Gencon 2026 Events

Gencon 2026 is coming!

And I'm excited to nerd out with you all. Here is a list of the games and seminars I will be running this year.

Board Games

Eschaton

Lead your cult to earn the Dark One's favor before Armageddon arrives in this deck building and map control game. You are a cult leader in a dark fantasy world that stands on the brink of Armageddon, and you must rise above all others to earn the Dark One's favor. Conquer territories, collect relics, summon fiends, and build the greatest cult the realm has ever seen!

BGM26ND304333 - Thursday, 7pm 

BGM26ND304334 - Friday, 7pm

Hacker

Come experience the internet the way is was. Can you break into the world's toughest computer systems? In Hacker, players sail through the Net, competing to invade the most systems. The more systems you crack, the more you learn, and the easier your next target is. You can find back doors and secret phone lines, and even crash the systems your rivals are using. But be careful. There's a Secret Service Raid waiting for you! Hacker requires guile and diplomacy. To win, you must trade favors with your fellow hackers – and get more than you give away. But jealous rivals will try to bust you. Three busts and you're out of the game! 

BGM26ND304335 - Saturday, 7pm

BGM26ND305436 - Sunday, 9am

Seminars

GM 101: Introduction to Gamemastering:

    Keeper, Dungeon Master, Game Master…there are many names for the job. Thinking about taking the reins at your game table? This seminar focuses on concerns common among new GMs.

    The primary goal of this seminar is to address the anxieties and concerns that are most common for new and novice gamemasters, but all are welcome regardless of experience level. We will talk about fears, improvisation, safety tools, "session zero", preparation, and many other topics. This is a game agnostic session, and will not focus on the mechanics of any particular system. It is about all the other parts of GMing, which might not be as obvious, but are really at the core of what it means to be a good GM. Bring your questions, bring a friend, but most importantly bring your imagination, an open mind, a sense of adventure, and a sense of humor.

SEM26ND304326 - Thursday, 8-10am

SEM26ND304327 - Friday, 8-10am

SEM26ND304328 - Saturday, 8-10am

GM 201: The Art of Conversational GMing 

    Do your RPG sessions feel stale? Are you trying to take things to a higher level, but feel like you're playing a board game? Come learn about conversational GMing and inject some life into your RPGs.

    A conversational approach is more natural than you might think, and draws in more creativity from players at the table. The more invested everyone is, the better the game. The system you're playing is irrelevant. You can make Conversational GMing a part of anything from D&D to FATE and everything in between. The event is open to all regardless of experience level. Players are welcome too!

SEM26ND304329 - Thursday, 10am-12pm

SEM26ND304330 - Friday, 10am-12pm

SEM26ND304331 - Saturday, 10am-12pm

About me:

Hi! I'm Bob, though a lot of people call me "Linus" (an old Army nickname that stuck). I'm your average middle-aged RPG guy who really likes talking about games. I love sharing what I've learned about GMing and helping other GMs make their games even better.

I played my first RPG back in the dark ages of the Satanic Panic™ in the early 1980s. Yes, that apparently makes me ancient. Feel free to say "OK, Boomer" if the occasion calls for it. I've been obsessed with roleplaying games ever since.

I'm definitely not the authority on GMing — I'm not really an authority on anything. Take every bit of advice I give with as many grains of salt as it takes. Everything I share is simply what I've found works (and doesn't work) for me and the tables I've run over the years. I've made plenty of mistakes along the way, and a fair number of successes, and had many "aha!" moments. And I'm still making mistakes and having "aha!"s and Eureka moments. Improving our craft is a never-ending process, and we never stop learning.

I usually walk away from these seminars having picked up a few new nuggets myself, thanks to the questions and conversations that happen during the sessions. Just as I hope to help you become a better GM, I can honestly say that the folks who attend these sessions make me a better GM as well.

That's why I started doing these seminars. I've picked up some ideas worth sharing, so why not pass them along? If I can help someone improve their game, I've helped everyone at that table — and maybe someone there goes on to GM as well, and the cycle continues. (Cue swelling Circle of Life music. Ahhhhhhhh Sidenyaaaaaaaa!)

