INFO ON THE SECOND ANNUAL T&T CONVENTION

This page last changed November 17, 2009

The second annual T&T convention is over, and a great time was had by all. Our gamemasters were Ken St Andre, Larry DiTillio, Douglas Mitten, and Rick Loomis (yes, I ran one short scenario!). Everyone got to play in at least one game by Ken and Larry. Additional guests of honor were Bear Peters, Steve Crompton, Mike Stackpole, and even Stephen Macallister.

Nearly everyone promised to come again next year. 2010 will be Flying Buffalo's 40th Anniversary, and we hope to make a big splash. We'll try to get some other game companies to donate prizes to give away to the attendees. Who knows, you might get some FREE STUFF! I'm going to hold a 4-day convention July 22-25, 2010. I'm asking the STARWEB players to show up July 22 to get their tournament started, and everyone else to show up July 23. But if you want to play T&T on the 22nd, let me know, and I'll post on this website how many T&T players we will have.

ACCOMODATIONS: We recommend everyone stay at the Holiday Inn Express (which used to be called the Quality Suites), 3131 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale AZ 85251. Call 480-675-7665 for reservations. Depending upon who is answering the phone, they may or may not remember that there is a Flying Buffalo event. But make your reservation anyway. If they don't give you the convention rate, let me know and I'll yell at them again. All suites have microwaves, refrigerators, coffee makers, and data ports on the phones (with free local phone calls). You also get a complimentary breakfast every morning, snacks in the evenings and high speed internet connections. Rate is $84 per night per suite (no extra charge for extra people in your suite.) - just ask for the Flying Buffalo event. I've blocked a few rooms. And the hotel is only a few blocks away from The Buffalo Building. (Not really within walking distance in July, but we'll try to set up a carpool for the thursday night poker game).

3rd Convention will be July 22 to July 25. Most of the T&T events will likely be starting July 23rd. The Starweb tournament starts on the 22nd. If you plan to come, sign up now.

To reserve your spot at the third annual T&T convention, pay here:
Note: If you pay now, and find later that you cannot come after all, we will refund your $45. We're looking for advance reservations to get a good idea of how many might show up. The convention fee is $45, but this button will charge you $42 because paypal will add $3 for "shipping". And if you order anything else at the same time, you'll save $3 because paypal only adds one "shipping fee" per order.

First person to sign up for T&T 2010 is Douglas Mitten.
Second and third are Kris Miller and Lisa Markus

If you would like to receive email updates regarding convention plans, say "email list" in comments. Or come back and check this page often as I will put all updates here.

Ken St Andre has suggested we offer a "supporting membership". I understand this is common for science fiction and fan conventions, but I had never thought about it before. If you want to buy a supporting membership for $25, we'll list you on the webpage as a "T&T Supporter", we'll send you an autographed copy of the convention program, a paper collectable from the banquet, and a photocopy of one of the games run at the convention (probably autographed by the gm). To buy a "supporting membership", click the button here:

Once again: the price is set at $22, and paypal will tack on a $3 "shipping fee". If you order anything else at the same time, you will save $3, as it only puts on one shipping fee per order. (Go to the T&T page and order something!)

Supporting members for 2009:
Supporting Member #1: Timothy Labor of Los Angeles
Supporting Member #2: David Parks of Elkhart, Indiana
Supporting Member #3 and #4: Christian Lindke
Supporting Member #5 and #6: Douglas Mitten of Sacramento, California
Supporting Member #7: Patrice Geille of Steinsel, Luxembourg
Supporting Member #8: Paul Haynie of Waukegan, IL
Supporting Member #9: David Pollard of Norfolk, United Kingdom
Supporting Member #10: Chris Herr of Kissimmee, FL
Thanks!

Guests so far:
Ken St Andre, Mike Stackpole, Bear Peters, and Steve Crompton are definitely coming.
Liz Danforth has said she will probably not come after all.
Larry Ditillio is definitely coming, and has found the unpublished 2nd level of Darksmoke! He says he will run it for 8-10 players starting Saturday at noon and running all day. He's also planning to run a shorter scenario Friday night or saturday morning called "Film Buff's Batty Bijou" for 6-8 players.
Douglas Mitten says he can run a game or two. They would be 5th Edition 3rd - 5th level and 1st - 3rd level. Both would be natural cave crawls and take about 2 - 2.5 hours.
If you would like to GM a game at the convention, let me know, and give me some game details so I can announce them here like I did last year.
The convention last year was a great success. We were lucky enough to have many really great GMS. I asked the players to rate the GMS from 1 (boring) to 10 (great) and the LOWEST vote anyone got was a 6! The best GM was Byron Massey who was rated 9.65 by 13 players. Second was Ken St Andre and Larry DiTillio who were both ranked 9.4. 4th was Tom Loney with 9.25. 5th was Bear Peters with 9.2. Mike Eidson, James Walker, and Mac McMahon were all ranked almost as high. Everyone claimed to have a great time!

