Pipes, Pints, and Polyhedrons

Ordered in two books from Amazon earlier in the week, showed up today. Both are collections of short stories dealing with the Wild West and the unknown. Not sure why it is, but I've been on a western-horror kick lately; started reading Frontier Cthulhu and so far, enjoyable.

Edge of Sundown

The western-horror story is far older than what most of us would even consider the west . For generations the American Indians told dark tales of their own, of spider women, skin-walkers, cannibals, witches, and thunderbirds. When white men ventured into the west, they learned some of these nightmarish stories from the natives and they brought or created their own as well: tales told around campfires of mournful ghosts and vengeful spirits and terrible monsters native to the wild new land west of the Mississippi.

Frontier Cthulhu: Ancient Horrors in the New World

As explorers conquered the frontiers of North America, they disturbed sleeping terrors and things long forgotten by humanity. Journey into the undiscovered country where fierce Vikings struggle against monstrous abominations. Travel with European colonists as they learn of buried secrets and the creatures guarding ancient knowledge. Go west across the plains, into the territories were sorcerers dwell in demon-haunted lands, and cowboys confront cosmic horrors.

This makes me think of your Solomon Kane in the New World adventure from GCXI...

So I recently purchased a home in Pflugerville, TX. It's 15 miles from Austin city center. It's a lot bigger than I need at the moment, but that means I have a lot of extra space. Space that can be used to host my friends for a gamer gathering. It's been a while since we did OmaCon and I'm volunteering to host round 2. I'm posting now so we all have plenty of time to clear schedules and settle on a date. GaryCon is at the end of March, so unless y'all really want to get together in January or February I was thinking May 2020 would be a good starting target. April is not possible for Martina and I, and it's right on the heels of GaryCon anyways. As a bonus I'm planning on having a backyard BBQ featuring Franklins BBQ and Austin Beerworks, my absolute favorite brewery.

To be clear I have 3 empty bedrooms that can all sleep 2+, but I don't currently have beds in them. I'll be collecting more furniture over the coming months, but air mattresses might be advised. I also have a queen sleeper sofa. There are also several nice hotels very close by if that's more your style. If there's enough interest I'd like to get a date settled and get commitments from people who want to come. I can comfortably support 6 to 8 guests in the house for up to a week. There will be plenty of opportunity to get out and explore Austin as well. I'd really like to show off my home city if I can. If you're interested please reply and leave some dates that might work for you.

Regarding travel to/from Austin; we have a major airport that is only 20-30 minutes from the house with flights arriving from all the major hubs and a few other places. Pretty much every airline services the city. I'm willing to pick-up and drop-off everyone. Driving, buses, and trains are also options. Flixbus, Megabus, Greyhound, and Amtrack all have routes here. We also have plenty of ride-shares, taxis, and public transport to get about town.

Congrats on the new home! I definitely like the idea of a PfCon.

SAM! Glad to hear from you. Echoing Anc, congrats on the new home.

PfCon sounds like it might be doable, as far as I know I don't have anything in May right now. I will have to check with Jen, just to make sure. Regardless, we could definitely start making plans.

Thank you, gentlemen. The house has been the major reason I've been silent for the last several months. Getting everything together has taken all of my time. Regardless I'm looking forward to hosting. If y'all don't have plans for Memorial Day (May 25, 2020) please note that might be a good weekend to snag an extra day for free.

Congrats on your new home in Austin!

Given the new location, you should definitely check out the North Texas RPG Con, too: it's in Dallas each June, and is a blast!: https://ntrpgcon.com/

Allan.

grodog wrote: ↑September 22nd, 2019, 4:47 pm Congrats on your new home in Austin!

Given the new location, you should definitely check out the North Texas RPG Con, too: it's in Dallas each June, and is a blast!: https://ntrpgcon.com/

Allan.

<grumble, grumble> North Texas Con <grumble, grumble> coincides with Daughter's birthday <grumble, grumble>

One of these years...one of these years...

Back to PfCon though, so I did some thunkin' over this today and I am going to propose a change of time/date. Gary Con generally runs somewhere in March, early, mid, or late depending on when the GC folks can make arrangements with the lodge. 2020 will see it late March, which means if we plan PfCon in May, Memorial weekend, that's only two months apart. For me, personally, that might be an issue for a couple of reasons. One, when I'm gone, Jen has to make changes to her work schedule to be able to both drop off Emmi at school AND pick her up, when normally I do one and she does the other, which keeps our work schedule unhindered. Having her make schedule changes almost back to back might cause some flak and I'm already going to be traveling for 3-4 days, once a month or every other month, for one of my work projects. Tossing another round of just "gaming" into the mix so close to Gary Con will probably be met with animosity.

The other issue is time off, planning for PfCon on a holiday weekend is a good idea because that means less personal leave to take. For me, I tend to use leave somewhat regularly throughout the year for things such as Gary Con, holiday trips with the family, and now a family vacation, since Em is old enough now to enjoy going places. I also have to use it for days when I have to attend functions or things for Emmi's school or activities, I just may not have enough leave saved back up after Gary Con to immediately turn around and spend more for this trip.

My third issue, which isn't really an issue just a personal preference is that I think it would be enjoyable to have our small get together almost opposite of Gary Con as far as time of the year goes, so that we have something to look forward to many months after Gary Con is over and not just a month or two. I propose we move the time of PfCon to October, maybe Columbus Day weekend since that's a holiday we Feds have off, though I don't know if many private businesses take it. Either way, I still think a con in Oct would rock.

If James' (and maybe Jared's) workload is anything like mine there's a lot going on up until Sep 30th, then a nice slow period in Oct through early Nov as the govt kicks off a new fiscal year. Getting together right after all of that would be an excellent way to de-stress and would spread out our gaming throughout the year.

Anyhow, that's my thought on the whole thing, not sure if anyone else would agree or disagree.

[whine]Texas is soooo far.[/whine]

Congratulations on the new home Sam!