Gen Con 2018 Recap

I apologize that this recap is late as well. At least it's before Gen Con 2019 and not as late as my Gen Con 2017 recap! As before, my memory ain't what it used to be, so I'll do my best.

Wednesday
This year I carpooled with Vic, one of the Chicago Area Game Writers Colloquium (CAGWIC) regulars. We had a lovely discussion of the gaming world we live in and life in general.

Once we settled in, I headed over to the Crown Plaza ("the Train Hotel") to attend Monte Cook Games GM Meet and Greet. They went over the general guidelines, answered any questions, and handed out some very nice GM materials (which I will recap below). Somebody also brought in some MCG-themed cupcakes! They were yummy! Monte Cook Games is a great company to run games for. If you get a chance, sign up to run for them, at Gen Con OR your Friendly Local Game Store!

Back at the hotel, the first game of Gen Con 2018 was Photosynthesis by Blue Orange Games. I've been wanting to play it for a while as it is always so pretty setup in the demo halls. Brad brought his copy and set it up for us. It's such a beautiful game with a strategy that changes every round. There was a race for the middle, but Brad pulled out the win with his own private grotto. Good game gents!

We finished out the first night with Hellapagos by GigamicWorld. It's what you would call a 'coopetitive' game. I think 10 of us were playing. We all start as shipwreck survivors on a remote island. There is just enough food and water to last us two days. Initially, we are trapping water, fishing for food, gathering wood, building a raft from said wood, or scavenging the wreckage for supplies. That didn't last long. I ended up drugging friends to steal their supplies and then claiming immunity when getting "voted off the island" (i.e. dying from lack of food or water). I made it to the final four. It looked like there was only enough supplies for two people to escape the island, so with the two bullets I scrounged, I shot DJ and Brendan. DJ deflected the bullet with a scrap of steel and then produced enough sandwiches to save more than four people. Shashank said I didn't have to brutally murder Brendan as he had a machine that converted food to water. Too little to late, my friend; bullets travel faster than food processors! So, DJ, Shashank, and I made it off the island and escaped the hurricane. In an ironic twist, that would be the last game I would "win" at Gen Con 2018.

Thursday
Adam, Tyler, and I decided to brave the rush and tackle the exhibit hall first. Brad asked us to hit up the Smirk & Dagger booth to pick up a copy of Tower of Madness for him.

Since I was close, I headed over to the R. Talsorian booth. A long line was forming. Apparently, the Witcher RPG has a big following! I waited in line so I could find out when to expect Cyberpunk Red (later 2019 - Jumpstart Kit at Gen Con 2019!) and snag some cool cyberpunk dice!

I then stopped by the Indie Press Revolution booth to pick up Scum and Villainy by Evil Hat Productions. Scum and Villainy uses the Blades in the Dark rules to play a spaceship crew trying to get by. I had seen a print proof at Origins Game Fair and had to get my hands on a copy!

At 1:00, Monte Cook Games held their Discover your Destiny seminar. The first half was discussing Numenera: Discovery and Destiny and what to expect from that new edition. Of course they talked about Invisible Sun. Then they announced the Kickstarter for Your Best Game Ever—a collection of essays to improve your role playing game experience.

After an early dinner of a Salmon BLT from High Velocity, I headed back to the convention hall to run the two Monte Cook Cypher System games I signed up for.

Salmon BLT with Asparagus! Yum!

First up was Cypher System - Assault on Singularity Base, a multi-table cooperative free-for-all set in your typical space opera. I ran green team, who had to assault the barracks and keep the waves of troopers from reaching the other parts of the base and keep the heat off the other teams. It was a suicide mission. I knew it was a suicide mission. I tried to convey that uphill battle to the players. By the time we took our halftime break, at least one player was frustrated with the apparently insurmountable odds. After the break, the tides turned! The other teams started sending reinforcements. May table jumped from six players to nine! With the extra bodies, they were able to lock down the barracks and escape before the base blew. Total blast Afterwards I got some really flattering feedback, that totally made up for the rough spot in the middle.

