And once more, another GamerNationCon has come and gone. As was the norm for me, I had a lot of fun, got to play a lot of games, catch up with old faces, and make some new acquaintances. It was pretty cool to meet the members of the Dice Pool Podcast, most of
whom made the very long trek from Australia just to attend the
convention. And naturally getting to see Linda and her family in person, as well as having at least a couple chances to sit down and share a meal with them. It was a major shame that Eric couldn't make the trip, as the con's theme was superheroes and he's a big-time superhero fan.
One thing that helped the mood for me was that this year, I'd opted to spring for the MVG pledge on the Kickstarter. Granted, it was a few hundred bucks, but the pledge got me a guaranteed seat in two games as well as first dibs on getting into scheduled games when even sign-up went live. This was a marked difference from previous years where I wound up getting locked out of a number of games that I really wanted to play in, such as GM Phil's always entertaining Fallout sessions.
Highlights for me were playing in the Star Wars D6 1st edition session run by convention Guest of Honor Michael Witwer, who is a very enthusiastic GM, with our group having a blast all around playing through the classic module Starfall. We had to speed things up a bit, but my smuggler did get a chance to shine by engaging the big bad in a one-on-one AT-ST duel, which ended with my character ramming into the overly chatty Imperial officer's vehicle to end the fight.
There was of course GM Phil's Fallout session, run using the Genesys system with the theme of the PCs having adopted heroic personas in the post-apoc wasteland. In this one, I played a Protectotron that due to a programming glitch believed it actually was the space-faring hero Captain Cosmos, accompanied by a robot companion that had a stuffed toy hanging off the front of it to play the roll of the Captain's loyal space monkey companion (and was apparently not happy about it). Phil is probably one of the most fun and energetic GMs that I've had the privilege to play under, so any time spent in one of his sessions is sure to be a lot of fun.
Another major highlight was playing in a GI Joe session again using the
Genesys system (detecting a theme for the con yet?), this one run by
Dustin of the Staggering Dragon crew. In this one, I played Spirit, who
was the team's tracker and sharpshooter as our team of Joes (Flint,
Mainframe, Chuckles, and Snake-Eyes) got dropped into Transylvania to
see what mischief Cobra was getting up to in Castle Dracula. Playing
Snake-Eyes was my Texas friend Will, who got seriously into character
and never spoke once until the session had concluded, which for those
who know Will is a major achievement as by his own admission he is an
incredibly chatty fellow, and communicated by way of writing on index
cards. We each got a number of cool moments, starting up with the two
of us coordinating to flawlessly take down a Cobra sentry without
raising an alarm, starting with Spirit timing his rifle shot (normally a
very loud crack) to fire in time with a peal of thunder to mask the
sound, and Snake-Eyes being right next to the guy to catch him before
the sentry hit the ground and noiselessly tuck away the body. Next was
Snake-Eyes taking out a bunch of Cobra soldiers while hanging from a
chandelier without scratching Chuckles (who was wearing a Cobra uniform)
with his sub-machine gun. And finally, after completing our objectives
and bugging out of the castle in a stolen Cobra Stinger jeep, while
being pursued by a pack of some sort of serpent-themed
lycanthrope/Frankenstein's monster crossbreeds, we worked together to
take down all but one of them while Mainframe got an old Russian
helicopter up and working. Snake-Eyes did most of the work with using
the jeep's on-board missiles, while I got to take down the very last
monster while quoting an appropriate line from Dresden Files, that being
"Mother says you don't belong here. *crack of thunder* Father says
you're ugly too" before putting a rifle round into the thing's gaping
maw and out the back of its freakish head as it leapt to attack the
group, and stopping its sliding body with my boot before we boarded the
repaired helicopter and made our exit.
A couple of unexpected highlights came from a pair of pick-up games, both being Genesys games. The first of these had the group playing members of Marvel's Alpha Flight, the Canadian government's sponsored team of superheroes, as run by Canadian Chris Hunt, which pretty much wound up with myself and another lady playing Canadian superheroes in a game run by a Canadian GM with other members of the Canadian contingent. Also in the group was convention guest Andy Hurley of Fall Out Boy, who is a pretty chill guy and fun to game with. We were probably one of the few teams of superheroes to shut down a bad guy's operation by way of government regulations. It was also amusing to be witness to the Canadians dropping cultural references that we Americans are generally unaware of.
The other unexpected highlight Genesys pick-up game that I got into was Sunday morning, due to the GM for the scheduled 7th Sea game being "under the weather," which I'm sure had nothing to do with the night prior being "GamerNation After Dark" (i.e. booze being served and shared liberally). Said game was run by Brett Bowen, one of GM Phil's longtime friends, and was using the Earthdawn setting. Now Earthdawn is a setting that I've always liked (post-apoc high fantasy), though sadly the game's mechanics were in short a total mess. Heck, I liked this enough that when a printed copy of the theme (signed by Brett) came up for bid in the post-con auction, I largely made sure it was mine to take home by effectively squashing the bidding war by doubling what was the current bid at the time. I've skimmed through the book a couple times, and may well try running some one-offs for some of the gaming groups I'm in. The look of the document is very slick, and you can tell from looking at it that Brett is not only a major fan of the setting but put a lot of work into this.
Other gaming included playing in both parts of the Android two-part module that FFG released for their Shadow of the Beanstalk Genesys supplement. This one I didn't find quite as enjoyable, but I think that was more circumstances than anything Darren West (the GM) did specifically. First part, we had one player pretty much commandeer the group at a critical point and effectively tell half the group (which I was in) to sod off in terms of how to resolve a particular dilemma and instead make things a whole lot worse for us. In the second part, we got hung up in a combat encounter that the module intended for us to avoid, except that the way things played out there was no way for us to really avoid it, which in turn effectively lead for a TPK with the exception of the medic PC.
