Bringing Quality Games to Conventions since 2001
Goodbye Closet, Hello Dreamhost!
Aug 30th
Finally, after almost five years of being hosted on a server in my closet, Good Omens is getting a real server!
What does this mean?
- Security: Dreamhost isn’t likely to be hacked several times a year, as I have become accustomed to, so I can re-enable some functions such as user account creation and comments.
- Speed: 384k upload speeds on myside have always hurt the site, especially when I’ve tried to deliver media content. Woot for pages loading faster.
- Availability: Power goes out at my house. I install some new spam filter app that crashes IIS. MySQL Service gets hacked. My print queue jams up so bad I need to restart the server. What did these all have in common? They all meant the site was down, sometimes for hours, until I could get my server back up and running. Less of those issues on Dreamhost.
- Forum: Hardly used before and now that comments are re-enabled, even less useful, so it’s going away.
- Greener: Soon (once I get some other business of it) I’ll have one less box sucking up power 24/7
- Paying the bills: Now instead of just paying once a year for the domain registration and the site using up a certain about of my DSL bandwidth and electricity (which I could never accurately estimate the cost of), I’ve got a fixed monthly bill for hosting. Because of that and the other expenses behind good omens (buying Swag, putting on Good Omens Con, etc), I’m going to put up a PayPal Donate button.
Thanks from ACCFB!
Aug 6th
For all those who attended Good Omens Con this year and contributed we want to forward the thanks sent by the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Good Omens Con generated 145 pounds of food for the ACCFB (which is more food then all previous years). Through the drive, all of you help provide 113 meals for families in Alameda County!
Good Omens Con 4 – A hit!
Jul 18th
Hello all,
I just wanted to thank all the people that attended, helped out with the con and hosted us. Good Omens Con 4 was another great success.
It was also some very good food for thought. We tried a new format this year (3 games, 4 hours each) and it was our second year with the shuffler. I think we learned a lot from both of them.
Personally I know I had a wonderful time just seeing everyone sitting around gaming tables laughing, shouting, or in quiet, intense conversation.
Once again, thanks everyone for making Good Omens Con a hit!
Also, we’d love to hear you feedback on the con. Please post anything either on our forum (http://www.goodomensgames.com/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=9), on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Good-Omens/85980612380) or via email (seannittner at gmail dot com)
Good Omens Con 4 – 7/17
Jun 16th
Here we come, with more games than ever before. Good Omens Con 4!
Here’s info:
Good Omens Con 4 is July 17th. Be there!
- Admission: FREE. Please bring a can of your favorite canned food, however, to be donated so we can help local charity.
- Convention held inside EndGame’s store, a great place to find popular as well as hard to find indy RPG titles.
- 921 Washington, Oakland CA 94607
- Website: www.endgameoakland.com Phone: 510-465-3637
- As usual Good Omens swag including t-shirts, pins and dice given out to players for good role-playing
- Games running all day: 10:00 AM to Midnight
- Guest GMs: Carl Rigney, Brian Isikoff, The Russian, Shaun Hayworth, Shannon J.E. McNamara and Matt Steele
- Sign ups: Signs ups will be done though the Good Omens Shuffler (Now Open!) and results will be sent out July 1st. After that any open spots are first emailed, first served.
Game listings and sign ups are her: Good Omens Con 4
EndGame MiniCon – Fiasco Report
Apr 5th
Originally Posed on SpazInGames.Blogspot.com
I had a great time at the EndGame MiniCon Last Saturday (2010/04/03). I will try and get a full review of the Con going soon, but I wanted to gush on my new Game De Jour, Fiasco.
First let’s talk about what happened at my table.
We played the Gangster London play set More >
More Dundra than you can shake a stick at
Feb 23rd
We’ve had a lot of DDC reviews this year and rather than copy them over yonder, I’m just going to put up some links:
Travis – Dundracon overall report
Travis – DDC: L5R, Sapphire Magistrates, GM
Travis – DDC: 7th Sea AP
Travis – DDC: L5Rish, Phoenix Rising, AP
Travis – Montsegur 1244 – AP!
Sean – DundraCon – Part 1 (Friday 2/12/2010)
Sean – DundraCon – Part 2 (Saturday Morning 2/13/2010)
Sean – DundraCon – Part 3 (Saturday Night 2/13/2010)
Justin – Dundracon 2010 – Part 1 of 3: Mutant Saga IV
Justin – Dundracon 2010 – Part 2 of 3: Quiet Interlude in the Party Room
Justin – Dundracon 2010 – Part 3 of 3: Shattered Empires
Rich – Done Dra Con
I’ve got a few more to come as well (part 4 and 5 at least) and I’m not sure that Travis is done either, so if you’re interested follow those LJs! Also, see Mike Parker’s review below >>
DunDraCon 2010 – In Review
Feb 15th
Originally Posted at Spaz In Games
This was the first year in many that I was able to go as ‘just a player’. I was only able to make it Saturday and Sunday, but I was determined to make the most of it.
