Gamehole Con 2021 - Day 5

And we made it.  Day 5 of Gamehole Con.  Which was really just a morning at Gamehole Con and a lot of travel.  We had an 8 a.m. game of Arkham Horror, the Living Card Game.  We showed up at 7:45 after packing up and everyone else was there so we got an early start, which was good, because we defeated the boss pretty much on the 10:00 a.m. deadline.

Great game. Cooperative.  Reminiscent of Betrayal at House on the Hill, but in a way I think Klund would like.  Living Card Games add expansions of characters, scenarios, and more, and it definitely felt more cooperative in nature than BaHotH...BHH? I thought the cards worked really well together as well as the special abilities, and it didn't take long to figure out I could swap fear against me for damage against a monster [mostly ghouls in this scenario] in a good way and use my mental power as a better attack system, particularly once I could cycle a few spells with a clever sidekick.  Others on the team were WAY better at searching than I was. If I'd been alone, I'd still be sifting around in the bookshelves and floor boards.

Bit of a fun story telling mechanism as well.  Some of that was left to the characters - e.g. my character was a waitress and someone [team decision] owned the house, so why did a waitress own the house?  That was actually a very important decision point at the end of the scenario, and you do experience-up as you move between scenarios.

Kudos to our game coordinator, although they just shut down the 2021 event list, so I can't thank him by name.  He was very prepared - walked us through it to the point we could play alone when he had to make a bathroom run, to the extent we even knew where to place additional doom and whether we had to wait for him to get back to trigger an event.  Additionally, he provided a very nice write up of the round sequence, actions, and even which versions of the game you should buy if you want to pick it up yourself.  He did highlight that the REVISED Core Set supports four players and the old set does not, so if you're shopping used, it's definitely something to watch for depending on the number you intend to play with when avoiding Cthulhu-y monsters.

Finally, these are two places we did NOT go, even though E and I stopped in the Dells to find lunch.  We wanted to eat at Denny's [the Denny's that's not part of the chain, although the one that is part of the chain is also there], but there were literally people out the door and down the sidewalk.  I don't think Dells seasons is officially over, which is....[checks the temperature outside, brrrr]...amazing.  We went to the Moose almost next door instead.

I seriously can't quite fathom who goes to the Totally 80's place just to take social media photos.  I must be getting old, because that sounds like something an old person would rail against.  It has no appeal for me whatsoever and that video looks boring.  How do you sell that as a business model?

 

The Mustard Museum....way more tempting.  They seem serious about their museum.  It's free.  And you can shop mustards by country, awards, recipes, and more.  Quite the set up.  Unless you're anti-condiment for the most part, like me.  They even purport to be America's Mustard College, fight song and all.

So that wraps it up.  I dropped E off at college and spent Sunday evening and all of Monday cleaning up and catching up with the things I'd left behind to go boardgaming.  Wonderful trip, and well worth almost 2% of my year, timewise.   Didn't realize how much I'd missed it with covid canceling it last year.

The Dells 2014

A bit behind the curve, but this is an example of Facebook stealing my longer posts.  A bunch of these photos are from the back and forth I had with Kyle and Ming as my family traveled to Great Wolf Lodge at the Dells (and back) two weekends ago.  Eryn had a wonderful time.  She wanted to play the Magi Quest area that had been installed where Wiley's Woods playground used to be, and spent a whole day running around the hotel chasing the various quests with her wand.  Much more exciting than the one-store setup that used to be at the Mall of America.  She spent almost the full day waving her globe-ended wand and my wife and I just sat around reading.  Weird that she's getting to be old enough we're not always necessary.

She played so much in one day that she made the Top Runes This Month list on the hotel channel.  I know she upgraded to the more complicated package early on, so those are hard-earned runes.


This is my favorite picture from the weekend and perhaps the only one I have of her on the slides, or in the waterpark at all.  The last time I remember having her at Great Wolf she was so little she was sprinting away from the giant bucket of water every time the bell went off and she wouldn't go near a slide taller than two feet.  This time we rode them all, including the giant tornado-like structure.  When we went down, I ended up with my back to the drop, facing her.  Her eyes got huge when we took the plunge into the funnel.  It reminded me of when we went tubing at the ski slopes near home.


After much consideration, that phone must be there because there are older people who stay with their grandkids and may need bathroom aid?


I posted this picture over on Facebook to let my friends know I was trying to reach them.


The beaver that guards the entrance.  I'm convinced he's getting ready to whack someone rather than carrying a stick to his lodge.  The kids really seem to enjoy the animatronic presentation twice a day.  For me, it interrupted my reading in front of the fireplace.  Nearby are a couple of birds that look like part of the entryway display/decoration, but are set off by the Magi Quest wands.  There were a lot of kids who were really excited to figure out they could make them chirp.  Looking at this guy some more, he reminds me a lot of the gopher from Caddyshack.


We ate at Denny's - the older one that's not affiliated with the chain - and at the Moosejaw where you can have ribs and wings.  Eryn was incredibly embarrassed when Pooteewheet and I put on our antler hats.


She drove to The Dells, so she's about as tired as she looks.


Downstairs, they redid the gaming area.  This guy was part of the Metallica pinball machine.  Ride the Lightning!


Here's the machine art.


The important thing is to make sure you get all the band members.  I only got as far as Kirk :(


They also had one of the limited edition Wizard of Oz machines that I played at the MN State Fair.  A fun machine, but I swear I manage to let Toto Run Away - which involves losing a ball - two times out of three.


We stopped in Osseo, Wisconsin, on the way out and back and did some antiquing.  I thought Matthew might like to know they had a few machines for sale, although nothing that got me excited enough that I'd replace Luna's kennel location with a machine.


I could have picked up a few good law books.


My wife was disappointed this guy wasn't for sale.  But he was just there to guard the gift shop.


And this is the real reason we stopped.  The Norske Nook.  Sweet, sweet, pie.  We stopped on the way out to eat lunch and on the way back just to get pie.  I had three pieces including banana cream, raspberry, and Mounds coconut.  The coconut pie was weird because the next day it smelled like I was peeing baked coconut flakes.  Definitely a place we'll stop at again.


And if you don't stop for the pie, stop to buy a copy of 91 Ways to Serve Lefse for that special someone in your life, by Mr. Lefse!

Duckboats

When we went to Chicago last weekend, we drove. So when we got as far as the Dells, we stopped for lunch at Denny's (the old one, not the chain) and a short duckboat tour. None of us had ever been on a duckboat before, so it seemed like a new experience. It was fun, although the driver's patter was a bit cheesy. I suspect the full tour that includes the lower river might be more enjoyable, but we did get to ride around in the lake that drained (and which created no small amount of driving for Ming, Kyle and I when we were trying to get to Reedsburg one year for bicycling), and hear how it had changed the level of the lake, making it several feet more shallow.

Here are all the duckboat companies meeting in the same place. It's a crowded industry in the Dells.

The duckboat graveyard.

Eryn enjoying the ride.

Splashing into the lake.


Eryn's video of our ride. Enjoy the close up of Pooteewheet's chest, although she wasn't wearing anything that showed a lot of cleavage.


Another duckboat movie by Eryn: