Gen Con 2013 has come and gone and as tradition stipulates I am here with a summation.
I was scheduled for 3 games. Slave Ship Revolt, Mad Monk, and Lost Prince. Sadly I did not have enough people show up for Lost Prince so I had to cancel it. In retrospect I believe next year I will not schedule a 10 hour game for the last night of the con as most people have started to wind down.
This Year I also ran Firefly for Margaret Weis Productions. You should check it out if you are at all a Firefly fan. http://www.margaretweis.com/
Game One
Slave Ship Revolt.
As always this is a great deal of fun. I must confess I need to tweak the numbers a bit to get a good flow but I was only overloaded a bit.
Last year I had some return players play the ships crew for a slight PvP experience and the results were very good so I did the same thing this year with the same return players. They played the crew as Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Krang. They added some Role Playing and interaction that would not be the same if I was playing all the characters. Hands down the person playing the ships captain played his part perfectly, drunk, but perfectly.
This group picked up the game plan immediately and started into the action. They immediately attempted to get free and make their escape. The mages as always causes more havoc than help but they still did a fair job.
Highlights.
1:47 minutes of gameplay before they set the ship on fire. A new record.
Water Magicka controlling the ship’s water supply to drown the captain. Just as he had brokered a peace deal.
Many skydiving attempts. Some worked others did not.
Ships Magicka pulling a Maverick and flipping the ship upside down and dumping the people onto the burning ship below.
Fire Magicka summoning a Red Dragon and being dominated into trying to kill the crew.
Having a knave fail 5 times to remove a buckle.
There were many more but these were the highlights of that night’s game. We played from 8 PM until almost 3 AM.
(The Red Pencil is the 6′ wall of fire that was apparently needed to escape.) (Yes, that is a unicorn)
Game Two
The Mad Monk.
Our heros were charged with figuring out the source of all the strange phenomena emanating from an old Kir monastery. They packed their gear, mounted the dragon, and flew as close as they could to the monastery.
They soon discovered that the forest surrounding the place was infested with many a strange creature. Some benign others were a bit more murdery. None as much as our crew. They dispatched all encounters with flair and savagery. Upon reaching the fortress they discovered (some of them the hard way) that they place was trapped with Rune Sigla and was nigh impenetrable. The two Earth Magicka made their own entrance just as the the minion of the Mad Monk made his first appearance. The group was separated and in chaos. The Sentient Dire Bear that was the result of last year’s failed mission to save a dying island had been rescued and experimented on. And he was angry. He summoned his own legion of Dire Bears to tear through our band of misfits. Just as he was about to finish them off. His Master appeared. He was angrier. A Mensch who had tapped into the secret of the Rune Sigla and gone mad for his troubles began showing them what true power was. Until he was stabbed repeatedly by a 12 year old boy. He dominated them and destroyed most of the group. The rest fled.
One of my gaming weaknesses is game CR. I either make it too easy or way too hard. I will scale it back next year. In retrospect they never could have won this.
Highlights.
Two of the Earth Magicka joining their minds for a Magicka Possibility Bonus. This also made it so they couldn’t distinguish whose thoughts were whose. so they had to do everything as one. Wonder Twin powers activate
Upon walking into a camp of BugBears they immediately begin attacking them and blowing them up with fireballs. No warning, No sign of aggression from the bugbears. Just BOOM
Two summoned elementals that were dominated, made bigger, then lost the domination. Then came the pain.
A failed earth spell meant to shield them from falling trees that instead put them right up into the path of the destruction.
The skin being ripped off The Wonder Twins when they tried to de-ink the Monk’s Tattoos.
Summoning a girl bear to distract the raging Dire Bear.
Having to move the game not once but twice because of table scheduling mishaps
I may be missing a few because by the end I was exhausted.
We gamed from 6 PM to 3:30 AM
(We are supposed to be up here….right?) (Oh dear lord what is that flying towards us)
All in all a good time as always.
As I tweak and test Into the Nexus I make the games smaller and less scope. This way I can see the more subtle problems in the gaming system.
Next year will be more focused on interactions with PC’s and NPCs as opposed to all joining to kill the Big Bad.
Next year they will have to find the Prince.
Also Thank You to the players who had such a good time they went and told Margaret Weis about it. That makes me feel great and I appreciate it.
Till next time
Ta
J
Misdirected Awesome Games. 