I registered while I was in Death Valley and didn't get most of the games I wanted, picking up games later that satisfied the "there were tickets available" threshold for a game. I DO like playing new games at GenCon, especially when with the creator so as to get the correct vibe frmo them.
Horror Crawl - Age Past RPG
This was a classic fantasy heartbreaker with a four page character sheet. The usual "more realistic combat, spells equipment" stuff were present. I got to listen to some DM philosophy from the DM, and kept my big mouth shut when he talked about flashbacks and forced character stuff. He did get a good horror vibe going with a giants wasp with an elf ladies face, and stuff like that. We were supposed to arrest a dude at his house for back taxes. We started by just burning the place down. "Ok, you win." was the DM's response. "And now in an alternate timeline, what do you do?" That's a good response. It was possible to explore the house with only one or two combats, but since we raced through it we ended up going in to some of the rooms and pushing the big red button in order to fill the time. So, heartbreaker system, ok imagery, but overall poorly designed dungeon for play. The game slowed down a lot during combat. "You can usually only fit in three combats in D&D or Pathfinder." says the DM ... again I kept my fat fucking mouth shut.
The Mall Maul - DCC - Crawling under a broken moon
This used the DCC zine rules (Broken moon) to create a MCC-like Gamma World thing. GW is my favorite game, and I fondly remember creating the Pittsburgh mall and running game after game in it as a teen. (2e I think described Pittsburgh?) Essentially the same thing in this game, as we collected artifacts to offer as tribute to the raiders. Nice and non-standard. It felt mysterious. I enjoyed this a lot.
Romulans Attack! - The new Star Trek rpg
Nothing much to say here about the system. It seemed aimed at n00bs, like that newer Dr Who RPG they released a few years back. Lots of predefined choices for actions and so on. I like the straight/serious Star Trek universe ... and then adding in murder hobo like starfleet officers. The locals on the planet were aging a lot. The ass-hat in chrge failed to mention a farmer was complaining about seeing Romulans sabotaging his vineyard. Funny at the time how stupid the colonists were, with failing to mention stuff. "Anything unusual going on? Amy rumors." Nope. "Remember when asked about anything unusual? You don't think Romulans fell in to that category?" That kind of shit. Fun at the time, but you had to be there I guess. I don't see this game going anywhere. The team commander gets final say, the science and engineering officer get the most rolls ... the usual problems with those sorts of things.
Dark Trails Mystery Theater - DCC Western
A new genre for DCC that they are trying out, I think. Deadlands monsters and so on. I don't think the emphasis on the supernatural works well, but then again I thought Deadlands genre sucked. You have a "grit" score that is your Sanity. Maybe the least fun DCC game I've played.
The Disappearance at Enoth - Lost Age rpg
Another heartbreaker, this one funded through a kickstarter. One page tri-fold character sheet. Bronze age, but with furry races, like bat-men and panter people and elephant people and badger-people. That element didn't really come up much. You have a relationship with another party member that you define, a concept from indies', I think. That works well for con games to get people interacting, I think. Per-body part armor, DR, dodge rolls, action points, pushing yourself, etc. In spite of the furry stuff, it did have a good fantasy bronze age vibe, with barnacle monsters, watery swamp caves, slug monsters and so on.
Predation - The Crawdor Complex - Cypher system
A new rpg using Monty Cooks Cypher, but not written by him. You're time travelers stuck in the past in a colony. You all have dino pets that a different player takes also ... but you have to roll to get your pets to understand you .. and then they get to roll to actually do it. We were the butterflys faction ... and in spite of our desire to wipe out humanity in the past, it was stated several times that his radical position didn't make us the bad guys. The other side were the guys trying to restore time travel to get everyone home ... but they were not the good guys. Uh huh. We essentially bluffed out way in and didn't a shit ton of roleplay. "Delivery. Got a cig?" Mace to the head. I sent my dino pet to his doom, which didn't go over well with my son. This was after I bfriended yet another dino and used him to get eaten alive by teradactyls(sp?) so we could escape, and then picked up a second dino dino pet "October" (September was my first pet) and then almost got him killed also. Hey man, everything is a resource to exploit when you're murder hobo'ing. The dino pet thing was very cumbersome.