I didn't have much time to reset the table for Numenera - Forgetting Doomsday. The adventure is a tale of two war-torn villages who have to come together to save both from a mysterious mind-altering machine between them. The setup requires that players be split between the two tribes. After some initial and expected friction, they fully embraced working together in brilliant ways! Well played, folks!

Several of us finally got to play Brad's brand-spankin' new copy of Tower of Madness. It's a push-your-luck game where you are trying to investigate and "solve" locations with your dice rolls. In the middle of the table is the Tower of Madness, which is pierced with tentacle-handled skewers and topped with marbles, à la KerPlunk. If you fail to investigate properly, you have to pull a skewer. If a marble drops, depending on the color of the marble, you can gain victory points, lose sanity, or begin to summon Cthulhu! The first game didn't go so well, as we all died unceremoniously. The second game, a few of us were sprinting to go insane and try to summon the great Old One. Scott became a cultist first, but got consumed with the rest of us as Cthulhu awoke hungrily.

Friday
Due to a scheduling blunder on my part, I was late to my session of Apocalypse Road being run by the game's designer Brad Poikonen. It's a larger home-brew version of the board game Thunder Road. Even though I was late, Brad let me run the two "bad guy" tanker trucks! I didn't last long once the other players set their differences aside and ganged up on me...

Had a quick but tasty lunch with Scott and Kristen at Café Patachou.

Back in the exhibit hall, I hit up the Roll4Initiative booth. I've been meaning to show these guys some love at past Gen Cons, so I made sure to hit their booth this year! Their main product is their dice. They're larger than your "typical" polyhedral dice and have larger numbers making them easy on old gamer eyes! I picked up three of their basic opaque sets with a buy-two-get-one-free coupon. They also had a "toss a d20 win a prize" dice tower in their booth. I rolled an 18 and won another basic die set. I had been salivating over their Diffusion sets, so I snagged one of the blue sets as my prize. Thanks guys!

Brad brought his copy of Red7, so he, Jeremy, Tyler, and I settled in to play a couple of rounds. Red 7 is Uno on Steroids. Each color has a rule and the object is to get rid of all of your cards by playing the best card following the current rule, or change the rule to give yourself the lead. Brad trounced us both times.

Saturday
So my buddy Pete Petrusha, with the help of Kickstarter backers, published Dreamchaser, a rules-light story game where any adventure is possible. I've been trying to get in a session or two and was successful this year. At the table were two enthusiastic ladies, two young girls with their father as a guide, and myself. The first task was to create our shared dream. After a brief discussion led by the GM, we came up with: “Bring the faerie dragons back to the world of unicorn mermaids.” The characters we generated ended up being (if I remember correctly) a Pigpen-esque adventure guide with a pocketful of gummi bears, a veterinarian with severe anxiety, a beautiful and politically motivated unicorn mermaid, and my artistic Victorian little girl, modeled after Brian Froud's Lady Cottington (of Pressed Fairy Book fame). We uncovered and foiled a faery dragon smuggling ring in the underwater city of Mermaid Ocean. The adventure brought quite a few giggles and "awwws" to the table.
#MakeMermaidOceanGreatAgain

The big climax happened at Mer-Mart, so I sketched it!

This year, R. Talsorian has introduced Cyberpunk Chronicles, their living campaign. I got into a session titled, "Guns, Lots of Guns", in which we had to break into a high-security firearm and pawn shop and steal as many guns as we could carry. We had our stuff together and were able get in and get out with firearms with minimal complications.

I was left with a couple of hours to finish out my exhibit hall crawl and then met up with Brad, Scott, Kristen, and their friends for our yearly sushi dinner at Mikado. Bonus: Vic was in the area and was able to join us!

On our way back to the JW we stopped at a vacant table so Brad could introduce us to That's Not Lemonade. The first thing he pulls out of the box is a half dozen shot-glass-sized Solo cups. We were intrigued! Unfortunately, our interest quickly waned as we learned it was simply a poorly implemented push-your-luck game that didn’t even use the tiny cups.

Back at the JW, we played a couple of rounds of Codenames. I should be ashamed of myself as I had Brendan on my team and he was using all kinds of theatre references. Alas, with my brief set design dabbling, I only recognized one or two of his references...

