Thoughts about Terminal City Con

There were a hundred and three games at Terminal City. Three of those were Lamentations of the Flame Princess. 

Why? LotFP is fun. The rules are free. There's a lot - a whole lot - of quality content. Almost everything, even that one adventure about the dogs, can be bought as PDFs. Some of the stuff, especially that one adventure about the dogs, is pay-what-you-want (so you can get it for free, and no one will judge you, you greedy tight-fisted miser). And there's even more stuff that's LotFP-compatible. 

Is it because LotFP has no warehouse in Canada, and there are no physical books at local game stores? Printed books are something that sets Lamentations aside from many others, they look absolutely gorgeous. 

There were a hundred and three games at Terminal City, and the three Lamentations games that were barely advertised were all full. (One person had to cancel but there was one extra at the next game, so it evened out). 

Some were players with LotFP-related experience, and it was a pleasure watching them use every skill and trick in their arsenal. Some were people who never played an LotFP game before, or never played a tabletop RPG, period. 

Everyone contributed, everyone did something cool. 

Maybe we should play more LotFP games at cons and show more people how great it can be and make James Raggi rich and famous so that he publishes more games that we will play at cons, you know what I'm saying? 

Anyways, it was fun. I want to thank everyone who came, or wanted to come but couldn't, or didn't plan to come but something came up so they just sat at my table and played. And Becami, Jeff and Zak, who gave some very sound advice on being a Referee at a con game. And James for making Lamentations and publishing the two adventures that I used, and once again Zak for writing the two adventures that I used. And Austin, because it was nice to see a familiar face and know that someone at the table is resourceful enough to deal with anything that will go weird and pear-shaped. And the organizers and moderators of Terminal City, because it was a really cool and friendly event. 

It was a pleasure.

Terminal City is fun, wish you were here...

 How I use the Random Encounter table... 

Roll. 

No, can't use this, this looks more interesting than the rest of the adventure. 

Roll. 

Meh, that's kind of too tough. 

Roll. 

2d4 Orc Knights on horses, okay, that sounds good. 

"So, from behind the trees, you see eight goblin scouts riding baboons..." 

They also killed the xortoise. They sure rolled a lot of natural 19's. Maybe the dice were loaded. I brought the dice. Why did I give them loaded dice? 

"So you brought me... an old bald man, two birds, a monkey, and a - to be frank - seriously impressive giant half-goat, half-scorpion. That is supposed to be the superweapon that will save my kingdom?" 

"Ah, your majesty, let me explain how this bird is actually a weapon of mass destruction". 

Goat-demon is invulnerable to normal weapons. But not to the cunning of the magic-user who promised him a whole lot of killing and violence. 

Note: always bring a pencil sharpener AND a knife to a game. Luckily, I did. 

"So... these girls in the pool were not the octopus's handpuppets?" 

"No, they were real girls who just liked to hang out with a giant octopus". 

"I know girls like that". 

Step 1. Forbid to bring food/drinks to the building. 

Step 2. Charge $4.50 for a can of Pepsi. 

Step 3, obviously, world domination. 

I cannot see how this plot could possibly fail.

Well, this is new.

Last time on Lamentations of the Qualinesti Princess, the brave heroes (Qualinesti elf red mage, hill dwarf priest, and kender bardess) decided to lure Dragon Highlady Kitiara into a trap. This went... relatively well, meaning that now the heroes and Kitiara work together. The warrior woman with a crooked smile sent the heroes south from Tarsis to find a Dragon Orb. 

I keep trying to make the original Dragonlance modules more interesting. In Tarsis, I used Vornheim to make the city more like a city. In the Plains of Dust, I used the Book of Jerks for random encounters. I do love how the whole fight against animated statues was resolved by the mage shrugging and casting Turn Rock to Mud. Creative casting is the proper way to do it. 

Now, in the frozen wastes of Ice Wall, the heroes (who are now four - a kender druidess joined the company) have met a Dragon Highlord (a half-elf who hates his elven relatives because they treated him like dirt), defeated an army of minotaurs using the hacked Pendragon mass combat mechanic, and enjoyed the spoils of victory. Namely, they found a flask with a potion that the bardess immediately drank. 

It turned out to be a love potion that made the drinker fall in love madly with whoever harmed her last. Thing is, in the end of the battle, the bardess sang a song that was so horrible, so painful that it hurt everyone in the battlefield, herself included. 

Now the kender bardess is deeply narcissistic. 

Then, following the original module, the company found a dragon and a knight frozen in a dungeon. The druidess used her Speak With Dead Animals spell (we used the Quick LotFP Druid), and asked the dead dragon several questions about the Orb, and also if dragons are good to eat. 

"Yeah, little one, dragons are delicious". 

"Have you eaten a dragon?" 

"Oh, many times". 

"Do you mind if we eat your body?" 

"Hey, I'm dead, I don't care". 

So, after burying the knight, for the first time in the history of Krynn, a dwarf, two kenderesses, and three dogs ate a dragon. 

The elf refused to partake. 

***

This weekend, I'm hosting some LotFP games at Terminal City Tabletop Convention. It'll probably be crazy. I cannot promise that we'll eat a dragon, but you never know. 

See you there.