St. Louis, Missouri − October 14-16, 2011

Chris Lemler	Erik Bates	Jackie Mason	Joanna Woods
Justin Woods	Kelly Lee	Scott Hardie
with special guests Carol Wilhelm, LaVonne Lemler, and Russ Wilhelm

The following is Scott Hardie's remembrance of the event:

Thu 4:30pm - Kelly and I arrive at the rental house only 90 minutes before the guests do. There's no way we're going to get groceries and be back in time to greet them, so I place calls asking them to wait before leaving or chill on the porch until we're back. The weekend is behind schedule before it even begins. On the plus side, the house is great - just a quick walkthrough gives the impression that we're in for a very comfortable next few days.

Thu 7pm - We greet Chris, Joanna, and Justin at the house (all arriving within a few minutes of each other) and put some pizzas in the oven. We're all excited and can't stop talking, not just about Funeratic but work and family and life in general. Some of the biggest laughs of the weekend come from the nervousness of meeting and the excitement about what's to come.

Thu 9pm - It's time for our first game of the weekend, a session of Gothic Earth. Chris, Joanna, and Justin have never played a role-playing game before and play well despite their apprehension/confusion. They play a group of vigilantes who learn about a "Phantom" who threatens to destroy the Paris opera house. Following Justin's good ideas for infiltrating the building and Kelly's experience to keep on track, they follow leads and track the Phantom through the sewers until they learn that he is really Quasimoto, deformed bell-ringer of Notre Dame. A final moral quandary about what to do with/for him is resolved by Chris, ending the game. It's late, so we settle in for the night.

Fri 9am - Kelly had planned to cook as she did at previous GooCons, but Justin really enjoys cooking and happily takes over breakfast (and subsequent meals) with her approval. We spend so long chatting over a big breakfast that we run out of time for an activity: It's time to split up. Kelly and Scott drive into St. Louis to pick up Jackie at the train station, while Chris, Joanna, and Justin head to Best Buy for cables and hook up the laptop to the big-screen television for upcoming games. We're still so full from breakfast that we skip lunch.

Fri 2pm - By the time we arrive at the bowling alley, a problem has arisen with my car: The power window has broken on the rear left window, and the glass keeps sliding down into the door. I drop them off at the lanes while I try in vain to find a mechanic who can take my car on a Friday afternoon, but they're all closing up for the weekend. I finally buy some heavy tape and a tarp at Walmart and rejoin the group at the lanes, where Justin kindly buys me a game so that I can still bowl with them. Chris has apparently dominated the first two games that I missed, and he keeps it up in the third, scoring 279 points to everyone else's 80-120. I haven't bowled since high school and manage not to make a fool of myself. Everyone but Chris and I enjoys a few drinks from the bar, and a few games in the arcade before we go. Kelly trounces Jackie at air hockey and asks for a trophy - there's a leftover trophy from a planned "mystery activity" that won't happen after all - but Justin defeats her soundly and we lose track soon after. Getting out of the house for a few hours has been great, a highlight of the weekend. Chris seems very pleased with his bowling trophy.

Fri 6pm - While Jackie and Kelly take a walk and then cook dinner on the grill, the other four of us set about trying to fix my car. I'm grateful to Chris, Joanna, and Justin for the time and effort they put into taking the door apart so that we can get the window back on its track, but after nearly two hours, we're forced to give up and use the tape after all. The lost time forces another reorganizing of the schedule, but we're flexible. Dinner gives us all a chance to unwind.

Fri 9pm - With several possible options for our next game, Kelly insists on Gothic Earth Munchkin, since she worked so hard to design the cards. Our adaptation of the silly card game features Gothic Earth characters and ideas but tries to preserve the original's sense of humor, and goes over well at the table once everybody gets the hang of the rules. Jackie turns out early to get some sleep, leaving the rest of us to fight until Joanna cleverly plays a card that snatches victory away from someone else. She's delighted to receive a trophy for winning the game.

Fri 11pm - While Kelly heads to bed, the rest of us stay up to talk about Pirate Paradise. Unforeseen glitches on the site keep them from creating their own pirate crews and playing, but logging in as myself, I'm able to show them what to expect from the upcoming game. We talk at length about the rule changes from Rock Block, the design, ideas for future expansion and tournaments, and more. Although the late hour is making us all sleepy, interest in the game is high, and Chris and Justin get in some good questions and suggestions.

Sat 8am - After dealing with prior commitments that kept him away on Friday, Erik is able to join us at last, showing up while we're still eating breakfast and waking up, giving us all a chance to talk and get to know each other. When he talks about his job, it gives us all a chance to share what we do for a living and learn more about each other than what comes up on the site, one of the things we like best at GooCon.

Sat 9am - After several ideas fizzled out at previous GooCons, Tragic Comedy at last has a good way to be included in the weekend this year: A guessing game called "Who Said That?" in which I display quotes from various members taken out of their original context, and players try to guess which person wrote each one. Erik takes an early lead by picking up on hints in the wording of each quote, but by the end of the game, he has been overtaken by Jackie and Kelly, who finish the final quote with a tied score. Justin suggests a tiebreaker round in which we extend the game with quotes taken live from the site on the spot, and they're game. After keywords tossed out by players in the room, I find a quote that Jackie can identify and Kelly can't, giving Jackie victory. The game has been a good source of laughter, a way to include TC in the weekend, and a way to include major site members who couldn't be with us in person, making it a big success in my book.

