Alright, so I went to my first Gaming con: Phoenix Con Games. I have gone to SciFi/Fantasy cons and to gaming rooms in such cons, but never an entire con dedicated to Gaming of various sorts.

Moreover, it was my first time running Games in a convention setting, which I have to say, turned out to be a great and fulfilling experience. To be honest, I kinda dreaded it because I usually play/GM with two gaming groups every week who game very differently and I was afraid not to accommodate whatever people's expectations would be...

In any case, I'll break this little report into three categories: Games I ran, Games I played in, other PCG'08 things...
Enjoy!

Games I Ran

Amber Diceless: Throne War 1 4 hour game slot.

My plan was to run a Throne War for people new to Amber. What I ended up with were three players with various degree of familiarity with the setting/game system.

A young man named John, who wandered from the RPGA because they ran out of openings, did his best to comprehend the setting and what his character could and couldn't do, what the powers were and what they meant in the game setting. Out of all three players, he had the least fun: there was little in this game that he could relate to, at least at first. The concept of a Throne War and Player versus Player was lost on him, which was fine, since I came prepared (I'll explain in a minute).
Then we had Deanna who was familiar with the setting (having read Corwin's series) and had gone through the auction process, but from what I could tell, had not had extensive experience playing the game.
Her fiance, RC, had GMed before and knew the books and RPG system, powers etc, backward and forward and had even brought his own books to the table, which was awesome

In any case 'Throne Wars' usually work best when there is a lot of players, and I considered for a moment that this particular group was not suited for it, so we discussed it briefly and decided to do the auction and then I would run a sample adventure in which the PCs investigate the Black Road and try to subdue its power over a Shadow near to Amber.
The auction went extremely well, and most points were spent on the most important attribute: Psyche, of course. This reflected the competitive state of things between PCs and truly helped the feel of the game. Yay!
The game itself went rather well, and at first John seemed a bit lost because his character sheet didn't have a bunch of feats and skills that explained what his character could do, so I took some time to define his character concept and his background a bit more.

Once I allowed him time to grasp key concepts in the game, especially those pertaining to his first rank in psyche, he had a blast and so did the others. The game ended when they subdued and destroyed sentient tree things warring a faction of soldiers near to the Black Road.
Fun rating: 3.5 out of 5. Reasons: I wasn't at my best, but the game was fluid enough.


Amber Diceless: Throne War 2 4 hour game slot.

After going to lunch after the first Amber game I ran, I came back ten minutes before the next game's start to find a table full of players.
I was excited to see this many players and new we had enough for a full blown 'Throne War'. Players had various degrees of experience with Amber's setting and gaming system, but the auction went extremely well. The general atmosphere of the game was intense and people had obviously different agendas.
A lot of weird things happened, and I'll highlight some of the game for those who know a bit about Amber:
-Eric as regent disappears. The path to the throne is open to those who will take it (AKA, the PCs).
-As most of the PCs begin preparations, one of them finds a Shadow of Eric and disguises him as the real Eric and they come up with a kidnapping scenario.
-Reluctant son of Caine opposes his father's ambitions for the Throne.
-Reluctant daughter of Julian opposes her father and spends most of the game raising an army in Shadow in order to take over... Arden!
-Three players make their own way to the stolen Jewel of Judgment and imprisoned Eric (he is dead when they get to him).
-The game culminates in a brawl turned into sword fight turned into gunfight turned into full-scale battle with Shadow soldiers over the Jewel of Judgment. Eventually, two PCs who had been fighting over it, find themselves helping each other run away with the Jewel.
-Shadow Eric is revealed and Benedict helps defend Arden alongside Julian.

It was fun, all of the players seemed to have a great time and things went rather smoothly, although we went past our original time slot by about an hour...

Fun rating: 4.5 out of 5. Yay! This was a good old fashioned Throne War where everything goes quickly haywire and chaos ensues in the realm of Order.


Bloodlynes: An intro to my Dark Fantasy setting 4 hour game slot.

This was pretty experimental. I was worried not to see any players at all since it was slotted on friday at 9am. When I arrived (3 minutes late! Ahh!), I found 2 players sitting at the table.

This gave me plenty of time to explain and describe the setting, which I'll probably do when I'm done defining the major bloodlines of the game.

We spent the better part of an hour on the setting and going through the character sheet and the various powers that the PCs could use, etc. I used pregens but left a pool of points for the players to customize their characters a bit further.
The system also involves a randomly generated inheritance system, which was a lot of fun to use.

I had a very straightforward adventure prepared which was based on a railroaded intro I came up with when I started creating the setting. Basically, the PCs are related, they are traveling back to their home, coming from the capital of their homeland after a 'rite of passage'. They come upon a village under assault from strange creatures... Really basic stuff.
The players really got the system and setting down rather quickly and they enjoyed using the various powers that came with their characters. Then the game transitioned into a mystery over an artifact used to summon the invading creatures.

This was the best playtest I ran for this game so far. Very smooth, very enjoyable for everyone!

Fun rating: 4 out of 5. Tons of fun, but would have been even better with more players.


Amber Diceless: Dark Amber setting 8 hour game slot.

This was an idea I had during my last running campaign arc, in which the Shadows between Amber and Chaos were dying. By that I mean that most of Shadow had reached the prerequisite for their own version of the Apocalypse, Armageddon and what have you.
The Pattern was slowly changing into a necromantic tool and a rather complex conflict was at work. The elder amberites were either dead or mad or 'returned'.

Again, when I arrived, the table was full, but this time all of the players were familiar with the setting/game system, most of them having brought their books to the table. One of them, Will, familiar with the books and having played in the Throne War two days before, did a remarkable job picking up concepts that pertain to the game system rather than the Amber universe.

