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)

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, and had a very West London Underground experience that could be the pitch for a Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels sequel. The aspects defined by those adjacent to me were (left) Relationship – Odd: Alcoholics Anonymous and Location: The Pub “The Crown and Anchor”; (right) Relationship – Friends: “That bloke down the pub”, and Object – Valuables: An arse load of diamonds. Looking at these relationships I didn’t know how the Diamonds worked in yet, but from the other connections I inferred that I was the Irish owner of “The Crown and Anchor” one of the last British pubs in West London, surrounded by Tea Houses and Curry Shops. The three other characters were a pair of east Indian Curry Shop Owners who were secretly gay (relationship: secrete romance). One of whom (to my left) had hidden drinking problem (the AA connection), and the other (across the table from me) was a criminal boss using the Curry shop as a front; on the reverse wall from our Curry shop was my characters Pub. The player to my right was a down on his luck bigoted crime flunky who in desperation was working for this “Pakie” (Relationship – Crime: Boss and Lackey).

Our basic setup was this story about a large package of stolen diamonds that our lackey tries to hide away from his boss, hoping to skip town and run out on his Foreigner boss. Mean-while, my Pub Owner is informed that his daughter had been murdered (in association with the diamond theft, but only us as the audience knew) and I was expecting a huge insurance disbursement. This was happening the same time that our Indian Crime Boss was arranging a large shipment of “Special Curry Powder”; which was code for large shipment of money to be laundered through the curry shop. Our twist came shortly after our other younger Indian Shop owner was seen embracing another man by our crime lackey (who of course informed his boss that his partner was “A Fairy”).

Our twist came in the form of “Someone’s not so innocent after all” and “A Stupid plan goes horribly right”

We develop our younger Indian shop owner as being “not so innocent” and connecting him to the diamond theft in flashbacks. We ride the second act hard; having our Lackey turn into an informant against in Foreigner boss, while his diamonds are safely in the cooler of the Pub next door. His failed sting attempt leaves the money from the sting operation also in the cooler (next to the diamonds). Our Indian Crime boss flees the failed sting operation and goes and murders the man he thinks his lover was cheating on him with. We end with an arrest of the Lackey informant, who leads the police back to his boss (who is still covered in blood from his murder); and my pub owner finding the diamonds and sting money in his cooler, in addition to thinking he is still getting the insurance wind fall.

In the closing montage, the Lackey “comes out clean”, the second owner “is fairly well off”, and both the Crime Boss and my Pub owner are “In the Deep shit”. I narrate myself as being found by my police blokes while counting the money and diamonds, getting arrested and convicted of embezzlement and insurance fraud, and winding up in prison. Our Crime Boss ends up in a Prison with very white inmates. Our second Curry Owner ends up with both the Curry Shop and my Pub, and our Lackey ends up escaping and getting free of his criminal past.

Now let’s talk about the game.

The Good!

I really liked how the scene economy worked, it made this GM-less game really sing. You could either choose to narrate how your scene starts OR decide how (good or bad) the scene affects your character. I had a little confusion about who had retained narrative control at the end of the scene; Was it the person narrating from the start, or was it the player. We figured it out after the game. But even so, it did not impede our game play at all.

I loved the way that you set up the situation and relationships based on some dice rolls and some charts. It allowed people to choose things that were interesting to them, but also confined the players to using things that were very evocative for the play set. I can see how that REALLY shines when playing this game for slightly different flavors of this type of genre play.

Our facilitator, Chris “That’s My Leopard” Bennett, said that when the game works well it is because of the cooperation of all the players at the table. I have to agree, I need to thank the rest of the players, Matt “Matt’thulhu” Steel, and Noam “I’ll play the Dead Girl” Rosen; you guys made that game so awesome.

The Bad!

