GaryCon 2025 Convention Report

 

This won't be a multi-part blog post like my recent videos here, here, and here.  Instead, I'm gonna try to get it all down right now.

Overall, it was a great time.  I saw Joe Manganiello at the bar during the charity auction on Saturday (was heading there for my dinner reservation - the yukon gold mashed potatoes were not as creamy or buttery as I remembered, but the prime rib was on point), and I had to get a quick photo with him.  For my wife if anything, but it's always cool to meet a celebrity.  Even if the entire interaction took 3.47 seconds.

Had dinner with the old-school, gray beard, X crew who saw me about to eat alone and asked me to join them.  Thanks, guys!  I'm all-in if they want to make this a yearly tradition, dinner together Saturday night followed by a gaming session (I volunteer, as tribute, to GM in 2026 and after that, whoever wants to), probably off-site.  Cerulean Rex mentioned a brew pub and pizza place just a few miles away that sounds ideal.

Anyway, I met a ton of friends, fans, familiar players, and well-wishers throughout the weekend, and that was awesome, too!  Bought some cool stuff + got a sack full of swag.  You can see all that in part 3 of my con report vlog.

But yeah, let's dive into the sessions themselves.  Obviously, I'm not going to detail the five sessions I ran at GaryCon, even if three of them began in nearly identical fashion.  Rather, I'm going to hit the highlights and talk about what worked, what didn't, noteworthy stuff, wisdom gleaned, and inspirational detritus (in no particular order)... 

Too much boxed text?  I'm not sure what the right amount is.  I think you can err on the side of a little more "read aloud" since PCs seize on any tangible (albeit in our collective imagination) stuff they can find.  I've recently been experimenting with X's grok A.I., and it gave me some nice descriptions for a Cha'alt location.  I asked grok to describe things in the style of Clark Ashton Smith - and it did - which made it so cool that I kind of wanted to use it all.  But when I publish the scenario, I'm going to rein it in.

The pre-gens were a hit.  I still can't believe (yeah, I can, actually) I forgot to hand-out the 2nd group's character sheet notecards until two-thirds of the way through the session.  But hey, it worked out.  There wasn't too much on the notecard, anyway, and the players focused on roleplaying, as they should.

Demographics: There was one woman each in the first and second sessions (both Cha'alt) of the five I ran, two LGBTQ+ individuals total (I didn't ask, just made a judgement call based on perception), and zero "people of color" or non-white folks.  Not that I care about mutable or immutable characteristics when we game (just thought it was interesting data), my focus is on the game, not identities or politics.

Interestingly, one of the women was in that Cha'alt session I ran years ago at GameHole Con around Halloween with the downbeat ending.  She remembered, especially since the PCs entered The Black Pyramid's museum and that's one of the rooms the other adventuring party explored, too.  She remarked that she was one of the few PCs in that other session who wanted to do stuff.  Everyone else (well, not everyone, surely) just kind watched and waited, believing discretion was the better part of valor, perhaps?  Years ago, that session was heavily criticized by another player at the table; you can see for yourself in the comments section here.  

Anyways, that was just one of the many strange and awesome coincidences that occurred at GaryCon this year - like finding a rogue d6 of the blue variety under an empty table next to where we were supposed to run Alpha Blue (the system uses d6 dice pools and it's called Alpha Blue)... except that I found the space too distracting and loud, so we moved to a hallway where it was relatively quiet.  I took that as a sign - one of many!  

Speaking of blue, that color was a theme in the dramatic reading (I handed out a two-page script to a couple of players and they read / acted it aloud while I took on the narrator and loud speaker parts) that began all three Cha'alt sessions.  It was inspired by those two older guys in the movie Cabin In The Woods.  I'd never done anything like that before, but I think it worked.  Mostly because it was referenced later in the sessions, and became a major plot-point in at least one of those sessions.  It led to a greater understanding of what was going on behind the scenes, causing an apocalypse (yes, another one) as a Great Old One awoke, which actually would happen later, off-screen.  

Everyone who read did a great job, and that's something I want to experiment with again.  Just getting players to loosen up and interact with the story in a physical but also theatrical way helps prepare for the session ahead.  I believe last year or the year before that I opened with a dream sequence where a specific line was repeated several times throughout the narrative like a feverish esoteric refrain.

