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GwenCon 2005 This year's GwenCon set new records for attendance, with over 80 unique visitors (and a turnstile attendance of over 140, for those of you who think that way). Between Friday at 6 pm and the close of the show 48 hours later, dozens of games had been played. Right: One of the marquee events of this year's show was the GwenCon 2005 DDM World Championships (Unsanctioned). The competition served double duty as a preview of the upcoming Underdark set, and was played on maps from the first Fantastic Locations product, Fane of the Drow. |
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After three rounds of battle, developer Mike Mearls walked away with the
first-place trophy. Today it's proudly displayed on his desktop at work
(which is more than can be said for developer Rob Watkins' 7th-place award). Left: The trophies for the event, lovingly crafted by yours truly. If you can tell me how I decided on the monster to place atop the first-place trophy, you win a cookie.* *Not redeemable for actual cookie.
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| One big advantage of having GMs who are also professionally creative is
that you get events that are a bit out of the ordinary. Not a lot of generic
dungeon crawls around here (the closest is probably Charles Ryan's
long-running d20 Modern version of Return to the Temple of
Elemental Evil). Right: After last year's successful "Life-Size D&D Miniatures" event, Jennifer Clarke-Wilkes topped herself with Life-Size RoboRally. Watching folks do the "Twonky Dance" for real was just as entertaining as you'd guess. |
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Left: Chris "Spin Bot" Pramas puzzles out his next devious
move...or maybe just hopes not to get zapped by robots jealous of his
position in the lead. My own contribution to this year's craziness was a little thing called League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: 1984, which teamed B.A. Baracus, Jessica Fletcher, MacGyver, and Axel Foley under the command of Col. Steve Austin (pulled out of retirement by Oscar Goldman himself). Despite going up against a list of enemies that included the sadistic Mr. Endo, a pack of Gremlins, Grace "Mayday" Jones, the Kurgan, and yes, Bigfoot himself, the heroes triumphed over the evil plans of Gary Coleman. |
| Yup, you've gotta stand out to be noticed at GwenCon. A battlemat and a
few minis just aren't cutting-edge any more. Thankfully, our GMs are up to
the challenge. Right: Tim Beach's Lego events have been a mainstay of GwenCon for years. Here, players attempt to unravel the Leg(o)end of Zorro. |
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Left: GwenCon also featured entertainment programming, including
this live-commentary version of The Gamers provided by The Dead
Gentlemen. A packed house also watched a behind-the-scenes preview of The Gamers II. I think if the Gents had been taking preorders, they'd have made a killing! |
| As you've no doubt realized, we like to provide a broad range of gaming
options at GwenCon. For those who just couldn't chuck another die or flop
another card, party games abounded, including long-time favorites Apples
to Apples and Time's Up. Right: Puzzled townsfolk attempt to determine who's responsible for the killings in their otherwise peaceful hamlet. Just another friendly game of Who's the Werewolf? (Also known by some as the "Mafia" game.) |
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Left: Yes, we played a little D&D as well. In the knock-down,
drag-out event known as The Imperial Imbroglio: A Swords and Sandals
Extravaganza, a half-dozen characters duked it out with gladiators and
fierce monsters to claim the title of Arena Champion. So ends another GwenCon. As always, we had a blast hosting the event. We look forward to shattering our attendance records again next year! |