Barking Mad Productions » Grayhawk

TCEP 17 is in the bag!

Grayhawk — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 00:37:07 +0000

A few short hours ago, we shut the door on TCEP 17: 3 Nights In Laurel. Once again, I have to say it was a smashing success. Our attendance was higher than it’s been in a number of years. Every time I turned around, I saw people gaming, having fun, and relaxing. We saw and caught up with old friends, and had the opportunity to make new friends. There was sufficient interest in the Gygax/Arneson Memorial Dungeon crawl that I had to add a second session. While I didn’t play in the LARP, everyone I talked to who did play in it had a blast! And, perhaps equally importantly, my family and I had fun this weekend as well.

By any measure I use, this was a successful convention. So a great big “Thank you” to all of our convention attendees. You are the reason we do this, and you are the reason all this is possible.

Registration team: Erin Hudgins, Tammy Tayman.

Con Suite team: Brian and Lije Carpenter, Rachael Hixon

Game Room Czars: Jami & Sean Grey, Drew Wendt

At-Large Staff: Jim & Rae Trigg

Y’all rock, you know that?

I’d also like to take a few moments to thank a number of game companies who were kind and generous enough to donate materials to us to use as prizes:

AEG
APEGames
Avalanche Press
Dream Pod 9
Interactivities Ink
Mega Miniatures

I’d like to also recognize four companies that have been exceedingly kind to us over the last dozen years in their support of TCEP:

Amarillo Design Bureau
Flying Buffalo
Out of the Box
Steve Jackson Games

Stay tuned, folks! TCEP 17 may be over, but TCEP 18: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Laurel is already in the planning stages! Make your plans now to spend Sept. 2-5 2011 with us! Who knows, you might get to see Tad or Grayhawk in a toga…

TCEP 17 Dinner Update

Grayhawk — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:33:58 +0000

Hi everyone! Hope you’re doing well and staying cool!

Once again this year, we’ll be doing our usual group outings to Outback Steakhouse (for those who like their food cooked) and Asahi Japanese for those who like sushi.

Yeah, you can guess which camp I fall into.

Anyway, one of the things we’ve always had problems with is getting an reasonably accurate head count in the past. What we’ve done for this year is set up an email for you to tell us which group you’d like to join!

Now, for the record, the usual plan of attack is to leave as a group from the convention around 7:45-8:00 pm on Friday night. The more accurate headcount we have before the convention starts, the better chance we have of reserving table space to accommodate everyone!

Ah, I can hear you now! What is this magical email address, you ask?

TCEPDinners@gmail.com

Please include the following information in the email

Name
Which dinner attending (Meat/Sushi or Outback/Asahi)
# of people attending

Please try to get this in to us by Sept. 1st, so we can have time to get things together!

Thanks a lot, and hey, don’t forget that Pre-reg ends on Saturday! Only a few days left to register early and save $10 on adult registration ($30) and $5 on youth ($15)!

Can’t wait to see everyone there!

A few announcements about TCEP 17!

Grayhawk — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 20:51:41 +0000

Thought everyone would like to know about a few of the items we have on the schedule for this years convention!

Classic Game tournament: To go along with our “Chess” theme, we will be hosting a tournament revolving around classic games such as chess, checkers, backgammon, reversi, mancala, dominos, and the like. I’m still finalizing the details; as soon as I have them finished, I’ll make them available at the Barking Mad Website.

Junior Roleplaying: The X-Men: People’s response to the idea of events aimed at our younger attendees was well enough received that we will be hosting a RPG session aimed at those same attendees. It will use the TSR Marvel Super Heroes (1984) rules and feature the X-Men. Our older attendees are welcome to play as well! (6 players, Saturday Afternoon)

The Gygax/Arneson Memorial Dungeon Crawl: Yes, I will again be running a classic first edition AD&D adventure on Sunday night. No, it will not be the sequel to last year’s adventure. Yes, I know which adventure I am running, and no, I’m not gonna tell you what it is. Bring your dice, bring your wits, & forget “skills” or “feats”! Once again, this is gaming at it’s finest!

