Matt as GM

Thank you, Matt, for all the prep and for running such a dark and devious game. It was great fun.

David Ackerman-Gray

I look forward to the next gaming fun!

Jenna Sterling

Thanks again to Matt for the games on Sunday. “After the Horrorcaust” was particularly enjoyable, and it did a good job of evoking the feeling of really bad film making.

Luke Miller

Dead of Winter
It was awesome! I played in four epic games, and dropped by Endgame (www.endgameoakland.com) to buy Cthulhu (www.cthulhutech.com) Tech before I got home. I’ve already made myself a four day weekend for next year.

Jill Stapleton

…a big thank you to you, sir, for working your ass off to get this thing off the ground, and continuing to keep it running while all the various…adventures were going on. Can’t wait ‘til next year, and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Badger McInnes

Terror Rabbit Ventures is the umbrella under which Matt Steele orchestrates his evil schemes to take over the world…Narf!… and to expand the world of role playing games into immersive experiences. It’s also a resource for other Game Masters and Players.

Terror Rabbit Ventures

An invitation-only weekend of horror Role Playing Games. Held in the haunted Brookdale Lodge nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A truly frightening immersive experience.

Dead of Winter Horror Invitational

A GM since 1976, Matt’s run hundreds of game sessions. He’s best known for horror games such as Call of Cthulhu, from which his long-suffering Players gave him the moniker Matthulhu.

Matt Steele ~ Game Master at Large

Welcome to Retroville – an immersive weekend of Retro-themed Role Playing Games in a retro location.

Retroville

Matt Steele aka Matthulhu
Aether Mail: flee@terrorrabbit.com
Wireless: 831.566.1170

Contact

April 9, 2011: Endgame Oakland MiniCon.
Slasher Fix: A game of Maschine Zeit – horror survival on space stations.

April 30, 2011: GM Throwdown Competition. It’s GM vs GM as Matt takes on rockin’ good competition in the form of Mike Bogan. We will use the Fate system to run competing, judged games. See me take honors as The Most Super Badass Killer GM of All Time. At Endgame Oakland by invitation of the organizers.

KublaCon: May 27 – 30, 2011
Burlingame Hyatt Regency

Upcoming Rabbit Appearances

Endgame Oakland An Awesome SF Bay Game Store. In-store game space included

Infrno – Find. Connect. Play. An online community for RPG enthusiasts, providing a virtual game table along with all the tools you need to get your game on from any place, at any time

Groovy Game Spaces

Matt as GM

Thank you, Matt, for all the prep and for running such a dark and devious game. It was great fun.

David Ackerman-Gray

I look forward to the next gaming fun!

Jenna Sterling

Thanks again to Matt for the games on Sunday. “After the Horrorcaust” was particularly enjoyable, and it did a good job of evoking the feeling of really bad film making.

Luke Miller

In the Dead of Winter, the Travelers drive a twisting mountain road. A fallen branch, cloying fog and mist slick pavement put them at the bottom of a ravine. Through the darkness they claw and scramble unable to see the blood and bruises on their shivering skin. An icy stream guides them through brambles beneath groaning giant redwoods. Their strained voices and heavy breathing alone lets them know they are still alive.

Behind and above them, something skitters in the trees. They feel its unblinking stare. Ahead, a darker shape looms. Flickering yellow light seeps from shuttered windows – The Inn that was their original goal.
The stream they follow trickles happily through its dining hall. They struggle on. The steep, muddy sides of the ravine make for slow, stumbling progress. Shock and exhaustion weaken their legs. Overhead, a gathering of entities flow smoothly through the branches. The Travelers know that The Inn is haunted.
Now they know why.

Welcome to the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational – an immersive weekend of horror role-playing at the haunted Lodge at the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Matt Steele will host this unnatural event, deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The vortex of fear will be in the Log Cabin, part of the original Brookdale Lodge, built in 1890. Attendance will be limited to 35 victims.

The Lodge’s storied history includes a dining room that encloses a natural brook flowing down its center. Of darker days there are whispers of secret passageways, hidden rooms and bodies buried under the floor. Will you become part of The Lodge’s murky history when you visit during the Dead of Winter?

Terror Rabbit Ventures Presents

The Travelers break free of grasping underbrush and clinging branches. Across the road, The Inn seems to be buildings out of time thrown together by a madman. A stained-glass structure squats over the stream, its roofline lost among intertwined branches – a haven from whatever drops heavily from the trees behind them. The Travelers lumber across the road, feet painfully numb with cold and wet. Shivering fingers haul open the ancient oak doors and the dry warmth of the nearby fireplace greets them. From the front desk, the clerk gives them a wry smile, as if familiar with their battered condition, “Welcome.”

Set under stately giant redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, you will find the world famous Brookdale Lodge. The original lodge was built in 1890 by Judge J.H. Logan at the site of the Grover lumber mill. In the early 1920′s, Dr. F.K. Camp built the beautiful dining room with the natural brook running through it. A feature in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, it served to make the Brookdale Lodge world famous. From 1922 – 45 the Brookdale Lodge was the second most popular resort in California and played host to many famous persons including: Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, and President Herbert Hoover.

In the ’40′s and ’50′s the lodge became a home for gangsters and other shady characters. The infamous haunted meatlocker is now sealed off, where it’s said (by psychics) that gangsters murdered their victims so their screams couldn’t be heard. It’s reported that thugs would sit in the mermaid room, with its view below the swimming pool, and have nude women swim in the pool. Also during this time, six-year-old Sarah Logan, the niece of the lodge owner, drowned in the Brookroom’s dining room creek. It’s her ghost that’s most often seen at the Brookdale Lodge. She’s typically seen in a white and blue Sunday dress walking through the lobby or near the fireplace between the Lounge and Brookroom. She’s also been seen playing on the balcony of the Brookroom, an area off limits to visitors and guests, and sitting beside the fire in the Fireside Room.

In the 1970′s a wing of motel rooms was built over the spot where once stood the lodge’s camping cabins. Room 46 of the motel wing is reported to be very haunted. A woman who worked at the lodge has reported that at night objects and shapes would fly across the room. Ghostly ballroom dancers would swirl around leering at her as they floated by. Ghosts would materialize around her bed, their faces sometimes vague and sometimes very very clear. One of the ghosts was a little boy, perhaps 12 or 13 years old, another was a man with his eye hanging loose on his cheek, and still another was a man with a knife wound across his face. She also reports that once she felt somebody sit on the edge of her bed and stroked her arm. 

Psychics claim that, in all, there are 49 spirits in residence at the Brookdale Lodge. Will you be adding to their numbers during the Dead of Winter?

Check out this video on YouTube in the Log Cabin.
There’s more details on the mythology and hauntings here, here and here.
My archaeologist friend (and Dead of Winter regular) Matt Armstrong wrote about Santa Cruz County ghost stories on his Sluggo’s House of Spookiness blog. He also pointed me to the Santa Cruz Paranormal Research blog for more, um, paranormal stuff. Turns out Santa Cruz is crazy haunted.

The Lodge is currently undergoing a gradual renovation. The refurbished Garden Rooms are already finished. The infamous and most haunted, Room 46 is among them. One of our attendees had a spooky encounter there in 2009.

Location of Terror

Is it a game if your life and sanity are at stake?

This year I’ll be favoring games which trend toward hard-core horror. Bring out your most dark, gritty, madness inducing horror stories.

Games are updated NOW – November 16, 2011. I’ll start game reg tomorrow, 11/17. Watch your inbox for your turn.

Registration’s gonna work a little different from last year.  I’ll Email people daily, in groups of 7, in order of registration. I’ll send out an Email the day before to give people a little advanced warning.

Schedule

Friday, December 9, 7PM- ??? Gather, cower and find out what’s up with Maxwell Sterling in The Sports Edition, next to Amelia’s Restaurant. I suspect Mr. Sterling has an affinity to the famous explorer. Check into the hotel and meet your fellow victims…errrr…attendees. What might be revealed while spending the evening tipping back a few?  Madness may change without notice.

