This is a rather long Webpage with all the Con reports for PentaCon which took place on November 3rd - 5th 2000 in Ft. Wayne Indiana.

Pictures

Kat:
Arrived at Pentacon in time for lunch and to make my rounds in the dealers room and the flea market before beginning my Gaming session at 2pm. Picked up In Nomine "You Are Here" for 9 bucks in the flea market, as well as Gurps Planet Krishna for 9. Had an interesting looking game called Groo as well...should be fun. I found a copy of a game called Men In Black that looked interesting and picked it up as well. 2 of the dealers asked me, after seeing my SJGames badge, if I had brought product. They had sold out of Munchkin guide to Power Gaming, and one wanted Dino hunt stuff, and another wanted INWO stuff....talked nicely to them, but told them sorry.

Now...on to the games....

First Session, I was supposed to run Chez Geek the first 2 hours, and Tabloids the second two...but forgot Tabloids at home....oops! Well the players voted to play Chez Geek a second time...they loved it.

The first game had 5 players + me, and Chris Carter won with No Job, and got a copy of Chez Geek as a prize...I won the second game with No Job so no prize was awarded. It had 3 players + me. For both games I gave out little rulers and paper clips to everyone.

We then broke for dinner and another run through the dealers room...just picked up dice and glass tokens for INWO this time...picked up another dice for Dino Hunt...it had a T Rex instead of the one on it.

I ran Dino Hunt after dinner...for 3 hours with frequently changing groups consistently with lots of kids. Games had 2-4 people in them as well as me. We played pre reading version as one child was only 7. His dad took down the website addy for sjgames in case he can't find it in the store...he says he is getting it fro Christmas, as did an uncle. Gave out 3 boosters to the winners and one to the others...

Winner of first two games...Bruce Baxter (the 7 year old) third game I won and the 4th game Mike and Bruce Baxter tied. (Mike is Bruce's dad) I did learn something...my kid tolerance late at night is very low :) But all enjoyed the games and the cards.

I also gave 2 dino Booster packs to the kids activity director...he was making Monty Python cards into medallion beaded necklaces...I had him make 2 for me out of my Dino Hunt cards...they look really cool. He used pinking shears around the Dino picture and then tied it on string and put some beads up a little on each side. Might wear it for future Dino Hunt demos...gave one to my son as well, he loved it. Might be an idea for an SJGames donation when they have kids activities or as a part of Dino Hunt demos.

It was a good con...next year I want to go for the full weekend so I can play as well as demo! :)

Brian:

Report from PentaCon, Fort Wayne, IN, Saturday Nov. 4

I attended only one day, but had a good enough time that I'm planning for the whole weekend next year. Kat and I drove up together Saturday morning, as we did not have events scheduled for the morning session.

For the second session on Saturday, I had INWO scheduled as a One Big Deck game under SubGenius rules. It did not go, but the stuff I had out on the table drew some attention from wanderers, two of whom signed up for my INWO sealed deck game in the third session. With the remainder of the time in the afternoon, Susan and I merged and ran two games of Chez Geek and one of Munchkin for for folks who had been wandering.

In the late session, my INWO sealed deck ran with three players plus myself. Two of them had bought cards years back but never played, and the third was a guy who had seen the game but had been unable to find out much about it from his local contacts. In the end, he won the game. Each player kept the sealed decks they played with, and the winner was also awarded several Assassins booster packs.

Kat and I drove home late Saturday night, and agreed that we had had a good time. PentaCon looks like a very good prospect for future MIB activity.

Cowper Family:

The Cowper clan, like the rest of the Indy MIBs, just went up to Pentacon for the day on Saturday.

At 9:00 we had a DinoHunt demo scheduled for Lynette and Megan and a Knightmare Chess demo for Mike.

Lynette says:
We attempted to make the DinoHunt demo a partner variant, where you and a partner teamed up to see which team could take the most points, but never had enough players to do so, so it was just a standard demo. For the most part, I just set everything up and then gave Megan her head. At the 1:00 session, Mike had a Tile Chess demo scheduled, Megan had another DinoHunt demo scheduled, and Lynette had a Silicon Valley Tarot *game* scheduled.

