I realize I didn’t do posts for my last two days of GenCon, and that this one’s a little late. There are mitigating factors, I swear. Sleep deprivation, food poisoning, and simple laziness conspired to keep me from finishing the series, but here I am, ready and able, finishing it all up in one post.

When last we spoke I was bragging about an award or something. Other stuff happened since that point. I don’t remember the exact sequence, so I’ll just go stream of consciousness for a bit if you don’t mind (and even if you do).

I got my mind blown a couple of times when I met people I admire and they totally knew who I was already. This happened with Jason Morningstar, whose games I adore, and Mick Bradley, whose podcast was integral to my indie games education way back when. There were also moments of mutual star-struckedness with numerous people I follow (and am followed by) on Twitter, which was cool.

I met Monte Cook, who is a very cool dude. He shook my hand, held Bulldogs! aloft whilst getting his picture taken with me. It was pretty dang cool.

I played in John Adamus‘s Assassin’s Creed hack of Night’s Black Agents (Night’s Black Assassins), which was fantastic and fun and highly lethal. I got to play Fiasco with some friends and watched as our poor characters spiraled into depravity and, eventually, imprisonment/death/worse things. I got to participate in a Fate Core setting creation session with Lenny Balsera, John Adamus, Jeremy Keller, and Shoshanna Kessock (Fate Core is going to be awesome, by the way).

The thing that struck me about GenCon this year was that socializing seemed to far outweigh gaming. Don’t get me wrong; I did a lot of gaming. But the socializing took up more of my time and is what sticks in my memory now that it’s over. I met some really cool people (you all know who you are; I loved meeting each and every one of you), I got to see people I’d seen before but don’t get to see all that often (it was great seeing you again!), I picked up some new freelance jobs (can’t talk about either of them yet; sorry!). I even got to spend Sunday night as a supplicant, drinking at the feet of the Macklin.

So yeah, GenCon was awesome this year. Even awesomer than last year. Next year promises to be awesomer still.

So DexCon was a lot of fun, if exhausting. I got there pretty early on Saturday and got to hang out with some people before registration opened and I went and got my badge and the stuff I needed to run my first game.

At 9am I ran my Alien vs. Jedi Fate hack to a full group of six people, and it was a rousing success. I had planned for a lot of internal conflict (after all, the group consisted of two jedi, two sith, and two bounty hunters), and I certainly got it. I actually had to remind the group from time to time that there were threats to deal with other than each other (hostile aliens gathering people up for implantation and incubation, a hull breach, life support about to go down; that kind of stuff).

In the end, everyone got away but all of the NPCs aboard the station were left to their fate, the sith made off with information about the aliens, and one of the bounty hunters escaped with a live specimen. Oh, and both of the jedi had been somewhat corrupted by the Dark Side (especially the young hotshot padawan). Not exactly a banner day for the Republic.

After that I played in the Night’s Black Agents tournament, which was both deadly and fun. Our group (the Americans) played in an adventure called “Die Hard in an Italian Hotel with Vampires”. Our job was to make sure a political press talk went off without a hitch. Unfortunately, vampires and giant spiders happened, killing lots of people and almost setting off a bomb that would have infected everyone with a communicable pathogen. Five of us were in the game, one survived to the next round. I didn’t wind up winning any prize money, but I had a great time and came away with a high opinion of the game.

After that I got to have dinner and drinks with John Adamus and Ken Hite, which was a lot of fun. I had a game at midnight, so there was plenty of time to hang out. More and more people joined the group as the evening wore on, and we ended up with a pretty big crowd by the time I had to leave and run The Demolished Ones.

That game almost didn’t happen. For a while it was just myself and John Adamus sitting in the room, and I didn’t feel it would be worth it to run a playtest for one person. However, someone else showed up as we were about to call it quits, and that allowed us to play (and drink good rum) until about 2:30am. It went well. There were a few problems that I’ll need to iron out, but the basic gameplay worked, and the on-the-fly character generation was good.

