$24.99 50 Fathoms Explorers Edition

So grab your next generation gamers and dice, cue up the soundtrack to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and go build some brains!

Agents of Oblivion (Savage Worlds) $29.99

Horror Companion (Savage Worlds) $19.99

Deadlands Marshal’s Handbook Explorer’s Edition $19.99

Deadlands Automaton minis (2) $11.00

Deadlands Coot Jenkins, Prospector, mini $6.00

Deadlands Glom mini $7.00

Deadlands Mad Scientist Male mini $6.50

Deadlands Prairie Tick Queen mini $6.00

Deadlands Prairie Tick Swarm (2) minis $7.50

Deadlands Texas Ranger Female mini $6.00

Deadlands Undead Outlaw mini $6.50

Deadlands Wall Crawler mini $7.50

GameMastery Flip-Mat Pirate Ship $12.99

Sundered Skies Compendium 2 $19.99

Hellfrost Adventure Compendium 2 $19.99 $17.99! (And Check out the Hellfrost Bundle deals, too!)

Hickory, NC

150? attended (still getting this from con staff)

Gateway Convention Center

Gaming

MACE: West is ONLY gaming, so they excel in this area. Tabletop RPGs dominate, with more Savage Worlds games on the schedule than any other, including Pathfinder or D&D, although there were a fair number of those as well. Card/Board gaming and the LARP had their own rooms. The game schedule gives you an hour between games to allow for game over-run and time to grab a snack or even a meal. There were also a Cornhole tournament Saturday and laser tag both evenings to get your gaming and exercise fixes!

Location

The Gateway Hotel is centrally located in Western North Carolina, right off I-40 and Hwy 321, about an hour from Asheville, Boone, Winston-Salem, and most parts of Charlotte. A ballroom held all the RPGs, although the noise level was kept down by carpet and sections of vaulted ceiling, and tables were spaced far enough apart that it was easy to navigate. The pop-up restaurant, the Grinning Goblin, served pizza, sandwiches, chili, and pasta (bread bowls from Dominoes), as well as drinks, fruit, and packaged snacks. Just like at MACE, they visit your table, take your order, and deliver it so you don’t need to stop gaming!

Accommodations

We got a King bedroom with plenty of floor space for the kids to stretch out their sleeping bags, although rooms with 2 doubles, and some suites, were also available. They really didn’t want us to slip in the shower: not only were there 4 grab bars, but a bathmat was there for better traction, too! And this was NOT a handicap-accessible room. They served a hot breakfast each day of biscuits, gravy, scrambled egg patties (which were tastier than they sound), and sausage patties, as well as a selection of cereals, yogurt, toast, bagels, muffins, fruit, etc. We checked in early and were able to arrange a late check-out, and the staff were very helpful.

Value

This is definitely a great value con. The preregistration weekend badge was $20, $35 at the door (Children were $15/$25), covering all gaming except perhaps tournaments. The hotel room rate was a VERY LOW $65/night for up to 4 people in the room. The Grinning Goblin’s meals were, at the most, $9 for a pasta breadbowl, so with the free hotel breakfast you could feed yourself as cheaply as $20 a day or so! There was also a Coffee House and Max’s Mexican Eatery across the street, and lots of other food options within easy driving distance.

Family Rating

This is a very family-friendly convention. Our daughters’ girl scout troop came to sell cookies and ended up playing board, card, RPG, and laser tag games until after 8pm! Of course they sold a lot of cookies as well. There were several card, board, and RPG games that were specifically set aside for kids to play in (although a lot of adults ended up playing in them, too).

Stand-Outs

Gaming. If you want to game with Clint or I, this is the con to do so. Clint GM’d 3 games and played in 2, and I got to play in one (which is a rarity for me at other cons). Another industry professional, Robert Hudson, Jr.,  of Pulp Hero fame, also GMs and plays here. Who knows who you’ll see at MACE: West next year? Value. Seriously. Like, $200 for one person to go to a con, including room, badge, and food? And it just gets cheaper the more folks you care to room with! Location. Western NC has no other gaming-focused event of this magnitude. If you are a gamer living in the western half of NC, this is a con to put on your calendar next year!

