Ladies and Gentlemen,
Welcome to Princecon XXI. Each year at this time the
Princeton Simulation Games Union fills a weekend with a unique role-playing experience
which we hope you will enjoy.
After you finish registering at Hireling Hall, take some time to peruse this manual and familiarize yourself with this year's theme and system. Then choose your character's race, class, and religion. From this information, our computer will produce a character sheet with appropriate statistics.
This character sheet allows you to participate in as many adventures as you wish. At the end of each adventure, you should return to Hireling Hall, where the sheet will be updated with your newly gained experience. If you happen to die, you may begin again with a new character.
Throughout your travels, you may gain magic items, which will be distributed on index cards. You may keep these cards over many adventures. If you die, you may retain your magic items unless your body is irretrievable.
Adventures can take place anytime; just gather together enough players to form an expedition and approach the GameMaster of your choice. Registration opens at 3 p.m. Friday, and the first scenarios begin at 5 p.m. Most adventures will run from 4 to 6 hours. All adventuring will end at 3 p.m. Sunday, when everyone will convene in the Senate Chamber of Whig Hall to discuss the weekend's events. Awards will also be presented at this ceremony.
This year's system is very similar to last year's, but has been refined. You are advised to examine the rules before selecting your character class.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have helped bring this convention to fruition. The con system is the product of countless people over two decades, but we would like to recognize in particular Howard Mahler, the primary author of the combat and magic systems, whose campaign system started it all. Bob West developed our religion system in 1985, using ideas from his campaign, and edited the changes for this year's conbook. The mage spell modifier concept is primarily the work of Dan Eisenstein.
York Dobyns and Tim Oliver are responsible for the computer software. Shantanu Saha prepared the prizes. Aaron Mulder prepared this HTML version of the Con Book. Bruce Berger, York Dobyns, Dan Eisenstein, Elliot Fertik, Hugh and Margaret Huntzinger, Dahlia Kang, Scott and Jen Kitchen, Keith Kline, Mark Krumholz, Howard Mahler, Aaron Mulder, Tim Oliver, Ron Shigeta, Bob West, Matt Zinno and Andy Zovko are our GM's this year. Finally, we would like to thank all the other members of the SGU who have helped with playtesting and running the con.
To all, the best of luck and good adventuring,
Mark Krumholz, Director
PrinceCon XXI
This year, every GM will judge the characters that participate in his scenario by three criteria: strategy, role-playing, and tactics. Strategy represents progress toward the long-term goals of the Con and the scenario, including gathering and passing along information. Tactics means using the resources at hand to deal with immediate puzzles and combats. Finally, role-playing is how well you play your persona and interact with other characters and NPCs. Each character, surviving or not, will be rated in these categories and receive an overall score for the convention.
Based on these total scores, an award will be given to the best character (not player) in each class: fighter, mage, cleric, and scout. In addition, certificates will be presented to the players (not characters) who rank as the best role-player, strategist, and tactician. Please be aware that players who run more than twice with any one GameMaster will not be eligible for awards.
Last modified on September 24, 1995.
ammulder@princeton.edu