In terms of food, I got to try out a couple of places that I'd never eaten at before, which were generally good, although one of them was a Chinese place where the food smelled good was way too spicy for me to really stomach. The pre-con barbecue feast provided by the Rayburns was just as delicious as last year's, and was a great way to start things. I wound up not going with the majority of the remaining con attendees to the post-con dinner, and instead headed with Lin, her family, and our friend Doran to a Chinese buffet that was pretty solid in terms of food, and it was nice to have a chance to wind down after four solid days of gaming goodness.
So yeah, a whole lot of fun was had, and I've already got at least a couple ideas for things I could run for next year's GNCon, from a Genesys major cross-over using various fan-made themes to a 7th Sea adventure whose roots can be drawn from a pick-up session I played during this recent con.
Showing posts with label 4DoGG. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 4DoGG. Show all posts
April 10, 2019
April 5, 2017
GamerNationCon 4 - Acheivement "A New Hope" Unlocked
Well, so much for plans of making regular updates...
It's been a couple days since I got back home from attending the fourth GamerNationCon down in Dallas, Texas, or as I prefer to think of it, the The True Best Four Days of Actual Gaming. I'd posted on Facebook my initial thoughts back on Monday, but now that I've had a bit of time to recoup and consider, I thought I'd post more of why I intend to never miss this fun little con if I have any say in the matter.
Firstly, a big thinks to Phil "Darth GM" and his brother Andrew for being willing to split the cost of a rental car to help ensure that my buddy Eric and I would have a ride not only to and from the con site, but also a ride back to the airport come Monday morning rather than have to pay for a cab. I can't fault Phil for "going Rogue" and taking a Nissan Rogue as his vehicle for a con that had a strong (or just stronger than usual) Star Wars theme.
The Wednesday before the convention is fun in and of itself. Not only did I get some really good barbecue at an old-style BBQ pit joint, but got to catch up with friends that I'd not seen since last year, on top of getting to chat a bit with Guest of Honor Katrina Ostrander (aka Kat). After dinner, spent some time in the hotel lobby chatting with Jim, Isaac, and Will about ideas for some new character types for Feng Shui 2, namely a Trick Shooter archetype that's less John Wu two-gun flash and more precision shooting with a sidearm; I'm looking forward to seeing the final product once they get it finalized. Seems they also really liked the ideas I put forth for a "Drunken Boxer" move set for the Martial Artist, as I believe Jim is actually playing that character in a campaign that Isaac is running.
Okay, so one RPG setting that I very much like but rarely get a chance to play in is that of Legend of the Five Rings, formerly published by AEG but now under the stewardship of FFG. A couple GenCons ago, I was pleased to find that Kat was herself a huge fan of the game and setting (on top of being a major anime fan), and she seemed quite intrigued at my suggestion of checking out at least the first of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies (it's really good, and ties the disparate plots of the first several manga volumes together in an enjoyable and surprisingly coherent manner, on top of the casting for most of the characters being spot-on, especially Kenshin). Sadly, I didn't have an opportunity to register for either of the two L5R events she was running at the con, but fortune favored this mortal man and I was able to hop into her Thursday session. I mush admit, I loved her method of allowing the players to create characters as part of the introduction to the game, where in I made a Kakita Bushi as part of a group of six that included a two shugenja (Kuni and Soshi), a courtier (Crane), a monk (Dragon), and a second bushi (Unicorn). The adventure itself was more of an investigative affair, though there were a couple of scenes set up specifically for the bushi characters; I guess that Kat asking if anybody was making a duelist and her relief that I was doing so should have been a clue. I'll say no more, as I might try running this myself and I don't want to spoil anything for my friends that read this who themselves may wind up being players.
A bit more on Kat's method of quick-building PCs, which she liberally borrowed from Apocalypse World (I may need to check that out). She did a similar thing for her Star Wars sessions, one of which my long-time friend Linda got to play in, and she liked the concept as well. I have to admit it's pretty inventive, and not only does it give the player a bit more investment in the character as it's one that they've made (even if the selections available are a bit limited by necessity) but it means the GM doesn't have to work as much to fill up a four hour time slot. I'd asked Kat if she could e-mail a copy of the different character folios that she put together, one so that I could see all the different options, but also so that I could make use of them for running L5R games myself, as it'd save time that I'd have to spend creating pre-gens.
Also on Thursday I got to do a "slot zero" pick-up of my 7th Sea Second Edition adventure "An Idol Venture," which is an expansion/update of my initial 7th Sea mini-adventure "An Idol Pursuit." Apparently it wasn't quite expanded enough, as the players completed the adventure in a little over three hours. I suppose I could bolster up the combat sequences, as the PCs were generally able to crush them in a single round. The players generally had fun, though sadly I think Isaac was a bit brain-fried from having stayed up to stupid o'clock in the morning the night before, as he had a hard time wrapping his head around how 7th Sea 2e handles approaches and combat sequences, which to be fair may have also been a bit my fault as well. Still, the players had fun, even if one of them did seem determined to keep the spotlight securely on him at all times instead of letting other players have their turn to be awesome. One of my players was Kat Ostrander, and was glad that she enjoyed the adventure, even if a few things from how I did things in the adventure through her (at least according to a Facebook post of hers).
Friday got off to a bit of a quieter start. I made the walk with my long-time friend Linda over to Madness Games and Comics, which to be frank is less of a gaming store and more of a gaming mall, given the sheer size of the place and the volume of products for sale. I wound picking up a pack of 10-sided dice so that I'd have a set for my own use while being able to share a set at the table for further 7th Sea sessions. I was hoping to find a red-and-white set (colors of the Hare Clan from L5R), but settled on a gold and white set instead, as well as grabbing a couple of new shirts for myself and an Animal-themed shirt that said "Party Animal" for Linda's daughter Ari. Then it was a walk back so that I could run my Star Wars adventure "Taris City Rumble." I had tried to run a version of it at last year's GNC, but to no avail, so this year I preregistered it and wound up with a full table. I'd made a number of changes from the initial version, including totally revamping the PCs, and I think it worked out for the best. The table had fun, with an older gentleman really getting into character as the exiled Tapani noble, though I did wind up largely improvising the final leg of the module due to the players taking a rather unexpected approach to things, but it wound up being a fast-paced and suitably frantic scene with one of the PCs getting dropped and the half of the group who weren't spec'd out for combat taking on the NPC that was the major combat threat. They did a pretty good job of holding said threat at bay until the Jedi character was able to leap in and blind the adversary with a rake of their lightsaber through the eyes with a critical injury that pretty much took it out of the fight. The denouement at the end had the PCs sweating a bit, given the nature of who they had to interact with at the adventure's conclusion, which was fun. Again, the players had fun, so I'd call that winning. Still, it wound up running over, but I'm not sure if there's anything I could really trim from it without putting the party on rails, something I prefer to avoid doing if at all possible.
