PAX and Avatar World

So I was at PAX a week ago-ish and have been delaying my writeup, but here it is.

It was great! Let's hit the not-Games-on-Demand stuff first. I didn't play many video games that really caught my eye, but Miegakure (http://miegakure.com/) is a really bafflingly cool 4D puzzle platformer thing. Yeah, four dimensions. If that sounds bizarre to you, check out the site.
There was other cool stuff, but not much stood out.

Outside of Games on Demand (the volunteer service I was with to get my pass where I take a shift running games for a bunch of strangers who want to play a thing I am offering), I also played a co-op deckbuilding called Shadow Rift. It was pretty cool, but really needed a playmat or more diagrams or something to get it set up. I would totally play it again though.

Games on Demand:
So before I jump into the big triple feature Avatar World, my two other games I played at GoD.
~ I ran The Quiet Year for Ben, Dave, and Diana. I'd seen Dave before (I think he works with Gamma Ray), and Diana was around GoD with her husband a bunch of times through the weekend which was cool.

~ I played Monsterdraft, by Johnzo (aka John Aegard), with Ross and Robert and John himself. It's his new hyper-alpha thing that's a cool hex-crawl exploration game, meant not to craft a strong story experience but instead being a creativity-driven exploring game featuring monsters. He made this crazy cool oracle thing for generating ideas for both the environment of a hex as well as its denizens, and we drafted up a few elements from a couple decks that basically added up to (mechanically) a Lady Blackbird character. Creative stuff, but rough. Ross and Robert had just been at Twyla's Playtesting With Rigor panel, so they gave some pretty great feedback.

Okay, to the main event: I played a lot of Avatar World. Saturday evening, my first shift, I had out both of my sheets, for Monsterhearts and for Avatar World. After a little bit I had a signup for Avatar World, so I dropped the MH and waited for other players (and pitched aggressively). I got a lot of interested "wow, Avatar World? Is that what I think it is?" and "Is this running later this weekend at all?" which was nice. Even more surprising is that a lot of the interested parties actually came back to look a second time later in the weekend! I gave away a bunch of cards with the game's address.
Some of this had to do with THIS:

Drew printed and bound me two copies of the game. It's gorgeous - the pics don't do the material of the paper justice. I'm so crazy happy with it. <3 br="" drew="">

Within maybe a half hour, we kicked off with a three person group. We had Alex (another Games on Demand volunteer), Manu (another GoD, and fellow game designer - I played Finding Haven with him at GPNW and was a voice in his Cry of the Wilders), and Andrew (stranger). Everyone kicked ass. I offered both of my premises, the Red Mountain and the Festival of the Four. From my pitches they picked The Red Mountain, so this didn't get to be the test of the new premise.
Alex was The Earthbender, Andrew was The Waterbender, Manu was The Warrior. I had a really cool Sel this time, he was this Asian-inspired serpent dragon, blood-red scales and teeth and eyes of void, his true size masked by the Gate. Every time he needed to be more imposing,  yet more of his body slithered out of the gate. He was coiled above them, towering and terrifying. They defeated the corrupt Master of the Monastery and his spirit tiger. We had what was essentially a puzzle fight (though I didn't enforce it that way), and it felt really cool. I played some games with them about when they should have their lights on and off.
Everyone felt really satisfied with all of the choices available to them, both in playbooks and moves. All the Basic Moves had play, including Act Dishonorably, which has proven a bit of a black sheep. All my adjustments, especially player Tags instead of harm, worked great.

~ Sunday evening I didn't even bother putting out my Monsterhearts sheet, I pulled it off the table immediately. I wanted to play Avatar World. And it took a little time but not very long to gather together Noah (stranger), Orion (fellow GoD and regular gaming buddy), Jeremy (Orion's brother, also a GoD and regular gaming buddy), and Alex again! It's super exciting to me that I got a repeat player two days in a row, and another GoD to boot. Orion's played before as well, at ECCC.
Because I'd used my Red Mountain sheets, I offered both but established that I'd prefer to play Festival of the Four, especially since Alex had already played the other. Also I wanted to test my new thing :/
It went great! The things I built it to do (be more lighthearted, more social-based, with lots of seeds) all worked the way I wanted it to. Noah was on the Aristocrat (worked so so much better now that Speak Honorably can Tag), Orion was ten-year-old Firebender orphan Fenfang, Jeremy was the Warrior, and Alex was the Waterbender this time.
This time the airbenders actually were responsible for earthbenders' disappearance. Everything was good.

~ Monday morning I walked up to the table at 10am and watched the host put down my AvW sheet, and 30 seconds later I had a full 4-player game with a fifth asking if I'd be capable of handling one more. I said sure - five isn't ideal because of the more distributed spotlight, but these cons are the time to get as many folks seeing the game as I can handle. It was Tim (fellow GoD), Ed Turner (fellow GoD, designer of games), Aaron (fellow GoD), Daniel (stranger), and Michael (stranger). Tim was the late addition btw.
I had a bit of an issue that I'd run out of a couple of the playbooks (I was going to print out a couple more at Kinkos, but forgot that it was Labor Day), so I erased Genki and Panaku from my first game and cleared off the Festival of the Four sheets after asking them to pick a premise. Tim was more interested in social stuff than the combat, so Fot4 (FotF? I haven't decided which abbreviation I like more) was more fitting. We had an Earthbender (Daniel), an Airbender (Michael), a Scholar (Ed), a Waterbender (Tim), and an Aristocrat (Aaron), meaning only the Monk wasn't played over the weekend. We also had some cool age ranges with the characters, with two 40-50 year old characters and two 16-18 year olds in this game, which is cool to see alongside the 10 year old in the previous game.
This time the firebenders and a corrupt fake-guard-force were responsible for the Earthbenders, and they were rescued!

Basically everything went great. I see no rules changes to make. I saw a bunch of typos and stuff I'll get to fixing, but I saw nothing that needed me to rewrite the game again. Everyone was super supportive of the art, even before learning that I did it all myself, which is a GREAT feeling cuz some of it I worked really hard on.
I'm already looking forward to running the game in the future, and when I do cons in the future I think I'll put my GoD games as AvW and tSV. That's the next one that needs field testing once I do the next revision.
I hope to play more soon. Also I have posting plans for a thing pretty soon so look out for that. (also I started classes again today so we'll see how fast that actually happen)
End Recording,
Ego.

