Michael S. Miller

It's about an hour and half since we arrived home from Origins 2009. I sit here with more caffiene than blood in my veins and try to unwind enough to go to bed. It was a great con. Attendance looked light, but the folks that were there had a good time. Here's my high points of the show:

Tuesday
A rush to pack and an error made months ago with the rental car was a bit of a scare, but by the time Bill arrived, everything was A-OK. Got to bed late, but raring to go in the morning.

Wednesday
The Drive. Michele was battling a cold, so we took plenty of rest stops. I didn't mind because we had no booth obligations and therefore no deadline. We left at a sane 7 AM and arrived about 4 PM, which allowed us to eat at the fabulous North Market. My pad thai was hotter than I could stomach, but that proved beneficial later on. We got checked in, taught Michele how to play Euchre, and got some sleep.

Thursday
Both Kat and I wisely scheduled our Thursday games to begin at noon, so that we would avoid the early-morning lull that sometimes occurs when there's a hiccup in the registration system. This time, there was no hiccup to worry about, but there was also a noticeable shortage of attendees. Even with a huge swath of the breezeway missing due to renovation, the place didn't feel crowded enough. I think I got a picture of the crowd present at the opening of the exhibit hall, and it wasn't nearly as large as it's been in the past.

Anyway, I kicked the day off w/ dropping off 5 copies of SHU with the ever-gracious and ever-upbeat Andy Kitkowski. He and his boothmates allowed me to grab a bit of space in his booth to make SHU available for sale. It was greatly appreciated.

At noon, Kat ran a new WGP... scenario, and I ran Ganakagok. I had 2 players: Cary and Amber. Thinking that 2 characters would be too few in the reaction rounds, I also made a character myself. In the end, it added nothing to the game, and I wouldn't do it again. The game was good (as always), and I even found a few ways to improve the text that I had overlooked while editing.

After dinner, I hung out a bit w/ Luke, Thor, Jared, and Jamey. We caught up on RL stuff. I got to see the tail end of Jamey's satirical Nicotine Girls hack. Plus, we playtested ... Yonder Knights! I never would have imagined playing that in my wildest dreams! The game doesn't really work, but there was much discussion and diagnosis of exactly WHY it doesn't work, which was really super helpful.

Friday
Friday started w/ both Kat and I having 10AM games. Hers was, of course, some incredible, amazing WGP... and mine was SHU. I had two great players: Todd and Lisa. We stopped a serial killer whose profile was that he was hunting down children's entertainers. As often happens, the kinda silly profile did not impede the drama and tragedy of the inevitable deaths. I can't think of a game that I enjoy more consistently than Serial Homicide Unit.

After the SHU game, I checked out the maiden voyage of Luke and Jared's new seminar: Practical Game Design. It was a clear and informative roadmap to take someone from the Three Questions to being able to judge whether dice or cards will do the job their game needs done. It gave me much food for thought, particularly in light of the previous night's unfun playtest.

One of the great disappointments of this year's construction was the closing of the kitchen in the Krema Nut Company store. NO PEANUT BUTTER MILKSHAKES! However, Thor's clever cell phone knew of the company's headquarters store 2 miles away. Being New Yorkers, they were going to hoof it. But with my power of Rental Car, I got us to the peanut-flavored heaven and back again in air-conditioned comfort!

Friday evening saw a nice dinner w/ Kat, Bill, and Michele, and then chatting till midnight w/ the NYC crew.

Saturday
Saturday was supposed to be my busiest day. I was scheduled to run SHU from 10AM to 2PM, and help Luke run a seminar from 1PM (fun scheduling error!) to 3PM, and then run Ganakagok from 8PM to midnight. Unfortunately, I had no players for SHU, which gave me far too much time to shop. I looked at every booth and still had time to spare before the panel.

The self publishing panel is, as Luke likes to call it, a firehose of information. We ran right up to the full 2 hour mark, barely stopping for questions and could have kept going. It's a thrill to give that panel.

Afterwards, Luke was running a demo of Mouse Guard for a reviewer named Ben and his girlfriend Danielle. I sat in to bring the group up to three, and got to deliver the killing blow to a vicious milk snake that wanted to devour us all!

A surprising one-on-one dinner w/ Kat followed, which allowed for a nice de-stressing to occur.

After that, it was back to frozen lands of Ganakagok, where 6 players showed and we made a great myth about the splintering of the island and its fertile ground floating into the sunlit worlds.

Sunday
Today started with some great news: Mouse Guard won the Origins Award for Best RPG! Congrats to Luke and the Burning Crew for another game well-designed (and one I can actually play this time!)