I heard some stories of misfortune, players and games getting messed around because of some fault of the randomizer. Alas I must admit that I had a perfect weekend. I Registered for three sessions of games, and got into my first choice in everyone, I even bowed out of (did not show for) my Sunday Morning game.
Let’s start with Saturday Morning. More >
This Modern Death’s GO Con Reivew
Aug 27th
Shawn, Kristin and Randy are awesome. Episode 43 of This Modern Death is a review of their experience at Good Omens Con 3.
The show starts off talking about the organization of the con itself. Sign ups, time slots, venue, etc.
The rest is a review of the games they played: Mutant City Blues, A Penny for My Thoughts, Mouse Guard, Houses of the Blooded and Don’t Lose Your Edge (Carl Rigney’s Shadowrun hack of Don’t Rest Your Head).
Check out their site, or download the show directly: TMD_43_2009_07_21.mp3
Good Omens Con 3 – A Rocking good con – Sean Nittner
Jul 24th
Good Omens Con was last Saturday. We had 14 games and somewhere around 50 players. Included in that roster was guest GM Carl Rigney who ran Don’t Rest Your Head in two sessions. Also we had the author (Paul Tevis), editor (Ryan Macklin) and photographer (Jeremy Tidwell) of A Penny for My Thoughts there to sign the game.
Put all that together at EndGame (who graciously hosted us) and you should have a rocking good time. For me though, there was something else going on. All the work I had put in to making this con happen had paid off and I felt like I was walking on air that day. Every time I got to see a gamer that I knew who told me a story about what happened in their game, or that I didn’t know and we were introduced for the first time, I felt a little more content, a little happier.
Good Omens Con 3
Jul 23rd
Good Omens Con 3 – July 18th, 2009 – Event Over! Thanks everyone who participated.
Here’s the skinny on what Good Omens Con 3 looked like:
Two years of Good Omens Cons and we’re coming back for a 3rd! Keep coming back to this page for game listings and sign ups.
- Admission: FREE. Please bring a can of your favorite canned food, however, to be donated so we can help local charity.
- Convention held inside EndGame’s store, a great place to find popular as well as hard to find indy RPG titles.
- 921 Washington, Oakland CA 94607
- Website: www.endgameoakland.com Phone: 510-465-3637
- As usual Good Omens swag including t-shirts, pins and dice given out to players for good role-playing
- Games running all day: 9:30 AM to 11:30 PM
- Guest GM: Carl Rigney.
- Special Event: Signing of Penny for my Thoughts by Paul Tevis.
- Update 7/10: Signs ups are now closed and games are filled. If you signed up by 7/1 you should have received an email with your game assignment. If you haven’t received it yet, email Mike Parker (spaz.jedi@gmail.com).
Game Schedule:
Morning Games (Starting at 9:30 AM)
The Collected Crimes of City Predators
Game System: Hunter: the Vigil
Game Master: Richard Taylor
Characters: Provided
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
It’s 1984, in Moscow, during the final years of the Cold War. In a city of already filled with tension and paranoia, something is hunting citizens. Are you ready to take up the Vigil, tovarische? And can you, with so many others looking over your shoulder? Good luck, gespadin e gespadna.
Snake in the Grass
Game System: Exalted/Wushu
Game Master: Paul Strack
Characters: Provided
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
Since the empress disappeared five years ago, there have been numerous failures in the government of the Scarlet Empire. As Dragon-Blooded magistrates, however, you have never seen a mistake of this magnitude. In the chaos of those early days, some bureaucrat misplaced a report on the manifestation of an anathema in the heart of the Realm itself. This horror has been free to work its secret evil for years and must be dealt with quickly. If only the anathema had appeared somewhere other than the domain of your house’s greatest rival…
Game System: Exalted/Wushu
Game Master: Paul Strack
Characters: Provided
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
Since the empress disappeared five years ago, there have been numerous failures in the government of the Scarlet Empire. As Dragon-Blooded magistrates, however, you have never seen a mistake of this magnitude. In the chaos of those early days, some bureaucrat misplaced a report on the manifestation of an anathema in the heart of the Realm itself. This horror has been free to work its secret evil for years and must be dealt with quickly. If only the anathema had appeared somewhere other than the domain of your house’s greatest rival…
Coming this Fall
Game System: Primetime Adventures
Game Master: Michael Parker
Characters: Created during Game
Number of Players: 5, all seats filled
Create the best TV show that never was. Primetime Adventures brings the drama and tension from television to life in this role playing game.