PAX Roundup!

This is from the Raichu Fandisc, a thing by Salvation By Faith Records. It's pretty good. I snagged a whole bunch of SBF stuff, so this is a good one.

PAX Roundup.

This was my very first PAX. It was kind of mindblowing. Let's hit some stuff and summarize my adventures:

GAMES ON DEMAND:
So I had myself a 4-Day pass! Except, well, I didn't pay for it. No, Games On Demand provided me with a pass, given the stipulation that I run games in three four-hour slots. After an initial brief period of hesitation, I jumped at it, because shit, I was probably going to do that anyway.
And do it I did! And far, far, more.
Let's be very clear about this: I spent a whole two thirds of the con in the GoD rooms. I ran games in and out of my schedule, and played multiple games. Let's narrow this down:

* Friday morning I got in on a Dungeon World game! I played Theseus the Good Ranger and his companion Gar'On the bear in The Frozen South (using the dungeon starter of the same name). I, uh, murdered the fuck out of everything with lots of arrows and a fucking BEAR. Being a Good Ranger means hunting down unnatural threats, so a Frost Giant baby is unnatural, right? Snow elves are really unnatural, right? I hope so, I killed like 12 of them in their sleep. I kept acing Volley rolls and dealing around 10 damage per attack - nothing survived me. This game also had the lovely innovation of the Cuddle Puddle!

* Friday evening a guy named Don wearing a VIP badge came around looking at games, and was interested in The Quiet Year, which wasn't on anyone's menu at the time. so I decided to jump in and run the game for him. It ended up a 1-on-1 affair, and it was the fastest Quiet Year I've ever played by a lot at an hour and forty minutes. The game was by a river, and was full of ghosts and weirdness. I'm the first to admit that I seriously go for the freaky supernatural stuff in my Quiet Years.

* Saturday I showed up at 2:00 and asked for my session to be moved up to then instead of 6, because of a storm of players who wanted to play Monsterhearts and a lack of MCs, so I decided to go for it. It was a full-up five player game (which I  keep being warned against at these cons and keep running with pretty good results)! We had a Fae named Aislyn who was exiled to the human world by Perseph of the Faerie Court, a Witch named Brianna whose family was all witches, and she had a Book of Shadows that let her be the toughest one there, with a Sanctuary in the library. We had Brendan the Werewofl whose wolf was almost entirely mental, like a mind-state change that makes him feral and wild, which was super intense, since he went Darkest Self. His family also knew what he was. We had Burton the Queen and his gang of Sammy, Gina, and Rasputin. Burton was a drug dealer whose supplier was his dad, and all of the security officer, math teacher, and principal we had in the game were all buyers, it was great. We had Iggy the Ghoul, whose father had killed him and his fraternal twin sister, composed them into one person, and reanimated them, with Iggy as the dominant mind. Iggy hungered for chaos. Iggy had a bit harder of a time fitting into a lot of the action since Alex (the player) was very tired, but he came up to me today and apologized (unnecessarily, it wasn't a problem) for being tired and said that it was an incredibly fun time, plus offered to put me up when I'm going down to Portland at the beginning of October for Technicolor Dreams. The game ended with Perseph manifesting physically in Daria's sanctuary due to her meddling, Aislyn and Brendan and Iggy showing up, and Perseph dragging the whole sanctuary into the Faerie Realm, with Burton coming across the empty secret room with Aislyn's backpack outside it. Also Brendan hospitalized a Gina in full view of a ton of people while The Wolf was in control.
Saturday night I spent prepping the not-so-Secret-Idea document.

* Sunday morning I showed up bright and early for my slot to find that Secret Idea would have to wait since I was already signed up for Monsterhearts! This time I had only three players. The first was Cassidy ("Cass") the Werewolf, a cross-country runner who had been mauled by a wolf and hospitalized last year, which was pretty public. He may be an alpha jock, but he's got a pretty plain-looking brainy girlfriend Tiffany (why do I not suggest boy/girlfriends more often?!). Daria is a witch, using hodgepodge magic learned from a ton of sources, who once threw a hex that overextended and turned the former cheerleader Ashley into a quadriplegic. She has a crush on Troy, the cross-country captain. Rowan is a Selkie whose pelt was stolen by Cass, though he doesn't know it was a pelt. He was curious to a point of recklessness, without caution, and is super unaware of how people act. Rowan has a bunch of fangirls, led by Cass's younger sister Brittany, cuz he's super hot it seems. Cass got in a huge fight with Troy then had a big fight with Tiffany about it. Daria got over Troy and ended up nearly killing him, with Rowan stopping her. By the end, Rowan went Darkest Self and was going to drown the world, but Daria brought him back with love, and Daria helped put Troy and Cass back together. It was a much more uplifting ending, and felt like the story could have been left there, no major cliffhanger.

* Sunday afternoon I played Monsterhearts, run by Robert. I got to play The Doppleganger, the skin I wrote, for the very first time (after running maybe five one-shots for it at various time). Taylor functioned exactly as I wanted it to. Taylor admired Drake's confidence and social prowess. Mouse was a Sasquatch (a skin from Jackson Tegu's Second Skins), who didn't understand how people worked, and faded into the background a lot. We were pretty similar, and Taylor kinda liked her. Drake was a Queen, and a drug-connected leader. The game didn't take place at school, but afterward, as the lead-up and action of a huge party Drake threw. Taylor set up  a drug deal as Drake that went bad and he was stabbed and had a knife at his throat, but managed to get out and accidentally killed him, immediately taking the form of Drake. He brought an enormous bag of weed to the party (as Drake, since Drake was incapacitated by his own super-drug), and was hitting on Mouse (which real-Drake had done earlier too) when she gave me a love potion and we had, uh, it was basically spiritual sex. We didn't really decide if it was also real sex because we didn't need to, but I'm kinda thinking it wasn't, it's less weird and rape-y that way. I mean, it's still a little under-false-pretenses, but Mouse did drug Taylor into it. In the end, Drake was taken away by the police for lots and lots of drugs and soon will be up for murder, and stole the super-drug from his dad (and put some in my pocket), and I was at 3 harm. It was crazy and suspenseful - I would watch the show that this was a pilot for.

