MEPACON offered up pretty much everything I could expect from a small, local convention. Kat and I attended and had a great time, seeing old friends, meeting new people, and playing fun games.
I started off Friday by playing in Kat’s Everway game where we averted a war that would have ravaged the city. I liked my character concept: Sir Lion, the greatest hero of his sphere, who had performed dozens and dozens of Hercules-level labors to win the hand of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She told him that she could not possibly be with someone who had never seen anything more beautiful than she, as that would always be a gulf between them. He’s been wandering the spheres sense, trying to find something more beautiful than his love, so he can go home.
Friday evening I ran InSpectres, which is always a fun time. Our three InSpectres: an ex-Chippendale dancer, a conspiracy theorist, and a precog. They investigated the mystery of haunted potato chips, where every chip showed the face of a suffering loved one who had passed on. They ended up frying the single possessed potato that started it all. The second mission ranged all over, from an 18-wheeler that was constantly pelted with snow, frogs, and fish, to a ride in a van carried aloft by a dragon, to the retirement home of the Norse gods, to the ring of the Niebelungen gifted to the frost giants to make all the problems go away.
Saturday morning I facilitated a session of The King is Dead. We only played about 90 minutes, but it was an intense, fun session. There were threats, insults, a baby used as a political prop to manipulate the crowd. There was a duel that ended with a surprise beheading. The new king grabbed the throne in a secret ceremony and was assassinated a few months later. The new players in this one were a lot of fun.
Saturday afternoon, I got to play in my friend Dave’s game Behind the Throne, for more fantasy-colored scheming. It was definitely an early playtest, but was still fun. My forthright nobleman who championed the common man was one die roll away from abolishing the monarchy in favor of democracy. Instead, he was devoured by the mystical beast that personified the land. Oh well.
Saturday evening I ran more InSpectres. This time a slacker, a man of mysterious background, a conspiracy theorist, and a nurse faced down a brand-new mansion inexplicably haunted by Revolutionary War-era ghosts. They also placed their InSpectres franchise inside a former cinema multiplex. It was such a fun setting that I placed the second mission right there: Their ghost storage facility had overreached its capacity and was starting to leak out.
Sunday morning I facilitated the King is Dead again. We had a bit more time for this runthrough, and our character scheming really shone through because of it. There was a murder of foreign dignitaries that had docked in a sacred harbor and an animated disagreement about that. There was a great big dance where everyone attended and got to threaten/flirt with each other. The two characters who’d had the very passionate disagreement ended up stealing some equally passionate time together. There were stolen crown jewels, a chase, a semi-proposal made over scones. And then war broke out. It exhausted many, but the winner was magnanimous and ended up becoming the crown consort to the new queen. My character spent the rest of his days in a prison cell for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a fun, fast, punchy game.
Glad I went to MEPACON and I’m looking forward to the next one in April.