GAMES in THE FORUM in Bldg 5 – This is a single HUGE room. Tables will be at least 10 feet apart. Hmmm, Greek tragedy anyone? Well, as it happens…

Saturday, December 10, 11AM – 5PM
Dinner Break
Saturday, December 10, 7PM – 1AM
Breakfast at Amelia’s I suspect. Get the adventuring spirit going early.
NOTE THERE IS A SHIFT IN THE SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY GAMES
Sunday, December 11, 10AM – 4PM
Dinner Break – When the weak depart…
Sunday, December 11, 6PM – MIDNIGHT, For them what is hard-core

SATURDAY 11AM

Game System: Unhallowed Metropolis – A gaslight Victorian horror story
Scenario Title: The Doctor Is In
GM: Travis Smalley
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided? Yes
Description:  Dr. Hail sat in his library, fingers steepled, looking at the sobbing Victoria Whitecastle over them. “To reiterate, Young Mistress Whitecastle – You think that your parents, and now your brother, have been replaced by some kind of monsters – a fate you are worried will happen to you too?”
“Yes, Doctor Hail. I know it sounds mad, but – ”
Dr. Hail was, however, already standing, putting his heavy coat about his shoulders and tucking his gas mask into his pocket.
“Doctor, where are you going?”
He turned to her for only the breifest of moments; “I take you very seriously, Miss Whitecastle. So seriously I don’t plan to investigate this alone. If you will do me the honor of waiting here, my manservant will make you comfortable. Do try to calm your nerves.” He opened the door that lead out into the dark streets of the smog-choked lower levels of the London arcology. “I fear you will need to tell your story once more before tonight is out.”

Game System: Traveller (Mongoose)
Scenario Title: Now and Forever
GM: Michael Ripley
Power Level: Seasoned ‘Travellers’ plying the spacelanes in their own ship
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You and your companions have plied the spacelanes for years together, sharing profits, friendship, joy, pain, and adventure. Now those years are catching up with you and your own mortality stares you in the face. Then a stranger appears in need of your help. The payment… a chance for immortality.

Game System: Doctor Who: Adventures In Time and Space
Scenario Title: Detritus Affected
GM: Mike Garcia
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided? Yes
Description: New Angeles – a city built upon a city that is built upon a landfill. In that landfill is history: trash of one era waiting to become the artifacts of another. Archeologists dig through the endless refuse seeking out the clues of the world that came before.”What where they like?” they wonder as they examine a used ketchup pack. “Did they look at the world the same way we do?” they ponder as they thumb through a stained sweater catalogue. The answer to these questions is far more sinister than the citizen’s of New Angeles can imagine.

Enter the Doctor. An archeologist too in his own sort of way, he has traveled across vast seas of matter, energy, and time to investigate a growing temporal vortex that centers right at the heart of the city. With his trusty companions in tow and the aid of a couple of intrepid locals the Doctor will uncover the dark truth of why some secrets are best left buried.
***
Detritus Affected is based on a science fiction short story of the same name but now with a Whovian twist. In running this game, I intend to bring forth the creepier moments of the television series which has been greatly underestimated for its horror elements. The characters available to play will be the Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, and three locals from the setting’s timeline (there is one extra in case a player does not want to be a canon character). Since this is a horror game, and everyone of the characters can be killed (including the Doctor, no regeneration for what I have in store) I also will have a couple of super special bonus edition characters for the poor souls that get their protagonist greased early.

Some knowledge of the setting is helpful, but not necessary for anyone other than the Doctor.

Game System: Savage Worlds Horror
Scenario Name: Camp Wicakini
GM: Bryan Hitchcock
Variations: Adult themes. Gore. Player vs Player conflict.
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: The counselors at Camp Wicakini didn’t sign up for pissed-off spirits and zombies, but that’s what’s in store for them in this Slasher/Zombie homage. Got brains?

Game System: Dread/How We Came To Live Here
Scenario Name: How We Came To Die Here
GM: Noam Rosen
Variations: None
Power Level: Pre Bronze Age
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes/There will be some character creation options in play
Description: Listen. This is a tale of our People.

She-Climbs-to-the-Top climbed the ladder, rung on rung, for many days before she reached the sky. There was no opening in the sky of the Fourth World, and She-Climbs-to-the-Top searched for some time before she found a small crack. She dug into the sky at this crack, opening and widening it until she could squeeze through. When it was large enough, she climbed into the crack and emerged into the hot light of the sun.

This is how we came to live here. This is how we came to live in the Fifth World.

How We Came to Live Here is a fantasy game based on the mythology of the American Southwest. This game tells the stories of powerful but flawed heroes. Your characters should be able to grow in power and perform epic deeds. They will also have to choose between the many paths available to them, and they will not be able to achieve all that they desire. The village will be beset by monsters and other dangers, and you must combat these while navigating the treacherous relationships within the village itself. We will be using the setting of HWCTLH but using the Dread system.

SATURDAY 7PM

Game System: World of Darkness: Innocents
Scenario Title: Snipe Hunt
GM: Shaun Hayworth
Power Level: Children
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Camp Nor’Wester in Washington has been a staple for kids since the 1930′s, but this is your first year here. It took a little while to get used to the camp’s rules – no phones, no video games, no iPods – but after two weeks, it’s not so bad. Even with all the stories of kids going missing. And tonight, you get to partake in one of the camp’s oldest traditions – the Snipe Hunt. Yeah, yeah, the snipe’s not a real, but that’s not the point. It’s kids outside at night on a forested Pacific Northwestern island. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Right? Right.

Game System: Schizo
Scenario Name: Schizo
GM: Karen Twelves
Number of Players: 4
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You’d been doing so much better, the doctors said. Don’t trust them, they lie. A real improvement, they said. Mommy, where are you? May even get a few more privileges, they said. Everyone’s going to die. But tonight something woke during lights-out time. It’s coming. The voices are different. Run. Are they trying to help you? Get out. Why are the doors unlocked? Where is the key? It’s too late.

Schizo is a home-grown multimedia game that relies heavily on role-play.  Players will be required to use an mp3 player throughout the game. If you do not have your own, one will be provided, and the GM will coordinate with you before arriving at the con to download the necessary tracks.

Game System: Shambles
Scenario Title: The Putrescent Seven
GM: Duane O’Brien & Will Robot
Variations: I Want My Life Back
Power Level: Recently Deceased
Number of Players: 7
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: “What do you do if you’re a poor farm village being harassed by heartless bandits?You hire the toughest, hungriest zombie gunman you can find and have a showdown.
We’re going to riff off The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai, zombie style. You’ll be playing the Seven zombie gunmen set out to save the town. Don’t expect a straight re-tell of either movie but come prepared to be heroes.”

Game System: Call of Cthulhu
Scenario Title: Black Site
GM: Gil Trevizo
Variations: Delta Green
Power Level: Competent Professionals
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: There’s a black spot on the map, a dark corner of a war of shadows. The black site is older than this war, its concrete walls having borne witness to “sharpened interrogations” and “dirty work” long before the CIA arrived with its “Human Resource Exploitation.” Its gates are never opened, and the men in black hoods and orange suits taken out of Gulfstream jets and marched inside never see sunlight again. After tonight, neither will anyone else who remains inside the black site.

Game System: Dread
Scenario Title: Up and Atom
GM Kristin Hayworth
Variations: Post-apocalyptic Horror
Number of Players: 6
Character Provided?  Yes
Description: Everyone did their best after the bombs went off and naturally, factions formed. True to form, humans proved once again what despicable creatures they are as different communities began to steal members of competing communities for their own gain. The stolen people are always assimilated into the community, used as slave labor, or utilized in more nefarious ways. When you and your 5 friends were kidnapped from your hunting camp, you thought you knew how serious your situation was. Can you escape your captors before you find out how far humanity has sunk?

SUNDAY 10AM

Game System: Apocalypse World
Scenario Title: 33 – Apocalypse Galactica
GM: Sean Nittner
Variations: Battlestar Galactica setting
Power Level: Depends on which side you’re on
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Created in play
Description: After 130.35 hours and 237 jumps, the fleet has been operating without sleep while facing the strain of nearly constant military action. Every 33 minutes the Cylons find you, and every 33 minutes you have to jump. One of the ships is being tracked by the Cylons. One of the ships will be turned on by the fleet and fired on under Commander Adama’s order. Welcome to the Olympic Carrier. You have 1,345 souls on board. Will you be just another number on the President’s white board?

Game System: Vox
Scenario Title: The Institution
GM: Matthew Grau
Power Level: Normal Folks (with voices in their heads)
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You’re awake, but you can’t remember who you are. You appear to be a patient here. Something appears to have happened, but you don’t know what. And then there’s this thing trying to talk to you, this thing that no one else can see. What mysteries abound at the Institution? Each player will not only portray their own character, but also a voice in one of the other player’s heads.

