Dreamation

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Dreamation was a lot of fun. I went primarily for the indie gaming scene.

Buying

For the first time, I knew that I would not be able to pick up every indie game I wanted that I didn't own. Heck, these days I have to be on my toes to make sure I've even heard of most of what is out there.

I picked up

Spirit of the Century
Zorcerer of Zo
Hero's Banner
Seven Leagues
Cold City

Networking

anacrusis wisely would not say when The Dresden Files would be coming out. judd_sonofbert said he'd send a playtest version of 1st Quest my way, though, as jlighton noted, logically, the home group should do it without me the first time. I told the_stalwart why he is my hero.

Playing

I played 6 rpgs I had never before played:

Mortal Coil, deliberately stretched to sf. Fun, though I am not sure I should be gming it.

Don't Rest Your Head, which I am sure I could gm, though I want to see Dark City first.

Grey Ranks, playtest. It may need a bit of tweaking, but pretty solid. Probably not for me, but nrivkis would probably enjoy it.

Spirit of the Century, which was light, but fun. We had to rescue the king from demons. That's just cool.

Burning Empires, mixed results for me. Where it was good, it was fabulously good. Where it was annoying was where there was too much debate over mechanics and tactics for my taste, and I am not sure how much that's just group dynamics and how much it's exacerbated by the mechanics. Also, fitting BE into a 4 hour slot means cutting a lot of stuff that makes it BE. Definitely worth doing the game.

Ganakagok, with the Menominon tune in my head. 7 players, midnight to 4 am, with at least 2 of us sleep deped badly. Loads of fun, though there are a few things I'm not sure I like about the system. As with BE, must reserve judgement till I've read and tried to play it outside con setting.

Post-Convention

mnemex and I paid a shiva call to mabfan and family. mnemex was able to help make up a minyan, and mabfan's discussions about sf and observing shabbas on Mars prompted me to ask some questions about shabbas observance in the play be email game I'm running, where there are four campuses in different locations, linked by magical gateways. The questions I had involved situations that easily defaulted to known cases.

Then, mnemex and I met jlighton, ebartley, and Dave Demast for dinner and jlighton's Feng Shui game, lest the five of us feel gaming deprived after a weekend of Dreamation.