The fruities were a big hit, they always are.  At the end of one of the three, the PCs encountered a small army of fruities from a mirror universe or dark timeline, providing another opportunity for combat.  I know my sessions aren't combat focused, but I was really surprised how many PCs did everything they could to de-escalate potentially violent situations.  That means, I should either skew encounters to have more non-combat usefulness / gameability or take them out altogether and replace them with more interesting non-combat encounters.  Of course, as soon as I do that, players are going to want to rip someone's head off.  Lol, sometimes you can't win.

When something comes up that's just tentacles-down fantastic (in terms of lore, more so than PC or GM success), it becomes more or less canon, unless something happens to upend it down the road.  The desire to taste a fruitie after its demise and some inter-player commentary led me to officially recognize that tasting a fruitie will leave that particular flavor in your mouth whenever you eat something.  I assume a priest could maybe cure that, or it goes away after several months, maybe a year.  So, be careful which fruitie you're going to munch on, if at all. 

The all-time greatest lore addition to any session of the weekend has to be the Chad-player who cut through all the fancy language, romantic prose in order to get to the crude, sleazy center of those polished fuchsia stones representing points of Divine Favor.  "Dude, thanks for the cum-rock... nice," he said as I handed him the Advanced Crimson Dragon Slayer metacurrency which has been incentivizing awesomeness at my table (and many others) for at least 5 years.

Sexual gratification wasn't the only way to acquire Divine Favor, but it was definitely one of them.  Referring to it as a "cum rock" made me laugh the hardest at any point during the convention.  Wow!

I love it when groups of people who know and game with each other sign-up and play in my sessions because they already have the rapport of adventurers who've been doing this for awhile.  The built-in comradery is infectious and easy to (role)play off of. 

Case in point, another highlight (at the same table) of the weekend was the demonic possession of a PC.  I gave those other two PCs who knew him best the chance to notice that the possessed PC was acting "not himself."  The first PC rolled poorly.  The second who was balls-deep into his character rolled a natural 20... and without missing a God damn beat, said aloud to anyone who cared "I don't care at all what's happening to him," and went on to say that another person's, another character's concerns were so far beneath him that it wasn't worth another thought.  Which goes to show - stay in character even when you're speaking out-of-character.  It actually made perfect sense because that's the way he played his character from the get-go.  Honestly, I was taken aback for a micro-second but immediately realized that this is the way.  That player was doing what so few dare to dream - he found his character, got into character, and stayed in character.  It was immersion personified.  

Definitely, grab onto whatever scraps of personality / background the GM has provided and hold on tight.  But the rest is up to you, the player.  Treating it as an acting gig can help introverts and wallflowers overcome their reticence.  You've essentially been "hired" to do a job, which is to become that character for the entirety of the session.  It would be a shame if that character was never fully realized at the table, which is basically our stage, as roleplayers.  

So, my advice to all players in the future (in my games, if nowhere else)... 

• Find your character (who you're supposed to be that session or campaign, however you want to bring that character to life). 
• Once you've found him, get into character using whatever means at your disposal.  I think I'm going to write more about this soon.
• Stay in character - no matter what happens.  I'm not talking about occasionally breaking character when the table explodes in laughter or clutches their collective pearls - that's fine.  But if you're portraying Vanilla Ice with a crippling cheese addiction and penchant for buggery, then for the love of Yog-Soggoth, be that character until the session's over or your character dies.  That commitment is worth more than a carafe of zoth on Cha'alt.

In fact, I'd be interested in examining just how players make their characters come to life when in the company of other players that they're familiar with.  It's like the apprehension melts away and you instantly get a full-fledged character that is being roleplayed, back and forth.  But it wasn't simply familiarity - because I saw that at a similar table and it didn't fast-track or super-charge characterizations, the actual roleplaying.  And it wasn't interpersonal conflict since I had another group that were constantly trying to jack each other, but it was like their characters were merely pawns or masks they were wearing in order to get the other guy.

