GenCon 2012: D&D Championship, Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, and so much other coolness! (Part 2)

What constitutes the ultimate gaming high known to humankind?  I'll give you a hint: it has 93 hours, 2 tournaments, umpteen seminars, and a lot of cool people.  It's called GenCon, and this is the first year I have attended it and I can tell you it was the absolute best days of gaming I have ever had in my life.  My schedule was busy from start to finish and I came home absolutely exhausted. I will go over some of the things that I did over the course of the weekend and show some of the stuff I managed to pick up.

D&D Championship

First of two events that I was going down to GenCon to do.  D&D Championship is a fast-paced, grueling 4 hour, 5 encounters...if you make it that far.  This year the Championship was an Epic level tourney;  22nd level to be exact.  We played 5 encounters of 45 minutes each.  This was a timed event and if you failed any of the encounters, your chances of being eliminated from the tourney was very likely.

Out of the forty or so teams that entered this competition, we made it down to the last 6, to eventually win 3rd place overall in the tourney due to two rookie mistakes we made at the table.  Great time was had by all. I can't wait to see what they throw at us next year.  Our team came out of there with some pretty good swag.  Worth missing 4 seminars for it.

Recounting Encounters Season 1: Council of Spiders, Episode 1: Survivors

We're back and with more Drow than we can shake a stick at.  Join us as Derek from Dungeonsmaster.com and I Marc Talbot give you our weekly recap of what was good, not so good and downright ugly with the encounter played at our respective FLGS.

This season is looking up to be a great season, with a ton of treachery, backstabbing and downright nastiness in the depths of the underdark.  The players start in the Drow city of Menzoberranzan.  

Choose either female or male characters, slave races or drow and learn to be assertive and push people around, or learn to scheme and betray those who thought you close to them.

And then come to the site and listen to what transpired at the store.

GenCon 2012: D&D Championship, Fourthcore Team Deathmatch, and so much other coolness!

What constitutes the ultimate gaming high known to humankind?  I'll give you a hint: it has 93 hours, 2 tournaments, umpteen seminars, and a lot of cool people.  It's called GenCon, and this is the first year I have attended it and I can tell you it was the absolute best days of gaming I have ever had in my life.  My schedule was busy from start to finish and I came home absolutely exhausted. I will go over some of the things that I did over the course of the weekend and show some of the stuff I managed to pick up.

D&D Encounters Podcast: Web of the Spider Queen, Recap.

This is a weekly recap of the events happening every week at the sessions of D&D Encounters at my FLGS in Elliot Lake at Sights&Sounds Music Store.

Following the success the characters had in defeating the drow and defending the patrons of the Old Skull Inn, the characters receive a message from an important individual in town which bids them on to bigger and better things.

Rushing to the tower of Ashaba, tracks of the remaining drow lead them to the cellar under the tower. They encounter a dead-end, discover a secret entrance and battle an ambush party of Drow.  The party learns of Valan Jaelre. Having survived the ambush, the characters are put to the test before their grand entrance to the Underdark. The characters pass the tests of Lolth and enter into the Underdark proper and encounter an elite strike force of Jaelre. The characters storm the Demonspur trading post and manage to outwit two idiot Ogres.  Last week the players found Tharinel and ended up at the torture theater. Having defeated the two torturers and their minions, the characters rescue Khara in the slave pits. The heroes return to Shadowdale and are confronted by Valan in the finale to this awesome season of D&D Encounters.

Derek Myers from Dungeon's Master joins me again this week to talk about what he liked, disliked, and things that could have been changed for this season's recap.

Follow us on this week's recap podcast of D&D Encounters Web of the Spider Queen

D&D Encounters Podcast: Web of the Spider Queen, Session 13 - Return to Shadowdale

This is a weekly recap of the events happening every week at the sessions of D&D Encounters at my FLGS in Elliot Lake at Sights&Sounds Music Store.

