This is the first OGC since the release of D&D's 4th Edition, and as such, a lot of special events are on the horizon!

* Every year, OGC will pick a specific area of the Forgotten Realms as our "Theme Area". This year, we're focusing on the territory along the Sword Coast, spanning the territory from Waterdeep through Baldur's Gate, with the troubled city of Loudwater and the Grey Vale along the eastern edge and the deadly Moonshae and Nethander Isles along the west. (You can see a map at http://www.dwarfmine.com/blog/images/4efrmap2fr6.jpg)

This will allow for those of you focusing on character backstories and plot to be reasonably assured of short travel times from one adventure to the next, as well as making it more likely for you all to "run into each other" frequently along the way.

* In deference to the beloved interactive system of Living Greyhawk, we are trying something highly experimental within the Living Forgotten Realms world. We have taken an awesome adventure, WATE1-1, "Heirloom", and modified it's presentation so that it can function as an Interactive, without changing the basics of the storyline! To be clear, we have been discouraged from doing so by the RPGA leadership, but we have NOT been flat-out told that we cannot try this, so... we're hoping that a full report of this experiment to the RPGA leadership after the event, complete with survey input from all participants, will not only convince them that this unprecedented use of DME (Dungeon Master Empowerment) can make for a fun and exciting evening, but that there is a way for those of us who love the style and format of interactives to enjoy such a medium without detracting from the experience of Living Forgotten Realms as a whole!

* With the arrival of Adventuring Companies, two OGC-specific companies - the Defenders of Moonshae and the Sisterhood of the Silver Trout - are officially opening their doors upon the start of the convention! These organizations are NOT open membership, and will require certain quest rewards from certain modules being played during the convention. Upon completion of the appropriate mods, an invitation to join the organization will be extended! (Please note, the Sisterhood of the Silver Trout, as implied, requires the /character/ (not the player) to be female, so if you have any interest in earning an invitation to this organization, please bring a female character to the table.) While it is not yet legal to confer any additional benefits to these organizations in-game, as Living Greyhawk organizations did, it is our deep hope that we may be able to do something more special with these organizations in the future, although we DO have some nice surprises planned, including unique content (through DME) within area mods for members of the organization (justified by the contacts that members of the organization would have in the region).

* The retail adventure module, "Sceptre Tower of Spellgard", will have a special run during our convention. This is a mod that, to quote the RPGA booklet, "is designed for 20-30 hours of continuous gameplay" and is therefore very hard to run at our local gaming tables on game day. (Frankly, it'll be hard for us to fit it in 16 hours, but we think we've done a good job of streamlining it.) In addition, two special two-round adventures, including one designed for level 7-10 characters, are being run.

--PLEASE BE AWARE THAT FOR THESE THREE MODULES, YOU MUST SIGN UP FOR ALL PARTS TO PARTICIPATE.--

* POWER TO THE PEOPLE! This year, we've set up this Warhorn portal so that Waitlisting is possible. You are therefore encouraged to sign up for the module you WANT, even if it is already full. If enough people sign up to form an extra table for that module, one of the less popular modules will be cancelled and that module will be granted another table. We want to make sure that you get to play what you want to play this year!

* JUDGES: As always, volunteers are needed to judge. The following perks are available to those who volunteer for us this year:

- For every module you sign up to judge, you will be given the opportunity to play one module for free.
- You will be given one piece of swag for every 3 modules you sign up to judge.
- If you sign up to judge 6 modules (or 5 modules, if one of them is a midnight madness), you will be given free admission to the con, an invitation to attend the staff afterparty, 1/4th of a hotel room for the weekend, and, at some point, we'll take care of feeding you at least once. We only get two hotel rooms (and I have a spot in one of them), so this offer is only good for the first 7 people to sign up. Please email me at jerrycnh@gmail.com to confirm your spot once you have signed up to judge the appropriate number of modules.

Can't wait to see you all at the con!!

Jerry, RPGA Coordinator