Big Bad Con - Review
This year was the first year of "Big Bad Con," a game convention put together by a friend of mine. And apparently this first year was a good success for a small Convention, which is awesome, because seannittner knows how to organize things, and is charismatic enough and smart enough to actually turn this into one of the bigger Cons in the area, if he keeps up with it.
(And, no, I'm not just kissing ass here. I'm much more obsequious when I do that.)
So - timeline of the Con:
Friday
Friday morning was going fine until my printer decided it didn't want to speak with my laptop anymore, and then decided that rather than ejecting a printed page, it would hold it and print the top of the next page on the bottom of the previous page.
This curtailed some of the printing I wanted to do - but maybe that was for the best.
I took a nap, got up a little bit later than intended, packed up the car, and made the drive that should have taken only 15-20 minutes in 45 minutes. ( I hate people who have to rubberneck at every police pull-over or, in one case, at a parked, inoperative tow truck.) Still, got there in time to grab my hotel room, but stuff in it, register for the Con, and make it to the Friday night game I was in.
Yep, that's right people, I actually PLAYED on a Friday night.
Mike Parker ran Eclipse Phase, in the actual Eclipse Phase world, and with all the rules. I'll post a review later (I'm going to review all the games I participated in), but I'll say here that I had fun again. Though there were some awkward moments that had nothing to do with the game.
After that game, I went up to my room, finished up some details for my game, and tried to sleep.
I always sleep poorly the first night in a hotel.
Saturday
Saturday AM Cil and I woke up, had breakfast, went into the dealer's room (I purchased only two books - Microscope and the Airship Pirates/Abney Park RPG. I had a "wish list" and only bought things that were on that list.)
Cil had to work registration at noon, so I went up to the room, added a bit more detail to the game, played City of Heroes, then went to run my game.
The game I ran was advertised as a New World of Darkness game, but there was a bit of bait & switch. They started out the game as mortals, mostly single parents dealing with the disappearance of their children. Roughly around the half-way point of the game, they discovered that they were Changelings, that this knowledge had been removed from them through a powerful Pledge, and that the disappearance of the children reflected that the Other who swore the Oath with them had violated his side of the Oath.
(I'll go more into it later, when I review it.)
During the dinner break, Cil purchased a hotel restaurant hamburger for me, which immediately went through my digestive system like high powered ammo through cheesecloth. This required me to take another break about 15 minutes after I restarted the game, which I felt awful about. But the worst would come later.
Despite that, the game went well. Which made me happy. I think this might have been the best convention game I ran this year - though I do have to credit the players I had with a lot of that.
Sunday
I had a 10 AM game to get to, and I overslept a bit. Cil and I tried to grab breakfast, but five minutes after I ordered I had to go to the game. My stomach was still kind of gurgly, and I was disoriented.
So I was kind of confused when people seemed upset at me for only being a few minutes late.
I found out later I was over an hour late - the game started at 9, not 10. But fortunately, my space wasn't given away.
Still, the game was fun. It was a Dresden Files RPG where we were all dead people working as a makeshift police force in a realm of dead people, tracking down a Rakshasa that had managed to connive it's way into our world. My character was a 19th Century Pinkerton.
I was also supposed to play in a 3 PM World of Darkness: Innocents game that I had been looking forward to all weekend. Except my stomach wouldn't quit lurching and gurgling. I decided to bow out (fortunately, they found a replacement) and drive home. But one day . . . ONE DAY . . . I will play in one of this GMs games.
Overall
Games were good. None were perfect, but that happens very rarely. (Once every four years, as far as I can tell. At least when I'm involved.)
I had some problem with the game registration system - but I'll go into that in another post. (Let's just say there's problems with gaming in the Bay Area in general, and the sign up style - regardless if it's First Come First Serve or Shuffler driven - will never fix it.) I'd just like the registration system that doesn't make me psychotic and annoying.
The Hotel had a kind of creepy vibe to it - I started to tell people the elevator was haunted, based on how the lights would flicker and move when the elevator was operating. (No, it wasn't haunted. I don't actually BELIEVE in ghosts.) The accessibility of food wasn't the best.
However, I will say this is what a well organized convention looks like. I was unaware of any snags in the general flow of things. There were also too many games that I wanted to play in or try out - and that's not a complaint.
