Hi all

My apologies for not writing a post-con report prior to now, however I have been busy with post-con hosting duties. Brent and Rob stayed until Tuesday morning and Dan just flew out this morning (Wednesday). We have been seeing some of the local sites and doing a lot of brainstorming and concept work for new articles.

On to the details of the con…

The “Pre-Con”

Thursday, 18 Aug

Ed Barach (The Real Me) arrived at about 6pm on Thursday afternoon. I picked him up at the airport and then we went out for an excellent Japanese dinner. After dinner, we returned to the hotel. Ed and I met up with James Watson ad talked for quite a while until I had to beg off because I had not finished the Soylana Assembly adventure for Friday!

Friday, 19 Aug

I was up early to finish the Soylana Assembly adventure. I picked up Dan Bell, Brent Bailey and Rob Barnes at the airport during the day. All three got sent to secondary customs inspection. The customs agents were very suspicious of this “Harn” convention and had to be sure they weren’t going to work while they were here.

HarnCon

Friday, 19 Aug, 5pm

The con started at 5pm with the Soylana Assembly free form adventure. It was a lot of fun and different than the Kaldor Succession Crisis. Ed did a great job as Sir Houla. The Assembly ended with the Soylana deciding NOT to send troops and without sufficient votes to split (the King and Serekela had demanded at least a three vote majority). In a postscript, the GM (me) suggested that all the disloyal Soylana were arrested on orders of the Chabla’s envoy and sent south to Melderyn for trial. The Reblena of Yatalko (Brent) led a contingent of loyal LoP troops south to fight in the Crusade.

We broke mid-session to walk down to Johnny Farina’s (a wood-fired pizza restaurant) for dinner.

Saturday, 20 Aug

The day started at 8am with Dave Mareske’s Kaldor Succession Crisis block game. We ran two groups of four. It was a big hit. It is in its third major playtest with some big changes. It was a lot of fun. We gathered many pages of notes, comments and ideas to make it even better. Rob Barnes gathered all the comments to send to Dave.

James Watson also ran his Dognapped game for several people (I was playing in the block game, so I missed who was playing and how it went, PCs can post more details below).

We broke for lunch, this reveal one of the weakness of the location that I hadn’t factored in. Ottawa is a government town. It is booming all week with tons of lunch places, however on the weekend, it is almost a ghost town and most of the lunch places are closed. We did end up at a SubWay not far from the hotel.

In the afternoon, I ran my “Siege of Tashal” game for Brent Bailey, Robert Boyer, Gary Kett, Dan Bell, Dave St Pierre. They played mercenaries sent as a Forlorn Hope to try and open the gate of Tashal from the inside. It was sent in 722TR, with Maldan trapped in the city by Conwan’s army. Maldan had sent for Thardic assistance and Conwan was desperate to take the city before the Thardans arrived. The PCs infiltrated the mercenary company guarding the Heru gate and turned about half of them, allowing them to open the gate for Conwan’s army. They managed to do this and still keep three of the four gold coins they were given for bribes. True PCs!

I can’t remember if other games were running, I was too busy with my own game, but I think the other folks just continued playing the block game.

For dinner, we headed down Elgin Street to the Lieutenant’s Pump pub for dinner. Rather than send gifts (most of which we all have anyway), CGI was kind enough to sponsor out dinner on Saturday night to the tune of $250, which was much appreciated by all. It was another great chance to visit with some amazing and fun fellow Harniacs.

We returned to the hotel after dinner, played the block game and visited until late. John Sgammato and his wife Lorna arrived about 10pm.

Sunday, 21 Aug

Sunday morning started with two games. I ran “Siege of Tashal” again, this time with a Lia-Kavair team: Paul Barr, Lawrence Bryan, Rob Barnes, Ed Barach and Jonathan Nicholas. They used poison in the guards’ food to help them free the Ternua Gate. John Sgammato ran “Between the Cutlass and Claw” for James Watson, Dave St Pierre, Dan Bell, and Brent Bailey.

My game was not finished by lunch, so we took a break for food (SubWay again!).

