| Thoughts on Dragon*Con |
| Dragon*Con is the big one, y'know. 20,000 people, lots of musical acts, lots of authors (including Laurel Hamilton; I recommend her stuff highly) and...some role-playing. And since that's mostly what I go to cons for (that and to blow money on T-shirts) I was annoyed that the RPing wasn't given a lot of attention. But hey. We did OK. I ran three games (had to, to get in free). They were: Changeling, Rokea, and Vampire. Since I didn't stay at the hotel where the con was being held (as it was held in Atlanta, I just communted) I don't have quite the same blow-by-blow that I did for MarCon. But here's some hilights from my weekend. All three of my games sold out Thursday night. I'd feel flattered, except that there were only about 5 White Wolf games scheduled (how many pick-up games were run is another matter). Which is too bad, really - people obviously want to play them... |
| The Changeling game that I ran was basically a horror movie; the idea was that the notion of the "slasher" came to life as a very powerful chimera and started stalking some changelings (all of whom were students at the same University). We ended up with one fatality; unlike Andrew, he seemed pretty jazzed. Photos from the game at right. The folks in the bottom photo, by the way, drove all the way from Vancouver (that's Bristish Columbia) to play in the Changeling game and hook up with other regulars from the Changeling Forum. I think that's worth a nod! |
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| My Rokea game was an interesting experiment; I ran the game starting at 9 AM. Never again. I got players, yeah, but three of them were very sleepy and (for some odd reason) had registered for the game without reading the Rokea book and without ever playing Werewolf. But I ran the game and it turned out very well. I didn't get a group photo - they all scattered after the game ended - but I did get the shot of Adam with the guy who tried to lead the motley crew o' sharks and therefore won the prize - a copy of Black Furies Revised. |
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| In between the Rokea game and the Vampire game that night, Julie, Hanneke, Lisa and I sat down and played Arcadia for a while. These three lovely ladies drove down from Cleveland to come to the Con and hang out with me, so that was cool. At left are some photos of them playing Arcadia. Who says there aren't any good-looking women who game? During this game, three fellas whom gamed with me at the Dragon's Horde showed up and expressed their displeasure that I wasn't running games anymore. Them's the breaks, guys. Read the essays and run your own. But here's a photo of them just the same. |
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| Hanneke and Julie |
| Lisa |
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| Dragon's Horde Gang |
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| And then came the Vampire game. I have to admit, I was nervous. I hadn't run Vampire at a con in a while, and while all RPGs have their annoying fans, bad Vampire players tend to be the worst. But I was pleasantly surprised. The only one wearing a black T-shirt was me. Nobody had on white face paint and everyone was in good spirits. Everybody fell right into their characters; the basic premise of the game was that all of the characters were murdered and then Embraced. The next night, the Prince of the city had them rounded up and gave them until sunrise to solve their own murders. I had good role-players: they really had fun with coming to grips with their undead state and using their resources from their mortal lives to track down the killer. Even got to run a car chase. What I did not do, dammit, was get a group photo (it was late and I was in a hurry). I did get a shot of Paul baring his fangs; Paul later won the prize: a copy of Sins of the Blood. |
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| Paul getting ready to feed |
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| One thing I did not get to do was play in any games, but most of them sold out and besides, I was really playing host (I had 5 people crashing with me). I went back on Monday and bought some stuff, hung around and chatted with White Wolf people...it was all very cool. |