Dreamation 09 Post Post

Dreamation was very good for me this year! As per usual, I am amazed and humbled by all the of excellent people I got to see, meet, play with, talk to and drink and eat with over the course of the weekend.

The atmosphere was really positive and inclusive this year, I think. I think it was also more relaxed than some Dreamations past. People are a little less intent on cramming in maximum gaming, and happy to take chill time and socialize.

My games all went well. I played in a Houses of the Blooded scenario run by Tom on Friday, and it was pretty neat. I really like parts of the game, and other parts leave me a little cold, but I intend to pick up the PDF soonish. The actual scenario was really neat, though I think there’s a lot of room with that game for a more character-vs-character intrigue kind of thing.

Judd & my Agon Tournement got a little fubared by miscommunication with the scheduling staff, so we ended up with two isolated Agon slots. I ran the first one, for Judd and a new friend named Joel, and it went pretty well. Agon is a little creaky with two heroes, I think, but it was a fun game. I ran Beast of Kolkoris and I totally killed Judd’s character with a Minotaur. We called the game after that encounter, but I think I would have totally killed both of them if we had continued the quest. That’s a really hard quest! Judd ran the second one, a Quest he came up with that involved a Cyclops who forged lightning. I got to play! It was cool! Ralph won the game and I was so mad! Stupid Ralph winning. I suspect that Far-Reaching may be a little brokenzord, though. I need to take another look, but the suspicion is in my brain.

I played a game of Annalise with Kevin Allen Jr., J.R. Blackwell and John Enskot (who did NOT die in a car crash, and that was the best part of the con). It was very good. We established the beginning of a really long, slow-burning game, if we were able to keep playing. I also got a lot of good feedback and ideas about how to structure a 4-hour complete Annalise game scenario.

Speaking of, my new friend Connie ran two games of Annalise without my involvment, which apparently both went well; so did the games of carry ran by Rachel and Adam. You people are all my favorite, and I am just pleased as punch that my games are creating fun.

Overall, just excellent hanging out time and drinking time with my friends. I already miss you.

Also, Amy was the best driving buddy ever, in addition to being a great friend.

As per usual, Dreamation was a sorely needed reset button, and I’m super glad I went. Thanks everyone for doing your part!

Cleaning

I’m doing a sorely needed blog cleanup.

What that mostly means for you, dear reader, is that I’m messing with the blogroll over on the right. Any blog that hasn’t had a post in a year is getting deleted out! Also, I would like to renew it with the sites of my friends and acquantainces. If it makes sense to you that I should link to you, let me know.

Thanks for reading, by the by. I really appreciate that people take the time to stop by every so often. It’s pretty cool.

New Personal Blog

So this blog is, obviously, focused on RPG stuff. I’ve been hankerin’ for an outlet for other stuff I’m into, which over the course of a couple of conversations with my brother turned into this. 21dB: Nathan & Kyle tell you whats what.

21dB

So, that’s where my stuff about fashion, media, culture, politics & general life crap is going to be, if you’re interested. Also, links to funny shit.

Consider yourself told.

Who Goes There?

So there’s this thing HALT. It stands for “Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired.” Those being things you shouldn’t be when yer gaming, cuz it can be not fun.

Interestingly enough, I think some of my best gaming has occured while I’ve been angry and/or lonely. Annalise probably wouldn’t have happened, for example.

So that’s a funny thing about me.

Hiatus

(x-posted from my website)

Hamsterprophet Productions is on hiatus until further notice.

Find Annalise if that’s who you are looking for.

For downloads and resources for carry. a game about war. and Timestream, see this page.

carry and Timestream are still available for purchase. For purchasing information, see this page.

For other updates, see my blog.

Thanks for all of the support.

-N

Nerd Vacation

I need to get my freakin life together for a little while. Expect more Annalise stuff, including a PDF, later in September. Until then, nerd stuff is lowest priority on my list.

It’s been a great summer though, hasn’t it?

TTYL

Gen Con Aught Eight (1)

Sleep? Nah. Gen Con. Though, real life is pretty busy through the rest of the month, so I doubt I’ll be able to go into much more detail. I do have a ton of pics, though, which will go up ASAP.

Bullet points:

