| My Thoughts on MarCon 36 |
| I recently attended a gaming convention in Columbus, Ohio called MarCon. I decided to build a page to share some experiences, thoughts, and pictures of and about the con. So here goes. Friday: I'm a stickler for organization, so when we got down to less than a week before the con and neither me nor my friends had gotten confirmations of the games we were to run, I got a little nervous. They did finally email us about our games, though, so we left on Friday afternoon in good spirits. Arriving at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, we hit another snag. Namely, the hotel had no parking, which means we shelled out something like $40 bucks for parking. OUCH! Not really MarCon's fault, I guess.... Registration was another nightmare. Since I was a game master, I got in free, but there weren't any signs pointing me towards where I was to get my badge. Instead, I waited in an immense line for a while, then finally got smart enough to ask a staff member if I needed to wait or if I got my badge elsewhere. Three staff later (since no one seemed to know), I finally found the gaming room and got my badge, and settled down to run a game of Hunter: The Reckoning. I think it was somewhere around here that Cutch ended up on the floor the first time. |
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| Now, meanwhile, my friend Pammit was having troubles of her own. It seems that, when one is underage, one has to be registered for the Con by a parent or legal guardian. But Lo! Nowhere on MarCon's website, nor in any of the (fairly extensive) correspondence with the MarCon folks did anybody bother to mention that! Well, Pammit (at left) got her badge, but it took some doing, including waking her mother up long-distance, a trip to Kinkos, and the magic of fax machines. Again, would have been handy if the "parental permission" rule had been posted somewhere on the Con's web site, but it all worked out. The game I ran (Hunter, remember) went pretty well. I got several folks who didn't know the game well, which is always keen. As usual, they didn't show up until quite a while after my game was to start, so we finished up a little late, but hell, who comes to cons to sleep, anyway? No fatalities in that game, by the way, and the prize was a copy of the Batman Roleplaying Game (from Mayfair Games) that MarCon provided so generously. I'm pretty sure it was around this time that Cutch wound up on the floor again. |
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| So, after the Hunter game, a bunch of us stayed up playing Once Upon a Time, which is a card game in which everybody has elements to a story and they work to complete the story with their own ending before anybody else can. It's superb practice for Storytellers and I highly recommend it. It's also great fun, especially with no sleep. It was so much fun, actually, that Andrew ended up on the floor! (Once Upon a Time pics below): |
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| By then, a lot of the folks were tired, so they headed off to bed. Not me, 'cause I'm nuts! I stayed up and played in an abortive game of Vampire. It had promise, but by the time folks got characters made and started playing, it was 3:30 AM. I needed some sleep. So I said I'd hook up with them the next night and finish the game (which didn't end up happening) and I went to bed. Saturday: The next day, I got up early enough to go downstairs to play in a game of Legend of the Five Rings. When I got there, there were several other players. We had everything that we needed...except a Game Master. So, since Halle needed players for her game, I pimped the folks who were waiting to play L5R into playing in her WoD game, and decided to hang out with Cutch for a while. Lo and behold, the Game Master did show up, and I learned to play L5R. I have to say, the game was awesome. I really got a good feel for how the game worked, the system was cool, and unlike some fantasy games I could mention (*coughdndcough*), starting-level magic users are actually worth the time it takes to create them! The only letdown was that I didn't win the prize, which was a copy of the L5R Player's Guide. I have since purchased it and the GM's Guide, and I'm rather hoping I get a chance to play the game again. |
| So, I had some lunch (one good thing, the food courts had some good places to eat) and took a nap, and waited around until afternoon. I also got a very pleasant surprise: Andy Mack (right) showed up! That was quite cool, as I wasn't expecting to see him again before I moved. Anyway, I was scheduled to run a Kindred of the East game at 5PM, so I got to my table at about four, so as to get stuff ready. I had a bag of Rice Krispie treats as bribe material for my players, but I was thinking about the prizes. MarCon had some, but to be frank, they sucked. I happened to have a copy of Rokea with me...what to do, what to do... My players arrived early. We finished chargen by 5PM and started by 5:20. That never happens. Ever. So I told them the prize for the game, awarded on basis of focus and good role-playing, would be a signed copy of Rokea. It was fantastic. They got up to pee only when I was dealing with other characters. They never lost focus once. It was far and away the best con game I've ever run. We did have one fatality, however. Andrew's character got beheaded by the kuei-jin the characters had been sent to kill. Very sad. He got the "sympathy treat." |
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| After the KoTE game, I was still pumped, so Halle and Cutch and I stuck around to play this "original game" that some Con-goers had developed. Normally, such games are fun.This just sucked. Typos all over the book, unclear, 8th-grade level composition, and when I pointed this out, the guy said "Well, my wife does the editing. I'm just the creative one." First of all, I didn't find the game terribly creative. Second of all, all writers should know the basics of good writing. I don't believe in this "idea man" shit. So after that, we all went to bed. Yup. No parties with strippers for us! *whistle* UPDATE: After MarCon 2002, the makers of said game decided they were going to try to sue me for saying their game wasn't creative. Rather that let them waste their time, I decided just to edit down my comments so that everything here can't be construed as anything other than opinion. Hear that, fellas? My opinion is that your game, in its 2001 incarnation, felt derivitave and wasn't fun to play. To quote Denzel Washington in Training Day, "Man up." |
| I think it was that game that made Cutch fall down again.... |
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| Sunday: So, we were all tired and fried on Sunday morning (witness Halle, at right). But, despite all that, there was more gaming afoot. Specifically, someone was running It Came From The Late, Late, Late Show! Now, that I couldn't pass up. Late-Show is an RPG from Stellar Games, now sadly out of print. In it, you play an actor in a bad horror movie. You can actually call for a stunt double to take damage for you, or walk off the set and demand a rewrite of the script! It's a very funny game. However! You *must* run the game with one eye on the clock, and watch your pacing. It needs to move fast. Comedy should not drag. Now, this game had promise. It was all about the Jambalayah Golem, a monster made of gumbo, for God's sake! How can you miss? Well, it did. The Game Master didn't kill any of us, and didn't watch his pacing. It should have been a two hour game; it lasted four, and even then it only ended because we made excuses and left. I think in the picture at right, although Halle is miming shooting the Golem, she'd really rather have shot the GM... |
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| All in all, I had a great time. I think that some things could have been done better, but isn't that always the case? Anyway, it just reinforced what I already knew; I'm the world's greatest Storyteller. And if you think my head may be a little big for my black hat, well, come game with me at MarCon 37! (Note: No, I'm not really that conceited. I'm just being humorous. Deal with it.) |