DunDraCon 2019

[Rune]

Hi,

 

DunDracon 43 will be held in San Ramon, CA from February 15 through February 18, 2019.  Hero System is typically well represented at this convention.  Who is going?

[dsatow]

I'm running the last installment of the teenagers games I've been running for the past few years called Graduation Day.  People will be allowed to bring in up to two characters to the game (parent 12d6 and student 9d6).

[dsatow]

Does anyone know if HERO is being represented by one of the dealers?

[Scott Ruggels]

I wish I could go. Maybe next year? Was my favorite con for years. I just need to find my character binder for next year, then XD.

 

[dsatow]

Little over a week away.  Here are the HERO games scheduled. 

 

P02 The Silver and the Grey
Only available via On-line Pre-registration
Friday Noon in 143 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: James E. Puder 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Edition: 4th/5th blend
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 200 pts 150 pts disads 9-12 DC 20-33 DEF
Variations: no cosmic power pools or powers re speed chart
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Silver Streak was a super-thief. Though she was non-violent, she was definitely a lawbreaker. 5 years ago, she disappeared after pulling of her biggest heist, robbing the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. Never a violent type, she avoided conflict, and tried her best not to injure innocents or even guards.

Now, new thefts are taking place, and they seem to mirror the style of Silver Streak, with only 1 difference. These robberies are violent, with injuries aplenty. The most recent one left the guards hospitalized, and several bystanders injured.

Will you rise up and stop this renewed menace, or will she once again Streak away into the night?

 

P04 ?The Incredibles!
Only available via On-line Pre-registration
Friday Noon in 147 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Jim Gettman 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: Max 60AP @SPD5 w/CV10
Variations: minor
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
?You are a Parr, in the car, racing after getaway gunmen. Frozone skis in.?Crazy stuff happens.?Lots of crazy stuff.

P28 Drug Dealers in My Swamp?
Only available via On-line Pre-registration
Friday 4 PM in 152 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Callie Goukler 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 10d6 avg.
Variations: 2 or 3 house rules; no major changes
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
It?s more likely than you think. Drug Flow in South East Texas has increased, a nuclear reactor had Plutonium Stolen, and locals report train horns within city limits.

Welcome to Texas. The Drug Cartel seems to be making moves, the flow of heroin and cocaine has increased as of late. Authorities assume a nuclear power plant robbed a couple days ago has something to do with it. Heroes can expect high speed train robbery, dangerous foes, and a sinister plot that threatens citizens of America, can they stop it?

Heroes Pick 2:
12d6 attack
10 Combat Value
6-8 Spd
30+ defenses
GM reserves the Right to say no.

 

205 Dark Side Academy
Saturday 8 AM in 152 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: David Rakonitz 
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th Edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 60 pt attacks; max 33 PD/33 ED.
Variations: 4th w/some 5th; minor var.
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
Darkness approaches. To survive, humanity must sacrifice and bow to its alien masters. Can the heroes prevail, or will the Dark Side Academy teach them a grim lesson?

 

208 Graduation Day
Saturday 8 AM in 159 for 6 hours
Room Map
GM: Don Satow 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 6th Edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 8d6/12d6, 8CV/10CV, 5/7 Spd
Variations: 5th ed. OK; No VPP, no Find/Lack of Weakness
Rules Knowledge: Useful
Game Content: Mainstream
It's graduation day at the CAPES. Superkids and Superparents are invited. Players will be allowed up to two characters representing a child graduating and a parent. The child is at 8d6, 8 CV, 5 Spd power level. The parent is allowed to be at 12d6, 10CV, 7 Spd power levels.

312 Dresden Files: The Universal Riddle Pt. I
Saturday 4 PM in 168 for 4 hours
Room Map
GM: Greg Haslam 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 8
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
This game is set in the universe of Harry Dresden of the Dresden Files and takes place during 'Ghost Story.' You will play one of nine associates of Harry who recently banded together to stop a group of necromancers trying to raise an undead dinosaur army in the Southwestern United States.

Now a new threat has risen and Harry's Irregulars are called into action once more. There have been dark tidings coming out of England and rumors of a split in the Wizarding community. Your group is being sent by Captain Luccio on a secret assignment to the UK because she does not know who she can trust there anymore and therefore neither can you.

Rumors of the appearance of THE Black Knight has gotten the mystical underworld of the UK in a state of panic or euphoria depending on their allegiance. ou must uncover the truth of the matter or the UK may be lost to the Council.

