“Rump shakers and monster slayers
Feel the wave of sonic arcane sound
Magic users and boogie blues-ers
Wear well your erudite crowns”
– Gygax, “Dice Throwers & Rock n’ Rollers”

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GameHole Con is long over, and I wanted to tell everyone how it went. I know this post is a bit late, but I had a setback that I will talk about as we get into the details.

GameHole Con 2024 was a blast. I ran three sessions of MCC (Mutant Crawl Classics), two sessions of Garbage & Glory, and one session of Sharktoberfest. All of them went well and were well attended. Garbage & Glory and Sharktoberfest were the most fun of all of them. 

I had full tables for each Garbage & Glory session. I guess people were intrigued by the prospect of playing a garbage-hunting anamorphic raccoon, plus it was something relatively new and different. Here is the game description for those who didn’t make the con:

“You all know the rumor that Munci Wastedisp has the best trash. It is supposed to be guarded by ogres, though. You’ll have to brave the depths and the wet to find out the truth.

Come play a raccoon hunting for the best garbage and glory. Characters will be provided.”

The groups for Garbage & Glory sessions were totally into the game, short of one person in the second group, and had a great time. When players are involved, it is just more fun.

The Sharktoberfest game was also excellent. Good group. I was shy one person of filling the table. We got put in the miniatures area, so it was loud, and we had a giant table. In 2023, my Sharktoberfest game was at a table in the dealers’ hall. Both setups were strange.

The MCC games also were fun. I ran Mayhem On The Magtrain once and Fire In The MOHLE twice. 

Those are all the games I ran. I also played some games: Electric State, AD&D, Zweihander, MCC, and Achtung Cthulhu. I’ll go through each one and give you a rundown.

Electric State is the game I was looking forward to the most, and it did not disappoint. Electric State is a simple dice pool system heavily focused on role play. It is set in America, declining after a terrible civil war. There are two worlds in the game. The real world and a virtual world called The Electric State.

The game of Electric State that was played revolved around a small town around a scientific research center. We had to solve the Mystery of where all the town residents disappeared to and save them. It included a minor subplot involving my character and one other character. It was a lot of fun.

Next up was Achtung Cthulhu. It’s a game that uses Modiphus’s 2d20 system. We played allied soldiers cleaning out a nest of Nazis in an old mine. It was pretty standard fare. After we took out a lot of Nazis, we ended up fighting a rather powerful zombie in almost complete darkness. It was a lot of fun but short. It was only a two-hour session.

Next up was a game of Zweihander. It was an awful two hours, and I wish I could have them back. Zweihander is a very crunchy system and a little difficult to navigate. (I had never played it before.) The game master was very late, condescending, and an ass. He had not run the scenario before and had not prepared at all. He also did not have appropriate pregens. Overall, it was a confusing and frustrating mess.

I also played in a MCC session. The game master was good and had written the scenario. The character managed to stumble onto a functioning town of the ancients. The AI running the place had gone a little crazy, and there were two factions of the townspeople: those working with the AI and those fighting against the AI. It was fun, but eight players were too much to manage, and some people dominated the game. Overall, it was a good session.

I played in one of the con’s D&D 50th Anniversary games. It was one hour long and very rushed. We had to navigate a small dungeon and collect a precious gem. The game master was great. I had played with him somewhere before. Three of the players were okay. The fourth was a kid. He was indecisive and couldn’t put clue and clue together. The kid was intent on getting his character killed, which he managed to do after I ran out of Heals. (I played a cleric.) It was fun but could have been better.

Finally, I played a game of Vast Grimm (a Mork Borg variant) on Sunday. It was interesting and role-play heavy. The setting of Vast Grimm is a universe in decline for Humans because of a virus that turns people into intelligent mutants who want to spread their virus. It was weird but fun. The party was having a peaceful meal on a space station when the Grimm attacked. We escaped by running away and were ushered into a starship we inherited when its captain died. Overall, it was a good session.

And that was all the games I played. I did mention a setback earlier. Let’s talk about that.

On Saturday morning of the con, I fell hard in one of the game rooms. I landed on my right knee and right elbow.  My knee ended up with a massive bruise that is still healing. My elbow ended up with a very nasty scrap. I landed on the concrete with a very thin layer of carpet over it. I still went on to run my two Saturday games, MCC and Sharktoberfest and played in an AD&D session before heading to the hotel and treating it. Don’t get me wrong, it was very painful, and when I cleaned the scrap with an alcohol wipe, it stung. (I did that shortly after I fell.)  That put a damper on my Saturday and Sunday, but I soldiered on like a good British soldier.

Well, that was my GameHole Con. I ran and played many games and spent too much in the dealers’ room. All good things. It was a good con overall.