Grogcon 2019 after action report

Wow, what a weekend!  My work and career often keeps me away from playing games on a regular basis or attending conventions, so I used some vacation time this past weekend to attend GrogCon, which was part of the Crucible 8 convention in Orlando. I got to wander around the convention and take a look at some amazing miniature wargame displays, participate in my first 5E/Adventurers League game, as well as play in four 1e adventures.

First a little about the con.  It was probably 80% focused on miniature wargmaing tournaments.  As one would expect 40k, Age of Sigmar, and WarMchine/Hordes were the most popular.  Infinity was well represented, and I saw some BloodBowl, Bolt Action, and other various games being played.  On the Roleplaying side, most of the events were D&D Adventurers League games from the new Descent to Avernus campaign. Grogcon itself was a small part of the overall con with only a game or two running at any one time, but while it lacked in size it certainly delivered in quality.  I should also note some real positives about the venue.  The hotel didn't seem like anything to write home about, but they had multiple food options that were pretty good, parking was not a problem, the bathrooms were great and the air conditioning was a true blessing. Yes people thought it was cold, but there was not a whiff of BO. (seriously, if you've ever been to a con you know how much of an issue this can be.)

Friday night started with a 1e adventure written and run by Victor Dorso called the Keep at Blood Red Falls.  It was a classic military raid style adventure for higher level characters (8-10).  The scenario reminded me of some of the original "Giants" or "Slavers" modules and proved to be even more difficult. Ultimately the group was not successful (to date, nobody has according to Vic), but we created a ton of chaos, came up with some innovative ways of dealing with certain situations, and had a really fun time.

Saturday afternoon was D&D Adventurers League Descent to Avernus- Escape from Elturel.  While I have 5e, this was my first actual game as well as my first exposure to Adventurers League.  This was a level 1-2 adventure that focused on the immediate aftermath of the town of Elturel being swallow up by the first layer of Hell.  Sounds pretty scary, but the scenario was not very challenging.  It was fun and engaging, and the players had a great time. After playing this event I wish I had the time to play some of the follow ups that were offered, but there were 1e events to attend.

Saturday night was the main event: The Grogcon 1e AD&D tournament.  Three teams ran through the same module, Gnomeskull, with a 5 hour time limit.  The team that earned the most XP wins. The scenario was a raid by a party of Gnomes (levels 5-8) on the keep of Kobold God/King on the first layer of Hell. (Yes, Hell and raids were a theme this year). The module was written by Dan Gormanski and our table was DM'd by James from the GrogTalk podcast.  As everyone was a gnome, we were limited to fighters, thieves, illusionists, and multi-class variants.  For a tournament module the adventure offered the players a lot of options and choices.  There were multiple ways to attack and enter the keep and each team ended up using completely different strategies.  Despite the large amount of racial, illusionist, and thief abilities that the party had much of exploration felt like 0e. We used a lot very detailed descriptions of what and how we were doing things to gain advantages. My team ended up tied for second, but we had a great time.

Sunday morning's game was an adventure called Citadel by the Sea, run by Dan Gormanski and first published in Dragon in 1983.  This was a low level adventure (we were all level 3) that involved exploring ruin near a remote town that believes that they have been curse when an archaeologist disturbs something in the ruins.  Things are not as they seem however.  Dan did an amazing job with his acting and characterizations of the NPCs, and it turned out to be a great little adventure.  Not only were we successful in finishing it, we avoid almost all the traps and unnecessary monsters.  By this time of the weekend all the players were on their game.

Last but not least I had the privilege of playing in The Porcelain Sword of Queen Eshalla written and run by Carlos Lising of Casl Entertainment. This was a well hones mid-level tournament module with wonderful middle-eastern theme and a diverse set of challenges. Carlos is well known in 1e circles as a great writer and DM and I was not disappointed.  The adventure was still in the playtesting phase, but it taught and well balanced between combat, exploration, and puzzle solving.  Again the team avoid traps and other mistake that every other group of  had fallen prey to.  This game also produced the highlight moment of the con:

Bugbear: I surrender to you, holy man!Brother Harun of the Black Lotus: I accept the surrender --of your soul! *shooting crossbow into eye socket at close range*

Remainder of group: 😲

Completing that adventure felt like a true accomplishment, and after 21 hours of D&D I was wiped out. 

It was truly a great time and has really inspired me to continue playing on a regular basis and make the extra effort to go to more gaming conventions.  It's really a wonderful hobby we have.  I just showed up with some dice, pencil and paper, and my original 1e Player's Handbook and I had the time of my life.  

RPG Review: The Tingleverse - The Chuck Tingle RPG

You can't judge a book by its' cover they say.  I think the same adage applies to a title.  If you are familiar with Chuck Tingle, then "The Tingleverse: The official Chuck Tingle Role-Playing game" could be a few different things.  Is it a table-top RPG? An adult bedroom game?  I'm happy to report that it is in fact an OSR RPG rule-book with some great ideas and unique setting, but some serious structural flaws. 

Chuck Tingle is best known for being an author of gay erotica featuring Bigfoot, unicorns, dinosaurs, and even anthropomorphized objects and concept.  I haven't read any of Dr. Tingle's stories, but he has been nominated for two Hugo awards and has a huge following.  My first concern was that this game would be some sort of erotic RPG, but it turns out that is not the case.  The Tingleverse can be completely non-sexual/erotic, so this game will work with your normal open minded RPG group.  The Tingleverse is a strange setting though: I strange cross of South Park, Twin Peaks, and Dr. Tingle own bizarre imagination.  It's a world filled with crossed timelines, chocolate milk, and Buckaroos.