Mike says:
I had one person sign up for my Tile Chess demo. He showed up and we played a few two player games which he seemed to really enjoy. I also had a couple of other players show up after that, including one from the Knightmare Chess demo earlier. Most of the games were just two player. One girl that played was very interested and is planning on buying a set.

Megan says:
On my last demo, I had eight people sign up. Only two showed up. There was one girl who didn't sign up who came. They all had a lot of fun. It was war. We were playing a whole bunch of specials against each other. The girl, Jessica, won. (Lynette comments: Jessica was stolen from Chris Canary's Toon game, allowing an adult who had signed up as an alternate to play instead.)

Lynette says:
The SVT game didn't have anyone signed up for it. As my table was back in a corner, it was pretty unlikely to pick up stragglers, so I took the time to make up a couple of extra characters for my scheduled GURPS Discworld for the next session.

There was an hour and a half break between the second and third sessions for the day. During this time, the con drew the winners for their raffle. The Indy MIBs had donated an INWO bundle-- a One with Everything, 8 Assassins boosters, 1 SubGenius set (signed by the Line Editor), and an INWO book. Winners got to pick their prize from among the stuff at the table. The bundle was claimed about halfway through the drawing. Lynette went and got his name, Mark Junk, for the report. He commented that he was thrilled to get it and was surprised it was still available when his number was called. He wasn't too familiar with the game, so Lynette directed him to Brian's INWO demo scheduled for 7:30.

At the third session for the day, at 7:30, Mike had a Hacker game scheduled and Lynette had a GURPS Discworld game. As the session went till 11:30, we hadn't scheduled anything for Megan and she ended up heading home with Susan instead of hanging out there.

Mike says:
My hacker demo had one person sign up, who failed to show up, so that demo didn't happen.

Lynette says:
I had 8 people signed up for this game. 7 of them showed. The eighth was a convention worker who had to work instead of playing and was rather disappointed at missing it. Of the 7, only 3 were familiar with GURPS. 4 were familiar with the Discworld setting (as I recall, there was 1 GURPS and Discworld person and 5 who were one or the other and one complete novice to both setting and system). I was using Phil Masters's excellent and well-timed (when he says it takes 4 hours, it really does take 4 hours) scenario "Lost and Found" which can be found on the European MIBs' resources Web sight (I don't have the URL immediately to hand, but can provide it if needed). I used the characters Phil had created and had an additional 4 that I had created or modified. All 5 of Phil's (who were much better described than mine) were taken. The couple at the table picked the set of identical-twin Ephebian slaves who were off on their annual "two weeks of running away" and tended to complete each other's sentences. I took about 15 minutes to quickly summarize the system and setting to the players while they were picking characters and then launched into the game. The scenario-- determining what had happened to the banana supply to Ankh-Morpork and restoring it so that Unseen University's orang-utan librarian could function again, had them chuckling right off the bat. Memorable moments included the giant post-graduate wizard spending the first 4 days at sea being sea-sick, the peasant Dieter's player declaring "I waste him with my crossbow!" and the Troll's confused encounter with a herd of hermit elephants. The player of the Troll, Chad Wonderly, was voted best RPer and took home GURPS Discworld (he was a novice to GURPS, too, so that was cool), and the player of the post-graduate wizard, Dale Barnes, was second and took home a Cardboard Heroes set.

Chris:
Woke up at the god awful hour of 5:00 to be able to pick up Susan, and meet Drew at the office. Drew, by chance, ended up meeting us at Susan's. On the long trip to Pentacon, we tried to wake up, listened to 3 dead trolls in a baggie (Esp: Welcome to the Internet Helpdesk), and eventually, amid a wrong turn, made it to Pentacon.

As soon as I arrived, I checked the board...I saw my Hacker II (ended up being a Hacker demo, as I had misplaced Hacker II), but no sign at all of my Toon demo. Thought "Oh Crap, I'm not listed" to myself. Talked to the officials, and found out that all 6 slots in the Toon game had filled in the Pre-Reg book. After a brief, quick, panic attack (Toon has never been full for me before...I think the most people, at a con, I've run for is 4), I retooled my game, and tweaked the scenario in my mind a little.