After that, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Linda, her "Little Girl Lost" adventure which was based off an adventure she ran for the Skype group we're both part of. Sadly, I think she overestimated the capability of the pre-gens she offered, most of whom were pretty much starting PCs in terms of XP and gear, as the challenges were a whole lot tougher than they really should of been, with Hard difficulty checks being handed out like candy, especially in the early going. She did say that she spent some time talking with Keith Kappel, prolific freelance writer for FFG about things she did wrong and things that could be improved. Given how much she doubts her ability to GM games, I give her a mountain of credit for being willing and able to GM for a group that was almost entirely comprised of strangers.
And to cap off the Friday night, I played in another pick-up game, this one being a D&D 5e adventure run by Brev Tanner. I'm pretty good at improve as a GM, but I usually prefer to have some sort of outline written up ahead of time, but I was impressed at Brev for pretty much running the entire adventure by the seat of his pants. He did use a quintet of pre-gens, with my playing a High Elf Monk (personally there's a few things I'd have done differently with the character, but I tend to feel that way about most pre-gens, and I'm sure there are folks that feel the same with the pre-gens I make; nature of the beast I suppose). The adventure was a lot of fun, even if there were some things that were just plain wrong occurring, but kudos again to Brev for the different voices employed for various NPCs we encountered and interacted with. I probably stayed up way too late, but it was worth it.
Saturday started with not enough sleep, but I managed to get in a brief session of Red Dragon Inn. Normally I'm not much for board games, but I had some time to kill and the Whitson family were looking for another player to join them and Kat, and it was indeed fun. Sadly, we had to cut the game short so that we could all attend Kat Ostrander's panel. It was cool to get more of an insight into how she does her game prep, writes adventures, and the contrast of players who favor crunch-heavy RPGs as compared to those who prefer rules-lighter narrative-heavy RPGs and the contrast of what each camp sees as "winning" the game. Personally, I'm of the camp that "winning" in an RPG means that every player in the game had fun, and it would seem the majority of the Gamer Nation is of a similar mind set.
After the panel, I got into yet another pick-up game, this time a Dresden Files RPG set in Las Vegas run by long-time d20 Radio alumni Tim Rayburn, formerly of the Radio Free Hommlet (who?) D&D 4e podcast. Tim ran our group through character creation for a group that apart from myself and his wife Kate had never even seen Fate before. It was a really fun adventure, and I had to chuckle at Tim remarking that the party (three of whom were investigators of some sort or another) were about to Greyhawk one particular scene. I kind of feel like I took more of a lead than maybe I should have, but the other players didn't seem to mind, and it did help keep things moving, even if my PC did inadvertently stumble into a situation he really shouldn't have; it wasn't bad per se, just embarrassing. Of course, this being set in the Dresdenverse and involving the Fae, the whole adventure revolved around a situation that could have been far more easily resolved by a couple of NPCs simply talking to each other instead of invoking an overly-complicated chain of events, which lead to my ending the session with the frustrated exclamation of "Fucking Faeries!" to the group's mutual laughter.
Saturday night's gaming wrapped up with my running a second 7th Sea 2e adventure, this one called "Once Upon a Harvest Moon." The adventure was initially run as a one-shot for my Skype group for when our regularly scheduled game had to be put on hold due to a couple players not being available, and was itself based upon the adventure module "Lady of the Apples" for the Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG. Set in Eisen, the adventure was generally dark and creepy, and thus slated for an evening time slot. Overall, I think this session went a lot better than my Thursday session, with the chap that played the priest probably being the most memorable of the characters. The one hiccup was that during the final scene, one of the players was paying more attention to her phone (trying to order food), which certainly aggravated me but I simply dealt with it. I am seriously considering instituting a "no phones unless you're using it as a dice roller" policy at any further games I run. I'm going to give the adventure write-up one more look-through, and then will probably post it here to the blog.
While I didn't get to play in any of Phil's sessions of his much-acclaimed Fallout module (based off FFG's Star Wars system), I did get to listen in on the tail end of his Saturday night pick-up, of which most of the players were varying degrees of inebriated, as was the GM, and I'm certain that made things lively. While waiting for Phil to sober up enough to be in good enough shape to drive, I did get to converse a bit with a few different folks at the con, so it wasn't like I was hanging around bored. Still, I wonder if I should have taken Linda up on the offer of a lift back to the con so that I wouldn't have another night of minimal sleep. I did still manage to adhere to the 4-2-1 rule (4 hours' sleep, 2 full meals, 1 shower), so it's all good.
Finally we rolled into Sunday. Apart from a last minute session of Artemis, I really didn't do all that much gaming, due to being a little out of it as well as wanting to put a few different RPG adventure ideas for next year's GamerNationCon onto paper. I did stop over to where Kat was running her final L5R session, and for some reason to do a fairly decent impression of Samurai Jack's Aku, bellowing "Foolish samurai!" One of the players rolled with it, and I'm not sure if Kat was more amused or annoyed; I'm going to lean towards the later as she wasn't feeling quite so hot after drinking as much as she had during Phil's Fallout module and Aku's voice doesn't exactly lend itself towards subtlety.