Then there was just last minute shopping, lunch, The Drive, and now this. An excellent weekend in an excellent city at an excellent con. You can't ask for more than that.

Well, now that the nasty stomach bug I picked up on Sunday (the only bad thing about Dreamation 2009) is finally behind me, I can recap my con experience.

( A whole lotta fun )

Overall, I'd say this was the most successful Indie Games Explosion yet. We scheduled over a hundred sessions, and I only heard of a handful that didn't attract enough players to run. That's quite an accomplishment. I'd like to thank each and every publisher, GM, attendee, con organizer and staff member who helped make that possible.

I've only had a chance to barely scratch the surface of the kerfluffle kicked off by Vinny's remarks on Sunday. I've seen some people like Judd, Fred, and jason Morningstar saying very sensible things. I've seen other people say some very inflammatory things. Such is the way of the internet.

I'll weigh in on some specific points later, but right now I don't know the best way to reach our common goal--a continually-improving Explosion--but I do know that we'll get there the same way we've gotten to where we are--with good ideas being put into practice through effort, communication, and cooperation.

The Dreamation master schedule is up! The events that Kat and I are running are as follows:

R143: Mouse Guard; "The Pirates of Rustleaf Temple" by Michael Miller. An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME from Archaia Studios Press - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! Mouse Guard is mice with swords! The autumn shipments from Rustleaf have been waylaid by bloodthirsty, redfurred pirates! Can the Mouse Guard foil the villains and save the harvest? Thursday, 8:00PM - 12:00AM; One Round; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Fun, All Ages. See Also: R161.

R144: Serial Homicide Unit; "CSI Vegas: The Showgirl Strangler" by Kat Miller. An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME from Incarnadine Press - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! Based on the TV show CSI. Play a member of Grisham's CSI team working to solve who is behind a string of showgirl killings. Thursday, 8:00PM - 12:00AM; One Round; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Fun, Under 18 Requires Parental Clearance. See Also: R271.

R161: Mouse Guard; "The Pirates of Rustleaf Temple". See R143. Friday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM; One Round.

R164: With Great Power...; "Sidekicks" by Kat Miller. An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME from Incarnadine Press - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! Sidekicks are the unsung heroes of hero stories. You and your friends happen to be the Sidekicks of high profile heroes and second in commands of Super villains. Its time the world knew what real heroes were like. Friday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM; One Round; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Fun, All Ages. See Also: R229.

R182: Everway; "Miss Fortune" by Kat Miller. The teller flips over the fate card, but the card is blank. All of them are blank. She tries to speak and finds herself mute. Has Fate merely taken a holiday, or is there something sinister behind the missing fortune cards? Friday, 2:00PM - 6:00PM; One Round; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Fun, All Ages.

W378: Mechaton; "Bricks! Good God, Y'all, What Are They Good For?". An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME from Incarnadine Press - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! Cry havoc! Build your army brick-by-Lego-brick and war against your opponents. May the best fighty robot win! Mechs provided, or bring your own. Friday, 2:00PM - 6:00PM; One Session; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Fun, All Ages. See Also: W612.

R221: Serial Homicide Unit; "Nowhere is Safe" by Michael Miller. An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME from Incarnadine Press - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! A killer hunts the innocent. Can you stop the murders? Bring a rampaging serial killer to justice as you portray investigators of the elite Serial Homicide Unit. Thrill to the terror as you follow the lives of the killer's next victims. Saturday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM; One Round; All Materials Provided. Beginners Welcome; Serious, Under 18 Requires Parental Clearance. See Also: R290.

R271: Serial Homicide Unit; "CSI Vegas: The Showgirl Strangler". See R144. Saturday, 8:00PM - 12:00AM; One Round.

W612: Mechaton; "Bricks! Good God, Y'all, What Are They Good For?". See W378. Saturday, 12:00AM - 4:00AM; One Session.

R290: Serial Homicide Unit; "Nowhere is Safe". See R221. Sunday, 9:00AM - 1:00PM; One Round.

The complete Indie Games Explosion scheduled can be found here, on the event chart.

Only seven days! Yay!

I went to Ubercon in Piscataway, NJ this past Saturday. Due to some scheduling issues, Kat stayed home and I went to this one solo. I drove out early Saturday morning and came home late Saturday night. In between there was much gaming and laughter.

The day kicked off with enormous hurt! I ran Mechaton for five players. As always, the game delivered much fun, much trash talking, and much admiration from interested onlookers. I used the really great short game scenario that Vincent has in the book. I broke the six of us up into two arenas of conflict. I lost in my circle by one roll! We ran a second time and I was able to grab the flag and hold it for dear life. I won that one only by sheer luck--everyone's damage dice turned frosty when they rolled against me.

