My Gencon Trip Part 8

Seminars, Games And Other Fun Stuff Part 3

Kenzer Fun

So, I've already discussed the fact that Dave Arneson called in sick for the Blackmoor Memories Seminar. It was disappointing, but not surpring. I know he wasn't feeling well. He didn't look well. I can't help but think that he was a little disappointed by the lack of attendence numbers. I'm sure he knew there were maybe ten out of 100 people here, and if you aren't feeling well to begin with, why bother? I understand this situation a little, at least I think I do anyway. Could be off the mark. Had there been 90-100 people signed up, things would have been different. I believe I would telling you some of what Dave had to say. But, I've already covered that elsewhere, and I don't need to do it again here.

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40 Years Of Gencon

I was happy to see Dave was at this seminar. They say he is the unsung hero of gaming, and I agree. A game like D&D may exist if Dave hadn't started Blackmoor, but it wouldn't be D&D and probably would have been created by somebody who didn't live in Wisconson, in my opinion.

Dave On Gencon: Gencon was used for getting the word out on D&D. Then, D&D was Gencon and took it over. In the early days, word of mouth was used to get the word out. D&D made Gencon and vise versa.

Dave and Gary Gygax did Don't Give Up he Ship together. They met at Gencon 2. Initially, it was a con for war games. Gary organized the first few cons in Lake Geneva, Wisconson, which is where Gary lived. Gencon 2 was on Gary's porch.

Dave was with Flying Buffalo (Tunnels & Trolls) for a time. He tells a story about using some four ply rubber bands that Flying Buffalo had and arming them with four sided dice at one convention. The dice would stick to the wall.

Dave on Gencon: Gencon to me is meeting people. It gives me a feel for what people are into. Seeing old friends again. It's the people more than the games.

There were other interesting stories, such as the bagpipe player on the misty hill that TSR hired one year, who played for about 30 minutes and walked off into the mist. The days at the Hoticulture Hall with the Gygax girls selling hot dogs. The main hall doubled as a sleeping quarters. It was just a bunch of gamers getting together to play games.

They Changed Dave's on Me

Earlier that day, Dave Kenzer showed up to run the seminar in place of Arneson. There was just one problem. Dave knows NOTHING about Blackmoor. He's more of a Gygaxian D&D'er I suppose. I was a little disturbed to read his "only 23 people play Blackmoor" comment at the Kenzer forum, but I'll let it go. An Arneson fan who didn't want to take the high road might say something like, "That's 1 more than the people who use the Kalamar setting."

All but the lady sitting next to me stayed for Kenzer, and why not? Hackmaster, Aces & Eights and Knights of the Dinner Table are part of the KenzerCo. catalogue, and there are plenty of fans. He spent his time discussing various Kenzer related topics, but I did get an opportunity to ask the OSRIC question. Basically, since Dave is a lawyer, I wanted to know his take on things.

His comment was that he'd stay away from OSRIC, because he has concerns over it. Every time one of it's key creators is given a tough question, according to Dave, they guy claims that he lives on an island and the laws don't apply to him there. Only thing I'll add is that can't you blame any of these established companies from staying away from it. Why risk a lawsuit? At some point, it will either fade, or Wizards of the Coast will challenge it.

Kenzer Fun

The Kenzer team did a meet and greet on Friday. It was a chance to learn a little bit about the company, the people involved and the products. Dave Kenzer owns the company, and he is a lawyer. Gaming is a hobby of his, and he has done well enough as a lawyer that he decided to form Kenzer. Some of the employees have other jobs and some don't. Most of the time, KenzerCo is making enough to keep things going, but at times Kenzer is using his own funds to keep it going.

The guys love what they do. They love gaming. I already mentioned how they are in western wear at their demo booth during the day to help promote Aces & Eights. They are very excited about this game and it's what they are currently playing. In fact, suppliments for A&E are in the works. Hackmaster was discussed too. There will be a new Hackmaster in the next couple years, and some ideas on what to expect for game mechanics can be gleened from A&E. By the way, A&E is a nice looking book, and if you are interested in Western RPG's, you should check it out.

In recent weeks. Wizards of the Coast has been pulling back it's licences for things such as Dungeon and Dragon Magazines and DragonLance. This raised speculation as to what happened between Kenzer and Wizards with regards to Hackmaster. Hackmaster is basically an attempt to create the game played by the characters in the Knights of the Dinner Table Magazine. They had the license to use 1st and 2nd Edition AD&D rules, sprinkled with Knights humor.

Some loved it. Others hated it, but is was a nice effort. I have managed to pick up three modules that they converted to Hackmaster, and it's still pretty faithful to the old game with humor added. Well, Kenzer had made a decision not to renew some time ago, but he admitted that he didn't expect Wizards was planning to renew either. My opinion is that Dave chose the high road, rather than having it pulled from him and causing a stir of negativity towards Wizards. There are fans of Dungeon, Dragon and DragonLance that aren't happy with Wizards right now.