Sat 11am - At last, it's time for the main attraction: Celebrity Goo Game Live! Continuing the Jeopardy! format of previous years with minor tweaks, the game goes smoothly, although this first round has little change in scores: Erik takes an early lead with Justin right behind him, and this stays consistent until near the end when Justin loses a large portion of his earnings with a bet that doesn't pay off on a very difficult goo of boxer Sonny Liston. However, Kelly stuns everybody on the final goo of Groucho Marx by betting everything and solving the goo, taking a narrow victory over the more conservative bettor Erik. Kelly couldn't be more happy to earn her first trophy after years of playing the game. The game itself is fun to play, with themes like "The King of Horror" (five goos inspired by Stephen King novels) and "New Name, Same Great Service" (five celebrities who changed their names, requiring players to guess both names to be correct), and the recurring appearance of actor Scott Bakula in various themes becomes a silly running joke.

Sat 2pm - In order to play a mini-tournament in Rock Block for the afternoon, I have to scale back the plan to give each player only a single chance to survive; one loss and they're out. While Jackie and Kelly take a walk around the picturesque mountain neighborhood around the house, the rest of us take turns trying to survive in concert. Erik gets the "lucky" position of choosing first and selects Justin as his opponent with rules that emphasize Global and Landmines, and hangs on for four overtime rounds before Justin is able to win. (A glitch spawns a duplicate concert, giving them an unofficial rematch in which Erik eventually triumphs.) Joanna gets next choice and selects me for an opponent, picking my favorite combination, Hidden/Same/Plus/Multiply. It takes me four rounds to eke out a narrow win. Chris gets control next and can only choose Justin as his opponent, so he tries a risky rule set of Psychedelia and Landmines, but fortune favors Justin in the first round. The structure of the tournament forces Justin to challenge me as the only other player left, and he picks the novel blend of Hidden, Same, Global, and Yield, a combination of rules that happens to work really well with the cards I'm assigned, giving me victory in the first round. After years of competing in my own game on the site, it feels great to finally win a trophy in it.

Sat 6pm - When I call ahead to the Chinese buffet we had planned to visit for dinner, they don't have room for our group, so we're forced to relocate to the nearby Union Grill, which works out fine for the special guests on their way to meet us. Russ Wilhelm and his wife Carol (Joanna's mother) greet us at the door, and a few minutes later, we're joined by LaVonne Lemler. It's a good thing that we're almost the only customers in the restaurant, because we make a lot of noise laughing and sharing stories from the site and the weekend thus far. The meal isn't four-star quality but we're more than grateful for the chance to sit around a big table and chat. Justin arranges for the waitress to take a photo of the entire group, our only chance to be in the same photo together.

Sat 8pm - Although Russ and Carol are tired after a day at Six Flags with the kids and grandkids, they're game for a round of Celebrity Goo Game Live after dinner, so they come to the house with LaVonne and the rest of us for a chaotic nine-player round with lots of leapfrogging for first place. Carol disproves her own predictions that she would do poorly by claiming fourth place, but its success or failure on the tricky final goo of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange that spells a big final score for some players and a wipeout for others: Erik claims a big victory with nearly twice as many dollars earned as everybody else. The Scott Bakula trend continues, but it's themes such as "Big Money! No Whammies!" (five game-show hosts) and "Just Like Buddy Holly" (five goos inspired by Buddy Holly hits) that give the round its personality.

Sat 11pm - After Erik and our special guests depart, the rest of us come up with a game plan for how we can pack and play one more round of the goo game before we have to vacate the rental house in the morning. Joanna and Justin really enjoyed Gothic Earth Munchkin, so they talk Kelly and me into playing another brief game while Chris and Jackie head to bed. Joanna falls far behind early due to a nasty card played by Justin, but while the other three of us struggle to win one final battle and win, Joanna sneaks up from behind and defeats us all, claiming her second victory in Munchkin.

Sun 8am - After we each grab a quick bite to eat, it's time for our last activity of the weekend, a final round of Celebirty Goo Game Live. Themes like "Viva la France!" (five French goos) and "Colonial Times" (five famous people from colonial America) challenge the players, and I finally explain the Scott Bakula joke after his final appearance as a goo. Justin takes an early lead, until he bets it all on a tough goo of actor Ed Helms and is forced back to last place. Jackie and Joanna's conservative bets on the final goo of Aretha Franklin don't pay off as well as Kelly's bet-it-all approach, giving Kelly her second trophy in the goo game that weekend.

Sun 11am - It's time to leave already? One by one, we depart the house, with Kelly and I giving Jackie a ride to the airport before our own long drive back to Florida. It's been another terrific year, with everyone seeming to have a great time and all guests earning a prize (a second-place ribbon at minimum). Although I leave without any firm plans for 2012, I know that any GooCon held in this area again would likely be another big success.

read Erik Bates's remembrance of the event

see the photo album on Facebook