The only part of the game that did not resonate with me was the end game mechanics. The way it was described was that the players with more positive scene endings (white dice) had bad endings, while those with more negative endings (black dice) had good endings. While I like the idea that the end montage can throw additional character twists (sudden windfalls, or rapid descent into shit) that help capture the genre, it doesn’t feel like it adds to the story or rhythm that was built at the table. It will need some more exploration in both text and play, but I didn’t like the taste it left in my mouth. Overall it was not enough to dampen this excellent session in the slightest, but was the most detracting aspect.

The Ugly!

I blew my creative wad on this game. My second session was awesome but I could feel myself dragging through it, and I didn’t want to over-extend myself because I was running a MouseGuard game in the final slot of the day. But I think it was worth it. Fiasco was Awesome!

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 >>

Let’s start with Saturday Morning.
I convinced a few friends to join me in the Ars Magica (GMFiat) game “Draconis et Carcares (‘The Dungeons and the Dragon’)”. It was presented as a wizard’s tournament, four invitations were sent to four powerful magi and were then allowed to form teams and participate in 3 rounds (7 events) of the tournament. The Prize was to be 30 Vis, and other less know prizes (joining the Cult, and the ownership rights of the host covenant). Underlying the events of the tournament was a murder of one of the hosts, and invasion of demonic influences into the events. I was playing a German Artificer, with powers over flora and terra (Wood, Plants, Earth and Metals), in the end I accomplished my goals, not by winning the tournament, but by being useful in stopping the end of the world and a demon lord (al la Dragon). I enjoyed my character, and the plot, and the other characters, the basics of the GMFiat system; over all a lot of fun.

I had an interlude problem where I thought I had lost my badge, after getting our dinner. I ended up buying a replacement badge. Funny thing is after unpacking my backpack Monday afternoon; I found my original badge hiding in my snack bag with my cliff bars and peanuts.

My evening game was with Rich and his Mage the Awakening game. Rich used a antagonist I had read out of “Intruders”, but done so subtly we were in the final stages of the story before I actually knew what exactly we were up against. A sleep walker was infected by an abyssal parasite, and then transferred it to one of the PC’s. It was a complex situation involving a Vampire’s Domination side effects, and a previous victim’s intentions to spread the parasite to better hosts. In the end we tracked down the Vampire, kicked in the door with guns blazing. I enjoyed the game, but it suffered from two problems; the first is a group of players whose enthusiasm was very vocal, often out voicing the GM and making it hard to remain focused on the game; the second was several of the players were suffering from early stages of ConBrain, making bickering and analysis-paralysis more common as the evening drew on. But for these issues the game would have been outstanding. I enjoyed the story and the characters regardless, Rich is an excellent GM.

The next morning I was signed up for Paul S’s Prime Time Adventures Game, however like many of my previous Sunday Morning games, I did not make it, allowing for sleep to be my primary concern. I arrived back at the Con just after noon with Lesley In-Tow, and proceeded to do a great deal of socializing, followed by making final notes and prep work for my Geist game “DeadLock”.

My game went very well, mostly due to my excellent group of players. Rich and Kevin W were first at my table, then my recent friend Tracy, two other players who I had not met before, and then Eric L rounded out the table with the last open seat as a drop-in. My plot was simple(ish). The Krew were summoned to Undercliff, a domain of the Underworld, with Idyllic sensibilities. All of the Sin-Eater’s Geist’s had made a deal with the lords of the Domain (previous to them being bound to the PC’s) and the PC’s were thus called to mediate a dispute between the two Deathlords involved. Both sides wanted the other to leave the domain forever (or be destroyed, whatever was most convenient). This established they released the PC’s to discover what could be done to solve the problem, only to discover that the best way to find lost answers was to visit another Underworld Domain, Athenaeum, The Realm of Dead Knowledge. They found a guide, ventured fourth, and discovered a vast repository of knowledge. They figured out lots of fact’s which lead them to picking between ‘Rock and Hard place’ to save their own “Souls”. Some clever questions and outstanding rolls allowed them to solve the situation without mass death or abductions. The only part about this game that I wish I could have improved was my content pacing; I had too much content for my 6 hour slot. The players were having a lot of fun interacting with the setting and shiny bits; allowing them the freedom to discover at their own pace left us strapped for time near the end (and going over by about an hour). If I had time I knew I could have benefited from a Play test, but alas, maybe in the future.

