This year’s Lock & Load GameFest was a great one for fans of the Iron Kingdoms Roleplaying Game line. We rolled out two new events for the show: the four-table “Dead Reckoning” adventure and the competitive Iron Game Master event.

“Dead Reckoning” took the idea of the standard convention adventure and made it much more involved. Sixteen players took on the role of the Black River Irregulars mercenary company and their affiliates and simultaneously delved into different regions of a vast Orgoth ruin in the Widower’s Wood.

During the adventure, events that transpired in one section of the temple (each represented by separate game sessions with their own Game Masters) affected the other regions. Shutting off the flow of poison gas in one section of the temple caused it to spill over into others, choking anyone not lucky enough to possess a gas mask. Some doors could only be opened by mechanisms hidden far away from the people who needed to operate them. In order to complete the adventure, the four groups of heroes needed to work together to overcome the odds. The adventure saw some innovative and fairly crazy actions taken by the players, including the world’s bravest gobber taking a ride on the back of an irate lich lord of Cryx.

Running “Dead Reckoning” was a lot of fun, but by far the best RPG stories of the show emerged from the Iron Game Master competition. In it, eight competitors over two days went head-to-head to prove their skill as Game Masters running diverse adventures based on this year’s theme, “secret cabals.”

The adventures were fun to watch unfold, particularly when staffers threw complications into the mix. The complications tested the Game Masters’ skills at improvisation, such as “Mr. XXXNAME,” which stipulated that an NPC who wanted to give the characters a load of gold arrive on the scene immediately, Feat: High Five that required them to high five a player each time he or she spent a feat point, or Critical: Chicken in which the GMs were required to loudly crow whenever they or a player got a critical on the dice.

The Game Masters showed great skill—and incredible tolerance for our nonsense—on both of the days. After tallying the players’ votes, we sat down and had long discussions about what we observed during the competition. Many were worthy of praise and recognition for their skills, but there could be only one Iron Game Master. This year the title goes to Bryson Bullough, who managed to earn himself a perfect score in all categories. Congratulations, Bryson!

To recognize his accomplishment, he walked away with a one-of-a-kind prize: serving as both a trophy and as a Game Master’s tool, the custom dice tray produced by Wyrmwood Gaming is a badge of honor that Bryson Bullough can use with pride. It shows all who sit at his table that he holds the honor of being the one and only Iron Game Master of the Iron Kingdoms.

I wonder if he’ll be able to hold onto his title next year . . .