* Sunday evening, before I went to dinner, I played a game by Ed Turner called Synanthropes Lite. A very short game about talking animals post-Humanity. It was a 15-minute experience. I really liked it and I want to play the full version!
This is Ed's blog!
This is Synanthropes!
This is Synanthropes Lite! (business-card sized!)
I played a Gecko named Cah-Rul, and Ed played a Raccoon named Audi, and we were having a debate about this mysterious human artifact (actually a can opener Ed pulled out). Audi, as a Raccoon who loves technology, thought it was a key or component of some kind of machine and wanted to take it back and study it, and was adamant  that humans never ever hurt each other. As a gecko, I consider human technology dangerous, so I was sure that it was used as a weapon - geckos love their fingers, and the handles were were crushing fingers, with the cogs for grinding them through them.
It was really fun. check it out, Ed's got something sweet going on!

* And Sunday night, the Secret Idea manifested: I ran Avatar World. Saturday night I'd compiled the playbooks into really loose documents and there were folks really excited to try it, so knowing it was going to probably be a bumpy ride, we went for it. We played in a world not-quite like the world of avatar, but quite similar. The four characters were Haa, a female airbender tired of monotonous life at the temple, Flamio, a poor teenaged Firebender who had accidentally burned down a bunch of the city years ago, and wants to be super famous, Kai, an older earthbender who has taken some responsibility for Flamio's wellbeing, and a nomadic Waterbender named Bokonnon who wants to claim a piece of land for his family (as the Water Tribe lives on an armada of ships). I don't think Eric realized I totally know where the name came from, as a huge Vonnegut fan. The game was in the capital during the Spirit Festival, which is ruled by the Phoenix King. I totally forgot that's what Ozai called himself! In this case the name was more about the immortality of the emperor rather than the fire. No one knows what bending he has, as rumors abound of all of them, but no one has ever spoken to someone who has personally seen him bend. His second, the Phoenix Prince, is an annually selected role based on a tournament to defeat the not-current but previous Prince, and is always a firebender. The group decided to go to the Holy Mountain to gain the treasure and fame from defeating the great beasts there and claiming the treasure, but they get lost and wind up in the festival, where Flamio is put into the tournament by Haa and he fights and defeats the older Prince. He is then publicly and personally addressed by the Phoenix King, a very rare event, to task him as the first Questing Prince in many, many years. He is to go and restore the balance of the Mountain, and re-establishing the Phoenix as the dominant spirit.
There were a lot of flaws in the game! I have holes to fix up, but a LOT of the issues came from the way I presented everything. I need to learn to GM it better. the main thing is to come up with and even script the way I intro the game and build the world and stuff. I also need to examine the Basic Moves and figure out how to make them work for significant non-combat as well. A big one is I want is we tried a stealth-type thing and I should at least have some way of sneakily moving around inside of Move With Intention. A lot of the moves and most of the Oaths could use more support dictating what happens in the fiction - Robert thinks it would be better to narrow down a lot of the things into main categories rather than leaving them open-ended, and I'm inclined to agree. Also, the Airbender (which he was playing)'s moves could use some more direct link to the fiction.
I definitely need to find a good way to explain Chi.
Basically, huge learning experience, and everyone said it was really fun.
I will not be making the PAX Edition document available immediately. I want to do a bit of repairs, and then compile it into something a bit more pretty than two dozen sheets of paper covered in plain-text Times New Roman. Soon though! The goal is still to have a full document around by the Gamerati Game Day on the 21st.

* Monday morning I ran more Monsterhearts! As Jay said, I was kind of a Monsterhearts-running-machine. This time we started with four players (though one had to go a bit early), and two of them were the same people who played Daria and Rowan the day before! I had introduced them to the game, they played again later, and then came back for another game I was running this morning, so I feel pretty damn good about that. This game had an even crazier relationship map than the others. We had Mara, the flesh-hungry Ghoul, awake for only a week, living in a cemetary. I started this one off well, with a burst of action, of Mara waking up on the day and the groundskeeper coming, and she hadn't eaten since the first day. She ended up tearing him apart and it was a visceral opener. We had Abel the Infernal, minion of Hastur, and a really optimistic guy who just wants to help everyone. We had Bethany the Queen, with her gang of Cody, Annie, and AJ, and they deal drugs. She likes Cody cuz he's hot and has the best car. And lastly we had Kard, the Hollow. Give me a sec here.
Let's talk for a moment about a way I feel like I failed as an MC right here. I consistently forgot to give the Veil conversation until just before play started, and in this case, Kard was the product of a wish - a wish by middle-age Todd who wanted a hot young girlfriend, but she came out imperfect; physically, she's everything he wanted, but lacks completely the personality he wants. And there's definitely some sexual abuse going on - and the moment the player said that, my brain skipped a step and I realized triggering content had gotten its way into the game before I brought up the Veil. Everyone seemed okay with it, but I still think it's a bit of a failure on my part that it even got through, because there could have been an issue. Not everyone has the Veil already to keep the game safe. In the future, I'm gonna make it a hard and fast rule that I say the Three Things About Storygames before every game with any people I don't already know and have gamed with, regardless of the game.
Anyway, can I mention that it was actually pretty uncomfortable territory for me? Not for personal reasons, but of course I run a lot of nasty people as MC, but this one definitely made me feel the most uncomfortable. It was really strong material and I wanted to do it, and we never had any negative personal encounters with Todd, but his influence was a constant in Kard's Gazes Into The Abyss, feeling his clammy hands all over her, not gentle like they used to be... It was fucking disturbing. I feel messed up having played it. But I think it was really good material and made the story that much better. It's just an early experience for me of really pushing my villains into dark territory. Anyway, this game ended with Hastur swallowing up Mara, Abel, and like a dozen NPCs.

So to summarize: Dungeon World, Quiet Year, Monsterhearts, Monsterhearts, Monsterhearts, Synanthropes Lite, Avatar World, Monsterhearts. Sounds like a party! I loved it. I nearly doubled my required slots. The Doppleganger worked exactly how I wanted, and Avatar World was a very fun learning experience (or so I was told, I spent the whole thing with my mind spinning a million miles an hour managing and often panicking - I probably could have been even better by just relaxing).

Monday night all the GoD folks got together at the Capitol Club to debrief and discuss what went well and what needed work, and we got some good ideas coming out.