My DunDraCon was very good, mostly because of the awesome games, but also because I was able to enjoy the con not as a Dealer, but as a participant.

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

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.

I was watching everyone gaming at one point, seeing faces of people laughing, sniggering, thinking or anticipating and thought THIS is what I was meant to do. I work a 9 to 5 job in IT that pays the bills. It’s not half bad, but it’s not what I love. I’ve been self employed before (for a little over a decade in fact) and I know that it isn’t and easy lifestyle. Work is never done and at the end of the day, you’re always the one on the line if something goes wrong. All that said, I never feel as happy working IT/IS as I do running games and putting events together.

Something that Paul Tevis has said a number of times.  "A lot of people want to have written a book, but don’t want actually write a book."  I feel that about a lot of things.  Sure I’d like to have written a game, or published a game, or created some great piece or art work but I don’t have any inclinations towards actually doing those things.  What I do love doing is making things happen.  I love the prep, the execution.  I even love the wrap up (breaking down tables and all).

Will I lose my love if I turn it from hobby to career? Maybe, but I doubt it. I know cool people like Fred Hicks and Chris Hanrahan who have forged a career out the gaming industry and still love to play. So for me, Good Omens Con 3 was a great time but it was also a wakeup call. I’ve GOT to do this more than once a year.

Thanks everyone for making the con not only a great success but also a very clear message to me: “Sean! Do what you love!”

Good Omens Con 2 was a great sucess. Thanks to the support of EndGame, some dedicated GMs, a guest apperance by Carl Rigney and some great players, it was a total sucess.

Here was the skinny on Good Omens Con 2

• 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: 10AM to Midnight
• Special Guest GM: Carl Rigney
• Don’t Loose Your Mind “instant content” preorder: Click Here for More

Game Schedule:

10AM Games:

Scenario Name: Black Sunday Returns
Game: Faery’s Tale
Game Master: Kevan Forbes
Number of Players: 0 of 6 seats available (1 on Wait List)
Description: In a magic land there once was a Kingdom of Faery, ruled by a bright and shining Queen. This Queen called to her side six of the bravest warriors of the kingdom and told them a tale of woe. Once every fifty years the Dark Fae had one day’s opportunity to break the enchantment laid upon the Kingdom that protected it from the influence of the Dark each year. The shining Queen bade the six champions to go forth and confront the Dark ones and spoil their plots so that the Kingdom may remain joyful and untouched by sorrow for another fifty years.
Cynics beware!! This story assumes that the Magic Kingdom TRULY IS the Happiest Place on Earth.

Scenario Name: Jedi in the Vineyard
Game: Dogs in the Vineyard
Game Master: Sean Nittner
Number of Players: 0 of 4 seats available (1 on Waiting List)
Characters: Created during game session
Variations: Jedi of course
Description: During the days of the Old Republic the the Galactic Senente oversaw the planetary systems. Where or when the public order could not be imposed through regular means of the law, the Jedi Council assisted the Senate, sending their Knights to restore peace and order. Sometimes order is restored by wise admonitions and sometimes it is restored under the cleansing fire of the lightsaber. Be wary of temptation, the dark side can seduce any who give into their passions, even the Jedi. May the force be with you.

Scenario Name: Gotham Knights
Game: Mutants & Masterminds Second Edition
Game Master: Greg Mathieson
Number of Players: 0 of 6 seats available (3 on Waiting List)
Characters: Provided
Description: With the dead of Gotham’s masked protector, the city slowly spirals deeper and deeper into corruption and self-destruction. Inexplicably, some of the Dark Knight’s most venomous villains saved the city from utter destructions at the hands of the Joker. But, that was six months ago and to say things have calmed down would be the ultimate in understatement.
You play the few and proud protectors who have taken up the burden of the late Batman’s Crusade. Nightwing, Robin, the Huntress, the Question, Black Canary & Green Arrow join forces and try to stabilized the broken, terrified and violent city that is tearing itself apart.