Game System: A Penny For My Thoughts
Scenario Title: Face Down
GM: Violet Ash
Variations: Mad Science Horror Theme
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Created in play
Description:  You come to. Face down. You’re on a floor. A cold, grey concrete floor. Your eyes blink to focus, and your mind attempts to uncloud. The other bodies, the painfully-lit metal tables, the medical equipment and machinery, all come into focus. But you do not. Who you are, that is. Your head aches, your knees buckle underneath you, you slump against the wall. One by one, the others awake. All vacant, all confused. Like you. You hear the noise of a deadbolt sliding back, echoing towards you from somewhere. A silhouetted figure in a lab coat appears at the door, and you make out something about experimental procedures, and transpersonal reconfigurative experimentation. You feel a needle sink into your arm. And that’s when the flashbacks start.

See if you and your 5 fellow prisoners can recover your memories and your identity through collaborative storytelling before the timer on that wall over there runs out. Your friendly neighborhood Doctor Mad Misunderstood Professor Evil Maniac will be there to make sure you stay on task.

Game System: Little Fears: Nightmare Edition
Scenario Title: Strings Attached
GM: Eric Zimmerman
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Mumble Monsters, the latest craze sweeping the nation. Robby Winthrope, the kid who has everything was the first to get one. Now everyone is getting one. It’s the only thing on your Christmas list. They’re cute and adorable. And they talk to you at night. The puppets just want love and warmth. And they’ll rip it out of you anyway they can. Hey, does anyone know why Robbie’s been absent?

“I have fun making toys. I sometimes pretend I’m a mad scientist, putting little monsters together.” – Jasper Willikins, toy maker.

Game System: Dread (Modified)
Scenario Title: Calling All Stations
GM: Frank Figoni
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided?  Yes
Description: Attu Island, an isolated, windswept, cold, and desolate place at the end of the Aleutian Island chain.  Not a great place to be stationed when you’re in the Coast Guard, but even less accommodating in the winter months when darkness and snow cover the landscape… And, something goes horribly wrong…

For the crew of the Coast Guard’s high endurance cutter Morgenthau, WHEC 722, winter means three months of an Alaskan fishery patrol, a relatively mundane task.  Five weeks into their cruise, a brief all stations distress call comes in from the small Coast Guard contingent on Attu Island only eighty nautical miles to the south.  However, the message is almost incoherent and the caller hysterical:

“Say again Attu…  Say again!” 
“Dead!!!  Help us!!!  Please God!  HELP US!!!”

SUNDAY 6PM

Game System: Dread
Scenario Title: Dread of Winter Horrible Invitational
GM: Morgan Hua
Variations: Non-standard character generation
Power Level: None
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? You are in the Game
Description: You are invited to the First Annual Dread of Winter Horrible Invitational located in the Brokedown Lodge — so poor and rundown it can’t afford an “N”.  You arrive at night during a thunder storm.  There are five tables in a log cabin with seven people per table – you sit at the one with the unnatural cold spot.  A roaring fire burns in the gigantic fireplace that sends smoke into your eyes. The power goes out. Despite all of this, you begin to play a game and everything starts to go wrong, horribly and dreadfully wrong, and there is no escape from the Brokedown Lodge.

Game System: World of Darkness
Scenario Name: Wait, please! *gurgle*
GM: Travis Lindquist
Variations: Mortals, Slashers
Power Level: Squish.
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes.  Aprons provided? No.  But bring them.  Seriously.
Description: “The cruise to end all cruises!”  The Captain has one hand and one eye, the porters
are perv’s, and someone’s spitting in the food.  Or maybe worse.  But despite that, the tropical islands have been fun!  Yes, certainly a good break from school.  Certainly feels like the cruise to end all cruises!

Game System: Call of Cthulhu / BRP
Scenario Title: Anno Domini
GM: Luke Miller
Variations: Cthulhu Invictus
Power Level: Legion Veterans
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Over half a century ago, Pompey the Great laid siege to Jerusalem to reinstall a government that would be loyal to Rome.  In reward for his service to the Senate and Public, Pompey’s head now lies in Alexandria underneath a temple to Nemesis, goddess of hubris.  Now, as Augustus consolidates the empire after a great civil war, there is again unrest in the east. Herod’s kingdom in Judaea is again in turmoil, and there is whispering that the stars have aligned in a peculiarly portentous way.

Lo Saturnalia! And please enjoy with us a very special Christmas story in 748 Ab Urbe Condita.

Game System: Nemesis/ORE
Scenario Title: The Bones of Autumn
GM: Jack Young
Variations: 1750’s Colonial America, no Madness Meter
Power Level: Seasoned Colonists
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided?  Yes
Description: Fall’s chill winds ride the frontier like a deranged horseman, his mind addled by some pale sickness, his warnings incomprehensible.  Autumn is approaching, faster than anyone realizes.

The oaks and maples along the Monongahela River valley are turning brown and gold and yellow and relations with the local Delaware Indians have likewise taken a turn, for the worse.

As men (and a few women) serving with the provincial colonial militia, you’ve all caught glimpses of what lurks beneath the shadows of the frontier, things wicked and profane.

And when two sisters go missing from their homestead and members of your company are dispatched to investigate, you have little faith that anything you discover in those backwoods is going to sooth troubled waters.

Trust those instincts, because the Bones of Autumn are coming.

Games & Schedule

Enclosed by The Inn, the Travelers warm their flesh and dry their clothes at the fireplace. From the Lounge, locals give them vacant, friendly smiles. Within the walls and beneath the floors, spirits taste the essence of the Travelers. Some are playful, others hope to find relief by sharing the pains of their demise, the most dangerous seek permanent company in their misery. The locals exchange inward glances. They are free from the spirits… tonight.

In for a penny, in for a pound – of flesh. The fiscal cost for attending the Dead of Winter Invitational is $60.00. This covers the cost to rent the LOG CABIN and supplies to keep the spirits (mostly) at bay. The hotel stay is lower this year. Garden Rooms: $59/night, Ancient rooms: $49/night. Use Group Code CGDEAD when you register. In 2010, chocolate chip cookies were provided by the hotel. The cost in sanity, blood and souls varies year to year.

A key element of the Dead of Winter is inhabiting a haunted hotel for the weekend. For the purpose of immersion, anyone attending must stay at the Brookdale Lodge on Friday and Saturday nights and play through the Sunday morning session – no exceptions. This thing’s, an “all in” deal. Sunday night stays are optional and may not be at the block rate. Washed-out roads, downed power lines, dead phone lines & trees blocking all avenues to safety are beyond the control of your host.

Attendance is limited to 35 people. This allows 5 games to run with 6 Players and 1 GM Saturday morning and night. 5 Games run Sunday morning. The number of games run Sunday night depends on the number of people who stay for that session. 4 Games ran in 2010. Selection of attendees is at the sole discretion of your host, Matt Steele. If you’re on this site, you’ve probably played in a game I’ve run or been a fellow Player in a game I’ve played. You might just have a soul so tasty that you scored an invite.

To get in on the horror, send a check payable to:

MATT STEELE
Dead of Winter Horror Invitational
6643 East Zayante Road
Felton, CA 95018

To pay by PayPal Email me at:

terrorrabit@me.com

I’ll need to know the following for everyone who registers:

NAME:
ADDRESS:

PHONE:
Landline:
Cell:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
How did you get an invite to the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational?
Will you be staying for the Sunday night session? Y or N

You can cancel your reservation and get a full refund until Halloween Day, October 31. After Halloween there will be no refunds. I gotta pay for the Log Cabin in advance. Signing up after Halloween is OK, but no refunds if you have to cancel. This thing’s gonna sell out, so I’ll be putting folks on a Wait List, first listed, first contacted to get in.

Note: GM’s don’t get free or discounted admission. Everyone’s basically chipping in to pay for the space. You are what makes this event happen. That’s super cool.

See the CONTACT page for The Lodge for reservation information.

Registration

For hotel reservations or questions:

The Lodge at The Brookdale Inn & Spa
11570 Hwy 9, Brookdale, CA 95007
PH: 831.338.1300
WEB: www.brookdaleinnandspa.com
EMAIL: info@brookdaleinnandspa.com
Use Group Code CGDEAD when registering.

For questions regarding the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational:

MATT STEELE
831.566.1170
EMAIL: terrorrabbit@me.com

tweet #DeadofWinter

Contact Terror Rabbit

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 1
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 2
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 3
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 4
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 1
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 2
View online

Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter

Video 3
View this video on YouTube

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 4
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 5
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 9
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 6
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 10
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 11

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 7

Dead of Winter 2010

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Hello world!