After the con ended was the auction, and the only item that I wanted (a pretty cool dice tower in the theme of a Death Star laser turret) went to somebody else, so I walked away with nothing. Ah well, but at least Linda got herself a copy of the Endless Vigil sourcebook.
The con itself pretty much wrapped up with what I've taken to calling the "dead dog dinner," largely as we're all dead-tired, yet doggedly trying to keep the fun going as we have one final group dinner. There was a bit of a hiccup, as the Italian place that Dave originally chose turned out to have been recently closed for business, causing a relocation to a different Italian place. I joked to Dave that what had happened is that when he made his Foresee power check, he'd rolled straight dark side, with Dave laughingly adding that he also rolled a Despair. If you're not familiar with those terms, they're to do with FFG Star Wars. Still, it was a good dinner, and I got to spend a good chunk of time with the Whitsons before we parted ways.
Monday was the flight back, and apart from getting to the airport quite early (necessary due to Dallas morning traffic) the trip back was without incident. No delays, no missed connecting flights, no misplaced luggage. As I joked with Phil on Facebook, it was probably an April Fool's Joke by the forces that be in order to lull us into a false sense of security about future flights.
So yes, GamerNationCon IV was a rousing success, and I'm already looking forward to next year, to GamerNationCon V: The Order of the Gamers. Got at least four adventure ideas that have a magic/mystical theme to them, with systems picked out for three of them (SWFFG, 7th Sea 2e, and Dresden Files Accelerated), which is probably where I should stop as I want to be sure that I've got enough time to play games; some folks might enjoy spending the entire con GM'ing, but I enjoy being a player as well.
It's been a couple days since I got back home from attending the fourth GamerNationCon down in Dallas, Texas, or as I prefer to think of it, the The True Best Four Days of Actual Gaming. I'd posted on Facebook my initial thoughts back on Monday, but now that I've had a bit of time to recoup and consider, I thought I'd post more of why I intend to never miss this fun little con if I have any say in the matter.
Firstly, a big thinks to Phil "Darth GM" and his brother Andrew for being willing to split the cost of a rental car to help ensure that my buddy Eric and I would have a ride not only to and from the con site, but also a ride back to the airport come Monday morning rather than have to pay for a cab. I can't fault Phil for "going Rogue" and taking a Nissan Rogue as his vehicle for a con that had a strong (or just stronger than usual) Star Wars theme.
The Wednesday before the convention is fun in and of itself. Not only did I get some really good barbecue at an old-style BBQ pit joint, but got to catch up with friends that I'd not seen since last year, on top of getting to chat a bit with Guest of Honor Katrina Ostrander (aka Kat). After dinner, spent some time in the hotel lobby chatting with Jim, Isaac, and Will about ideas for some new character types for Feng Shui 2, namely a Trick Shooter archetype that's less John Wu two-gun flash and more precision shooting with a sidearm; I'm looking forward to seeing the final product once they get it finalized. Seems they also really liked the ideas I put forth for a "Drunken Boxer" move set for the Martial Artist, as I believe Jim is actually playing that character in a campaign that Isaac is running.
Okay, so one RPG setting that I very much like but rarely get a chance to play in is that of Legend of the Five Rings, formerly published by AEG but now under the stewardship of FFG. A couple GenCons ago, I was pleased to find that Kat was herself a huge fan of the game and setting (on top of being a major anime fan), and she seemed quite intrigued at my suggestion of checking out at least the first of the live-action Rurouni Kenshin movies (it's really good, and ties the disparate plots of the first several manga volumes together in an enjoyable and surprisingly coherent manner, on top of the casting for most of the characters being spot-on, especially Kenshin). Sadly, I didn't have an opportunity to register for either of the two L5R events she was running at the con, but fortune favored this mortal man and I was able to hop into her Thursday session. I mush admit, I loved her method of allowing the players to create characters as part of the introduction to the game, where in I made a Kakita Bushi as part of a group of six that included a two shugenja (Kuni and Soshi), a courtier (Crane), a monk (Dragon), and a second bushi (Unicorn). The adventure itself was more of an investigative affair, though there were a couple of scenes set up specifically for the bushi characters; I guess that Kat asking if anybody was making a duelist and her relief that I was doing so should have been a clue. I'll say no more, as I might try running this myself and I don't want to spoil anything for my friends that read this who themselves may wind up being players.
A bit more on Kat's method of quick-building PCs, which she liberally borrowed from Apocalypse World (I may need to check that out). She did a similar thing for her Star Wars sessions, one of which my long-time friend Linda got to play in, and she liked the concept as well. I have to admit it's pretty inventive, and not only does it give the player a bit more investment in the character as it's one that they've made (even if the selections available are a bit limited by necessity) but it means the GM doesn't have to work as much to fill up a four hour time slot. I'd asked Kat if she could e-mail a copy of the different character folios that she put together, one so that I could see all the different options, but also so that I could make use of them for running L5R games myself, as it'd save time that I'd have to spend creating pre-gens.
Also on Thursday I got to do a "slot zero" pick-up of my 7th Sea Second Edition adventure "An Idol Venture," which is an expansion/update of my initial 7th Sea mini-adventure "An Idol Pursuit." Apparently it wasn't quite expanded enough, as the players completed the adventure in a little over three hours. I suppose I could bolster up the combat sequences, as the PCs were generally able to crush them in a single round. The players generally had fun, though sadly I think Isaac was a bit brain-fried from having stayed up to stupid o'clock in the morning the night before, as he had a hard time wrapping his head around how 7th Sea 2e handles approaches and combat sequences, which to be fair may have also been a bit my fault as well. Still, the players had fun, even if one of them did seem determined to keep the spotlight securely on him at all times instead of letting other players have their turn to be awesome. One of my players was Kat Ostrander, and was glad that she enjoyed the adventure, even if a few things from how I did things in the adventure through her (at least according to a Facebook post of hers).
Friday got off to a bit of a quieter start. I made the walk with my long-time friend Linda over to Madness Games and Comics, which to be frank is less of a gaming store and more of a gaming mall, given the sheer size of the place and the volume of products for sale. I wound picking up a pack of 10-sided dice so that I'd have a set for my own use while being able to share a set at the table for further 7th Sea sessions. I was hoping to find a red-and-white set (colors of the Hare Clan from L5R), but settled on a gold and white set instead, as well as grabbing a couple of new shirts for myself and an Animal-themed shirt that said "Party Animal" for Linda's daughter Ari. Then it was a walk back so that I could run my Star Wars adventure "Taris City Rumble." I had tried to run a version of it at last year's GNC, but to no avail, so this year I preregistered it and wound up with a full table. I'd made a number of changes from the initial version, including totally revamping the PCs, and I think it worked out for the best. The table had fun, with an older gentleman really getting into character as the exiled Tapani noble, though I did wind up largely improvising the final leg of the module due to the players taking a rather unexpected approach to things, but it wound up being a fast-paced and suitably frantic scene with one of the PCs getting dropped and the half of the group who weren't spec'd out for combat taking on the NPC that was the major combat threat. They did a pretty good job of holding said threat at bay until the Jedi character was able to leap in and blind the adversary with a rake of their lightsaber through the eyes with a critical injury that pretty much took it out of the fight. The denouement at the end had the PCs sweating a bit, given the nature of who they had to interact with at the adventure's conclusion, which was fun. Again, the players had fun, so I'd call that winning. Still, it wound up running over, but I'm not sure if there's anything I could really trim from it without putting the party on rails, something I prefer to avoid doing if at all possible.
After that, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Linda, her "Little Girl Lost" adventure which was based off an adventure she ran for the Skype group we're both part of. Sadly, I think she overestimated the capability of the pre-gens she offered, most of whom were pretty much starting PCs in terms of XP and gear, as the challenges were a whole lot tougher than they really should of been, with Hard difficulty checks being handed out like candy, especially in the early going. She did say that she spent some time talking with Keith Kappel, prolific freelance writer for FFG about things she did wrong and things that could be improved. Given how much she doubts her ability to GM games, I give her a mountain of credit for being willing and able to GM for a group that was almost entirely comprised of strangers.
And to cap off the Friday night, I played in another pick-up game, this one being a D&D 5e adventure run by Brev Tanner. I'm pretty good at improve as a GM, but I usually prefer to have some sort of outline written up ahead of time, but I was impressed at Brev for pretty much running the entire adventure by the seat of his pants. He did use a quintet of pre-gens, with my playing a High Elf Monk (personally there's a few things I'd have done differently with the character, but I tend to feel that way about most pre-gens, and I'm sure there are folks that feel the same with the pre-gens I make; nature of the beast I suppose). The adventure was a lot of fun, even if there were some things that were just plain wrong occurring, but kudos again to Brev for the different voices employed for various NPCs we encountered and interacted with. I probably stayed up way too late, but it was worth it.
Saturday started with not enough sleep, but I managed to get in a brief session of Red Dragon Inn. Normally I'm not much for board games, but I had some time to kill and the Whitson family were looking for another player to join them and Kat, and it was indeed fun. Sadly, we had to cut the game short so that we could all attend Kat Ostrander's panel. It was cool to get more of an insight into how she does her game prep, writes adventures, and the contrast of players who favor crunch-heavy RPGs as compared to those who prefer rules-lighter narrative-heavy RPGs and the contrast of what each camp sees as "winning" the game. Personally, I'm of the camp that "winning" in an RPG means that every player in the game had fun, and it would seem the majority of the Gamer Nation is of a similar mind set.
After the panel, I got into yet another pick-up game, this time a Dresden Files RPG set in Las Vegas run by long-time d20 Radio alumni Tim Rayburn, formerly of the Radio Free Hommlet (who?) D&D 4e podcast. Tim ran our group through character creation for a group that apart from myself and his wife Kate had never even seen Fate before. It was a really fun adventure, and I had to chuckle at Tim remarking that the party (three of whom were investigators of some sort or another) were about to Greyhawk one particular scene. I kind of feel like I took more of a lead than maybe I should have, but the other players didn't seem to mind, and it did help keep things moving, even if my PC did inadvertently stumble into a situation he really shouldn't have; it wasn't bad per se, just embarrassing. Of course, this being set in the Dresdenverse and involving the Fae, the whole adventure revolved around a situation that could have been far more easily resolved by a couple of NPCs simply talking to each other instead of invoking an overly-complicated chain of events, which lead to my ending the session with the frustrated exclamation of "Fucking Faeries!" to the group's mutual laughter.
Saturday night's gaming wrapped up with my running a second 7th Sea 2e adventure, this one called "Once Upon a Harvest Moon." The adventure was initially run as a one-shot for my Skype group for when our regularly scheduled game had to be put on hold due to a couple players not being available, and was itself based upon the adventure module "Lady of the Apples" for the Shadow of the Demon Lord RPG. Set in Eisen, the adventure was generally dark and creepy, and thus slated for an evening time slot. Overall, I think this session went a lot better than my Thursday session, with the chap that played the priest probably being the most memorable of the characters. The one hiccup was that during the final scene, one of the players was paying more attention to her phone (trying to order food), which certainly aggravated me but I simply dealt with it. I am seriously considering instituting a "no phones unless you're using it as a dice roller" policy at any further games I run. I'm going to give the adventure write-up one more look-through, and then will probably post it here to the blog.
While I didn't get to play in any of Phil's sessions of his much-acclaimed Fallout module (based off FFG's Star Wars system), I did get to listen in on the tail end of his Saturday night pick-up, of which most of the players were varying degrees of inebriated, as was the GM, and I'm certain that made things lively. While waiting for Phil to sober up enough to be in good enough shape to drive, I did get to converse a bit with a few different folks at the con, so it wasn't like I was hanging around bored. Still, I wonder if I should have taken Linda up on the offer of a lift back to the con so that I wouldn't have another night of minimal sleep. I did still manage to adhere to the 4-2-1 rule (4 hours' sleep, 2 full meals, 1 shower), so it's all good.