• The Design Matters booth: business. Fuck but we did a wonderful thing. We not only hit our sales goals for the convention, we blew them out of the water with an approach and business model that was both experimental and, as far as I know, pretty damn unanticipated within our community. Also, to all the people that said “I’m glad you’re doing it, but you’re crazy” – that’s right. We are. Crazy like foxes. We will be publishing all of our sales data and results soon, so our experience will also be an actual data point for future efforts. Stay tuned for that.
• The Design Matters booth: social. Holy shit, but I didn’t want the convention to end. Mad props to Kevin, Gregor, Eppy, Clint, Amy, Jonathon (in absentia, alas) and Shreyas for being part of this wonderful alchemy. I had such a fucking great time just spending time with all of you, let alone game, drink, party and hang out.
• Old friends: always a pleasure to see you again. I miss you already.
• New friends: One of my goals for this con was to meet and/or cultivate actual friendships with some new people, and damn but that went well. You know who you are, my new friends.
• Gaming: I ending up playing Annalise three times, and running InSpectres once. All went well, for varying degrees of the word. Annalise continues to enthrall me. I learned something really interesting about InSpectres. Other than those games, my interest was primarily in social stuff, and I don’t regret it, though it sounds like much other rocking gaming was going on.
• Buying: I picked up Kagematsu, Tales of the Fishermans Wife and Black Cadillacs from the Ashcan Front and Sweet Agatha and 3:16 from my booth. Also, some more cool red “broken” tokens for playing Annalise. I also got some slick biohazard goggles for dancing and some, uh, friendship bracelets for very special friends, which I’m looking forwards to integrating into my wardrobe. Hunter: the Vigil was waiting on my doorstep when I got home thanks to a birthday-related preorder, and that was just icing on the cake.
• Eating: I managed to eat pretty well (not hard when you’re in the one-big-meal-a-day mode). The family-style Italian place is rocking (Buca de Beppo, or whatever), and the nicer Italian place kitty-corner to Steak-N-Shake had a delicious Kobe beef ravioli.
• Jeff: Thats the bartender at the Embassy Suites, and he always treats us right.
• Good conversations: me & Kevin & Clint talking about D&D and nerd culture; pretty much every conversation with Amy; “Smooshing” talk with the DM folk (thanks guys, I almost vomited in my mouth); stealing time with Alexander, even if only for a brief moment; chilling with Frank in the mornings before opening the booth; saving Eric from IPR; gossiping with Gregor and Clint (even if it makes me a bad person); talking to customers at the booth and feeling validated in our endeavors; catching up with Dro; giving Luke shit (dude, wheres the damn Pony?); catching up with Jared; seeing many others for only too brief a time.
• Random coolness: Fireworks over the city, teaching Gregor to talk American good, getting bro-jobs from Eppy, geeking out about glasses, Project Runway discussions, drawing your character for Candy Creeps, driving for way too many hours but having productive conversations, Love is a Battlefield dammit, the sketchy Gyro place in Columbus, the ghosts in the hotel, getting taller over the course of the con.
• Oh yah, sales: I only had 10 salable copies of Annalise, and I sold out of those, plus sold a couple more to friends willing to take a misprinted cover. Sold 4 copies of carry plus 6 to the Finns (apparently its popular with high school kids in Finland, who knew!) plus gave a couple away for charity auctions. Success in my book.

I’m getting all misty-eyed thinking about it. Next year, gonna be even better.

(Feel free to use comments to remind me of other cool things. I probably didn’t mention it cuz it’s all still swirling in my hazy brain, not cuz I didn’t dig it).

Catching Up 1

So, over Gen Con, an interview I did went out into the podcastosphere. I’m listening to it myself now, I hope I don’t sound like a schlub. Also, I rant about art! Check it out at Voice of Free Planet X here. Jared’s great, and a great host.

And you should add the podcast to yer feed, anyway.

Best Con Ever?

Yes.

More to come soon. But the short report: the best convention experience I’ve ever had, full stop. Also, one of the best weeks of my life in general. And it’s all because of my friends.

Thank you, everyone.

DexCon 08: Home of the Gingerbread Mafia

And thats how DexCon was over.

I had the best time at a convention that I’ve had in a long time. I think last years Origins is the next benchmark back, and this DexCon was at least equal to it, if not better. There was a lot of crapulance floating around, to be sure (the broken ATM, the general sense of low energy, the low sales, general crankiness, the list of things that there is too much of), but I personally managed to have an amazing productive, satisfying and just plain fun time.

Games:

Roanoke went well, despite some playstyle clash at the table that I wasn’t able to harmoniously deal with. The game was fun, overall, and it was really rewarding for me to run a game outside of my comfort zone. Though, sorry Dan & Clint, but I think next time I’ll have to use something like The Pool or Unistat. Wushu just isn’t my style.

InSpectres went awesomely, as always. I had a table of 7 players, and the game hummed right along with no problems. It also had some pretty dark turns (the S&M/Nazi-fetishist British aristocrat, the death of the last unicorn, the rotting ghost virgins). As always, though, tons of laughs and many hijinks. Damn but it’s my favorite game.

carry went very well, despite J.R. and Russell having to leave early. We had a squad chock-full of sexual tension, and all the players really stepped up and dug into their characters and the fiction of the game. It was one of the most emotionally satisfying and real-feeling games of carry I’ve run, and it really made me happy that it played out so well.

Annalise suffered from some poor decision-making on my part (I decided to try to simultaneously run two 3-player tables, and there was a lot of lagtime in the beginning stages of the game as I ran back and forth). However, the players all made really tragic characters that were headed towards intense confrontations with the Vampire, and a lot of disturbing and interested fiction was happening at each table. I think everyone got a good taste of the game, and I learned a ton about how to approach running it at conventions.

Business:

I sold out of the Seven Sins edition of the game within a day. Totally awesome. Everyone was very complimentary, and I think the custom versions were worth the price tag, and maybe even the stress of making them happen! I feel really validated in some of my artistic and marketing choices, and I feel totally recharged about making the next version happen. Also sold a copy or two of carry.

Friends:

Always the best part. I made some awesome new friends (Hi Jared and J.R.and Eric and Kevin!), and I got to spend some real quality time with older friends, and got to shoot the shit with friendly acquaintances and get closer to being good friends. I’m already sad that I won’t be seeing any of you for awhile.

Batman:

In the words of Mr. Allen Jr. “it made me cry butter.”

Much love to all of you, friends. See you next time!