If you were at Gateway 2009, Dragoncon or Kumoricon on Labor Day Weekend, you may have seen some postcards for “King of RPGs.” As the author of King of RPGs, I personally was at Kumoricon, enjoying a great convention, plenty of rain (a Portland specialty), Voodoo Donuts, Powell’s Books, and my favorite event: the King of RPGs Tabletop Throwdown, a D&D 4th edition game DM’ed by myself, starting at 11 PM on Saturday, September 6!

This was a roughly tournament-style event featuring characters and settings from the gameworld (or one of the gameworlds) within “King of RPGs.” 10 pregen characters were provided, and 6 players ended up showing up, taking the roles of Aerfen the Slough Elf (and her loyal companion, a giant mudskipper), Malkabel the severe, mysterious swordsman, Moggrathka the Chaotic Evil desert barbarian, Kamiko the shamaness, Garland the Bane Elf gunslinger/ranger, and last but not least, Bill the paladin/conquistador. A seventh player showed up in the second half, taking the role of Aerfen’s bug-eyed but ferocious mudskipper.

The plot saw our heroes, all from different clashing backgrounds, on a ship to a foreboding jungle island to seek out the legendary Water of Life. Things got off to a rocky start with Garland blowing away the ship’s navigator at point-blank range and Moggrathka and Bill (a very pragmatic paladin) killing the sailors in order to make room in the lifeboat after the ship was attacked by a ferocious sea dragon. Malakbel and Kamiko took on the thankless task of keeping the party away from eachother’s throats and minimizing the number of NPC casualties. Soon, by lifeboat and mudskipper mount, the heroes arrived on the island itself, where they split into two groups, perhaps unwisely.

Originally scheduled from 11 PM to 4 AM, the game ran till 6 AM, climaxing with a massive fight in a sunken temple built over an underground lake. By this point everyone, including the DM, was getting tired and semi-coherent, but the party survived and a single winner was voted the title of BEST ROLEPLAYER by the other party members! After a tie decision, this honor went to Spencer Treuax in the role of Malakbel!

Spencer won a copy of King of RPGs volume 1 (when it comes out in January) as well as one of the 20-sided dice necklaces by Paw and Claw Designs. It was a fun game, and hopefully the first of many King of RPGs tournament adventures Special thanks to Carl Gustav Horn, Jay Al Hashal (for the photos) and especially to Mike Gombos for loaning me his Chessex matboard after I left mine in Seattle.