In the afternoon slot, I ran my "Mutant Academy" With Great Power... scenario. None of the players had played With Great Power... before, but they certainly knew enough about comics to enjoy the X-men-esque angst of the characters and situation. One of the characters has illusion powers. Now, one of the things I do when I run WGP is to let the players define their powers as much as possible. Inevitably, some player will ask "does my power work this way" and I tell them that the characters now belong to them and they can tell me. Well, the player of the illusionist set her stakes for the big fight scene as "If I win, I use my powers to make sure no one knows there ever was a big fight, so we don't get in trouble with the school." I try to follow the player's lead in how much the illusion powers can rewrite reality. If she wanted to open the door, however, I figured I had to play along. I set counter stakes as "If you lose, you use your powers to make the Empress (the scenario's Magneto analog) the headmistress of the school." Well, she fought hard, but she just didn't have the cards. We got to play some great little denouement scenes where everyone woke up the next day believing that the Empress had always been head of the school. I had a smile plastered across my face for the full last hour of the game. One of the best WGP events ever!

I rested in the car a bit during the dinner break. I didn't know if the last game would actually happen, since no one had preregistered. I've been working away on Serial Homicide Unit, and it's one of my favorite games to play. Eric Larsen, whom I met in the Mechaton and WGP games, said he wanted to take it for a spin. We ended up roping in some other folks who had time while waiting for other games, and there were five players (including me). Our profile was Collectors. My civilian character was a comic book collector who hoped to befriend Stan Lee. Our killer ended up killing the victims by choking them with an item of their collection. The game was far sillier and less tragic than many games of SHU have been, but I think that's to be expected once in a while. Plus, we were an all-male group. I haven't played often with all-male groups (I think this was the third), but they've tended to be the sillier sessions, rather than the more tragic emphasis with mixed-gender groups. Something to keep an eye on.

After that, it was just the drive home. Ubercon was a great con. Much thanks to Don & Joanna for convincing me to go, and for Liz for taking such good care of her GMs. Thanks to Eric for hanging out and chatting.

This past weekend Kat and I traveled south of the Mason-Dixon for a little get-together called Cleavercon. Dave Cleaver's birthday is coming up, so he threw himself a game day. It was a good day, and I like the gameday/birthday party idea. Hmmm, I have a birthday coming up in the fall...

( We played Mist-Robed Gate and Serial Homicide Unit )

In other news, I just finished editing Bill White's amazing Ganakagok. This is a game I've been anticipating for a long time. The text is in good shape, and I'm glad I can help get it ready to release.

This weekend was DexCon 2008. It went really well, as always. The folks at Double Exposure always do their best to put on a great convention. This one was a bit truncated for me, since I couldn't get any time off work, but nevertheless, a great deal of fun!

Wednesday evening I had to drive Kat out to the con, drop her off, and come home for two more days of work. It was hectic, and I forgot how to be a bachelor on Thursday night, but one does what one must.

The con for me started on Friday. After an amazingly traffic-free drive on Friday evening, Michele, Dalys, and I arrived with nearly an hour to spare before my 8pm game. That game was Mechaton, which was fun, as always. I won the first game, so I sat out and officiated for the second. I probably ought to upgrade my supplies, but it was a good time, blowing up Lego mechs, and siezing glory for plastic bricks everywhere.

Throughout the weekend, I also did much greeting and chatting with folks I had not seem for a time--like a few weeks (Fred, the Robs, the Whites, the Corcorans) or a few months (Scott) or 6 months (Nathan, Bret, Matt Weber) or nearly a year (Tony). Good stuff.

Saturday morning I was supposed to run Serial, but I had no players. This happened again on Sunday, as it did a few times at Origins. The game definitely has an image problem. We're thinking of changing the name, and the direction of the marketing copy to focus more on the team of police investigators. I was saying to Scott Lesher that I feel a bit like a salesman for broccoli. When people actually play the game/eat their broccoli, they enjoy it and they know that it's good. But getting them to sit down and actually do it is tough.

By the time Serial officially folded, the games I had hoped to get into were all full. I was about to do the whole "hang around" thing for 4 hours, but then I ran into Lowell who was also looking for a game. He figured he play in Tony D's Complete Mafia d20, just because it hadn't started yet. I figured 4 hours of that was better than 4 hours of "hanging out" and I was right (which says a lot about how little I enjoy "hanging out.") There were three players (me, Lowell, and a guy named Warren who was a Mafia fan), and we played small-time crooks trying to work our way up in the American Yakuza of a Las Vegas-stand-in city. We did two jobs, an easy one that went pretty well, and a harder one that ended in a bloodbath. After hearing Tony talk about the way some of the other games have gone at cons (many, many bloodbaths) I think the game might need a new subtitle: "d20 Mafia: Why Crime Doesn't Pay."

