Friday: insane packing frenzy, took all day. First time driving to Farmington on my own; surprisingly easy. I just get on the road my house is on, drive until I run out of road, turn left, keep driving until I run out of road again. Stayed with RC&AC, in their new house. nice place. Noticed one bookcase had horror comics from the 1970s (most of them third-party non-codes). wicked cool in a "of course RC would have these lying around" kind of way. Talked with other NEGamers (NEGAns?) until midnight/1am somewhen.
Saturday morning, I dressed as Mal, complete with nametag and unruly hair Bozo-fluffed then lacquered into stasis with copious jet-black hair-color spray. (By noon, I'd forgotten how I was dressed except for everytime I touched my hair, and my fingers came away smudged black. The stuff gets on everything it touches, but fortunately also washes off really easily. I probably puzzled the kid at the Soup place when I ordered lunch, until he saw my Nega-Con Staff button, and asked me about it.)
On Saturday, our otherwise underpopulated Con was graced with the attendance of: my friend 'Irene'; 'Congoer RS' (who, God bless her, asked about local cons at the 'Games Arboreteum' and was directed to Thymewind for more info), and about ten great high-school kids from a program called the Belfast Gamesloft. All aforementioned were a joy to have around, well-mannered, and creative gamers.
My Sat AM game went swimmingly. Irene and 2 Gamesloft kids played. It had a beginning, middle, and a satisfying end, and everyone had fun. [See game story: "Lost Coffeehouses of Atlantis"]
My Sat Afternoon game was trickier. Playing were Irene, Congoer RS, and ...Twink Player A, who turned out to be the unknown person who had requested a modified PC from me via the NEGA Con website. Player A had seemingly been making maturity progress since the time I banned him from my games, but sadly, this was M&M, and the d20 System makes him relapse. He's banned again. At least from non-Toon games. While, in the moment, I felt bad about letting the villains switch to Lethal combat against him, balancing flasks of volatile chemicals on his shoulderblades that combined into megadamage mustard gas when they were dropped or heated, and ultimately using a teleport beam to drop him out a 30-story window... [see game story, "'Repent, Heroine!', cried the Ticktockman"] In retrospect, the very moment I saw that he'd "corrected the math error" to give himself higher attributes without telling me (until I asked what those pen marks were), I would have been within my GM rights to snatch away and crumple up his character sheet and declare him instantly dead. Instead, combat turned into a chess match with Bobby Fisher, with occasional interaction with the other two players, M&M novices who couldn't care less what the book (my pocket-sized one or A's full-size hardcover) said. The other players didn't blame me for the disturbance, and in the end, RS's plan did end with the villain's defeat, so it wasn't really a failure. ...I have on multiple authority that RS later went to the registration desk to make sure that A wasn't playing any of the other games she was signed up for. Thymewind came to ask me the identity of this problem player, and I told him without malice. Forced to choose between RS and A, he chose RS. A was seen thereafter just watching games without actually playing them. I'm reminded of a certain housecat that would compulsively bite people, then flinch back in anticipation of having his nose plunked.
Irene felt the need to get home before dark, lest she get lost on unfamiliar roads, so I dragged her around the building, and quickly introduced her to as many friends as I could find, sadly missing Dr. Flowerytree and Akeila. After she left, I tried to create 12 Gurps pregens from nothing but pictures and character concepts, all at once, in an hour... I've never been so glad to not get players for a game in all my life. I played Randy's DC Heroes instead. [game story: "It's all Monkey Shines"]
After Randy's game wrapped, I wandered around, poking my head in on the games playing. All/most of the Gamesloft kids, RS, and Susie were playing Chris' Shadowrun 4e game, "the Kings of Chicago". All I can tell you is the basic premise, but when I saw it, it was going full steam. Just stepping inside the room gave me some kind of ineffable happy-points. Maybe this is what being an extrovert feels like?
Akeila was lurking in the back of Doc Flowerytree's Top Secret game, and we went outside in the fresh night air and talked for a while, which was nice. Then we joined the procession headed to the Irving's. By the time I got back to A&RC's house and showered off the black hairpaint, it was 3am.
My cellphone alarm went off at 6am. I dragged myself out of couch, borrowed a phone book to check when Mass was at the local church, and ultimately wisely decided to go to the con site for the 2.5 hours until then. No one had bid on most of the Silent Auction items, so I put minimum bids on a bunch of stuff. I guessed how many candy pieces were in the jar. Despite my frequent visits to the concession stand, I still had scads of Nega-dollars burning my pockets, crying out to be spent before they ceased to be spendable, so I bought 18 raffle tickets and spread them around. Attendance had shrank to only NEGAns except for a few regulars (A, KMD) and Congoer RS, who, as lone customer, had sufficient clout that, when the game she wanted to play didn't get any players, Lady Flowerytree went and rounded up NEGAns to play it. This, I think, is a policy that should act as precedent in the future, as it was a win-win for everyone involved. Randy got to run Prime Directive, RS got to play in a Star Trek game, and everyone else also had fun playing the game. (The consensus seems to be that Randy should run another Star Trek/NCIS game next con.) I played until it was time for church, bolted to St. Joseph's, came straight back afterwards, just in time for the final scene. [Game Story: Stellar Connections]
I didn't have any players for my Sunday afternoon Toon game because everyone I thought was likely to play was down the hall at Thymewind's D&D game... except they didn't have enough players to properly storm the dungeons of Eberron, so we compromised. I moved my stuff to Thymewind's room and ran Toon/D&D for Thymewind and his two players, throwing in elements from KoDT, Dreamworks, and Discworld, the latter of which was met with particular enthusiasm. [See game story: "The Halls of Monty Zuma"]
I managed to give away some of my excess objects, (elephants to RC's tactical toybox, common Magic cards to the vendor that was selling singles) but not all of them. I won the silent auctions, most of the raffles, and even the glass jar with 168 pieces of candy in it. yikes. So I still came away with more than I came in with.
