GenCon Games: Saturday
Exalted
We got up stupid early to play Exalted run by John in the Hampton's breakfast room. We being: me, John, Niki, Alix, Mike, Dustin, and Daniel M. Despite that fact that John's never run Exalted before, or played much that wasn't a Dustin Game (i.e.: alternate rules reality), it was really fun. I also failed to make a new character or update the character I had to 2nd edition, but I was mostly a social person so I just roleplayed everything and avoided rolling dice as much as possible. We were playing a module, which I've always been suspicious of, but I actually think it can be a really good idea. It means the GM can devote his/her prep time to learning the system instead of having to come up with crazy plot twists and doesn't have to know about every possible eventuality.
So, the game. If you know anything about Exalted, you know that being a Solar is a dangerous thing. Generally, one doesn't announce one's status. HOWEVER, in this game we had two characters who didn't care at all (a Twilight and a Dawn) mostly because they were total tanks. And then we had two Zenith castes, and they have some evangelical duties and tend to be a bit more open about things. The other players were me (an Eclipse Guild merchant) and a Night caste who most people didn't realize was there anyway. I denied I was a Solar until the last when we had to get into the camp of the Abyssal under treaty. Of course, this was mostly just an in so we could destroy their siege weapons. There was a plague we had to cure, a magical golden ram to capture (the only way to cure the plague and win the war), or yeah, and a minion of the Mask of Winters to defeat. I missed the last part b/c I had to go to my next game at 2...
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Dresden RPG
This was *the game* of GenCon. Everyone wanted to play this thing. When I arrived (early) to the room, there were 2 Dresden games scheduled, only 2 people with actual tickets were there yet (more came), but the room was packed with about 20 people all on the joint waiting list for both games. I had two tickets, so my extra went to the first person on the list, but no one else got in b/c everyone else showed up...which was a shame considering how bad my game was. Here are the facts:
it took 1.5 hours to even get started WE, the players at a con game, many of whom didn't know the system and/or the setting, had to provide some of the character creation After 2 hours of play (that would be 3.5 hours into a 4 hr slot) we still hadn't entered combat and I, a combat based character, left
One of my fellow players summed it up well on RPG.net. The GM was a man I'll call S...I'm sure he's a perfectly pleasant guy normally, but he can't run a con game to save his life. Apparently, he did a lot of playtesting.
S. has emailed me since I wrote this post and asked for formal feedback and been very receptive to it. Furthermore, I gather that he was ill while running. He also asked that remove his name from my journal, which I have done. If you really wanna know more, contact me in person.
The system seems to be decent despite his lack of skill. I'm not convinced it's a good system for a convention, but I will say that the other Dresden game that was going on in the same room looked like they were having fun, I wish I'd made that game my first choice.
We got up stupid early to play Exalted run by John in the Hampton's breakfast room. We being: me, John, Niki, Alix, Mike, Dustin, and Daniel M. Despite that fact that John's never run Exalted before, or played much that wasn't a Dustin Game (i.e.: alternate rules reality), it was really fun. I also failed to make a new character or update the character I had to 2nd edition, but I was mostly a social person so I just roleplayed everything and avoided rolling dice as much as possible. We were playing a module, which I've always been suspicious of, but I actually think it can be a really good idea. It means the GM can devote his/her prep time to learning the system instead of having to come up with crazy plot twists and doesn't have to know about every possible eventuality.
So, the game. If you know anything about Exalted, you know that being a Solar is a dangerous thing. Generally, one doesn't announce one's status. HOWEVER, in this game we had two characters who didn't care at all (a Twilight and a Dawn) mostly because they were total tanks. And then we had two Zenith castes, and they have some evangelical duties and tend to be a bit more open about things. The other players were me (an Eclipse Guild merchant) and a Night caste who most people didn't realize was there anyway. I denied I was a Solar until the last when we had to get into the camp of the Abyssal under treaty. Of course, this was mostly just an in so we could destroy their siege weapons. There was a plague we had to cure, a magical golden ram to capture (the only way to cure the plague and win the war), or yeah, and a minion of the Mask of Winters to defeat. I missed the last part b/c I had to go to my next game at 2...
____________________
Dresden RPG
This was *the game* of GenCon. Everyone wanted to play this thing. When I arrived (early) to the room, there were 2 Dresden games scheduled, only 2 people with actual tickets were there yet (more came), but the room was packed with about 20 people all on the joint waiting list for both games. I had two tickets, so my extra went to the first person on the list, but no one else got in b/c everyone else showed up...which was a shame considering how bad my game was. Here are the facts:
One of my fellow players summed it up well on RPG.net. The GM was a man I'll call S...I'm sure he's a perfectly pleasant guy normally, but he can't run a con game to save his life. Apparently, he did a lot of playtesting.
S. has emailed me since I wrote this post and asked for formal feedback and been very receptive to it. Furthermore, I gather that he was ill while running. He also asked that remove his name from my journal, which I have done. If you really wanna know more, contact me in person.
The system seems to be decent despite his lack of skill. I'm not convinced it's a good system for a convention, but I will say that the other Dresden game that was going on in the same room looked like they were having fun, I wish I'd made that game my first choice.