The surprise hit for the evening was an EXIT The Game: The Abandoned Cabin. It's essentially an escape room in a box. To be honest, I forgot if we escaped or not, but we had a blast going through all the clues, scribbling on and tearing the provided materials (a pair of scissors would have been helpful), and searching every scrap for hints.

Sunday
The last day of Gen Con presented my least favorite game of the con. One of my roommates accidentally grabbed my convention badge as he was driving out of town.  Brad and I had to chase him down before one of his passengers had to catch a flight! Sleep deprivation followed by an adrenaline surge does not make a fun game.

The reason getting my badge back was so important was because I had a slot in “Mike Pondsmith Kills Everyone,” a Cyberpunk 2020 RPG one-shot run by the great Mike Pondsmith himself! True to its title, I did not survive the mission. Hell, I didn’t survive the AV crash landing! Fortunately, Mike let those of us who died early run some of the opposition. Definitely an experience. I’m so glad I was able to get a ticket to Mike’s table (and didn’t miss it due to the badge fiasco)! Thanks Mike!

And that’s Gen Con 2018!

Gen Con Haul

Clockwise from top left:

• Gen Con 2018 adventure booklet and XP deck I got for running Assault on Singularity Base (Cypher System) and Forgetting Doomsday (Numenera) for Monte Cook Games. I also got a limited edition unfinished Shin! (Not pictured: Cypher System playmat.)
• At top is the Operation Coldfront + Advance Pack Gen Con 2018/preorder exclusive by Corvus Belli.
• Next is some resin terrain I picked up at the Miniature Market booth.
• That's followed by some neat tokens from Dapper Devil LLC. I plan to use them for the Infinity RPG by Modiphius.
• Four sets of very nice dice from Roll4Initiative. Three sets of basic opaque dice and one set of Diffusion dice.
• Picked up that custom keychain for myself and a necklace that resembled a cartouche for my wife from Addy at Tangled Earth Art. She was hanging out with the folks from Bricks & Boards LLC. You can see her setup here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BmJ34dcHHCj/ Thanks Addy! You're the best!
• That big honkin' twelve-sider is a hit location die from Q-workshop. I eventually went in and painted the actual hits in red to make them stand out more.
• Those goodies are sitting on top of a factory-second GM screen from Hammerdog Games - too good a deal to pass up!
• Clank! In! Space! Apocalypse! by Renegade Game Studio was released at Gen Con 2018. We've had fun playing Clank! In! Space! so I had to get the expansion PLUS PROMOS! (Which are tucked inside the box already...) Now to get more card sleeves...
• At Origins this year, I picked up Dusk City Outlaws by Scratchpad Publishing - a super cleverly designed RPG in a box. When I found out metal tokens were part of the Kickstarter, I had to get a set. Fortunately, Campaign Coins had me covered. So purdy!
• Tucked above the Campaign Coins, is a copy of The Apocalypse Road by Brad Poikonen. It’s a post-apocalyptic road-warrior miniature vehicle combat game based on the board game Thunder Road. 
• Finally, I stopped by the @IPRTweets booth to pick up a fresh and just-released copy of Scum and Villainy from Evil Hat.

Seeing as it has been taking me sooo long to post these, this may be my last Gen Con recap...

NULL - A Video Game Concept

Way back in 2012, I had this really involved dream about an orphan being groomed to be an operative in some alternate post-WWII England. It was vivid enough that I was able to write it down. From that, it looked like it could be a really interesting video game concept. Since it's been sitting in an email doing nothing since then, it's time to bring it to light.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liverpool_Blitz_D_5983.jpg [Public domain]

This the pretty much the game concept description I developed from the dream notes I took.

Name: Persevere (Potential?)
Code Name: NULL

Chapter 1 - Freedom Is Fabricated

The scene: Something like bombed out parts of England in World War II, but something suggests an alternate future.

The player is a young orphan in an orphanage in one of the few buildings still left standing.

There is a Marm that oversees the place. She is stern and matter-of-fact.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, the player is harassed by the Marm and the other children (how?) to the point where escape seems the only option.

Just after lights out, the player discovers a slightly ajar access panel and can sneak out, into the nearby loading yard.

