Dreamation AughtSeven

I wish I had a cord I could plug into my brain and just download my experiences into this magig box, because to adequetely capture the weekend will take a whole lotta typing.

First of all, pay attention to Judd’s Dreamation 07 link collection. Ok, good.

As per usual with these recap posts, I am simultaneously overwhelmed with how much I could say, and finding it difficult to actually write about anything. The weekend blends together so much, what with all the no sleeping and the seeing great people and the paying attention to stuff we’re making up together. But I’ll try to hit the most significant events.

Thursday

The drive was uneventful, and I arrived with plenty of time to hang out and say hi to those who were already there (pretty much just Ben when I got there, but over the next hour or so some of my “con friends” (Jeffery, Rob, Matt, and so on) starting trickling in). I had a game of 1001 Nights at 8, and it went swimmingly. 6 players showed up, well split between “I have this game and haven’t had a chance to play it” and “I have no idea what this is but it sounds cool.”

Because we had so many people, I determined that each courtier should take only 2 Envies, instead of all 6 (in the rules, you take one for each other courtier). This had the potential for suck, but we ended up creating two intersecting webs of envy, and the game played out just fine. A fine fellow by the name of Dan brought an audio recording device, so there should be audio of our stories made available at some point. Which is so awesome I can’t really even express it.

Hung out afterwards with people until about 3 am, then went to bed. It was really funny - because nobody took point on getting the complimentary con suite organized, everybody assumed it was full and got their own rooms. So it turned out that, of the two full rooms made available to us, I got a full room to myself for pretty much the whole convention. Hilarious! I volunteered to spearhead the room-filling effort for next time - if the Dexposure people are kind enough to provide it, the least we can do is fill it.

Friday

I got up early enough to hit the morning slot in case something opened up, but all the games were full and Brennan was just setting up te IPR booth, so I helped him with that and generally hung out. People really started rolling in throughout the morning, and it was really funny to watch the ebb and flow of people lining the railing opposite the booth. It’s like an indie gamer geek gauntlet of fun. Bret Gillan took a bunch of pictures, by the by, and you should check them out on Flickr.

This is the part where I say that I met a bunch of cool people (which I did!), but I don’t remember any given meeting in particular, because there was such a mob of rock that I can’t pick out details. But, if any of you happen to read this, link me to your blogs and LJs and stuff! People are fun.

Moving on - I played Ganakagok at 2 with Bret, Emily, and Jeremiah until the wise eye of Mel White. I really, really, REALLY like this game, and I would have bought a copy on Sunday except that Bill took them all away on Saturday night. Damn you Bill! We created a fabulous story, wherein my ivory-carving craftsman found love with Bret’s reluctant maiden, only to have her die in my arms at the hands of her jilted suitor. At which point I set him on fire (the suitor, not Bret), and then watched the end of the world frozen in ice at the top of a mountain peak. This was all while Emily and Jeremiah’s characters led the people to the southern continent and joined with the southern people, only for their descendents to lose all memory of their origin - a fate worse than if they had died with Ganakagok’s melting.

Tragic and cold and beautiful. Great game, and on my must-play list.

Then we made a crazy dash to get Vietnamese for dinner, and despite the best efforts of New Jersey urban planning and construction managed to make it. Good food, GREAT dessert, and the always wonderful company of a whole pack o’ cool people. We made it back just barely in time for my 8.00 game of carry.

So I ran carry for Adam Dray, Dave Cleaver and Joshua Newman. We moved downstairs to a free table in the atrium because the roleplaying room was so freaking crowded (woo!), and we ended up by a TV tuned a news show. I was sitting with my back to it, and about 2/3 of the way through the game Adam goes “wow, this is so surreal - they’re showing pictures of dead soldiers behind you.” It was a total moment.

The game went well, everyone was engaged and Joshua, in particular, was very affected by the events of play. His Burden revolved around a Vietnamese woman who he had raped and was now pregnant (though with his best friends baby, a fact that underlay a lot of their interaction but was never made explicit, even after the baby was born). Adam’s Burden was a conflicted mess about racism (he wanted to be accepted, but he hated the “white devil”), and he played Big White, who hasn’t ever been played in my games before. He ended up pretty much taking over the squad and drowning it in blood. Dave’s Burden was about his cowardice and how he wanted to live up to his father’s standard. He took Shirley “Temple” Jenkins, the newest guy to the squad, and he had a really great character arc wherein he dealt with his cowardice and decided that it was his responsibility to take care of the rest of the squad.

Despite the mechanical shakyness of the 3-character game, the session went very well, and everyone seemed to be very pleased.

Then I stayed up all night shooting the shit and talking about publishing with Luke, Judd, Joshua, Kevin Allen Jr, Rob, and assorted other folks. Another 4am bedtime.