The characters were made with 300 points. We did not go through an auction, since I wanted to keep most stats and powers secret.
Will created a villain, whose sole goal was the killing of all amberites, including himself. It was very fitting and he did a tremendous job opposing every other PC in secret.

Things were really great and felt very much like an Amber game should. It was honestly one of the best GMing experiences I've ever had. Everything was set-up just right for the setting, conflicts falling into place almost effortlessly on my part. Final resolution of the game came a bit after our slot time ended, but everyone involved was happy with the game.

Fun rating: 5 out of 5. I don't think it could have gone much better than this...


Phew, this is long-winded... Bear with me.

Games I Played In

Macho Women With Guns! 4 hour game slot.

This was a lot of fun and demonstrated to me what an experienced Convention Gaming GM should do. It was a great learning experience and entertaining as hell. I mean, how often do you get to play a Russian exchange student at a Catholic High School where Nuns teach you how to defend yourself against Lesbian Ninja Mud Wrestlers?!?

Like I said, the GM was great. He had everything we needed to play, gave us a history of the game and had a big dry erase board with minis, pregens, dice, etc.
We went around the table introducing ourselves and the characters we picked. Out of five players, we had two ladies and three gentlemen, including myself.

The game was essentially a series of encounters, using the D20 modern system, during which sexual innuendos were encouraged when describing our character's actions. It was fun, it did get a bit repetitive during the final encounter ( a lot of very similar enemies, very little room for innuendos and jokes), until the cavalry arrived to back up the Catholic High School girls. Nuns on Motorcycle... With holy fire flame throwers, crucifix shaped cattle prods and other (un-)holy apparatus.

I would play it again in a convention setting, not necessarily in a long-running campaign. As fun as it was it did feel rather... well, dirty. And I could see that getting old without a meaningful plot.

Fun Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Fun, but encounters were a bit too repetitive.


Houses of the Blooded: demo by John Wick. 4 hour game slot.

This was my last event and I really liked L5R 1st edition so I was excited about it.
John Wick had a lot of energy and after enjoying a bit of baked brie offered by his friend (some sort of GM incentive or something), he began to introduce the setting and system of Houses of the Blooded.

Based on the ancient culture of the Ven, he told us, "Houses of the Blooded is designed to be the 'anti-D&D'." And where D&D starts out your character as some nameless bloke with a class, in HotB, your names grant you bonuses when they apply.

He did a great job introducing everything that is found in the preview (http://housesoftheblooded.com/houses/HotB-Chapbook-Final.pdf) and demonstrate the system.

I really, really enjoyed the system. The gist of it is the following: you get to roll dice based on the appropriate score under one of the Five virtues (there are six, but you can only put points in 5, to reflect your character's weakness), add 3 additional dice if you decide to use an 'aspect' that could apply. You also get one die if your 'common name' applies to the situation.
Add all of your dice. If you roll under 10, the GM has the privilege to determine the outcome of your actions, failure or success. Rolling over ten gives the player the privilege to describe success or failure.
By putting some of your dice aside, you place what is called a wager, and as long as you roll over 10, you as a player have the privilege to determine the outcome of your action, and for every die in your wager, you get to add something to the situation in the form of an AND or BUT.

This gave the story a lot more importance than the success/failure of one's actions, which turned out to be rather enjoyable! For instance, if I roll over ten and have two wagers to spend as I attempt to jump from one roof to another to escape from angry guards, I could say something like "I fail to reach the roof, BUT (spending one wager) I reach Lady Arla's balcony AND (spending a second wager) Lady Arla is willing to hide me from the guards."
That's one example he gave us (or something like it).

There more to it, but the demo will do a better job of explaining it.
Either way, it was lots of fun and with more players come more chances for players to define the story and what happens in the game.

I could even see how this game could be played GMless with a few tweaks, or  at least it feels as GMless as I'd want a game to be.
I'm looking forward to trying out this game with my gaming groups.

Fun rating: 4.5 out of 5. The game and system were great, but the game was so short I wanted more!!!


Other Stuff I Did @ PCG'08

I was sitting on a bench going through my cool freebie bag and nearby were two crazy kids who started playing music. They were very entertaining and got random people engaged in their songs. Very creative and fun! http://www.myspace.com/tentaclecraft

I sat at the figurine painting booth for hours and got to paint (and take home!) three figurines: a monk, a weird hairy monster and a hot native american chick with an AK.
Check out their stuff at: http://www.crunch-waffle.com/index.php

I was surprised to find the video game room nearly empty most of the time. A lot of CCGs and A LOT of miniature games were going on.

It was by far the most organized convention I've ever attended.
Overall experience: 4 out of 5.


Alright, I hope this was somewhat useful to someone out there... I know it was quite long, but you know... A lot of stuff happens at these things.
I would recommend this convention to anyone interested in running playtests for their own game. The gaming rooms are really great (big, with big round tables and comfortable seating, plus water coolers everywhere) and the attendees are definitely there to have fun and discover new games! Sweet stuff! If you guys have games you want me to playtest for new players there, let me know. I'll definitely run games there again!

Ha!

I had that Indian maiden since the 80s. It's amusing to read where it ended up since I brought it down that way. The furry monster was probably one of the "Waggamaephs" from our own line.

I saw some of your games listed, but I didn't make the connection to here and I was damn busy running my own stuff down that way to check anything else out. All in all, it was a very fun convention, I thought.

Anyway, glad you enjoyed the minis.

Awesome!

I'll take some pictures of the painted minis and forward them when I get a chance!

I think next year I'm going to run a few things but plan on playing a lot more. It was definitely a great Con!