These are a few of my favorite moments from TD 2011. And a few that were plain memorable.


- At the Wed eve Dungeon Delvers Anonymous meeting in Scotty's Brewhouse, finally realizing that this guy to the right of me was actually Druegar. Alas, this involved interrupting someone else's story to shout "YOU'RE DRUEGAR!?!?!" before I could quell the fan-girl in me. (PS Druegar: you rock!)

- My first time in the Gargoyle room, when it leapt down at us, and my heart jumped out of my chest. (At least I didn't scream this time, like that Shambling Mound incident which we won't mention)

- Working with Laurel, the lovely StandBy List Volunteer on Thurs eve. She was great (Laurel, you did a fantastic job and I hope our brief misunderstanding didn't bother you too much. I may have been a bit over-expressive in my frustration, but when I tried to find you after my run to apologize, you were off shift.) I really hope you come back next year!

- George betraying us in True Grind Friday 11pm. Okay… I admit our party didn't stand a chance by the time George turned his loyalties to Team Evil, and if it was me, I'd have done exactly the same thing. But I'll still rib him about it every chance I get! (PS: this was my favorite run of the Con. I had a blast, despite the TPK.)

- Hanging out with Anya, Eric, Kim, Amorgen and MorningstarZero at Steak and Shake, after our TPK Grind. I missed Charles, but he was there in Spirit as we laughed at ourselves in our hungry & sleep-deprived states.

- Meeting up with Pauldk and hearing about his GT run. It was very cool to follow his story on the forums, and then finally get to meet him in person. I'm glad you made it to the Con, Paul, and wish your family all the best!

- Seeing Valetutto in the hall and recognizing him immediately! (For those who don't know, I am *really* bad with recognizing people. So to me, it was an amazing "Ah HAH!" moment, to recognize someone I'd only seen in a picture.)

- Finally getting the laser puzzle on my last run of the Con. We'd figured out how it worked the first time I went thru, but ran out of time. The second time, we *almost* made it but couldn't quite get the mirrors to line up. The third and final time, we got the group dynamic working properly, and when the beam bounced to the "lock" above the door, it was like magic.

- Getting a second try with the "Dozer" slider! … When I turned in my UR Special for the cool over-size slider, I was, unfortunately, playing a Ranger character. The puck was cool, but totally threw off my slides. I probably did worse that run than I've done since the time I was in a sling. But on our Friday Night Grind, where I was playing a Rogue, I got a second chance to use the puck (thanks to Jeff who took pity on my earlier experience) and it was great to see what that baby could really do ; )

- Breakfast with Kim, Fritz, and Candace at Panera's. Emotionally and physically nourishing. Thanks, guys.

- Buca Babes on Friday afternoon. Always great to hang out with some of the fabulous women who help make TD happen.

- Lunch with Ash (tho I was cursing myself for not having read the George RR Martin book, and missing a great opportunity to talk about it.)

- Finding my token trading wallet (with ~$1000 of URs in it) after losing it, and being able to give Henry White a Creeper Thorn for his collection

- Tear down. Seeing all the volunteers who have already put in countless hours of work and - despite fatigue, sore feet, and sleep deprivation - putting in a few more hours to disassemble the dungeon

- Catching up with Heidi after the Riddle Reveal

- Seeing this one crowd play D&D in the hall Sunday evening… and then taking a second look and realizing that they were all TD volunteers. Apparently, we play games at GenCon besides just TD. Who knew?

- Working with many great TD Volunteers through the weekend, and specifically with an excellent coaching team. You guys all rocked!

PS: Pics I took at GenCon should be accessible HERE

Raven wrote:


That run was a complete blast, so glad I got to join you. And Dinner/Breakfast (whatever you call it when you're eating at meal @~2 AM) after was a lot of fun. Thanks for letting me tag along and hang out.

I have to add though, you smacking me on the chest Saturday night. The sudden realization on your face of "Crap, that's right he's wearing REAL Chain Mail" was a bit priceless. Hilarious, for me at least, memorable definitely, thought I still feel a bit bad about it.

For me, one of the best moments was running with the DDA and Stu (of True Grind DM fame) Friday night. When our druid killed the Rust Monster, the Sea-Lich (who was one of the best NPC actresses of all time) looked at Stu and cried out "Who killed my pet?" Stu immediately turns around and points at the druid, in one of those moments of spontaneous hilarity.

Running Sea-Lich with Widseth, his brother, and several other people, most of whom are awesome TD volunteers, was also a lot of fun. That was the first time I encountered the shape-shifting chair, and I must admit that I jumped a bit when it ran at me. There were a couple of coaches in that group that I haven't run with since True Realm, and it was great to adventure with them again.

It was also a lot of fun going through when I knew about the squid and some others in my group did not. I stood back, watched them intently reading the sign and waiting to see their reactions when the squid jumped out. I guess I could have warned them, but that would not have been as much fun.

Finally, the extra time in the coaches room made this the most enjoyable coaching experience that I have had. It was amazing to look around at one point and realize that the coaching team was AHEAD of the time curve, not behind. That was really a feeling of satisfaction.

I had two exceptionally favorite moments this year. First I really liked the Gargoyle, that thing was sweet and one of the best TD animatronics in some time. 2nd, and this goes to the quality of the volunteers, on Saturday after our last group had left the mermaid rope puzzle room the mermaid had stepped out. One of the bluehands took off his shirt popped into the mermaid costume, and swung open the curtain to ask "Did they get it?" After my shocked look he said "What you never seen a merman before?" I was too shocked to take a picture but I truly wish I had. It was monumentally hilarious. Great time this year as always and looking forward to our next event.

