The Year I Was a Champion

Wow, only four posts so far this month. Getting this post in before midnight puts me at five, tying my record low of five in Feburary 2005. I've got a decent backlog of stuff to talk about, so hopefully March will start on strong footing.

Back in 1989 I attended GenCon in Milwaukee, playing mostly RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars. I attended with a good friend from high school that I've since lost touch with (Mike Tavel). We also lived together in Aspen for a summer after our freshman years in college.

So on a lark we entered the ZEF IV RPG tournament, a wacky contest where you roleplay characters who are roleplaying other characters. We hooked up with two singles and hit it off. We roleplayed well and efficiently worked through all of the puzzles - sometimes through skill, sometimes through pure luck. There was very little combat in the adventure, and much of the judging was subjective.

I guess we did pretty well, because we won the tournament (over 500 people entered). Here's a scan of our victory photo from the convention. I think I won about $200 worth of games and gaming supplies.