Introduction
Time to return to where it started on the friendly grounds of the Red Lion Hotel. The one year anniversary of convention reporting and the first convention I’ve gone to. After spreading my wings a little bit for Fort Collins Comic Con and GhengisCon, it almost felt like a homecoming. Now it was time to re-tread familiar carpet and see what changed. This is my experience at the 2023 Cheyenne Gaming Convention!
Day 1: Friday
I puttered down to Cheyenne around 8:30 a.m. and arrived at the Red Lion Hotel about an hour later. Checking in proved quick and easy. Taking the elevator up to the fifth floor, I dropped my overnight bag and equipment bag onto the room’s spare bed. Collecting my trusty Kodak, I returned to the ground floor. Being as early as it was, the convention hadn’t completely set up and only two or three vendors had arrived. I know the CGC crew, so I volunteered to help get things ready in the big board game room.
Overall, Friday turned out to be a slow burn until roughly the late afternoon and early evening. Familiar vendors like Castle Bravo Games, Our Own Game Company, Sloth Panda Creations, HenkelMade Woodcrafts, and Strange Fate Crafts returned for the convention, the final of whom provided me with a new dungeons master’s kit: a large box containing three dice trays, a dice jail, a small dice tower, and a dry erase whiteboard. As I try to do though, I kept my eyes open for the interesting. and I found interesting in the form of Flagbearer Games and their Nations & Cannons supplement.
The capstone for Friday night would be a one-shot called “Peculiar Brews – A Gooey Cube 5e Adventure.” I visited the Gooey Cube booth during GhengisCon only a couple of months ago and walked away with chapter one of their Red Star Rising campaign. For this adventure, I and my fellow players were tasked to locate and retrieve an artifact called a blood crystal. One of the adventure’s unique selling points was the incorporation of various alcohols. Taking a small sip would grant a small bonus, while downing the whole bottle would give a bigger buff but also have a drawback. A great way to end night one of the convention.
Day 2: Saturday
I purposefully scheduled out Saturday as my busiest day of the convention. A round of Star Wars podracing hosted by the wonderful and funny Mr. Virgilio San Andres started out as the first event on my list of fun. See my blog about last year’s CGC for the details, but in short, a table full of players recreate the famous scene from the Phantom Menace using ten-sided dice and a little bit of luck. I think about half of the players had been destroyed by the end of the first lap.
I needed to leave early to meet my family for lunch at Frontier Mall, but it’s always a blast to hang out with Mr. Virgilio. I am still waiting for War Chess to become available. After a fantastic family lunch, I returned to the convention just in time for “Learn to Play Starfinder: Quick Intro #1.” I would describe Starfinder as the science-fiction sister to the fantasy Pathfinder. Both are created by Paizo, who has earned more attention in the wake of the Dungeons and Dragons OGL controversy.
My primer into the Starfinder system dropped me into the shoes of a hotshot android pilot joining forces with a motley crew to take down an ex-scientist turned poacher. I definitely need to do another one of these games to better absorb the difference in mechanics. I think Paizo might be the gateway into playing other systems. My schedule permitted a four hour gap to wander and explore the vendor booths, where I stumbled upon a craftsman with a unique take on candles: Wooded Meadows Gaming.
Saturday night’s finale is the closest thing I have come to being in a TTRPG live play like Critical Role. It was called, “Hazard Quest – D&D 1985: An Animated Adventure” and was based on the children’s cartoon which aired from 1983 to 1985. I cannot believe how much fun I had at that table roleplaying as the dorky wizard who had to recite silly rhymes to get his magic hat to work. I dare say that adventure took the cake as the highlight of the whole convention.
Day 3: Sunday
Sunday would become the chill and relaxation day of the convention. Only one game engagement lay listed on my docket and it would be with the familiar Oathen syste,. I decided instead to browse aimlessly among the venders again. I put down a winning bid on a silent auction bundle and purchased two special orders. One would be a pen from HenkalMade to compliment the new box, and the other would be a little 3D printed cat for my sister courtesy of Amatus Kadan.
The last bow of the convention would be with the familiar system of Oathen. It would be a test of a boss fight. The table held seven players total for a six versus one brawl. Even though we whittled the boss down to around six health, we would ultimately lose the fight. The result worked out though because by the time we finished, the room’s tables were getting packed up and we needed to leave anyway.
Closing
In no uncertain terms, covering CGC was fun. Maybe there’s a small part of me that’s still sore about the GhengisCon weather delay, but seeing a convention through from beginning to end is satisfying. Especially when you’ve planned out activities to do. I think the next convention I will be visiting is GhengisCon’s sister show Tacticon later in August with maybe a side visit to FC3 since both shows share the same weekend.
James Meyer 