Dead of Winter
It was awesome! I played in four epic games, and dropped by Endgame (www.endgameoakland.com) to buy Cthulhu (www.cthulhutech.com) Tech before I got home. I’ve already made myself a four day weekend for next year.

Jill Stapleton

…a big thank you to you, sir, for working your ass off to get this thing off the ground, and continuing to keep it running while all the various…adventures were going on. Can’t wait ‘til next year, and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Badger McInnes

Somehow it was impossible to get a picture of Matthew Grau in focus while he ran his soon to be released game, CHTHONIAN STARS at Dead of Winter. I don’t know why that is, but I have my suspicions. {Cultist!} Chthonian Stars is due out April 2011. I’ve seen an advanced copy. OK I ran a game with it, and it looks to be my favorite game for 2011. Mr. Grau gave me the formal scoop on it.

Chthonian Stars: The Cthulhu Saga I
2159 AD. It is a good time to be alive. The nations of the world still exist, but they have become more civilized, and we have expanded into the rest of our solar system. But, alas, it is not to be our time. Something approaches, a thing on an orbit from far away. Seemingly a large shard of dark matter, this object is known in obscure prophecy as the Chthonian Star. It is awakening things long thought lost or dead, things that have slumbered awaiting its return.The Unified World Council sends out special teams of sanctioned Wardens, whose job it is to ascertain the new threats to human life, to learn everything they can about them, and fight them wherever they are found.

Chthonian Stars is an original Lovecraftian horror setting for Traveller.

This Core Setting Book:
•    Provides a detailed exploration of our fully colonized solar system, only a few hundred years in the future.
•    New optional character design rules, including advantages and disadvantages, as well as career half-terms.
•    Introduces new rules for fear and madness, as well as optional rules for character survivability.
•    Brings to life many familiar Lovecraftian horrors for Traveller, as well as a host of new and original ones.
•    Details more than a dozen new spaceships.
•    Includes three ready-to-run adventures, to get groups running quickly.
•    From the award-winning team that brought you CthulhuTech.

Chthonian Stars pass through Dead of Winter

Mike Muldoon graced us with his flaming Mohawk presence at Dead of Winter 2010. He and I dealt with a cursed skull in Matthew Grau’s Cthulhu Tech game.  Then we faced the challenges of living in a planetary landfill in Duane O’Brien’s bizzare HoL game. In between he gave all of the folks the lowdown on INFRNO, his project to connect table top RPG players around the world. INFRNO’s a project very close to me heart. That is to say, I wanna connect with other gamers and Muldoon and I work out of NextSpace, a coworking space in downtown Santa Cruz, CA. That means I’ve had some small influence on it along the way. Hell, I’m the first registered user. Anyone want to play games they missed at Dead of Winter? Let’s meet on INFRNO and play. Shoot me an Email so we can set it up.

Chief Experience Officer Matthew Grau and
CEO & Founder Mike Muldoon explore HoL at Dead of Winter.

Here’s the official scoop:

“Infrno is an online community for role playing enthusiasts, providing a virtual game table with video conferencing and shared whiteboard, along with all the tools you need to find players of your caliber, connect with them, and get your game on from any place, at any time.”

INFRNO Burns at Dead of Winter

These people are crazy enough to go to a decrepit, haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains in the Dead of Winter and tempt fate by playing horror games all weekend. Thanks to Nicole Brennan for taking the pic. “Hiding” in the woodshed and therefore not in the pic are, Wayne Coburn, Elisabeth Brewer, Duane O’Brien, Chris Ruggiero and Nik Gervae. Some of these folks have been willing to write about their experiences, post pictures and put it out on the internet. If you missed it, read all about it from:

MATT ARMSTRONG ~ Resident Archaeologist with a great layman’s description of our hobby.

SHANNON MAC ~ #1 Dead of Winter Cheerleader elevates DoW to his #1 event of the year.

KAREN TWELVES ~ Woman of Mysteries puts the first two DoW’s in perspective. Awesome!

MIKE MULDOON ~ Infernal Man of INFRNO posted pics from HoL. Even GM Duane O’Brien was nauseous.

Sean Nittner ~ Powerhouse behind Big Bad Con takes his reviews seriously. Check out his multiple posts here, here, here, and here.

Dead of Winter Reviews 2010

My life as host of the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational is a difficult one. I’ve created an event I want to attend and that makes it a blast. Trouble is there were 19 great games this year and I only got to play in 4 of them. Choosing was brutal.

Saturday began with Matthew Grau’s Cthulhu Tech game. I played in the original last year and couldn’t resist stepping into the sequel. Grau didn’t disappoint. He did a recap for new Players and the horror of the previous game came flooding back to me. Last year my P.I. character acquired a cursed skull. This year we had to get rid of the thing.

Not easy when soooo many bad people want it – including our employer. Why didn’t we just destroy it? Yeah, not possible. The game opened with the moral dilemma of having to defend ourselves against possessed teenagers. Ugly choices. As the story progressed the skull was making us all paranoid and creating delusions, so we passed it around to minimize the sanity loss. Sharing is caring. A stellar group of players made for good cooperative and Player vs Player action. The finale’? Let’s just say we handed Grau the possibility of another sequel.

Saturday night was Duane O’Brien’s HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) game.
Duane started the game by dumping an actual bag of trash on the table to simulate the environment we were in. Believe it or not, it went downhill from there. At one horrifying point one of the characters (represented by a donkey) was overrun and trampled by wastems (goo filled creatures that are also the food on HoL). Every moment got more disgusting. So much so that I decided to role-play eating coffee grounds by putting tea leaves in my mouth like chewing tobacco. Baaaaad idea. The ending was filled with all kinds of madness and my character (one-hit wonder country singer Clint Roper) nearly got himself decapitated. Gruesome. HoL is a horrible place, but the game lends itself more to over-the-top madness than horror. Still, the nasty reveal at the end brought the horror crashing down on us.

Sunday morning brought me Jill Stapleton’s fantastic Call of Cthulhu game.
San Francisco 1852. I played a local Sheriff’s Deputy. We had problems with Australian gangs, vigilante groups and spontaneous human combustion. A classic CoC game with a group of characters who are friends and go through tough times that test them all. They didn’t always get along as you can see as Matt DeHayes gives me the evil eye as a pants-wearing female journalist.  Jill really brought the period to life – even in a city all of the Players know quite well. Of course it was different in 1852 and she let us know just how different – and horrifying. We captured the bad guys by almost sinking their boat by filling it with water from a fire boat. A unique solution!

I topped off the Dead of Winter in Karen Twelves’ Schizo experience.

The most intimate and unique of the games, we sat at a small table and each Player had an MP3 player which fed us the voices in our heads. Tracks changed based on conditions of play. Karen had a chart which informed her about the track to be played and she handed us notes telling us when to change. Dice were kept in pill bottles as were jelly bean ‘pills’. As we lost more and more sanity we ate the pills. No more pills – no more sanity. The home-grown mechanics were simple and the role-playing dead on. Karen’s GM style and NPC’s were off the charts as she berated us in both roles and intentionally blurred the line of GM/NPC/Player. The voices in our heads influenced the game several times.  I hope Karen runs this for other people. It’s an experience not to be missed.

Dead of Winter Games I Played

Noam Rosen, shown here with his best cheesy grin at Dead of Winter is a fellow gamer, GM and all around awesome dude. How awesome? He introduced me to Epimas. Huh? Epimas happens every December 24. Epidiah Ravanchol from The Forge runs a special deal where if you buy games for a friend, you also get the games yourself. Helluva deal! Noam went the full monty, ummm, the whole tofoose and bought me 12 games! Some rockin’ stuff including Apocalypse World, Blowback and My Life With Master. Some games I’d never heard of, but look really cool. Noam, you rock!

Gamers Rock

The Wolf was in the house. That is to say that Sean Nittner talked up his new RPG/LARP convention Big Bad Con, October 7-9, 2011 in Oakland. I’ll be running a couple of games there. Sign up for the inaugural event.  Here’s what it’s all about:

There aren’t enough good weekend long RPG conventions in the Bay Area.  My Answer: Big Bad Con!  I’ve talked to Japji Khalsa (of Kublacon), Chris Hanrahan (EndGame in Oakland), Doug Daulton (of Neoncon), Matt Steele (Dead of Winter) and tons of gamers and I’m convinced Big Bad Con is going to be awesome. I want to offer the best games to most gamers I can.  I’ve run Good Omens Con for four years as well as talked extensively with Japji as well as other gamers about what makes a con rock and my plan is to put on a con that doesn’t stop rocking till you pass out Sunday night.