The player must then use stealth techniques to duck from shadow to shadow, eventually working his way up a ladder, and dropping though a garage skylight.... into the back of a box truck

Playable cut-scene in which the truck drives back to the orphanage and into the hands of the Marm.

Punishment ensues (what kind?).

Chapter 2 - Love Is False

The scene: Same orphanage, but under increased scrutiny.

The player is now a tweener.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, the player gets involved with some minor brawls with other orphans. This is where melee attacks are learned.

The player also interacts with one of the female attending assistants. (How do we make the player care about her?)

In discussion with the assistant, the player learns of another possible escape vector, and she agrees to help with the condition that she gets to tag along.

The player makes it much farther through the remains of the suburb, picking up a club or crowbar in the process.

However, the Marm catches up with the two escapees and is now joined by armed guards.

The player has an opportunity to fight off the guards, but it should become apparent that their sheer number and size overwhelm the player, capturing and cuffing the two.

WIth a look of disappointment, the Marm says, "shoot her."

The guards fire and the girl goes down.

Chapter 3 - Life Is Fleeting

The scene: Same orphanage, different part of the complex (other side of the loading yard?).

The player is now a late teenager.

Through a series of playable cut-scenes, we realize the orphanage is actually training soldiers of some sort - the player has earned enough respect to actually be handling a basic firearm and has begun the first phases of training. (See La Femme Nikita)

Just as his security detail lets their guard down, the player escapes bolting through the city streets (buildings still damaged but cleaned up?).

A full-on manhunt begins.

Initially, any attempts on the player will be non-lethal takedowns - each of which the player subverts.

Eventually, the security team has to resort to lethal force.

The player is finally gunned down (by a minigun from a small hover-chopper thing?)

Chapter 4 - Death Is Forever

The scene changes: Interior of a vast (underground) complex. The decor is a cross between modern contemporary curved architecture and the linework of TRON.

Through a playable cut-scene, the player wakes up in a haze. He is on an operating table, machines are beeping slowly in the background (indicating it doesn't look good), and a medical team is standing over him.

"I'm sorry, sir. The orphanage called in a strike team. There's not much left of him. There's nothing we can do."

The player's screen makes one final glance to one of the nurses (or doctor?) and then fades to black.

[Insert cool transition sequence - pinholes of light; eye is the window to the soul; images of somebody else's life...]

The player's screen is now looking down on the remains of his former self. It's bad. The actual vantage point is from whichever nurse (or doctor) was looked at last.

The doctor asks for a final clamp to stop the blood from soaking the table any more. The player can look down at a tray of instruments and can pick any:
• If a clamp, the doctor clamps the patient, asks to do final cleanup and walks out. The player may pick up other instruments as needed.
• If a scalpel, the doctor questions the player's choice, which leads to an escalated fight. If any of the personnel escape, alarms will be sounded.
• If any other instrument, the doctor questions the player's choice, giving the option of rechoosing (until a break point? three tries?).

From this point forward, play proceeds through the meat of the game.

The twist is, whenever the player dies, he respawns in the body of the last NPC he saw (in the event that all previous NPCs have been killed, then the body of the PC's killer).

The player can choose to play it stealthy with whatever instrument the nurse picked up, or full-on guns blazing.

There is no weapon hoarding - if the player wants a particular weapon, the owner of the weapon has to be the last person he sees before dying (finger-print coded weapons?)

Some obstacles will require finding a way to die while watching somebody on the other side of the obstacle.

[What's the meat of the story? Is the player trying to find and kill the Marm?]


My dream notes suggested a scene toward the end of the story:

The player finds themselves in a predicament in which the only escape is a leap over a balcony to a 13 story drop. During the fall, they pass the window of a conference room with a meeting in progress and make eye contact with an attendee.

Per the rules of the game, the respawn from the sudden stop puts the player in the conference room. A little person is giving a presentation on the larger corporate plans. Interacting with or interrogating the speaker (and perhaps dealing with the attendees), the player can find out about what he knows and why the player is there. Pushing further, they can learn that he is a lower level manager. The real person in charge is the Marm!


There you have it! What do you think? Let me know in the comments.