Scenario Name: Wrong Place, Wrong Time
Game: Savage Worlds Deadlands
Game Master: Bob Kuzmeski
Number of Players: 0 of 6 seats available (1 on the Wait List)
Characters: Provided
Power Level: Some experience
Description: Some tough hombre’s been cutting a swath across the frontier, leaving dead outlaws everywhere he goes. No one knows who this stranger is… just that he’s fast on the draw. Looks like you’ll be crossing his path when you escort a federal prisoner from Amarillo to Denver. He might be doing God’s work, but vigilante’s just a fancy word for murderer according to you employer. But are you good enough to take him down?

Scenario Name: Roanoke
Game: Wushu
Game Master: Justin Evans
Number of Players: 0 of 4 seats available
Characters: Provided
Description: In 1587 one hundred and seventeen men, women, and children set sail from Plymouth, England to found a new colony on the shores of Chesapeake Bay. Almost from the moment they set sail their journey was fraught with hazards and delays. The governor of the colony, John White, set sail back to England within the month to raise more supplies. When he returned three years later, the colony had vanished. They had disappeared completely from history, their final fate unknown.

This is their story.
This is Roanoke.

Scenario Name: The Dream Mine
Game: Dogs in the Vineyard
Game Master: Guest GM Carl Rigney
Number of Players: 0 of 4 seats available
Characters: Created at session
Power Level: Hands of God
Description: A man’s death leads the Dogs to a humble mining community threatened by greed and anger. It’s up to the Dogs to sort things out, put right what ain’t and preserve the Faithful, no matter what it takes.
Does the sinner deserve mercy? Do the wicked demand judgement?
You decide.

Will beginners be welcome? Will the system be taught? Of course!

6PM Games:

Scenario Name: Shadow Fall
Game: D&D 4th Edition
Game Master: Paul Strack
Number of Players: 1 of 6 seats available
Characters: Provided
Description: The armies of the dead are invading the city of Tarna. The whims of fate have given the key to victory to a mismatched band of city guards and rogues. Can they overcome their differences and find a way to work together before the fiends of Shadowfell destroy all they hold dear?

Scenario Name: Critical Shift
Game: Feng Shui
Game Master: Mike Bogan
Number of Players: 0 of 6 seats available
Characters: Provided
Description: As a deep cover operative in your organization, it is your job to keep tabs on each of the other factions in the secret war for the world’s feng shui sites. You’ve heard rumors of a possible critical shift, which means everyone will be scrambling to secure their own interests while weakening their enemies’. In the middle of an operation dealing with a key leader of the Ascended, all hell breaks loose. It’s time for some equal opportunity butt-kicking.

Scenario Name: The Mettle of Heroes
Game: Scion: “Super” Hero
Game Master: Mike Parker
Number of Players: 0 of 4 seats available
Characters: Provided
Variations: Super Hero variations to the Scion core system
Description: This is the dawn of a new age, an Age of Heroes. They come from different backgrounds, but all of them come together for the purpose of making a difference …and to prove their mettle.
This game is a blend of Scion, based on the Exalted Story Telling System, and the superpowers from Aberrant, from the Trinity Universe.

Scenario Name: Canceled Flights
Game: Scion: World of Darkness: Innocents
Game Master: Rich Taylor
Number of Players: 0 of 6 seats available
Characters: Provided
Variations: Some House Rules
Power Level: Beginning
Description: Six children are stuck in an airport overnight, away from their parents, and must deal with what else has been stranded with them. Without any authority figures to turn to, they must survive the night if they are ever going to see their families again.

Scenario Name: Challenge of the Supervillians
Game: Savage Worlds – Necessary Evil
Game Master: Chad Lynch
Number of Players: 1 of 6 seats available
Characters: Provided
Power Level: Seasoned
Description: Banded together from remote regions, are some of the most sinister villains of all time – the Doomsday Legion! When the superheroes of the world are destroyed by an unstoppable army of invading aliens, they are now humanity’s last hope. Once dedicated to a single objective of conquest of the universe, they are now the only group who dares to challenge this intergalactic threat!

