How was GaryCon?

How did GaryCon go for the ACK team?

I’ve wanted to go for the last few years but I’m always working. :frowning:

GaryCon went really well. We enjoyed solid sales in the dealer room and the feedback from the games we ran was very positive.

In my “King of the Borderlands” session, we were graced by Matt Forbeck, a former designer from Wizards, and he seemed quite positive on the experience. The party of “kings” was confronted by a sinister threat from the Waste. They marched their army out to meet it, but decided to attempt to “cut the head off the snake” with a commando raid before the pitched battle. This lead to a hard-fought combat against the undead sorcerer-king. We got to see the spell Dismember deployed to full effect as a beastman warlord had his arms torn from his body. Good times.

In my “Night of the Walking Wet” session, the “kings” (same characters as the prior session, but with new players) were alarmed by the rise of the Slime God to the south. The players expressed that they wanted to “get their hands dirty”, so we assumed that the “kings” had already sent their henchmen in to no avail and it was time for the high-level PCs to resolve the action directly.

This session ran 6 hours and was gripped with some epic battles and true hilarity. At the climactic battle, the evil high priest of the Slime God shouted “Trespassers into this sanctum of slime, you shall be punished!” The sarcastic Dwarven Fury went on a rant about “waaa, waaaa, nobody ever gets punished! shut the f*** up cause we’re taking you down”. Immediately thereafter, the evil high priest slew the paladin & party leader with Finger of Death. “No one gets punished, huh?” said the paladin’s player. “Dude, I am so sorry…”

A moment later, however, the bladedancer cast Restore Life and Limb on the paladin. She rolled a natural 20 and natural 6 on a Tampering with Mortality table, resulting in the paladin’s return at full health with +2 Strength! The table went nuts as the paladin then cut down the evil slime priest.

It then got even more crazy when the dwarven machinist decided to put on the evil slime priest’s magic ring. He then failed his save v spells with a natural 2, and fell under the control of the Slime God. The party now had to battle 40HD of summoned slimes and an 18HD “War Titan” automaton, until they finally succeeded in killing their erstwhile ally.

Also notable was a killing spree by a berserk dwarven fury that killed 9 20hp monsters in one round.

From a player point of view: I was very impressed with the way the games ran. “Smooth” is the word. I played the same character in the low level with Tavis, mid-level with Greg and Alex’s “Walking Wet” game. All of them were fun to play. I also have to say that all three of the Autarch crew are great GM’s. I highly recommend playing in a game with them if you get a chance.

It was great that we saw several players at the table who weren’t part of the kickstarter and had never seen the game before. Just a little while into each session, those folks picked up the combat system, figured out how to use the proficiencies and saves. The games were focused and the players were able to spend most of their time not looking at character sheets or books unless they had spells to figure out. It seems like an ideal game for introducing new players while also allowing more experience players to tinker using the new class and race creation rules.

Alex’s “Walking Wet” game was epic and one of the highlights of the weekend.

That sounds like a blast! Lucky Paladin! Or should I say blessed?

I hope I can catch a glimpse of the game at higher levels. Armies marching, warlords dismembered… slime gods. And dwarven machinists are one of my favorites from the Player’s Compendium. Sounds like a kickass time.

I’d also like to thank Alex for gracefully handling my little cousin in the Walking Wet game. He can be a bit of a troublemaker at times, but Alex adjudicated his silly actions well and with minimal disruption to the party.

I had a great time, and I’ve really been enjoying poring over my new book. I’m on break from running my game store game due to a new baby incoming next week, but we are strongly considering switching from using OD&D to ACKS when I return to the action.

Thanks for the kind words, guys!

One of the things we take particular pride in at Autarch is that our game system developed organically from the actual play of GMs. It’s really gratifying to know that comes through when we run.

Greg Tito is going to be running “ACKS at PAX” at this year’s PAX East, and then after that at least one of us is going to be at Origins, GenCon, and more.

Also, if you’re interested in running ACKS for us at Cons, be sure to sign up for our Registered Judge program!

Jeremy - which one was your cousin?

My cousin was the barbarian and I was his bard tagalong.