I haven't been to Gen Con since 1993, so getting back felt extra good.

Highlights:

• Hung out with the TLG guys a bit and a nice chat with Crystal Castle
• Got my copies of Starsiege and Towers of Adventure (AWESOME!)
• Played some awesome C&C sessions
• Some homeless guy tried to to attack me in the convention hall

Anyone else?

Quote from: MattyHelms;236093

• Some homeless guy tried to to attack me in the convention hall

Anyone else?

Whoa! Sorry, Matty - was that you? That silly hat just HAD to go!



-clash

Quote from: MattyHelms;236093Anyone else?

It was a blast. I was in a ton of games, not one of them bad.

A D20 Future Zombie SF game
My SotC/FATE Iron Lords of Jupiter hack (ran twice)
A Mutants and Masterminds revolutionary war game
A Star Wars saga game where the PCs were humans from Earth testing the first hyperdrive, which was then hijacked by Darth Lucas and taken to the Star Wars universe.
My Spycraft 24-meets-Lovecraft game
An official Spycraft fantasy/modern crossover event where the players have to deal with a Kaiju dragon.
A Star Wars SAGA Knights of the Old Republic game.
A D20 Modern hack of the GDW Space 1889 setting
A Mutants & Masterminds "old folks" game.

How can you beat that? Really, you can't.

Products less spectacular. I did pick up Starblazers Adventures (a great deal) and a new printing of Spycraft with a good binding, Paizo crit and fumble checks, and some things for the kids.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;236165My Spycraft 24-meets-Lovecraft game

Oooh - tell me more, please.


PS - Clash, you may want to practice your technique for next year...  

Quote from: MattyHelms;236241Oooh - tell me more, please.

Well, not sure how much I should say, as this was an "alpha" of this adventure and I don't want to spoil any surprises for folks that might be playing rev 2 at DC and NC game days. To wit:

SPOILERS AHOY! IF YOU THINK THERE IS ANY CHANCE YOU WILL PLAY SPYCRAFT AT DC or NC ENWORLD/CM GAMEDAYS IN THE NEXT YEAR, STOP READING NOW!

An idea that's been kicking around in my head for a Spycraft adventure is what I call "FLASHPOINT", which is sort of the same idea as 24: An immediate threat that has to be responded to quickly. I created a fictional counterterrorist task force called the Joint Flashpoint Task Force.

I was also inspired by reading some Charles Stross and the Chaosium "Spy-vs-Cthulhu" anthology Spiraling Worm, and Crafty Games' Fragile Minds supplement made it all too easy to pull this off.

Stross is known in part for his "Lovecraftian spy thriller" themed stories, including his alternate history "Cold War with the Cthulhu Mythos" story "A Colder War" (very thorough summary here, you can read it online for free here) and his more modern Lovecraftian Spy Thriller series about the secret British occult espionage agency "The Laundry" (the first novella for these stories is also available online, but I don't have the link handy.)

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to do a spin on this that was less James Bond and Len Deighton and more Jack Baeur, so I sort of rolled my FLASHPOINT idea together with Fragile Minds and came up with an adventure. I actually used a backdrop that is less mystical and more "weird SF" than the Cthulhu mythos, but long story short, the adventure is basically 1 part 24 season 2, 1 part Atrocity Archives (think: replace a government conspiracy using a terrorist cell with a possessing creature using a government conspiracy using a terrorist cell), and 1 part Weapon Grade from The Spiraling Worm (think: Shoggoths as a terrorist weapon.)

I got StarSIEGE, too, but my box is missing some stuff.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;236322I got StarSIEGE, too, but my box is missing some stuff.

What is it missing? The 2d20 were missing in every box due to some mix-ups, but you should have gotten the game at a reduced price ($25 vs $30 list). You should have 4 Copies of the Field Manual, 1 Copy of the Victory: 2442 Setting, 1 Copy of the Operations Manual, and 4 Broadsides (one character sheet, one planetary character sheet, one vehicle sheet, and a sheet outlining the item/power creation rules on one side and useful charts on the other).

Of course, on the useful charts some pg XX references snuck in (I swear I just can't win on that). But those will be fixed in later prints and with a PDF on their site shortly.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;236322I got StarSIEGE, too, but my box is missing some stuff.

You have to love the quality control of TLG.  Or not...

I'm sorry to hear you got the shaft there Doc.
Aside from that how is the game?

I'm not Dr. Rotwang, but I do have a copy of Starsiege.  So far I'm digging it more than I did when I read the the Free RPG Day giveaway.  I don't know if it's because I'm seeing the full playable system or if the initial shock of "this is really different than the 'C&C in Space' that I was expecting" has worn off.

At lunch today, I statted up a take on the original comic strip Buck Rogers in a few seconds.  I'm assuming I'll have no trouble modeling the little bits of tech like the gravity belts, the bi-planes, and the death rays.  I'll post more as I dig in.

Talking with the TLG guys, none of the boxes at the con had the d20s...

-Matt

Quote from: cheeplives;236351What is it missing?

Like I said on the TLG fora, I'm missing 2 copies of the field manual and the 2d20.  No biggie on the dice, or really the field manuals; if TLG wants me to have the other two, great!  If not, OK!

I'll be digging into it tonight before bed.  By the way, cheeplives, I ♥ those Mook rules.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!;236563Like I said on the TLG fora, I'm missing 2 copies of the field manual and the 2d20.  No biggie on the dice, or really the field manuals; if TLG wants me to have the other two, great!  If not, OK!

I'll be digging into it tonight before bed.  By the way, cheeplives, I ♥ those Mook rules.

I'm sure they'll get you the books... they're good fellows.

I'm very glad you like the Mook rules. I was quite proud of how they worked myself. I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on the game.

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;236165A Mutants and Masterminds revolutionary war game

What what what?

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;236635What what what?

:heh:

Well, Kennon Bauman, AKA The Universe (the recently elected ENnies judge) runs a early US supers game using M&M. I also misspoke; the scenario we played was the defense of Fort McHenry during the War of 1812, and is, of course, all alternate-historied up. This was year 2; I didn't get to play in year 1. Year 3 will be the Battle of New Orleans.

I played "the Lantern", a Green Lantern clone. Other characters included Swamp Fox (a Batman clone), Blackbeard's Ghost (with possession powers), Jersey Devil (literally a devil), Minuteman (superman), The Merovingian (an actually cool Aquaman clone), Johnny Appleseed (time-displaced stoner hippy with plant control powers), and the Frontiersman (secretly Sasquatch, a hulk clone).

The game was awesome. I don't want to put spoilers here, but let's just say, if you take a look at the overhead map, note the shape of Fort McHenry.

Quote from: MattyHelms;236560I statted up a take on the original comic strip Buck Rogers in a few seconds.  

Any chance of seeing what that looks like?

I'm in the market for a generic Sci Fi system right now.  I recently ran D6 Space and want something with the same level of complexity, but with a core mechanic a bit less randome and wonky (and prone to break at higher levels).

I saw SS very very early in development, but, I'm sure it has changed a lot.