I'm always humbled that anyone shows up to listen to me talk about any of this, so thank you for taking the time to be here and share the experience.

Gencon 2025 - An Unexpected Encounter

 

This year was interesting. About a month before the con, I get a call from my wife's cousin, who has become one of my favorite people in the world. He asks me if I was going to Gencon, and if I was, would I mind him crashing with me. I'd only rented just a single bedroom in an Airbnb, and it was a twin bed, so I told him if he didn't mind sleeping on the floor, I didn't mind him crashing in my room. He was in. We're both military vets - we've slept on things far worse than a floor.

This was my second time staying South of the ICC, and some of the neighborhoods are a little wild. For example, the mattress in the middle of the street I encountered on my scooter ride back in 2024. But the place was close enough, and while it was kind of run down, I hardly spent any time there, so nothing to complain about really, especially given the very low price I paid for the room.

Anyway, on to the main event(s)

Gencon 2025 Events

 

Gencon 2025 Events:

Seminars

GM101: Introduction to Gamemastering

SEM25ND272371     Thursday, 8am
SEM25ND272372    Friday, 8am
SEM25ND272373    Saturday, 8am

GM201: Conversational GMing

SEM25ND272374    Thursday, 10am
SEM25ND272375    Friday, 10am. * This session will not have a projector. If you'd like to follow along with the slide materials, bring your phone/tablet and I'll send a link to the presentation before the Con.

SEM25ND272376    Saturday, 10am

RPG Sessions

Leverage                                        
RPG25ND286700    Friday 2-4pm

Based on the television show of the same name, Leverage is an RPG about heists. Heists, cons, scams, you name it. Players take on the roles of the most talented criminals in the world - but have turned their powers to good. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys.

In this session, the crew is hired to help Olivia Bellamy, the grandaughter of a Casino legend in Las Vegas. Her grandfather Howard had become famous by running what had eventually become the closest thing to a wholesome casino the world had ever seen. Always fair, always tasteful, always friendly. After his passing, not so much. Its being run by someone else now, and she knows deep down that he never wanted that. 

Zoetrope                                       
RPG25ND286694    Thursday 1-3pm

RPG25ND286695    Thursday 9-11pm

Zoetrope is a dynamic card based RPG that explores the adventures of time agents bouncing around through time fixing problems, correcting things gone wrong, and otherwise making special adjustments to the way things were. Or might be. Or aren't. Or something like that. It definitely doesn't take itself too seriously. 

Demonhunters                               
RPG25ND286703 Friday 6-8pm

If you're a fan of Cortex of FATE, you're going to love Demonhunters. A dark comedy RPG telling the stories of the Brotherhood of the Celestial Torch. The organization the stands in between humanity and the things that go bump in the night. All the darkness of legend is real. Vampires, Zombies, Ghosts, Demons, The Stay Pufft Marhsmallow Man, you name it. A personal favorite of mine and one of my favorite convention games to run.

This session of Demonhunters will involve a missing team, a vital resupply mission, and some very important cliches!

Gencon 2024 - The Boys are Back

General Impressions

Stayed at an AirBnB about 2 miles from the ICC again, and as a result was able to roll in and out on a scooter each day. I absolutely love it. Going to keep trying to stay nearby in the future just for this. The convenience is great, no waiting for an Uber, is generally cheaper, and most importantly, is super fun! 

2 of the players in my weekly group decided to come as well. They are both in that all-star group that played Kobolds Ate My Baby: Fury Road with me back in 2018.

And now for the (main) events!

The Orc Stomp I Didn't Go to:

I had seriously considered doing the Orc Stomp this year. But there was one big complication. It started around 630 I think? and My first seminar of the day would begin at 8 in the Stadium, and I was staying a couple miles away. BUT my old friend (see below) was staying at the Embassy Suites, so maybe, just MAYBE, it could work. I could do the run (was getting my time down to around 35 minutes...I'm old and slow but I can still kinda run. Thank you soccer refereeing to keep me in 'shape') and then pop into their room and take a quick shower before speeding off to my seminar. 

Thank Olidammara we realized in time that they were actually going to be at the Embassy a town over and not downtown! Figured that one out before the con, at least. Would have been ugly showing up to give 2 seminars in a row smelling like a 48 year old who just ran a 5k. So I decided to not do it. I believe I chose wisely. 

Grade: Incomplete

Gencon 2023 - Enter the Nooblings

I brought along a longtime friend and their teenager to join me this year. Both nerds, but they've never done a con like this and were both looking forward to it. We got an AirBnB fairly close (2-ish miles) from the convention center, and we ended up using those scooters to zip in and out. That was absolutely awesome. Loved it. And cheaper than Uber-ing in and out each day.

Gencon seemed to be getting back to the 'good old' days. You know, the pre-pandemic years where you couldn't get a hotel in the block and 90 percent of your desired events were booked before your turn came up for event reg :)

Thursday

GM101 - GM201
I think I'm really hitting my stride on these, and have been dialing these seminars in over the last 10 years or so. I'm always adapting them based on feedback though. This year i did some public research about new GM anxieties and anxieties around improvisation in general, and got some surprising results.
I was in the Hyatt this time for the sessions. Haven't been in there before. Location was OK, audience engagement was great, and I got some good feedback. Biggest one was people wanted my notes. I don't really have much for notes, just a general outline and its stream of consciousness (well...."carefully dialed in" stream of consciousness at any rate). So after the  con, I decided to finally sit down and try to put it all in one place. It sprawled very quickly and has rapidly turned into a book. I'm hoping to have the first draft fully completed by Gencon 2024, so that I can give people something if they are asking for it.

I'll ding myself some points for not the best audience management I could have, and I do need to be more mindful of the time. 
Grade: A-

Character Voices for your RPGs

This was probably some of the best used time I've spent at a convention. Given by real life voice actors / musical theater performers, it covered the various methods used to create unique voices. Learning to isolate and control the various aspects of what makes the timbre and tone of a voice, that kind of thing. We practiced in small groups and discussed amongst the group what we were feeling and observing. A very cool and very worthwhile class. I highly recommend it. 
Grade: A+

Investigative Roleplaying Masterclass

This was supposed to be a masterclass in the stated topic, with Kenneth Hite and Robin Laws as presenters. What it ended up being was just an overcrowded room and Q&A session. I did not get a thing out of it. Bummer because these two are investigation/horror game design masters. I had very high expectations, and even low expectations weren't met.
Grade: D

Heroes of Altamira (7th Sea, 1st)

The edition for this game wasn't listed and I couldn't get an answer from the organizers prior to the show. This was important as I specifically had been wanting to try the 2nd edition. Turns out this one wasn't. It was poorly organized, the GM wasn't prepared and I don't think even knew she was going to be GMing until just before. And thanks to a weird player sitting next to me, a moment was brought into the game where I literally snapped my head toward him and very loudly exclaimed, "What the FUCK?!", as the GM pulled up the X-Card. Like really, dude. What the fucking hell is wrong with you? This was not a fun session. Not at all. GM was trying, I'll give points for that, which is the only thing saving it from an F-
Grade: F

Friday

Eclipse Phase

I skipped because an  unexpected dinner opportunity with a cousin I haven't seen in at least 10 years. came up. My friends attended the session and reported that it was very good.

Grade: Withdrawal

Demonhunters

I ran 2 sessions of Demonhunters this year for Zombie Orpheus Entertainment, the publishers of the game. I'm going back to this report card a year and a half later (I'm always behind it seems), and just am not remembering too many details other than in both sessions, the players had me doubled over laughing with some ov their antics. I think I was in the zone for my GMing, and the players were just crushing it. Some themes I can recall though:

• Emotional damage
• Gremlins
• Gremlins on fire
• Gremlins and couches on fire
• EVERYTHING is on fire
• Interviewing the undead, re-deading, and raising them again
• Various insults to the "Twilight" series

Grade: A

Avatar 

Pirate Borg

Surprise hit of the con for me. Group wasn't the greatest but was good enough, and the GM very enthusiastically embraced the "pirate GM lifestyle". I don't even know what that means, but why not say it anyway. He was great. He played the NPCs with gusto, and rolled with whatever came next. I can't ask for more than that in a GM. I'd heard nothing but good things about Mork Borg so I figured hey, "Mork Borg + Pirates? What's not to like" so I showed up with some generics and was able to get in. I did this instead of attending a short session of Avatar. I've convinced myself to not feel bad about it, but I'm still not totally comfortable about bailing on the Avatar session.  
Grade: A

Sunday

Aerodrome

I had been wanting to play this game for YEARS. Had always seen it in the giant hall with lots of other miniatures games, and wanted to try it out but never able to do any more than just walk by on my way to my next event. I finally tracked down the game and figured out its name. And it was everything I wanted it to be. WWI dogfighting. Does just what it says on the label. The group putting on the event does a fantastic job of keeping everyone engaged, coaching when needed, and just keeping it action oriented and fun. I was not disappointed, and other than having to wait, it was worth the wait. I'm definitely going to play again next year if I can get a ticket!
Grade: A++++

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. :)

Gencon 2019 - Time With My Daughter

My middle daughter returned to Gencon again with me, and that is always a treat. Some really nice Daddy - Daughter time, the two of us heading out on an airplane to a fun place where there's going to be lots of smiles from both of us.

On to the games

Masks
A Powered by the Apocalypse game about teenage superhero. This game focuses not only about the conflicts between heroes and villains, but also the conflict between teenagers. It recognizes the challenges of what it might be like to be a teenager who finds themselves with superhero powers. What it would be like to be REALLY different from everyone else at school. How do you juggle those pressures and stresses. Its a really cool take on the superhero genre.
Grade: A-

The Fleet
A Powered by the Apocalypse game in the vein of Battlestar Galactica. A lot of room in here for interpersonal conflict alongside high stakes adventures. The creator did a good job of modeling the characters and their archetypes. In particular the way that those characters interact with their fighters. The GM takes on the role of the Commander (Commander/Admiral Adama). The players will be (I will definitely butcher the playbook names) the rookie, the CAG, the Chief, the psychic, the XO, etc. Great way of bringing the concepts of the main characters of the show into the forefront.
Grade: C (if the table were better grade would be much higher. Other player was really just not fun for us to play with, and pretty disruptive)

Sentinels of the Multiverse
Another superhero game. This one has its own system that definitely feels like it was born out of Cortex Plus, and some flavor from Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, which itself was a Cortex Plus game. Its not the same, but you can feel the DNA in there. A really interesting twist to the game is the idea of some powers not being accessible until things become dire. The hero being really busted up, or running out of time in the scene. Scenes themselves will also have a turn - the environment. And a scene is given a certain amount of rounds before things will go disastrously wrong. It puts a really nice pressure to act upon the players.
Grade: B+

World Wide Wrestling
The WWE in Powered by the Apocalypse form, with the GM acting as the producer, setting up the fights and making the "who wins" decisions. The matches play out like choreographed series of moves, flowing back and forth as wrestlers take momentum and move back and forth. It's extremely fun. What's more, the wrestlers engage in pre-match smack talk and backstage/locker room interviews.

I played the part of a washed up former olympic wrestling bronze medalist, who is just grinding it out on the pro wrestling circuit as a "jobber". That guy who's purpose is to lose to the stars. Through some absurd sequence of luck, he ends up actually accidentally winning,  giving him his first win.
Grade: A+

Last Will
A boardgames in which players are competing with one another to spend their rich uncle's money to prove they are the most worthy of it. First one to bankrupt themselves is the winner. We both liked this one, and I bought the game.
Grade: A-

Little Fears
Another new game for me. I love getting to try new games at Gencon. Hannah and I played the roles of two kids, age 10 or 12 I think, who were on family trips to Sesame Place. Unbeknownst to us, evil things were afoot. Our friends began to disappear as we encountered monstersed versions of Cookie Monster, Ernie, and more. I have to say the GM found the creepiest Sesame Street art ever created for this -
     
and more. Turns out Mickey Mouse was trying to steal all of the color from our world and be evil and such. We both had a great time, and Hannah figured out what the secret was just in time to save the rest of us.
Grade: A

