My NTRPG 2024 "Haul"

Last weekend was North Texas RPG con and it was a good convention for me, for the most part. The worst part was probably Sunday with the %!$@#ing fire alarms.

I got to see almost everyone I wanted to see and the Whiskey Tasting went better than last year, but if I served everyone toilet water (as-in Eau de toilette) it'd have been better received than last year's hooch!  I finally experienced the Chariot races and played in an OSR game, a MCC game, and in a Dare-Luck Club game. Unfortunately I had to bow out of one game because the tasting was scheduled for an odd time, presumably for an attendee that didn't actually attend the event. These things happen.....especially when the schedule is made months in advance. We'll square that away next year.

Since Erik posted last Sunday I took the opportunity to have a leisurely drive back home and get myself mentally prepped to go back to work....something that was actually needed this year.

Today, before I mention my "haul" from NTRPG, consider this a PSA: Ticket sales have already been opened up for next year. Don't fiddle-fart around and wait until next spring to get yourself one of the limited opportunities to attend.....

This year, between the Dealer's Room and the auction(s), I mostly picked up art and modules. Only a couple of items fall outside this range:

I've been kicking around an idea for a choose-your-own-adventure that I wanted to write and I've collected a few of the Endless Quest books to look at as an example. When I saw this one from Douglas Niles I had to have it. I wrote to Mr. Niles back in the day after finishing one of his novels that I just could not put down. I think I read it in record time, which is generally not something I do. My reading pace is usually a bit haphazard. To my surprise he wrote me a response to my thank you letter.

So his work is something I'm often on the lookout for....

At the Saturday auction there were four (?) sets of old D&D minis that were up for grabs. The other three were probably more desirable because they were generally unpainted and had the insert ad paper in them. I have no idea if I got these at a good price or not, but it's for the con to begin with and I wanted the box more than anything.....

Now we get into the modules.....

I bought the Pacesetter adventure from the convention tournament that I completely forgot to try and play in this year. It wasn't even on my radar until they were announcing the winners.....d'oh!

I also picked up a free RPG day DCC adventure...for free and I was gifted the last adventure from one of the writers (or was it editor?) that ran it for a few of us at the con. I have to do some research to see if I can get in on some online games this larger group has.

Of course I had to get the convention tournament (reprint) that I didn't pick up last year...or at least I don't think I got it last year. It would not surprise me at all if I find a copy later that I had failed to document as having picked up before.....

I also managed to pick up a 1st Edition adventure signed by the author and the cover artist...

Now we get to the majority of my purchases for this con...the art!

I paid (probably) too much money for this piece, but I really don't care. This money raised from this piece wasn't for the con, but part of a fund raiser to help Darlene with some home repair expenses. Her story is pretty cool, and it isn't mine to tell (and I think Wikipedia is totally missing the mark!), but you can get some of it here.

Now I'm not some philanthropist here.....I only pick up pieces I like and I liked this for a couple of reasons. It's just Darlene's sign from Garycon IX that was salvaged by Bad Mike from the post-con trash heap. He schlepped it back to Texas and she added her signature and a quick (?) mermaid drawing. This thing is absurdly large and the story is amusing to me. It's going to cost me a small fortune to get it framed and displaying it will be hassle....but it will definitely be a unique piece.

I did, however, pick up a more "normal" piece that I hope to get framed and displayed at my work desk. I think it will accurately portray what I mean when I try to explain to my co-workers what I mean when I tell them I'm a gamer.

They still won't get it, but whatever.

At my first NTRPG I picked up some cheap-assed prints from Jason Braun (now Brauncowski). Kind of crappy prints really....as in how they were reproduced, not crappy drawings. Now I firmly recally paying an appropriate price at the time, so that's not a complaint even though it sounds like one. I've since picked up nicer prints and originals from Jason and I was pretty "meh" when I first saw this piece, but I do have another one in this style and this one kind of gnawed at the back of my mind and I found myself keep coming back to look at it.....eventually I realized it was pretty cool, I was being a cheap dumbass, and if I didn't pick it up I'd be pissed that I hadn't when I had the chance. I'm really looking forward to getting this matted and framed so I can get it up on my wall.

I floating art shelves all over my house, and I have a few more to still put up. The idea is I can rotate what I have on display because I have a lot of framed pieces, with more still needing to be framed. I try to pick up something every trip, and I'm kind of surprised that I'd say about half of it is smaller B&W pieces. 

I have quite a few pieces from James Shields (jeshields) and his work hits a sweet spot for me. It doesn't hurt he's a good guy and I enjoy his company (I can say that about most every artist I've met, but I've had more opportunities with James). This year he brought the whole family and I played in two games with him and his son. After meeting the family I felt bad I wasn't able to break away and visit him at his home last time I was in his general vicinity (Alaska) while on a business trip. Hopefully I'll go back this next year and have another opportunity.

Anyway, I bought two pieces from his wife (well, she was manning the booth at the time), a relatively larger piece used as a cover on an RPG product and the smaller piece from his MACE book, which I had the pleasure of backing on Kickstarter.

What I really like about this cover piece....I don't have the name/product info handy at the moment. Is that it's kind of unfinished, as it was. This is the original and you can see all the marker strokes. I'm sure when scanned in it's perfect for the end product, but the raw initial work is pretty cool on its own.

The smaller piece is one of the monsters from MACE, but I liked the Dwarf myself. He's what made me want to pick it up.

One of the things James does, which is cool as well as frustrating (because I have to make a decision and I know I'm going to frame it out...) is that he has a loose stack of small pieces that he gives away as a bonus if you buy certain other pieces (like anything from this book or that other....). I was surprised that this giant eagle wasn't for sale on its own, but I'll take it.

I like the tabletop scene, but since its trimmed to the edge of the art it doesn't lend itself to easy framing. I do have a big (enough) jug of deep-cast resin I need to use up and I'm thinking of making a big block of black resin, fixing this piece to that so it forms a backing & border, and then adding a thinner layer of clear resin on top. After getting it cleaned up and polished I'd drill holes behind the art, into the thick black layer, to serve as a pencil holder. I think it could come out pretty cool, would serve as a learning project, and give me something good-looking and useful for my desk.......assuming I can pull it off.