Long story short: this was a fantastic experience, thanks so much to Morgan for offering the spot to me, and I will 100% be doing this next year, and hopefully also at ECCC, and also at anything else in range of me. Hell, this thing has actually boosted my confidence in GMing by quite a bit, and I already was getting used to running in public at Story Games Olympia!

THE COOL SHIT I LOOKED AROUND AT:
I saw some cool shit. I can make a rare claim: I stood in no lines! That basically means I skipped anything from a major developer other than Nintendo (whose lines were pleasantly short for everything but Wind Waker HD thanks to a large array of devices being used for the demos - even Pokemon X & Y had super-tiny waits). I did, however, really enjoy the Indie Megabooth! Lots of really cool stuff and brand new folks! I only actually demo'd a couple games, but there was a lot of really cool stuff. Here's some of them!
* Always Sometimes Monsters is a non-combat rpg. It looks like a bold direction to take things, and seems strongly character driven.
* Audiosurf 2 (of course) looks brilliant. I'm a huge fan of the original. I really hope Pedro Macedo Camacho is back to do the themes again.
* Barkley 2! Barkley 2 is fucking crazy, and it's going to be both amazing and gorgeous, with the pixel art done by Francis Coulombe, aka Frankiesmileshow, who is simply a brilliant artist.
* Bit.Trip Runner 2 is just great. I just talked about that like a week ago!
* Crypt of the Necrodancer is insane. Move through a dungeon to the rhythm for more points, also you're doing it on a DDR pad and fighting monsters and collecting treasure! I mean, you can do it on the computer, but fuck, why would you?
* My bro bought Electronic Super Joy and its soundtrack, which looks like a wicked hard rhythm-based platformer. Mashing up rhythm into other genres seems to be a thing.
* Even The Ocean was one I demo'd, and I was really impressed. It's tough, but has the sliding scale two-sided health bar that's a really smart idea.
* Christine Love had her visual novels Analogue: A Hate Story and its "sequel" (really more expansion apparently) Hate <3 and="" been="" befor="" both.="" bought="" bundle="" couple="" d="" ei="" first="" good.="" i="" it="" just="" lp="" lparchive.org="" night="" of="" on="" p="" plus="" reading="" really="" screenshot="" so="" that="" the="" them="" up="" updates="" was="" went="">* Ironclad Tactics, by Zachtronics (the SpaceChem guys!), looks to be just as tough and interesting as its predecessor, this time built like a deck-building action real-time board game.
* Legend of Dungeon looked simply gorgeous, with visuals very reminiscent of Sword & Sworcery to me. It's not the Superbrothers, but it looks great still.
* I didn't stay around to check much about Tengami, but it looked neat.
* Same deal with The Stanley Parable.
* I bought They Bleed Pixels pretty much immediately. I've been telling myself to buy the damn game for months.

Outside of the Indie Megabooth, I spent a lot of time just looking and browsing. I bought a Mew-Genics shirt from Team Meat, and Tommy Refenes signed it! I'm actually really proud of that, weirdly. Edmund wasn't there though. Next time! My bro tried the Oculus Rift and said it was basically life-changing, that it was easily the coolest thing at the show.

My one let-down: I had ONE game in mind that I wanted to buy at PAX, but Monte Cook and Shanna Germain was nowhere to be found! Damn.

Overall, PAX was just super super fun and I'm ready to sleep. I start classes in a week, I have the Gamerati Game Day on the 21st, and Technicolor Dreams on the 5th and 6th of October. Things are moving!
Later folks.

End Recording,
Ego.

Go Play NW 2013 Wrap-Up

A cool song. A bit long and repetitive, but still very enjoyable!

So I'm back from GPNW! Feeling so satisfied.

Had a couple of goals this year:
* Play games, but also Run games (as either facilitator or GM).
* Meet and play with new people.
* Play with people I've met but not gamed with.
* Participate in the Lottery, and at least one Donut game.
* Play new games, and limit Apocalypse-Powered games to half the con.

How'd I do?
* Yup! Ran two games, one GMless, one MC'd.
* Done.
* Done!
* Done and done.
* Done! The reasoning behind this limit was that if I felt like it I could have played ApW-powered games every single session. Heck, I probably could have played 7 straight games of Monsterhearts. The rule was to keep me playing new sorts of games that I hadn't experienced before.

So what was actually done?
* Showed up to Seattle around noon. Couldn't see Johnstone or the other Vancouverites over at Cal Anderson so went back to SU. Found Everyday Music on the way though - I love this record shop over in Portland and it's a regular stop for me there, so stumbling across the nearby one is great.
* Hung out with John Powell and Tony Dowler and Carl Rigney for a while.
* Went to the Friday Night Feast with Cristoph, Lisa, and Kynnin. I already played a game with Kynnin last year (Geiger World), but the other two were new to me - I saw quite a bit of them through the con, we hung out a bit, and they were in my Monsterhearts game. They were all from Vancouver, so it was pretty interesting. The Feast was very good actually.
* After dinner was the only game of the night! Written and run by Jeremy Tidwell, I played Last Generation. It was really fun, and quite interesting. I've a third of my AP post for this one already written :3 Found it through the Donut by the way, so fixed up one of my requirements already.
* Pat let me stay at his place. It was really nice of him and any time you're down in Tacoma Pat, my place is open.
* Saturday morning I was gonna play something, and went for the Donut. I felt like there weren't too many people facilitating, so I threw myself into the fire and pitched The Quiet Year. After a mild panic at the start of the game where I couldn't find my keys (they were out in the lobby), we got underway. As my first time running a game, I was a little nervous, and I felt okay about how I did. I know I rushed Dan some and he vocalized at the end that he was a little discomforted by it and I feel really bad about that, bu he liked it enough to buy the game so I'm glad he was still able to enjoy it.
* After a calm lunch hour, I had the Lottery. Pulled Joli, Martin, and Eileen. Joli facilitated Spione, written by Ron Edwards, which is a GMless game about spies in Cold War Berlin. It was very interesting, and a little boundary-pushing at first, but I enjoyed it a lot.
* Went for dinner with a whole gaggle of people at Elysium Brewery. Damn good burgers. HIGHLY recommended.
* The evening game was my scheduled running of Monsterhearts. During the feast the night before Ben Robbins convinced me that 5 players was probs. too many, so Feiya was willing to switch to another Monsterhearts game. Then Neil accidentally double-booked himself so he did his other thing and Teri jumped in, so 4 players. Then, at the start of the game Jess showed up and just asked to watch cuz he was later and games were full, so we just let him join in so I had 5 players anyway. Everyone was pretty new to it other than Jess, who I played with at Technicolor Dreams, and Teri had played once. Jason had read the rules quite thoroughly, and Cristoph and Lisa played Dungeon World earlier that day and as such had a rudimentary familarity with the basic ApW framework. The game was fantastic. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite Monsterhearts session yet. Everyone had their A game going, it was damn satisfying and every character had a cool arc that happened. The Doppleganger was not played, but we playtested Orion's Skin The Firestarter, so that was interesting.
* I went home that night. I then slept in too late and missed the SUN-01 session. Sucks, but I got to be rested, so that's cool. In the space though I played Trans-Europa with Morgan and a couple others. It was actually really cool - I'm not a big board-gamer, but it was a really good one. Learned it and pulled off the whole thing within a half-hour, which is swift and still interesting, plus there's some pretty elegant design in that game.
* Jackson and Johnzo and Christian invited me to play Anima Prime with them for Sun-02 and then I went to lunch with Joe and Jackson and someone else who's name escapes me so I'm sorry, it was cool talking to you but I'm bad at names.
* We came back and played Anima Prime. I haven't decided whether this game or my Monsterhearts game was better, but one of those was definitely my highlight game for the con. Christian (the writer of the game) ran it, and it was really cool. It was very accepting of wanting crazy cool and creative powers, and hit an interesting balance between being very lightweight but also being fairly intricate. Fiction-wise, it's a combination of action anime and Final Fantasy. The whole time I was thinking "this is definitely a game Kris should check out." On a hunch, after the game I asked Christian which FF game he drew most from, and he came back with Final Fantasy X. I had guessed that actually, seeing as its Kris's favorite. I would definitely play this again.
* Last game of the con was Dungeon World with Jay running and Ross, Johnzo, Erin Sara, and Drew playing. Johnzo and Drew's characters were returning, with this being their third adventure in as many cons, so Nesmit and Emory had some experience. We were all third level. It was cool and maybe I died at the very end, I'm not sure. We had to cut it short right at the end of the slot cuz Johnzo had to bail. Fun stuff!
* Finished out the night by going to Von Trapp's and enjoying food with a whole gang of people. Then I drove Ross and Orion home before heading back myself. And that was Go Play NW!

So to sum up:
* Last Generation (Donut)
* Quiet Year (Ran, Donut)
* Spione (Lottery)
* Monsterhearts (Ran)
* Anima Prime
* Dungeon World

Also, I bought three (well, 2.5) games!

I own the Quiet Year already! But I talked to Joe and worked out how to pay for just the Bag and the fun things that came with it. I especially really wanted the little skulls for Contempt Tokens. Don't need to carry around my tin of pennies anymore!

This is 300, a little set of rules Orion wrote for Fabulous Replacement. The resolution mechanic is bowling. Like, at a bowling alley. It starts with "When you pay, tell whoever is handling the transaction 'My life for Xerxes!' Their reply implies your current relationship with the great God-King, Xerxes.
Maintain a serious and respectful silence as you wait for your shoes."
I want to play this game.

They Became Flesh, a game by Elizabeth and Shreyas Sampat. It's about Fallen Angels who love humanity, who hate them. One GM plays God, one GM plays Humanity, everyone else is Fallen Angels. It looks really really interesting.

I think that's a good wrap-up of the con! I'm gonna write up AP of as many as I can.
Later!
End Recording,
Ego.

The Quiet Year: My Improvised Experience

I don't actually know anything about Metro 2033 or Metro: Last Light. They have some good songs on their soundtracks. Also check out Venice Vices and Metro Blues.

Hey there, the eve of Go Play NW! I'm excited. And so, in the spirit of relaxing and preparing, I went to Story Games Olympia to play even more.
I might have forgotten to check the Meetup page though, where it basically said that none of the regulars were probably gonna be there. Whoops. So there I was, and with a couple newbies who'd mostly never played RPGs before (minus one gal who'd been once before and played Monsterhearts, but that was her only other experience).
Here's a note: I've never hosted Story Games Olympia before. We've always had at least one of: Ross, Morgan, Jackson, Robert, Orion. So this time, with no regulars, I guess it fell to me. I made the best of it - I kinda forgot to mention The Veil, but our game generally didn't go anywhere near uncomfortable territory (unless you are made uncomfortable by squid-hawks or radioactive zombie fish), and I WAS watching for any discomfort and didn't see any. We also didn't have a pitch circle, per say... Mostly because I had no supplies.
I had come to play. I wanted to play a game and not GM something because I was gonna be GMing Saturday night, and so I hadn't brought any stuff. No dice. No rules. Blank slate. And so, when I ended up being the only person who had ANY rules knowledge to actual play a game, I had to start improvising. Of course, you already know what I played from the post title: The Quiet Year.

I didn't have much choice. The Quiet Year is the only game I know well enough that I can run it at the drop of a hat and is easy enough that I can explain it quickly and easily to complete RPG newcomers. It does, however, have a few requirements.
It needs the Rulebook. I did not have the rulebook.
It needs playing cards. I did not have playing cards.
It needs paper. I did not have paper.
It needs dice. I did not have dice.
It needs some quantity of tokens. I did not have tokens.
So I pitched the game anyway.
It needs a pencil. I managed to actually have a pencil. Whoopie.
The required a little scavenging and alteration. For one, I had no chance for tokens, so I just axed Contempt Tokens from the game. They don't have rules impact anyway. I downloaded the PDF on my phone (legally, since they were emailed to me during the Indiegogo campaign). I asked the coffee shop in which we meet if they had playing cards and fortunately they did (if they didn't I was probably gonna use a randomizer online for card draws). Also I'm gonna plug that coffee shop, Burial Grounds Coffee, for being amazing and friendly and serving some damn good tea. Anyway, I then asked the patrons of the shop if they had any paper and someone had some notebook paper and let us have a piece - it might be lined, but god damn it it's paper, works for me. I had another small piece of paper that I used to track projects since I had no dice to count down with. And so we played, on lined paper with regular playing cards as I passed around my phone with the card questions on the screen.

And it went well I think! Here, check it out:

Click for full size. This is a better picture than I expected, it got my project sheet's corner, the cards, the map, and a bit of my index card with the Resources on it. The whole Improvised Quiet Year experience right here.

So, some cool things. It's another Dead Port! I didn't come up with it, we had the suggestions tossed out of "By The Sea" and "Abandoned City" so we put them together for a port! Still, I tried not to recycle my previous ideas, other than the half-sunken cruise ship (that we didn't explore). We had an abandoned pirate ship still floating and a haunted lighthouse. We had resources of "Drinkable Water," "Food," and "Fish" as scarcities and "Skateboards" in abundance (for transport and all). Through the game interesting things happened like having no children in the whole village, Priscilla the Dog Whisperer (aka the Charismatic Young Girl) tried to negotiate with the rabid dogs and 1/4 of our hunters died and another 1/4 became the dogs' pets, but it was peaceful. There were Squid-Hawks (table-sized hawks with 10-foot tentacles and wingspans that were the region's apex predators). There was a radioactive fish processing plant that exploded and made the biker gang radioactive and also the fish reanimated and were radioactive. Also the bikers had radioactive fleas that turned one of our warriors into Flea-Girl who was like a superhero. We allied with the ghost by trading it our divinely-glowing dog food and there was a talking crab who was the intermediary between our community and the mermaids. There was a hurricane, and a prophecy about how this place was the origin point for the end of the universe. There was a wizard who could grant three wishes who died before we could use any of them. We found some glasses loaded with Google Glass. We castrated a pedophile and then threw him to the bikers.

That's the highlights I think, in no particular order. It was pretty freakin' crazy. I was quite reliant on the principle of "you don't need to be creative or witty or whatever - just say what sounds like the obvious thing to you because it might not be so obvious to everyone else," so there was quite a few off-the-wall ideas.

Very, VERY different from my other abandoned port game. Very cool, and the improvised solutions worked decently. I'd like to thank Leo, Tash, Alli, and Rowan (hope I spelled those right) for tolerating my on-the-fly game solutions, and I really hope you enjoyed yourselves. I'd love to see you again :)

The Quiet Year really is a great game for operating under those conditions. Also thanks Joe for having my other Dead Port AP linked on the official Quiet Year page, it's been a nice view feed :D

So GPNW is tomorrow. And Saturday. And Sunday. I am about to talk for three more days in a row and maybe sleep in my car to save gas money :/

Sunday Songs will be happening on time, but there will be no Pixel Art Lesson. Later!

End Recording,

Ego.

The Quiet Year: The Dead Port (Solo AP)

THIS would have been the post to put In Ruins by Fol Chen on. But alas, I used that already.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JSPpZjY2rM&feature=player_embedded

This is Stroll Around The Town from Custom Robo. It's great. The whole game's soundtrack came out of nowhere and is amazing.

So I played The Quiet Year, which just released its pre-release PDFs into the backer crowd yesterday. I didn't play with others though - this is a solo endeavor. The game doesn't come with solo powers to begin with, but I made it work, and apparently I'm not the only one! Here's the big points to know:


* I am three people. I played as if I was three for purposes of setup and discussions.
* I played a Fleeting Year, which means 4 less cards per suit (random), the King of Diamonds is ALWAYS gone, and the King of Spades is NEVER gone.
* I did not use Contempt. As a social signal without a ton of game power, I don't need to signal to myself when I make myself upset with a move. Plus I can't think of how to use them.
* I DID include discussions. The way I worked them is I came up with the usual question or declaration and tried to come up with alternative stances on it within the community. It showed a divided community, and presented some concrete options rather than leaving everything vaguely undefined. Later, thanks to an amazing suggestion in the Quiet Year thread on Story Games, I've started Tweeting the question when I do discussions, attaching the hashtag #QuietYear to them. I wanna keep doing that.
* For this particular post, I decided last minute to not tell you which card I drew. I'm telling the prompt for the card, but with card names on there I'd basically be giving away the game. Plus, not knowing precisely which card I used doesn't actually affect the reading experience.

The Dead Port
detail 1: The community lives among the cargo containers.
d2: With those enormous container cranes, looming like great iron horses!
d3: And the wreckage of a container ship just a bit too far in the water. Her name is The Salvation!
resource 1: Clean drinking water. (Scarcity) (Poison bubbles in water)
r2: Storable food. (Scarcity) (Empty Containers)
r3: Protection from the Corrupted Weather. (Abundance) (Open Containers for Shelter)