Yeah, plus he’s giving attendees a chance to participate in Gamers vs Gazebo Deathmatch and there will be the Big Bad GM competition. This thing’s gonna rock!

Big Bad Con Blows the House Down

Terror Rabbit Ventures is the umbrella under which Matt Steele orchestrates his evil schemes to take over the world…Narf!… and to expand the world of role playing games into immersive experiences. It’s also a resource for other Game Masters and Players.

Terror Rabbit Ventures

An invitation-only weekend of horror Role Playing Games. Held in the haunted Brookdale Lodge nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. A truly frightening immersive experience.

Dead of Winter Horror Invitational

A GM since 1976, Matt’s run hundreds of game sessions. He’s best known for horror games such as Call of Cthulhu, from which his long-suffering Players gave him the moniker Matthulhu.

Matt Steele ~ Game Master at Large

Welcome to Retroville – an immersive weekend of Retro-themed Role Playing Games in a retro location.

Retroville

Matt Steele aka Matthulhu
Aether Mail: flee@terrorrabbit.com
Wireless: 831.566.1170

Contact

April 9, 2011: Endgame Oakland MiniCon.
Slasher Fix: A game of Maschine Zeit – horror survival on space stations.

April 30, 2011: GM Throwdown Competition. It’s GM vs GM as Matt takes on rockin’ good competition in the form of Mike Bogan. We will use the Fate system to run competing, judged games. See me take honors as The Most Super Badass Killer GM of All Time. At Endgame Oakland by invitation of the organizers.

KublaCon: May 27 – 30, 2011
Burlingame Hyatt Regency

Upcoming Rabbit Appearances

Endgame Oakland An Awesome SF Bay Game Store. In-store game space included

Infrno – Find. Connect. Play. An online community for RPG enthusiasts, providing a virtual game table along with all the tools you need to get your game on from any place, at any time

Groovy Game Spaces

Matt as GM

Thank you, Matt, for all the prep and for running such a dark and devious game. It was great fun.

David Ackerman-Gray

I look forward to the next gaming fun!

Jenna Sterling

Thanks again to Matt for the games on Sunday. “After the Horrorcaust” was particularly enjoyable, and it did a good job of evoking the feeling of really bad film making.

Luke Miller

In the Dead of Winter, the Travelers drive a twisting mountain road. A fallen branch, cloying fog and mist slick pavement put them at the bottom of a ravine. Through the darkness they claw and scramble unable to see the blood and bruises on their shivering skin. An icy stream guides them through brambles beneath groaning giant redwoods. Their strained voices and heavy breathing alone lets them know they are still alive.

Behind and above them, something skitters in the trees. They feel its unblinking stare. Ahead, a darker shape looms. Flickering yellow light seeps from shuttered windows – The Inn that was their original goal.
The stream they follow trickles happily through its dining hall. They struggle on. The steep, muddy sides of the ravine make for slow, stumbling progress. Shock and exhaustion weaken their legs. Overhead, a gathering of entities flow smoothly through the branches. The Travelers know that The Inn is haunted.
Now they know why.

Welcome to the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational – an immersive weekend of horror role-playing at the haunted Lodge at the Brookdale Inn & Spa. Matt Steele will host this unnatural event, deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The vortex of fear will be in the Log Cabin, part of the original Brookdale Lodge, built in 1890. Attendance will be limited to 35 victims.

The Lodge’s storied history includes a dining room that encloses a natural brook flowing down its center. Of darker days there are whispers of secret passageways, hidden rooms and bodies buried under the floor. Will you become part of The Lodge’s murky history when you visit during the Dead of Winter?

Terror Rabbit Ventures Presents

The Travelers break free of grasping underbrush and clinging branches. Across the road, The Inn seems to be buildings out of time thrown together by a madman. A stained-glass structure squats over the stream, its roofline lost among intertwined branches – a haven from whatever drops heavily from the trees behind them. The Travelers lumber across the road, feet painfully numb with cold and wet. Shivering fingers haul open the ancient oak doors and the dry warmth of the nearby fireplace greets them. From the front desk, the clerk gives them a wry smile, as if familiar with their battered condition, “Welcome.”

Set under stately giant redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, you will find the world famous Brookdale Lodge. The original lodge was built in 1890 by Judge J.H. Logan at the site of the Grover lumber mill. In the early 1920′s, Dr. F.K. Camp built the beautiful dining room with the natural brook running through it. A feature in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, it served to make the Brookdale Lodge world famous. From 1922 – 45 the Brookdale Lodge was the second most popular resort in California and played host to many famous persons including: Mae West, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Hedy Lamarr, and President Herbert Hoover.

In the ’40′s and ’50′s the lodge became a home for gangsters and other shady characters. The infamous haunted meatlocker is now sealed off, where it’s said (by psychics) that gangsters murdered their victims so their screams couldn’t be heard. It’s reported that thugs would sit in the mermaid room, with its view below the swimming pool, and have nude women swim in the pool. Also during this time, six-year-old Sarah Logan, the niece of the lodge owner, drowned in the Brookroom’s dining room creek. It’s her ghost that’s most often seen at the Brookdale Lodge. She’s typically seen in a white and blue Sunday dress walking through the lobby or near the fireplace between the Lounge and Brookroom. She’s also been seen playing on the balcony of the Brookroom, an area off limits to visitors and guests, and sitting beside the fire in the Fireside Room.

In the 1970′s a wing of motel rooms was built over the spot where once stood the lodge’s camping cabins. Room 46 of the motel wing is reported to be very haunted. A woman who worked at the lodge has reported that at night objects and shapes would fly across the room. Ghostly ballroom dancers would swirl around leering at her as they floated by. Ghosts would materialize around her bed, their faces sometimes vague and sometimes very very clear. One of the ghosts was a little boy, perhaps 12 or 13 years old, another was a man with his eye hanging loose on his cheek, and still another was a man with a knife wound across his face. She also reports that once she felt somebody sit on the edge of her bed and stroked her arm. 

Psychics claim that, in all, there are 49 spirits in residence at the Brookdale Lodge. Will you be adding to their numbers during the Dead of Winter?

Check out this video on YouTube in the Log Cabin.
There’s more details on the mythology and hauntings here, here and here.
My archaeologist friend (and Dead of Winter regular) Matt Armstrong wrote about Santa Cruz County ghost stories on his Sluggo’s House of Spookiness blog. He also pointed me to the Santa Cruz Paranormal Research blog for more, um, paranormal stuff. Turns out Santa Cruz is crazy haunted.

The Lodge is currently undergoing a gradual renovation. The refurbished Garden Rooms are already finished. The infamous and most haunted, Room 46 is among them. One of our attendees had a spooky encounter there in 2009.

Location of Terror

Is it a game if your life and sanity are at stake?

This year I’ll be favoring games which trend toward hard-core horror. Bring out your most dark, gritty, madness inducing horror stories.

Games are updated NOW – November 16, 2011. I’ll start game reg tomorrow, 11/17. Watch your inbox for your turn.

Registration’s gonna work a little different from last year.  I’ll Email people daily, in groups of 7, in order of registration. I’ll send out an Email the day before to give people a little advanced warning.

Schedule

Friday, December 9, 7PM- ??? Gather, cower and find out what’s up with Maxwell Sterling in The Sports Edition, next to Amelia’s Restaurant. I suspect Mr. Sterling has an affinity to the famous explorer. Check into the hotel and meet your fellow victims…errrr…attendees. What might be revealed while spending the evening tipping back a few?  Madness may change without notice.

GAMES in THE FORUM in Bldg 5 – This is a single HUGE room. Tables will be at least 10 feet apart. Hmmm, Greek tragedy anyone? Well, as it happens…

Saturday, December 10, 11AM – 5PM
Dinner Break
Saturday, December 10, 7PM – 1AM
Breakfast at Amelia’s I suspect. Get the adventuring spirit going early.
NOTE THERE IS A SHIFT IN THE SCHEDULE FOR SUNDAY GAMES
Sunday, December 11, 10AM – 4PM
Dinner Break – When the weak depart…
Sunday, December 11, 6PM – MIDNIGHT, For them what is hard-core

SATURDAY 11AM

Game System: Unhallowed Metropolis – A gaslight Victorian horror story
Scenario Title: The Doctor Is In
GM: Travis Smalley
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided? Yes
Description:  Dr. Hail sat in his library, fingers steepled, looking at the sobbing Victoria Whitecastle over them. “To reiterate, Young Mistress Whitecastle – You think that your parents, and now your brother, have been replaced by some kind of monsters – a fate you are worried will happen to you too?”
“Yes, Doctor Hail. I know it sounds mad, but – ”
Dr. Hail was, however, already standing, putting his heavy coat about his shoulders and tucking his gas mask into his pocket.
“Doctor, where are you going?”
He turned to her for only the breifest of moments; “I take you very seriously, Miss Whitecastle. So seriously I don’t plan to investigate this alone. If you will do me the honor of waiting here, my manservant will make you comfortable. Do try to calm your nerves.” He opened the door that lead out into the dark streets of the smog-choked lower levels of the London arcology. “I fear you will need to tell your story once more before tonight is out.”