Mechanically, the game has added weakness for eacy character, like "gambling addict" or "adreneline junkie" that work a bit like compelled Aspects in SotC, but without the carrot, just the stick. We had fun with ours, which is what led to the blood bath. The way it was structured, just what in-game actions were worthy of XP, Reputation within the underworld, and Suspicion from the police were kept secret until after each mission was completely finished. I think some interesting gameplay might arise if those were known beforehand, and the players had to choose where to take their risks. As a d20 game, it suffered from boring combat, and the lack of any resources to spend to give any single roll any importance. But, it was not bad play, although had the group been larger, I think it could have been, due to lack of screen time and other groupthink behaviors.

Saturday afternoon I ran my With Great Power... game "The Monster Squad." It went fairly well. Almost all the players at the game were new to With Great Power, but we had some definite comic book fans who appreciated the bizarreness of Monster Squad characters. They ended up destroying much of Dr. Grotesque's underground lair, AND compelling a confession from the Utopian about how he had slandered their good names as part of a lover's quarrell with Professor Fogg. The game rollicked along at a good pace, but never quite reached that critical mass. After the Dreamation game, I've been trying out a bit of a looser GM style, which might explain it. I think I need a looser style with experienced players (of indie-games-in-general) and a tighter style with completely new players. Maybe that goes to show that WGP is a decent beginner's game?

Saturday evening was the Indie Party, which went well after a bit of room confusion. Rob runs much, much better parties than Kat and I did, so I'm very glad he's taken on that job. Several folks did mention that they missed the With Great Chili. If so, send me and e-mail and I'm sure we can arrange a catered weekend stay in the glorious Miller abode ;)

Saturday night saw me again unable to get into any of the interesting-looking games. Jeff Collyer and his friend Glen also found themselves in a similar situation, so Kat ran With Great Power... for us, and Michele, down in the lobby of the hotel. She pulled out her latest "Liberty League" scenario, and it was great, great fun. I'm particularly glad that I took notes on the ways she runs WGP differently than I do, because, as I've often said, she runs it better than I do, and it's instructive to see the master in action. Oh, and we barely thwarted the nefarious Dr. Venom from bio-evolving the entire city!

Sunday morning saw my second Serial game fold. That wasn't too bad, as I had to check out, pack the car, and do a little shopping. In between those things, I came back to watch Kat running WGP's "Crossover" game for Bill White, Michele, and a guy whose name I don't recall. The mind controlling insects of the Mumbral Hive very nearly took over the world. They were stopped, but had completely rewritten 3 different comic book series in the process, as crossovers are wont to do. It sounded like a good game.

That was it except for the good-byes. Dexcon is a great con. I can't wait for Dreamation!

Back from Origins and super-tired. I don't have the stamina to do a full write-up now, and work has already let me know that I won't have the time to do one for the rest of the week. So I'll hit the high points now and do a full write up over the holiday weekend. As always, Origins was a great, fun convention.

Some highlights:

• Driving out and back with Kat, Dalys, and Bill was loads of fun. I finally got to win at the cow game!


• Dalys' birthday was at the con. Bill stood on a chair in the exhibit hall and let everyone know.


• Got to play Serial with Clarence & Naomi. Great game where the serial killer turned out to be a contestant on America's Next Top Model.


• Carey, the hardcore With Great Power... fan, played in every WGP... event Kat and I ran. She brought the melodrama with a side of angst.


• I GMed a game of Acts of Evil and didn't really do anything evil, except maybe devour Don's hand ... but he had it coming.


• Got to play Best Friends with Peter and Gary Atkinson, Jared and Luke. All my friends picked on me. I hate them.


• Would you believe karaoke?


• Peanut butter milkshakes! Mmmm.


• More playtesting with Ralph, Luke, and Dan (?) wherein I failed to redeem a mad god.


• Luke finishing up the publishing panel with "We'll gladly stick around for specific questions, but we've talked for about an hour and forty-five minutes straight. Hope you caught the massive info-dump." And his invisible white board.

Good times. Now, sleep and a return to real life. Yuck.

Hi, all.

Time has all-but overtaken us this year. Kat and I would like to run an Indie Games Explosion at DexCon this year. The convention is in East Brunswick, New Jersey from Wednesday, July 16 to Sunday, July 20.

Unfortunately, that means that we will need event information by this Friday, June 13! If you run at least four events, we can secure you a free badge. If you run fewer than four events, we can still list your events with the rest of the Indie Games Explosion for increased exposure.

I will post this at The Forge and at Story-Games. Please re-post or link to it from wherever else you think might be helpful.

