Category Archives: Role-Playing Games

GM Submissions Deadline for Carnage on the Mountain Draws Near

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calendar_clip_artThe summer is just flying by! We’re coming to the close of the submission period for GMs to run games. If you’re still on the fence or have put off getting your games in to the field marshals, now is the time to act! If the universe holds you up and you can’t send your games in until after the 27th, we’ll do our best to make it all fit in the book, but there are no guarantees.

After July 27th, the Carnage staff sifts and schedules all the games our GMs sent to create a weekend of programming that lets people sample new games and enjoy their favorites as much as possible. Then the convention book is laid out, proofread, printed and mailed off to the Carnage community. After that, new submissions are added to the web addendum. So you can see that to reach the most eyeballs, GMs want their games in the printed and electronic versions of the book.

Come one, come all to Carnage on the Mountain! You’ll find the GM sign-up form eager to accept your tasty information.

GM Sign Ups Open for Carnage on the Mountain 2013

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As spring turns to summer, so do the thoughts of the Carnage staff turn to the question, “Who wants to run some games at this year’s convention?”

Now you, the discerning game master, can answer that question with the utmost expedition. The GM sign up form is now up and running! Carnage wants passionate GMs who want to share their favorite games with the convention community, so figure out what gets you excited and write up a submission to run it at Carnage on the Mountain this year. Board games, card games, LARPs, miniatures, role-playing games, we want them all to make our first year in a new hotel the most fun-filled yet. The deadline to get your session information into the convention book is July 27th, so get crackin’!

The form strives to be as self-explanatory as possible. If you’re new to running games at conventions or have specific questions, get in touch with us through info@carnagecon.com. We’ll connect you with the field marshal in question.

Carnage on the Mountain runs November 8th t0 the 10th at the Killington Grand Resort in Killington, Vermont.

Fiasco at Carnage Noir

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The New England Role Players Association (NERPA) had its recorder out and rolling at Carnage Noir last month. Freshly released in their actual play podcast is a session of Fiasco that went down on Saturday of the convention.

Fiasco is more of a story-telling game than a traditional role-playing game “about ordinary people with powerful ambition and poor impulse control.” Players construct the basics of the story and guide the arc of the plot by drawing from pre-written lists of characters, MacGuffins, locations and more. Turn by turn, they frame and play out scenes in a story built to break bad on a scale worthy of the Coen brothers.

Thanks to NERPA for not only recording at Carnage, but making the episode available as part of their podcast.

Here’s Trading With You, Kid: A Carnage Noir No-Ship Math Trade

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Thanks to the efforts of Matt Golec, Carnage-goers once again have the opportunity to participate in Here’s Looking At You, Kid, a no-ship math trade with their fellow conventioneers. As Matt explains, “Math trades are a great way to swap games you no longer play for games you’d love to add to your collection. You can read all about math trades here, but in short, instead of trading between two people, the computer orchestrates huge trades among many people. You give one of your unwanted games to somebody, and in exchange somebody else gives you a game that you did want.”

Matt’s post at the top of the list explains the details of the format more, but in short: list the board games, card games, miniatures and RPGs you want to swap away by 9:00pm on October 21st. Then create a want list from the gamers offered by others using the On-Line Want List Generator by October 28th at 9:00pm. Then wait for the good news of what you’re swapping and what you’re receiving.

Go now and list all the games you know will do better in someone else’s hands.

Download the 2012 Carnage Noir Convention Book

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Carnage Noir book cover.

Click to download the convention book.

Note: this is the 2012 convention book! For the current year’s convention book, which traditionally publishes in early fall, visit the news page.

All right, you mugs. The big score’s less than two months away. It’s a three day job and I don’t want anything to go wrong. So we’ve got it all planned out, see? Right here in these pages is how the whole weekend goes down.

You can now download the Carnage Noir convention book, along with a preregistration form and a schedule grid in variety of formats to assist in planning out your greatest gaming weekend since Carnage in Wonderland.

These documents reflect the schedule as it stood at the time of printing. For updates, alterations, amendments and new arrivals, check the Convention Book Addendum regularly.

  • Carnage Noir Convention Book [PDF, 890kb]
  • Carnage Noir Pre-reg Form [PDF, 17kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [PDF, 60kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [ODS, 31kb]
  • Carnage Noir Schedule Grid [XLSX, 13kb]

Game for Extra Life at Carnage Noir

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Extra Life logo.By playing games, Carnage-goers can help raise money for sick children by participating in Extra Life. Extra Life is the biggest gaming charity event of the year and this year, Carnage and Green Mountain Gamers encourage their fellow gamers to help.

To participate, sign up at Extra Life, join or create a team, choose a Children’s Miracle Network hospital to support, ask friends and family for donations, and sit and play games, any kind of games, for a total of 24 hours.

Leading the way in supporting this excellent cause, Green Mountain Gamers is organizing a dedicated team of gamers to test their mettle in a 24 hour gaming marathon, Friday night to Saturday night of Carnage Noir. Visit www.greenmountaingamers.com/about/contact to ask for more information about this opportunity.

During the convention, Carnage will offer special Extra Life T-shirts, with all proceeds going to the Vermont Children’s Hospital at Fletcher Allen Healthcare.

Join Green Mountain Gamers in Raising Money for Extra Life

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This year at Carnage Noir, we are pleased to host a fundraising effort coordinated by the Green Mountain Gamers for Extra Life and Children’s Miracle Network hospitals. As Bethany explains, gamers will collect pledges based on the total amount of time they play games in the twenty-four hour period at Carnage.

Furthermore, Green Mountain Gamers is looking especially hardy souls to join them as Iron Gamers, committed to playing games for twenty-four hours straight, including some legit money making games that exist today. If you’ve got the stamina, get in touch with them now. Only ten Iron Gamers will sit for twenty-four hours to raise funds — but of course everyone is welcome to collect pledges, start competing teams or whatever else they can think of to do something good for the Children’s Miracle Network hospital of their choice.

Check out the Green Mountain Gamers’ Extra Life page for full details.

Carnage Noir Now Accepting Game Submissions

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Listen up, youse mugs. There’s a new racket in town: Carnage Noir. This thing of theirs is a good, old-fashioned game convention. And they want a taste of your GMing action. Board games, miniatures, whatever your specialty is, there’s a place for you at the table.

Head over the GM Sign Up page to get your game’s details in. The deadline for getting entries in the convention book mailer is July 27th — and that’s a lead pipe cinch.

In Observance of GM’s Day

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GM's Day logoThe Escapist reminds us of March 4th’s relatively newfound significance: “Today is GM’s Day, when players pay homage to the gamemasters who work so hard to bring them excellent adventures at the game table.”

From everyone at Carnage, we want to wish a happy GM’s Day to anyone who’s ever thought to themselves, “Ya know, I should run something next year at Carnage.” A game convention is literally nothing without people willing to offer to teach and run games.

Every year, we’re humbled by the new heights our GMs attain in presenting their games. The exceptional terrain design and figure painting in the miniatures arenas. The role-playing adventures stocked with props, handouts and dice. The board game direct from the halls of Essen.

It’s the GMs who make Carnage an exceptionally rocking good time and for your endeavors, we are grateful.

The Unexplained’s “On the Brink of Invasion” in Podcast Form

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James Lorentz of the New England Role Players Association was at Carnage this year, recording the audio of role-playing sessions throughout the weekend. Yesterday, NERPA published “On the Brink of Invasion,” an adventure for The Unexplained run by its creator, Brad Younie of Carnivore Games.

If you didn’t make it into Brad’s game this year, here’s your chance to find out what happened!