Heart of the Forest Savage - 2e
This was in the Horticultural Building museum area (which was well done, btw) and as VERY 2e, with an old school DM. FUll equipment, multiclassing everywhere, animal companions, names like "Honeyspice" and "Tindertwig." Unapologetically 2e, which was very cool, even if I did gag more than at the beginning during the dinner description scene while camping. "Even Honeysuckle contributes to the pot with some nuts and roots." When you see a unicorn head on a pole in a stone circle, you know you've found the bad guys. My son liked dropping fireballs 2e-style! Full on 2e with a great DM.
My daughter later said "You know, there's just nothing like D&D. Those other games sucked."
All of the RPG"s (except the 2e one) suffered a lot from the DM's. Slow, halting combat with pauses, reading from books. Lots of DM breaks. The DM's were ALL good when they got out of this and got in roleplaying some NPC's. "Talking is a free action" is one of my favorite sayings, and I love to interact before resorting to combat, it makes the game so much more fun ... especially since the DM's and game systems both slowed down combat a lot.
The rooms were LOUD, much more so than I remember. It made it hard to hear and hard to really connect. They were also cramped, with large dudes with roller cases always trying to squeeze by. In several rooms all of the tables were full, which, IMO, is very unusual. It felt like I had to work hard to have some fun in everything but the 2e game, and maybe the Predation game after 90 minutes or so.
I use a d20 to roll d10's on. In EVERY game someone told me I was doing it wrong. Every. Game. It look them all awhile to understand that a d20 is 1-10 twice. I can't be the only one to do this?!?
Goodman had a giant arch in their room, with faces on the uprights dripping (painted on) blood in to holy water basins under them. Between them was a giant gong that players in their tournament rand when they died ... and then everyone in the room clapped. It was pretty bad ass and, weirdly, not at all disruptive to the other games. Goodman runs a great ship.
The dealer hall was a PAIN. Thursday was INSANE, and the other days better. In retrospect I suspect it was everyone trying to get goodies/limited editions before they sold out. I barely was able to look at anything. Seemed like more RPG companies this year ... but that's not saying much. Goodman, LotFP, and the guy selling Kuntz stuff were the highlights. The left side of the hall (lower numbers) had more big boardgame company booths, and was much easier to navigate. The right side had a lot of "only one table" booths and was ALWAYS slammed. It seemed like there were far fewer strollers and cosplay people, thank god, but it was still hard to navigate.
I ended up buying a nice white Epislon City T from Goodman, as well as a full set of Warden security bracelets. I AGONIZED over this, since they serve no purpose. In the end I decided that since S3 is one of my favorite adventure (from a nostalgia standpoint) and I LUV all "generation ship gone bad" fiction, that I should allow myself this indulgence. I'm glad I did. Other than the new Cutthroat Caverns expansion, that was the extent of my purchases. The reviews thing has me cycling through adventures to an extent that here is seldom anything there anymore for me.
They Might be Giants on Thursday night was a great show. They kept commenting how they had never played a venue this big before. (It's the same one that will have Janet Jackson, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry later this year.) They also kept trying to fit in Indy 500 references ala "Hello Cleveland." The crowd didn't go for it ... since a large percentage were from out of town and I doubt anyone there cared about the 500. They admitted they had no idea GenCon was a thing or what was going on, in a kind & friendly way. A big concert like this, from a good group was a great Thursday night closer to start the con. They usually have cover bands, like Lez Zepplin or AC Dshee, and the real deal makes a big difference.
My #1 GenCon advice? Tip the valet well when leaving your car. Those guys take care of you. Free drink tickets, keeping your car topside for short visits ... they remember you.
They Might Be Giants?? Cool.
Thanks for letting us know - that was interesting.
Sadly, between family and health issues, I haven't been able to get to Gen Con in a while, and probably wont' for a few more years.