WINTER PARTS AND SPRING BEGINS.
w1: What's the most beautiful thing in the area? The flaming auroras that light up the night sky. Discover Something: A second maze of containers, all sealed up tight.
w2: A young boy starts diggin in the ground, and discovers something unexpected. What is it? An unrusted silver key. Discover Something: An old empty well, leading into darkness.
w3: A charismatic young girl tries to tempt many into sinful or dangerous activity. Why? How does the community respond? Nina is drawing people to Paradise Beyond Far Waves after having a dream-vision. Some are compelled, but many react with anger to this community-breaker. Hold a Discussion: *Nina should be cast out before more join her suicide voyage! * But Nina's family is in charge of the food supply and would react with anger... * We cannot allow her to leave with our people or we will all fall.
w4: Two of the community's younger members get into a fight. What provoked them? Disagreement over the existence of Paradise Beyond Far Waves. Start A Project: Build a better boat for an exploratory journey there (4 Weeks).
w5: What important and basic tools does the community lack? Any form of power generation (scarcity added) due to the generators being destroyed by the Corrupt Weather. Discover Something: The lighthouse on the far side of the port lit up for the first time in memory. (Boat Project Die: 3)
w6: There's a giant, man-made structure on the map. Where is it? Why is it abandoned? The Salvation is difficult to navigate, being mostly sunken in the middle of the poison bay. Start a Project: Investigate the new set of containers for usable supplies (3 Weeks). (Boat Project Die: 2).
w7: There's another community somewhere on the map. Where are they? What sets them apart from you? The Reefers live out on the water in their motorboats. We won't stoop to their raiding (and sometimes cannibalistic) lifestyle, but they ought to die soon out in that sludge. Hold a Discussion: *What are we doing to prepare for the next Reefer attack? * We need to fashion a better place to shield the supplies. * But what of us? We need to be protected too, we should shore up the shelters. * Isn't it time to stop hiding? We ought to fight back and show them that we can't be pushed around. (Boat Project: 1). (Container Project: 2).
w8: Alarming weather patterns destroy something. How and what? One of the container cranes was struck by Red Lightning and melted to slag. Even amid the rain, the fires have yet to go out. The Boat Project: The larger boat, fully ready to sail to Paradise Beyond Far Waves, is awaiting a crew. Hold A Discussion: * We should strike out immediately before tragedy hits! * We cannot head out now! The Reefers would be too dangerous to the explorers. * To the ship!? With people gone, use here in the settlement won't survive an attack! (Container Project: 1).
w9: What natural predators roam the area? How safe are you? Spider-drakes nest in the beams of the spires and cranes, but only descend upon the community when the Corrupt Weather threatens them. There's little to stop them then though. The Container Project: Enough containers have been broken open and enough food has been found to last for quite a while. Start a Project: Prepare measures to prevent spider-drake hazards in the coming rains (2 Weeks).
AND SUMMER ARRIVES.
w10: Predators and bad omens are afoot. What measures do you take to keep everyone safe and under surveillance? Corrupt Weather is driving down the spider-drakes, and the preparations to keep them out need to be made faster than expected, and the continuing container-scavenger teams are pulled off their own jobs. Without their foraging, food is once again running low (Food Scarcity). The Home-Protection Project: Strong Bars have been welded over the container openings, wide enough apart to get though but too narrow for the spider-drakes. Start a Project: Fashion weapons and learn to use them (3 Weeks).
w11: Summer is a time for production and tending to the earth. Start a project related to food production. Modify a few containers into makeshift greenhouses for food production (3 Weeks). Discover Something: glowing lights can be seen on The Salvation at night. (Weapons Project: 2).
w12: An unattended situation becomes problematic and scary. What is it? How does it go awry? The lighthouse spotlight has begun sweeping and holding on the settlement, and has turned from its old bright yellow to an unsettling red. The lights on The Salvation have turned red too. Hold a Discussion: Why is the lighthouse scanning us with its crimson light? *They're with the Reefers, looking for victims! *No way, the Reefers stay out on the sludge. This is a new group trying to find people. *Could they be friendly? Folks need to band together in these trying times. (Weapons Project: 1). (Greenhouse Project: 2).
w13: A project fails. Which one? Why? The Greenhouse Project fails when a bout of Corrupt Rain drives the spider-drakes down and they smashed through the glass panes and ruined the containers. The Weapons Project: The attack of the spider-drakes gave the community a chance to test out their skills and get some real experience (Melee Weapons added as an Abundance). Start a Project: Descend into and explore the well caverns (4 Weeks).
w14: Predators and bad omens are afoot. You are careless, and someone goes missing under ominous circumstances. Who? In another descent of the spider-drakes in inclement weather, Nina went missing. However, her boat wasn't at the shore, and was in fact spotted over by The Salvation. Start a Project: Mount a rescue of Nina (1 Week). (Cavern Project: 3).
w15: Someone tries to take control of the community by force. Do they succeed? Why do they do this? The Resuce Project: When the group arrives on The Salvation using the large boat, they find Nina with several savages, smiling. She declared that she was upset with how long it was taking to go off to Paradise Beyond Far Waves, and commanded that the community submit to her vision or she would release the savages and call the Reefers to bear. Unfortunately for her, the community members incapacitated her and the savages with their weapon skills. Start a Project: Occupy The Salvation and observe all that goes on around (6 Weeks). (Cavern Project: 2).
w16: A project finishes early. Which one? Why? The Cavern Project finished a bit early, thanks to the discovery of the end. This end was a pristine mineral water spring of substantial size, clean enough to drink. We also grated over the well to keep the spider-drakes out. Discover Something: A bioluminescent fungus is growing in the caverns as well. They're no good for food, but it's nice to have lighting again with the power out. (Observation Project: 5).
w17: A contingent within the community demand to be heard. Who are they? What are they asking for? The people who believed in Nina's vision of Paradise Beyond Far Waves still clamor for the voyage, even after Nina's betrayal. They want to stop with these other distractions and go since Paradise Beyond Far Waves will provide for their every need. There's about a dozen believers. Hold a Discussion: Why can't we all have faith in Paradise Beyond Far Waves and begin our voyage? *We should set out immediately. All out needs will be provided for! *I don't believe it even exists! It's a fool's errand! *That's why we should only send a few! But we cannot leave the rest of our people unprepared when we go. If we had more supplies, perhaps... (Observation Project: 4).
w18: Someone leaves the community. Who? What are they looking for? Charlie couldn't handle waiting for the others and living in fear of Reefer raids and struck out on his own in the little boat Nina had, looking for Paradise Beyond Far Waves. Start a Project: Prepare to raid or infiltrate the Reefers for supplies (3 Weeks). (Observation Project: 3).
AND THUS IT BECAME AUTUMN.
w19: You find a body. Do people recognize who it is? What happened? It's Charlie - slashed across the throat by barbs and hooks. Looks like the Reefers didn't even let him get out to sea before they struck. Poor guy. Start a Project: Prepare the ship for its voyage (6 Weeks). (Observation Project: 2). (Raid Project: 2).
w20: Cold autumn winds drive out your enemies. Remove a threatening force from the area and the map. The spider-drakes, feeling the coming chill, have fled southeast to warmer pastures. Discover Something: Community scouts following the spider-drakes for a distance managed to find a building, locked and sealed tight. It looks almsot like a storehouse. (Observation Project: 1). (Raid Project: 1). (Voyage Project: 5).