I heard it turned out well, so we can apparently look forward to another Big Bad Con next year. Which is awesome.
Rich
(And, no, I'm not just kissing ass here. I'm much more obsequious when I do that.)
So - timeline of the Con:
Friday
Friday morning was going fine until my printer decided it didn't want to speak with my laptop anymore, and then decided that rather than ejecting a printed page, it would hold it and print the top of the next page on the bottom of the previous page.
This curtailed some of the printing I wanted to do - but maybe that was for the best.
I took a nap, got up a little bit later than intended, packed up the car, and made the drive that should have taken only 15-20 minutes in 45 minutes. ( I hate people who have to rubberneck at every police pull-over or, in one case, at a parked, inoperative tow truck.) Still, got there in time to grab my hotel room, but stuff in it, register for the Con, and make it to the Friday night game I was in.
Yep, that's right people, I actually PLAYED on a Friday night.
Mike Parker ran Eclipse Phase, in the actual Eclipse Phase world, and with all the rules. I'll post a review later (I'm going to review all the games I participated in), but I'll say here that I had fun again. Though there were some awkward moments that had nothing to do with the game.
After that game, I went up to my room, finished up some details for my game, and tried to sleep.
I always sleep poorly the first night in a hotel.
Saturday
Saturday AM Cil and I woke up, had breakfast, went into the dealer's room (I purchased only two books - Microscope and the Airship Pirates/Abney Park RPG. I had a "wish list" and only bought things that were on that list.)
Cil had to work registration at noon, so I went up to the room, added a bit more detail to the game, played City of Heroes, then went to run my game.
The game I ran was advertised as a New World of Darkness game, but there was a bit of bait & switch. They started out the game as mortals, mostly single parents dealing with the disappearance of their children. Roughly around the half-way point of the game, they discovered that they were Changelings, that this knowledge had been removed from them through a powerful Pledge, and that the disappearance of the children reflected that the Other who swore the Oath with them had violated his side of the Oath.
(I'll go more into it later, when I review it.)
During the dinner break, Cil purchased a hotel restaurant hamburger for me, which immediately went through my digestive system like high powered ammo through cheesecloth. This required me to take another break about 15 minutes after I restarted the game, which I felt awful about. But the worst would come later.
Despite that, the game went well. Which made me happy. I think this might have been the best convention game I ran this year - though I do have to credit the players I had with a lot of that.
Sunday
I had a 10 AM game to get to, and I overslept a bit. Cil and I tried to grab breakfast, but five minutes after I ordered I had to go to the game. My stomach was still kind of gurgly, and I was disoriented.
So I was kind of confused when people seemed upset at me for only being a few minutes late.
I found out later I was over an hour late - the game started at 9, not 10. But fortunately, my space wasn't given away.
Still, the game was fun. It was a Dresden Files RPG where we were all dead people working as a makeshift police force in a realm of dead people, tracking down a Rakshasa that had managed to connive it's way into our world. My character was a 19th Century Pinkerton.
I was also supposed to play in a 3 PM World of Darkness: Innocents game that I had been looking forward to all weekend. Except my stomach wouldn't quit lurching and gurgling. I decided to bow out (fortunately, they found a replacement) and drive home. But one day . . . ONE DAY . . . I will play in one of this GMs games.
Overall
Games were good. None were perfect, but that happens very rarely. (Once every four years, as far as I can tell. At least when I'm involved.)
I had some problem with the game registration system - but I'll go into that in another post. (Let's just say there's problems with gaming in the Bay Area in general, and the sign up style - regardless if it's First Come First Serve or Shuffler driven - will never fix it.) I'd just like the registration system that doesn't make me psychotic and annoying.
The Hotel had a kind of creepy vibe to it - I started to tell people the elevator was haunted, based on how the lights would flicker and move when the elevator was operating. (No, it wasn't haunted. I don't actually BELIEVE in ghosts.) The accessibility of food wasn't the best.
However, I will say this is what a well organized convention looks like. I was unaware of any snags in the general flow of things. There were also too many games that I wanted to play in or try out - and that's not a complaint.
I heard it turned out well, so we can apparently look forward to another Big Bad Con next year. Which is awesome.
Rich