Nuke(m)Con 2017

A close-up of a Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. A doodle of a sword, wreathed in flame, appears to the right.

Another Nuke(m)Con is in the bag. Held September 29-October 1, the latest Nuke(m)Con continued a reinvigorated tradition that began in 2006. Family and work emergencies played havoc with attendance this year as a broken water heater, a sick baby, and a super-sized work project kept three players away from the table. A family birthday and … Read more

Game Day: Prepping for Nuke(m)Con 2017

Covers for the D&D Player's Handbook, Dungeon World, Hollow Earth Expedition, and Tales from the Yawning Portal

Nuke(m)Con 2017 is a week away and I’m scrambling to pull together my events. My gaming group’s homegrown convention is being held September 27-30 at a friends house. We expect 10-12 people to attend over the course of the weekend, but any given slot will likely have 5-6. I’m running three games: Dungeons & Dragons, … Read more

Nuke(m)Con 2016

Plastic miniatures of the frog-like monsters known as slaadi stand on a battlemap. In the background can be seen several figures representing player characters.

Nuke(m)Con. It’s my gaming group’s homegrown convention which was first held in 2004 as an alternative to going to GenCon. It’s schedule was never formally defined, but for a while we had an every-other-year schedule going with conventions in 2006, 2008, and 2012. Then came the convention drought. It wasn’t for a lack of trying … Read more

Nuke(m)Con 2012: Lessons from a homegrown convention

The Blackrazor Guild held its semi-annual homegrown convention in late February 2012. About 18 people attended Nuke(m)Con 2012, some long-time members of the gaming group, others friends who join us from time to time. Nuke(m)Cons have become a standard part of our gaming group; we first started holding them because we missed our annual pilgrimages … Read more

Nuke(m)Con 2008: The Wild, Weird West

The cast of the movie Serenity stands in a desert, ready for battle.

Like a twister carving its way through a Midwestern cornfield, Nuke(m)Con has come and gone. My gaming group held its annual (well, almost annual) home-grown convention over the weekend. In a break from previous years, which typically saw a mix of Dungeons & Dragons and board games, this year’s Nuke(m)Con had a western theme. We … Read more

Radio Active #39: Nuke(m)Con 2012, Doom, Geeky Media

Soldiers prepare for the worst.

The gaming world has GenCon. My gaming group has Nuke(m)Con. Radio Active #39 starts with a look at our home grown convention and then takes a look at a couple of new geeky media outlets in the form of the Geek Gazette newsletter and Geek Label podcast as well as an exceedingly useful anti-repetitive stress … Read more

Game Day: Two-Player Games

Cards representing cities, forests, mountains, fields, and other regions are laid out on a glass table.

Game Days can be a fickle thing. Almost everyone in our group is middle-aged (or getting close), most of us have kids, and those kids are old enough to have Game Day-smashing activities of their own. As a result, our weekly Sunday game can go from looking like a lock to no one being able … Read more

Game Day: Closing the Frontier

A close up view of dice sitting on a pair of character sheets.

After four years, 53 episodes, and over 200 hours of gaming, we closed the book on our Obsidian Frontier campaign for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Begun as one of two playtest campaigns for 5th Edition, we had so much fun with the campaign — and the game — that we transitioned from “playtest” to “ongoing” campaign … Read more

#RPGaDay2018 – Your gaming ambitions for the next year

A close up view of the spines of numerous role-playing game books.

My overarching ambition is to continue making time for games. It’s difficult, with the day job, marriage, one kid in high school, the other in middle school, the day job, and all of the activities that go along with them. We’ve got Boy Scouts, marching band, softball, baseball, Seeing Eye Puppy Raising … it’s a … Read more

#RPGaDay2018 – Describe a tricky RPG experience that you enjoyed

A close up view of the spines of numerous role-playing game books.

I struggled with this one until I read the earlier iteration in the originating blog post: “Which RPGs do you enjoy running even if they are difficult for you?” Two games immediately come to mind. The first is Dungeon World, which I ran as a one-shot at Nuke(m)Con 2017 (my gaming group’s homegrown convention). It’s a very … Read more