Gonna Get My Cob On?

After some discussion and contemplation, I've decided that my first convention since the onset of the global bastard will be Con on the Cob 2021. I'm a bit hesitant because of the rise in Covid rates. We probably wouldn't be seeing said rates if (medically able) people would just get the vaccine. I may reconsider my attendance once the con gets closer, but as of now, I'm going.

I love Con on the Cob. It's a weird gaming party full of freaks, geeks, and some of the most welcoming and accepting people I've ever met. 

I'm really excited to hang out with my friends at Bloat Games. Eric, Josh, and newly appointed official BG GM, Matt will all be in attendance. I definitely want to sign up for some of Matt's games when they get on the schedule. I might also run some DCC. 

Con on the Cob 2019 - Part II

You can read my overview of the Con itself here.

I ran five four hour sessions at Con on the Cob. I had a lot of fun and started losing my voice by the last session. Here's a breakdown of the sessions I ran.

Thursday

The Return of Reverend Pancake (Dark Places & Demogorgons)

Source

A group of teens in southern Ohio decide to get revenge on some bullying jocks. Unfortunately one of the jocks accidentally resurrects a puritanical zombie preacher (statted for DCC here). The premise behind this session and the setting were based on my hometown. The highlights of the session were when the nerd built a hard pretzel cannon (because he thought pretzels were the best source of salt) and the karate kid said they needed to get a boombox with Iron Maiden - 2 Minutes to Midnight because undead are weak against "pure metal."

Friday

After School Special (Vigilante City)
For this session I used premade VC characters and the pamphlet adventure Ninja Beat'Em Up!. I had a group of seven vigilantes but they were definitely challenged by the massive number of ninjas (though it probably helped that I was rolling like shit). One thing I noticed while running is that the super-soldier, mutant, and true vigilante seemed to be doing the most in the game (the first two because of their powers and the third because she kept critting). Still everyone had fun. I think if I run it again (and I'd like to), I'll make sure that all characters are non-powered.

Road Crew: The Arwich Grinder (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
A naked large man collapses and dies in an inn in the village of Arwich while grasping the bonnet of a local teen. Brave townsfolk must brave the weather and investigate, owing their lives to the family. This is a Lovecraftian funnel that I've ran before (notes here). However, this time it didn't go as expected at all! While some were injured, no characters died in this funnel. Not only that, but they took all of the cult family members alive to be tried, and killed Junior and the Sending of Sliggeth. It was an amazing session, but no one was ground but the horrific monstrosities. My friend from Columbus, Robert, played in this session too, which made it extra fun.

Saturday

Road Crew: Leopard Women of Venus (Dungeon Crawl Classics)
The Humanoid Coalition recruited grunts from the various human tribes on Venus for an importation mission. The setting is coming to Kickstarter soon and you can read more about it here. I loved it and wanted to show it off. Josh gave me his notes from the after hours GenCon session of Leopard Women of Venus game he ran and I used those and my pre-Kickstarter zine to run the session. Most of the group was made up of the red meat eating, gun-toting, God-loving Otram. The most memorable character was little Billy. He was a displaced human school kid whom the Otram adopted. Billy gained a shotgun during the adventure and used it to take out quite a few foes, before his unfortunate death by animated Martian pudding.

Road Crew: Glow-H-I-O The Museum at the End of Time (Mutant Crawl Classics)
My original plan was to run an original funnel for my new Ohio-based MCC setting. I didn't get it finished though, so I ran The Museum at the End of Time instead. I had another large group (seven players total). We had some experienced MCC and DCC players, a couple that had never played the systems, and one player than had never played a tabletop rpg before. I have to say this was my favorite session of the whole con. Everyone got into character as their primitive tribesman. There were some interesting deaths and and I even had one character who ascended to godhood and became the Star Child.

Swag
I also wanted to show off the non-Cob Crate swag I picked up. I grabbed four of these Grimtooth D6'
s. I love the character, want to use him more, and it also seemed fitting after the recent passing of Rick Loomis. I also grabbed several fan-made Critical Role buttons, because I'm a critter and I liked them. I didn't get all of the characters, but I grabbed my favorites (and a cool Zombae button).

Con on the Cob 2019 - Part I

This past weekend I attended my first Con on the Cob. The small convention is the brainchild of artist, Andy Hopp. His unique art style and kind spirit can be felt throughout the con. It's definitely different than a big convention like Origins or mega con like Gen Con. The badges for CotC are only 45 at the door. Unlike other conventions, the price of admission gets you free access to all non-charity games and events. In addition there is a room with soda and snacks throughout the entire con. Also, while I didn't partake because I had my 10 year old with me, this also gets you free booze after 9:00 pm. That actually leads me into my next observation. This is a gaming and partying convention. After nine o'clock things get crazy. There's drinking, drag and burlesque shows, drunken drawing, and parties galore (this year there was a Cthuluau and Spellhammer'd). Honestly, I think this really contributes to the general good atmosphere at the con. Folks are just there to have a good time and enjoy that with other people.

If you go with your family there are still things to do. The hotel has an indoor pool, playground, putput golf, and there are Children of the Cob events scheduled every hour of the day. My boy had quite a bit of fun. Kids can also participate in other games as long as they meet the GM's age requirement. They also have access to the vendor's hall. The hall wasn't big and I'd say there were less than 50 vendors total. Indie Press Revolution had a booth, as did a few other small game publishers. Most of the vendors were artists and crafters. I saw some really cool stuff and my son bought some art.

The convention isn't the most organized. Seems that there are still things being done day of. Because of the folks involved and the size of the con, that didn't seem to bother me much.

If you want to earn credit for your following year's con or get extra money in the vendor's hall you can sign up to run games. For every hour you run you get a Cob Coin. If you register your events early you get a bonus coin if you run a 4 hour session. At one point Andy would let you attend free for running games, but after year's of abuse of that system, the Cob Coin system has been implemented.

The hotel itself wasn't exactly the nicest, but for 100 bucks a night, it wasn't bad. I will let folks in on a little insider knowledge I gained from a friend. While Andy and folks want you to book a room at the hotel itself, if you book at the Super 8 Motel diagonally access the street you can stay for half the price. My friend said that hotel was even a bit nicer, to be honest.

Vigilante Files: 2019 Con Exclusive

I am happy to announce that I will have something really cool to bring to Gen Con with me. Josh and I are hard at work putting together the Vigilante Files: 2019 Con Exclusive. This short zine will contain the three Vigilante City classes we've made (Paragon, Amazon, and Sentinel) as well as a brand new, only available in the zine class... the Super Fan.

I originally had planned on calling it the Fan Boy. Then I decided to go with Fan Boy/Fan Girl. Finally I decided Super Fan would be the best name because it's the most inclusive term. The class will be able to use their vast knowledge of pop culture and vigilantes to aid their allies.

We will be printing 30-50 copies of the zine and the only way to get one is to find me at Gen Con. We are also working with Sticker Man to get Lone Bards bumper stickers printed.

The layout is partially done and the writing of the first draft is done. Josh just needs to create art for the new class and we need to right our forward.

If you can't make it to Gen Con and are in Ohio, I will have a smaller print run that I'm taking with me to Con on the Cob.

Con-ventional Wisdom

My dude, Wirty, shared these with me a few weeks back because this will be my first GenCon. They're really insightful and I wanted to pass them along to others who may be new to gaming cons (or at least the big ones).