This game will cover the full process of PTA, from Pitch to Pilot, and maybe the first episode. This game focuses on Scene framing and immersive play.
Red, White and Blues
Game System: Mutant City Blues
GM: Kevan Forbes
Characters: All characters provided by GM
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
It’s been 10 years since the Ghost Flu swept the world changing everything in its wake. The presence of Heightened individuals is no longer a novelty and the societies and governments of the world have begun to incorporate their existence and talents into their fabric.
Game System: Mutant City Blues
GM: Kevan Forbes
Characters: All characters provided by GM
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
It’s been 10 years since the Ghost Flu swept the world changing everything in its wake. The presence of Heightened individuals is no longer a novelty and the societies and governments of the world have begun to incorporate their existence and talents into their fabric.
Step into the shoes of the newly appointed NHCU (Naval Heightened Crimes Unit). A division of NCIS, your job is to investigate and solve crimes related to the heightened within the US Navy and Marine Corp. The pursuit of NCIS’s three strategic priorities: Prevent Terrorism, Protect Secrets, and Reduce Crime, was difficult enough. Now the abilities of gene-expressives have totally altered the game.
This game is based on the GUMSHOE system and is heavily investigative by design
Mad as Hell
Game System: Mutants & Masterminds
GM: Gregory Mathieson
Characters: All characters provided by GM
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
With Batman’s haitus to regain his sanity and direction after his tortrous death at the hands of his arch-nemesis the Ace of Knaves and rebirth in the Lazuraus by his beloved Talia. Over the last year and half it has been up to the Gotham Knights to help Gotham relcaim its sanity and barely managed to stablize itself from the chaos that was unleashed: from the Clown Prince of Crime’s Tyrany, Gangs, Fires, you knwo the usual to a Vicious Serial Killer Impersonaiting the Bat and Cuthulic Entities Invading our realm. That was just the past…
Now, comes something much worse!
Doctor Fate senses an upcoming disaster that will destory the very fabric of the universe. Needing seven people for an dangerous ritual, he enlists both hero and villain to represent the key forces of the cosmos: Destruction, Creation, Technoloy, Nature, Balance & Potential… only one representative is absent that of Chaos. Six figures will enter into the very pits of Hell, face their inner and outter demons to gain a chance to convince the reigning caretakers to release a single soul into their custody: The Joker.
If you fail, the world and everything before and after ends.
Class Project
Game System: Don’t Rest Your Head
GM: Carl Rigney
Characters: Created at session
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Power Level: starting, which is plenty
Insomnia cracks open the doorway to the Mad City where everyone’s scrambling after The Key To the City, which may tip the balance between Officer Tock and the Wax King, and stuck in the middle are the Awake. The more exhausted you get the better you do and the closer you edge to madness the more powerful you are but if you fall asleep even for a moment the nightmares will eat you and there’s just one simple rule you have to remember no matter how tired you
feel: Stay Awake. Don’t Rest Your Head.
Game System: Don’t Rest Your Head
GM: Carl Rigney
Characters: Created at session
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Power Level: starting, which is plenty
Insomnia cracks open the doorway to the Mad City where everyone’s scrambling after The Key To the City, which may tip the balance between Officer Tock and the Wax King, and stuck in the middle are the Awake. The more exhausted you get the better you do and the closer you edge to madness the more powerful you are but if you fall asleep even for a moment the nightmares will eat you and there’s just one simple rule you have to remember no matter how tired you
feel: Stay Awake. Don’t Rest Your Head.
Beginners welcome, system will be taught.
A Penny For My Thoughts
Game System: A Penny For My Thoughts
GM: Matt Espinoza
Characters: Created in Play
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
A Penny For My Thoughts is a story-telling game in the tradition of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1001 Nights, and The Court of the Empress, designed to be played in an evening. Using the conceit of patients undergoing treatment for amnesia and working with techniques borrowed from improv, you engage your fellow players on a thematic and emotional level.
