Last year, I planned on attending this con, but decided to cancel my plans after I lost my job and had to find a new one. As money got tightened, cons were the first thing to get cut.
This year however, the situation is back to normal and I was able to attend. Despite an open invitation, only ActionMan wanted to go, so it would be a boys-weekend.
We were going to play Adventure League all weekend. As the two of us were Tier 2 (I was level 8 and ActionMan's Sir Patrik character was level 6), we got to play higher level.
Friday
I left work at my usual time (around noon), and headed home. There, I prepared our luggage and made sure our stuff was ready to go. As soon as ActionMan arrived from school, we jumped in the car and drove down I-24 towards Chattanooga, then on to Cleveland. Yes, there is a Cleveland in Tennessee!
My phone ran the Kings and Generals channel where we learned and talked about subjects as varied as the Roman Empire, Greek "Empire", Samurais, the Wars of the Roses, and Napoleon. I do this by myself: listen to History documentaries while driving, but having someone else who is interested in the subject is great. Plus, having him learn as many things as possible is a good thing. After videos, we talked about what we listened. One of my favorite conversation was on Caesar's conquest of Gaul and the battle of Alesia in particular.
Our first stop was Bea's Restaurant in Chattanooga where we ate great southern home cooking. It got us talking about random subject, much lighter subjects.
Then, I happened to go to DiceHead games who did held the convention. I had originally planned to go, get us registered and make sure we'd know where everything was. They had moved since the last time we went there.
Turns out we arrived just as a game was about to start! So we sat and got to play some year 5 adventure.
The adventure was fun, but it did drag on way too long. ActionMan finished the adventure sleeping on a bench.
After that, we headed to the hotel and slept.
Saturday
Up early, we drove to a McDonald's by the mall. I must admit that I do like McDonald's mcmuffins and their coffee, particularly their coffee. From there, we went to the parking lot. However, there did not seem to be any open doors... So we did what every good gamer would do...
We sat in the car, eating and waited for someone else to arrive and show us where to enter the mall. We made our checks and five minutes later, we were inside the mall finishing our food.
The morning game turned out to be a 7-player table, which I really dislike. Players were fun, but we plowed through. Three paladins with support win, which we did.
After that, we went to the Steak and Shake, just like we went to back in 2015.
The afternoon game was the first Year 8 epic. I looked around, worried... There were only three of us: Varius the elf wizard, Sir Patrik the half-orc Paladin, and me, Local Boy Mik (the yokul drunk). We did pretty good and succeeded throughout.
In one of many fun elements, my character cast a spell in a wild magic zone which resulted in the apparition of a unicorn. The unicorn is the symbol of his goddess (Mielikki for the initiates) so my drunk guy started talking to the unicorn as if it were his goddess. Laughs all around.
For dinner, we walked the 15 minutes to the local Golden Corral. ActionMan and I like that place very much so we went. The walk was a good change as it allowed us to move between slots.
In the evening, we did an adventure from the Elemental Evil story. I did not quite understand what we had to do, so while we succeeded - I think - I don't know for sure.
I went to the hotel to watch the end of the Predators' game and then the end of the Alabama-LSU game. Sleep was good.
Sunday
The two of us got up and went to Denny's for a good breakfast (I was not planning on the two of us having lunch until late). An older gentleman there came to congratulate me on having a conversation with my son rather than letting him on the phone as we were talking about some geek stuff, most likely history. I liked it.
We made it back to the mall and played one last adventure. This one was from year 2. Fun stuff. My bard managed to fail a deception check, with a +13, with advantage by rolling a pair of snake eyes on d20s... Sheesh.
Then we packed one final time and were off back to Nashville.
ActionMan did not last long... he slept almost right away.
The Good
- Got to play the desired tier all weekend Every one of the games ActionMan and I were registered for through Warhorn went off on-time. True, some tables were lighter than others, but I prefer than over tables of seven players.
- Played with ActionMan The two of us played together all weekend. I really like playing with him because he comes up with creative solutions us grumpy old gamers don't entertain. Still I got to buff him quite a lot and he kicked butt.
- Fun players The guys we played with added to the game and were good sports. As a bonus, this was the first time I got to play with Jay-A at an AL table. We played together at WitchHunter and Arcanis previously, and he GM'd for us at an event in Knoxville, but we never sat on the same side of the table at once. It was, as expected a fun time playing with his mimicking tengu...
- Playing in a mall Yes, we played in a mall, in an open space. That's one of the most unique element of the convention.
The Bad
- A little pricy In retrospect, the cost of the con did seem a little steep. For the five games we played, that was 14$ (7$ each).
- Attendance A big complaint I have about many of the smaller events I attend. People, please try and attend local and nearby events if you can. This will make them bigger and better, and create the community as a whole.
- Unprepared GMs Now one of the issues I had was that more than one GM frequently apologized for not being prepared... That irked me. If I pay 14$ towards a game, having the expectation of having a GM that is at least prepared. That says nothing about the GM himself, they all seemed like good guys. That is the one thing that really nags at me.
Speaking with Stacy, one of the organizer, this is a rebuilding year for the AL community in Eastern Tennessee following the departure of a major player, Ginny, for Chicago. I've seen it before when a big name leaves the area, there is a period where things are in flux as many people do not support other games unless someone they trust vouches for the event. Hopefully, by next year, there will be more people attending the con.
I expect things will change next year, with more attendees.
So in the end, there is a strong possibility that we will return next year.
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