The 270 page softcover rule-book is available through Amazon (Dr. Tingle's own website redirects purchasers to Amazon) and appears to be a print on demand.  My copy denotes it was printed in Middletown Delaware, "30 September 2019", which was the same day I placed my order.  This also appears to be completely self published, with all work being done by Dr. Tingle himself as there are no credits for art, graphic design editing, etc.   Other than the cover, illustrations of the included monsters are the only pieces of art on the book.

The book starts with a brief introduction , then jumps into eight pages of background on the setting including an overview of the Tingleverse and the default starting location of Billings Montana. The next section of the book adheres closely to the standard RPG process of character creation.  Here we discover that game uses six ability scores which be familiar to anyone that has played an RPG. Here they are named Strength, Dexterity, Fortitude, Book Smarts, Street Smarts, and Charm.  Players can chose from human, bigfoot, unicorn, or raptor as their 'type' (race) each with their own unique advantages and ability modifiers.  There are 5 classes (called 'trots') to chose from: The Bad Boy, Charmer, Sneak, True Buckaroo, and Wizard.  These mirror traditional fighter, bard, rogue, cleric, and wizard classes, but with some significant differences.  There are 3 categories of saves, attack bonuses are separate for melee and ranged combat, and each class has its own defense score in place of armor class.   Next each character get some "unique ways" which are similar to perks, and then character creation is rounded out with equipment.

The bulk of the book (114 pages) is taken up with descriptions of "Cool Moves" which are effectively spells or spell like abilities.  Every class has their own list of cool moves and uses the same table for determining how many cool moves of each level they have available per day.  

There is a brief section on experience outlining xp for personal and group actions. No specific xp rewards are mentioned beyond those for defeating monsters, only general suggestions of an xp reward for solving a puzzle or completing a quest.  Dr. Tingle suggestion personal xp rewards for good roleplaying and achieving character objectives.

The following chapter details the rules of combat.  The rules are simple and abstract.  This section also covers Void Madness which serves the same purpose as Insanity from Call of Cthulhu.

There is one page discussing treasure followed 25 pages of magic items; some fairly standard, others unique to the Tingleverse.   

Lastly, there is a sampling of 20 monsters from the Tingleverse. As previously mentioned, each of these are illustrated and are fully statted and described including xp value.

Full disclosure; I haven't read The Tingleverse cover to cover, but I feel safe in making a preliminary review based on what i have read and seen in the book. It's clear that Dr. Tingle is amazingly creative and funny. Even where he derives his content directly primary sources he puts his own 'tingle' on it.  For example, the traditional Magic-User spell 'grease' is now called 'Lube'. Magic missile is 'Magical Balls'.  None of the mechanics are revolutionary but that's OK.  The game sits clearly within the OSR /traditional RPG space without copying a ruleset and placing a gameworld on top of it.  Strip away the setting and you still have a competent set of rules with some innovation ideas that you can mine for you own games

There are serious weaknesses with this product however, which is unfortunate.  The layout sets RPG rulebook design back 45 years.  It is somehow actually worse that the original D&D books from Gygax in 1974.  There are no graphic design elements.  The tables are pure text and are often split over two pages.  The book looks like it was typed up in a Word doc and sent to the press without editing of any type.  There is blank space all over the place just begging for artwork.  The index for the Cool Moves comes AFTER all of the moves are described! (even Gygax put the list before the descriptions).  These complaints may seem a bit nit-picky for a self-published title but this is not Dr. Tingle's first book, it is only available in print, and is priced at $19.95  He may not have published an RPG before, but its clear that he has read other RPG books and should have a basic understanding and respect for the importance of layout and design.  The layout is so poor that it interferes with its usefulness.  In order to run a game of Tingleverse I would have to create copies of important tables for my own use.  I wouldn't even be able to photocopy them because they are on two different pages and difficult to read.  It's unfortunate that the book was published this way, though if it is in fact print on demand one can only hope that Dr. Tingle gets some feedback and chooses to work with a professional graphic designer that can quickly address these issues so that future purchasers get a better quality product.

My second major complaint is what is missing from the book.  There is no introductory adventure. No tips on running a campaign.  The only info the TM (Tingle Master) has to go on is the eight pages of background material at the start of the book and the implied setting described in the rest of the rules.  This would be fine if the book was billed as a Players Handbook, but then why include the section on Monsters?  Apparently Dr. Tingle is working on an expanded Monster Guide, which is needed, but without further setting materials I find it difficult to run a game in this setting.  It's possible that details on the setting are found in Dr' Tingle's other writing, but if this is so it would have been nice if he had suggest a couple of titles to read. (seriously, which would be more informative: The Complete Guide to the Void or Bigfoot Pirates Haunt my Balls?)  To my mind this is not an all-in-one rulebook and the marketing needed to be clear on that.

Despite the flaws, I still recommend the game for those looking for something different. The game does need more info on the setting and explanation for the TM as well as an improved layout. However, the implied setting of the Tingleverse is amazingly creative, and the differences that these rules offer are worthy of examination and potential use in your own OSR campaign.  The magic items, monsters, and spells also offer some new creative material to spice up your game. Love is real. Resist the Void.