Finally we rolled into Sunday. Apart from a last minute session of Artemis, I really didn't do all that much gaming, due to being a little out of it as well as wanting to put a few different RPG adventure ideas for next year's GamerNationCon onto paper. I did stop over to where Kat was running her final L5R session, and for some reason to do a fairly decent impression of Samurai Jack's Aku, bellowing "Foolish samurai!" One of the players rolled with it, and I'm not sure if Kat was more amused or annoyed; I'm going to lean towards the later as she wasn't feeling quite so hot after drinking as much as she had during Phil's Fallout module and Aku's voice doesn't exactly lend itself towards subtlety.
After the con ended was the auction, and the only item that I wanted (a pretty cool dice tower in the theme of a Death Star laser turret) went to somebody else, so I walked away with nothing. Ah well, but at least Linda got herself a copy of the Endless Vigil sourcebook.
The con itself pretty much wrapped up with what I've taken to calling the "dead dog dinner," largely as we're all dead-tired, yet doggedly trying to keep the fun going as we have one final group dinner. There was a bit of a hiccup, as the Italian place that Dave originally chose turned out to have been recently closed for business, causing a relocation to a different Italian place. I joked to Dave that what had happened is that when he made his Foresee power check, he'd rolled straight dark side, with Dave laughingly adding that he also rolled a Despair. If you're not familiar with those terms, they're to do with FFG Star Wars. Still, it was a good dinner, and I got to spend a good chunk of time with the Whitsons before we parted ways.
Monday was the flight back, and apart from getting to the airport quite early (necessary due to Dallas morning traffic) the trip back was without incident. No delays, no missed connecting flights, no misplaced luggage. As I joked with Phil on Facebook, it was probably an April Fool's Joke by the forces that be in order to lull us into a false sense of security about future flights.
So yes, GamerNationCon IV was a rousing success, and I'm already looking forward to next year, to GamerNationCon V: The Order of the Gamers. Got at least four adventure ideas that have a magic/mystical theme to them, with systems picked out for three of them (SWFFG, 7th Sea 2e, and Dresden Files Accelerated), which is probably where I should stop as I want to be sure that I've got enough time to play games; some folks might enjoy spending the entire con GM'ing, but I enjoy being a player as well.
April 5, 2016
The REAL Best Four Days of Gaming - my thoughts on GamerNationCon 2016
Yeah, the title is sure to piss some folks off. But to be honest, after the amount of fun I had this past weekend, at this point GenCon can go screw itself.
So this past Wednesday, I flew down to Texas to attend the 3rd GamerNationCon, a fairly small gaming convention/gathering of various d20 Radio members. This year's Guests of Honor were Rodney Thompson, formerly of WotC (now working for Bungie) and the man largely responsible for Star Wars Saga Edition as well as mapmaker extraordinaire Christopher West. Other important folks (aside from GMs Chris, Dave, and Phil) were Sam Stewart and Sterling Hershey, both returning for another round of gaming goodness.
My trip down was mostly uneventful, with a slight delay due to windy conditions in the Plano area. I will admit that Texas drivers take a bit of getting used to, and that I don't exaggerate that I nearly got hit three times just on my way to the hotel. Of course, getting to the hotel was its own adventure, due to Google Maps wanting to take me to some entirely different location. But, I got to the hotel in my rental car, though a tad more frazzled than I would have preferred. Still, the Wednesday Dinner get-together was great, as I got to sit and chat with the ever-so-sweet Adi, who flew over from Scotland to attend the convention. It's a shame that Chris Brinkley went through the trouble to arrange things, but then couldn't attend due to a combination of food poisoning and exhaustion from having to do all the driving he did to get down there. Also got to meet GM Hooly, which was very cool, and of course meeting up with folks from last year's GamerNationCon.
I won't go into too many details, but the con was rightly billed as "Four Days of Gaming Goodness." I got a chance to play in two games run by Christopher West, that being his Deep Cover adventure, which was set during the Force Awakens era. Second time around was a lot more fun, with me playing a BB unit that had formerly been property of the First Order. I also got to play in an eight player pick-up game run by Sam Stewart, which was such a laugh riot, due in no small part (just the tip) to GM Chris playing Dorbecca the Mad Claw and really getting into character. My buddy Eric Brenders ran a slew of games, earning his Iron GM badge the day before the con ended (way to go!), and I got to play in two of his Star Wars sessions and a D&D 5e pick-up game he ran, playing a 3rd level Human Paladin and having a blast with all three, though sadly I kinda had to duck out in the midst of his "Save the Princess" module due to an issue I'll touch upon later. Also played a 3rd level version of a Human Monk I'm playing in a local game (running through the "Curse of Strahd" adventure) in a 5e pick-up run by one of the Canadian Contingent, which was fun. Both D&D sessions were played with a lass by the name of Jody Kinkaid, and the session that Eric ran was one of the few times where a player (her) ran a halfling thief in the vein of a kender without being a jerk about it. With the child-like way her character was acting, it was very easy for my paladin to be very protective of her, even if she was dishing out heavy damage almost every round. For the final day, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Sterling Hershey, and while we didn't get to properly finish the adventure due to a lot of fun conversations side-tracking us, it was still a fun adventure, with a very interesting development about half-way through, one that I won't spoil here.
I also got to play a couple rounds of Artemis with GM Phil as our captain, and had a lot of fun. Just re-inforced the idea that game can be a lot of fun if you've got the right group of people. I got to play tactical (much fun) and communications (not so much). I think I'm best suited for tactical, as during that first session I was largely on top of things with keeping the right missiles in the tube and flipping laser frequencies to best punch through enemy shields.
One of the highlights of the convention was the opportunity to help induct Rodney Thompson as an Honorary Member of the Rebel Legion. To provide a bit of background as to why this was such a highlight, I myself am an Honorary Member, thanks entirely to Rodney willing to give me a shot at doing some freelancer work for Star Wars Saga Edition, first for Galaxy at War and then again for Unknown Regions, where I got to add two entirely new planets to Star Wars lore as well as sneak in a reference to a Jedi General Morningfire, who for a time was indeed canon (low level canon, but canon all the same). So back in March of 2012, my dear friend Linda Whitson arranged for me to be named a Friend of the Rebel Legion, with GM Phil backing the nomination.
