February 6th, 7th, & 8th, 2004
Once again the venue was the Chancellor Hotel & Convention Center in Champaign, Illinois. For several years after the move from the old campus location Winter War had to share convention space with one or more events. Particularly problematic were the years in which the convention space was split between the gamers and a firefighter’s convention. No offense to the members of that honorable profession, but that bunch could get awful rowdy after they visited the hotel bar. I am pleased to announce that the days of sharing space with other events are over. Winter War has become big enough to rent out the whole Chancellor Convention Center. Tabletop role-playing events are no longer consigned to distant rooms on unknown floors. Instead they are found on the ground floor in rooms previously occupied by other groups, like the aforementioned firefighters.
Another plus of the venue is the great selection of good places to eat. The hotel maintains a better-than-average on-site food stand and numerous restaurants can be found less than a block from the con site, including a diner, a McDonalds, a pizza joint, and Aunt Sonya’s, a nice sit down restaurant with an excellent all-day breakfast menu. (I recommend the pancakes.)
I didn’t play anything Friday afternoon, as I was trying to put the finishing touches on my Call of Cthulhu event for later that evening. I did notice a couple of games of interest in the main room. Tom Reed ran a 28mm game of cowboys and Indians (well, US Cavalry and Sioux, to be more accurate), using Desperado for his rules. Another fellow had a great Circus Maximus game with an enlarged board and figures. I can’t recall the scale, either 15 or 25mm I believe. The role-playing room had a raucous game of QAGS, making ’04 no less than the third year in a row someone has run QAGS at Winter War. This time it was basically a QAGS rendering of the cartoon/comic The Tick. Chris Camfield, the GM, accidentally forgot his rulebook, character sheets, and adventure notes. But since this was QAGS, the Quick Ass Game System, they played anyway without missing a beat. That’s one of the reasons why I love QAGS. You could tell from all the laughter and shouting that Chris’s players were all having a rip-snorting time of it.
Friday evening I ran my Call of Cthulhu event. I thought it went quite well even though I only killed one PC and no one went permanently insane. (One PC had his face horribly mangled by an accidental shotgun discharge and another was indefinitely insane, so I’ll count those as partial victories.) It was good to game once again with Chris Gray, whom I first met back when I was enrolled at the University fo Illinois, and Kathleen, an online friend who had played in my QAGS: Superfriends game at last year’s Winter War.
Because I was knee deep in Cthulhu (and the Calling thereof) I didn’t make it out of the RPG room Friday night, so I can’t really comment on minis and boardgames and such. I am happy to report that things were hopping in the role-playing area. Cookie Morris had a HackMaster game going while Dennis Campbell ran a sci-fi outing using the Savage Worlds rules. Rob Walter had a Jovian Chronicles game scheduled but I never made it as far as his table to see how it went.
Best of all, Friday evening saw the triumphant return of local GMing great Dave Hoover, the redheaded maniac. For many years Dave’s games have been the firm foundation upon which the Winter War RPG section has been built. Last Winter War he gave himself a much-deserved break, much to the dismay of his many fans. Well this year he was back in full effect, running an over-the-top Feng Shui event. (And I’m talking over-the-top even by Feng Shui standards!) He also went on to run several Savage Worlds games later in the con. It’s good to see Mr. Hoover back in the GM’s seat.
I wasn’t scheduled to run or play a game for the Saturday morning slot, so I wandered the con, checking out games and dealer’s tables. The miniatures area was the usual mix of historicals and Games Workshop products. Greg Novak had a great 54mm World War II setup, while Dustin Burger had a nifty space station model for a Necromunda throwdown. On the boardgames front El Nyberg had some tables devoted to an Axis & Allies tournament while Rob Walter had some players huddled around a Monopoly set. I thought putting Monopoly on the schedule was a great idea. The con could stand a few more games like that, I think. (Heck, it out to be possible to get a Scrabble or Monopoly tournament going.) Meanwhile Dungeons & Dragons dominated the roleplaying area, mostly RPGA-sanctioned Living Greyhawk events run by the Central Illinois Roleplaying Combatants Alliance.