During the first session, Drew, Susan, and I ended up teaming up. I had one guy show up at my Hacker Demo, and he seemed interested in it. I ended up winning, playing short game. After that, Susan Demo'd Munchkin, allowing me my first taste of it. OH MY God, I love it. Gotta have it. We also (Drew, I believe) ended up showing him Chez Geek. I won that game as well, having rolled a 6 and another 6, on Nookie and RPGs. I do believe that's a first..I usually fail RPGs horribly, and Nookie rolls don't go well for me.

Second Session came around. The table started to fill,a nd I started psyching my energy to run Toon. One of the players, a younger girl, was convinced to go play Dino Hunt with Megan Cowper (I was a little shaky on taking a younger girl through my Toon games), and quickly the players started to get into the game. This group was different than other groups I've run...I had to pull the characters along a little more than I'm used to, or like doing. But, as I started to throw chaos at them (and the hand of the Animator coming down to point at them) things started rolling faster and faster.

At the end of the Scenario, everyone voted "The Wolf" as the best player of that round, so I gave him a copy of the Toon Ace Catalog. Shortly after that, I ended up directing "The Wolf's" sister to the dealer in the Dealer's Room who had Toon stuff. They ended up buying the Toon Rulebook (After all, what good is the Ace Catalog without it), and the Tooniversal Tour Guide. It was good to see my plan worked. Others in the game had talked of trying to find the books, but I couldn't verify if they did. I trust em, tho.

After that, I ended up just kinda hanging around, watching other games, wishing I could get into another Munchkin game. God, how addictive. We drove back, and after getting home, crashed asleep, very glad the day was over.

Susan:
Drew, Chris, and I drove up at O:MiGod in the morning to make the morning session. The directions weren't explicit about which direction to go when exiting off I-69, and we guessed wrong. So we had a 15-minute detour that made us a bit late for the first session. We did the first two sessions of the day, then skipped the 3rd to head home for other commitments.

First Session, I was scheduled to run Munchkin. Nobody showed at my table. I joined up with Chris and Drew who also had nobody at their events. Chris then pulled in someone for his event. This fellow was very enthusiastic. Chris, Drew, and I all ran our scheduled events with him consecutively (Munchkin was played twice). He then went off and bought Chez Geek in the Dealer's Room. He was full of praise for Munchkin and expects to convert his gaming circle when the game is published.

Second session, I was scheduled for open gaming. My table was in BFE where I couldn't pull anyone in. However, Pete from 1st session came asking after me. I ran a Tile Chess demo for him. Pete and I then joined Brian, whose INWO event had not gone off. His table was prime open gaming space, and we pulled in two other people. We did two Chez Geek games and one Munchkin game with lots of success and laughter.

Very impressed with the con. I'll come back, maybe to play in addition to running. Dealer's room was best I've seen at a gaming con. Games were well-organized. Acoustics were good in the big gaming room, even without curtain dividers. Had a great time.

Drew:
Susan, Chris and I met up around 6:00A.M. at Susan's place to head up to Ft. Wayne for Pentacon. Once we got there, got registered and found our tables, we got organized and sat down hoping to attract some people. A while after we got there the Cowpers got there and got setup. Once a pen was found I had Lynette sign a copy of INWO SubGenius, and gave a One With Everything, SubGenius, INWO Book, and 8 Assasians boosters for the Charity Auction. Then I pulled out the digital camera and went to get pictures. Mike had a couple of people at his table. One guy was playing him, so I talked to the other guy, he wanted to play Knightmare Chess also. So I ran a Knightmare chess game against him. I actually won. But he was interested in the game and thought it was a lot of fun. I went back over to my table, and still no one interested in Chez Geek. But the guy that was at Chris' table had played Hacker with Chris, and Munchkin with Susan, was interested in Chez Geek. So I ran that for him, Chris and Susan joined in. Chris won. After that it was about time for lunch, and we were all hungry.

Session 2 started and I had 4 of the 6 signed up for Knightmare Chess there. So I asked if anyone had played KMC before. Not a one had. So I said, good, I'm gonna run a Knightmare Chess Tournament then. I had two chess boards, and both KMC I, and II. I had them pair up, and after explaining the rules to them, had them start. After the first round, I had the winners play each other, and the two who didn't win played each other. Then the winner from each got a copy of Knightmare Chess (actually one of them got KMC II). Everyone walked away with something.