Side note: is it true that if you stand up during a roleplaying game, it counts as LARPing?

You can see more of Brennan’s photography in the Northeast Wars IX photo album, or view the whole stream over at our Flickr page.

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

Wordle is a web application that generates a collage out of a mass of text, like, say the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, or the Call of Cthulhu corebook. In our case, this word cloud comes from the Northeast Wars IX convention book — which, by the way, you can download here if you want to see what was on offer last year. Just click on the image to the right to see it in greater detail.

The bigger a word is, the more frequently it’s used in the text. Going by our wordle, events scheduled in the post meridian seem pretty popular; so few gamers are morning people! These word clouds can also be customized, in that you can select the font type, color palette and even general orientation of the words.

There are forum threads of people who converted roleplaying game books into wordles, over on RPG.net, ENWorld and Storygames.

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

sheepboyofchaos

The epic struggle to achieve victory in the painting race for the Battle of Skull Pass is done and I have enjoyed a period of time away from my painting desk. But lately I’ve been feeling the need to have the paint brush and exacto knife in my hands once again. Also, I have been spending a little bit too much time on eBay and have somehow become the owner of the makings of three more armies (Empire, Lizardmen, and Beasts of Chaos) in addition to my nearly finished Skaven.

While I could chip away at my armies in solitude, I found it alot of fun to have to post my progress (and mock my stunty opponent).  So, I have asked Krug if I could continue to post here.  He graciously bellowed something about wrestling a yak which I interpreted as hearty approval.

So, what you may be seeing in the future here:

• Converting on the cheap ( such as making a dragon ogre out of an ogre top and a cold one bottom).
• Pimp my Chariot
• Dr. StrangeMagnet or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Neodymium (a guide to magnetizing bases)
• Blood Bowl team paint off!
• A Stompa is a Wonda, but a Slasher is Flasher! (I am filled with the madness to try to make a Slasher Gargant for next year’s con)

Any thoughts or requests would be great.

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

sheepboyofchaos

As was twittered at the time, but not reported here, several new players were introduced to Warhammer Fantasy and a rousing Megabattle was waged (though why the ‘Good’ side would be made up of Skaven and Dark Elves in addition to Wood Elves will not be covered in this post).

When the dust settled, it was decided to give the painted Battle for Skull Pass set to the father and son pair of Steve and Ben Tyler.

Here is a picture of event organizer Brian giving the prize to a Warhammer Warlord of the future!

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

Found circulating regional mailing lists and presented without comment — okay, maybe just a little.

FOR BEST GM RESULTS: Submit your games by fourth of July.
FOR BEST CON ENJOYMENT: Get your room now, Lake Morey Resort is 85% Full.

Dragons enchant and dungeon delve. Riggers evade as mercenaries incite negotiation gunfire. Come! Tend honor under long hard unappreciated games. Lend out roles in obvious unknown scenarios. Resolve, Eulogize, Submit! Unseen rewards require enduring commitment. Think it out now!

Since everyone continues requesting event themes, then here emerges messaging, enjoy! I am irate again. Can themes happen? Unlikely! Lest happen unkind familiarity, themes are gone now!

The games are starting to roll in and you can be certain that we will bring….

Nothin’ But Carnage
Celebrating 12 years
www.carnagecon.com
Nov 6 – 8 , 2009
Lake Morey Resort, VT

Carnage really is a fantastic weekend dedicated to gaming. The Lake Morey Resort is gorgeous and has a spa and on-site movie theater, should such things interest your non-gaming family members, while Lebanon, NH, a merely thirty minutes’ drive to the south, holds a diversity of attractions, including more movies and tax-free shopping.

Get those rooms reserved now!

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

It’s a mere eleven months off, but we’re already making plans for the 2010 excursion of Northeast Wars. To that end, we’re having an open convention meeting on May 12th. Anyone interested in helping to plan and put on next year’s convention is welcome to attend. We are looking for, among other positions, coordinators for the various gaming tracks, street team members, people who know people and more. The May 12th meeting will discuss plans for the 2010 convention, expectations of staff and the timeline leading up to Northeast Wars X.

So mark your calendars: May 12th at 5:00 PM at Quarterstaff Games at 152 Church St. in Burlington, VT. As always, inquiries can be directed to northeastwars@gmail.com.

Hope to see you there!

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.

And so Northeast Wars IX closes out. The battlemats are rolled up, the miniatures safely stowed and that lucky d20 is swathed in its silken shroud until the call to battle sounds again. A huge thanks goes out to everyone who made this year such a rousing success. Many conventioneers commented repeatedly how much fun they had and how impressed they were by the quality of gaming going on. So thank you to our sponsors, volunteers, attendees and especially the GMs who make the convention worth going to. You make it all worthwhile and we thank you profusely.

In other news, here on the forty-second floor of 1 Northeast Wars Plaza, staffers already look to 2010. Yes, that’s right. 2010. Northeast Wars will be back, this time April 9th through the 11th. Circle it on your calendars — once you’ve gone out and bought 2010 calendars.

In the meantime, keep visiting the website, as we will be posting throughout the year to bring you the latest developments on Northeast Wars X, including an extended timeline, special events and maybe even a contest or two. You can also keep up by friending us on Facebook, MySpace or Twitter, or joining our LiveJournal or web forum communities.

Mirrored from Northeast Wars IX.

Live, on the ground, everybody at Northeast Wars is having tons of fun. The board game and RPG room has been rocking all day long, there’s all sorts of mayhem in the miniatures room and the impromptu video gaming corner has really exploded since it got running a few hours ago. It’s really weird hearing competing tracks from Guitar Hero II and Rock Band at the same time.

If you couldn’t make it this weekend, or are here and don’t already have enough to do, check out the conversation on Twitter. Just search for the hashtag #newars.

Mirrored from Northeast Wars IX.

Let’s run the numbers, shall we?

• 105 games on the schedule.
• 53 GMs making this the best convention yet.
• 32 pages in the conbook.
• 12 hours until the first slot kicks off tonight.
• 3 (anna half) months in the making.
• 1 place to be this weekend: Northeast Wars IX!

Mirrored from Northeast Wars IX.

This weekend at Northeast Wars, if you have the means, join our Twitteralong. Twitter is a microblogging service where users post messages of 140 characters or less. In the case of events like Northeast Wars, twittering is a great way to organize spontaneous gatherings, inform people of something cool or awesome happening right then and there and sharing your experiences with other people, as well as keep up with things if you couldn’t make it this year. To learn more about Twitter, check out Scott Hanselman’s article How to Twitter. And as long as you’re making account, why not follow the official Northeast Wars Twitter feed?

The Essex has wifi access for guests and a public internet terminal in the lobby, so you can access Twitter via the web as well as via a mobile device.

If you do join in the Twitteralong, add the hashtag — explained in Scott Hanselman’s handy guide, above — #newars to the end of your tweets. That way, other people using Twitter can easily follow the action at the convention and you can follow what they’re saying. For example, clicking here, you can see that the tag’s already in use.

Go forth, gamers! Go forth and roll those dice! And then twitter about it!

Mirrored from Northeast Wars X.