Please send your event information to my Gmail acount: stalwartip AT gmail DOT com

We will be registering all the games, but we'll need all the info to fill out this form

I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.

Yesterday we went to PoliCon 2008 in Philadelphia. Every year, Don and Joanna Corcoran organize a convention as a birthday gift for their buddy, Joe Poli. Some years it's invite-only due to space, some times its part of a larger convention. But I've had a good time every year I've gone.

Kat and I made a wrong turn and ended up being late. Thankfully, the games waited for us. Bill White ran his fantastic game Ganakagok for five of us--Pattie, Liz, me, Tali, and Will. In a fit of verisimilitude, Bill invited us to play outside in the crisp April air. It helped to evoke the spirit of our Nitu characters (eskimos) who had always lived upon an island of ice, but who knew that a change was coming--the sun was going to rise for the first time ever. We created the initial situation inspired by some draws from the game's cool tarot-like deck, and determined that the Nitu were in the midst of a famine, and some of the sacred whales had beached themselves. Rather than help them back into the water, the Nitu had feasted upon the taboo whale meat. My character was hit with a vision in the contented, drowsy trance that siezes hungry people after a feast. He knew that superstitions and the old god-ways were nonsense, and the time had come for the people to abandon them. Most of the other characters were focused on returning us to the old ways, so I had lots of opposition. We ended up with many characters having bad endings, and, although the Nitu were no longer the Nitu after the womenfolk had moved to found a new village, it was a very fulfilling game.

Lunch was provided by many tasty sandwich fixings, and then it was on to With Great Power...

I had brought both "Mutant Academy" and "Monster Squad." My players were Kat, Phil, and Amy. They chose monster Squad, and played Debris (the living statue and leader of the Monster Squad), Mudslide (oozy former supervillian, still in debt to the evil mad scientist) and Cerebus Prime (German Shepherd with a 500 IQ). Debris started the game being haunted/inspired by visions of Gaia, the earth-mother, tellingd Debris that she was meant to be the avatar of the earth. By the end, Debris was teetering on the brink of delusional madness from these visions. Mudslide was trying despately to ooze his way out of his obligations to Dr. Grotesque. Cerebus Prime was steadily souring on the stupidity of people and joined forces with his unrepentantly-misanthropic sister to take vengeance upon The Utopian for seemingly killing the third member of their litter. A good session, but I've really got to retool the game to make it fit in four hours. It's always just a little fustrating to never get that sense of closure that I tend to have when I play other convention games lately.

Dinner was a quick trip to the Melrose dinner. Phenomenal cheesesteaks, fries, and milkshakes. So bad for the body, but so good for the tongue.

In the evening, I played Shock: with Dave Cleaver and Scott Lesher. It was my first time playing "that orange game" and it went really, really well. We decided on a Shock of "first contact" with Issues of "conspiracy," "power politics," and "xenophobia." We decided to keep it near-future, and took an idea from Ursula LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" and decided that exactly three aliens had landed. They would only speak to certain people about certain things, and were had never spoken about their advanced technology. Our praxis scales were Mass Media/Personal Contact and Impel/Inspire. Dave's character was a priest trying to change the church's "aliens have no souls" position to one of "god loves all beings." Scott's character was the U.S. Secretary of State, with whom the aliens liked to play poker. He was trying to form a working relationship with the aliens. My character was an aspiring science fiction writer whose book had been in-process of being published at the time of the aliens' arrival. It had vanished, his computer was stolen, and he was on the run from a conspiracy. In the end, the priest changed the church AND kept his pulpit--his was story of reform within the church, perhaps a documentary on a civil rights leader or something. Scott's Secretary of State had a story more like Contact or Childhood's End, where the president was leaning on him for "results" and the aliens end up playing poker for items of advanced technology versus parts of his own soul. In the end, he wins the secrets of cold fusion, and is also "enlightened" into meaning on a higher plane. My guy ended up with a sort of Philip K. Dick ending, where it was revealed that my never-to-be published science fiction novel had actually been prophetic about the aliens and their landing, and somehow my subconscious mind had been transmitting the entire thing back to the alien homeworld. So, even though I was killed in the CEO's office, I had just finished transmitting the last paragraph.

The game was very good, and particularly with my fellow players being so creative and invested, I had a great time. However, there were some parts of the game that seemed rough. It seemed a waste of potential that the only mechanical effect of links was to risk them for a re-roll. Plus, praxis scales were a pain. On many rolls, we felt out the scene to find the conflict, set our non-mutually-exclusive stakes, chose our assortment of d4s and d10s, rolled the dice, and said "crap, we forgot to set the praxis." I think the game might work better if the audience decides on the praxis scale for both the protagonist and antagonist, based on the role-play they do in the scene. That notwithstanding, I was glad to finally get to play Shock:.

