Dexcon 2012 Report

Vinny– the man behind the con. A terrific guy and someone who really knows how to put a fun convention together.

This weekend I attended the always-fabulous Dexcon gaming convention in Morristown, NJ. I was scheduled to run two AD&D 1st edition games, 2 sessions of Ogre Miniatures, and one of The Awful Green Things From Outer Space. Alas, the games that were scheduled to run on Thursday and Sunday didn’t end up happening due to lack of attendance. Given that the very beginning and end of any convention is fraught with poor attendance, I’m not too hurt.

Thursday I ended up winning a Robo Rally game played in “The Arena”, which is a huge miniatures field intended for mega-scale games. We played on the floor with a variety of model robots, and had a grand ol’ time. I also won Core Worlds, which I’ve reviewed here previously, and can’t emphasize enough just how great a game it is. If you like deck-building games, this is a perfect example of the genre. I’m frankly not a fan of the genre, and I absolutely adore this game.

My AD&D 1E game happened Friday, with many familiar faces from previous RPGs I’ve run, and everyone seemed to have a good time. The party ended up falling for the various distractions, and only tumbled to the real goal with a half hour to go. They managed to alert the entire group of bad-guys, and had two choices of tactics. The one would have locked out the villains and given the party a win, the other would have gotten them pasted. They chose the latter. Still, I think the adventure stood up well.

Friday night I played a historical minis game from the Wars of the Roses using the Poleaxed 2 rules. I ended up losing, but it was close-fought; if I had inflicted one more point of damage on the enemy, I could have forced a tie. But I didn’t. I lost. I take comfort in the knowledge that the Lancasterians lost the battle historically. But it is a cold, cold, comfort.

Ogre Miniatures happened Saturday night. This was a very experimental scenario, basically pitting a vast static defense against a very strong small but powerful attacker. It ended up being very close up to the end– the way I know that is that each side thought the other was vastly overpowered. A full after-action report replete with pictures will be forthcoming. EDIT: Here ’tis.

Here are some pics from the con. There were about 2,000 people in attendance, and I can’t recommend this convention enough. It’s a blast.

Warhammer in the Arena. This game went about 20 feet long. Absolutely amazing.

Getting ready for Monsterpocalypse

My Lancastrians about to be pasted in the Wars of the Roses. Damn you Lord Percy!

A setup for DC Heroclix. I thought it was amazing. I could almost see Zan and Jana.

Another Heroclix setup. But look at it carefully. The awesomeness is expressed with study as to what exactly it is supposed to be.

Thanks to everyone– especially the volunteers and staff– who made Dexcon the vastly fun experience it was this year!