Any chance of a photo of your security bracelets? I agree, sometimes you've got to buy something that calls to you even if you can't use them.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;986043Heart of the Forest Savage - 2e
This was in the Horticultural Building museum area (which was well done, btw) and as VERY 2e, with an old school DM. FUll equipment, multiclassing everywhere, animal companions, names like "Honeyspice" and "Tindertwig." Unapologetically 2e, which was very cool, even if I did gag more than at the beginning during the dinner description scene while camping. "Even Honeysuckle contributes to the pot with some nuts and roots." When you see a unicorn head on a pole in a stone circle, you know you've found the bad guys. My son liked dropping fireballs 2e-style! Full on 2e with a great DM.
My daughter later said "You know, there's just nothing like D&D. Those other games sucked."
That does sound fun. As much as I enjoy contemporary and OSR games, I'd probably have really enjoyed that too. There's a lot to be said for just jumping in and fully immersing oneself in the tropes and style of a game like that.
Quote from: bryce0lynch;986043My daughter later said "You know, there's just nothing like D&D. Those other games sucked."
All of the RPG"s (except the 2e one) suffered a lot from the DM's. Slow, halting combat with pauses, reading from books. Lots of DM breaks. The DM's were ALL good when they got out of this and got in roleplaying some NPC's. "Talking is a free action" is one of my favorite sayings, and I love to interact before resorting to combat, it makes the game so much more fun … especially since the DM's and game systems both slowed down combat a lot.
...
Goodman had a giant arch in their room, with faces on the uprights dripping (painted on) blood in to holy water basins under them. Between them was a giant gong that players in their tournament rand when they died … and then everyone in the room clapped. It was pretty bad ass and, weirdly, not at all disruptive to the other games. Goodman runs a great ship.
Hey Bryce, I was running sessions in that room. I don't consider myself an elite GM, but from your complaints, I think you would have enjoyed being at my table. My players were consistently engaged, smart and fun, and everything was very briskly-paced. Unfortunately, I was running adventures that I think you've even reviewed -
Bride of the Black Manse and
The Hole In The Sky - so a certain something would have been lost.
And yeah, Goodman does run a great ship. I had an excellent experience with that community.
QuoteThe rooms were LOUD, much more so than I remember.
I blew out my voice. For my noon session on Sunday, FINALLY I was able to be heard without standing and bellowing. It was sweet relief. I even sat down a couple of times.
QuoteThe dealer hall was a PAIN. Thursday was INSANE, and the other days better.
I was able to wander around on Wednesday after everything was setup but barely anyone was there. I probably could have done some shopping right then, but I didn't end up spending much, anyway (less than $100 total). Still, it felt like being a kid left behind in the toy store.
Pics???
Bryce, thank you for the rundown.
I chuckled at the D20/D10 story. I've seen that many times. Do you also D6/D10 for your D20s? I've seen players totally befuddled by that.
Great report. I reiterate the call for pictures!
Quote from: RPGPundit;987547Great report. I reiterate the call for pictures!
In two other threads I posted some pictures - they're labeled "Gen Con Thursday and Friday" and "Gen Con 2017 Saturday"...
Including pictures of Frank Mentzer and Vincent Baker...
- Ed C
Quote from: bryce0lynch;986043I use a d20 to roll d10's on. In EVERY game someone told me I was doing it wrong. Every. Game. It look them all awhile to understand that a d20 is 1-10 twice. I can't be the only one to do this?!?
...My #1 GenCon advice? Tip the valet well when leaving your car. Those guys take care of you. Free drink tickets, keeping your car topside for short visits ... they remember you.
You are not. I do this as well, ...often.
The original d20 were simply labeled 0-9 twice... so were basically two ten-sided dice. We used to differentiate between 0-9 and the teens numbers by painting in one set of numbers one color, then the second set of 0-9 another color, like for example ...red, and blue. Then, when we rolled the dice in-game we had to call what color the high numbers were, and the GM would make us stick to that. So if I called red high the blue 0-9 numbers were 1-10 and and the red numbers were 11-20. That's one way you can tell an original D&D player from a noob, ...the noobs will all say you are doing it wrong when you use a d20 to roll d10 or percentile numbers, ...because they simply don't know any better.