Yeah, I'm not sure what it is, but I'm going to keep thinking about it.  Eventually, the answer will come... it always does.  Maybe it's healthy competition?  When the potential conflict or agreement has friction (doesn't necessarily have to be two characters at odds with each other, but that tension / chafing / friction must come from somewhere... perhaps another faction, NPC, the dominant / counter culture, or even one's own disparate needs), it seems to create more juice than either cooperative or destructive.  Maybe that's the Goldilocks conflict... not too cold, not too hot, etc.?

But how to instill this - especially into players that don't have a long history with each other?  I suppose, come up with encounters that force them to compete, right?

Oh yes, I want to talk about one of the ways my old-school renaissance is very much venn diagram squished with story-gaming.  If a PC comes up with something on the fly, and it has potential (gameable potential) without breaking the proverbial bank by being over-powered, ridiculously stupid, or genre breaking, I'm going to ask for three things.  And if an answer for all three is presented, then it exists as the player has suggested (at the GM's discretion, of course).

1. What does it do?
2. Where does it come from?
3. How did you acquire it?

For example, a player wanted to use some poisonous or explosive (something like that) fairy dust because, after all, she was playing a pixie-fairy.  After she provided explanations for my answers, I was satisfied and allowed her to have it.

I'm not sure I need to explain why that's a net-positive thing, but can if anyone likes - just ask me in the comments below.  Debate me, bro!

Two of the three Cha'alt sessions got to play around with the Cha'alt X-Cards, and that was fun.  I talked about that in one of the videos.  Imagine (it helps to perceive it animated) sentient tentacles having a disagreement with each other that eventually breaks down into throwing tiny cream pies at each other.  That wouldn't have been possible without the Cha'alt X-Cards, my friend.

Outside of the game, I chatted with one of the Alpha Blue players the next day, and he asked me, though admitted he was almost afraid to ask, how much of the adventure was scripted / plotted and how much was improvised.  "It's a combination," I said.  And that whole acknowledgement of our hobby being one thing while also kind of being something else entirely, the elusive shift.  That's what makes it special, giving it power which almost no other hobby can claim.

For instance, it's about winning... while also not at all about winning.  It's about meeting player expectations, while also doing the opposite.  It's about saying yes... and no.  Simulating a natural or unnatural world as it is, while also having a narrative in mind.  Sandbox vs structured adventure.  The push-pull creates tension which generates energy and that gives roleplaying games life!

For the cosmic horror investigative 1970s scenario, I loved it because it all came together and lasted the 3.5 hours I wanted it to, right down to the minute.  Also, the players were fantastic bringing their characters to life with what little I gave them.  But at the same time, it was perhaps my least favorite because of the noise.  It was really difficult to hear people and I constantly had to project rather than use my normal, casual voice.  Nevertheless, I'm glad I ran it and everyone seemed to enjoy what happened.  

Without further ado, here are the quotables (not just at the table, but in private conversations and on social media, as well)...

• "That's not elder god money."
• "The partition of sleaze."
• "I know it seems like I've gone off the deep end, but trust me when I say there's a perfectly rational explanation for why I have to kill her."  A PC trying to tell us why he's about to murder an NPC who a pixie-fairy just had sex with on the beach after the party had a bitch of a time saving her from a giant crab.  Apparently, the player decided that each of his 11 daggers (part of his pre-gen backstory) was named after a woman he killed, and he had one unnamed dagger left.
• "That's a cum rock, dude."
• "Those fruties are tragically delicious."  
• "If women were a dessert, they'd be cheesecake."
• "Venger, I think you're the best Game Master I've ever experienced."
• "It's ShadowDark's con, we're just gaming in it."

Ok, I think that's it.  Feel free to ask questions if you're so inclined.  The Cha'alt campaign continues this Saturday, and I'm excited to get back to our "home table."  I will probably launch another Kickstarter at the end of April, so look out for that.  What will it be for (no, it's not Book 4 of the trilogy - I still have around 100 more hardcovers left to sell before I can crowdfund that son-of-a-bitch)?  Here's a hint... less is not always more.

Thanks for reading, hoss!

VS

p.s. Want the hardcover Cha'alt trilogy?  Here's how (and they're currently on sale!)!!  Want to join the Kort'thalis mailing list to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the skinematic Vengerverse?  This is it!!  Last but not least, I'm organizing a based-as-fuck RPG convention in Madison, WI this July.  Grab your weekend badge for VENGER CON IV: Post-Modern Apocalypse!!!