A message from Paul Stormberg…
Hail Legends of Roleplaying Adventurers!
What a fantastic tournament! The Legends of Roleplaying Tournament is the world’s largest old-school D&D tournament and this year we had 140 great players and a team of awesome DMs!
I am absolutely indebted to these fine tournament DMs who, over the years, have made it possible for the Legends of Roleplaying Tournament to grow and become more popular every year:
- #1 Doug Behringer
- #2 Michael Boehm
- #3 Glenn Buettner
- #4 Allan Grohe
- #5 Harold Johnson
- #6 Johnny King
- #7 Jim Mangum
- #8 Matthew McCloud
- #9 Evan McPhillips
- #10 Dan Miller
- #11 Darren Moura-Smith
- #12 Dave O’Brian
- #13 Tony Spino
- #14 Paul Stormberg
- #15 Andrew VanHooreweghe
- #16 Natahan Lyke
Of course, Allen Hammack and Harold Johnson are truly Legends of Roleplaying, also Doug Behringer RPGA marshal from back in the day, and I thank them for sage counsel and assistance in running the tourney. Most importantly, Josh Popp, for making this impossibly large event happen, Ollie Cahoon for wrangling 140 (!) players and getting them to the correct tables, Kevin Maurice for applying the rudder when the whole event might run aground, Mike Mornard, Dave O’Brien, and Doug Behringer for assembling the tourney until the wee hours of Wednesday afternoon (and getting all the stickers straight), and Luke Gygax for giving us a venue, in honor of his father, to provide this old school goodness to so many fans!
In this year’s adventure, players return to the legendary Ghost Tower of Inverness by Allen Hammack. The adventure takes place in the dungeons beneath the Ghost Tower from Allen’s original unpublished mega dungeon he created in 1976.
The characters are called to an emergency meeting with The Great Seer, who now serves as the Regent for the Grand Duchy. They are informed that the Duke was stricken down by assassins some 4 days ago. These assassins were on a mission to find the Soul Gem, one of three eldritch jewels wielded in ancient times by the wizard Galap-Dreidel. When they returned, they betrayed the Duke and turned the Soul Gem upon his majesty, draining his soul!
The 5 assassins must be hunted down and the remaining ELDRITCH JEWELS be found before they fall into their evil hands! Most importantly, the Soul-Gem must be recovered so that The Seer can use his powers to restore the Duke’s soul to his body!
The top two teams were sooo close! Both managed to recover the Mind Stone, one of the ELDRITCH JEWELS hidden in the Ghost Tower. The only difference in their excellent play was that the second place team lost one character. Despite returning them to life it was not enought to overcome the first place team. An adventure well done to this team!
The bodies of 4 of the 5 assassins were found and returned but one still remains at large. Clearly some treachery had befallen them for they too had their souls drained by the Soul Gem. Sadly no team was able to find the Soul Gem. Perhaps another expedition to the Ghost Tower will finally find the Soul Gem and the Duke can be restored to life!
The final rankings are as follows:
- 1st Place with 317 points team #15, Game Master Andrew VanHooreweghe
- 2nd Place with 292 points team #8, Game Master Matthew McCloud
- 3rd Place with 192 points team #1, Game Master Doug Behringer
- 4th Place with 191 points team #11, Game Master Darren Moura-Smith
- 5th Place with 189 points team #10, Game Master Dan Miller
- 6th Place with 188 points team #3, Game Master Glenn Buettner
- 7th Place with 109 points team #16, Game Master Natahan Lyke
- 8th Place with 105 points team #12, Game Master Dave O’Brian
- 9th Place with 101 points team #4, Game Master Allan Grohe
- 10th Place with 96 points team #7, Game Master Jim Mangum
- 11th Place with 94 points team #2, Game Master Michael Boehm
- 12th Place with 93 points team #13, Game Master Tony Spino
- 13th Place with 93 points team #5, Game Master Harold Johnson
- 14th Place with 86 points team #9, Game Master Evan McPhillips
- 15th Place with 78 points team #6, Game Master Johnny King
- 16th Place with 68 points team #14, Game Master Paul Stormberg
The second place team (#8) was incredibly close and played, Alas, on the threshold of greatness! This outstanding team was:
- Larry Livingston Stanbery
- Michael Clark
- David Flores
- Michael Newman
- Cody Hulsey
- Kyle Schultz
- Jason D. Wood
- Josh Wood
The winning team (#15) did remarkably well and won by excellent play. Here is what their very experienced DM, wrote of their play:
The best thing they did was the way they approached every room/situation. They quickly went around the table for suggestions and even had a timer for letting them know something might be taking them too long.
The best thing they did, in character, was using spells in the exact moments needed, e.g., flying over the the tiered items to gain the key they needed.
The most memorable thing they did was, after a masterclass in efficiency and choosing the correct path almost every time, even skipping some of the encounters/delays, with about 30 minutes to go in the game they decided to fight the frost giant and ignore the path onward. They asked me three times about it but still charged in. It was thankfully in round two that they figured out that they were running out of time and needed to move on.
Of course, the puzzles are very similar to those in old classic events and this group said they had played many classics recently, so that was probably a big help for them.
Astounding efficiency, though.
So without further ado, here are the Gary Con XVII Legends of Roleplaying Tournament Champions:
- Morgan Lemel
- Mitesh Rao
- Anthony Zinni
- Nathan Hancock
- Jadyn Hawkins
- Mike Hawkins
- Christopher Purvis
- Ron Purvis
- Lorien Elleman
Each player will receive a free Silver Badge for next year’s Gary Con stating they are the reigning Legends of Roleplaying Tournament Champions! All hail the new champions!
Futures Bright,
Paul J. Stormberg
Coordinator, Legends of Roleplaying Tournament
https://www.legendsofroleplaying.com/pages/legends-of-roleplaying-tournament