Pre-Reg discount ending soon! As hard to believe as it may be, we’re only slightly more than a month and a half away from the convention! And yes, this is a reminder (delivered in the delightfully subtle Grayhawk way) that until July 31, our rates are $30 for adult memberships and $15 for youth (CHEAP!). After that date, the rates go up! Pre-reg early and often at our website!

Looking forward to seeing everyone at TCEP 17 in September!

Poll: Games for our younger attendees

Grayhawk — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:01:54 +0000

As I’ve mentioned in years past, many of the fine folks who attend TCEP have grown up in or around the conventions in the greater DC area, or have watched others do so. A number of our attendees have chosen to have children, and find that this becomes an excellent place to introduce their children to new games and old classics alike.

We’ve had, in the past, occasional events aimed towards our younger attendees. And, as we are less than 100 days out from TCEP 17: 3 Nights in Laurel, I’d like to assess what sort of interest, if any, there would be in games for them.

So, we have this poll over in our LiveJournal community (It’s there because I ain’t bright enough to figure out how to do it on the website). Look it over. Fill it out. And I’m always looking for input from our attendees.

(And don’t forget to pre-reg! Register by July 31 2010 to save $10 off of Adult memberships and $5 off of Youth memberships!)

The poll can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/tcep/13962.html

TCEP 17 is on the way!

Grayhawk — Sun, 16 May 2010 19:00:51 +0000

Well, here we are near the beginning of the summer convention season, when the minds and hearts of gamers turn to the dice strewn gaming glory of cons.

And that, my friends, brings us to the fun of TCEP 17: 3 Nights in Laurel. It’s kinda hard for me to believe that we’re only three and a half months out from the best four days of gaming and relaxation in the DC area. Hell, I’m having problems wrapping my head around the fact that it’s MAY!

But, none of this happens without you. Please, take a few moments to pre-register for the con. We’d love to see you and play games with you. Remember, memberships go up at the end of July.

We’re working to make this the best year ever, but none of this works without all of you. Come out! Play games! Enjoy old favorites! Try new ones! Have fun!

We’ll be updating the site as the con gets closer, so check back for more news and fun.

See you soon.

TCEP 16 is in the bag!

Grayhawk — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:31:39 +0000

Here we are, the day after TCEP, and I have to say that it was a success. Every time I turned around, I saw people gaming, having fun, and relaxing. This, to me, makes it a successful convention. So a great big “Thank you” to all of our convention attendees. You are the reason we do this, and you are the reason all this is possible.

Many of you have worked cons in one form or another over the years, and have some idea of what goes into them time and time again. So, I’d like to take a moment to publicly thank all of our volunteers – from the folks at Registration to the Con Suite folks to my Game Room Minions to everyone in between. Without you guys, this would be impossible to do. Thank you.

Stay tuned, folks! TCEP 16 may be over, but TCEP 17: One Night in Laurel is already in the planning stages! Make your plans now to spend Sept. 3-6 2010 with us!

Friday Night Dinners

Grayhawk — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 12:03:31 +0000

So, I promised more information on the Friday Night Dinners.

For the lovers of sushi, the lovely and talented “Sushi goddess”, Betsy Marks Delaney, will be leading the charge to descend on Asahi Japanese Restaurant for sushi (which, I am told, is rather good).

For those who “prefer meat”, I will be be leading the march down the hall to the Outback Steakhouse attached to the hotel. MMMMmmmm… Mighty Cholesterol Onions Bloomin’ Onions…

Both ventures will leave the gaming areas between 7:30 pm & 8 pm. We will have sign-up sheets in the gaming area so we don’t forget anyone.

Please feel free to RSVP to us at info@barkingmad.org, especially if you think you might get there a little late. We’ll hold a seat for you. We promise.

More event notes!