However, upon further review by Phil, it turned out that they'd overlooked something. I was considered a writer for Star Wars thanks to those freelancing gigs, and as such qualified for Honorary Member status. So, in GenCon of 2014 at the GamerNation Pre-GenCon Dinner my status was officially upgraded from Friend of the Legion to Honorary Member (occurring the day after my birthday). Apparently that upgrade was meant to happen during the first GamerNationCon, but a freak blizzard that shut down the airport the morning I was due to fly out nixed that idea. Sterling Hershey was named an Honorary Member on the following Saturday, and given the sheer amount of history the man has with Star Wars RPGs, I feel it was an honor that was long overdue.
And at GamerNationCon 2015, Sam Stewart was named an Honorary Member of the Rebel Legion, and as of this year's GamerNationCon, Rodney Thompson joins the ranks. Being the one to hand Rodney his plaque and gold badge was great... and almost didn't happen.
The Saturday that his induction was planned, I'd overslept and in my rush to make sure I had everything I forgot the most important thing... his badge and plaque. I had packed them, but they were sitting back in my hotel room, along with the boots for my Jedi costume. A huge thanks to GM Chris for being willing to ferry my dumb ass back to the hotel so I could grab those items, since he was also grabbing Christopher West and Rodney Thompson; I was able to hide plaque and badge in one of my boots, keeping Rodney in the dark about what was in store for him.
The induction ceremony was something of a "seat of the pants" operation, with GM Phil having to step away from the middle of a game he was running, and GM Dave nearly missing the ceremony (and not being able to do music) as he was in the midst of running an event as well. But, in the end we pulled it off, with Chris Bradshaw in a very awesome Tusken Raider costume and another member of the Rebel Legion in attendance in her Rebel trooper costume. I don't think I looked too bad in my Jedi robes, and a few folks joked that they had finally gotten to meet the real Donovan Morningfire as opposed to the New Yorker that used that name as a forum handle. I think it was safe to say that Rodney's gob was indeed smacked when the four of us walked in at the tail end of a panel that he was hosting. What a found out not long after was that Rodney had noticed Sterling wearing his RL Honorary Member badge, and being impressed asked about how one went about getting one. Well, he found out, and was very appreciative of the accolade. For the Sunday Auction, there wasn't anything that I really wanted and would have had a chance to actually win, so I opted to donate my points all to Phil to boost up his chances to win the Star Wars Armada starter box and still have points left for him and his brother Andrew to use to bid on other items they may have wanted. Seems I wasn't alone in that, with Eric and Sam Stewart also donating some of their points so that Andrew could get the trio of custom Star Wars minis that he really wanted.
It was kind of sad that 4DoGG had to come to an end, but it was a memorable experience, and left me eagerly looking forward to doing it again next year. As was officially announced at the end of the convention, issues with the space we used prevented GNCon 2017 from being held in that same spot, but it does seem that Chris and Dave have plans to help ensure the GamerNation can gather up again next year. The whole thing was capped off with a Mexican restaurant that Dave suggested, with us having many more laughs at the dead dog dinner as we enjoyed some really good food.
About the only downer to the whole thing (apart from it ending) was flying back to the northeast to learn that Mother Nature had decided to dump a whole lot of snow on the area, in spite of it being April and thus the early stages of spring. The snow's slowly fading away, but I was not expecting to come home to freezing temps and having to dig my car out.
Well, that's my general experience with GamerNationCon 2016: Beyond Thunderdome. As I expected, it was a lot of fun, even if my one attempt at a PUG flopped simply due to bad timing. And hopefully there will indeed by GamerNationCon 2017: A New Hope, for which I will most certainly be posting up some pre-registered games. What those games will be, I'm not 100% certain beyond that there will be FFG Star Wars, and maybe one or two other things. I could be balls-out crazy like Eric and Phil and try for the Iron GM badge, but since I also like playing RPGs and I go to these things to relax, that's probably not gonna happen.
So this past Wednesday, I flew down to Texas to attend the 3rd GamerNationCon, a fairly small gaming convention/gathering of various d20 Radio members. This year's Guests of Honor were Rodney Thompson, formerly of WotC (now working for Bungie) and the man largely responsible for Star Wars Saga Edition as well as mapmaker extraordinaire Christopher West. Other important folks (aside from GMs Chris, Dave, and Phil) were Sam Stewart and Sterling Hershey, both returning for another round of gaming goodness.
My trip down was mostly uneventful, with a slight delay due to windy conditions in the Plano area. I will admit that Texas drivers take a bit of getting used to, and that I don't exaggerate that I nearly got hit three times just on my way to the hotel. Of course, getting to the hotel was its own adventure, due to Google Maps wanting to take me to some entirely different location. But, I got to the hotel in my rental car, though a tad more frazzled than I would have preferred. Still, the Wednesday Dinner get-together was great, as I got to sit and chat with the ever-so-sweet Adi, who flew over from Scotland to attend the convention. It's a shame that Chris Brinkley went through the trouble to arrange things, but then couldn't attend due to a combination of food poisoning and exhaustion from having to do all the driving he did to get down there. Also got to meet GM Hooly, which was very cool, and of course meeting up with folks from last year's GamerNationCon.
I won't go into too many details, but the con was rightly billed as "Four Days of Gaming Goodness." I got a chance to play in two games run by Christopher West, that being his Deep Cover adventure, which was set during the Force Awakens era. Second time around was a lot more fun, with me playing a BB unit that had formerly been property of the First Order. I also got to play in an eight player pick-up game run by Sam Stewart, which was such a laugh riot, due in no small part (just the tip) to GM Chris playing Dorbecca the Mad Claw and really getting into character. My buddy Eric Brenders ran a slew of games, earning his Iron GM badge the day before the con ended (way to go!), and I got to play in two of his Star Wars sessions and a D&D 5e pick-up game he ran, playing a 3rd level Human Paladin and having a blast with all three, though sadly I kinda had to duck out in the midst of his "Save the Princess" module due to an issue I'll touch upon later. Also played a 3rd level version of a Human Monk I'm playing in a local game (running through the "Curse of Strahd" adventure) in a 5e pick-up run by one of the Canadian Contingent, which was fun. Both D&D sessions were played with a lass by the name of Jody Kinkaid, and the session that Eric ran was one of the few times where a player (her) ran a halfling thief in the vein of a kender without being a jerk about it. With the child-like way her character was acting, it was very easy for my paladin to be very protective of her, even if she was dishing out heavy damage almost every round. For the final day, I played in a Star Wars pick-up game run by Sterling Hershey, and while we didn't get to properly finish the adventure due to a lot of fun conversations side-tracking us, it was still a fun adventure, with a very interesting development about half-way through, one that I won't spoil here.
I also got to play a couple rounds of Artemis with GM Phil as our captain, and had a lot of fun. Just re-inforced the idea that game can be a lot of fun if you've got the right group of people. I got to play tactical (much fun) and communications (not so much). I think I'm best suited for tactical, as during that first session I was largely on top of things with keeping the right missiles in the tube and flipping laser frequencies to best punch through enemy shields.
One of the highlights of the convention was the opportunity to help induct Rodney Thompson as an Honorary Member of the Rebel Legion. To provide a bit of background as to why this was such a highlight, I myself am an Honorary Member, thanks entirely to Rodney willing to give me a shot at doing some freelancer work for Star Wars Saga Edition, first for Galaxy at War and then again for Unknown Regions, where I got to add two entirely new planets to Star Wars lore as well as sneak in a reference to a Jedi General Morningfire, who for a time was indeed canon (low level canon, but canon all the same). So back in March of 2012, my dear friend Linda Whitson arranged for me to be named a Friend of the Rebel Legion, with GM Phil backing the nomination.
However, upon further review by Phil, it turned out that they'd overlooked something. I was considered a writer for Star Wars thanks to those freelancing gigs, and as such qualified for Honorary Member status. So, in GenCon of 2014 at the GamerNation Pre-GenCon Dinner my status was officially upgraded from Friend of the Legion to Honorary Member (occurring the day after my birthday). Apparently that upgrade was meant to happen during the first GamerNationCon, but a freak blizzard that shut down the airport the morning I was due to fly out nixed that idea. Sterling Hershey was named an Honorary Member on the following Saturday, and given the sheer amount of history the man has with Star Wars RPGs, I feel it was an honor that was long overdue.
And at GamerNationCon 2015, Sam Stewart was named an Honorary Member of the Rebel Legion, and as of this year's GamerNationCon, Rodney Thompson joins the ranks. Being the one to hand Rodney his plaque and gold badge was great... and almost didn't happen.
The Saturday that his induction was planned, I'd overslept and in my rush to make sure I had everything I forgot the most important thing... his badge and plaque. I had packed them, but they were sitting back in my hotel room, along with the boots for my Jedi costume. A huge thanks to GM Chris for being willing to ferry my dumb ass back to the hotel so I could grab those items, since he was also grabbing Christopher West and Rodney Thompson; I was able to hide plaque and badge in one of my boots, keeping Rodney in the dark about what was in store for him.
The induction ceremony was something of a "seat of the pants" operation, with GM Phil having to step away from the middle of a game he was running, and GM Dave nearly missing the ceremony (and not being able to do music) as he was in the midst of running an event as well. But, in the end we pulled it off, with Chris Bradshaw in a very awesome Tusken Raider costume and another member of the Rebel Legion in attendance in her Rebel trooper costume. I don't think I looked too bad in my Jedi robes, and a few folks joked that they had finally gotten to meet the real Donovan Morningfire as opposed to the New Yorker that used that name as a forum handle. I think it was safe to say that Rodney's gob was indeed smacked when the four of us walked in at the tail end of a panel that he was hosting. What a found out not long after was that Rodney had noticed Sterling wearing his RL Honorary Member badge, and being impressed asked about how one went about getting one. Well, he found out, and was very appreciative of the accolade. For the Sunday Auction, there wasn't anything that I really wanted and would have had a chance to actually win, so I opted to donate my points all to Phil to boost up his chances to win the Star Wars Armada starter box and still have points left for him and his brother Andrew to use to bid on other items they may have wanted. Seems I wasn't alone in that, with Eric and Sam Stewart also donating some of their points so that Andrew could get the trio of custom Star Wars minis that he really wanted.
It was kind of sad that 4DoGG had to come to an end, but it was a memorable experience, and left me eagerly looking forward to doing it again next year. As was officially announced at the end of the convention, issues with the space we used prevented GNCon 2017 from being held in that same spot, but it does seem that Chris and Dave have plans to help ensure the GamerNation can gather up again next year. The whole thing was capped off with a Mexican restaurant that Dave suggested, with us having many more laughs at the dead dog dinner as we enjoyed some really good food.
About the only downer to the whole thing (apart from it ending) was flying back to the northeast to learn that Mother Nature had decided to dump a whole lot of snow on the area, in spite of it being April and thus the early stages of spring. The snow's slowly fading away, but I was not expecting to come home to freezing temps and having to dig my car out.
Well, that's my general experience with GamerNationCon 2016: Beyond Thunderdome. As I expected, it was a lot of fun, even if my one attempt at a PUG flopped simply due to bad timing. And hopefully there will indeed by GamerNationCon 2017: A New Hope, for which I will most certainly be posting up some pre-registered games. What those games will be, I'm not 100% certain beyond that there will be FFG Star Wars, and maybe one or two other things. I could be balls-out crazy like Eric and Phil and try for the Iron GM badge, but since I also like playing RPGs and I go to these things to relax, that's probably not gonna happen.
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