The next morning I got up early(ish) so that I could go run Becoming. Unfortunately, that was not in the cards. Only my friend Irven showed up and, since I needed at least two more people to run the game, I had to cancel the playtest.

It wasn’t a total loss, though; I sat in on John Adamus’s writing workshop (which was great) and stuck around afterward to talk to a bunch of the people who participated about gaming and writing and design and how to get your stuff out there (which was also great). It was a good endcap to the convention.

Oh, and I got to have lunch with my wife’s college roommate, which was also fun. Good convention, all in all.

Now that the DexCon schedule is out, I thought I’d post my schedule.

Saturday

9am – 1pm: I’ll be running my Alien vs. Jedi Fate hack. It’s a dry heat.

1pm – 2pm: Grabbing a quick bite somewhere before the next game.

2pm – 8pm: I’ll be participating in the Night’s Black Agents tournament. Dirk Debonaire and I will be trying to win that $1000. You’re going down, Connery!

8pm – 12am: Gorging myself on delicious New Jersey Mexican food, in all likelihood.

Sunday

12am – 4am: I’m going to be running a playtest of The Demolished Ones. This one’s the least likely to get filled because of the time slot, so stop by if you’re interested!

4am – 8am: Catching a few winks and lamenting that I’m getting too old for this shit in my best Danny Glover voice.

8am – 10am: Shower, breakfast, etc.

10am – 2pm: I’m going to run a Becoming quest, “Long Live the King”.

2pm onward: driving home and recovering from a long weekend of gaming debauchery.

I’m getting too old for this shit.

I’ve just submitted the games I’m going to be running at DexCon this year. I don’t have a schedule yet, but I’ll be running each one once. For your perusal, here they are as I submitted them.

Alien vs. Jedi

Game System: Fate

Publisher: NA (homebrew hack)

Something is being studied aboard a Republic research station, something that should have been left well alone. Six individuals — Jedi, bounty hunters, Sith — are aboard this research station for their own reasons, but things are about to go very wrong. Enemies will have to put aside their differences if they hope to survive.

4-6 players

The Demolished Ones

Game System: The Demolished Ones (Fate)

Publisher: Rite Publishing

You wake in a cold concrete room with a group of people you don’t remember. In fact, you don’t remember much of anything. Where are you? Why are you here? Who are these people? Who are you, for that matter? Most pressing though is the question that everyone asks when they see the body in the corner: is one of these people a murderer?

The Demolished Ones is a Fate-based adventure about amnesia, identity, and the power (and danger) of knowledge in a pseudo-Victorian noir horror setting. This is a playtest of a game that will be released by Rite Publishing. If you play in this game, be ready to provide feedback (and to get credit for your feedback).

3-6 players

Long Live the King

Game System: Becoming: A Game of Heroism and Sacrifice

Publisher: Galileo Games

A wedding should be a joyous occasion, but when the king’s men come to take the bride on her wedding day, a hero must step forward.

Becoming is a game about what you must sacrifice to be a hero. Taking on the mantle of the hero makes you an outcast. In order to save the things you love, you must lose them. When you complete your quest will you still be a hero? Or have you become something else?

This is a playtest for a game that will be released by Galileo Games next year. If you play in this game, be ready to give feedback (and receive credit for it).

3-4 players

The more I read indie RPGs, the more I want to read and play more indie RPGs. More than that, I want to share the awesome of indie RPGs with other people, people who don’t know that there are games other than D&D and Pathfinder out there.

To that end, I’m in the process of making arrangements with Rob, the proprietor of Family Fun Hobbies in Hamilton, NJ, to start up a monthly indie game day. The idea is that, once per month, I come into the store and run a different indie game with the intent of getting people excited about them and showing them what’s out there.

I already have a roster of games I want to run. I’ll probably start with Fiasco, and follow that up with Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple and Zombie Cinema. It should be fun; I can’t wait.