MorningstarZero wrote:


Ah, excellent - you were the other person with us. I knew it was a forumite, but blanked on your name. Thanks for coming with us on that run, despite the terrible fate of the Guildmaster's foray into piracy. (Next time, Guildmaster Nightshade will stick with picking pockets.)



My fingers remembered it for a good hour. ouch. Don't feel bad about it tho - I totally walked into that one. ; P

Memorabe moments? Hmmmm. TRUE DUNGEON. I could leave it at that, but you know I won't.

Not in any order--just random memories:

True Grind with Raven and crew. What more can be said than has already been said? Great DMing and also dramatic death scenes all around.

Nightmare 7 character run with my brother, Brian, Toby, Dave, Scott, Aaron, and myself as we rid the world of a sealich. I can feel it--about ready to break into song--hold it, hold it. Whew--like a sneeze the impulse stopped.

My wife, brother and I, running with an almost total newbie party and having our only unknown member turn out to be Raywind--love the roll of the dice. This was an incredible run from several aspects--watching the dynamics of people who have never played before mesh with experienced players. Seeing a druid who had never been in the dungeon before talk with the eel before fighting, and a rogue feed the eel a turkey leg so we completely avoided combat. I loved it. I also loved giving the lich a hug and having the party wrap us with elven rope. Do you know what that does to a lich when you have the mithral set and the medallin of Greyhawk?

Running Dragon Redoubt with newbies again--mostly authors from Author's Avenue this time, who had never played TD, and a special guest--Eric from Australia who was a fantastic player. We ate dragon tail steak--again.

Can't help myself------

Smoak the tragic dragon
Lived in a cave.
He gnawed the bones of honest folk
And put them in their grave.

Little Jeffy Martin
Loved his dragon Smoak.
He gave him fangs and ugly claws
and other nasty stuff.

Smoak the tragic dragon
Lived in a cave.
He gnawed the bones of honest folk
And put them in their grave.

One day a valiant party
With weapons sharp and bright
Entered into Smoak's dark cave
To set the story right.
Jeff may live forever
But not his dragon dear.
Team Newbie entered in that cave
And ended all the fear.

(Must control urges--stop singing--stop it--lute quit playing!)


A very special moment occured outside the dungeon when my wife Dani was studying tokens getting ready to go on the all women's run. Jeff saw us and came over and just chatted with us for about 15 minutes. As busy as he was, he took time to talk with us. I felt like Gimli's response when Legolas asked. "What was your gift from the Lady Galadriel?" "I asked for a strand of her hair--she gave me three." All I expected was a "Hi" from Jeff--I got 15 minutes. Good memory.

Thanks to all the volunteers who make TD happen. I treasure your frienships. Thanks to all who stopped by our booth and support my feeble writing efforts. Too many to name and I don't want to miss anyone. Congratulations to all who have overcome dragons in their lives during the past year, and I'll raise my sword and voice with any who have dragons yet to slay.

Widseth and Mrs Widseth

DrUnknown wrote:


I'm trying to figure out if I was on that run as well...as that exact thing happened in the group I was in (The look on the druid's face was priceless). I still remember, when the chair ran away, I plaintively cried "Chairy, No!" If so, I was playing the..Dwarven Fighter in that one (Played Paladin, DF, and Barbarian in three runs).

Agreed, the Sea Lich was FABULOUS...it was almost TOO easy to get distracted watching her, instead of doing combat.

I didn't really have that many memorable moments from TD this year. Or at least, if I did, they've all been obscured by the hazy fog of sleeplessness. I ended up canceling a run and dropping a grind to collapse on the floor of the marriot at one point. Jeff tells me I freaked out one of the volunteers who wanted to know if he should call an ambulance. The 90 minutes of sleep was able to get me back on my feet though.

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of me with the gargoyle in teh down position. We tried and the DM let it flop down but waved me off when the picture took too long and he was worried it would kick me in the head on its way back up.

Mimic chair was cool as hell.

Sorry I didn't get a chance to help Dave out with the trade-in or sort at any point.

My friend Rob apparently has self-annihilation fantasies. He absolutely must take a picture with every cosplayer or costumed person punching, stabbing, kicking or otherwise abusing him. He got several of the gencon volunteers in costumes to agree. Personally, i have a suspicion he just photoshops everyone's clothes off and runs some sort of masochistic fetish site.

persolo wrote:


Yup, you were there. I feel like this should be one of the "crossing paths" posts ....

Me: barbarian with few brains and a big pearl
You: dwarf fighter with a strange chair fetish


The cry of "Chairy, no" was priceless.

One of my favorite runs, running with the DDA in Grind and Raven and I took one combat table and the 8 other teammates took the other and had a hard time keeping up, that was cool. Oh and the DM bumped us up a difficulty level without telling us and we still won!!!

TBH, you and I were on fire, during that run. We made an excellent duo.
The rest of the group didn't do that badly either (but they spent more time making saving throws).

Looking back, I am very glad we got bumped from Normal mode to HardCore. The DMs for Grind were very good at gauging a group's power level, and setting the stage accordingly.

There are a lot of things that I'll remember fondly from this past GenCon. My favorite moment though has to be the all woman run with the Ladies' Adventure Seeking Society. It was awesome to run with such a fine group of ladies. Thanks to Raven, Candace, Linda, Elizabeth, Brigette, Dani, Shelli, Jenny and Fritz for being a part of this and to helping me make some TD history.

Kim