The PCs are:
Esteban Santiago, Esteban has been around for quite a while. He was born in Madrid in the late 1800s, to a family that knew of magic and was proud to raise yet another wizard. Your early training consisted of training with the sword and the theories of magic, on the assumption that you would show a talent at some point. As all Santiagos did. Eventually your power did arrive. You had an affinity for ice, and your training began to focus on that. You learned to use the ice as a focus, attacking with showers of ice shards or defending with a shield of ice. Once you had been trained to the extent your family could, you were sent to live with the apprentices at the White Council. Training was difficult, as you found most of the other students frivolous and unfocused. Soon you attained the rank of Commander in the Wardens, and were assigned to work out of the American west coast – primarily California.

Kathy Traynor, Kathy is new to the ranks of wardens.

Esteban has been your teacher and mentor for several years now. Your training was difficult, due to your volatile nature. You are a hothead, and sitting still for boring lessons is the least favorite thing you could possibly do. He was debating how to handle this when he received word from the White Council that something really bad had happened. The White Council was at war with the Red Court of Vampires, and the vampires had struck one of the Council safe houses and destroyed many of the Wardens.

With a shortage of Wardens, Esteban took you along with him to the Wardens enclave. He left you there to finish your training with Captain Luccio while he went off on a combat mission. Realizing that if there is a war going on, you probably couldn’t afford to be unprepared.So you buckled down and graduated to the rank of Warden, grey cloak and all.

Alex Main, Alex has had a troubled life. As a teenager he discovered that sometimes he could see the lingering dead. Unfortunately, they didn’t seem to be able to see him. Or talk to him. This lead to disturbing and sometimes embarrassing incidents. Sometimes they were so real he didn’t realize they were dead. So he would react to them or talk to them, and get some weird looks.

Salvatore Black, Salvatore fell in with Billy and his Alphas gaming group at College. Billy explained that they had learned how to shape shift into wolves, and now they were involved with a local wizard, Harry Dresden, trying to protect the city from weirdness and evil. You’d met Harry at the game, and were surprised to hear all of this.

Billy explained that the Alphas (that’s what they called themselves) trusted you. They could teach you the 'spell,' but there was no guarantee it would work. You jumped at the chance, and spent every free minute for the next few months working on the spell. Finally you mastered the change You’ve been changing for almost a year now and have gotten pretty good at it. Your wolf form is pretty awesome, and you’ve been in some pretty nasty fights.

Jasmine 'Jazz' Smith, Nobody has called you Jasmine since you were 3 years old. Jazz is the only name you answer to. You’ve always been the biggest and toughest kid in school. Even in high school, as a freshman, all of the seniors kept their distance. When you demanded to be on the football team, they were too afraid to say no. Your parents were always a bit hesitant on how to handle you, and you were very different from your siblings When you graduated high school, they sat down with you for what you thought was 'the talk' (a little bit late, but you didn’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them that.)

It turned out that it wasn’t that talk. It was the you’re not really our child talk. You were adopted as a baby. All that they were able to find out from the adoption agency was that your mother died during childbirth, and never told who your father was. Shocker, but things kind of added up. They had never treated you differently from your brothers, and obviously loved you like you were their only daughter. They are unaware of your true fae heritage.

Max Gallagher, Max was always the wild card, the joker. As a child, you were the one that always played the practical jokes, setting up elaborate gags on the neighborhood kids. As you entered high school, you simply got more elaborate.

Then, a month after you graduated High School, you got a piece of mail. You were drafted, into the Vietnam War. When the shock wore off, you said your goodbyes and left. You started in the infantry, and found you had a talent for mayhem. You didn’t really think of it as a good thing, though. But your superiors noticed, and kept bumping you up and getting you extra training. Eventually you just let your mind go onto autopilot and tried not to think about the death. During a stay in Rome, you met a man that called himself Father Joshua Payne. He was from America, and had been sent to talk to you. When you asked who sent him, he told you that God sent him. Despite having spent almost 5 years in a monastery, you weren’t all that religious. You believed in God, and knew that he touched people’s lives. But you had no structured belief system. You were content simply believing.

Father Payne told you that he belonged to a group that did what you were doing, only on a more organized basis. They were called the Venatori Umbrorum – The Shadow Hunters. Their goal was to seek out and destroy the dark things in the world. Because Monsters existed – vampires, werewolves, ghouls, etc.The Venatori was a behind the scenes organization, mostly working from political or social angles. But occasionally they needed an 'enforcer,' and you fit the bill. You knew how to handle yourself, and already seemed to have some sort of connection that put you where you were needed.