Next up; the next two days, and I think I have some pictures…

Ah, Dreamation (Updates)

So there is no wireless code needed for this year - so me and my trust PowerBook are free to throw up tidbits of Dreamation goodness.

So far we’ve been through two event slots (Thursday 8-12 and Friday 9-1), and all 7 IGE events in those slots have gone off with full tables. I had 6 players show up for my 1001 Nights game last night (wow!); With Great Power…, Misspent Youth and One Night (the latter two being playtest sessions) all went as well. And there was a pickup of the Technolost playtest.

This morning was a Grey Ranks playtest, another With Great Power…, and a very large table for Burning Wheel: Artisia. I spent the morning hanging out and helping set up the IPR booth display. Holy crap, thats a lot of games.

In just a couple minutes, we have 9 game scheduled. As of 15 minutes until game time, only one of them has below th “minimum players” number, and all of them have at least one person signed up.

Totally neat. I’ll update later tonite, but until then - I got Ganakagok to play!

One-Year Anniversary

Of my first con experience ever. Woot.

Now that I have a couple of these under my belt, I’m feeling much less nervous. But, for some reason, I’m finding it difficult to remember that this one is all about play (as opposed to Gen Con, which is all about sales). My head has been solidly in “production” space for a couple months, and not at all on “play” space (which is a problem in and of itself), so….hopefully this event will jolt me out of it.

I’m really looking forward to seeing my friends, and meeting new ones. And playing games, dammit.

I’m going to be trying to take lots of notes on the weekend, for a couple reasons. But, one big one, is HOLY CRAP THERE ARE SO MANY INDIE GAME EVENTS!11!!Eleven!1! There are 70 scheduled events in four days of gaming.

And (puts on his nervous nelly hat) I think it will extremely interesting and educational info to look at how many of those games end up being played, and in which timeslots, and which games those are.

Of course, in a perfect world, everyone will be playing to a full table (are there even 14 tables in that room we usually get? cuz there’s 14 games in the Saturday 8-12 slot, plus non-IGE events). But, we don’t live in a perfect world. So….

Well, I hope we learn something.

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Anyway, I’m looking forwards to a fabulous time with y’all. Let’s kick some ass, take some names….and play some games.

Carry Errata

The only appreciable change (other than typo corrections and layout tweaks) is this:

Par. 3304-c (page 45) originally read:

c.     If the winner’s action pool included any Burden Dice, the winner MUST spend points inflicting fallout on each of the Grunts that provided a Burden Die, if he has the points to do so. He then gives their Burden Die back to them.

Replace it with:

c.     If the winner’s action pool included any Burden Dice, the winner MUST inflict fallout on each of the Grunts that provided a Burden Die. This does NOT cost fallout points. He then gives their Burden Die back to them. The winner may shell shock, wound or seriously wound each Grunt without restriction, but he may only do one of these per Action scene.

It’s one of those changes thats minor but not really. It worked out really well when we played it that way at JiffyCon, and I think it’s more in line with how I want the Burden/Ranking Officer/Action Scene feedback to work.

Haha Wow

So I’m doing a proofreading edit of carry for the second print run, and guess what! one of the examples is wrong!  Not in a huge way, but definitly in a way that directely contradicts the rules text right next to it.

Wow. I feel like a total shmuck.

Writing rules text is hard.

Cop/Robber

A game for two people.

In this game, you each take on the role of a side in some kind of opposed scenario. One of you could be the cop, one the robber he’s trying to chase down. One could be the freshfaced idealistic politician, the other the corrupt lobbyist. You could each be a representative of rival mob families in a big doublecross. Or a superhero and a supervillain. Whatever.

You work together to create the two characters, and then you choose who’s playing each one. Each character has the following:

Stuff I’m Good At: Up to three entries. Every entry less than three gives you an extra Trick Up Your Sleeve.

Stuff I’m OK At: Up to four entries. Every entry less than four gives you an extra Drama Point.

Stuff I’m Bad At: Up to five entries.

Tricks Up My Sleeve: Two entries, plus any gained from having fewer Things I’m Good At.

My Objective: What you are trying to acheive.

Your Objective: What you think the other character is trying to acheive.

Drama Points: Three, plus any gained from having fewer Things I’m OK At.

When creating the two characters, you go back and forth choosing the things they’re Good, OK and Bad at - one character gets one entry, then the other gets one, and so on. Then you decide who’s playing which character. Then, each player sets the other player’s characters “My Objective”. Then you set your own character’s “Your Objective,” which is what your character thinks the other character wants. Your “Your Objective” entry cannot be the same as their “My Objective” field, and the more different they are the better.

Whoever has less Drama Points sets the first scene (flip a coin for ties). At the top of the scene, you each secretely invest a Drama Point in either your My Objective or Your Objective entry. If you win the scene, you will gain a Success Check in the entry that you invest in. Each scene will have one winner.