Game System: Traveller (Mongoose)
Scenario Title: Now and Forever
GM: Michael Ripley
Power Level: Seasoned ‘Travellers’ plying the spacelanes in their own ship
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You and your companions have plied the spacelanes for years together, sharing profits, friendship, joy, pain, and adventure. Now those years are catching up with you and your own mortality stares you in the face. Then a stranger appears in need of your help. The payment… a chance for immortality.

Game System: Doctor Who: Adventures In Time and Space
Scenario Title: Detritus Affected
GM: Mike Garcia
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided? Yes
Description: New Angeles – a city built upon a city that is built upon a landfill. In that landfill is history: trash of one era waiting to become the artifacts of another. Archeologists dig through the endless refuse seeking out the clues of the world that came before.”What where they like?” they wonder as they examine a used ketchup pack. “Did they look at the world the same way we do?” they ponder as they thumb through a stained sweater catalogue. The answer to these questions is far more sinister than the citizen’s of New Angeles can imagine.

Enter the Doctor. An archeologist too in his own sort of way, he has traveled across vast seas of matter, energy, and time to investigate a growing temporal vortex that centers right at the heart of the city. With his trusty companions in tow and the aid of a couple of intrepid locals the Doctor will uncover the dark truth of why some secrets are best left buried.
***
Detritus Affected is based on a science fiction short story of the same name but now with a Whovian twist. In running this game, I intend to bring forth the creepier moments of the television series which has been greatly underestimated for its horror elements. The characters available to play will be the Doctor, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, and three locals from the setting’s timeline (there is one extra in case a player does not want to be a canon character). Since this is a horror game, and everyone of the characters can be killed (including the Doctor, no regeneration for what I have in store) I also will have a couple of super special bonus edition characters for the poor souls that get their protagonist greased early.

Some knowledge of the setting is helpful, but not necessary for anyone other than the Doctor.

Game System: Savage Worlds Horror
Scenario Name: Camp Wicakini
GM: Bryan Hitchcock
Variations: Adult themes. Gore. Player vs Player conflict.
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: The counselors at Camp Wicakini didn’t sign up for pissed-off spirits and zombies, but that’s what’s in store for them in this Slasher/Zombie homage. Got brains?

Game System: Dread/How We Came To Live Here
Scenario Name: How We Came To Die Here
GM: Noam Rosen
Variations: None
Power Level: Pre Bronze Age
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes/There will be some character creation options in play
Description: Listen. This is a tale of our People.

She-Climbs-to-the-Top climbed the ladder, rung on rung, for many days before she reached the sky. There was no opening in the sky of the Fourth World, and She-Climbs-to-the-Top searched for some time before she found a small crack. She dug into the sky at this crack, opening and widening it until she could squeeze through. When it was large enough, she climbed into the crack and emerged into the hot light of the sun.

This is how we came to live here. This is how we came to live in the Fifth World.

How We Came to Live Here is a fantasy game based on the mythology of the American Southwest. This game tells the stories of powerful but flawed heroes. Your characters should be able to grow in power and perform epic deeds. They will also have to choose between the many paths available to them, and they will not be able to achieve all that they desire. The village will be beset by monsters and other dangers, and you must combat these while navigating the treacherous relationships within the village itself. We will be using the setting of HWCTLH but using the Dread system.

SATURDAY 7PM

Game System: World of Darkness: Innocents
Scenario Title: Snipe Hunt
GM: Shaun Hayworth
Power Level: Children
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Camp Nor’Wester in Washington has been a staple for kids since the 1930′s, but this is your first year here. It took a little while to get used to the camp’s rules – no phones, no video games, no iPods – but after two weeks, it’s not so bad. Even with all the stories of kids going missing. And tonight, you get to partake in one of the camp’s oldest traditions – the Snipe Hunt. Yeah, yeah, the snipe’s not a real, but that’s not the point. It’s kids outside at night on a forested Pacific Northwestern island. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Right? Right.

Game System: Schizo
Scenario Name: Schizo
GM: Karen Twelves
Number of Players: 4
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You’d been doing so much better, the doctors said. Don’t trust them, they lie. A real improvement, they said. Mommy, where are you? May even get a few more privileges, they said. Everyone’s going to die. But tonight something woke during lights-out time. It’s coming. The voices are different. Run. Are they trying to help you? Get out. Why are the doors unlocked? Where is the key? It’s too late.

Schizo is a home-grown multimedia game that relies heavily on role-play.  Players will be required to use an mp3 player throughout the game. If you do not have your own, one will be provided, and the GM will coordinate with you before arriving at the con to download the necessary tracks.

Game System: Shambles
Scenario Title: The Putrescent Seven
GM: Duane O’Brien & Will Robot
Variations: I Want My Life Back
Power Level: Recently Deceased
Number of Players: 7
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: “What do you do if you’re a poor farm village being harassed by heartless bandits?You hire the toughest, hungriest zombie gunman you can find and have a showdown.
We’re going to riff off The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai, zombie style. You’ll be playing the Seven zombie gunmen set out to save the town. Don’t expect a straight re-tell of either movie but come prepared to be heroes.”

Game System: Call of Cthulhu
Scenario Title: Black Site
GM: Gil Trevizo
Variations: Delta Green
Power Level: Competent Professionals
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: There’s a black spot on the map, a dark corner of a war of shadows. The black site is older than this war, its concrete walls having borne witness to “sharpened interrogations” and “dirty work” long before the CIA arrived with its “Human Resource Exploitation.” Its gates are never opened, and the men in black hoods and orange suits taken out of Gulfstream jets and marched inside never see sunlight again. After tonight, neither will anyone else who remains inside the black site.

Game System: Dread
Scenario Title: Up and Atom
GM Kristin Hayworth
Variations: Post-apocalyptic Horror
Number of Players: 6
Character Provided?  Yes
Description: Everyone did their best after the bombs went off and naturally, factions formed. True to form, humans proved once again what despicable creatures they are as different communities began to steal members of competing communities for their own gain. The stolen people are always assimilated into the community, used as slave labor, or utilized in more nefarious ways. When you and your 5 friends were kidnapped from your hunting camp, you thought you knew how serious your situation was. Can you escape your captors before you find out how far humanity has sunk?

SUNDAY 10AM

Game System: Apocalypse World
Scenario Title: 33 – Apocalypse Galactica
GM: Sean Nittner
Variations: Battlestar Galactica setting
Power Level: Depends on which side you’re on
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Created in play
Description: After 130.35 hours and 237 jumps, the fleet has been operating without sleep while facing the strain of nearly constant military action. Every 33 minutes the Cylons find you, and every 33 minutes you have to jump. One of the ships is being tracked by the Cylons. One of the ships will be turned on by the fleet and fired on under Commander Adama’s order. Welcome to the Olympic Carrier. You have 1,345 souls on board. Will you be just another number on the President’s white board?

Game System: Vox
Scenario Title: The Institution
GM: Matthew Grau
Power Level: Normal Folks (with voices in their heads)
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: You’re awake, but you can’t remember who you are. You appear to be a patient here. Something appears to have happened, but you don’t know what. And then there’s this thing trying to talk to you, this thing that no one else can see. What mysteries abound at the Institution? Each player will not only portray their own character, but also a voice in one of the other player’s heads.

Game System: A Penny For My Thoughts
Scenario Title: Face Down
GM: Violet Ash
Variations: Mad Science Horror Theme
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Created in play
Description:  You come to. Face down. You’re on a floor. A cold, grey concrete floor. Your eyes blink to focus, and your mind attempts to uncloud. The other bodies, the painfully-lit metal tables, the medical equipment and machinery, all come into focus. But you do not. Who you are, that is. Your head aches, your knees buckle underneath you, you slump against the wall. One by one, the others awake. All vacant, all confused. Like you. You hear the noise of a deadbolt sliding back, echoing towards you from somewhere. A silhouetted figure in a lab coat appears at the door, and you make out something about experimental procedures, and transpersonal reconfigurative experimentation. You feel a needle sink into your arm. And that’s when the flashbacks start.

