No DunDraCon in 2021

 

So, for only the second time in DunDraCon's 44 year history the convention was cancelled for President's Day Weekend. (The first time in 1982 DunDraClone was held that year the weekend of Memorial Day.)

2021 was supposed to be the inaugural year for DunDraCon's new location at the Marriott Hotel in Santa Clara, CA, but the pandemic has put the kibosh on festivities and our traditional Saturday night game was on-the-line. Ha, so glad we got our last DunDraCon in San Ramon, CA in for February 2020 before everything began shutting down.

DunDraCon, the West Coast's longest running gaming convention:

• Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, CA (1976-1977)
• Lemington Hotel in Oakland, CA (1978)
• Villa Hotel in Oakland, CA (1979-1980)
• Dunfey Hotel in San Mateo, CA (1981)
• Hyatt Hotel, Oakland, CA (1982 for DunDraClone, and 1983-1991)
• Marriott Hotel, San Ramon, CA (1992-2020)
• Marriott Hotel, Santa Clara, CA (coming in 2022)

The Eye of Incongruous Elocution (or Tsolya'ni Poorly Pronounced)

End of Night Visage

Had an entertaining night running essentially "out of the box" 1975 Empire of the Petal Throne game for a half-dozen kind folks at DunDraCon #40. Not two minutes out the gate for first combat and had to make a rules adjustment (damage appeared to be too bizarre, deadly, and weighted against player characters. Unless Phil Barker was showing "Do not fight!").

My brief oversea sojourn vignette set to introduce players to the rules actually turned out to be the most entertaining part of the evening. By the time the PC's arrived at my planned introductory EPT scenario, The Tomb Complex of Nereshánbo, the hour was approaching 11pm which only permited time for excursion through approximately one fifth of the Tomb Complex scenario.

Lesson for next time: Should a brief random set of encounters be proceeding most entertainingly, go with the flow rather than shoe-horning in the original pre-made scenario.

Nonetheless a pleasant visit with some brilliant (not kidding, who figures out the density of lime stone on the fly for an RPG game?) gamers. Thank you very much Chris, Basil, Mel, Ken(?), Saul, and "youngest player at the table." (damn, I should have wrote this closer in time to the event!)