Links

MACE: West website

MACE Gaming Con & mini-mace Game Days Facebook page

MACE Gaming Con Twitter Feed

Feb. 16-19, 2012

Aurora/Denver, CO

1900 attended

Red Lion Hotel

Gaming

Where to start? Genghis Con is a gaming convention, and what they do, they do extremely well. I’m not typically a fan of mustering for games, but these guys did it better than any other con I’ve seen. The gaming staff was exemplary and the Rocky Mountain Savages ran an amazing 42 games of Savage Worlds with a 12 table Savage Saturday Night. Other great games were available too; I saw Hollow Earth Expedition, a pick-up game of Fiasco, and got to play in an awesome preview game of the upcoming Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

Location

The Red Lion Hotel is in southeast Denver right off I-225. The one night I left the hotel to eat, I noticed several restaurant options in the area. The rest of the time I ate in the hotel. The restaurant offered a buffet for breakfast and “5 minute meals” like a hamburger/chips or cheese pizza for quick hot meal options. They also had hot dogs, corndogs, hot pretzels, and the like at a separate stand during the day. If there was any issue it was the hotel being admittedly a bit understaffed, so a 5 minute meal took about 10 minutes to get, which still isn’t bad.

Accommodations

My hotel room had without a doubt one of the best hotel beds I have ever slept on. I only heard one person complain, and that was just an issue with their sleep number bed. The rooms were impeccably clean, and I noticed after the second day of using the coffee maker in my room, they provided a second pack of coffee apparently in case I wanted more. What makes it all even more amazing is that the room rate for the con is only $70 per night. That puts the Red Lion in probably my top 3 “quality for the price” con hotels.

Value

Unlike many cons, Genghis Con starts on Thursday afternoon instead of Friday afternoon, so you can get 2-3 extra 4 hour games for a $33 registration ($24 pre-registration) that’s less than some shorter cons. It’s even more viable when you consider that the low hotel rate makes that extra night truly possible. Eating at the hotel, the breakfast buffet cost under $10, hot dogs were $3, and the 5 minute meals around $7. The lounge also had two “happy hours” where a few appetizers were half price though be aware it may take longer to get your food.

Family Rating

Genghis Con is a very family friendly convention. There was some costuming, but at no time did I see anyone dressed in a way that would be inappropriate for children. Most impressively, kids age 7-12 have Con Jr. Starting on Friday evening, and running during the game slots (but no later than 10 PM), these guys have their own games, activities, and other fun stuff. And yeah, they even got a chance to do some roleplaying as there were two Savage Worlds games and one Faery’s Tale game run for them.

Stand-Outs

Denver Gamers Association. Every single one of them was awesome. Anyone I interacted with in any way at all was nothing but hospitable and welcoming. Rocky Mountain Savages. These guys rocked, pure and simple. If you wanted to play, they found you a game; the game could have no better representation than that. Players. I got to talk and play with some of the most amazing gamers I have ever met, not just great roleplayers but fun people to hang out with. Guests. The guests at Genghis Con aren’t heading up panels or at book signings from 1-2 in the atrium; nope, they’re running games or playing in them beside everyone else. Podcasts. I have to discuss the podcasts. I was fortunate enough to be part of three recorded at the con with open access for the fans to watch the recordings: the irreverent WombatCast, the incredible Smiling Jack’s Bar & Grill, and the poignant final episode of The Games The Thing.

Links

Denver Gamers Association Facebook Page

Denver Gamers Association

The Game’s The Thing

Smiling Jack’s Bar & Grill

WombatCast

Genghis Con Pictures on the Gamerati Facebook Page

Genghis Con Videos on Gamerati

Feb. 17-19, 2012

Chattanooga, TN

2,000 attended

Chattanooga Choo Choo

Gaming

There were separate areas, one for Pathfinder and one for everyone else, which made it a little difficult to go from one to the other, but next year Con Nooga will be using the convention center, so that might change things.  One major bonus to the smaller separate rooms is it kept the noise level down! This is a fandom convention, so there were more no-shows for preregistered seats than I anticipated, but there were always plenty of walk-ins, so I didn’t hear about any games not making.

Location

The Chattanooga Choo Choo is a historic hotel and you can’t find a better Victorian Steampunk setting! Ironworks frame just about everything, and you have to check out the ceiling in the lobby as well as the pool in hotel 1. There are lots of dining options available and 3 separate hotel buildings. With the trolley tours and downtown horse-drawn carriage tours, plus nearby attractions like the aquarium, there is plenty for the non-gamer to do.