See if you and your 5 fellow prisoners can recover your memories and your identity through collaborative storytelling before the timer on that wall over there runs out. Your friendly neighborhood Doctor Mad Misunderstood Professor Evil Maniac will be there to make sure you stay on task.

Game System: Little Fears: Nightmare Edition
Scenario Title: Strings Attached
GM: Eric Zimmerman
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Mumble Monsters, the latest craze sweeping the nation. Robby Winthrope, the kid who has everything was the first to get one. Now everyone is getting one. It’s the only thing on your Christmas list. They’re cute and adorable. And they talk to you at night. The puppets just want love and warmth. And they’ll rip it out of you anyway they can. Hey, does anyone know why Robbie’s been absent?

“I have fun making toys. I sometimes pretend I’m a mad scientist, putting little monsters together.” – Jasper Willikins, toy maker.

Game System: Dread (Modified)
Scenario Title: Calling All Stations
GM: Frank Figoni
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided?  Yes
Description: Attu Island, an isolated, windswept, cold, and desolate place at the end of the Aleutian Island chain.  Not a great place to be stationed when you’re in the Coast Guard, but even less accommodating in the winter months when darkness and snow cover the landscape… And, something goes horribly wrong…

For the crew of the Coast Guard’s high endurance cutter Morgenthau, WHEC 722, winter means three months of an Alaskan fishery patrol, a relatively mundane task.  Five weeks into their cruise, a brief all stations distress call comes in from the small Coast Guard contingent on Attu Island only eighty nautical miles to the south.  However, the message is almost incoherent and the caller hysterical:

“Say again Attu…  Say again!” 
“Dead!!!  Help us!!!  Please God!  HELP US!!!”

SUNDAY 6PM

Game System: Dread
Scenario Title: Dread of Winter Horrible Invitational
GM: Morgan Hua
Variations: Non-standard character generation
Power Level: None
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? You are in the Game
Description: You are invited to the First Annual Dread of Winter Horrible Invitational located in the Brokedown Lodge — so poor and rundown it can’t afford an “N”.  You arrive at night during a thunder storm.  There are five tables in a log cabin with seven people per table – you sit at the one with the unnatural cold spot.  A roaring fire burns in the gigantic fireplace that sends smoke into your eyes. The power goes out. Despite all of this, you begin to play a game and everything starts to go wrong, horribly and dreadfully wrong, and there is no escape from the Brokedown Lodge.

Game System: World of Darkness
Scenario Name: Wait, please! *gurgle*
GM: Travis Lindquist
Variations: Mortals, Slashers
Power Level: Squish.
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes.  Aprons provided? No.  But bring them.  Seriously.
Description: “The cruise to end all cruises!”  The Captain has one hand and one eye, the porters
are perv’s, and someone’s spitting in the food.  Or maybe worse.  But despite that, the tropical islands have been fun!  Yes, certainly a good break from school.  Certainly feels like the cruise to end all cruises!

Game System: Call of Cthulhu / BRP
Scenario Title: Anno Domini
GM: Luke Miller
Variations: Cthulhu Invictus
Power Level: Legion Veterans
Number of Players: 6
Characters provided? Yes
Description: Over half a century ago, Pompey the Great laid siege to Jerusalem to reinstall a government that would be loyal to Rome.  In reward for his service to the Senate and Public, Pompey’s head now lies in Alexandria underneath a temple to Nemesis, goddess of hubris.  Now, as Augustus consolidates the empire after a great civil war, there is again unrest in the east. Herod’s kingdom in Judaea is again in turmoil, and there is whispering that the stars have aligned in a peculiarly portentous way.

Lo Saturnalia! And please enjoy with us a very special Christmas story in 748 Ab Urbe Condita.

Game System: Nemesis/ORE
Scenario Title: The Bones of Autumn
GM: Jack Young
Variations: 1750’s Colonial America, no Madness Meter
Power Level: Seasoned Colonists
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided?  Yes
Description: Fall’s chill winds ride the frontier like a deranged horseman, his mind addled by some pale sickness, his warnings incomprehensible.  Autumn is approaching, faster than anyone realizes.

The oaks and maples along the Monongahela River valley are turning brown and gold and yellow and relations with the local Delaware Indians have likewise taken a turn, for the worse.

As men (and a few women) serving with the provincial colonial militia, you’ve all caught glimpses of what lurks beneath the shadows of the frontier, things wicked and profane.

And when two sisters go missing from their homestead and members of your company are dispatched to investigate, you have little faith that anything you discover in those backwoods is going to sooth troubled waters.

Trust those instincts, because the Bones of Autumn are coming.

Games & Schedule

Enclosed by The Inn, the Travelers warm their flesh and dry their clothes at the fireplace. From the Lounge, locals give them vacant, friendly smiles. Within the walls and beneath the floors, spirits taste the essence of the Travelers. Some are playful, others hope to find relief by sharing the pains of their demise, the most dangerous seek permanent company in their misery. The locals exchange inward glances. They are free from the spirits… tonight.

In for a penny, in for a pound – of flesh. The fiscal cost for attending the Dead of Winter Invitational is $60.00. This covers the cost to rent the LOG CABIN and supplies to keep the spirits (mostly) at bay. The hotel stay is lower this year. Garden Rooms: $59/night, Ancient rooms: $49/night. Use Group Code CGDEAD when you register. In 2010, chocolate chip cookies were provided by the hotel. The cost in sanity, blood and souls varies year to year.

A key element of the Dead of Winter is inhabiting a haunted hotel for the weekend. For the purpose of immersion, anyone attending must stay at the Brookdale Lodge on Friday and Saturday nights and play through the Sunday morning session – no exceptions. This thing’s, an “all in” deal. Sunday night stays are optional and may not be at the block rate. Washed-out roads, downed power lines, dead phone lines & trees blocking all avenues to safety are beyond the control of your host.

Attendance is limited to 35 people. This allows 5 games to run with 6 Players and 1 GM Saturday morning and night. 5 Games run Sunday morning. The number of games run Sunday night depends on the number of people who stay for that session. 4 Games ran in 2010. Selection of attendees is at the sole discretion of your host, Matt Steele. If you’re on this site, you’ve probably played in a game I’ve run or been a fellow Player in a game I’ve played. You might just have a soul so tasty that you scored an invite.

To get in on the horror, send a check payable to:

MATT STEELE
Dead of Winter Horror Invitational
6643 East Zayante Road
Felton, CA 95018

To pay by PayPal Email me at:

terrorrabit@me.com

I’ll need to know the following for everyone who registers:

NAME:
ADDRESS:

PHONE:
Landline:
Cell:
EMAIL ADDRESS:
How did you get an invite to the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational?
Will you be staying for the Sunday night session? Y or N

You can cancel your reservation and get a full refund until Halloween Day, October 31. After Halloween there will be no refunds. I gotta pay for the Log Cabin in advance. Signing up after Halloween is OK, but no refunds if you have to cancel. This thing’s gonna sell out, so I’ll be putting folks on a Wait List, first listed, first contacted to get in.

Note: GM’s don’t get free or discounted admission. Everyone’s basically chipping in to pay for the space. You are what makes this event happen. That’s super cool.

See the CONTACT page for The Lodge for reservation information.

Registration

For hotel reservations or questions:

The Lodge at The Brookdale Inn & Spa
11570 Hwy 9, Brookdale, CA 95007
PH: 831.338.1300
WEB: www.brookdaleinnandspa.com
EMAIL: info@brookdaleinnandspa.com
Use Group Code CGDEAD when registering.

For questions regarding the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational:

MATT STEELE
831.566.1170
EMAIL: terrorrabbit@me.com

tweet #DeadofWinter

Contact Terror Rabbit

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 1
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 2
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 3
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 4
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 1
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 2
View online

Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter Winter

Video 3
View this video on YouTube

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Video 4
View online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 5
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 9
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 6
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 10
View Online

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 11

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis top praesentium voluptatum delen atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt culpa tofficia.

Title 7

Dead of Winter 2010

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Hello world!

Dead of Winter
It was awesome! I played in four epic games, and dropped by Endgame (www.endgameoakland.com) to buy Cthulhu (www.cthulhutech.com) Tech before I got home. I’ve already made myself a four day weekend for next year.

Jill Stapleton

…a big thank you to you, sir, for working your ass off to get this thing off the ground, and continuing to keep it running while all the various…adventures were going on. Can’t wait ‘til next year, and looking forward to seeing you soon.