Scenario Name: Extra! Extra!
Game: Don’t Rest Your Head
Game Master: Guest GM Carl Rigney
Number of Players: 0 of 4 seats available
Characters: Created at session
Power Level: starting, which is plenty
Description: Insomnia cracks open the doorway to the Mad City where rumors of war are sweeping the streets and the News Boys are hot on the trail what’s going on even if it means you wind up in tomorrow’s headlines or agony column and 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.

For more information about our first con, Click Here

It started when we got to the hotel. My group of friends (the people sharing my hotel room) spent most of the afternoon working out what they were going to sign up for. I had done that the previous week with the online shuffler.
There wasn’t much in the 3:30 Friday games I wanted to crash, so I hung around with people in our room until they decided that they were ready to Sign up for stuff.

Then Jarys, Lesley, Sean N, and I went to Sizzler. It was okay, I wasn’t that hungry so I just nibbled off of Lesley’s Salad Bar. We also sat Next to my friend Neil, John, his wife Janelle, and Kat. Overall it was okay.

I got into Carl Rigny’s Don’t Rest Your Head game. I got the PDF a little while ago and was interested, and have been looking it over for a few weeks now, looking for a very surreal experience. Carl did not disappoint. I started out as a convict who was convicted for a murder he didn’t commit. At the Bazaar I sold my First Name, a savage beating, my cousin’s drugs, and some rage, for the knowledge between right and wrong, and some faith, and some coins. In turn, by the end of the night, I had sold out a friend to gain some happiness in the Mad City. I became the War Master for the Wax King, the “Titan of Chaos”, destroying all the clockworks in the Mad City. It was awesome and I will defiantly be picking this one up soon.

The next morning I played in Kevin’s Scion Hero game. It was awesome, with the only downside being that we ran out of time. Tear! But it was a lot of fun. I played a daughter of Odin, and Man if it didn’t emphasis why I like Scion. I got to play in machinations between gods, and the entire plot boiled down to Odin and Zeus having a pissing contest over Pandora’s Box; which I found hilarious.

I ran my game that night and it went much better than I expected. There was only a single person in my game that I had not played with before. My plot went fairly timely, we ended a little after 1 AM with the game scheduled for 2. The mystery unfolded organically, and I really got to try out some of my experiments for satisfying spontaneous characters. I laid out skeleton character and made the players fill in the important stuff, drives, names, and Pillars of sanity. Then everyone made a strong connection between two of the other characters, the PC’s sitting to their left and right. Man, I am going to do this every time that I think I can get away with it.

On Sunday we slept in, checked out of our room and just hung out and around with people. I was chilling with the hosts of This Modern Death, and they decided that they were going to get an interview with Good Omens, and 4 other GM’s showed up and game a wonderful show. There interview is up now for listening. Just seee our other articles.

Over all not a Fantastic Con, but very enjoyable.

We arrived Friday afternoon with the kids in toe and check into the hotel. Without going into a rant here, though I love Kubla, I think that the Hyatt is the least hospitable hotel of any convention hotel I’ve ever been in. The building and rooms are beautiful but the staff, check-out process, and elevator/stairwells all exude irritation. If I ran a horror hotel game, it would definitely be set in the Burlingame Hyatt. We arrived around two and my game wasn’t until six but somehow the hours flew by. Between catching up with friends, eating, buying Dread (a game I’m very exited about) and doing all the normal registration business I barely made it to the game on time.

Friday 6PM – Exalted Unplugged

To be honest I was a little nervous about this game. The play-test had only been mediocre and had exposed several holes in the game that I wasn’t 100% sure I patched. Let’s face it I was trying to jam Exalted into a Wushu box and cover it all over with a thick glaze of the 1980′s LA Music scene. That meant two rules systems, two settings and trying to loop them all together with a common theme.

