Wow, what a day. It’s Friday, it’s just after 8 PM, and I am bushed. My throat is raw from doing kobold yips and yaps all day, which I should probably tone down for tomorrow – but we’ll see. It’s so much fun! And it’s one of those easy things I can do to really make the scenarios stand out for the players at my tables.

This morning I ran WK3 Revenge of the Over-Kobold for 5th Edition and it went incredibly well. Great table of players, and I wound up with 7 instead of 6 – which worked out quite well actually. Two of the players were brand new to 5th Edition, but I got the sense that they picked up on the system pretty quickly. Which is good because I realized WK3 is a tough module, especially in a con setting. I shuffled some things around for the final confrontation and really made it a tough one – perhaps too tough, since things were not going well for the party by the end of the slot. We stopped with the characters escaping but the Over-Kobold was unharmed. Very fun.

My 4 PM slot was WK1 Caves of the Kobold Queen for AD&D 1st Edition (the stat blocks were written for Swords & Wizardry which is very functionally the same thing as far as monster stats go). I only had 5 out of the 6 players show up and no one came over to join as a walk up, and 2 of the players were new to con settings. I knew going into it, but it was really brought home how much low-level magic-users in 1st Edition are really weak. At 2nd level you can cast 2 spells, and while one of them could be sleep (incredibly powerful against 1d4 HD kobolds!) it still only has a limited radius. The players took some unexpected directions and ended up face-to-face with the Kobold Queen – only to have an INCREDIBLE series of bad die rolls run against them that turned every character into puppy chow. It was a knock down, drag out fight that the characters were up to their necks in, but in the end their bad luck cost them their lives. Oh well. I had a lot of fun and I think the players did too.

Tomorrow I’ve got WK2 and WK3 for 1st Edition AD&D and I’m a little nervous about them to be honest. Low-level 1E is so dangerous! And I’ve only got 6 pregens for them to take, and you really need all 6 to survive I think. We’ll see.

It has been a good day at GaryCon VII in Lake Geneva, WI. A good night’s sleep (well, OK night’s sleep) and I was fresh for WK1 Caves of the Kobold Queen at 10 AM. The players at the table were great, and though it ended with a total TPK I think they all had a good time. I know I did.

Break for lunch, chat with a few people, getting excited for GameHole Con in November, and then it was back in the trenches at 4 PM for WK2 Curse of the Kobold Eye. I was looking forward to this one as I only finished writing a few weeks ago – this was the inaugural run of the module. There were points I now know I need to shore up, some clarifications that need to be added, and a map handout that would have been convenient – but overall a good experience. Also had a great table of players (7 of them!) that really made the session shine. Favorite use of my favorite spell so far (gust of wind).

Tired and exhausted, I retired to my hotel after cleaning up after WK2. Tomorrow is another full day – the final D&D 5E session for the weekend for me (WK3 Revenge of the Over-Kobold) and then it’s a switch over to good ol’ 1st Edition AD&D with the Wrath of the Kobolds series all over again.

Good times. Noodle salad.

GaryCon 2015 called and I have made the journey into the hallowed depths of Wisconsin into the very heart of Midwestern Gaming, Lake Geneva! Today has been a largely uneventful day, filled with driving mainly, but I made good time and managed to get my badge for GaryCon before the lines were too long. I have a sneaky suspicion that there’s going to be quite a wait for badges in the morning.

I’m running the Wrath of the Kobolds series while I’m here in two sets, one for 5th Edition D&D and one for 1st Edition D&D. Writing the modules and converting them to each of the editions was surprisingly easy – the differences come in how they play more than how modules are written for them! Combat specifically is a bit more loose in 1st Edition, but that’s part of the fun! This con marks the first time I’ll have run the entire trilogy for an audience (WK1 Caves of the Kobold Queen, WK2 Curse of the Kobold Eye, and WK3 Revenge of the Over-Kobold). The first one I ran last year at GaryCon VI and before that I had GM’d it a few times for my home group.

Sadly, I did not get one of the convenient rooms at the Geneva Ridge Resort – I’m down the road a bit in Delavan at the Sky Lodge Inn. It’s a nice if generic place, clean and reasonable for rates. I’m NOT looking forward to parking at the resort, that’s for sure. Previous years has proven that’s quite a gamble and with the con only growing in size I’m sure this will be the worst of the years. Time will tell.