Thanks to all for making PoliCon such a great time.

I posted the promised AP about the Munchausen game:

[Dreamation 2008] Troublesome Munchausen

Here's the thread on the Forge wherein I discuss the somewhat problematic With Great Power... game:

[Dreamation 2008] WGP... The Monster Squad

Where to start in summing up my experience at this year's Dreamation? The biggest change was that Kat and I weren't in charge of anything other than running our own games. That was very, very nice. The second biggest was the new hotel. It had lots of pluses (easier to navigate the area; lots of little rooms; better in-hotel restaurants) and a few minuses (lack of focused central space, like the other place's huge atriums; slow elevators; claustrophobic staff suite). I think I'd be perfectly happy if we ended up there again. But what did I do?

THURSDAY
I had off the whole day, and spent most of it in convention prep, doing packing and printing out character sheets. We left once Dalys got out of school and arrived with plenty of time to check into the hotel and have a nice dinner w/ Bill Segulin.

Opening days are always cool because I can't turn a corner without running into someone I've been missing for months, and this one was no different. Once gaming started, I leapt into Kat's Everway game "Crisis on King's Road." I played The Sentinel who was bound to lop off the heads of 1,000 dishonest men in order for the dragon to give him the heart of his true love (which the dragon had stolen). Andrew played the bandit King of the Road who was bound to never leave the road as long as his love (an assassin) still lived. Bill played the King's Guard, still serving the orders of the dead King, and dealing with a usurping Chancellor. Things got pleasantly convoluted, with my Sentinel cutting a swath through the dishonest folk of the road (including the bandit king's assassin-love) and the rival for my love's affections being revealed as the heir to the throne. It was a pretty good session, slightly complicated by Andrew thinking he had to leave at 10pm, and setting things up for that to be a decent point for him to drop out, and then Andrew learning that the other event didn't start until midnight. Plus, it was uncommonly difficult to piece together the climax of our three tales. Perhaps it was just that we were all a little rusty. Maybe Kat or Bill or Andrew have better insight?

FRIDAY
The Friday morning slot started off a little late, but once it got going, what a session it was! I played Serial (the game about the victims of serial killer and the police that hunt the killers down that Kat and I are developing) with Kat, Emily Care Boss, Nathan Paoletta, Alexander Newman, and Nicholas Marshall. We settled on the profile being "artists" and had great stories about finding lost parents, trying to get married or trying to keep the kids or the girlfriend while keeping an art career going. My potential victim was a J.D. Salinger-esque recluse who wanted his no-talent protege to win the Pulitzer Prize. When everyone voted that he didn't, I described a vitriol-filled press conference in which he broke down and admitted that the protege was his illegitimate son.

After a good lunch in the hotel cafe, Friday afternoon found me in the wargame room for Mechaton. I had 6 players show up, two of them with their own mechs! One of them had a flower for 1 blue die worth of camoflage and became a favorite target. I split the table into two groups of three, and answered rules questions. Both sides played multiple games, and I was able to jump into one and win.

After a sandwich in the staff suite, Friday evening found me playing something I can't tell you about. Someday the truth can be known, but not today...

Friday midnight was The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. If I have a regret all weekend, this was it. On the surface, it was *grand.* People had been asking me about it all through the weekend, checking to see how many people I could take. The description is so enticing, we had a number of folks I don't normally see in the RPG room come out to give it a try. All told, there were 13 players, plus myself. Thus, I explained the rules of the game very briefly, and--since I had brought 2 copies--split things up into 2 tables and joined the smaller of the tables myself (mistake #1). Things started off very well with my tale of how I came to learn that apes and men were cousins (and then actually married one). In retrospect, perhaps this veiled implication of bestiality opened to floodgates to what came later. Alexander Newman told us of the little dog he met on the moon that spoke French. Jeff Lower told us how he became th king of Mbolo-Mbeleland by accident, and a player whose name I never learned wowed us all with a story of how he lost a week of his life building his own prision under the sea and was subsequently rescued by sea monkeys. Then things got highly uncomfortable, and I didn't do a damned thing about it (mistake #2). There is MUCH matter there to be discussed, so I will move on with my con write-up and come back to the Munchausen game in an AP thread somewhere.