This week and for the remainder of this season, I will be posting weekly recaps in the form of a podcast, to see how it takes off.  The feedback has been good so far and let's see how it goes until the end of the season.

Following the success the characters had in defeating the drow and defending the patrons of the Old Skull Inn, the characters receive a message from an important individual in town which bids them on to bigger and better things.

Rushing to the tower of Ashaba, tracks of the remaining drow lead them to the cellar under the tower. They encounter a dead-end, discover a secret entrance and battle an ambush party of Drow.  The party learns of Valan Jaelre. Having survived the ambush, the characters are put to the test before their grand entrance to the Underdark. The characters pass the tests of Lolth and enter into the Underdark proper and encounter an elite strike force of Jaelre. The characters storm the Demonspur trading post and manage to outwit two idiot Ogres.  Last week the players found Tharinel and ended up at the torture theater. Having defeated the two torturers and their minions, the characters rescue Khara in the slave pits. The heroes return to Shadowdale and are confronted by Valan in the finale to this awesome season of D&D Encounters.

Derek Myers from Dungeon's Master joins me again this week to talk about stuff that happened at his table at Hairy T North.

Follow us on this week's podcast of D&D Encounters Web of the Spider Queen the finale, Session 13 - Return to Shadowdale.

D&D Encounters Podcast: Web of the Spider Queen, Session 12 - Slave Pits

This is a weekly recap of the events happening every week at the sessions of D&D Encounters at my FLGS in Elliot Lake at Sights&Sounds Music Store.

This week and for the remainder of this season, I will be posting weekly recaps in the form of a podcast, to see how it takes off.  The feedback has been good so far and let's see how it goes until the end of the season.

Following the success the characters had in defeating the drow and defending the patrons of the Old Skull Inn, the characters receive a message from an important individual in town which bids them on to bigger and better things.

Rushing to the tower of Ashaba, tracks of the remaining drow lead them to the cellar under the tower. They encounter a dead-end, discover a secret entrance and battle an ambush party of Drow.  The party learns of Valan Jaelre. Having survived the ambush, the characters are put to the test before their grand entrance to the Underdark. The characters pass the tests of Lolth and enter into the Underdark proper and encounter an elite strike force of Jaelre. The characters storm the Demonspur trading post and manage to outwit two idiot Ogres.  Last week the players found Tharinel and ended up at the torture theater. Having defeated the two torturers and their minions, the characters are introduced to the slave pits.

Derek Myers from Dungeon's Master joins me again this week to talk about stuff that happened at his table at Hairy T North.

Follow us on this week's podcast of D&D Encounters Web of the Spider Queen, Session 12 - Slave Pits

D&D Encounters Podcast: Web of the Spider Queen, Session 11 - Torture Theatre

This is a weekly recap of the events happening every week at the sessions of D&D Encounters at my FLGS in Elliot Lake at Sights&Sounds Music Store.

This week and for the remainder of this season, I will be posting weekly recaps in the form of a podcast, to see how it takes off.  The feedback has been good so far and let's see how it goes until the end of the season.

Following the success the characters had in defeating the drow and defending the patrons of the Old Skull Inn, the characters receive a message from an important individual in town which bids them on to bigger and better things.

Rushing to the tower of Ashaba, tracks of the remaining drow lead them to the cellar under the tower. They encounter a dead-end, discover a secret entrance and battle an ambush party of Drow.  The party learns of Valan Jaelre. Having survived the ambush, the characters are put to the test before their grand entrance to the Underdark. The characters pass the tests of Lolth and enter into the Underdark proper and encounter an elite strike force of Jaelre. The characters storm the Demonspur trading post and manage to outwit two idiot Ogres. Last week the players found Tharinel and ended up at the torture theatre. This week the players confront the great torturers of the drow city.

Derek Myers from Dungeon's Master joins me again this week to talk about stuff that happened at his table at Hairy T North.

Follow us on this week's podcast of D&D Encounters Web of the Spider Queen, Session 11 - Torture Theatre.