Badger McInnes

Somehow it was impossible to get a picture of Matthew Grau in focus while he ran his soon to be released game, CHTHONIAN STARS at Dead of Winter. I don’t know why that is, but I have my suspicions. {Cultist!} Chthonian Stars is due out April 2011. I’ve seen an advanced copy. OK I ran a game with it, and it looks to be my favorite game for 2011. Mr. Grau gave me the formal scoop on it.

Chthonian Stars: The Cthulhu Saga I
2159 AD. It is a good time to be alive. The nations of the world still exist, but they have become more civilized, and we have expanded into the rest of our solar system. But, alas, it is not to be our time. Something approaches, a thing on an orbit from far away. Seemingly a large shard of dark matter, this object is known in obscure prophecy as the Chthonian Star. It is awakening things long thought lost or dead, things that have slumbered awaiting its return.The Unified World Council sends out special teams of sanctioned Wardens, whose job it is to ascertain the new threats to human life, to learn everything they can about them, and fight them wherever they are found.

Chthonian Stars is an original Lovecraftian horror setting for Traveller.

This Core Setting Book:
•    Provides a detailed exploration of our fully colonized solar system, only a few hundred years in the future.
•    New optional character design rules, including advantages and disadvantages, as well as career half-terms.
•    Introduces new rules for fear and madness, as well as optional rules for character survivability.
•    Brings to life many familiar Lovecraftian horrors for Traveller, as well as a host of new and original ones.
•    Details more than a dozen new spaceships.
•    Includes three ready-to-run adventures, to get groups running quickly.
•    From the award-winning team that brought you CthulhuTech.

Chthonian Stars pass through Dead of Winter

Mike Muldoon graced us with his flaming Mohawk presence at Dead of Winter 2010. He and I dealt with a cursed skull in Matthew Grau’s Cthulhu Tech game.  Then we faced the challenges of living in a planetary landfill in Duane O’Brien’s bizzare HoL game. In between he gave all of the folks the lowdown on INFRNO, his project to connect table top RPG players around the world. INFRNO’s a project very close to me heart. That is to say, I wanna connect with other gamers and Muldoon and I work out of NextSpace, a coworking space in downtown Santa Cruz, CA. That means I’ve had some small influence on it along the way. Hell, I’m the first registered user. Anyone want to play games they missed at Dead of Winter? Let’s meet on INFRNO and play. Shoot me an Email so we can set it up.

Chief Experience Officer Matthew Grau and
CEO & Founder Mike Muldoon explore HoL at Dead of Winter.

Here’s the official scoop:

“Infrno is an online community for role playing enthusiasts, providing a virtual game table with video conferencing and shared whiteboard, along with all the tools you need to find players of your caliber, connect with them, and get your game on from any place, at any time.”

INFRNO Burns at Dead of Winter

These people are crazy enough to go to a decrepit, haunted hotel in the Santa Cruz mountains in the Dead of Winter and tempt fate by playing horror games all weekend. Thanks to Nicole Brennan for taking the pic. “Hiding” in the woodshed and therefore not in the pic are, Wayne Coburn, Elisabeth Brewer, Duane O’Brien, Chris Ruggiero and Nik Gervae. Some of these folks have been willing to write about their experiences, post pictures and put it out on the internet. If you missed it, read all about it from:

MATT ARMSTRONG ~ Resident Archaeologist with a great layman’s description of our hobby.

SHANNON MAC ~ #1 Dead of Winter Cheerleader elevates DoW to his #1 event of the year.

KAREN TWELVES ~ Woman of Mysteries puts the first two DoW’s in perspective. Awesome!

MIKE MULDOON ~ Infernal Man of INFRNO posted pics from HoL. Even GM Duane O’Brien was nauseous.

Sean Nittner ~ Powerhouse behind Big Bad Con takes his reviews seriously. Check out his multiple posts here, here, here, and here.

Dead of Winter Reviews 2010

My life as host of the Dead of Winter Horror Invitational is a difficult one. I’ve created an event I want to attend and that makes it a blast. Trouble is there were 19 great games this year and I only got to play in 4 of them. Choosing was brutal.

Saturday began with Matthew Grau’s Cthulhu Tech game. I played in the original last year and couldn’t resist stepping into the sequel. Grau didn’t disappoint. He did a recap for new Players and the horror of the previous game came flooding back to me. Last year my P.I. character acquired a cursed skull. This year we had to get rid of the thing.

Not easy when soooo many bad people want it – including our employer. Why didn’t we just destroy it? Yeah, not possible. The game opened with the moral dilemma of having to defend ourselves against possessed teenagers. Ugly choices. As the story progressed the skull was making us all paranoid and creating delusions, so we passed it around to minimize the sanity loss. Sharing is caring. A stellar group of players made for good cooperative and Player vs Player action. The finale’? Let’s just say we handed Grau the possibility of another sequel.

Saturday night was Duane O’Brien’s HoL (Human Occupied Landfill) game.
Duane started the game by dumping an actual bag of trash on the table to simulate the environment we were in. Believe it or not, it went downhill from there. At one horrifying point one of the characters (represented by a donkey) was overrun and trampled by wastems (goo filled creatures that are also the food on HoL). Every moment got more disgusting. So much so that I decided to role-play eating coffee grounds by putting tea leaves in my mouth like chewing tobacco. Baaaaad idea. The ending was filled with all kinds of madness and my character (one-hit wonder country singer Clint Roper) nearly got himself decapitated. Gruesome. HoL is a horrible place, but the game lends itself more to over-the-top madness than horror. Still, the nasty reveal at the end brought the horror crashing down on us.

Sunday morning brought me Jill Stapleton’s fantastic Call of Cthulhu game.
San Francisco 1852. I played a local Sheriff’s Deputy. We had problems with Australian gangs, vigilante groups and spontaneous human combustion. A classic CoC game with a group of characters who are friends and go through tough times that test them all. They didn’t always get along as you can see as Matt DeHayes gives me the evil eye as a pants-wearing female journalist.  Jill really brought the period to life – even in a city all of the Players know quite well. Of course it was different in 1852 and she let us know just how different – and horrifying. We captured the bad guys by almost sinking their boat by filling it with water from a fire boat. A unique solution!

I topped off the Dead of Winter in Karen Twelves’ Schizo experience.

The most intimate and unique of the games, we sat at a small table and each Player had an MP3 player which fed us the voices in our heads. Tracks changed based on conditions of play. Karen had a chart which informed her about the track to be played and she handed us notes telling us when to change. Dice were kept in pill bottles as were jelly bean ‘pills’. As we lost more and more sanity we ate the pills. No more pills – no more sanity. The home-grown mechanics were simple and the role-playing dead on. Karen’s GM style and NPC’s were off the charts as she berated us in both roles and intentionally blurred the line of GM/NPC/Player. The voices in our heads influenced the game several times.  I hope Karen runs this for other people. It’s an experience not to be missed.

Dead of Winter Games I Played

Noam Rosen, shown here with his best cheesy grin at Dead of Winter is a fellow gamer, GM and all around awesome dude. How awesome? He introduced me to Epimas. Huh? Epimas happens every December 24. Epidiah Ravanchol from The Forge runs a special deal where if you buy games for a friend, you also get the games yourself. Helluva deal! Noam went the full monty, ummm, the whole tofoose and bought me 12 games! Some rockin’ stuff including Apocalypse World, Blowback and My Life With Master. Some games I’d never heard of, but look really cool. Noam, you rock!

Gamers Rock

The Wolf was in the house. That is to say that Sean Nittner talked up his new RPG/LARP convention Big Bad Con, October 7-9, 2011 in Oakland. I’ll be running a couple of games there. Sign up for the inaugural event.  Here’s what it’s all about:

There aren’t enough good weekend long RPG conventions in the Bay Area.  My Answer: Big Bad Con!  I’ve talked to Japji Khalsa (of Kublacon), Chris Hanrahan (EndGame in Oakland), Doug Daulton (of Neoncon), Matt Steele (Dead of Winter) and tons of gamers and I’m convinced Big Bad Con is going to be awesome. I want to offer the best games to most gamers I can.  I’ve run Good Omens Con for four years as well as talked extensively with Japji as well as other gamers about what makes a con rock and my plan is to put on a con that doesn’t stop rocking till you pass out Sunday night.

Yeah, plus he’s giving attendees a chance to participate in Gamers vs Gazebo Deathmatch and there will be the Big Bad GM competition. This thing’s gonna rock!

Big Bad Con Blows the House Down