Gateway, as always, was a blast. I was able to run three unWritten games, all of which turned out incredibly well. I had repeat players from last con, which was exciting. And for one game I had enough players show up that allowed for two simultaneous games. Both games went off well. They used the same Opening Cues and told two rather different stories. Amazing. People I didn’t even know would walk up to me (well two actually) and recognized unWritten and were interested in it. Also, I was able to bring Julian to his first Strategicon. He regrets not having come earlier. He had a blast and I let him take all of my prereg games: IAWA 2x, Grey Ranks, Inspectres, Shock, Og, Sons of Liberty, 3:16. He loved meeting everybody, some of you for the second time. He’ll definitely be back, I don’t know if I will… J/K. I was able to play unWritten, 3:16, Chjombie Chjinamas, Spirit of the Shattered Earth!
unWritten, well, you know, it’s great!
3:16 is a game that emulates Starship Troopers. Very Well. You have two skills, FA: Fighting Action, and NFA: Non-Fighting Action. The game has potential, especially once the higher level orders begin to kick in. These orders begin to turn the troopers on themselves as they start contradicting each other. In this game when you roll damage you’re not determining how many how much damage you do to an alien, but how many you kill. The premise is essentially: Earth is a paradise, in order to keep it that way we have decided to eliminate all other life. Yes, the extinction of anything that isn’t human. However, it’s, essentially, a one trick pony. I would be more interested in playing if this game was more about the soldiers that become these grotesque monsters, these caricatures of humanity. I only played it once, so I’ll say it has potential, but…
Chjombie Chjinamas (spelled Zombie Cinema) is a game made by a few Finns. Amazing game that emulates zombie movies to the T. It’s nye impossible to win. However, I did win, if you consider being the first person eaten by a zombie as winning. It’s a board game with a very strong RPG element. Fantastic! If you’ve ever seen a zombie movie, well, that’s exactly what you get! Fantastic. It’s housed in a VHS case!
Og, the game Julian played, well, I regret not playing it. In it you’re a cave man. You have access to 1d6+2 words, and that’s how you communicate in character. It’s essentially a cartoon that was made in the 70’s, I think, that was recently turned into an RPG. Really funny, done very well. I don’t know if I would be able to play this game all that often, but worth pulling out every few months! and drinking.
Grey Ranks, this is depressing, morose game about the Warsaw uprising. In it you play child soldiers. Amazing game, so I’ve heard, but quite gut punchy. It can be a hard game to play. So I got a copy.
Sons of Liberty, this is a game about the American war of independence. You play one of the founding fathers, George Washington, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin, etc. as they ride into battle on their mechanized and steam powered horses to fight the British as they swoop down in their ornithopters… YES! It’s the American revolution meets steampunk. I played this game about a year ago, in it I played General George Washington who eventually became General God King George Washington of Georgikistan, once known as Europe. Though, in the end, he eventually fell to the English. We can’t wait for the next one.
PS My brother bought a motorcycle!