SATURDAY
Saturday began with the game I was most nervous about all weekend. I ran a new With Great Power... event called "The Monster Squad." The sign-up sheet was full, and all the players (Judd Karlman, Paul Tevis, Remi Treuer, Joe [of the Durham 3], and Mark Causey) had previously sought me out to mention they were looking forward to it. It's very got very strange, very comic-booky characters, plus I was testing out a few tweaks to the conflict system at the same time. I was less than 100% confident that we'd have a good time. With the players I had, I should not have been worried. Everyone sank their teeth into the angst of their roles and ran with it. There is also the fixings of an AP post there, I think. So, on we move.

Saturday afternoon saw family come to the fore, as my sister-in-law and her boyfriend had come out for the day to check out the con. After deciding that they hadn't alotted themselves enough time to do it justice, we went for an extended lunch at Harold's Deli with them, Michele, Bill & his daughter Casandra. I didn't intend to bail out on Ryan Macklin's A Penny for My Thoughts game, but priorities happen.

Saturday evening was the now-traditional Indie Party. My commendations again to Rob & Emily for a great recovery to a most unfortunate setback. It was great to see so many great people in one place.

Saturday evening gaming had me back in the wargames room, scheduled to run Mechaton. However, nobody showed. I suspect that by Saturday, most people apt to look into the wargame room are not looking for something casual like Mechaton. All the wargamers around me as I waited seemed gleefully immersed in their discussions of fields-of-fire, lines-of-sight and the like.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to jump into anything at 8pm due to waiting at the table until 8:15 to officially cancel the game. There was the possibility of playtesting Jason Morningstar's new historical game, but the stars didn't quite align. I ended up playing some board games with Kat, Michele, Dalys, Bill & Casandra.

Midnight was time for the Master. Master Alexander Newman, that is. Alexander wanted to demonstrate MLwM to Katie (whose last name I can't recall). He invited myself, Kat, and Tobias to minion for him. We created a psychologist, Dr. Schliemann, who wanted to prove to Freud that lesser men don't actually possess free will. As one of the Great Men with free will, the master was going to condition the entire town to ritually mutilate themselves on command. My minion was the Master's blacksmith, who forged the implements the villagers used in their horrific actions. We had some good scenes, and Katie's Horror Revealed about sleep-conditioning an orphanage full of children to drown themselves in the river was particularly chilling. Alexander admitted to being at less than his peak, and we all agreed that the session was only "okay." There's certainly some AP-meat there, but I know I won't have the time to start it.

After that, I chatted with Luke, Clyde, Alexander & Katie about the possible production of Serial and got some great, great ideas. And I got to bed slightly after 4:00am.

SUNDAY
I was two minutes late to my Sunday morning game! It was due to the clunky elevators and not over-sleeping. I figured that it wouldn't matter much, since the Sunday morning slot traditionally starts a bit late. Imagine my surprise to find that all my players (save one) were already waiting for me and afraid that I'd bailed on them! I don't have the notebook with me with everyone's name in it, but we had a full six players, so I simply facilitated things without a character. They chose "College Scholarship Students" as the Profile, and we focused on hopes like "I hope I make it to the NFL," "I hope I pass my classes and don't lose my scholarship," "I hope I can still support my family," "I hope I'm the first one in my family to graduate from college," "I hope my dad doesn't cut me off," and "I hope my mom doesn't end up teaching my class." Things could have gone much better if I had simply read from a well-written script, as post-game chatter revealed that some of the unevenness in play was actually covered in the game text, but I had not explained it clearly in my sleep-deprived state.

A lot of the convention was like that for me--not quite firing on all cylinders. But, I got to say that if this weekend was me not at my best, then that's saying quite a bit about where my best could be, since it was still such a positive experience. Thanks so much to everyone for a great con. Your enthusiasm is an inspiration!

Friday evening I playtested Mouse Guard with Luke Crane, Russell Collins, and Luke's friend Bob. I played Albrecht, and brown, low-ranking mouse with a white cloak. He was a cautious, conniving weather watcher. I love how both here and in Burning Empires the strict limits of how many rolls you can make focuses gameplay on strictly what's important and cut off the directionless fat. It's a scaled-down version of BW that I'm pretty certain I can use, and that I'll enjoy even more than the Mouse Guard comics. I still need to make a little chart to see what' legit to use when helping yourself and helping others. But anyway, we cleared the infestation of squirrels from Ivydale, smearing their blood hither and yon. This, of course, attracted a hungry fox that very nearly gobbled me up. Luckily, I so impressed the mayoress of Ivydale that she has requested my permanent reassignment to her fair city. I had to betray the best interests of my two fellow mice to make that deal, but nothing can come from nothing, right?
****

( I enjoyed GenCon more than I have in years! )

( The rest of my DexCon 2007 experience! )

( Dexcon was a roller-coaster of problems and pleasures! )

Origins was, as always, a really great time. ( Here's my over-heated memory. )

Pulled into the driveway less than an hour ago. It's good be home. It was really, really good to be at Camp Nerdly. So many old friends to see, and new friends to make. So much fun, talent, and enthusiasm. So much fresh air! Such a good time!

