teh bunneh
Feb 21st, '07, 08:58 AM
For those of you unfortunate enough to miss the con, here's my After Action Report for Genghis Con, held Feb 15-18 in Denver.
Thursday evening, I played in a Call of Cthulhu game. I haven't played CoC in 20+ years, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The game was a genuine blast! The GM (Alyson, aka the foxy blonde chick) really kept things going with her lively portrayal of the NPCs. And she emphasized the mystery and unknowable nature of the monster -- even now, after the game ended, I have no idea what it was that threatened us! For a horror system, the game was surprisingly funny and we had great character interaction. Alyson said she really enjoyed my portrayal of Gary, the old Cajun fisherman, and the whole gang of us had a good time (even the guys who got killed... which was half the group!). :)
Friday there wasn't much going on at all, so I mostly hung out in the miniatures painting room. I got to sit and chat with Anne Forester and Jen Haley for a while, and I painted a zombie figure at the Paint 'n' Take table.
That evening, I ran my Iron Age Champions game. I expected it to go pretty dark pretty quick, and my players did not disappoint. During a gun battle, one of the heroines told the others, "Don't worry, I'm only going to be shooting for the kneecaps." She then proceeded to blow the guy's leg completely off (max damage roll!). She went over to question the poor fool, and when she learned that he was only the hired muscle and didn't know anything, she shrugged, said, "Then you're of no use to me," and blew him away. :nonp: It was a really fun game, the players definitely got into character, and they gave me a perfect "10" rating as GM! :bounce: I had two players who had never played (or even heard of) Champions before – they joined the game 'cause they thought the description sounded nice and dark, and they both said they really enjoyed the system and the game.
Saturday morning I played in a Mutants & Masterminds game. At cons, I like playing games I've never played before. It gives me a chance to see the system in action without having to lay out huge amounts of cash or large outlays of time for it beforehand. This is how I learned about Hollow Earth Expeditions and Deadlands (just to name two) -- both very fun games with interesting and challenging mechanics. I'd heard so much about M&M (on these boards and others) that I wanted to give it a whirl. I was sorely disappointed. I found nothing particularly innovative or interesting about the mechanics, the characters were pretty flavorless, and the game itself was rather frustrating. I'm willing to grant that these flaws may have been the fault of the GM, so I may try M&M again at another con in the future, but for now I didn't see anything that made me want to pick it up.
Saturday evening I ran my Arabian Adventures FH game. What a blast! The players really got into the characters (while they were looking their characters over, they were all cackling madly, saying "Look what my guy can do!" to each other). They came up with some clever solutions to the situations I threw them into (I never considered that they might try to pay the giant hungry Cyclops for his treasure!), and everyone had a really good time. Most of my players told me that they'd like to come back and play the game again, and try a different character next time. Once again, they gave me a perfect "10" for my GM rating. :)
Sunday morning I ran my Teen Champs Teen Titans Go! adventure. None of the players had ever played Champions before, but all of them were big fans of the cartoon. Despite their unfamiliarity with the system, they were able to quickly grok the characters (I tried really hard to base the characters' abilities off of things they had done in the show, which made it easy for the players). They had a fun time figuring out the Brotherhood of Evil's master plan and beating up a hoard of General Immortus' robots – but mostly they were roleplaying with each other. Cyborg and Beast-Boy got into a slap-fight over a clue, Raven was terminally bored with the antics of the boys, Robin and Speedy were razzing each other, Cyborg fell in love with the cute girl (who turned out to be one of the bad guys). It was really great how the players didn't really need my input as a GM... especially given how tired and unfocused I was during the game. :) And once again, I pulled off a perfect "10" rating – the only GM at the con who got three 10s! :cheers:
Saturday afternoon, I played in BigDamnHero's Pulp Friends game. I played Joey, basically a big lovable lug, strong but not too bright (not a huge RPing stretch for me!) ;) I've never watched Friends before, so I really didn't get very many of the in-jokes, but it was a fun little romp. We got to fight dinosaurs and ninjas and Nazis (and as the saying goes, if you can't punch out your own Nazi, you don't deserve the title of hero!). :) Once again, a good time was had by all.
After the con, we hung out with some of the friends we made and went to dinner, where we met up with Ghost-angel. We sat and chatted into the wee hours (which, at this point in the weekend, was about 9:30pm), then we all went our separate ways.
