They say “if you want somthing done, give it to a busy person.” The past few months, the universe has taken that lesson to heart and aimed its knowledge right at yours truly. I have managed to attend THREE game weekends in the past three months, but haven’t squeezed in the time to post about them here at the blog. Here’s a very quick summary:
WinterKnights 2024
One of our invite-only IGX house cons at the Church of Gaming!
FRIDAY
- Paranormal, Inc.: My friend Bobbi GM’d for the first time in this game of modern-day paranormal mystery at a New England whaling museum.
- Matrons of Mystery: I facilitated this “carved from Brindlewood” game of older British women solving mysteries.
- The King is Dead: A low-prep staple, this game just keeps giving (well, except the crown … to me, at least!)
SATURDAY
- If I Were a Lich, Man: My friend Seraphina facilitated this game about undead sorcerers debating the decisions of their unlifes, modeled on Jewish experience.
- Raccoon Sky Pirates: Raccoons cobble together a flying machine and raid the suburbs. What could go wrong?
- Galactic Adventures in Unknown Space: My friend Bill White regularly writes games that are love letters to Traveller. I survived character creation in this one!
MEPACON Spring 2024
A moderate-sized public game convention about 15 minutes from my front door. Although most players are looking for D&D or board games, I did manage to play or run four sessions of indie goodness:
FRIDAY
- InSpectres: Two very enthusiast players played retired professional wrestlers who had turned to hunting ghosts. They cleard out a telemarketing call center infested with the noise of horses. Then they found a Sasquatch that had been trying to stop a weird cult of entitled rich people.
SATURDAY
- The King is Dead: Not only did I manage to let the crown slip through my fingers, but I was killed on the blade of a rival claimant.
- Everway – Dungeons and Dinner: Kat and I have been enjoying Netflix’s Delicious in Dungeon. Inspired by that, she’s put together a fantastical Everyway game where we ventured into an “inescapable” sphere and delve into its mysteries. My character was a badass anthropomorphic turtle.
- InSpectres: A full table of InSpectres cleared out visions of hell from a water treatment plant. Then, they faced a Halloween-themed “haunted hotel” that was actually haunted.
SpringRoll 2024
THURSDAY
- Codenames: Boy, am I awful at that game!
FRIDAY
- Desperation: I only observed this game of 19th century tragedy on a cod fishing ship. The structure is fascinating, but the subject matter is too bleak for me.
- Dragon Braggin’: The first playtest of a game I’m designing. Your adventuring party has just defeated the dragon! Later at the tavern, boast of your exploits, toast your fellows, and try to win their support for your secret victory condition. It’s inspired by For the Queen and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. I’ve been tinkering with designing this game for a while. SpringRoll gave me a deadline, and this first playtest was a hit! There’s plenty of rough edges to sand off, but it’s nice to get a game to the playtest table that doesn’t need to be completely overhauled afterward!
- Triplanetary Traveler: Bill wrote another love-letter to Traveller. We fled from pirates, ran out of fuel completely, limped to Mars using the ship’s guns as “equal and opposite reaction” mass, and crashed on the red planet, due to insufficient fuel to land.
- Super Heavy Elemental: Bill ran this far-future fantasy scenario using James V. West’s The Pool. It was interesting, but I’m not sure that 90 minutes is enough time for The Pool to actually shine.
- Hirelings (parlor LARP): We were cartoonish hirelings to a buffoonish knight delving into an outlandish dungeons. We all got to be over-the-top and silly. We laughed a lot.
- Dragon Braggin: Hirelings only took a couple hours, so we kept the laughter going with another playtest of Dragon Braggin’.
SATURDAY
- Rebel Scum: I ran this unapologetically antifascist RPG that’s a cross between playing with Star Wars Action figures and left-wing politics. It’s fun, but I need to write a cheat sheet to help me understand some of the subtleties of the rules.
- The King is Dead: Another quest for the crown, more frustrated ambition. At least I didn’t die this time!
- InSpectres: We were all tired by this time, and I actually ran InSpectres wrong! I gave them the mystery of a band that won’t clear the stage, even though they’re dead, but in presenting it, I also told too much (the band died on that very stage just as their career was about to take off). Therefore, they were left with nothing to investigate, which undermines the magic of InSpectres.
Overall, a really great few months of gaming!