The Post-Con Powwow that took an hour last year took about ten minutes this year, because everyone was tired and getting old. Despite my best attempts to subconsciously stall, I was home before 7pm, to begin the slow unpacking process.
I think, next year, I need even fewer high-prep games, so I have more time for writing. No More M&M at Con until I've taken a sledgehammer to it and beaten out the math and twinkies. Maybe Toon/D&D: Planescape, now that I own three box sets, a citybook, and a module for the thing, now. Maybe Sunday's game should be something obscure and random, (Over the Edge? Underground? Ars Magica?) predicated on the expectation that only the diehards will be there? hmm.
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ninetydegrees
Friday...
on 2009-08-19 03:08 am (UTC)Stayed with RC&AC, in their new house. nice place. Noticed one bookcase had horror comics from the 1970s (most of them third-party non-codes). wicked cool in a "of course RC would have these lying around" kind of way. Talked with other NEGamers (NEGAns?) until midnight/1am somewhen.
Saturday...
on 2009-08-19 03:09 am (UTC)On Saturday, our otherwise underpopulated Con was graced with the attendance of: my friend 'Irene'; 'Congoer RS' (who, God bless her, asked about local cons at the 'Games Arboreteum' and was directed to Thymewind for more info), and about ten great high-school kids from a program called the Belfast Gamesloft. All aforementioned were a joy to have around, well-mannered, and creative gamers.
My Sat AM game went swimmingly. Irene and 2 Gamesloft kids played. It had a beginning, middle, and a satisfying end, and everyone had fun. [See game story: "Lost Coffeehouses of Atlantis"]
My Sat Afternoon game was trickier. Playing were Irene, Congoer RS, and ...Twink Player A, who turned out to be the unknown person who had requested a modified PC from me via the NEGA Con website. Player A had seemingly been making maturity progress since the time I banned him from my games, but sadly, this was M&M, and the d20 System makes him relapse. He's banned again. At least from non-Toon games. While, in the moment, I felt bad about letting the villains switch to Lethal combat against him, balancing flasks of volatile chemicals on his shoulderblades that combined into megadamage mustard gas when they were dropped or heated, and ultimately using a teleport beam to drop him out a 30-story window... [see game story, "'Repent, Heroine!', cried the Ticktockman"] In retrospect, the very moment I saw that he'd "corrected the math error"
to give himself higher attributes without telling me (until I asked what those pen marks were), I would have been within my GM rights to snatch away and crumple up his character sheet and declare him instantly dead. Instead, combat turned into a chess match with Bobby Fisher, with occasional interaction with the other two players, M&M novices who couldn't care less what the book (my pocket-sized one or A's full-size hardcover) said. The other players didn't blame me for the disturbance, and in the end, RS's plan did end with the villain's defeat, so it wasn't really a failure. ...I have on multiple authority that RS later went to the registration desk to make sure that A wasn't playing any of the other games she was signed up for. Thymewind came to ask me the identity of this problem player, and I told him without malice. Forced to choose between RS and A, he chose RS. A was seen thereafter just watching games without actually playing them. I'm reminded of a certain housecat that would compulsively bite people, then flinch back in anticipation of having his nose plunked.
Irene felt the need to get home before dark, lest she get lost on unfamiliar roads, so I dragged her around the building, and quickly introduced her to as many friends as I could find, sadly missing Dr. Flowerytree and Akeila. After she left, I tried to create 12 Gurps pregens from nothing but pictures and character concepts, all at once, in an hour... I've never been so glad to not get players for a game in all my life. I played Randy's DC Heroes instead. [game story: "It's all Monkey Shines"]
After Randy's game wrapped, I wandered around, poking my head in on the games playing. All/most of the Gamesloft kids, RS, and Susie were playing Chris' Shadowrun 4e game, "the Kings of Chicago". All I can tell you is the basic premise, but when I saw it, it was going full steam. Just stepping inside the room gave me some kind of ineffable happy-points. Maybe this is what being an extrovert feels like?
Akeila was lurking in the back of Doc Flowerytree's Top Secret game, and we went outside in the fresh night air and talked for a while, which was nice. Then we joined the procession headed to the Irving's. By the time I got back to A&RC's house and showered off the black hairpaint, it was 3am.
Sunday.
on 2009-08-19 03:11 am (UTC)I didn't have any players for my Sunday afternoon Toon game because everyone I thought was likely to play was down the hall at Thymewind's D&D game... except they didn't have enough players to properly storm the dungeons of Eberron, so we compromised. I moved my stuff to Thymewind's room and ran Toon/D&D for Thymewind and his two players, throwing in elements from KoDT, Dreamworks, and Discworld, the latter of which was met with particular enthusiasm. [See game story: "The Halls of Monty Zuma"]
I managed to give away some of my excess objects, (elephants to RC's tactical toybox, common Magic cards to the vendor that was selling singles) but not all of them. I won the silent auctions, most of the raffles, and even the glass jar with 168 pieces of candy in it. yikes. So I still came away with more than I came in with.
The Post-Con Powwow that took an hour last year took about ten minutes this year, because everyone was tired and getting old. Despite my best attempts to subconsciously stall, I was home before 7pm, to begin the slow unpacking process.
I think, next year, I need even fewer high-prep games, so I have more time for writing. No More M&M at Con until I've taken a sledgehammer to it and beaten out the math and twinkies. Maybe Toon/D&D: Planescape, now that I own three box sets, a citybook, and a module for the thing, now. Maybe Sunday's game should be something obscure and random, (Over the Edge? Underground? Ars Magica?) predicated on the expectation that only the diehards will be there? hmm.