Evening Games (Starting at 5:30 PM)
Into the Wild – Spring 1152
Game System: Mouse Guard
Game Master: Sean Nittner
Characters: Provided
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
As the winter snow melts and spring rains begin to fall, the Guard Mice are restless to stretch their furs. Tenderpaw’s eager to prove their mettle and veterans alike receive orders from Gwendolyn to explore the Mouse Territories. Cheers spread through the halls of Lockhaven except in your chambers. Pebblebrook, on the edge of Wild Country has not been heard from all winter and the Matriarch fears for their safety. She has sent you to deliver supplies and ensure they are safe from enemies. Remember Mouse Guard, “It’s not what you fight, it’s what you fight for!”
The Smiley Face Man
Game System: Schauermärchen
Game Master: Justin Evans
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Now kids and cats and long-tail rats
will nevermore be seen
They’ve all been ground to sausage meats
In Dunderback’s Machine
— Children’s Folk Song
Game System: Schauermärchen
Game Master: Justin Evans
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Now kids and cats and long-tail rats
will nevermore be seen
They’ve all been ground to sausage meats
In Dunderback’s Machine
— Children’s Folk Song
The Village is made of rust, oil and steam. Every corner is jagged, catching and ripping clothes. Thick black clouds of smog keep the sun and moon far away from the Village and no waves ever roll up on the shore. The sea sits like a corpse, its dark waters still and silent. Iron clocks hang over the streets, clicking away the hours, but none of them tell the same time.
Somehow your children brought you here in a burning bed. They aren’t lost, or scared…they’ re angry. And they want you to know it.
The Good, The Bad and The Godly
Game System: Scion: Hero
Game Master: Mike Bogan
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
Characters: Provided
As the mortals wage a war of ideologies, a band of hardened scions follow rumors of a treasure reputed to be buried in a harsh, untamed landscape. Will the heroes set aside their differences long enough to establish themselves among the many Legends of the West?
Don’t Loose Your Edge
Game System: Don’t Rest Your Head mechanics with Shadowrun flavoring
Game Master: Carl Rigney
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Characters: Created at session
In a future where magic has returned, everything woke up, and technology is changing what it means to be human, the world has broken and new ways of life are crawling from the wreckage of the old.
Game System: Don’t Rest Your Head mechanics with Shadowrun flavoring
Game Master: Carl Rigney
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
Characters: Created at session
In a future where magic has returned, everything woke up, and technology is changing what it means to be human, the world has broken and new ways of life are crawling from the wreckage of the old.
Five years ago you were in the best band ever, and then She broke your arm, broke your heart, broke up the band, and you fell from grace. Now She’s in trouble and before the shadows devour what’s left of your heart it’s time to stop falling and try to fly again, with the POWER OF ROCK!
This is an experiment using Shadowrun’s setting (more or less) with adapted DRYH mechanics. Beginners welcome, system will be taught.
Everyone Loves a Ball
Game System: Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition
Game Master: Josiah Knight
Number of Players: 5, all seats filled
Characters: Provided
Level: 5
Everything had been going according to plan. You acquired a invitation to Prince Jurian ir’Wynarn’s ball in Wroat (the capitol of Breland), an appropriate Aundairian masquerade costume, and managed to infiltrate the secure vault in order to gain the marble griffon statuette you came for.. all without alerting Lord Ruken ir’Clarn’s household guards. Unfortunately, once you reach the vault, you discover the statue is missing. Someone in the ball must have already stolen it. Can you find out who before the ball ends? A combination of intrigue and immersive role-playing similar to Mission Impossible/ James Bond/ and Paranoia.
The Hanging Sword
Game System: Houses of the Blooded
Game Master: Richard Taylor
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
Characters: Created in game
You have all been invited to the first performance of the Hanging Sword, a new opera by one of the most gifted composers among the Ven. Wear your finest clothes and bring your sharpest wits (or blades), as this may be the event of the season.
Game System: Houses of the Blooded
Game Master: Richard Taylor
Number of Players: 6, all seats filled
Characters: Created in game
You have all been invited to the first performance of the Hanging Sword, a new opera by one of the most gifted composers among the Ven. Wear your finest clothes and bring your sharpest wits (or blades), as this may be the event of the season.
A Penny For My Thoughts
Game System: A Penny For My Thoughts
GM: Chad Lynch
Characters: Created in Play
Number of Players: 4, all seats filled
A Penny For My Thoughts is a story-telling game in the tradition of The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1001 Nights, and The Court of the Empress, designed to be played in an evening. Using the conceit of patients undergoing treatment for amnesia and working with techniques borrowed from improv, you engage your fellow players on a thematic and emotional level.
For more information about the previous Good Omens Cons:
- Good Omens Con 1: Click Here
- Good Omens Con 2: Click Here