(Cross posted to Sunday Night Dirtbags)
I won’t lie; I just spent two hours writing a draft of this post and my god damn blogging software ate it. So if you detect an undercurrent of rage where there should be an undercurrent of joy, well, there you fucking go.
Deep cleansing breath.
Yesterday, my fellow Dirtbags Rob & Erik joined me in attending the inaugural OSRCon in fabulous Chelmsford, MA. We met up early and grabbed breakfast at Honeydew Donuts, eating in the gas station parking lot like the men of leisure we are. We’d all signed up for the same sessions and wanted to game plan a little - we also discussed the fact that a con targeted at old school gaming would likely be filled with, well, old school gamers, and we should expect something of an elderly sausage party. Living in Boston, this is not new. I did extract a promise from both of them that if we saw so much as one woman of color, we’d have to do a celebratory shot. With that, we were off to the Con.
They both have more con experience than I do. Rob’s a 20 year vet of SDCC, while Erik’s been to a bunch of cons of various stripes over the years. My last convention was StarCon Denver in like 1986, where we all bought semi-legal butterfly knives and a goth girl bit my friend. So I wasn’t sure what to expect, but what I found was a bunch of table in an Elks Lodge conference room with some really cool vendors set up around the perimeter. I also found the bar selling ice cold beer at Elks Lodge prices. What more could I want?
We got signed in, swag bagged, and then it was time to shop and play. We’d signed up for three games: Dungeon Crawl Classics, Hyperborea, and Forbidden Lands, all three of which I own, but have never really played - one session of DCC notwithstanding. Indeed, it was the chance to finally play these games that attracted me to the con in the first place!
First up was DCC, run by a really great Judge named Neal. He hit the ground running, leading us through a 0-level funnel that lived up to the Goodman Games gonzo hype. Our 42 lovable PCs found their way to another dimension and back, with more than a handful dying along the way. Neal leaned into the deadliness, leaping out from behind the screen and aggressively stamping every dead PC’s character sheet with a bright red skull and crossbones. He also handed out cool stickers and con badge decorations. He clearly loves DCC, and that infected us all! It set the tone for the day; we were amped up and ready to go!
We took a quick lunch break and then hit game number two: Hyperborea, run by an extremely skilled DM, whose name escapes me for the moment, but who does play regularly with the game’s author, Jeffrey Talanian (who I got to meet a little later - what a sweetheart of a guy). I lucked into a pre-generated character of exactly the sort I would have rolled up myself (a Roman legerdemainist) and we were off to solve a mystery. Again, our DM’s passion for this game system was evident, and we all had a blast; the twist ending hit just right. Even Rob - our noted fantasy skeptic - leaned over and said he’d love to play this system again if I felt like running it. Which I do! And not just because I won the silent auction for a signed copy of the Player’s Manual!
It was also halfway through this game that an Asian woman walked through the function room door wearing a con badge. Rob, Erik and I exchanged glances, nodded at each other, and were soon drinking Elks Lodge sized shots while the rest of the table looked on in confusion. Never let it be said that Dirtbags welch on an agreement!
On that note, I would like to state for the record that while the overall demographic was still pretty dude-centric, it skewed significantly younger than expected, and there were definitely more women than I thought there’d be as well. Which is great - the hobby is in good hands for the foreseeable future!
Afterwards, Rob took off, but Erik and I stuck around for the third game of the day after Door Dashing our dinner. He got some decent looking chicken; I got the worst pizza I’ve ever had in my life. You may ask why then did I eat the whole thing? To which I would respond mind your god damn business.
But - game 3. Forbidden Lands. This was the game I was probably the most excited to play. I bought the boxed set years ago. In fact, this game is what made me want to get back into this hobby after so many years away. By the time I’d assembled the group that would become the Sunday Night Dirtbags, I’d found other games to run, but this one has been on my shelf calling to me ever since.
So it was great fortune that we lucked into the GM we did - a charismatic man named Eon, who makes and sells some really beautiful stuff, and who is absolutely fanatical for Forbidden Lands. His system mastery was absolute, as was his enthusiasm, and he led us through a delightful homemade adventure (a copy of which I bought and can’t wait to run myself). He played the antagonist so well that we slit his throat at the end of the quest - which apparently happens nearly every time he runs it - testimony to both the writing and performance.
Then it was time to drive home and hit the hay.
Two big takeaways for me:
- Being able to play with such experienced players and such talented GMs really inspired me to want to level up my own skills. In jiu jitsu, I strongly believe in the value of cross training at other gyms to be exposed to new styles and unfamiliar stuff. This was an excellent chance to do the same thing with RPGs. I’m stealing so many ideas, starting with that skull and crossbones dead PC stamp!
- What a joy to play these games the way they were intended - at a table, with other people, face to face, rolling dice, scribbling on paper, and looking each other in the eye. These games are about humans working together to make something unique in the moment. Virtual tabletops are fine; online gaming is better than no gaming. But the real magic happens in the physical world. As the internet increasingly becomes an AI-driven rage bait slop barge, I think people are going to migrate back to reality, and it’s great knowing old school gaming is right there waiting for us.
To the founders and staff of OSR Con - thank you! You guys crushed this and I sure hope to see you for the same event next year!
