Princes of the Apocalypse - Week 7

Hey everyone! A new season of Encounters is here and we are right here to bring you up to speed to what is happening in this season.

Join us as we speak each week about what happened at various stores, news about our beloved games, as well as some tricks of the trade to help any DM (and sometimes a player) run a smoother table.

The first part of this week's podcast (25 mins) is about things that are happening in the gaming world.  The other half is all about encounters.  

Sit back, relax and enjoy!! Click HERE!

Princes of the Apocalypse - Week 6 (and Gencon stuff)

Hey everyone! A new season of Encounters is here and we are right here to bring you up to speed to what is happening in this season.

Join us as we speak each week about what happened at various stores, news about our beloved games, as well as some tricks of the trade to help any DM (and sometimes a player) run a smoother table.

The first part of this week's podcast is about Gencon and some little tips to help you along.  

Sit back, relax and enjoy!! Click HERE!

My GenCon Jaunt (And How I Survive It - Part 1)

GenCon had to be the best time I’ve ever had in my life (in gaming terms anyways).  Even though I had the best time of my life, it had to be one of the most stressful planning occasions I have ever had to do in my life.  If it wasn’t for Derek, this trip may not have turned out to be the best trip of my gaming history.

How intimidating it was, when I first announced that I was taking the plunge to go to GenCon.  I did not know my head for my ass and was extremely nervous to do some of the bookings that I had to do for this trip.  Even having started an account at GenCon, there was so much information on the web site that I did not know what to do with it.  The only advantage I had in planning the trip was that I had a person of experience guiding me in the step by step process of being able to attend GenCon.

I was so excited when I finally booked my badge for this event, and right after, Derek booked our hotel room at the gorgeous Omni Severn hotel.  This was the easy part.

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.

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.

Losing my Convention Virginity: GenCon, Here I Come!!

I guess the sign says it all.   No game left behind.  It should actually say no gamer left behind.  As I ponder my upcoming trip to Indianapolis, I realize that it is only about 20 days away.  How awesome is that.  from the day I booked my badge to the event registration date, time flew fast.  Not to worry though, I am prepared; well prepared booking-wise, but not quite aware yet of all the awesomeness I am going to be subjected to.

I have been gaming for 28+ years and have never been to a gaming convention, whether it was in Toronto (when I lived there for 10 years) or any other place for that matter.  In essence I am a convention virgin, at the age of 38, and my first one is going to be GenCon: I am scared out of my pants.  I am extremely lucky though, cause this year I am travelling with a pro convention goer, Derek Myers (Ameron from Dungeon's Master), who has shown me the ropes on how to register, how to get the best events and how to make all the travel arrangements.  Without him, I would not be in a hotel right next to the convention centre, nor would I be attending some of the cool seminars I am actually signed up for.

Overwhelmed is not a word I use lightly for the amount of events going on at GenCon.  The hardest part about this convention was finding enough time to to the absolute minimum I would like to do.  There is so much stuff to do.  Seminars on building chain-mail, board games galore, new gaming systems tables(that I will unfortunately not have the time to try while I am there), and most importantly D&D.  Here is a look at some of the events I will be attending at GenCon as well as some of the things I would like to accomplish on this trip.