Q&A with Jeff Berry

[Havard]

The Maritime Event was yesterday right? How did it go?

-Havard

[chirine ba kal]

Loving this as usual Jeff!

Artist Ken Fletcher and typesetter Sarah Prince were not part of this crowd, but came in from local F/SF fandom. Miniatures sculptor Steve Lortz also lurked around the place, primarily as a free-lance writer.

Can you tell us something else about Ken Fletcher and Steve Lortz? Both are listed as original Blackmoor players. Lortz played Lortz Kharnundrhum the Dwarf, and I suspect Fletcher may have been the inspiration for the NPC Fletcher Williams of Blackmoor University.

-Havard

Ken is a local artist who's known internationally in F?SF fandom for his artwork and cartoons. He's also been involved with local gaming for decades, both in RPGs and miniatures; he was my co-conspirator in putting on the infamous "Great Mos Eisley Spaceport Raid", for example. Ken was one of the 'staff illustrators' at AGI, and was also one of the most prolific of the Tekumel artists. Sculptor, too; he did a pack-bearer for me, just because we didn't have any.

Steve Lortz is a sculptor and game designer, and did some of the best (and funniest!) miniatures that have ever been cast. One heck of a sense of humor, and co-author with his brother of "Panzer Pranks", a board game that accurately simulates WW II combat as it actually happened in the movies. (British troops stop for tea, Americans have tanks with Coke machines, der Churmadz haff der troublez understandink der own terrible akkzents, and players get a combat bonus for doing sound effects while firing their weapons.)

Two of the most talented and funniest people in gaming; were part of the "Aztec Baseball Incident" at the Adventure Games office, where Steve was the Catcher and Ken the Umpire.

yours, Chirine

yours, Chirine

[chirine ba kal]

The Maritime Event was yesterday right? How did it go?

-Havard

It was actually the whole weekend, as it turned out. We had guests in from out of town, so most of Friday was spent showing them around The Workbench and the local game stores, with a six-hour RPG Friday night in which the players wound up in Deadly Peril and which ended with a tense cliff-hanger.

Saturday, we did packing and load-out from eight am to ten am, and loaded in to the FFG Event Center at ten-thirty. The two big game tables, about five foot by twelve foot each, were set up by noon and looked like this:




More photos are up on my Photobucket page:

http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk72/Chirine_ba_Kal/

We had eight players for the first game and six for the second, and lots of people who stopped by to have a look and talk about Dave and Harchar. Things ended about ten pm, and we loaded out by eleven pm.

I had a business breakfast meeting on Sunday, after which we did the load-in back into the game room, and then had another RPG session from two pm to six pm to resolve the Dire Peril from Friday's game. Dinner after that, and then back into the game room to tell gaming stories.

Clean-up this morning from six am to now (11:30 am), and that was that.

Everyone seemed to be having a great time, or that's what they told me; I'm way too close to the thing to be objective. The players, the people who dropped by, and the Event Center staff were all very impressed by the tables and the games, so I think we can call this one a success. We handed out a lot of flyers and took a lot of pictures, and I'll get those sorted out as soon as I can.

The planning for the next event is already started, and I'm both startled and delighted with the way that people here and outside the Twin Cities want to make this a bigger and better event; Dave had both a lot of friends and a lot of influence on our shared hobby and I'm touched at the happiness that we managed to generate this weekend. It was a lot of work, and I'm exhausted; next year, though, more people want to help out on the organization side of the event and I'll be able to concentrate on the game side of things.

Watch this space; there's a lot going to happen!

yours, Chirine

(If Our Moderators would like to make these photos smaller so they fit better, please feel free; I'm not very good at Internet stuff, and this was the best I could do with my limited skills! Thanks! - Chirine)

[Rafael]

*BOING*

[chirine ba kal]

*BOING*

Oh, dear. Was that a good 'boing' or a bad 'boing'?

yours, Chirine

[Rafael]

I saw the images, and was so happy that I fainted.

The boing was my head hitting the soil.

No damage done, but I REALLY WANT THAT TABLE.

[chirine ba kal]

I saw the images, and was so happy that I fainted.

The boing was my head hitting the soil.

No damage done, but I REALLY WANT THAT TABLE.

Ah. So I take it that's a good 'boing'...

Um, I think that tables like this are pretty easy to do. They both use canvas drop cloths (cheap, from DIY places like Home Depot) painted as needed with either a spray gun or airbrush, thin cutouts of hardboard as bases for the aquarium / terrarium plants hot-glued to them, and other bits and bobs from pet shops and the game store.

The long Sakbe roadway was made up of layers of expanded styrofoam and some more hardboard, but that's about the only 'custom' item. The ships, all 16 of them, are from commercial sources save one I built myself.

A large bucket of imagination also has a lot to do with it, I think, but that's the way we always gamed; keep in mind that Dave's original monsters were cheap plastic toys and Gertie was a lump of plasticine clay. The dark green Mayan-style temple, for example, is actually a set of cheap (but heavy!) bookends sold to tourists in Mexico along the Mayan coast; Dave gave them to me many years ago, figuring I couldn't do anything too dangerous with them. Unfortunately for him and Harchar, they instantly became scenic items as the Mysterious Lost Temple of the Nameless Ones...

yours, Chirine

[Havard]

Its great hearing about the event Chirine. Those pictures are truly inspiring! I love the temple!

How did Captain Harchar and Princess Malia do this year?

Were any of the original Blackmoor Players present?

By the way, the pictures look fine to me. If you do want to change them, I think it is possible to get the code for a reduced version through photobucket.

PS: Not sure I want to know which part of Rafe's body made the BOING sound... :lol:

-Havard

[chirine ba kal]

Its great hearing about the event Chirine. Those pictures are truly inspiring! I love the temple!

How did Captain Harchar and Princess Malia do this year?

Were any of the original Blackmoor Players present?

By the way, the pictures look fine to me. If you do want to change them, I think it is possible to get the code for a reduced version through photobucket.

PS: Not sure I want to know which part of Rafe's body made the BOING sound... :lol:

-Havard

Glad you liked the photos! I had no idea they would be so big on the page, but if you're happy them I'm happy. (I have no idea what I'm doing most of the time on the Internet...)

The father and daughter pair had mixed fortunes; Harchar avoided arrest by the forces of law and order (they were too busy rescuing the marooned sisters) but lost a lot of his sailors to the Hlutrgu in the first game, and poor Malia was cut down by one of the boatloads of mercenaries right in the beginning of the second game. Her crew of Amazons avenged her, I'm happy to report, and they took the body off to be revivified so all's well that ends well.

None of the old players, with the exception of The Only Girl In Gaming in 1972, our own Deborah. One of the things that we're doing is getting ourselves much more organized in doing events like this; the advance notice for this version of the event went out a little too late for everyone, and we're fixing that for next year. Lots of stuff happening, and some major improvements underway!

yours, Chirine

[aldarron]

None of the old players, with the exception of The Only Girl In Gaming in 1972, our own Deborah.

yours, Chirine

Oh oh! I know what Havard wants to ask next! Did you ask her about Toska Rusa?