Steve and I are gearing up for the long haul to New Jersey and TrollCon East at Ed Evans' All Things Fun in New Jersey this weekend. It promises to be a good time. Actually, a lot of the fun for me will be the drive. As I might have mentioned before, the Troll Lord (known back in those days as Stickboy by me and Kenneth) have done a whole lot of traveling in cars, trucks, trains, planes, etc. going from Maine, New York, Arkansas, Florida, Chicago, Quebec City, to name a few. Frequently it would go something like this: I would drive. Kenneth would get in the front with me, Stickboy would get in back. We'd pack smokes and Dr. Pepper and Diet Coke, some chips. Fill up the gas tank and we'd head out.
After about 10 minutes or so of talking, getting the route set in our head, we'd figure out where we were staying, make sure we had our stuff. Say we were going to Boston, which was one of our usual destinations. We'd head from Jonesboro or Little Rock or Maine, and Steve would always say, "If you need me to drive, just let me know." I'd always nod, and say okay, but I really don't like to ride, I prefer driving. He'd insist, and I'd say I know, it's cool. I'll let you know. Then I'd light up a smoke, look up in the rear view mirror and see him already asleep in the back. He could sleep through a lightning storm inside a car I believe as long as it was moving. Kenneth and I usually just play our insanely fun word games or banter puns about. And if Stickboy was up, he'd laugh. He has a great laugh, one that conveys genuine humor and interest, when most likely we were usually sure he couldn't hear us in the back with all the noise and wind. No matter, all we need are someone to laugh and he surely does have a good laugh.
However, when it was just Steve and me on the road, he would stay awake as long as he could. And he can tell stories for hours, he once talked all night driving to and around NYC looking for a hotel before saving our sanity and friendships by suggesting we go north a bit, and there we found the lovely city of Nyack, NY and quite possibly the best breakfast I've ever had, before or since.
I tell you all this to explain that while NJ is a long way away, I am looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to some old time driving with the Troll, and getting to meet some of the fans -- both new and old -- of Castles & Crusades and having one or ten beers with all of you.
So who's gonna make it out to West Berlin, NJ to meet us and play?
If you can't make it, we hope you will follow us on twitter, facebook, and on this blog. Ed even has a live feed from his shop I'm told, so we hope to get a link to that when we can and I'll post it up here. The dates and plans for TrollCon East were in an earlier blog but I'll repost it here:
It's going to be at Ed's establishment, All Things Fun. They've got a great set up and plenty of room to have a great time. It will start February 25 and go through February 27. Here's what we have lined up:
Friday Feb. 25
6-8pm Meet and greet the Troll Lord and the TLG crew: Ask questions, talk, eat, drink, be very merry
8-10pm C&C game: We'll do a sort of introduction to Castles and Crusades, play with the Troll kind of gaming
Saturday Feb. 26
4-8:30pm Play C&C: This is where you can let your game go wild, plenty of time to game and chat.
9-10pm Match wits with Steve: Challenge the Troll Lord himself in a crazy game Ed has. This should be a lot of fun. Compete against Steve for fun and prizes!
10-12pm Play C&C: More down and dirty gaming, late into the night
Midnight Steve's Massive Melee: If we have enough players present, Steve will run his classic Dungeon Crawl. It can fit as many players as we have and nothing but hack, slash death, and adventure!
Sunday Feb. 27
6am--Breakfast at Tiffany's, well, really at All Things Fun with the Trolls
Join us for bagels and Steve Chenault as we toast with plastic champagne flutes and break bread with Steve one last time before he heads back to the wilds of Arkansas.
Okay, it's late and Maggie the boxer is whining to go outside. More later...
After about 10 minutes or so of talking, getting the route set in our head, we'd figure out where we were staying, make sure we had our stuff. Say we were going to Boston, which was one of our usual destinations. We'd head from Jonesboro or Little Rock or Maine, and Steve would always say, "If you need me to drive, just let me know." I'd always nod, and say okay, but I really don't like to ride, I prefer driving. He'd insist, and I'd say I know, it's cool. I'll let you know. Then I'd light up a smoke, look up in the rear view mirror and see him already asleep in the back. He could sleep through a lightning storm inside a car I believe as long as it was moving. Kenneth and I usually just play our insanely fun word games or banter puns about. And if Stickboy was up, he'd laugh. He has a great laugh, one that conveys genuine humor and interest, when most likely we were usually sure he couldn't hear us in the back with all the noise and wind. No matter, all we need are someone to laugh and he surely does have a good laugh.
However, when it was just Steve and me on the road, he would stay awake as long as he could. And he can tell stories for hours, he once talked all night driving to and around NYC looking for a hotel before saving our sanity and friendships by suggesting we go north a bit, and there we found the lovely city of Nyack, NY and quite possibly the best breakfast I've ever had, before or since.
I tell you all this to explain that while NJ is a long way away, I am looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to some old time driving with the Troll, and getting to meet some of the fans -- both new and old -- of Castles & Crusades and having one or ten beers with all of you.
So who's gonna make it out to West Berlin, NJ to meet us and play?
If you can't make it, we hope you will follow us on twitter, facebook, and on this blog. Ed even has a live feed from his shop I'm told, so we hope to get a link to that when we can and I'll post it up here. The dates and plans for TrollCon East were in an earlier blog but I'll repost it here:
It's going to be at Ed's establishment, All Things Fun. They've got a great set up and plenty of room to have a great time. It will start February 25 and go through February 27. Here's what we have lined up:
Friday Feb. 25
6-8pm Meet and greet the Troll Lord and the TLG crew: Ask questions, talk, eat, drink, be very merry
8-10pm C&C game: We'll do a sort of introduction to Castles and Crusades, play with the Troll kind of gaming
Saturday Feb. 26
4-8:30pm Play C&C: This is where you can let your game go wild, plenty of time to game and chat.
9-10pm Match wits with Steve: Challenge the Troll Lord himself in a crazy game Ed has. This should be a lot of fun. Compete against Steve for fun and prizes!
10-12pm Play C&C: More down and dirty gaming, late into the night
Midnight Steve's Massive Melee: If we have enough players present, Steve will run his classic Dungeon Crawl. It can fit as many players as we have and nothing but hack, slash death, and adventure!
Sunday Feb. 27
6am--Breakfast at Tiffany's, well, really at All Things Fun with the Trolls
Join us for bagels and Steve Chenault as we toast with plastic champagne flutes and break bread with Steve one last time before he heads back to the wilds of Arkansas.
Okay, it's late and Maggie the boxer is whining to go outside. More later...
3 comments:
Hey, can't wait to meet you guys finally! I've been waiting for TrollCon East for months now, ever since I stopped in ATF back when the Con was supposed to take place late last year. I understood that you were all consumed by the CKG at the time, though. ATF is great, but unfortunately I live almost a half hour away from it! South Jersey has a serious dearth of FLGS, but ATF more than makes up for that, because it's such a great place. And Ed and Dina are really cool people. Especially Ed, he's so nice and will talk to you for hours about gaming.
Question: is there any chance that you'll be bringing some hardcover CKGs?!
Drance, looking forward to meeting you! Yes, with any luck at all (crossing hands, feet, fingers toes, legs, eyes) we will have some with us!
Should be a great weekend with the Trolls! Can't wait to see you guys. Drive carefully and make sure to load that truck with all kinds of backwoods Troll gaming goodness!
For folks that can't make it we'll also be streaming parts of the event live at:
www.allthingsfun.net/live
-Ed
All Things Fun!
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