Gateway 2011: Sunday
Sunday would be the only day of the con that I didn't run a game. I's arrived early enough on Friday to get spots in all the games I wanted, so first up was Mike Olsen's Dungeon World game, a run through the old D&D module Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Mike used the red book edition and playsheets. He did a fine job of adapting the module to the system and had made a number of interesting and cool custom moves. It was interesting to see how Mike ran Dungeon World as he tends to GM games with pretty traditional structures. From my later conversations with Mike it really worked for him and from talking to the other players it certainly worked for us as well.
I made a flabby human cleric of a cthonic deity for whom suffering was sacred; I was basically a flagellant, but with a blunt knife rather than a scourge. Mike gave xp for bonds as well as rolls, and as in my games this gave the players a mechanical incentive to run with them and resulted in lots of excellent roleplaying opportunities. I spent a good portion of my time trying to convert the Wizard and trying to protect the Thief, between sawing and stabbing at myself, of course.
After lunch and a brief visit to the dealer room (my first), I sat down with a bunch of story gamers to play PDQ Jaws of the Six Serpents. We discovered that if the set-up is primed for intra-group conflict, PDQ breaks. Accordingly, this session was a bit of a clusterfuck. The scenario would have been good with a system that allowed the players to go at each other hammer and tongs, so it was a shame, but my vague memories of the blurb had made me think "desert travel adventure" not "barbarian vs civilised social conflict" (and associated ideological problems regarding colonialism).
That said, I thought the characters and the set-up were cool, just poorly supported by the system, and there were some awesome moments. In particular, right at the end. the evil sorceror has just used blood magic including drawing power from my barbarian lord's children to immolate my tribal lands in an fiery holocaust. I spent a chip to narrate a fact: "I survived and the sequel is Conan". I really want to play in the sequel in which the barbarian and some companions infiltrate the city to kill the new regents (including the genocidal sorcerer) and rescue his children, during which he discovers that his wife who, unknown to him also survived, is doing the same thing. Now, that set-up would work for PDQ.
Dinner was an acceptable chicken sandwich (and really good chips!) at the hotel bar. It was close so I didn't push for the Pakistani place to the south.
The final session for the day was Don't Rest Your Head the game of insomniacs who develop supernatural powers and interact with a nightmarish dream-world. I ran it several years ago at Buckets, but I haven't looked at it for ages and I've never played it, so this was much awaited and it didn't disappoint.
My character was a struggling rock musician who acted cocky but was hampered by his fear of failure who overcame his fear during the course of a nightmarish battle with a creature called The Dream Eater. Jesse (the GM) amalgamated the threads offered by the two characters into a coherent whole with strong thematic and metaphorical aspects. The narrative wove between the two characters and the paths of the two characters crossed and re-crossed each other to produce a compelling game full of great scenes. In a con filled with great games and awesome moments, this game was a highlight.
I faded early at Barcon, but made a couple of great conversations with a friend from Vegas and withe the other Dungeon World GMs in which Plots were Formed.
I made a flabby human cleric of a cthonic deity for whom suffering was sacred; I was basically a flagellant, but with a blunt knife rather than a scourge. Mike gave xp for bonds as well as rolls, and as in my games this gave the players a mechanical incentive to run with them and resulted in lots of excellent roleplaying opportunities. I spent a good portion of my time trying to convert the Wizard and trying to protect the Thief, between sawing and stabbing at myself, of course.
After lunch and a brief visit to the dealer room (my first), I sat down with a bunch of story gamers to play PDQ Jaws of the Six Serpents. We discovered that if the set-up is primed for intra-group conflict, PDQ breaks. Accordingly, this session was a bit of a clusterfuck. The scenario would have been good with a system that allowed the players to go at each other hammer and tongs, so it was a shame, but my vague memories of the blurb had made me think "desert travel adventure" not "barbarian vs civilised social conflict" (and associated ideological problems regarding colonialism).
That said, I thought the characters and the set-up were cool, just poorly supported by the system, and there were some awesome moments. In particular, right at the end. the evil sorceror has just used blood magic including drawing power from my barbarian lord's children to immolate my tribal lands in an fiery holocaust. I spent a chip to narrate a fact: "I survived and the sequel is Conan". I really want to play in the sequel in which the barbarian and some companions infiltrate the city to kill the new regents (including the genocidal sorcerer) and rescue his children, during which he discovers that his wife who, unknown to him also survived, is doing the same thing. Now, that set-up would work for PDQ.
Dinner was an acceptable chicken sandwich (and really good chips!) at the hotel bar. It was close so I didn't push for the Pakistani place to the south.
The final session for the day was Don't Rest Your Head the game of insomniacs who develop supernatural powers and interact with a nightmarish dream-world. I ran it several years ago at Buckets, but I haven't looked at it for ages and I've never played it, so this was much awaited and it didn't disappoint.
My character was a struggling rock musician who acted cocky but was hampered by his fear of failure who overcame his fear during the course of a nightmarish battle with a creature called The Dream Eater. Jesse (the GM) amalgamated the threads offered by the two characters into a coherent whole with strong thematic and metaphorical aspects. The narrative wove between the two characters and the paths of the two characters crossed and re-crossed each other to produce a compelling game full of great scenes. In a con filled with great games and awesome moments, this game was a highlight.
I faded early at Barcon, but made a couple of great conversations with a friend from Vegas and withe the other Dungeon World GMs in which Plots were Formed.