Lou Zocchi from Gamescience was the first to actually change the d20 die and he added a + sign to one set of the numbers on a d20, and that was to denote that those numbers should be considered 11-20, but we still used those dice as d10s and as d100's (rolling them as percentiles as well). He was really brilliant that way, after all, why buy three dice, when you only really needed to buy one. These are still my preferred d20's today, Gamescience d20s, marked with a plus sign to denote 11-20. Just one of these dice can be used as d10, d20, a d100, a d1000, a d10000, and any other multiple of ten one would need to randomize or count up to. These are true random dice made of hardened plastic with tight dimensional specifications for long life and designed to consistently generate a random number through the full range.
Compared to the Gamescience dice,
Chessex dice, Crystal Caste, Koplow, all have rounded edges which makes the dice extremely non-random. So much so, that one can discern which numbers can be predictably rolled with as few as a thousand test rolls. The very function of dice, which is to introduce a random element of luck into the game is defeated using dice that have a high probability of rolling a predetermined number or subset of numbers out of a range. Crystal Caste does have an awesome range of solid metal dice though ...see second attached image from Origins this year...
...In the attached image of dice from left-to-right;
Original D&D Dice. I'm missing the white d20 from this set, stolen by one of the house cats and stashed wherever secret kitty enclaves are located. I have another set on order on Ebay, with of course, the Holmes blue box D&D set, so should have a complete set again before my birthday.
behind them, Traveller Dice, a gift from Marc Miller
...behind that Traveller Dice purchased from
Lou Zocchi at
GaryCon this year.
To the immediate right of the original D&D dice is the
Original Gamescience solid colored polyhedral dice. Note these are not inked (yet). The d20 features 0-9 twice with a plus sign included with one of the 0-9 digits.
Behind them are the old style d6's. Many of these came wiith SPI or Avalon Hill wargames, but I bought a large number from Lou Zocchi at GaryCon this year.
To the right of the
Original Gamescience Polyhedrals are two sets of second generation
Gamescience Crystal Polyhedrals. Originally introduced in 1980/81 these were my favorite type of dice for several decades, until just in the last few years, I went back to preferring the original Gamescience original solid colored platonic polyheydrals.
To the right of the crystals is an extra purple d4 crystal which stealthed its way into this shot of dice history, as well an original Gamescience crystal purple d5, and a Gamescience red crystal d30.
In the upper right corner is all of the newest Gamescience Solid Polyheydrals. Most of these I picked up at GaryCon last may just to beef up dice collection since my cats have been stealing and hiding dice, needed to rebuild the collection. These dice are insured for about two hundred and fifty dollars currently as that is what is would cost at retail, to replace these.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1465[/ATTACH]
Also, I always take good care of the valets, this year they got me in and out promptly with no fuss at GenCon, and they did a tremendously good job for me at GaryCon as well last spring. Always like to spend a bit of time with the concierge as well. They know things. good things about whereever you happen to be, like where to eat to avoid the jun horde, the best food, and the best nearest shopping and spas.
Crystal Caste dice from Origins 2017
Precision Aluminum Dice
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1466[/ATTACH]
Precision Mithral Dice (really steel)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1467[/ATTACH]
Precision Copper Dice
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1468[/ATTACH]
Precision Crystal Caste Dice from Origins 2017
Opalite Crystal Gem Dice
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1471[/ATTACH]
Tiger's Eye Gemstone Dice
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1469[/ATTACH]
Lapis Lazuli Gemstone Dice
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1470[/ATTACH]
Great report! Yes, you're daughter's comment is eminently quotable. And now this topic's turned into dice porn! Mmmm, dice porn...
Quote from: Koltar;987585In two other threads I posted some pictures - they're labeled "Gen Con Thursday and Friday" and "Gen Con 2017 Saturday"...
Including pictures of Frank Mentzer and Vincent Baker...
- Ed C
Yeah, saw this now.