After lunch, the HarnWriters (me, John Sgammato, Brent Bailey, Rob Barnes, Dan Bell, and Dave St Pierre) did a teleconference with some of the other members who couldn’t be at the con (Joe Adams, Alun Rees, Richard Luschek, Thomas Shook and Oddgier Drevdal). We had a good discussion and batted around some ideas for the next year.

After the teleconference was finished, we resumed the “Siege of Tashal” game and finished about 5pm.

That night, the group (less Paul Barr who had to leave early the next morning) went out for dinner in Gatineau, Quebec at a micro-brewery called Les Brasseurs des Temps. A good meal was had by all. John Sgammato and Jonathan Nicholas shared the “tour of the brewery”, a 3oz drink of each of the brewery’s different beers.

Post-Con

Monday, 22 Aug

Most people left on Monday morning, but Brent, Rob and Dan stayed behind. On Monday morning we drove south to Upper Canada Village, a living history museum set in the early 1800s. Tony met us there. We toured the village and had lunch. Tony had to head home to Toronto after lunch.

When we finished at UCV, we drove down to Kingston and toured Fort Henry, an artillery fortification built in 1832. We made our way back to Ottawa and had a fun evening discussing Harn and ideas for future projects.

Tuesday, 23 Aug

We all met up again for breakfast on Tuesday and then I gave the guys a tour of Ottawa, including visiting the Rideau Canal and watching a boat go through the locks. I dropped Brent and Rob at the airport at 10:30am.

After saying our goodbyes, Dan and I went to visit the Diefenbunker, Canada’s former Prime Ministerial Cold War bunker (now a museum). After a good tour, we returned home.

That night, I had my regularly scheduled game night for my Savage Worlds Day After Ragnarok campaign. Dan joined us as a guest star.

Wednesday, 24 Aug

This morning, I dropped Dan off at the airport for his flight and then went to see the new Conan the Barbarian movie.

All and all it was a very good seven days. Now I have to go back to work.

Wish you all could have been here.

Attendees:

Kerry Mould [Sageryne]
Dan Bell [Dan]
Brent Bailey [bbailey]
Rob Barnes [Krazma]
Dave St Pierre [Dave]
Paul Barr [Rob]
Jonathan Nicholas [Nichola]
Carol Nicholas
Ed Barach [The Real Me]
Lawrence Byran [Lawrence]
James Watson [jwatson19]
John Sgammato [john]
Robert Boyer
Gary Kett [gihk]
Tony Courchene (sp?) [Merdain]
Andrew Megill [Varlenn]
Paul Thomson

TTYL

- Kerry

_________________
Well, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle. - Mal, Firefly.

Hi all,

Here is our HarnCon photo.

(Standing Left to Right)

Rob Barnes, Brent Bailey, Ed Barach, Paul Barr, Kerry Mould, Jonathan Nicholas, Carol Nicholas, Dave St Pierre, Lawrence Bryan

[Seated Left to Right)

James Watson, Tony Courchene

(Not shown)

Dan Bell (taking the picture)

TTYL

- Kerry

_________________
Well, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle. - Mal, Firefly.

Hi all,

A few more pictures:

Dinner at Johnny Farina's on Friday night

John Sgammato's game, Between Cutlass and Claw

Dinner at Les Brasseurs des Temps

Thanks to Dan Bell for the pictures.

TTYL

- Kerry

_________________
Well, my days of taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle. - Mal, Firefly.

That's what we want to see!
... but it's a concern that John is getting his drinks a tray-load at a time!

If you knew how slow our server was, you'd order them that way, too!

_________________
Heroes should be uncommon. They just happen to be the PCs.

I had a blast at this year's HarnCon. Kerry is an amazing host and great friend, he is a true asset to this community.

Here is a photo album of my trip:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/saralbell7 ... 080975654/

Friday, August 19th:
I was kindly picked up by Kerry at the airport. Had a few nice chats with several Canadian customs officers before they allowed me into Canada. It was almost comical, I almost thought they were USA TSA agents. (Except one - she was way too cute and friendly.) Brent Bailey and Rob Barnes also got special treatment that day. They even searched Rob's bags. (Guess they thought we were Harn mules!)