Friday was extra strength stress in a bottle with a side of tension. We got to camp about 10:30, unloaded, found our cabin, said our "hello"s, eaves-dropped on the last minutes of a game of Ganakagok, and went to bed.

Saturday was breakfast, then getting a parking permit, supermarket run, prepping for lunch. Darn the power-drain on those crock pots! But nobody went hungry. Next time we'll bring extra-long extension cords and it will be better.

Saturday after noon was a playtest of By The Stars with a full complement of nine players (including myself). I'd like to thank all the folks who put 3 hours worth of fun-expectation in the hands of my game-in-development. The game lacked some of the spark that previous playtests exhibited. I'll be pondering on the why of that over the coming days. But it was a fun time with fun people. And a game that will be much more fun in the future.

AFter that was helping out with dinner prep and then the Camp Nerdly talent show. Clinton sang us a clever little song about a shrimp that reminded me of "The Walrus and the Carpenter." Krista sang us a lovely song in Polish. Tony showed off his dexterity with contact-juggling an orange. Fred and Evelyn Wolke sang us some filks. Alexander sang us an R-rated version of an English rowing song. Dave Younce sang us an Irish drinking song. Andy K told us a grand story about 3 talents. And if that weren't enough, Jason Morningstar recited Shakespeare. I love Shakespeare! I think I want to be Jason Morningstar in another life (or at least recite some Shakespeare at the next Nerdly).

AFter dinner, I played Nine Worlds with Alexander Newman, Kat, and Nathan Herrold. It was very instructive about the structure of 9W, and the potential of the game. But in 3 hours, we didn't accomplish a whole lot--we hadn't even really gotten started. I've got some thoughts on how Alexander can make that much better. But I'm still glad I played. I got to play one of the greatest hunters in the nine worlds, who was hunting the eagle that used to eat Prometheus' liver. Both Zeus AND Prometheus thought I was hunting it for them!

Saturday night, I played Serial with Kat, Alexander, and Jeff (?). As always, the victims sprang to life and their inevitable deaths were highly tragic. Except, maybe, for my jerk of a business climber. But I loved how Jeff's character's death cemented him a place in his broken family. I greatly enjoyed it. After that, bed.

Sunday morning found the phenomenon that is Alexander Newman making omelets-to-order for anyone who wanted one. Wow!

Furthering the Wow, I got to play Grey Ranks this morning! I've wanted to play the game for a while, and I got to play with Alexander (notice a trend? I'm not stalking him, really!), Nathan, Jason, and Joshua. I played Basia, a bookish Polish girl who was secretly in love with a German boy. She ended up offering her virtue to a Gestapo soldier to lure him into an assassination trap. Whether she was caught in the same trap was undefined at the end of the game. The game was harsh, bleak, tragic, and lovely. This could be really heart-wrenching if played over a full set of 3 sessions. The game suffered slightly from the compressed timeframe. It was a really good session, but it wasn't amazing. On the drive home I was thinking, "Y'know, if I had played this exact same session 5 years ago, it would have blown my mind that you could get such a tragic, exciting, emotional, artistic, historical story from a role-playing game." I'm glad that my recent years of play have given me higher standards.

Much thanks to everyone at Nerdly for making it such a great weekend!

Wow. Now that was a great convention! Dozens of events went off with barely a hitch to be found (at least that I heard about). Pick-up games and animated conversations scattered like snowflakes across several floors of the hotel. Double Exposure put on a great con, and the Indie Games Explosion was a great success!

( more details ... )

The Dreamation Master Schedule is up!

It seems I'm scheduled to run By The Stars on Friday at 2pm. Problem is, I packed the game up in an unfinished state and forgot to cancel the Dreamation session. I suppose I'll just run the Sorcerer game I ran at Southern Exposure and hope no one shows.

***************

The alarm woke me from a strange dream. A whole bunch of us indie-folk were going out for Thai food at a convention. I think it was a dream-facsimile of The King and I restaurant in Milwaulkee. There was a very long wait to get everyone seated, because they were seating 3-4 people from our group at a time. When we finally got seated, Kat and Dalys were down at the end of a table, next to Keith Senkowski. There were no more chairs on the end, so Kat suggested I sit closer to the middle of the table, next to Luke Crane. Next bit of the dream I remember is me hanging out in the vestibule of the restaurant until my food arrives, listening to my MP3 player. A local friend who's not terribly fond of the indie scene kept bothering me with stupid questions while I waited.

Whatever the dream meant, I woke up feeling melancholy.