Down in Boston, Pandemonium Books is observing their twenty-first anniversary with a spectacular role-playing event, among other festivities: the Iron GM Challenge. The chairman of the Pandemonium Gaming Academy named seven ingredients for this year’s contestants to use in their adventures:
- 21
- Wall(s)
- “Future Legend” by David Bowie (see below for full text)
- Mars
- A chest or steamer trunk
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Boston
- Spiders
And no, no, it’s not enough to declare that the adventure is tracking down the first of twenty-one spider sculptures fashioned by Leonardo da Vinci, each containing one part of a device designed to travel to Mars, which is hidden in a steamer trunk behind the wall of a Boston brownstone, guarded by fleas the size of rats that are sucked on by fleas the size of cats. Oh no.
The academy chairman also declared scoring criteria, in which players on the adventures fill out a ballot with sections asking questions like: “How well the theme ingredient was incorporated into the game (1-5 points). Were the unique traits of the ingredient brought to the fore by the GM, or could something else have been substituted without much change to the adventure?
Pandemonium’s anniversary celebration runs through the weekend of November 12th through the 14th, with schedule slots for the Iron GM challenge on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hie thee hence, Boston area role-players!
Held Action 
Ahh… Pandemonium Books. I spent quite a bit of time in there in the mid-90’s. Good spot not only for gaming stuff, but great sci-fi/fantasy fiction… and then just wander Harvard Square for any of the zillions of other great things to do. Well, worth the long ride on the T all the way from the Forest Hills station.