I also asked the players to rank their fellow players, according to who was the most fun to adventure with, and several players got three or more votes, including Steve Ames, Aaron Arutunian, Mandy Butka, Dan Lambert, Bart Massey, Doug Mitten, and Brian Penn. Martin Land and Byron Massey each got five votes, and Mark Spencer got NINE! So next year try to get in a game with Byron as your GM, and Mark as one of your fellow players.

Interestingly, I asked the GMs to all rank the best role player in their group, and ten different people got one vote each, but Steve Butka got two. Many of the GMs refused to rank them, saying "they were all great".

Of course the highlight of the event for me was at the saturday night banquet when Ken St Andre awarded me an "Indiana Jones" hat. (I'll post a picture of me in my new hat as soon as someone sends me a good one.) (For info on why the hat, see tntkenshat.htm )

Many thanks to all our gamemasters: Bear Peters, Byron Massey, Ken St Andre, Larry DiTillio, James Walker, Mac McMahon, Mike Eidson, and Tom Loney; to Eric Lane and Laura Samuelson who volunteered to GM a game, but weren't needed since we had so many great volunteers; and to our special guests Elizabeth Danforth, Michael Stackpole, and Steven Crompton. And thanks to all 27 people who paid to attend the first annual Trollcon. Also thanks to Fiery Dragon who fedexed over two pre-release copies of the 7.5 edition of T&T, which will be officially released at Gencon in just over a week and to ugo.com who provided sodas for everyone.

Latest news: We will be meeting in the Camelback Room instead of the Boardroom. (Bigger room, more space to spread out). Mike Stackpole will be there on Sunday morning. Ken and Liz will be at both banquets saturday and sunday. Jimmie Walker will be there, and will GM two Monsters Monsters sessions. Steve Crompton will be there.

Also we have a sponsor! This year's T&T Convention sponsored by UGO Games & Entertainment. They gave me fifty bucks to put this link on this page. I'm going to spend it on soda for the attendees - there will be an ice chest full of soda for the weekend.

The First Annual T&T Convention was August 1-3, 2008. Now is the time to plan to attend the second one!
CONFIRMED GUESTS: The following people have promised to come. (Of course things may change between now and August, but as of this writing they have agreed to come):
Ken St Andre
Liz Danforth
Larry Ditillio
Steve Crompton

If you have any questions, or want to make a comment, send an email to rick at flying buffalo dot com.

EVENTS:
We don't yet know all the things that might happen at this convention, but here are some ideas that might be part of this event. No guarantees yet, please, but we'll do our best to see that they all happen.

THURSDAY NIGHT POKER GAME: Rick is a big fan of small stakes poker. Nickel ante, quarter maximum, no "match the pot" games. Everyone is invited over to the FBI Offices thursday night for a big poker game. (Also known as Rick's house).

HEROIC FANTASY PBM GAME: This particular weekend is also the weekend of the annual PBM event. There will be perhaps a half dozen people playing Heroic Fantasy with hourly moves, competing for a trophy and "bragging rights" from 10AM Friday morning until late Sunday afternoon. If any of you folks want to try this game out with hourly moves (a lot more fun than one move every two weeks!) you can participate for a day or an afternoon for a small fee. The regular players will bombard you with free advice!

ART SHOW: I will invite all the FBI artists to come, visit with the fans, and show off (and perhaps sell) some of their art. No telling at this point who will show up, but I will definitely invite Liz Danforth, Steve Crompton, and Rob Carver.

GUESTS OF HONOR: I will invite everyone I can think of who had or has anything to do with T&T. In addition to those artists listed above, I will try to invite Ken St Andre, Mike Stackpole, Ugly John Carver, Larry Ditillio, Steve Mcallister, Pat Mueller, Bear Peters, and others. (If there is someone you particularly want to meet, let me know and I'll invite them.)

TUNNELS & TROLLS GAMING:Of course we will try to play T&T. I'll get some folks to volunteer to be gamemasters, and we'll have several sessions. If we end up with the right number of people, we'll arrange to have everyone play in a session with each of the GMs, and then we'll have the players vote on the best GM and the GMs vote on the best players. Plaques will be given away.

DINNER WITH THE STARS: The FBI convention has a traditional dinner at Monti's Steakhouse in Tempe on Sunday night. Everyone pays for his or her own dinner, except I'll invite the guests of honor to participate at my expense. Again, no one has confirmed yet, but at the very least, I will be there, and Monti's serves very good steaks.

NUCLEAR WAR CARD GAME TOURNAMENT:During the weekend I will teach folks how to play Nuclear War and/or WMD, and at some point on sunday we'll have a big game of Nuclear War, and award a prize of some kind to the winner. (If there is one.)

T&T SWAP MEET: Fans are encouraged to bring their no-longer needed T&T items or their home-brewed adventures to sell to each other. Also encouraged to purchase any regular FBI T&T items that they don't already have, from us.

More info to be added soon.

To reserve your spot at the first annual T&T convention, pay here:
Note: If you pay now, and find later that you cannot come after all, we will refund your $45. We're looking for advance reservations to get a good idea of how many might show up. This button will charge you $42, but paypal will add $3 for "shipping".

If you would like to receive email updates regarding convention plans, say "email list" in comments. Or come back and check this page often as I will put all updates here.

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