Yamiko Shin, Yamiko is not your standard heroine. In fact, if you asked her she probably would deny being anything like a heroine. You spent the next 6 years traveling Europe and learning to steal from the notorious thief, 'The Spider'. He taught you sleight of hand, and magic. Many of the skills overlapped and you found you had nimble fingers and a talent for misdirection. You also completed a Masters Degree in Art History. Not bad for a poor 'scholarship” student from the American Midwest. The Spider’s only caveat on teaching you was that you left Europe to him. So when you graduated you returned to the United States. You obtained a part time job in New York at the MOMA, with flexible enough hours that you could indulge in your hobby. You still do it for the excitement; you have plenty of money set aside for a rainy day. A lot of your profits go to various charities.

Wally Porter, born in 1937.You floated your way through life, until the night you met a good looking woman that seemed interested in you. You took her home and remember nothing of the night. You woke the next day, sick. The sunlight hurt and you couldn’t seem to satisfy your thirst. You stayed in bed all day, but when night came you felt better. As you left the house, the same lady appeared on your doorstep. She invited herself in, and eventually a week passed into obscurity. One morning, however there was a different story. You woke feeling even worse, but also found that you were chained and bound. There was messy goo on the bed next to you, and the woman’s clothing. When you could focus, you saw the heavily tattooed man sitting in the chair.

He introduced himself as Nigel, and apologized for not having been there quicker. He explained that your 'date' was a vampire, and she was trying to change you into one also. He had been hunting her, but lost track of her for the last week. He followed her here, but you were already under her sway when he got in and killed her. He further explained that he was like you, partially turned. He was part of an organization called the Fellowship of St Giles. They consisted of people in your condition banded together to hunt and kill Red Court Vampires.

Antoinette Dupres, You are one of what Harry Dresden calls the Paranet -- a group of low level magic users who have connected to protect each other from more 'important' forces. You have lived in the New Orleans for some time, and this is how you met the Irregulars. Last year they came to you looking for information on the local magic scene. You were able to answer their questions and kept their contact information handy against further need. Now may be that time.

Your stated identity is that of a 20ish year old girl, living on your own just outside of New Orleans. In actuality you are a bit older than that -- 132 years old in fact. Well, that is your age if you use your date of animation. You are, in fact, a flesh golem. A created being brought to life by magic and sustained by magical energy. Your creator, Henry Dippel, was the great-great-grandson of Konrad Dippel - the man that inspired the stories of Frankenstein and his monster. Henry found his ancestor’s notes and, using more modern techniques, was able to create you. You were born without memories, created to be his slave and bride. You learned quickly, however, and were able to destroy him and his laboratory (and the notebooks) as you left. His techniques were much improved on the original monster that was created, but there is still some scarring that is visible, so you routinely wear a choker and bracelets to hide them.

 

405 Awaken the Sleeper
Saturday 6 PM in 377 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Glenn S. Thain 
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th Edition (Champions)
Edition: 4th
Players: 7
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Variations: Limited house rules, all minor.
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mature Themes
June 15, 1940 - London undergoes a series of thefts which baffle police. Churchill, newly appointed to the Prime Ministry activates the Home Defense League, (HDL), tasking Britain's newly formed heroes with the task of finding out what the Nazi's are after and putting a stop to whatever vile scheme Hitler has devised. Can you portray one of Britain's finest and save the country from whatever devilish plot Hitler has undertaken?

414 Overwatch!
Saturday 8 PM in 168 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Aaron Clements Gettman 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: Max 60AP @SPD5 w/CV10
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
Players start the RPG as The Incredibles at the end of their latest movie. They engage some thugs, then chase after The Underminer. That rabbit hole leads them into an encounter with very challenging Overwatch villains. Engagement is ex-machina adoption of an Overwatch game goal; this is not a killing spree. Stakes will be returning to normal vs remaining in limbo.

 

515 Tales from the Future that Never Was: Mechagodzilla Et Al
Sunday 8 AM in 166 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Joe Di Lellio 
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th Edition (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: Players provide their own characters
Power Level: 10-14+ DC, appropriate CVs & defenses
Variations: minor
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mainstream
Seatopia ravaged by the Kentaurans, Mechagodzilla gone... but to where? And what now?