The premise in a nutshell was that the characters were a high school band (White Gold) in the 80′s in a battle of the bands. In the middle of the competition they, along with their rival band (Maidens of Mercy) were sucked through a dimensional portal (as we all know there were many in the 80s) into creation where they were revealed as the chosen ones (i.e. Solars) who had to save the south of creation. The game was positively perforated with ridiculous 80s references, such as the high priests pray “Woah, we’re have way there… woah… living on a prayer” and the leopard familiar that was hard of hearing, ending with the great weapon being found a top a Stairway to Heaven. Yes this game was designed to be cheese, with cheese on top and a side of cheese to go.

So how did it go? In a word, it was Def! According to Kevan Forbes I broke the geek-o-meter. I’m not sure if that was with the Cult of the Blue Oyster or with naming his Night Caste character the “Rhythm of the Night” but whatever it was, it was a great compliment. This was the first game I had ever received applause for at the end. My players were Alex D, Kevan F, Greg M, Jen M, Brendan and Justin E. They were great. They were better than great, Greg was the one who gave me the Stairway to Heaven, they were awesome. I’ll stop gushing now.

As for the critical breakdown of the game system, I used the Wushu system for the first portion of the game and then used the Exalted adaptation Wuxalted for their time in creation. The system did an excellent job of not getting in the way. Traditional Exalted allows for over the top action, but the game mechanics have a way of slowing down when things get to crazy. Wushu (and the wuxalted adaptation) both get behind wire-fu action and make it integral to the mechanic which I love. Further I found that a battling other bands in a Rock and Roll competition is surprising like fighting mooks in a battle, mechanically speaking at least. I was quite surprised to see Wushu do so when it was clearly social combat. My greatest accolade for the system would be to say that it did not impede the story or the player narration, and for me, that is really saying something.

Saturday 8AM – Breakfast

Saturday morning came a little too soon for my tastes. Thankfully however, I was playing in a pickup game run by Justin Evans so the start time was flexible. I gave my seat in Rich Taylor’s Unhallowed Metropolis to Elizabeth the Rock Star (seriously, she’s probably 18 now and I’ve game with her at cons for the last three years, and she is amazing) and did the breakfast thing. $7.00 Mocha… Wow!

Saturday 9AM – Roanoke – Justin Evans

Mike B, Jessie S, Shaun H, Kristin S and I all meandered up to Justin’s room for a game or Roanoke. Before playing the game I knew nothing about the setting (except for that I thought it sounded vaguely Japanese, yeah… five moron points here) but did know it used the Wushu system and that Justin had added mechanics from other systems (such as the duel of wits from Burning Wheel) so I was really looking forward to seeing what this Roanoke was all about.

I had an ulterior motive here, I’ve got to admit. Justin has been in two of my games before (Office Waste last year at Kubla, and my previous night’s Exalted Unplugged) and both times he was awesome. The master of subtle humor, Justin has an amazing talent for grabbing onto a small morsel of hilarity and beating you to a giggling pulp with it. I guessed (and was correct) that he would also be a great GM but before begging him to join, I felt it obligatory to play in one of his games and see for myself. Man, am I glad that I did.

For those who know nothing about Roanoke, fear not. You are part of the majority. The setting is a small island in the Chesapeake Bay. From Wikipedia:

Roanoke Island was the site of the 16th century Roanoke Colony, the first English colony in the New World in what was then called Virginia, in honor of England’s ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth I. There were two major groups of settlers who attempted to establish a permanent settlement at Roanoke Island, and each failed.

In 1587, the English again attempted to settle. John White left the colony to return to England for supplies that he felt would help the colonists to survive, expecting to return to Roanoke Island within three months. Instead, he found England at war with Spain, and all ships were confiscated for use of the war efforts. His return to Roanoke Island was delayed until 1590. When he finally returned, the colonists had disappeared. The only thing he found was the word “CROATOAN” carved into a nearby tree.