Eight dealer’s had space at the convention this year. My favorites were The Dragon’s Table (Champaign’s friendly local game store), Castle Perilous from Carbondale, Ted Hampton’s Bear Productions and newcomer Mecca Anime from Springfield. Sadly, the Game Room of Washington, IL was not at the convention. One of the owners, Sue Kinsinger, has been battling cancer through a course of aggressive chemotherapy. As a result the Kinsingers have given up the con circuit. The Kinsingers are valuable members of the gaming community and good folks. The thought and prayers of many, many Winter War attendees and staff go out to them.
The first item on the Saturday afternoon schedule was the live auction. This year I worked the registration desk so that the staffers could all attend. I managed to bid on a couple of items anyway, thanks to help by con staffer Paul Pomykala. Thanks, Paul! Saturday afternoon also saw the start of one of the great events unique to Winter War, the Mike Metcalf Memorial Blind Sniper game. This is a hidden movement, every-man-for-himself variant of the old SPI skirmish-level wargame Sniper. The hidden movement aspect involves each player submitting written orders and Bruce Gletty (the judge) processing them and submitting individual written results. This makes for a slow game. So slow, in fact, that the players generally play other games in between Blind Sniper turns. This year I played Carcassonne and Red Empire. Carcassonne is fast becoming my favorite German game. Later that night as the game wore on I tried to play some Euchre as well, but I was getting so tired I couldn’t distinguish the suits on the cards. You know it’s time to pack it in when you can’t tell a heart from a club! Fortunately, my ride home (my brother-in-law Jim) got his Blind Sniper guy killed not long after I crashed.
I wish I could report more firsthand knowledge about the other games in the Saturday afternoon and evening slots, but I my attention was focused on the activity in the Blind Sniper room. I do know a lot of games filled to capacity, which I consider a good sign of a healthy con.
My sister Jenn and a friend of hers named Mike came over from Bloomington for the last day of the con. We all decided to sign up for Tim Gritten’s El Grande game. Jenn and Mike had never played any sort of German game but it turned out that Tim was great at explaining the rules and a real friendly guy. We all had a good time. After the game it turns out that Tim went to school with my brother-in-law Jim.
After lunch Jenn, Mike, and I were joined by my good buddy Pat. We played a game of Carcassonne (I think I got my lil sis hooked on it) and an almost complete game of Illuminati before Jenn and Mike had to head home. We were going to sign up for Jim’s Mississipi Queen game, but Jenn had to head back to Bloomington before the session ended. Turned out that Jim finished before we did.
I’ve certainly glossed over a lot in this little report. Many other games were played, organized by con stalwarts like Ken Vreeman, Rob Walter, Alan Conrad, and many, many others. They and the hardworking staffers deserve a lot of praise for running a tight operation and a fun, fun convention.
Role-playing really came alive this year at Winter War, after several years of lackluster performance. The return of Dave Hoover certainly helped, but a lot of the credit has to go to the RPGA, Living Greyhawk, and the CIRCA judges. Those guys lit up the role-playing room. Another surprising area of strength was the Magic:the Gathering tournament, which apparently had something like 20+ participants. Miniatures and boardgames continue to have strong offerings. The ongoing success of the miniatures department no doubt owes a lot to the veterans of the Central Illinois Tabletop Warriors.
I’m already looking forward with glee to next year’s Winter War. Given the success of my last two Call of Cthulhu games, as well as the fact that it always fills up, I feel like I would be remiss if I didn’t run it again. Maybe I’ll finally hit the books and write a Jack the Ripper adventure. I’d also really like to host a Carcassonne game and maybe write a Starmada scenario. The big thing I want to tackle, though, is organizing a two round Illuminati tournament. Decisions, decisions.
Hope to see you at Winter War
32!
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