DemonHunters
I wish for the life of me I could remember what the plot was for this one. Definitely a huge act to follow from the "Harrison" musical plot line from the year before. Suffice it to say that we both love Demonhunters. I hope you check it out and have some fun with it too.
Grade: A

Artemis
Artemis is Artemis. We both love it. We didn't feel like it was very well run or organized this year, and found the physical bridge that was created not really much more inspiring than just the usual laptops on a table. And don't get me wrong, laptops on a table with Artemis is a damned fun experience.
Grade: B

The Exhibit Hall

Meeting up with friends
Not entirely the same when you've got a teenager with you. Your teenager probably doesn't give a crap about any of your nerd friends that you only get to see once a year. Not her fault, and I probably shouldn't have dragged her into it. Was still nice to grab a meal with them and swap stories.
Grade: B

GM101: GMing for Beginners
I feel like I was back into my old form and got a lot of good feedback from people about it. I'm always glad to help a new GM get over their nervousness and go into the game excited, and hopefully with a few pointers and new techniques up their sleeve to help their games feel more natural, less choppy and overall more fun. Its a privilege to be afforded the opportunity to share what I've learned and I continue to be humbled by peoples willingness to listen to me. Different this year was my daughter being old enough to stay at the AirBNB by herself while Dad ran off to blather on about GMing. Went back after to pick her up and off we went to the con.
Grade: A

Overall Gencon Grade: A
While I do love and cherish my solo Gencons because of the freedom to just play and run the games I want without having to consider anyone else, there is something so supremely heartwarming about sharing it with one of my girls. Its not totally her thing. She doesn't love it the way I do, and doesn't play during the rest of the year. But the fact that she wants to take this trip and play with me just fills me with such Dad-Joy™ that I can't even begin to express how good it feels.

Gencon 2018 - The Friendining

Gencon 2018 - The Friend-ening

Gencon 2018 marked the return of me attending Gencon with a group of friends. Some friends joined me this year for the pilgrimage to nerd Mecca. I had rented an AirBnB with 2 bedrooms for the trip. As the organizer, I got one of the rooms, some others had the other room with the bunk beds (BUNK BEDS!!!!!! ZOMG) and the others piled into the living room on the sofa, etc. We shared an Uber/Lyft in and out each day and it worked out pretty well.

I learned from Gencon's past and didn't try to signed up for a whole bunch of events with my group, knowing how restrictive, (not to mention difficult it is) it can be to coordinate things together. So I limited myself to a small number. We planned to do Firefly, the RPG, Kobolds Ate My Baby: Fury Road, and a session of Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator. More on these later on.

GM 101
There's been such demand for intro GMing seminars lately that I decided to run this one twice. Had a great audience for both. A few people even asked me to game with them, so I invited them to come to Games On Demand, where I would be doing my GMing for the con. Lots of questions asked, answers shared, experiences shared among the group, and best of all, people telling me they now felt less anxious about running their first games. Mission Accomplished!

InSpectres
I ran a whole bunch of this at GoD. I love it each and every time. Great groups each time. I had an old man moment in one session though where a younger kid (please remind me to up the age-limits on my games) named his character Hulk - to which I asked, Hogan or Marvel, and he said "who?" Meaning he had no idea who Hulk Hogan was. At least the other players at the table had a laugh with me on it, and didn't leave me feeling completely old in the cold.

A group from the earlier GM101 class showed up for one of these sessions, and they were a joy to game with. Ran into them at Weber Grill the next day, where they sent me over a dessert as a thank you. Thats the biggest compliment I could get I think. Very much appreciated.
I LOVE running this game for people at Cons
Grade: A

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Had been looking forward to this one a lot. Our group was just about large enough to run an entire ship on our own, and we signed up to play on the "jumbo bridge" a full scale setup, with podiums for each station rather than just laptops on a table. But when we got there, there was a huge mixup. On top of it all one of our players had forgotten his ticket at the apartment. Which ended up not being such a huge deal since we weren't able to play on the big bridge anyways, as it had been double booked and already seated for the slot.

