Gencon 2022: Meatspace - Report Card

Front Matter

This year I brought my 12 year old daughter with me. She was curious as to where Dad goes every summer. He seems to love it so much. We have a very close bond, and she's been a little into anime lately so I thought is a good time to share my love of Gencon with her. It did not disappoint!

GM101

As is my usual routine, I kicked off Gencon with my GM101 Seminar. I did not do a 201 because my youngest daughter attended with me this year, and I didn't want her to die of boredom. Attendance was good and for the first time, I actually had A/V provided. This was unexpected, but I had some slides I used when I ran this seminar during Gencon Online during the pandemic. So I plugged in my trusty Macbook and away we went. I opted out of using the microphone though as I can project fairly easily into the back.

Overall I think the session went well. Had some good questions from the group, some nice back and forth and they seemed fairly engaged throughout. I was satisfied with my performance and I think the audience felt it worthwhile. Which is good because that's the entire point. If it isn't useful, it isn't worth doing, IMHO.

A- : I did well, but there is always room for self improvement.

Threadbare

As it happens, this was my daughter's second experience ever at an RPG. (I'm a Bad Dad(TM) for not doing more with her at home, she just doesn't have the interest, really. The con was an anomaly.) Threadbare is a PbtA - Powered by the Apocalypse engine game, derived from the framework of Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker. In my opinion this game is a very BIG DEAL as of how much influence it's had over the last decade in RPG gaming. 

The conceit is the idea of the characters being toys in a world without humans. Think a gritty version of Toy Story. But not too gritty. Things like influencing other toys via friendship and playing games with them are prominent throughout both thematically and mechanically. Being a PbtA game, it focuses on story - the story drives the mechanics, and everything informs that. This is my preferred way of playing and I think that players who get a start on story-heavy systems are at a great advantage if they move on to more 'standard' RPGs like D&D later on. I feel like they learn to RPG the "right way".

The GM for this game shared a similar philosophy to me and worked hard to encourage and engage my daughter, which made for a great experience for her. What a great way to start the con, and have her experience a game in which I was a peer and not the GM.

A

Demonhunters

I'll open by saying this is one of my most favorite games ever. I run it myself at pretty much every convention I go to, I'm just completely in love with it. Think Dark Comedy Dresden Files A-Team, and you are on the right track. Its a blend of Cortex+ and FATE, two systems I adore as well, and really hits a sweet spot between story and rules. There's a level of abstraction in there that really really works in all of the good ways. Add to that the fact that every session of DH that I've played in at Gencon has been fantastic.

Which brings me to the downside. This particular session just...wasn't any good. The scenario was confusing, the GM was really encouraging people to think rules first and optimimal approaches versus story driven ones, literally trying to convince the players to NOT do the story/character driven things, which were sounding just amazing, in favor of doing the mechanically optimal thing. This was a HUGE disappointment for me. The scenario was also confusing and arbitrarily railroaded to need an extremely specific solution, without which there could be no resolution to the story. I didn't really enjoy it. Neither did my daughter. :(

D

Eclipse Phase

Now I had some concerns about this one. EP can be on the crunchier side, and whith my daughter having some very limited experience I worried she'd just get lost. Which she did. But it was OK - the GM also is an adherent to the story over stats school of thought, and really adapted things to draw her in. I really saw her come to life and the table particularly enjoyed her presence, and actions. Entertaining, story appropriate, even her table behaviors in response to the game were just wonderful and she was a delight to play with. For example - her character suffered from Psi powers connected to the X-Virus, which when used can subject her to control by said virus. She pushed it too far, lost control, and snapped the neck of a labor union leader right in front of a large group of members, while we were trying to pump him for info. She very slowly slid down her chair to hide under the table for a moment. Absolutely cracked us all up. We both had a great time and she still talks about that moment from time to time

A+ 

Dungeons & Dragons

This one was a big deal to me. Although I am primarily a non-D&D person, it does happen to be the go to game for so many people, and if she were to continue, this might be the path she ends up on. I really hoped for a great experience. Lets run down the positives the GM brought to the game, considering the most important thing to me is my 12yo daughter having a good time.

Female GM, fairly young (guessing early 20s)
High energy, very engaging and warm personality
Encouraged my daughter to sit right next to her, so she wouldn't have to make her feel uncomfortable by asking my daughter to speak up over and over. 
Absolutely rolled with my daughter's ideas as they came out and made sure her voice was part of the game conversation, and encouraging her when needed.
I'm so grateful to her, I wish I could remember her name!