Accommodations

Our hotel room had 2 doubles and we easily fit a roll-away cot and sleeping bag on the floor. The Choo Choo has so many separate areas where things are happening that it gave us plenty of exercise. There are shuttle buses moving folks from one area to the next, which was wonderful, but I think persons of limited mobility would have difficulty at this convention. We stayed in hotel 1, which has an indoor pool that is fantastic. Even more fantastic was the Pool Party Saturday night for the kids!

Value

You get 3 days of gaming for a $40 badge, making it less than $14/day for all the gaming you can stand, as well as cosplay, musical performances, films, SciFi/Fantasy, Anime, Paranormal, Comics, and Literary tracks, and a bunch of great guests like us. The hotel rate was $89/night. There were meal options in the exhibitor hall as cheap as a $3 hot dog, $1 chips, and there are multiple dining options right there at the Choo Choo: 7 in all, ranging from a coffee shop to dinner theater.

Family Rating

First of all, kids eat free since it is a Holiday Inn property. Kids 6 and under get in free. There is a fantastic kids track with everything from costuming to Wizarding World of Harry Potter vs. Wizards of Waverly Place debates. There were kid-specific games being run, and the pool party Saturday night was the biggest hit for my little fins. They had Debi Derryberry, voice actress for Monster High and Jimmy Neutron, as a special guest. The downside is there are vendors in the exhibitor hall that are not child-friendly, like the lingerie sellers and horror film booths, and costumes at night can be risque. This is a BIG convention and you need to keep younger children close.

Stand-Outs

Cosplay. Even if you don’t dress up yourself, there is nothing cooler than seeing a bunch of Jedi and anime characters running around.  Panels. Not all cons do panels, but Con Nooga offers up a wide variety of options and does a great job organizing them. Con Kids. My kids have a great time at this convention, and there are a lot of volunteers involved in just this track. Geek TNG is well in hand here! Guests. If you see a guest on the lineup here, odds are you can have a drink with them at a party and get to talk to them, really talk to them!

Links

Con Nooga website

Con Nooga Facebook page

Jan 28, 2012

Winston-Salem, SC

50(?) attended

Golden Corral Hanes Mall

Gaming

miniMACE is all about the gaming… and the food. Savage Worlds and board games dominated the listings, with some Pathfinder and Scaldcrow Games’ Bare Bones Multiverse. There were 3 4-hour sessions: 9-1, 1:30-5:30, and 6-10. This is a one day event.

Location

The Golden Corral is right off I-40 in Winston –Salem and next to Hanes Mall, so conceivably you could drop off any non-gamers there and enjoy a game or two.

Accommodations

Your ticket for the gaming gives you unlimited access to the buffet. So many foods to choose from… The servers refill your drinks the entire time you’re gaming.

Value

You get three meals and three games for preregistering $28 ($35 at the door still isn’t bad) per person.

Family Rating

We took the chance to game without the kids around, but there were plenty of teens there. There is no room for non-players to hang out, so I don’t recommend it for those under 10 or so. Besides, I think you have to be 10 to go to the buffet alone.

Stand-Outs

Gaming with a plate of steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans. Gaming with a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. Gaming with refills of soda, tea, coffee, water… and you can change out what you’re drinking quickly. The servers at the Golden Corral know gamers tip well so they were happy to serve us with a smile. And they do the dishes.

Links

miniMACE website

Facebook Group

Jan 13-16, 2012

Columbia, SC

300 attended

Scottish Rite Convention Center

Days Inn Hotel and Suites

Gaming

A bank of computers in the front lobby (and staff assistance) made the ubiquitous Warhorn site a lot easier, although there were not as many pre-reg’s as we’d like. Pathfinder and board/card/miniatures gaming seemed to have the best attendance. We hosted a Savage Saturday Night and our inaugural Iron GM Contest, which was so much fun we’re definitely doing that again!

Location

The Scottish Rite is right off I-77 in east Columbia, very easy to find, and surrounded by quick dining options. The main room at the convention center was used for the dealer’s room/board gaming/kids track/cantina, and the floor-level stage in the auditorium used for RPGs. SCARAB also uses the meeting spaces in the Days Inn for the minis gaming. Both locations show their age but are clean.

Accommodations

We snagged a room with 2 kings and it was still very spacious. The hotel serves a free hot breakfast ($5 for SCARAB attendees not staying at the hotel) which included a waffle maker as well as biscuits, white gravy, sausages, and scrambled eggs. It’s a 2 Star hotel, so it’s not fancy, but it was very clean. The main complaint I heard was about hard beds; No one mentioned a single bug.

