Phantasm feels like my hometown convention. I went to university in Peterborough with the Gildorians, and Phantasm always draws a friendly, easy-going, enthusiastic crowd.
Masterminded by the indefatigable Dave Watson, this is a small con (maybe two hundred assorted elf fanciers packed into the basement of the public library) with a freakishly big heart. Example: This year, Dave added a promotion with a gamer twist: Drop off a non-perishable item for the local food bank, get 1d6 “gold coins.” The coins were redeemable at participating game tables for a re-roll or other benny, at the GM’s discretion. Cool.
The pace is civilized, with one-hour meal breaks between four-hour game slots. The overall quality of the games is startlingly good. Local legend Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms) takes the podium every year to dance around his various non-disclosure agreements and give us a bit of industry dish.
I love it.
This year, though, reality intruded. I had to be back in Ottawa Sunday, and that meant a cruelly truncated convention, a mere two games on Saturday, or three if I didn’t mind leaving at midnight and then embarking on a three-hour drive before work in the morning. I wimped out and played only two games, and in the end drove longer than I played.
Prep was minimal. I threw a change of clothes, a toothbrush and deodorant into the rental, and the important stuff: a bag of game, much of its content left over from previous sessions.
The backpack’s sitting here. An inventory follows. Any of these items might form the basis for a future blog post, so if you want a closer look at any of this, pipe up in the comments section.
Equipment (in order of emergence from bag):
- Gildor Game System rulebook
The Gildorians’ all-purpose house rules. We’ve played the bejaysus out of these for ten years or so. More on these later.
- Zombies!!!
A handy intergame convention time-killer, and the zombies make dandy minion figures for D&D.
- Ziploc bag of Dungeon Tiles
Frankly, not my brightest purchase. They’re pretty, but impractical. They’re never exactly the right shape unless you design to the tiles, and it’s just so much faster to just draw on a battlemap.
- Keep on the Shadowfell, including a fattish swath of scribbled notes. I DMed this one for my semi-regular group, the Saturday Players, a couple of months ago. Hardly innovative, but it was a good introduction to the new rules.
- D&D 4E rulebooks (DMG, PHB, MM)
One tradition upheld since 1st edition: The core books still weigh a ton, further straining the average geek’s bookbag and ruining his already prawn-like posture, and now they don’t even contain the whole game. (Rules! Collect ‘em all!) Jammed in the Player’s Handbook is the character sheet for Ol’ Harry Shyteheel, my 4th level human rogue.
- The February 2008 issue of Polymancer magazine
Convention swag. I haven’t read it yet.
- Car Wars booklet (Division 10 Set 2).
More swag. Does anybody still care about this game? Even in the old days, it seemed to play awfully slow for the frantic Deathrace 2000 action it was supposed to simulate.
- Three RPGA Living Forgotten Realms Promo Cards
Still more “swag,” by which I think I may mean “useless crap.” Each gives an in-game bonus to a player. Interestingly, there wasn’t a single game of 4E on offer at Phantasm. What if Hasbro made a game and nobody played? Pathfinder has more of a following here.
- Phantasm 2009 Program
Includes ballots for the Loralie McCloud Award (Best Player) and the Gygax Hammer of Plot Award (Best Storyteller, which is what Phantasm calls GMs), a pretty impressive ad count and a plug for next year’s 20th anniversary of the convention.
- Big Ziploc bag of assorted el cheapo WOTC plastic miniatures.
There’s always a use for a bag of weird little dudes.
- Dice
In a leather drawstring bag that fair screams “I have no girlfriend, nor reasonable prospect thereof.”
- Single sheet of graph paper with a list of monsters
The beasties for a planned 4E game, which I would have run at Phantasm, had I not been so sore afflicted with laziness and time crunch. On the other side, reality intrudes once again, with scribbled invoice calculations related to my day job.
- Index card
This bears the name of Chard, the dragonborn paladin, with 1100 xps and an initiative roll of 14. The other cards I locate in the front pocket of the bag. More Saturday Players spoor.
- Set of six Staedtler Lumocolor non-permanent 1 mm markers, two Staedler Mars plastic erasers, one ballpoint pen, three traditional orange wooden pencils, one uber-nerd D&D mechanical pencil, courtesy of the RPGA. I’m technically a member, but find they have entirely too much collective enthusiasm for paperwork.
- Small plastic bag containing PC minis for Saturday Players.
Ol’ Harry and his homies Bahr Beihn Kew, Berend the Stern, Chard of K’raag, Dayreth the Flamesayer, Erkonlin, Maloch the Malcontent and Morthos the Unconventional.
- Dice cube (empty)
Still bearing $3.50 price tag, a perfectly functional gelatinous cube mini.
- Travel toothbrush
It's got my name on it, a gift from a friend’s wife who spoils me rotten when I stay over, and is perhaps trying to tell me something.
- An expired bus transfer, an empty plastic shopping bag, two paper clips and a clear marble.
Just in case.
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