Well, the way it goes down here is Kenzer chose to walk away from Wizards, and they actually began developing their own rule set for Hackmaster some time ago. It will take another year or two to iron out the wrinkles, and Aces & Eights will take center stage at this point anyway. Kalamar will be the official Hackmaster setting, and a place called Frandor's Keep will be the first adventure released, along with a basic rules set. So basically, Kenzer has a plan, and new stuff will be coming (Book of NPC's for A&E and a couple of town books).

David on the Hackmaster Plan: The plan is to make a game that feels the same and plays like 1st Edition. We'll have to change the rules, but the game should feel the same."

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As The Knights Would say, "Hoody Hoo!"

Many of the people at the meet and greet are fans of that little comic strip Jolly Blackburn created called Knights of the Dinner Table. I noticed several HMA card carrying Hackmaster players, and yes, the Hackmaster tournament was part of the Gencon too. Jolly created this comic as filler for a magazine he did back in the early 90's called Shadis. People started commenting on it immediately, and it wasn't too long before Dragon Magazine came calling. Jolly decided to see if he could make a comic book with this strip, and KotD was born.

It was only a few issues in when Jolly realized he needed a partner for this, and he and Kenzer made a deal. Jolly, David, Steve Johansson and Brian Jelke are the D-Team for the magazine, which released issue #130 at Gencon. There was an empty chair at the table for Jelke, who was unable to attend the con, and Mark Plemmons stood at the podium for the meet & greet. Mark set up the magazines and prizes at the live reading the next night. By the way, Mark was planning to get married on the day the Wizards-Kenzer agreement expires.

We had a lot of laughs at the meet & greet, and it was amusing watching Steve write on the board behind him when something funny and noteworthy was said. I don't have the whole story written down, but the Bitter Stevil character in the Black Hands group is named after Steve. It was Evil Steve, and it evolved from there. Jolly's wife is the inspiration for the Sara character of the Knights. She always wanted to feed and talk to the NPC's.

The Knight's magazine has evolved from just the comic to the magazine that features all the strips, letters from readers, game articles and lots of cool stuff. That will continue. At one time, there was talk of making a movie about the Knights, but Hollywood wanted to change the characters into heroes. They didn't think you should have characters who lived in their parent's basement. Actually, I think Adult Swim would be the perfect place for the Knights if KenzerCo ever wanted to explore that option.

On Saturday night, it was time for the popular Live Reading of Knights of the Dinner Table strips. We had a guy (why didn't I get his name?) sing Still D&D To Me (To the music of Still Rock N Roll To Me) and Dice Life (To the tune of All Star). He was pretty good, and the crowd was into it. They had several stips planned from some of the best in Knights history. Readers got to pick up certificates (such as one for a free potion of healing, among others).

With Wizards announcing plans to release 4th Edition D&D next year, they had a reading from Knights past about having to get all the new Hackmaster books from the coming edition. This came out about the time of D&D 3.0, I think. One of my favorites was a strip about The Black Hands getting ready for the big Hackmaster tournament at GaryCon. While the Knights work together a little better, The Black Hands do more harm to each other than their foes at times. So, the DM from their group, Nitro, was grilling all four on how badly they worked as a team. The reading for Gordo was inspired and damn near brought a tear to my eye. All five did a great reading.

The Live Reading is a highlight to any Gencon. A bunch of fans gathering to celebrate a great magazine done by a great company of game lovers. There was even somebody there wearing the dreaded "Hub Cap Of Shame", though I'm not sure why. As I said, I had a lot of fun at this event, but I probably didn't do it justice here.

The Gamers

There are several movies screened during Gencon. I know Army Of Darkness and Conan were screened, but there were also movies with gamer humor. Gamerz, Fellowship of the Dice and The Gamers were three of them. I signed up for what I thought was Gamerz, because it was the only one that fit into my schedule, but I ended up seeing The Gamers, which is what I wanted to see. It's a movie done by a group calling themselves The Dead Gentleman.

That name alone lets you know these guys are fans. Remember The Dead Alewives and the two D&D paradodies they did? Used to play on Dr. Demento's show all the time. Well, The Gamers has five guys at the table in a college dorm playing, (what else?), D&D. You see some from the table, but then the scene switched to their actual characters. One gamer says, "I'm gonna steal from the guy at the bar."

We watch as he makes his roll. The guy at the bar is just standing there as he gets robbed blind. The thief keeps making his rolls. Another time, the guy with the fighter character fails a strength check trying to remove some bars from a passage way and hurts his back. The guy with the weak theif gives it a shot and succeeds. We see the thief daning around in celebration of his success. It was funny stuff, and I'm probably not doing it justice here. After screening this movie, I headed over to the Paizo booth and bought the DVD. I'd love to have screened Fellowship of the Dice, but I couldn't fit it into my schedule. Perhaps next time.

To be continued

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Next

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DragonLance, Forgotten Reams & Hickman's Killer Breakfast