THE ROLL OF CRAWLS!
A page dedicated to our previous runs of The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure!
THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE: GAMEHOLE CON – DARK TOWER – SET HAS BEEN DEFEATED!
Hello all! A brave cadre of crawl heroes played throughout the day on October 19th, 2024 to pit their heroic neophytes against the vastly superior forces of the dark god Set, and emerged victorious through their pluck and donations to the noble cause! Through their donations in game and in raffles (of awesome arts – plushie and drawn!), we have a current total of $4,040 to give to the American Cancer Society! That is a full $1,000 more than last year’s totals minus our $2,000 angel donation; that is incredible! Additionally, That puts our Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure’s 5 years of charity events over our $20K mark, to a total of $23,452.95! Thank you to all who contributed so generously to the cause!
71 players (and some first-timers through our Golden Ticket trial characters!) ran through the DCC OAR release of Dark Tower with their 0-level crawlers, taking on this high-level adventure with their cleverness and moxy, uncovering Mitra’s Lions avatars to battle for the cause, while using the power of their donations to move the story and skirmishes forward! The players were able to recover the pieces of the sacred Lion of Mitra statue and defeat the malevolent lich Pnessutt and his Sons of Set minions to cleanse the defiled Dark and White Towers of Set’s overreaching evil!
This force of heroes has enabled the American Cancer Society to perform their vital research and education, helping to prevent the disease and aid those afflicted in their time of need. THANK YOU, heroes, for giving your treasure to make this possible!
We do have a few things to wrap up for the event, so please read over the following:
- We are wrapping up on items being awarded – thank you sponsors providing your awesome works! Check out the tournament prizes awarded!
- We do have an issue with the Jennell Jaquays/Thanatar original artwork that we raffled off; the winner never collected it! We want to get this into the winner’s hands, however they did not leave any contact information on the raffle ticket. If you did participate in the Thanatar raffle and still have your tickets, the winner number was: Green Ticket 326202
If you are the winner and can send us a picture of the ticket, we’d love to get this awarded to you. Please contact us at jerryscrawlforthecure@gmail.com. Thank you! - Finally, we need to emphasize our policy on sending physical rewards post-convention. We posted it this year, but it wasn’t as visible as we would have wanted, so we’ll reiterate it here for future events, as well as display it prominently:
- We cannot send out physical rewards after the convention, shipping is costly these days, and we cannot continue the process.
- You can pick up your physical rewards: 1) During the event throughout the day, 2) At the end of the event – we wrap up at 8 PM, 3) In the Atrium on Sunday from 12:00 PM until 2:30 PM.
- For this round, we’re going to send the items to donors; we’ll have them pay us for shipping if they’d like to still receive them, however, we will foot the shipping cost for this year and add the collected total to this year’s donations giving an extra boost for the American Cancer Society.
- In the future, uncollected physical items will be reserved for the next year’s event.
- Please note this policy for future events. We want to get you your rewards for your generous donations, but the post-Con mailing is too much of a burden in time and treasure! Thank you for your continued consideration in this matter!
Finally, we wanted to thank the incredible people involved with making Crawl for the Cure Gamehole: Dark Tower possible:
- Our incredible Sponsors! The amount of generosity our sponsors give us to award you for your donations is staggering. Please visit our sponsors list, review their incredible products and consider purchasing their wonderful works for your holiday and birthday shopping! Thank you, sponsors for providing so much to encourage our donors to give!
- Our incredible Judges:
- Julian Bernick
- Gary Cunningham
- Jason Hobbs
- Brian Martin
- Jim Meyers
- Edwin Nagy
- Keith Nelson
- Bjorn Nelson
- Christophor Rick
- Paul Smith
- Jim Meyers – “the builder” – Thank you Jim for your incredible works making the Crawl for the Cure even better! Jim provided the awesome Judge stands to keep us organized, the Lions Statue of Mitra prop for the event, and if you rang the Gong of Doom in celebration of your character’s demise, was also from the hands of Jim Meyers! Thank you for making things awesome, Jim!
- Peter Garancis – Peter created the beautiful Pillar of Strength, to visually display and celebrate those loved ones lost to cancer and the strength of those who have survived! Thank you, Peter, for this wonderful reminder of the effect of cancer in our lives!
- Bill Walters – for contributing awesome stuff from your collection for donor benefit every year AND being the main support gopher at the Crawl!
- Keith Nelson – for the concept of the Lion Statue of Mitra, which helped cement a lot to of the mechanics together!
- Bjorn Nelson – for taking an 8-hour day (probably more!) of Judging Dark Tower, ON HIS BIRTHDAY, taking up HIS ENTIRE SATURDAY of Gamehole Con! Thank you SO much for your dedication, Bjorn!
- Bridget Traut – for creating awesome plushies to raffle for the Crawl! And, she has pledged for more next year! Thank you, Bridget!
- Nate Marcel – Nate put together the awesome artworks of Thanator/Jennell Jaquays and Akaerrian Keenblade with a few weeks notice! THANK YOU for your incredible efforts to get them to us in time for the event – we appreciate it and the beauty contributed, Nate!
- Bob Brinkman – For creating the stats for Thanatar, the favorite character of Jennell Jaquays, a red wyrm transforming herself into a human wizard to walk the realms of man. Thanatar was instrumental as an NPC who provided guidance in the Dark Tower and assisted in the end game! Stay tuned for the Crawl for the Cure to present this awesome content to you for your games from this website!
- Thank you, Ray Teresi, for helping us with the Crawl Operations!
- Finally, the Crawl for the Cure would not exist if it were not for Steve Seminerio and my wonderful wife Hazel Welch, spending many hours under me as task master! THANK YOU – it was a very crazy preparation time for Dark Tower this year, and the Crawl for the Cure would never have made it (nor would it any other year!) without their above and beyond, dedicated help for the event! THANK YOU!
I want to express my love and gratitude to everyone involved: sponsors, players, Judges and support staff! We continue to make this world a better place every year, and I am deeply in your debt!
“Bring your light!”
CRAWLERS CAME… CRAWLERS CONQUERED… HEROES BROUGHT HOPE TO THOSE NEED! THANK YOU FOR A VERY SUCCESSFUL JSMCftC 2023: ETHERMEET!
On Saturday, December 9th, 2023, six Judges of incredible merit ran games from 7 AM CST until 3 AM CST with amazing players in the best roleplaying systems around to dazzle and entertain our most revered patrons which enabled us to earn $3,291 for the American Cancer Society! Our 16 generous sponsors gave our donors 20 hours worth of prizes and major prizes to our top donors! Everyone came together on December 9th to give aid to those fighting this harrowing disease! See your impact with The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure over the last 4 years of adventure and heroic contribution, Crawlers! We should breach $20,000 at our next event! THANK YOU, ALL, FOR YOUR TREMENDOUS SUPPORT!
Thank you, Judges for your exciting hours of adventure to collect for the cause!
- Castle Keeper Chuck Cumbow of Troll Lord Games: Journey to White Plume Mountain (Castles & Crusades)
- Judge Edwin Nagy of Frog God Games: The Stone Ado (Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition)
- Judge Brendan LaSalle of Goodman Games: Dungeon City Limits (XCrawl Classics)
- Judge Julian Bernick, Goodman Games Author: The Band from Utopia (Umerican Survival Guide)
- Judge Luau Lou Hoefer of Dandyline Games: The Technomancer of Candy Mountain (Mutant Crawl Classics)
- Neon Lord Brian Shutter of Super Savage Systems: Cyber Vamps from Beyond the Grave (Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland)
Thank you for giving your time and talents for the cause, and a special thank you to our “late show” participants, Luau Lou Hoefer and Brian Shutter for running into the wee hours of the morning Eastern Time Sunday to keep those donations flowing! Your commitment to the cause is immensely appreciated and bolstered our cause into the night!
Please visit the sites of all of our sponsors and support their superior collections of adventure products! You will not be disappointed!
All the prizes for your generosity should have been mostly completed before the 1st of the year, with a mistaken delayed send fixed recently and the upcoming release of Dandyline’s Unnatural Selections, Vol. 2 product coming soon! Our sponsors brought it to Ethermeet with the awesome products and donors should be wading goblin deep in adventure and excitement through their works!
We have completed the design of The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure 2023: Ethermeet Memorial Token featuring a jaw-dropping XCrawl Classics creation by Doug Kovacs. We are very pleased to present it to you now:
These are on order, and we will get these to you as soon as possible so you can use yours for your Luck or stunning marker token!
“Crawling for the prize, TOGETHER!”
TAKE BACK TEGEL MANOR! AT GAMEHOLE CON X WAS A GREAT SUCCESS!
On Saturday, October 21st, 2023 at Gamehole Con X in Madison, WI, players came out in force to combat the plague of Rump family which imposed their evil machinations upon them at the Take Back Tegel Manor! event! Our 18 seats were filled most of the day (and sometimes with a line!) with players with a sense of adventure and giving, as we raised an amazing $5,000 in donations for the American Cancer Society! Our total impact from these events over the past 4 years is more than $16,000!
We had an incredible time at the event with the 16 x 16 ft Tegel Manor map provided by Frog God Games, run under a DCC rules mega-funnel (higher-level character access to be had!), and incredible prizes for donors from our wonderful sponsors!
The day was full octane Tegel Manor, with all members of the family wandering the halls and all rooms at high level stats; it was awesome! The 0-levels wandered the halls in droves searching for a way to stop the Rump family menace from converting them all to undead servants! Through gained resources and the vengeant avatars of those killed by the Rumps in their previous dastardly deeds, the villagers were victorious!
WITNESS the Treasure Room and the Mighty Monster Donation by a single donor, which is worthy of the giant’s trophy, the Halbard of Broll from the Great Hall of Tegel Manor! The donor contributed $2,000 to the cause to help others! We are honored to accept this for others in need! Thank you!
It was an incredible event of epic proportions, and we thank all the donors, players, judges and as always, our incredibly generous sponsors. They pulled out the stops to overfill our prize coffers to reward players for their most appreciated donations! Our supportive community is beyond compare for their thoughtful donations to help those in need. Thank you, all!
Huge kudos must go to our friend and DCC community stalwart, Aaron Koelman, who contributed $2,000 to the cause in appreciation and help to future cancer patients; Aaron was in stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and he played with us for the day in Tegel Manor to play with his friends and raise money to help others in need. His generous donation made this the most successful Crawl for the Cure event, yet!
As many know, Aaron passed from this world on Thanksgiving 2023 surrounded by loving family. Thank you, Aaron, for all you have done for us as a friend, player and donor – you will NEVER be forgotten for your contributions to this community’s lives! Rest in peace and love, Brother!
INCREDIBLE RESULTS FOR THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE: ETHERMEET 2022!
The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure: Ethermeet 2022 on Saturday, December 10th, 2022 triumphantly ended with a grand total of $4,185.55 for the American Cancer Society between Tiltify and $725 of pre-event donations from your generous support! The event raised a full $1,000 more than the previous Ethermeet, and we look forward to continue breaking records in the future!
A special thanks to all of our sponsors and to our Judges and players for providing their time and talents to entertain us with their sessions!
Thank you Judges:
Judge Edwin Nagy (Frog God Games)
Castle Keeper Chuck Cumbow (Troll Lord Games)
Judge Julian Bernick (Goodman Games author)
Judge Luau Lou Hoefer (as Insanti Clawz! Dandyline Games)
Thank you to Luau Lou for putting on an awesome show with this crew; Lou tapped the muse of the late night horror show to bring us the Final Admission Theater & ½ Price Oyster Bar, hosted by his alternate persona, Insanti Clawz! His players dressed for the part, and it was an incredible play of Julian Bernick’s Home for the Holideath! Thank you Final Admission Theater crew! The plan is still to have the 2021 and 2022 sessions will be going up on YouTube for your enjoyment in the future – I apologize for the crazy work life I allow to happen.
Reid San Filippo and Shield of Faith Studios provided a very generous $500 donation to the cause to help us reach that new record donation level! Thank you, Reid!
A very special thank you to Steve Seminerio and my amazing and tireless wife, Hazel Welch, for their countless hours of work helping me put these events together! It simply could not be done without them, so kudos goes to them for their work and for putting up with stressed me at the same time! Stressed Cory is quite a lot to deal with.
Thank you all for your continuous support for The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure in all of our events! We have exciting news for The Jerry Stefek Memorial Crawl for the Cure 2023: Gamehole and we look forward to your support at our next Ethermeet in December with a bunch more incredible game masters to entertain you!
THE GAMEHOLE CON IX 2022 JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE HAS COMPLETED AND IT WAS A CONQUEST!
The Gamehole Con IX 2022 Crawl was an amazing success! Thank you to our sponsors, players (and non-playing donors!) and Judges for making it a smashing success!
Between the table donations and a very generous final donation to the cause after the event, the Gamehole Con Event generated $1,800 for those in need – a staggering success!
We cannot say how many times we heard comments about how much fun people were having while performing the Mighty Deeds generating treasure for those in need through the American Cancer Society! Reavers fought the Un-dead of The Shambling Un-Dead 0-level funnel tournament 2016 with new spins and thrills, and battled bravely to the end!
Co-Champions Aaron Koelman and Brian Martin had characters that survived the longest with 11 survival stamps, but the sponsors were so generous, we had loot galore for all that participated! THANK YOU, all for your support!
OVER THE TOP!
THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT FOR THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE: GAMEHOLE CON 2022 EVENT!
THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE 2021: ETHERMEET – Streamed on Twitch Channel DCC Mayhem! – SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11th, 2021! Our delvers VANQUISHED FOR GOOD OF ALL! The newly dubbed ETHERMEET event attracted heroes questing for $3,160.23 pledge to the benefit of the American Cancer Society! Way to go adventurers! We will restream the event soon for your enjoyment!
THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE 2020 on Twitch Channel DCC Mayhem “Play-a-thon” – SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12th, 2020! The Crawlers were VICTORIOUS! Watch the stream and join the past glory!!
THE JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE 2019: RELOADED! at Gary Con XII
CANCELLED BY THE COVID-19 CRISIS! STAY HEALTHY AND SAFE, EVERYONE!
THE INAUGURAL JERRY STEFEK MEMORIAL CRAWL FOR THE CURE 2019 – GAMEHOLE CON VII