And then there's the scenario - students at the Strixhaven University pledging a fraternity and tasked with guarding the group's mascot, a baby Owlbear named Chico. The whole thing was just delightful in every way

A

Cosplaying

So this was kinda new to me. 8 years ago I took my older 2 daughters to Gencon and for Saturday we did a fairly simple group cosplay. We went as Wash, Kaley, and River from Firefly. The outfits weren't elaborate, but we were recognizable and were asked a few times for pictures. Pretty fun. This time I thought go big or go home. My youngest had gotten me into Attack on Titan and we watched a whole bunch together, so we really bonded over that. She had been doing some closet cosplays to school so I said let's go for it. I got some designs from an artist online and printed out 2 sets of ODM gear, swords, sword boxes, and we went ahead and picked up the full uniforms to go with it all. I did Commander Pixis and she did Section Commander Hanje. We felt like absolute ROCK STARS. Could barely walk 50 yards without being asked for a photo all day. We did the contest and got huge cheers when we went on stage. It was almost surreal. I think it's a Daddy-Daughter experience she'll probably remember forever. I know I will. Definitely the high point of the con. For both of us, I think. And truly probably the high point of life for me so far with one of my kids. Such an amazing experience to have shared together.

A+++

Gencon(line) 2020 - Plague Edition

Gencon - Plague Edition!

I don't remember a ton about this Gencon. It was 2020, the lost year for so many of us. However the ability to still play, albeit remotely was pretty cool. And certainly better than nothing.

GURPS - Deadly Ice

This session of my favorite old school RPG had our characters investigating some kind of mystery. I can't remember much, it was 2020 :)

The session used Roll 20 in kind of a vanilla way. There wasn't any game mechanical integration, but the GM used the handouts and other features well. The group was good and overall a good experience
Grade: B+

Trail of Cthulhu - The Case of Ernest Wheedon

Very well run by the GM. Although I think most of us figured out the mystery early, or at least had strong suspicions, everyone in the group rolled with it, and played the characters up in their ignorance and we had a fantastic time - in which we eventually realized we were all in fact just ghosts. Already dead, and our task was to put things to rest. Well done.
Grade: A-

Fate of Cthulhu - The Rise of Tssthogua

I came in late on this, as in this was the fourth and final session of a 4 part mini campaign. It wasn't needed to be in the earlier sessions, but I believe it would have been helpful. I'm already familiar with FATE and its various versions, and FATE of Cthulhu fits in well, with its own interpretation and take on things. In this game, the investigators are traveling through time to stop the stars from coming right, or whatever other existential threat is facing humanity today. It also takes the idea of madness with a more gentle hand. I like this - mental illness isn't a joke, and gaming around with the idea of sanity requires a very special kind of touch and skill to do it well and not just make it for the LOLs. This game instead looks at corruption. When a player is fully corrupted, they are no longer a hero, and no longer under the players' control. Get the same job done, but with a significantly less insensitive bent to it. I don't think it gets in the way of roleplaying someone's lack of coping and losing of their senses a bit, but lets focus on the point of it mechanically. Maybe you think its just more "woke-ness". Just keep an open mind and give it a chance.
Grade: B+

InSpectres session (GMed)

So much goofy fun is had in an average Inspectres game, and this was no different. I was able to rope in a very old friend who usually can't go to gencon, but was able to play in this session because it was online. So lemons from lemonade!

InSpectres session (GMed)

I don't remember the particulars of either of these Inspectres sessions. What I do remember was the table being great, and having a really fun time Going for them.

GM101 - GMing for Beginners and GM210 - The Art of Conversational GMing

OK, here is where "Genconline" kind of shone. I've been running this seminar for about a decade now, and this was by far the largest audience I've ever had. Not constrained by physical attendance, or by the number of seats in the room, people were able to attend from all over. I had people in the audience from Europe, Australia, and South America. What a treat to be able to reach such a wide audience.

It also gave the the opportunity to have slides. (Yuck! I know you may be thinking). But honestly, sometimes just having a picture up can help really drive the point home even better than just your words. Here's an example. From my section all about what NOT to do when you're planning your early sessions:

A funny picture, but it gets the point across like mere words can't describe. 

Finally, for the first time I was able to record the seminar. If anyone is interested you can find them here if you're interested. If you like what you read, or think it sucks and want to tell me about it leave a comment!

GM 101

GM 201 

I'm not the be all end all of GMing. These are just my own experience of whats worked and not worked for me over the years. Use at your own risk, I hope they're helpful.

SO that's Gencon 2020. How was your experience? I'm heading out to physical meatspace Gencon in just a couple of weeks. With some nervousness about it of course. Really going to try to not get COVID!!!!!! Wear your masks people. This is the Con Crud from hell on steroids pumped up on PCP and Crack. Wear your masks. Wash your hands. Be safe, and I'll see you there. If you run into me say hi. :)