Red Box NYC and GenCon

Being in New York City on Sunday gave me the opportunity to swing by a Red Box NYC game run by Tavis Allison, blogger, ACKS co-author and old school promoter extraordinaire. I came there prepared to run a variant of the game I'll be running off the grid at GenCon, but other players wanted Tavis to DM and the oracular die gave the table to him.

This has to be the most unusual location I've ever roleplayed in, apart from that one game on the high speed train out of London. Red Box NYC meets in the upstairs eating area of one of those big midtown delis, at a massive wooden table seemingly placed there as a sign from the Gods of Dice to game on! Stares and occasional curiosity from passers-by livened the session, which included bookbinder extraordinaire Thaddeus, and the Mule, also of The Mule Abides.

The game itself was a fun caper ensonced in Tavis' campaign. I rolled up a magic-user who started at 3rd level. The house rules in use are based off OD&D with a lot of interesting bells and whistles including backgrounds and some cool spells - like the one that summons a simian butler of random species and resemblance to a mid-20th century celebrity. Mine was an orangutan Dean Martin. Trapped in a world he never made, and 3rd level among blinging titans of level as high as 8, Istrobian the ex-librarian skulked around under invisibility, looting, dragging KO'd adventurers to safety and providing nuggets of lore.

After some good conversation on design and writing, we parted ways. Monday I flew out to Indy, and spent the next couple of days under the cone of silence at the AEG retreat. And now, I'm with my usual crew at the Hilton, looking forward to the Friday night game and a whole lot more! Will keep you posted ...