Overall, I give the con two hearty thumbs-up, and we'll definitely be attending next year. :thumbup: :thumbup:
Thursday evening, I played in a Call of Cthulhu game. I haven't played CoC in 20+ years, so I wasn't sure what to expect. The game was a genuine blast! The GM (Alyson, aka the foxy blonde chick) really kept things going with her lively portrayal of the NPCs. And she emphasized the mystery and unknowable nature of the monster -- even now, after the game ended, I have no idea what it was that threatened us! For a horror system, the game was surprisingly funny and we had great character interaction. Alyson said she really enjoyed my portrayal of Gary, the old Cajun fisherman, and the whole gang of us had a good time (even the guys who got killed... which was half the group!). :)
Friday there wasn't much going on at all, so I mostly hung out in the miniatures painting room. I got to sit and chat with Anne Forester and Jen Haley for a while, and I painted a zombie figure at the Paint 'n' Take table.
That evening, I ran my Iron Age Champions game. I expected it to go pretty dark pretty quick, and my players did not disappoint. During a gun battle, one of the heroines told the others, "Don't worry, I'm only going to be shooting for the kneecaps." She then proceeded to blow the guy's leg completely off (max damage roll!). She went over to question the poor fool, and when she learned that he was only the hired muscle and didn't know anything, she shrugged, said, "Then you're of no use to me," and blew him away. :nonp: It was a really fun game, the players definitely got into character, and they gave me a perfect "10" rating as GM! :bounce: I had two players who had never played (or even heard of) Champions before – they joined the game 'cause they thought the description sounded nice and dark, and they both said they really enjoyed the system and the game.
Saturday morning I played in a Mutants & Masterminds game. At cons, I like playing games I've never played before. It gives me a chance to see the system in action without having to lay out huge amounts of cash or large outlays of time for it beforehand. This is how I learned about Hollow Earth Expeditions and Deadlands (just to name two) -- both very fun games with interesting and challenging mechanics. I'd heard so much about M&M (on these boards and others) that I wanted to give it a whirl. I was sorely disappointed. I found nothing particularly innovative or interesting about the mechanics, the characters were pretty flavorless, and the game itself was rather frustrating. I'm willing to grant that these flaws may have been the fault of the GM, so I may try M&M again at another con in the future, but for now I didn't see anything that made me want to pick it up.
Saturday evening I ran my Arabian Adventures FH game. What a blast! The players really got into the characters (while they were looking their characters over, they were all cackling madly, saying "Look what my guy can do!" to each other). They came up with some clever solutions to the situations I threw them into (I never considered that they might try to pay the giant hungry Cyclops for his treasure!), and everyone had a really good time. Most of my players told me that they'd like to come back and play the game again, and try a different character next time. Once again, they gave me a perfect "10" for my GM rating. :)
Sunday morning I ran my Teen Champs Teen Titans Go! adventure. None of the players had ever played Champions before, but all of them were big fans of the cartoon. Despite their unfamiliarity with the system, they were able to quickly grok the characters (I tried really hard to base the characters' abilities off of things they had done in the show, which made it easy for the players). They had a fun time figuring out the Brotherhood of Evil's master plan and beating up a hoard of General Immortus' robots – but mostly they were roleplaying with each other. Cyborg and Beast-Boy got into a slap-fight over a clue, Raven was terminally bored with the antics of the boys, Robin and Speedy were razzing each other, Cyborg fell in love with the cute girl (who turned out to be one of the bad guys). It was really great how the players didn't really need my input as a GM... especially given how tired and unfocused I was during the game. :) And once again, I pulled off a perfect "10" rating – the only GM at the con who got three 10s! :cheers:
Saturday afternoon, I played in BigDamnHero's Pulp Friends game. I played Joey, basically a big lovable lug, strong but not too bright (not a huge RPing stretch for me!) ;) I've never watched Friends before, so I really didn't get very many of the in-jokes, but it was a fun little romp. We got to fight dinosaurs and ninjas and Nazis (and as the saying goes, if you can't punch out your own Nazi, you don't deserve the title of hero!). :) Once again, a good time was had by all.
After the con, we hung out with some of the friends we made and went to dinner, where we met up with Ghost-angel. We sat and chatted into the wee hours (which, at this point in the weekend, was about 9:30pm), then we all went our separate ways.
Overall, I give the con two hearty thumbs-up, and we'll definitely be attending next year. :thumbup: :thumbup: