The MU Skulls are a group of like minded
people with a desire to run entertaining and
creative roleplaying games. We specialize in
horror roleplaying but very much enjoy a
wide variety of games.
Grand Con 2015                
The MU Skulls are a group of like minded
people with a desire to run entertaining and
creative roleplaying games. We specialize in
horror roleplaying but very much enjoy a
wide variety of games.
Mike and I hit Grandcon 2015 on Saturday and we're glad we did!

I arrive just before noon and Mike was finishing up his Feng Shui 2 game run by West Michigan Roleplaying Gamers. He described his
game to me through eyes filled with tears of delight as he describes the most fun he's had at a game table. "You missed it!" He shouted.
"You missed the best game of the convention! Of all time! The GM died right after he ran it so you'll never experience the exultation
beyond all measure that I alone with five other people experienced! You are a fool for not having signed up for this game!" Then he
began speaking in tongues lost in his ecstasy and I cursed my misfortune at having missed the game of all games.

Almost immediately we hustled to our noon game of Call of Cthulhu of Dark White run by We Hate Bards. Their room had an
interesting setup as it appeared that every roleplaying game they owned was displayed very nicely against the back wall. We were
presented with three free randomly chosen RPG dice which was nice though unnecessary really. Our 5th/6th edition game opened with
an engaging archival video of arctic transportation displayed on a laptop. Then the laptop's sole purpose was to record the game session
for a later podcast. The game we played seemed to change a bit from the one I originally signed up for which I swear was 40's Soviet
Union but this was 50's Alaska. I really appreciated the conservation of paper as we were handed character sheets that had been used
many times before. The fact that the GM's printer didn't print number ones for some reason (issue with the font perhaps) was only of
minor significance to one player. We cracked the mystery and none of us died or went insane, though in epilogue we all agreed my
character probably didn't fare too well as I had stolen the mad scientist's notebook and was planning on exploiting it for wealth and
power as the original guy did.

Mike and I hit the dealer's room and we were both impressed with the quality of the artists and displays of vendors in general. We
chatted with a guy that imported mechanical pocket watches. They were really interesting but unfortunately I couldn't think of a reason
why I would need one. We sat down to demo Mage Wars Academy with one of the designers. I readily killed Mike's wizard with my
beastmaster and then took my shirt off so I closely resembled Marc Singer the real beastmaster. I think we had fun but Mike and I
decided we would stick with Magic.

To keep our spirits and energy levels up we retired to the bar for a couple of pre-dinner Ichibod pumpkin ales. Then we planned to
walk over to Bagger Daves for a couple of delicious burgers. On the way out we spied game review legend Zee Garcia and Fantasy
Flight Games sell out Tom Vasel. I'm a big fan of their board game reviews on Dice Tower.
Zee is bringing
Blue Steel to
the glamor
photo shoot!
Tom hard at work
in his natural
environment!


We got back from Bagger Daves and a Two Hearted IPA in just enough time to sit down at a disheveled table with two confused
looking people shuffling a loose pile of papers. This was our Star Wars Episode IV game Greedo Shot First which incidentally was
another We Hate Bards game but no dice this time. We were advised the GM originally scheduled had a personal thing so we had a
replacement that had never seen Star Wars Episode IV (that's a real fact) and had never run the RPG (another real fact). Once again
the unbending commitment to forest conservation was in force and we picked a well used character sheet. Before we actually started
playing I realized I had the same character as another player so had to make a last minute swap. The general idea is that Han Solo was
killed by Greedo in an off screen moment and our ship has to transport Luke and Obi Wan off planet. There was some tension as to
how off book we could go like we couldn't reprogram the droids but we didn't get tractored by the Death Star so we ended up in
Coruscant instead. I will say I was amazed at the GM's ability to run the game which felt like a fluid Star Wars game despite the
previously mentioned factors. He also used a voice that sounded just like the guy that pretends to be Ewan McGregor on Clone Wars
for Obi Wan so that was awesome. There was some cool who's-the-traitor moments and I was gratified that at the very end it got to
be me. Especially when I saw the crushed look on the other player's faces as I had done such a good job of getting us through the
beginning part of the game.

From there it was near midnight and time to ride off on the Harley into the darkness having survived another great game con
experience!