Web description: Under construction, we'll see if this time (for sure!) it actually gets past that point.
Website: /www.planetx.org/~joed/ddc/xxxxiii.html

622 ?Los Campeones Contra Los Marcianos
Sunday 4 PM in 378 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: Vernon Putman 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Players: 6
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Power Level: standard
Variations: Luchadores
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mainstream
Los Campeones de Justicia, the Luchadores known as the Champions of Justice, must face their most far-out threats yet! Martians threaten the world, and only the power of Lucha Libre can save it!

 

809 Destination UnGnome
Monday 8 AM in 154 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: B J Goukler 
Type: RPG
System: Hero 5th Ed. (Champions)
Edition: Slim Goodman Approved
Players: 7
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 12-16d
Variations: VPPs shot on sight. I can work w/other editions.
Rules Knowledge: Expected
Game Content: Mainstream
There is unrest among the elves in the great cookie factory, as the Princess Selena of the Frostine bloodline has gone missing. The King has sent the best of the batch of his Special Editions down the Rainbow Road to try and find her, but none have reported back since entering the Molasses Swamp. Desperate for the return of his daughter, he has reached out to you for assistance.?Will you eat the blue cookie, and just enjoy a glass of milk? ?Or eat the red cookie and see just how deep this silliness goes?

 

812 The Narrative Lectionary - Fated to Pretend Pt. 1
Monday 8 AM in 161 for 8 hours
Room Map
GM: D. Giel 
Type: RPG
System: Hero pre-5th Edition (Champions)
Edition: 4th
Players: 5
Provided: Characters may be provided by GM
Power Level: 200pt Base w/Talents. 50 Pts Skills [& more]
Variations: Story Driven. Slight Movement variation
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mature Themes
The most important aspect of this game is to tell a story and to get everyone in game be part of the story. Powers are great but it is not the end all. It is how you work together as a team is what counts It is also the decision of the players and the group in question on how the story will begin and how it will end as I am only 'The Weaver of the Narrative'.

NOTE: If you know this game please try to make your character as balanced as possible. REMEMBER: 'The Sword Cuts Both Ways.' Get Cheesy on me and I'll throw it right back at you. You will not like that. REASON: Because sometimes it is not the great hero that wins the day but some unsung person that did the right thing at the right time. But more important is a group of people not knowing each other doing something greater than doing it alone.

FINAL NOTE: There will be 15 minute breaks approx every 2 hours to grab a quick bite and other things. Average game time is Approx 8 hours but I have seen it go shorter and longer than posted. Just be prepared for the possibility. Because players sometimes throw in interesting concepts and at times I go with it.

Because as you know... It is all about the Narrative.
Beginners are Welcome. 

[Duke Bushido]

Okay, I'll ask:

 

What is the "Slim Goodman Approved" edition?

 

 

 

[Ninja-Bear]

What game content mainstream?

[Brian Stanfield]

13 hours ago, Duke Bushido said:

Okay, I'll ask:

 

What is the "Slim Goodman Approved" edition?

 

 

 

I had the same question. 

[dsatow]

4 hours ago, Ninja-Bear said:

What game content mainstream?

 

The convention has several grades of game content akin to the movie rating system.  There's family, mainstream, mature, and very complex.  Family is like the G rated movie.  Mainstream is like the PG/PG-13 standard and is similar to what you see most games as being designed for.  Mature usually corresponds to R content with more adult themes and language.  Very complex doesn't apply to RPGs and is not content related but rather related to how complex the rules are for board games, card games, miniatures, etc.

[archer]

I'm so envious that there are 12, count them, 12 HERO sessions on the schedule.

 

That's so awesome.

[dsatow]

The games are popular and every day had at least 1 Champions game.

[Scott Ruggels]

I will try to be there next year.

[BNakagawa]

FYI - next year DDC 2020 will be their last year in San Ramon. 2021 will be in Santa Clara.

[GM_Champion]

Wow, moving that far south?

 

I hope that means they outgrew the old hotel and are super-popular now!

[BNakagawa]

DDC outgrew the San Ramon Marriott years ago. They have a lot of organizational inertia and finding a replacement venue is difficult. Hopefully, changing venues will help them in the long term.

[dsatow]

The new location has better parking, lots of food choices in a nearby drive, several large hotels to piggy back, and IMHO, the best reason is the location is only 5 min from my house.