ScanCON 2014

So another ScanCON comes to a close.  Before whiskey and old age steals my memories of this year's gaming exploits, I figured I'd post some highlights here for posterity.

ScanCON 2014

THURSDAY

This year's ScanCON festivities started earlier on Thursday than they had in any of the previous 13 years of the Con.  Delp, Paul and RW showed up just after noon on Thursday and put me through a scavenger hunt (which they dubbed the "Scan-venger hunt") around the city of Madison.  The clues led to various surprises and riddles.  I even found a Mr. McGibblets with a knife waiting for me in my garage with yet another clue. The prize?  An awesome neon ScanCON gameroom sign they had had made for the Convention Center!

 

 

 The first game played at ScanCON this year was an impromptu game of the Privateer Press Horror Masterpiece Level 7 [Escape].  RW, Delp, myself played it until I left to pick up Devin from the airport, at which point Andrew took over and successfully got my character to the elevator before Lockdown closed off all escape from the alien-infested compound.  Level 7 [Escape] does a really good job capturing the desperation of your average Sci-Fi channel movie.  Good times.

 

Once I returned with Devin and a boatload of BBQ from Madison's famous Smoky Jon's restaurant on the east side, we cracked open a new game and fired up a game of Risk: Legacy.  Risk:Legacy is an interesting board game because with each game you play you permanently alter the game for the next play, including ripping up cards and defacing the board with nukes and scars of war.  Myself, RW, Devn, Cullen, and Andrew laid waste to the poor planet, with Devin winning out over the rest of us. Risk:Legacy was a lot of fun and will definitely be an annual tradition to be played at ScanCON henceforth.

 

FRIDAY

Friday morning the gamecrew got up early and headed out to The Original Pancake house in downtown Madison for breakfast, in an event hosted by Delp.  There are many pancake houses in the world, but you know this place is good because this one is the Original.  We ate boatloads of breakfast food and then returned to the ScanCON HQ, where I ran a game event of the Warhammer 40k/Talisman mash-up "Relic" for Devin, Travis, and Paul, while the remaining gamers drank coffee and watched the 1983 Frank Frazetta animated movie Fire and Ice.

 

 

Friday afternoon two co-op game events were run simultaneously.  Paul ran Dead Panic in Conference Room B for myself, RW, Cullen, and Andrew while Devin ran the Star Trek simulator game Artemis downstairs in Conference Room A for Travis, Fields, and Hans. 

 

 Once the afternoon gaming was complete, we ate a delicious chili dinner prepared by Mary and then went on to the first RPG event of ScanCON.  A He-Man/Cthulhu mashup game (3.5e D&D rules) I titled "Shadows Over Eternia."  It was a harrowing one-shot featuring the heroic and villainous Eternians we know and love fighting eldritch and terrifying creatures of the Cthulhu mythos.  All in all a very good time.  I'll write up a separate post detailing the adventures had in that session, but here's a few pics of that event:

 SATURDAY

Even though 48 hours had passed of straight gaming, everyone was up bright and early on Saturday morning to play in Fields' running of the Battlestar Galactica boardgame.  RW, Hans, Cullen, and Devin all took on the roles of Humans or Cylons.

Shortly after BSG ended around lunchtime, the second RPG event of ScanCON2014 took place, wherein RW ran a 3.5e RPG homebrew game consisting of Undead PCs taking down the holy representatives of a corrupt church.  Fields, Travis, Devin, Hans, and Paul played ghouls, mummies, shadows, ghosts, and zombie PCs up in Conference Room B.  Looked like a blast to play, and the game went on well into the evening.  Meanwhile the rest of us (Andrew, Cullen, Mary, Steve, Craig and myself) played a 6-player game of Settlers of Catan in Conference Room A, co-hosted by Cullen and Andrew. I'm proud to tell you that I successfully built more cities and hoarded more resources than all 5 of my opponents, all the while deflecting suspicion until it was too late, and became the ruler of Catan (or whatever the in-game storyline is supposed to be for winning Catan).

After eating Pizza delivered by the excellent Glass Nickel Pizza in Madison, we watched a "History of ScanCON" presentation given by the ScanCON2013 Championship Winner Chad Delp.  He outlined in a powerpoint presentation how we had been meeting up once a year since 2002, and gave reminder anecdotes of things that happened each year.  It was a good walk down memory lane.

Finally it was time for the Annual ScanCON Tournament of Champions Championship Tournament!  First came the QUIZ-MASTER Quiz challenge, consisting of a 20 question multiple choice test covering 4 different categories: 80s Movies, 80s Video Games, Nerdcore Hiphop rappers, and finally Comic Books.  The winner of that challenge (and an Amazon gift card) was Paul Gorecki.

Next up was the TOP SHOT challenge, which consisted of a double-elimination Nerf Target shooting challenge with three different Nerf Weapons.  The Elite N-Strike pistol, the Elite N-Strike Retaliator, and the Nerf N-Strike Blazin' Bow Blaster.  The timed challenges were head-to-head and the competition was fierce.  Once the dust had finally settled it was Craig Harmes who took home the gift card to Bass Pro Gift Shops.

The ScanCON 2014 Tournament of Champions Trophy was awarded to the ScanCON attendee that had earned the most ScanCoins over the weekend.  Between registering and attending game events, winning Challenges, and unlocking secret achievements, it was Paul Gorecki who had built up a large enough bank of coins in the Scanconomy over the weekend to take home the coveted ScanCON trophy, The Bruce, and become the 2014 ScanCON Tournament of Champions Championship Tournament Overall Champion!

As a reward, Paul received the sole remaining can of Brawndo in existence (as far as we know), as well as the right to place one piece of flair on the The Bruce and to sleep in the guest bedroom (as opposed to on the floor or couch) at ScanCON 2015!  Congratulations Paul!