Wed 20 Feb 2008
ah, the glories of Orccon!
Posted by alex under fun & games, playtest
I had a blast at Orccon this weekend. I met great new friends and reunited with old ones… Let me tell you a bit about the games I played.
Friday:
unWritten
Commitee for the Exploration of Mysteries
Saturday:
Sons of Liberty
unWritten
Roanoak
Don’t Rest Your Head
Sunday:
Inspectres
unWritten
Spione
Commitee for the Exploration of Mysteries
This is a great game in the spirit of “Baron Munchausen.” Though I can’t actually say it’s a great drinking game, because, well, we didn’t have drink, at least not any drinks with spirits.
The game consisted of a group of adventurers traveling from Madrid to Mexico(?) seeking the elusive Crystal Skull of … I don’t remember. The game ran very smoothly, and was easy to boot, and well it should, because you need to have a stout drink or delicate wine to play it right.
My favorite scene was having the pirate return from the dead riding a giant snake as it swallowed Dave’s character whole!
I have to add, that the game was run by Eric Boyd, the game’s designer. That was both a pleasure and exciting. He’s a great guy and he made a great game.
ericjboyddesigns.com/The_Committee.aspx
Sons of Liberty
Saturday morning I was given the great pleasure of being able to play President God-King George Washington of Georgistan. Yes, as our Pre-Prez lead the founding fathers around the east coast a bit, we rewrote history in a way that would capture any kids imagination. And, as you might guess, it ended with George’s ability to speak fluent European and renaming Germany Georgistan. Indeed, we don’t need to mention the minor affair that dethroned our buddy George on the coasts of England.
www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16490
Roanoake
Saturday evening I spent with several people living the end of the first settlers. This story takes you through the last few days of those that tried to settle Roanoake and ended up disappearing. This game is based on Wushu, and this was my first experience with it. I enjoyed the game, I loved the setting and the situation. I don’t think I need to play Wushu again. It just isn’t my style. Though I can see how people enjoy it.
http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16220&cat=24&page=4
Don’t Rest Your Head
DRYH and Ryan Macklin, this is a good mix. I played with Turo and Nicholas. It has to be said here that Turo is very funny and that he has a really cool jacket. Ok, I played a Real Estate agent that was falling apart at the seems, while Turo played a “The Dude” character. It turned out that our characters were each other’s opposites. The game was a bit short, it was late, but excellent. In the end the Dude and the RE agent switched places, bodies and all. For the RE agent it was a welcome relief, he could finally be “normal.” But for the dude, well, it was his own little hell of perfection.
www.evilhat.com/home/?page_id=101
Sunday:
Inspectres
Inspectres is always, one of my top ten games of all times. You can never go wrong with it. This is a game of a franchise ghostbusting squad, and I played a femme fatale. In fact, that was my characters trait: femme fatale. We cleaned house, figuratively, at least, well, the ghost has been exorcized, and the house needs a bit of repair.
www.memento-mori.com/inspectres/
Spione
Spione is Ron Edwards “Spy vs. Guy” game. It’s based on the works of John le Carre and the like. Stuff I’m not familiar with. The game itself was great. I had a lot of fun, if you get a chance to play it at a con, don’t hesitate. I don’t think I’ll be playing other then in cons, but I’ll definitely look for it.
http://spione.adept-press.com/
unWritten
Finally, unWritten. Probably the best game at the con… OK, I kid. I had 3 playtests and they were both great fun and incredibly insightful. I thank all of the people that came to the game, and all of the help that I got from Ryan, Josh, Meghann, Vasco, and Eric. The game, having been almost done for the 3rd time, is now entering into it’s newest final stage of completion.
This weekend we played 3 games of Torchwood. The first took place in Cardiff, where half of the team got “unstuck in time.” While the other half of the team struggled to find a way to bring them back. In the end we succeeded, except for the simple fact that as part of the team was getting stuck, the other part was getting unstuck… yeah, a lot of trouble. And a lot of fun.
The second game consisted of, SETI: Task Force UNIT (STFU). This was more of a Dr. Who meets the X-Files, and not so much Torchwood. In it the team fought the forces of Evil and the media. With a grand finale of my character sacrificing himself in order to destroy the evil aliens is he signs to Meg’s character “I Love You.”
The last game consisted of a team of Torchwood operatives in London that was faced with K.A.O.S. And cultists, who were both after the Codex… In the end, the characters suffered implants/homing beacons attached to the backs of their eyes, but the sacrifice was worth it. For we save the world again!