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GenCon 2010
Back from GenCon a day early, since SC had to head up to South Bend today for work nonsense. Anyway, it was pretty great, apart from it being super crazy hot outside.
We weren't pre-registered for any games, so I only got to play two. I still had a lot of fun.
One of the games I got to play was Do You Have a Flag?, a Conan module run on Thursday by Suzanne Pietkiewicz. The reason I decided to play this game (because really, Conan?) was that it was listed in the book as ladies only. SC found it and was like "I think you would probably enjoy this!" What actually ended up happening was that not enough women showed up for the game to run, so Suzanne asked if we were okay bringing in men to play as well, which we were. Since all the pre-registered people for the Dark Heresy game SC was waiting for showed up, we managed to rope him into being our scholar.
Surprisingly, I actually really enjoyed it! The GM was really funny, and encouraged us to all be ridiculous, and also I was a Barbarian and got to have two axes, which is, you know, mostly what I ask from a game. Sadly, part two (A Gross Affair in Argos) was full up Saturday at noon when SC and I showed up for it, but I am very very glad that Suzanne got lots of players for her other sessions.
I also sat in and observed a Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader game that SC got into on Thursday night. (Apparently, he was very close to giving me his seat for it since he ended up getting handed the psyker character, but I am glad he didn't as it was a very large and boisterous group and I definitely would have let them talk all over me.) The player who wound up playing the ship's captain was really great, and SC had a lot of fun playing a telekinetic (and got a lot of Perils of the Warp funtimes), and I'm glad I sat and observed. I think I would like playing Rogue Trader at least as much as I would enjoy Dark Heresy. [I also spent this time listening to a game of Spirit of the Century across the room and they sounded like they were having so much fun I went to Evil Hat's booth in the dealer room later in the weekend and wound up buying the rulebook. It's a pretty cool system, but I'm not sure I fully have a sense of the aspects thing yet.]
SC and I also did a D&D 4th edition delve run by Wizards of the Coast on Friday just to get a chance to experience the system. There were things we liked about it (Second Wind and Action Points, mostly, and he was pretty into some of the changes they've made to clerics), and things we didn't (mainly, while the simplification is good for getting more people playing D&D, it's streamlined in some very videogamish ways). Most of my problems with 4th edition are no different than the problems I've had with other D&Ds (I don't like class systems, I find the alignment system overly simplistic, and I don't really like tabletop games with grids and minis.) SC, who has more experience with D&D and with 3.5 had more qualms with 4th than I did, but did admit to some good points. So basically, we'll probably play 3.5 if we play any D&D because it is the most customizable, but we did give 4th a shot.
The actual delve was kind of cool, though. The DM, Shawn O'Leary, was doing his first GenCon delve judging, which I never would have thought had he not told us that at the end. He was also pretty funny. We also had some really fun players and there were a lot of timely crits, and everyone was really helpful explaining when I could and could not do things. I played the only female pregen (boo), Thia, an elf rogue. I am not usually fond of roguing it up, but I think I did okay, even though I found the backstab/sneak attack rules sort of counterintuitive. Overall, I had fun with it, even if it wasn't the most ~amazing~ of gaming experiences.
Really, after that we mostly just spent a lot of time in the dealer room. I picked up some dice and the aforementioned Spirit of the Century rulebook, and SC picked up some stuff for his Warhammer armies, and we saw a lot of people in really neat costumes. (My favorite was the steampunk Ghostbuster.)
McC, another friend we were with, is now super into the idea of running any of a number of games, so hopefully (hopefully!) I will have a gaming group to do stuff with sometime soon! :D? :D?
We weren't pre-registered for any games, so I only got to play two. I still had a lot of fun.
One of the games I got to play was Do You Have a Flag?, a Conan module run on Thursday by Suzanne Pietkiewicz. The reason I decided to play this game (because really, Conan?) was that it was listed in the book as ladies only. SC found it and was like "I think you would probably enjoy this!" What actually ended up happening was that not enough women showed up for the game to run, so Suzanne asked if we were okay bringing in men to play as well, which we were. Since all the pre-registered people for the Dark Heresy game SC was waiting for showed up, we managed to rope him into being our scholar.
Surprisingly, I actually really enjoyed it! The GM was really funny, and encouraged us to all be ridiculous, and also I was a Barbarian and got to have two axes, which is, you know, mostly what I ask from a game. Sadly, part two (A Gross Affair in Argos) was full up Saturday at noon when SC and I showed up for it, but I am very very glad that Suzanne got lots of players for her other sessions.
I also sat in and observed a Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader game that SC got into on Thursday night. (Apparently, he was very close to giving me his seat for it since he ended up getting handed the psyker character, but I am glad he didn't as it was a very large and boisterous group and I definitely would have let them talk all over me.) The player who wound up playing the ship's captain was really great, and SC had a lot of fun playing a telekinetic (and got a lot of Perils of the Warp funtimes), and I'm glad I sat and observed. I think I would like playing Rogue Trader at least as much as I would enjoy Dark Heresy. [I also spent this time listening to a game of Spirit of the Century across the room and they sounded like they were having so much fun I went to Evil Hat's booth in the dealer room later in the weekend and wound up buying the rulebook. It's a pretty cool system, but I'm not sure I fully have a sense of the aspects thing yet.]
SC and I also did a D&D 4th edition delve run by Wizards of the Coast on Friday just to get a chance to experience the system. There were things we liked about it (Second Wind and Action Points, mostly, and he was pretty into some of the changes they've made to clerics), and things we didn't (mainly, while the simplification is good for getting more people playing D&D, it's streamlined in some very videogamish ways). Most of my problems with 4th edition are no different than the problems I've had with other D&Ds (I don't like class systems, I find the alignment system overly simplistic, and I don't really like tabletop games with grids and minis.) SC, who has more experience with D&D and with 3.5 had more qualms with 4th than I did, but did admit to some good points. So basically, we'll probably play 3.5 if we play any D&D because it is the most customizable, but we did give 4th a shot.
The actual delve was kind of cool, though. The DM, Shawn O'Leary, was doing his first GenCon delve judging, which I never would have thought had he not told us that at the end. He was also pretty funny. We also had some really fun players and there were a lot of timely crits, and everyone was really helpful explaining when I could and could not do things. I played the only female pregen (boo), Thia, an elf rogue. I am not usually fond of roguing it up, but I think I did okay, even though I found the backstab/sneak attack rules sort of counterintuitive. Overall, I had fun with it, even if it wasn't the most ~amazing~ of gaming experiences.
Really, after that we mostly just spent a lot of time in the dealer room. I picked up some dice and the aforementioned Spirit of the Century rulebook, and SC picked up some stuff for his Warhammer armies, and we saw a lot of people in really neat costumes. (My favorite was the steampunk Ghostbuster.)
McC, another friend we were with, is now super into the idea of running any of a number of games, so hopefully (hopefully!) I will have a gaming group to do stuff with sometime soon! :D? :D?