Or Lin’s Adventures in Gamerland, 6th edition. As usual, I was accompanied by my husband, Mark, and our oldest, Brennen. It really started to feel like GNC time when we picked up longtime friend Jon Stevens at Love Field on Wednesday. After vegging out at the hotel, the four of us headed over to Dallas Games Marathon for the barbecue feast put on by Tim and Kate Rayburn, something I had been looking forward to since Thursday of GNC Five. This year’s spread was even better. Thank you both for the amazing food!
Thursday, I started my gaming odyssey at fellow writer Ben Erickson’s table, playing one of his favorites, Pugmire, which is D&D for Dogs, and quite a bit of fun. It’s a D&D 5e variant and I would love to play again. I played a husky who wears plate and wields a greatsword and axe. Playing tips? If you don’t think about how dogs can manage to hold and wear traditional fantasy gear, it’s just like playing your favorite Half-Orc, Elf, or Sorceror. (Ben’s Pugmire review)
Keeping with the con supers theme, I played 2 different new-to-me systems. First up–Magpie Games’ Masks is a fun system, “Powered by the Apocalypse.” It is aimed at playing teams of teenaged heroes. Being based on Apocalypse, character creation is very involved, and really needs a full Session Zero, which doesn’t work for a con game, unless you opt for a 5 or 6 hour slot. Nevertheless, it was still a good game, with lots of both action and angst. Sarah, our GM, admitted afterwards she cut out an encounter due to the length of time we spent on our characters–but she did a good job of shortening it, as the session still felt complete. In fact, as far as roleplay it was one of the best. Sarah was also gracious about taking feedback and I won’t hesitate to register for her sessions if she runs any next year.
I also played the Saturday morning session of “Weekend in New England,” based on Mayfair Exponential Game System/DC Heroes, so I earned my Dead Gamer Badge (playing an out of print game) bodyguarding a (in-)famous ’80s balladeer. I can see why this system still has fans. It was easy to pick up, especially since our GM, Edward, was kind enough to include cheat sheets with the PCs’ powers for easy reference. I picked up the PC he said would make the adventure more playable, and was glad, as I enjoyed the high-powered Bio-Bot (actually a person in a containment suit). Speaking of high-powered, this system was pretty high-power all around, which suits a game meant to emulate characters like Wonder Woman and Superman.
Unfortunately, due to various understandable circumstances, I and others had to miss a few games we’d planned on. Artemis Starship Bridge simulation was badly missed by Brennen and me. We’d love to see Artemis back next year. Both the Thursday and Friday night Sentinel Comics games were canceled, so I didn’t get a chance to try that system out. J. T.’s 7th Seas game was also called due to the GM’s illness. (But J. T. has reached out to all of us to schedule a Skype session, so kudus to him.)
Bummed as I was at each of these, I was happy with the way my fellow gamers responded, sometimes beyond a simple reminder that there were plenty of other games to play. One player tracked me down to tell me about a couple games needing players. And Jon persuaded me and Brennen to try out Brett Bowen’s Earthdawn Genesys hack. Like Jon, I have my doubts as to the mechanics–but I fell in love with the setting! Post-apocalyptic fantasy, if you’re not familiar with Earthdawn. Had a great time playing a tiny fairy-type bard with dragonfly wings. (Expect to see a Try Before You Buy on this one.)
No, I didn’t neglect the board and card games. Thursday night, instead of Sentinel Comics, I played Untold Adventures Await. As our host advertised, it really was like making a pitch and pilot for a TV show! We ended up in a spies/weird war alternate World War 2 Italy. The locale was my contribution, as it was familiar from my dad’s war stories. The “script” we players co-wrote and acted was a mix of humor and sheer terror. I recommend this game.
I wish I could say the same for the other cooperative game I played, Discover: Lands Unknown. I really looked forward to it, but the play just didn’t impress me. The best way I can describe it is “Cataan Heavy.” Very heavy. There are so many tiles and markers and so on. Turns take a while, and I found the mechanics cumbersome, moreso than playing Cataan with several expansions. To be fair, part of my dislike was that well over a quarter of a 4 hour session was taken up by getting the game set up and explaining things, so we were nowhere near done when time was up and I had another game. (People, don’t try to cram 1.5 hours of setup and 4 hours of play into a 4 hour slot!)
Finally Brennen and I killed some time one night with Arboretum, a card game where you collect, lay out, and/or discard cards depicting pretty trees of various species. It really does play fast, although the rules were hard to understand. Only after we were well into our second game, did either of us realize we had totally misunderstood how to play the cards. Oh, well, the pictures were very pretty. “Beautiful trees, kills time” covers the positives.
For Saturday’s GNC After Dark (over 21 only), I engaged in some very pleasant ironic behavior. I overindulged only in the amazing ice cream some wonderful people brought in. I left the actual drinking to the patrons of Red Dragon Inn (my review). I played with two gentlemen who were also down from Arkansas. (This means Arkansas is gaining on the Norwegians and Canadians, with 6 that I know of at GNC 6. Yay!) We had a great time playing assorted characters, over 3 games, and I won 2 of them.
I also got to try out something really cool and different–one of Maggie Ritchie’s 1 hour intro panels based on the Adventure Writing Academy course taught by Ms. Ritchie, Chris Hunt, et al. This was a lot of fun, easily the equivalent of a good RPG session’s worth, packed into an hour! Plus I learned a lot, including a way to deal with old nemesis, Darth Writer’s Block. I’d never thought about getting my senses involved, much less that it might help. One of the exercises even gave me a couple of super (anti) hero and villain ideas. So check the Academy out! And I really hope Maggie, whom I enjoyed talking to Sunday, brings this back for GNC 7.
Fun as the games, food, and Adventure Writing were, the best part was the people. I really did enjoy getting to know Maggie. I was also happy to finally introduce my family, in person, to Doran, one of my fellow players in the formerly Friday Skype, now Saturday Discord Night group. Isn’t it great to meet in person friends who were previously just a voice and a username?
Wow! My top intel analysts just reported in. They insist that next year’s theme is–
GNC 007 -SPIES! Which seems to be popular! Several friends/family have already told me about the games they are planning for. So be prepared. Dark sunglasses, check. Little Black Dress, check. Gun, check. Hot car with more gadgets than the Starship Enterprise, check…
Linda Whitson
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