To the organizers' credit they handled the situation well - offered to refund our event tickets, and give us 2 hours of play time on one of the laptop-on-a-table bridges to fill our time. Turned out to be a great session. Was nice to play with these guys, as they are my "home crew". When we do Artemis at home, this is who plays. Although we play at home, its still cool to play 'out' together.
Grade: B+

Kobolds Ate My Baby: Fury Road
This event was the highlight of the Con this year. We had a feeling it was going to be epic before we even showed up for it, just on the title alone. Kobolds Ate my Baby + Mad Max Fury Road? YESPLEASE! We were joined by a couple of other players and received our pre-game briefing. We would be kobolds in the vein of warboys from the movie. King Torg (ALL HAIL KING TORG!!!) would be the analog to Immortan Joe. A slimy human was trying to run off and escape with a nice tasty pile of babies, and we must stop them!!!!!

The GM explained to us the variant rules for this session, namely the process of being WITNESSED! Upon taking an action, a player may yell "WITNESS ME!!!" and the other players must respond with "WITNESS!!". This entitles the witnessed kobold to a 3 dice bonus on their skill check, but must immediately make a death save, at an increased difficulty of course.

Oh, and the GM literally had a deep pile of character sheets for us to write up new kobolds in a pinch for when we would inevitably die.

Fast forward a bit into the session, and my friend Matt decides to jump from our kobold war-mobile onto the tanker truck. Seeing this as a pivotal moment, he yells "WITNESS ME!!" and we all cheer him on "WITNESS!!".  He fails his death save and wipes out, but in a twist of fate his death is described as "False Witness!" and he does not die, and instead lies on in humiliation.

The Next round he again tries, in hopes of redeeming himself - "WITNESS ME!!" and we all rejoice in his madness - "WITNESS!!!". Another failed death save and tragic failure.



AND ANOTHER FALSE WITNESS!. He is again denied a glorious war filled death into Valhalla, shiny and chrome. We're laughing more at him now than we were with him. But the fight goes on. And his turn comes up once more. Seeing no other choice than the path fate had put him onto he yells "WITNESS ME!!!!" - and in response to the plea for witness unto Valhalla erupts the sound of....nothing. Crickets. Not a peep from the table. Alan (another friend) and I look over at Matt, our arms crossed shaking our heads in disappointment at his repeated failures. And then the laughter erupts. Man, that sequence alone was worth twice the price of admission!. What a great session. Havent had that much fun in quite a while.
Grade: A++

Firefly
This one rapidly filled up my "fuck this game" checklist for convention games before it even started. 8 players at the table? NOPE. That exceeds my max quota by 2. GM present and on time? NOPE. Strike two. GM Shows up and doesn't have the materials for their session? BOOM. Bob's out. I apologized to my friends for bailing, but this was too much too soon on my shit-game-o-meter, and I had to skedaddle. Dont recall exactly where I went after that, but it was most likely Games on Demand, to play something. Might have been Axon Punk.

I later heard from that friend that the session did indeed turn out to be a complete shitshow. Maybe I can get a quote from him about it.


Axon Punk
I played the part of a hacker who had become an AI and lived that way so long, they no longer identified as human. Just as an "it" called Corporal Kittens. It taunted "the man" endlessly and used RATM as soundtrack for the crew's exploits against the authority. Not sure how I feel about the system. It seemed a little clunky, but I had fun all the same.
Grade: B


Zoetrope
A very interesting game of Time Cops - using a custom card deck to mark points on the timeline, which can then be moved around as we bounce around, messing with our own timeline, creating save points, redo's, etc. Trying to explain your way out of your own paradoxes is a very entertaining thing. I think everyone had a great time with this, I certainly did.
Grade: A

Gencon 2017 - The Anniversary-ing

***I'm getting REALLY bad at posting these. You'd think nearly a year two years later I'd have this done. So I'm posting it now, and hopefully I will finish it later. Maybe. Right......