Friday was also my first of 7? trips to Tim Hortons. http://www.timhortons.com/ It's a Canada thing. (The nearest Tim Horton's to me here in San Diego, CA is in British Columbia.) I personally blame Kerry for the three pounds I gained eating Timbits (their donut holes) while in Ottawa.

HarnCon proper started around dinnertime. Kerry laid out the Soylana Assembly LARP background and style of play. I played the leader of the patriot faction sword chapter in the Soylana Assembly adventure. Carol Nicholas (the Nebulan sword chapter commander) & I were natural allies and we almost succeeded in splitting the LoP. We were successful in opposing the call for troops.

Saturday, August 20th:
Dave Mareske’s Kaldor Succession Crisis block game playtest. (I think I sat in 3-4 games of this over the weekend. We were playing around with various factions and house rules as well. It was great fun - even if I kept losing.)

After Subway, Kerry's Siege of Tashal game was a real treat. I played an ostler to clan Caldeth and used my knowledge of clan Caldeth's townhouse (see Kerry's article on Lythia.com) as a good location for us to climb the city walls. We PCs climbed up a ladder at 4 a.m. (the ladder was taken back to the siege lines) and to avoid the sentry, decided to jump lightly on the clan Caldeth stable roof, then scale down and exit the compound. I rolled a "0""0" on 2d10 in Harnmaster. My PC fell thru the roof, the hayloft and landed in a steaming pile of $#@!. He wasn't right in the head for a while after that. The other guys did a kick ass job befriending the mercs at the Heru gate and bribed them so they flipped and we all opened the gates to Conwan's troops.

Dinner, at Lieutenant’s Pump was nice, esp. since CGI offered to Kerry to help offset some of the cost of this dinner in lieu of door prizes!

Sunday, August 21st:
I sat in John Sgammato's Between the Cutlass and Claw with James Watson, Dave St Pierre, and Brent Bailey. It was fun to playtest some of John's critters, and see what nasty things they did to PCs. Damn that wall clam!

Dinner at Les Brasseurs des Temps was grand. The look on our watriess' face when Dave spoke to her in fluent French after she had taken orders for ten Americans (and one English speaking Canadian) was priceless! Most folks parted ways that night.

Monday, August 22nd:
The aftercon was fun as well! Kerry, Brent, Rob & I met Tony at Upper Canada Village. http://www.uppercanadavillage.com/ and had a blast.

Sans Tony who had to go back to work, we then went to Fort Henry, built to protect Canada from those "evil" Americans. http://www.forthenry.com/

Tuesday, August 23rd:
After dropping off Brent and Rob, Kerry took me to the Diefenbunker. Its a neat place, but in a depressing sort of way. http://www.diefenbunker.ca/

I had the honor to be a guest at Kerry's regular Savage Worlds - Day After Ragnarok game. That is one fun game - It felt like a Firefly version of "the Mummy" movie. Some of Kerry's players were asking about Harn, I hope they give it a try sometime!

Wednesday, August 24th:
One last Tim Horton's visit, one big hug to Kerry - off on a jet plane.

In sum, it was a real pleasure seeing Kerry, John, Brent, Rob, & Lawrence in person again, and finally meeting Dave, Jonathan & Carol, Ed, James, Tony, and Paul Barr for the first time. I had a blast, and can't wait to do it again sometime!

_________________
Visit the Nelafayn Hundred Project
http://www.lythia.com/nelafayn/

Sounds like you guys had a great time! Was there any talk on next years location?

_________________
Ok, let me get this straight. These guys come in, trash the place, slap Agrik & Larani around, and the most intelligible thing they said was "Zog!"?

No. I've been toying with the idea of Madison, Wisconsin. Any interest???

_________________
The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

Timing is everything for me James but I am interested.

I was thinking of August about the same time as this year's.

_________________
The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin

I suggest that discussion of next year's HârnCon be moved to it's own topic in the appropriate forum; let's keep this one about HC Ottawa. A lot of folks won't think to look here for information about next year.

A good idea but how to do it and leave a link so folks can find it?

I've posted in the Clan Moot under 2012 Harn Con North America please look there.

_________________
The venerable James
Web Site: http://www.jswatson.info
Seeking Harn Players in Madison, Wisconsin