When playing out the scene, either player can declare a challenge at any point, narrating what the challenge is. The declaring player has to say which of their traits they are using to win that challenge. Each trait that you’re Good at can be used once in the game; each OK trait can be used twice; Bad traits can be used an unlimited number of times, and you can spend Bad traits to add to another trait.

A Good trait beats OK and Bad traits; an OK trait beats Bad traits. If you each use the same level trait, either person can spend a Drama point to win the challenge, and the loser gains a Drama point. If you both want to spend Drama Points, you do a simple blis bid, each hiding a number of Drama points and then revealing at the same time. If you bid all of your Drama points, you must give your opponent an extra one if you win. Keep doing this until there is a winner, if need be.

You can use each Trick Up Your Sleeve once in the game, and doing so wins you the challenge. You declare your Trick usage after both people have declared their trait, and you can only respond to a Trick by spending a Drama point and using a Trick of your own (in which case you win the challenge, and the Drama point goes away).

If you use a Bad Trait in addition to another Trait, it doesn’t change who wins the challenge, but it does mean that if you lose the winner has to give you a Drama point. If you win, you get nothing extra. Using a Bad Trait in this manner crosses it off your sheet.

The winner of each challenge narrates how the challenge plays out, with the other player adding details relating to their Trait usage, if need be. Whoever wins the best out of three challenges in a scene wins the scene. The Drama point that they invested turns into a checkmark next to the Trait that they invested in, and they get their Drama point back. The loser of the scene loses their invested Drama point.

The game ends once one of your Objective Traits gains three checks - you win the game! If it’s your My Objective trait, then you gain your Objective, and your opponent loses their My Objective. The winner narrates the conclusion of the conflict between the two. If it’s your Your Objective trait, than you get to narrate how your opponent gets what you think they want, regardless of whether thats what they actually want or not.

Fracture

So I might have a mockup of a first version of this thing I’ve been working on at Dreamation. Perhaps, having this post out in the wild will help me focus on making it actually happen.

It’s kinda a hybrid card/board/RPG thing. I’m not really sure yet how big each quantity is, I have to make the pages happen first. I’m almost done with the intro rules, but I have no idea how long the page rules are going to take to write. It was originally going to be in full-size (8.5×11), but I think that would make it impossible to play on a regular table, so I need to experiment with page sizes. However, now that that decision has been made, I may be going with square format, which would help with the edge-matching portion of the game.

The cool thing about this game is when you get the book you have one world, and when you’re done with the game you have a different and unique world that is left out of the ashes of the old.

It’s probably going to be expensive as hell to make and impossible to market, but hey, whatever.

It’s a sister project to Kevin Allen Jr’s Sweet Agatha, in a way. He’s going farther than me, tho. I’m looking forward to getting a peek at that thang at Dreamation.

Simple Decision

I’ll be sticking with the Adept Press (aka Forge) Booth this year at Gen Con. I still can, cuz I was a first-year last year; I’m wimpy enough that I’d rather stick with what I know than try something new; and I think it would be lame if the new people/veteran ratio dropped too low. I know having the old hands on hand was a big help to me, at least, and I think everyone else this last year at Gen Con.

I’m really excited about the cool stuff that other people will be doing, tho.

Honored

Yet again, the Sons of Kryos kick my ass with their fabulousness.

Jeff named our game of carry as his #2 favorite game of 2006 (AP thread). Wow. I’m honored.

Judd named our Dreamation 06 PtA Hare and Hound as his #1 pick, which I played in as well. Just read the AP thread already! … and in linking, I reread the thing. And got chills all over again.

That game STILL has power over me. Damn.

Is It Too Soon?

Here’s a thought about a really cathartic game for a lot of us, I think. This idea was originally discussed with Mr. Allen Jr at Gen Con, by the by.

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So I have a number of 90s game tomes on a bookshelf that I don’t really want to get rid of, because I played many of them and they were a big part of my coming of age experience and I have a hard time parting with that kind of stuff. Of course, they’re at my parents house, because I don’t play them anymore….but here’s something interesting I was thinking of.

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So when you purchase this theoretical game, it’s an 8.5×11 hardcover with whatever cool grabby cover. And you open it, and the pages inside are a mess of dotted outlines with bibliographic references in them. Like, there’s a rectangle that says ” (WW) Hunter: The Reckoning; Page 128, paragraph 4″ and below it is a a trapezoid that says “(TSR) Encyclopedia Magica Volume 1, Page 37, paragraph 4, sentences 2 - 10″. It also comes with a pair of scissors and a gluestick.

I imagine that it would either come with a CD, or have a website addy where you can download all the clippings, so you have access to the ones that you don’t already own.

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Impossible for legal reasons, I’m sure. But how interesting would it be if you got a game that required you to physically destroy the old games that you don’t play any more, in order to create something new?

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Physical destruction, as you will see this summer, is a big theme for me (and Kevin) right now.

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I think I would call this game “From The Ashes”