JimCon 4

JimCon 4

For some reason I'm posting again about events that happened weeks in the past. I could just let them be events in the past but this is another one that I would like to talk about here.

Once again JimCon lived up to its promise of being "Winnipeg's Table Top Games Convention". Held again at the Bronx Park Community Centre which is for the most part a great place to play with plenty of room and is a fairly new building. Here are my personal highlights of JimCon4.

Friday November 14
This turned out to be more of a low than a highpoint, but such is the way of volunteering to run games at cons. I was running the level 1 DCC RPG adventure "Rat King's Maze of Death" from the back of the 'Chained Coffin" module. Adventure prepped: check, weird dice: check, maps and minis: check, players: nope. Looks like no one signed up to play any DCC this year though its been relatively popular in the past and I've run it at the previous year's JimCon and the last two KeyCons. Turns out that there was interest after all as I found out later but players were too enticed by 5e D&D or were involved with Pathfinder. So maybe not enough interest? Perhaps Friday isn't the best time? I'm thinking of running some DCC next year but only if I notice some genuine interest over the coming year. In any case I eventually ended up playing Star Wars Age of Rebellion and generally socializing.

Weird Dice: check, Players: nope.

Saturday November 15

So I slept in and missed playing the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game Tournament. But alls well that ends well because I got to finally run something I've been wanting to play for some time. Tom Moldvay's "The Future King". The following was my write up for the adventure.

From the author of the 1981 D&D Basic Rulebook and adventures such as “Isle of Dread”, “Castle Amber” and “The Lost City” comes Tom Moldvay's 1985 RPG adventure “The Future King” Play one of six historical heroes: Doc Holiday, Nostradamus, Bruce Lee, Harald Hardraada, Owen Glendower, and Cyrano de Bergerac who have been gathered together out of the mists of time. Their mission is to find and wake King Arthur, for it is time that he again don the mantle of kingship. All the rules to play are included in the adventure itself. Rules light and simple to learn and play.

It took about 5 hours to play but it was one of the craziest adventures I'd ever seen. Somewhat more of a railroad in format than I am used to but still full of wonder the players and myself enjoyed. Two Players ran all six characters to great effect. Many surprises and an ending that satisfied beyond expectation. Clearly Moldvay is a master of the craft.

Nostradamus and Bruce Lee quest to resurrect King Arthur

Sunday November 16
Another short day (Friday is in the evening only and Sunday in the morning and afternoon) and this one was spent playing Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space. We played the recently released "Cat's Eye" scenario about an alien hive mind that takes over a group of feral cats that are sharing an abandoned building with a community of squatters.  I recruited a couple of guys that were planning on playing Dungeon World,  that appeared interested in playing Doctor Who. One played Amy Pond and the other was Craig Owens, the Eleventh Doctor's Roommate. Everyone seemed rather excited see how a game without the Doctor would turn out – it was brilliant. After the main investigation and initial conflict another person was interested in giving the game a try and they jumped in as the Doctor just in time for the climax. It was a really good ending and the surprise appearance by the Doctor really helped add the finishing touch. This game is always a crowd pleaser when I run it and I always have players that have never played it before so I'm actually surprised I haven't seen it being played in public anywhere. This game also made me observant of the fact that its fun to be able to sit down at a table of strangers, play a game and get up from a table of friends.

Overall a great time once again at JimCon. In fact this year there were more interesting games to play than I could fit in to the three days. Next year I'm sure will be just as good.