Value

You get 4 days of gaming for a $50 badge, making it less than $13/day for all the gaming you can stand. The hotel rate is an unheard-of $50/night for 2 double beds, and we only paid $60/night for 2 king beds. Free Parking, Free Breakfast, and the GMs can earn cash for the games they run. My girls used their GM rewards at the cantina and pretty much fed themselves all weekend!

Family Rating

I can’t say enough good things about the Kids Track gaming. No other con focuses as much on the kids actually playing GAMES. SCARAB is on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, so there are little to no days of school lost. Ages started at 6: this is not a day care. This was not a “party con” which made for quiet nights of rest. There was very little cosplay, and definitely no “adult themed” cosplay where the kids would see it. In short, my kids lost track of how many games they played in at *20.*

Stand-Outs

Prizes! Swag bags at registration were heavy with Pathfinder novels, comics, and minis (for the first 100 I think). The Prize table was loaded with board games, books, etc. Board Game Library! When the booth was slow I checked out a board or card game from the library and played with whatever kids were handy, meaning I got to play Munchkin (I forgot how much fun that is!) to my heart’s content. And did we say enough about the Kids’ Track? No. No, we didn’t say nearly enough.

Links

SCARAB website

SCARAB Facebook page

SCARAB photos

Sean Fannon’s After Action Report

SCARAB Kids Track blog post

Yes, we are trying to be in two places at the same time. Quantum mechanics ain’t got nuthin’ on us.

Whether you’re in the Rockies or the Appalachians, February seems to be the time to go to the mountain for some memorable gaming!

They have other Pathfinder/OGL products, set in the world of Nobis (click here,) that I can special order. Pantheon Press is donating the complete line of Nobis print products to SCARAB convention‘s famous swag pile.

Other new products: Deadlands: Reloaded Player’s Guide Explorer’s Edition $19.99 Note: If you have the hardback version, you have the exact same book already, just bigger.

How We Came to Live Here $20.00 2010 ENnie Award winner for Best Writing, this RPG brings 2 GMs (Inside Player, for NPCs in the village, and Outside Player, for the monsters and such) and players to tell a story set in the American Southwest, American Indian style.

We have some very cool bundles of products to help make your holiday shopping easier! Each is at least a savings of 10% off the cover price, up to as much as 55% off! And yes, you can still use the coupon code “ILoveBrains” to get an additional 10% off (or more, if you’ve leveled up to Gold or Platinum membership)!

Bundles: These have been specially chosen to provide the best value possible. So if you ever wanted to try out a new game or introduce a friend to one, this is the best chance to do it! Now, when I say “limited time only” don’t turn off that part of your brain. Seriously, if we sell out of any one of the items listed in a Bundle, that bundle goes bye-bye until we can restock. And restocking is tricky during the holidays.

Pathfinder Miniatures Preorder: We’ve heard from many of you that it would be awesome to get the news minis from Pathfinder. So, yeah, we can do that. But minis aren’t our usual line, so there are some caveats. Basically, we’re offering a brick of minis for $79.99. As a bonus, buy 4 Bricks (a Case) and we will give you the Black Dragon for free! There’s slightly more to it than that, so click the link below for all the details.

Finally, lest I forget, Thank You. My customers are the best in the world, and are truly my friends. I pray you have the best holiday yet with plenty of family and friends. Maybe you can even squeeze in a game or two this month! I’m looking forward to a busy con season next spring, and hope to see you at one of them.

Pathfinder Heroes and Monsters Miniatures PREORDER $79.99

All For One Bundle $50
Apocalypse Prevention Bundle $85
Castles and Crusades Mixed Bundle $100
Day After Ragnarok Bundle $45
Deadlands Player’s Bundle $40
Dragon Age Box Set Bundle $65
Dresden Files RPG Bundle $80
Hellfrost Campaign Bundle $80
Hellfrost GM Starter Bundle $85
Hollow Earth Expedition Bundle $90
Kerberos Club Bundle $50
Necropolis Bundle $70
RunePunk Bundle $50
Solomon Kane GM Bundle $65
The Savage World of Solomon Kane $45
Space 1889 Red Sands Bundle $60
Wu Xing Bundle $40