The game of Roanoke is the story of what happened to those colonists during those three years. I will not reveal the storyline as I believe Justin is going to run the game again, but suffice to say, Justin ran a great game. His depictions of characters, control of the pacing, and improvisations were great. In addition he (as I expected) added several mechanics to the game:

• To represent the impending doom or Roanoke he used a doom counter system that determined the relative horror of the final outcome.
• To handle out social combats he used the battle of wits from Burning Wheel.
• To flesh out NPCs, which he handed to the characters to play he gave us aspect cards with descriptors similar to the decriptors you would find in Spirit of the Century.
• To help flesh out our characters and connect them together he had us each contribute to each other’s character sheets elements like “fatal flaw” and “saving grace”. We also decided as a group why the head of the militia had chosen us to work together as his aids.
• And one of the coolest bits, we drew the island, including adding all the elements like mysterious caves, mute water sellers, mud pots and the works
• Finally, at the end to evoke real urgency, our characters got put on a timer to resolve the last scene. Using a chess clock we rallied back in forth (between players and GM) to describe our actions. In a game that is heavy on the narration, this was awesome

Were it just for Justin the game would have been great, but in addition we had an amazing group of players. Everyone in the room was so immersed in the game I could taste the salt water off the Chesapeake Bay!

Saturday 3:30 PM – Rock n’ Roll Dreams – Carl Rigney

We had to peal out of Justin’s game just after it ended, leaving no time for the normal game debriefing yack that I love to do… we had to run to make it to Carl Rigney’s Dogs in the Vineyard game. Jessie has never played Dogs before and I was very exited for her to get a chance to a) play Dogs, b) play a game that Carl runs and c) get to be a Rock n’ Roll legend. The con gods must have loved us because we both got in.

Carl’s games (which you can hear at length about over at 2d6feet are great, and this was no exception. He used a Dogs in the Vineyard adaptation to run this game:

Brand Robins’ “Jim Steinman: The RPG” comes to life using Dogs in the Vineyard mechanics in a rock n roll opera of desperately pretty rebels without a cause, 50′s ambiance with 80s hair and modern hyper-sexuality. It’s all about the Bat Out of Hell, Nowhere Fast, Streets of Fire, I Would Do Anything for Love over the top emo porn modern fairy tale, with nothing less than 3 true loves, 5 broken hearts, a fight with sledge hammers under the L train in a thunderstorm, a beautiful ’57 Ford, and the blowing up of that beautiful ’57 Ford. If you’d offer your throat to the hungry wolf with the red roses in the pale moonlight, this is the game you were born to play.

Yes, I drove that ’56 Ford and yes I did get in a sledge hammer fight with the biker gang leader, and yes in the end I did explode in an inferno of love, glory and teenage hyper-sexuality (oh.. not to mention fire and wreckage). Our race was to get out of town and Dean Able (my character) found one way out. Rarely have I been quite so satisfied with my character dying horribly.

Thanks Carl, that was awesome.

Sunday 9 AM – There Is no Spoon

Back for the second game I ran, again with the Wushu, I took six coppertops into the Matrix and gave them the chance to Free their Minds. If I said above that the Wushu system didn’t get in the way of the narrative for my Exalted game, it positively made that same narrative ROCK in the Matrix game. There is no single system that would have supported the Wire-Fu, strange Matrix philosophy, Bullet time and inevitable fight and flight from the Agents. I’m getting tired now, and these descriptions are getting shorter. Suffice to say, thank you Martin , Matt , Vicky , Joel , Jessica and one other who’s names escape me for an awesome time in the Matrix. That game was a blast.

Sunday 4 PM – Podcasting with thismoderndeath.com

My first podcast. Rock! Check our other posts for more or check it out at thismoderndeath.com

Thanks Shaun and Kristin, that rocked.

Sunday 8 PM – Board/Party Games

We played Amun Re and Time’s up in our room. Just a little bit of alcohol and Time’s up becomes a truly awesome game. Kevan Forbes and I OWN Michelle Pfeiffer.

Once again. Kubla was six kinds of awesome!