Garden State Games Fair 1996

On November 22, I successfully defended my dissertation on modern Arthurian novels. It was a pleasant experience.

I celebrated by going to Andrew Dawson's Garden State Games Fair with Josh. Getting there and getting back was more of an adventure than I'd have liked, as the trains were messed up due to a derailment, but people at the convention went out of their way to pick up and deliver people to train stations and airports. The hotel really was not accessible by mass transit.

When we got in, Josh signed up for Bob Dushay's EPT game. I checked us into the hotel and put several items into the auction. If we'd arrived an hour earlier (which we would have done if trains were running as usual), I'd have tried to get into Bob's game, but I enjoyed shopping and trying on an Irish overdress.

I sat in on the last five minutes of the EPT game, and it sounded wonderful. The players roled randomly to see who'd take best gamer, as everyone was very good. The winner (Matt Brockman?) got a copy of Gardasiyal, to my envy. Bob drove Josh and me to an Italian take-out place, and we brought the food back to the auction.

I picked up Time Lord for $3 (and Chris Murray is likely to inherit it) and For Faerie, Queen and Country for $1, to my surprise. The auctioneer, Ron Meischker, said I had a few games left over, and when I said that I really didn't want to take them home, he told me to pick out $20 worth of stuff from his booth. He didn't have what I'd been looking for in that price range, but was kind enough to give me Gardasiyal. I know it retails for more than $20, but from what I've heard, $20's about what it's worth. Still, it was extremely generous of him.

I played in two games. The first was Bob Dushay's The Fisher of Souls for Everway, which I'll write up for a later zine. The second game was Andrew Dawson's GURPS Eternal Champions.

Everway: The Fisher of Souls

GURPS Eternal Champions