w21: (DAMN this throws a wrench in things. And by "a wrench" I mean awesome) A natural disaster strikes the area. What is it?  You focus on getting everyone to safety. Remove an Abundance and a project fails. A Plague Tempest hits the port, its thunderous rumblings nauseating all and striking the exposed with the disease-causing Blacklightning. Everyone in the community shelters underground in the well caverns, but the general illness causes the community to mostly exhaust the spring. Very careful rationing will be survivable, but for any real work to be done we'll need to find more. (Drinkable water is in scarcity again). The Raid Project: Entirely called off for the moment due to the Tempest. The Observation Project: Surprisingly, the observation team was fine over on The Salvation, having taken shelter below deck. Over the course of their work, they've identified quite a bit. They've found the base camp of the Reefers, located their fuel supply (in the lighthouse) and know that the savages are directly working for the Reefers. The biggest observation was immediate: the Reefers used the community's containers to shelter from the storm and are currently occupying the area. Start a Project: Retake the Village (1 Week). (Voyage Project: 4).
w22: Disease spreads through the community. You spend the week quarantining and treating the disease. Project Dice are not reduced this week. (wow, this followup to my choice of natural disaster is perfect). We're stuck down here in the well. The Reefers don't know we're here, but they're not leaving now that they're in the port. Start a Project: Further explore the tunnels for supplies (2 Weeks). (Retake Project: 1). (Voyage Project: 4).
w23: Someone is caught trying to sabotage the efforts of the community. How does the community respond? Elder Silvi was claiming to explore the tunnels and did not actually do so. He was afraid about the retake attempt failing because they rushed into it and was trying to stall the effort. The community is furious, but postpones punishment until safety has been reached. The Retake Project: Taking the Reefers by surprise, they're pushed back into their boats and back to their camp. This is a major success for the community. Silvi's fate rests on the success of finding more supplies in the tunnel. Start a Project: Find a way into the Warehouse (1 Week). (Tunnel Project: 1). (Voyage Project: 3).
w24: Someone issues a dire warning, and the community leaps into action to avoid disaster. What is the warning? Start a contentious project that relates to it. A pair of twins, Lin and Lo, were both struck by the Blacklightning and the disease gave them extensive dream-visions. They saw the aurora descending on the world, burning the bay with its otherworldly flame. The community begins fireproofing all of its containers to protect itself from this, but many consider this a waste of time and energy on a fevered dream. The leaders believe it though, and it's started (4 Weeks). The Warehouse Project: Simple enough, they didn't need much effort at all, seeing as the silver key fit the lock perfectly. Inside was a host of food and supplies (Food is now in Abundance). The Tunnel Project: After exploring the tunnels, food isn't found, but a secondary spring is, providing ample water. The tunnels are completely explored now though. Host a Discussion: Are the burning auroras really going to descend on us like in the twins's dream-vision? *Absolutely. But even if we're not sure, protection is best. *This isn't needed right now, we have bigger priorities, like the Reefers and the voyage. *This is absurd. Following her vision drove Nina mad and we can't let ourselves be deluded again. (Voyage Project: 2).
w25: A small gang of marauders is making its way through local terrain. How many are there? What weapons do they carry? The Sewer Rat Gang, made up of about a dozen mad bikers with clubs embeded with rat teeth. They'll be sweeping along the whole coast soon. Start a Project: Repair the Generator (3 Weeks). (Voyage Project: 1).
w26: Something goes foul and supplies are ruined. Add a new Scarcity. The Tempest was weathered without major casualty, but it exhausted the supply of medicine.  Medical Supplies are now Scarce.The Voyage Project: Everything is prepared for the voyage to Paradise Beyond Far Waves. All that remains is for an opening to present itself. Start a Project: Prepare to raid the Reefers (3 Weeks). (Generator Project: 2).
w27: Conflict flares up among community members, and as a result, a project fails. Just as it was beginning, tension between the growing faction looking to Paradise Beyond Far Waves and the now-warriorlike remnant faction erupts. The Remnants lose, and their plan to raid the Reefers is scuttled. Start a Project: Create a shore defense against the Reefers (3 Weeks). (Generator Project: 1).
THE FINAL SEASON BEGINS AND THE FROST SHEPARDS CAN BE FELT AROUND THE CORNER.
w28: Winter is harsh, and desperation gives rise to fear mongering. Spend the week calming the masses and dispelling their violent sentiments. The week ends immediately.
w29: What is winter like in this area? How do community members react to the weather? Winter is unrelenting and frigid. The chilled metal of the containers is painful to the touch, and the poisonous ice isn't good either. The community reacts by spending the evenings either underground in the well tunnels or in the Warehouse, or by any spots where Red Lightning has ignited the clay. The Generator Project: The generator is finally repaired, and low power is restored. Heating units are immediately establsihed in the Warehouse and tunnels. Discover Something: The lighthouse has stopped lighting up at night - either the Reefers are locking down for the winter or they're planning something. (Shore Project: 2).
w30: A headstrong community member tries to take control of the community. How are they prevented from doing this? Due to the conflict, project dice are not reduced this week. The most outspoken man against the voyage to Paradise Beyond Far Waves tries to quash the idea, but is stopped. In the process, he attacks several important voyagers, and while he deals no significant harm, for his crimes he is exiled. Start a Project: Build a second generator (3 Weeks). (Shore Project: 2).
w31: In preparation for the coming year, the community begins a huge undertaking. Start a project that will take at least 5 weeks to complete. Approximately half the population gets on the ship and sails for Paradise Beyond Far Waves (6 Weeks). Discover Something: The Sewer Rats, in their madness, stayed outside in the air all night for several weeks now and have frozen to death. Their bikes are found, gasless but intact. (Shore Project: 1). (Generator Project: 2).
w32: Someone comes up with a plan to ensure safety and comfort during the coldest months. Start a project related to this. By establishing a better fireproofing measure, Lin and Lo's dream-vision could turn out to be beneficial in these cold months. With many of the doubters gone, the project begins again (4 Weeks). The Shore Project: A significant rock barrier now walls off a large section of shore form the bay, giving the community ample warning in an attack. (Generator Project: 1). (Sailing Project: 5).
w33: King. The Frost Shepards Arrive. Will the now-two generators be enough? Will the aurora inferno now fall? Will the Reefers survive the winter? Can the rest of the community reach Paradise Beyond Far Waves? Does it exist at all? Unfortunately, we won't know these things, because our Quiet Year has ended, and next year we will be thrust back into the tumult of the Jackals of Fate.

And because the heart and soul of the game is the Map, here's mine!

Click it for a full view! Hopefully it's at a good size. Warning: I did ZERO editing, that's just the straight photograph, my bedsheets and all.

What were my favorite things? Blacklightning and the Plague Tempest, Burning Auroras, spider-drakes, Paradise Beyond Far Waves, Nina, dream-visions. So a lot of supernatural. That's kinda my thing. Oh, and Tweeting discussions.
I loved loved loved this game. I will be playing again by myself sometime soon for sure, and convincing others to play whenever possible. Maybe I can get in on one of Mcdaldno's games at Technicolor Dreams in Portland on the 8th, which I will be at.

Enjoy!