Louisville, KY. My own small piece of Americana... I do own a small plot of land in that town... And it is one of the cities that really grabbed me. I always said good things about the people of Kentucky, from their welcome to their acceptance and encouragements, I will always have a small piece of bluegrass growing on top of my heart. They're great. Kentucky folk, you stay awesome.
This past weekend was Conglomeration 2018 now at the Crown Plaza by the airport. It is a place I went to for Imaginareum before, a site that is welcoming and comfortable. I prefer it to the Ramada inn on the east side (and closer to my own tiny piece of Kentucky...)
This year, I waffled about going due to a number of factors. However, talking to my good friend Derek-R, who once again took the reigns of gaming with Chuck, I allowed myself to be convinced. Okay it was not exactly a hard sell, but still. The con coincided with the kids' spring break. So I would be able to get there on Friday earlier, run on Saturday and Sunday morning, and be back home in time for my wife's awesome Easter ham. GREAT!
As the event drew closer, I contacted one of Jojo's friends in Louisville and invited her to attend the con, allowing the two girls time to hang out together. ActionMan who is more into gaming would play RPGs with me, all except one slot: the Lost Pyramid of Neferheket, which he play-tested (with Jojo). For that slot, I contacted my buddy Randy-P who was running Pathfinder games. I opted to let Jojo and Aubrie self-organize after pointing them to a few places they could do things.
Friday
The con officially started with a family lunch at our local Indian buffet. We are all big fan of Indian food, and the buffet allows everyone to eat what they want or try some new stuff. Filled with delicious food, we got on I-65... just in time to get stuck in traffic. Sheesh... just like in 2016.
We got to the con around 5pm, checked in to our hotel, and spent the evening bouncing around. I walked around talking to people, listening to games, and just soaking up the con's vibe. While fun and distracting, I grew more and more restless with the desire to get it started, to GM something. Good vibe, hall filled with people.
I went to my room, poked some files here and there as the kids snored to my left and right.
Saturday
Morning. Shower. Breakfast.
We headed to the car and rolled out all my gaming material to the gaming room. I was glad to see all my games had at least enough names to go off. Great!
The first game what my latest adventure, Come to the Hills set in Rhym. My players, including ActionMan, Jojo, and Aubrie, really loved the game.
The second game was set in Saggakar, Exalted Pains. This adventure was inspired by an adventure I wrote for Living Greyhawk. The Saggakar redux adds a lot of new elements, so it's not just a simple port. The move to 5e allowed me to add more combats and a few surprises. I think the last time I ran it was back in 2003, so few people may have recollections about the original.
The evening was the first public running of the Lost Pyramid of Neferheket. This was the first time running Akhamet in public. I was worried about this first public display. There are so many things to worry about: avoid info-dump, focus on what is important for the game, how will the races be accepted, what was missed, and so on.
Things went very well. I have a few things I want to alter to the iconics, but nothing particularly massive. That adventure is pretty cool and it provides a surprising amount of versatility for the PCs to decide what they want to do.
Running this, I forgot about the kids. ActionMan went and completed his Pathfinder game with Randy. The girls headed to Artemis: the star ship simulation, a place they spent a lot of time in. I sent them a text to go to bed and they went.
Tomorrow, the story of Sunday and the good, the bad and the conclusion...
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