exactly at my limit. This included completely redoing my idea for the Sunday special for Akhamet.

So... Rebecca could not make it, so I had to remove her adventure from the program and expand my own Tarsyn adventure to every day slot. The GMs who were to be my roomies had some issues and could not make it. I was able to get JJ, to cover one extra slot and I took the other two. No last minute surprises, so I was happy.

Without a roommate, I took a chance and posted to a few local groups that I was looking for a roommate. And well... I was able to meet someone new: Charles! He got a good deal and agreed to come. It would be interesting, as my same-old stories would find a new pair of ears!

Miniatures

Most of the miniatures I painted and prepared for the convention.

Wednesday

Wednesday came... I had packed everything into the Elantra and waited for Charles. I didn't wait long and off we were. For the first time, I took the 109 to completely avoid Nashville and we made good time. A quick pit stop for gas and that would cover us for the whole weekend AND the return trip. I love my Elantra (Auntie is her name) as she is good on mileage and gets me where I need to go.

We went to the ICCC where I got in an hour-long line for GM badges. Meanwhile Charles got his tickets quicker than I, contrary to everything I normally knew.

We went to the room. I really love the JW. It is comfortable (not freezing, not to warm), and all the rooms have a fridge.

Continuing the tradition, we went to the Denny's where I ate a Grand Slam... At the hotel, I crashed out and snored off the meal. Funny as I asked for a roommate who didn't snore too badly... Funny indeed.

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