Gary Con After-Con Report Coming Soon

Sorry for the silence. I seem to have brought home some Con Crud from Gary Con and I been pretty tired the last few days. I have a belated report on all the fun I had in Lake Geneva in a couple of days.

Gary Con: Pre-Con Festivities

As I do each year, I made half-hour trip to Lake Geneva to pick up my badge. Once again, I drove through the rolling, snow-covered hills of southeastern Wisconsin's Kettle Moraine, this time to a new destination: The Grand Geneva Resort. In previous years, Gary Con had taken place at The Geneva Ridge Resort, but it seems that this convention is moving up in the world. Long ago, Grand Geneva had been a Playboy Club where two of the original Gen Cons took place, now it is Lake Geneva's largest resort.

Always a welcome sight!

After navigating the palatial resort grounds, I picked up my badge and took a quick walk around the facilities to get my bearings. I was used to the Ridge, but Grand Geneva truly dwarfs the former in both size and style. I shudder to think what the rooms cost per night, even with convention rates.

The Menzer Kitchen. A homey place.

Afterward, it was off to Sharon, WI for the annual party at Frank Mentzer's lovely house. Frank and his wife Debbie were, as ever, gracious hosts and everyone who came was treated to all manner of baked goodies from their well-appointed kitchen. I ran into many familiar faces and more than a few new ones graced the gathering. Frank treated us to an exhibition of his classic TSR wargaming materials, including vintage copies of Chainmail, Boot Hill, and an impressive number of the ill-fated "Warriors of Mars" game.

Frank at his desk, that used be be one of Gary's desks.

See!

Around 10, my belly full of Italian beef and homemade Red Box cake, I said my farewells, hoped into the car and drove back to Muskego to grab some sleep before the big day.

I got one of the claws.

Gary Con is here!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! Yes, Gary Con starts tomorrow and this year I thought I'd take a break for GMing so I can take in the sheer joy of playing. As usual, events registration had a few technical hiccups, but I got everything I wanted. As usual, I'll try to keep you posted on the all fun and frovilics I encounter at what has become my favorite game concvention.

Olympus Inc. Kickstarter Suspended!

Bad news, Savage Worlds fans! With five days remaining and only a few dollars from their goal, Kickstarter suspended Fabled Environment's campaign for Olympus Inc.! Author and organizer Chris White explains what happened in the following post in the campaign's comment section: 

A few minutes ago, I learned that the project had been suspended. There is no appeal process. The fault lies completely with myself. To be completely honest, I had an old KS account that I never used but many people has followed me through it. All four of my launched projects and the 20 that I have backed have been through a second account . 

The problem is that I backed this project for $1 through the first account so that people that followed me through that account would know I launch the new project. I actually forgot I even did it as it was at the beginning of the campaign.  

Because of the stupid move on my part, Kickstarter view this as an ethical violation. 

Therefore the campaign has been suspended and there is no appeal process.
Needless to say I am really devastated by this turn of events. I feel horrible for my partner on the project and for you the fans that have supported us. 

I will attempt to reach out to Kickstarter but it seems like I have no recourse. The only option I have at this point I believe is to relaunch the Kickstarter. 

Again, I'm sorry for this turn of events. I feel very foolish. Thank you for your support and I hope you will support us when we relaunch. Just to be clear, there was absolutely nothing found that was unethical about our project except for the issue of the dollar pledge.

Since Fabled Environments has run several successful KS campaigns in the past and I have not heard any complaints against them it's safe to say that Chris is being completely truthful and this is an unfortunate mistake. Oversights like this do happen even to the best of people. The only thing we can do is give Fabled Environments time to relaunch the campaign and pledge again.

Olympus, Inc. Preview

Charles White at Fabled Environments has just released a .PDF preview of their upcoming Savage Worlds corporate-troubleshooting-meets-Greek-mythology setting, Olympus, Inc. Olympus, Inc. is currently in the middle of it's own crowdfunding effort where they are a little over halfway to their $8500 goal with only 18 days to go. Check out the preview and help bring this setting to print!

Olympus, Inc. Kickstarter is live!

As promised, just a kick post to let my millions of dedicated readers (scoff) know that Fabeled Enviroments' new Kickstarter for their Savage Worlds setting Olympus, Inc. is live. To help sell this awesome setting to you, check out this recent Google Hangout interview with Charles White of FE as he discusses the setting with the Savage Bloggers Network's  Ron Blessing and Kristian Serrano:

Olympus, Inc Update

Yesterday, Fabled Environments made the following announcement on the Facebook page for their upcoming title, Olympus, Inc:

Just a quick update to let folks know that we are pushing back the Kickstarter launch a few days. We want to tweak a couple of things based on some imput that we've gotten.  

The current plan is to launch on Tuesday. Just a few days longer and you can jump in and support bringing this rich setting to life!

So remark your calendars. To be on the safe side, I'll post an announcement here when the Kickstarter begins. Stay tuned.