Fun Times at the Tyler Rose City Comic-Con

Look what I found beside the pool.
I wonder if its bigger on the inside than
the outside?

This past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending the Tyler Rose City Comic-Con as a volunteer for my FLGS' room. This was my second time attending any kind of convention, with the first being my slightly disastrous trip to the Dallas Comic-Con last year. I think its safe to say this was definitely the better experience.

However, you'd never expect that from how the day began. Due to my inability to read directions properly, I ended up driving around in circles for nearly an hour before finally finding the Holiday Inn. Once I arrived and checked in at the ticket booth, I made my way back to the "Phoenix Room" where the fine folks from Halflings Hideaway would be selling board games, roleplaying games, Magic: The Gathering cards, and running game demos. We also happen to be sharing the room with the Pathfinder Society's local chapter, causing the already small room to be pretty cramped throughout the day.

After taking a quick walk around the show floor, checking out the other booths and admiring some of the awesome cosplayers, I made my way back to the Phoenix room to play the Shadowrun 5e I signed up for. Unfortunately, only two other people signed up so we couldn't run through the actual adventure. Thankfully, the two people running the game didn't miss a beat and ran us through a humorous little encounter they called "Food Fight", showing what happens when a group of shadowrunners try to pick up some fast food late at night. While short, the game was pretty fun and my shaman kicked some serious ass.

Shortly afterwards, I was asked if I could run a session of Cubicle 7's Doctor Who RPG, a game I've never run before and have only taken the occasional glance at. However, wanting to be helpful, I decided to give it a shot. While I fudged a lot of the mechanics and improved a good amount of the adventure notes given to me, the group of mostly new players seemed to have a fun time.

Running Doctor Who and telling someone where the bathroom is.
A master of multitasking.

After a short break to help with promoting the remaining demos, I moved onto my second game of the day: Deadlands. Originally, I was going to run Numenera, but I felt Savage Worlds would be a better fit for a convention setting. Thankfully, I was correct. All of the players were new to the setting, but dug the concept and enjoyed the game. The game ended with our huckster setting the big bad on fire with his magic by blowing up a jar of whiskey in its hand and causing so much havoc. It was easily one of the most entertaining sessions of Savage Worlds I have ever GM ran.

With my GMing duties for the day over, I decided to kick back and relax with a few of the other volunteers, talking about games and goofing off. Afterwards, we checked out the fire dancing show out by the pool and the cosplay contest. The night ended back at the Phoenix room, killing time with a friend until he could finally call it quits for the day and go to bed. Once that was done, I gathered my stuff and made my way back home. 

Although I only attended the con for a day (which I now regret since I missed the chance to play with Jim Ward, the designer of Metamorphosis Alpha and one of Gygax's original players), I had a blast. I'll definitely be attending next year and will definitely be there for both days. If you're in the area next year, I suggest checking it out as well.