Grayhawk — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:39:55 +0000

So, as the once and future Game Room Czar, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about the few planned events that we have during the weekend.

I’ve mentioned before that we used to have a lineup of “social” events, most of which have fallen by the wayside. However, we have kept one of these alive: The Friday Night Sushi/Meat Fest! We end up breaking into two camps: Those who eat bait sushi and those who eat meat (you can guess which one I fall into). The sushi lovers head off to a local establishment while the rest of us head down the hall to the Outback. I’ll have more info on these, including timing, in the next 24 hours.

Gamingwise, we don’t have a lot of planned events. Mainly because most of the participants have indicated that they prefer this. I’ll be running a few demos (including new SJG releases Revolution and The Stars Are Right), as well as the 2nd Annual Arneson/Gygax Memorial Dungeon Crawl (more on this in a bit). We also have the 4th annual Charity poker tournament again this year.

So let me talk about those last two.

The 2nd Annual Arneson/Gygax Memorial Dungeon Crawl consists of me selecting some “old school” Dungeon adventure and running it. Bring your dice, bring your wits, bring your finely honed bloodshot instincts and forget “skills” and “feats! This is gaming at it’s finest! While last year, it was simply labeled the Gygax memorial crawl, we also lost Dave this year, and it seems only right to include him. In years to come, I’ll be switching around who gets “top billing”.

The 4th Annual Charity Poker Tournament. 4 years ago, the staff of Barking Mad went through a year that brought far too much tragedy and sorrow into our lives. Refusing to take this lying down, we set up this yearly tournament in memory of the people we lost. The charities that benefit from this event are the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America, The Center for Basic Cancer Research at Kansas State University and the Mazzy Kaya Foundation. We hope that you will participate in our effort to raise money for these three groups.

A little bit about TCEP

Grayhawk — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Hi There!

I’m Grayhawk, the most recent conscript to the Barking Mad Board of Directors, and the once and future Game Room Czar. I’d like to take a few minutes to give you an overview of who we are and what we’re about.

Tad & Craig’s Excellent Party (TCEP) began many moons ago when Tad & Craig lived in the same place (called the Mad House) and decided to have people over for a weekend of gaming. While the weekend was very popular and successful, they found that they had to clean bothe before and after the weekend, and this, they did not like. So they decided to start holding it in a hotel.

And here we are, 16 years later.

For years, we billed ourselves as “A Relaxicon chock full of gaming”. And that was a pretty good description – in addition to the Friday night dinners, there were other social activities – an ice cream social, Saturday night dinner, etc. Over the years, these have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, and don’t look to be picked up anytime soon.

What has persisted is the gaming. And believe me, we do a lot of it. But, I think it could best be described as “casual gaming”. And what I mean by that we game in a very relaxed atmosphere. We have a few scheduled events, sure (and more on that in a few days), but for the most part, we provide the tables and chairs, and our guests provide the games and players. Whether it’s an old favorite that you can’t get enough of, a new game you’ve picked up at Origins or GenCon, or something that you found at a yard sale, you can always find people to play. Hardcore and casual gamers alike find suitable opponents aplenty at TCEP.

We also bill ourselves as “Family Friendly”. Many of us have grown up in or around the conventions in the greater DC area, or have watched others do so. A number of our attendees have chosen to have children, and find that this becomes an excellent place to introduce their children to new games and old classics alike. We also recognize that some of our attendees mioght enjoy some gaming, but wish to relax in pursuits of a crafty nature. And for them, we have space set aside as well.

I suppose it would be a stretch to say that we have something for everybody – but we do cover quite a bit of ground.

I would remind you that our early bird special expires at the end of the month. Until July 31, Adult registration is $30, Youth (12-17) is $15, and children under 12 are free with an accompanying parent or guardian. After the 31st, the prices jump to $40 for adults and $20 for youths.

So come on out to Laurel for the best 4 days of gaming and relaxation in the DC area! We look forward to seeing you there!