This year, for Gencon 50, I decided to bring my 12 year old daughter Hannah. She's a budding tabletop gamer, and usually gives me a pretty hard run for my money in whatever game we are playing. In addition to having a great palate for tabletop boardgames, she has a nascent interest in Role Playing / Story games - just like Dad, so that makes me melt inside.

Demonhunters

You know you're going to have either a great or massively disappointing con when the first game out of the gate is one of the best you've ever played. I've had the chance to play Demonhunters before, and had about as much fun the first time. Biggest difference here is that while I played the first game with a very good friend (who single handedly kept me on target enough to prevent a complete and total Gencon-Meltdown(TM) last year, so thank you to him) - was that this year I was playing with my daughter as well.

Scenario: Hannah played the Ninja Assassin Vampire with a blood addiction, while I took on the role of the gadget-builder-technomancer with a very short attention span. Did I mention that Demonhunters is just a BIT tongue in cheek? And it hits the mark perfectly. When we were being sent to investigate and put down a haunting at a theatre at the premiere of "Harrison", the musical celebrating the short but uneventful presidency of William Henry Harrison, I knew we were in for a great game. The author of the scenario is a brilliant genius, so whoever you are out there, you Sir/Madam, are a badass.

System: The game system for Demonhunters is an incredibly well done and elegant blend of Cortex and Fate. Two of my most favorite game systems for getting out of the way while enhancing and encouraging narrative play. Its hard to say exactly why this particular blend works so well, it just does. If Fate Core and the Cortex Hacker's Guide had a baby inside of the Emergency Room of a Dark Comedy Hospital, Demonhunters is what you would have. Just trust me, its that good.

Notable Moments: The two notable moments for me were Hannah jumping from the catwalks to tackle Yorick, the cheap plastic skull that was flying about attacking people, and smashing him into a cloud of fine plastic particles in which she appeared like a ninja from a smoke bomb - while I commandeered the P.A. system of the theater to read scathing reviews from the bad boss guy's previous thespian disasters, reducing him to tears

Grade:  A+ (This session was the highlight of the con for us. Hannah is a huge fan of musicals, and this just hit her sweet spot)

My Seminars
GM 101 Intro to GMing - A
GM 201 - GM Workshop - A
GM 301 - Don't remember wtf I called this one or what it was about - B ( I feel like I was off my game here)

Psi*Run
Scenario: Our runners climbed out of a helicopter crash in Montreal, Canada. We had a levitating teen, an old man who could open doors in space and time, a woman who could manipulate memory, and my 50 something who could control small concentrated areas of wind. Sounds like a typical Psi*Run recipe for disaster right? I'm not sure which game had a higher body count. This one or the session of Eclipse Phase in which we released a roomful of tigers onto an unsuspecting bio lab full of Yakuza thugs.

Grade: A

Eclipse Phase

System - An interesting take on a percentile system. Roll % under like you typically would. Doubles is a critical success or failure depending on whether the roll was a success or failure. I like the way that this inherently increases likelihood proportionally to the skill level of the character.  Another unique aspect of EP is its utilization of trans humanism. A body is merely equipment. "Sleeves" as they are known are just a tool, and you mind can be transferred into an appropriate to the situation (or in the case of disaster, a new one) sleeve. The character sheet has 2 parts. 1 for your sleeve, the other for your mind. The setting features such transhuman ideas as uplifted whales and octopi, along with chimpanzees.

Scenario: Rescue a friend who has disappeared. Hannah didn't really grok the world and was confused through much of the game. Not her bag, but I do like EP quite a bit.

Notable Moments: Hannah the hacker releasing a veritable zoo of hostile animals from their cages in the research center as we merrily escape, meanwhile the badges reap what they have sown.

Grade: B

Leverage
System - One of my all time favorites. this was introduced to me by Dave Chalker way back at Gencon 2012 maybe? Its an adaptation of the Cortex system, originally from Margaret Weis Publishing. Same system is the underpinning for Firefly, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, and Smallville.

Scenario - A wealthy race team owner wants to get rid of a driver that isn't making him what he used to, and won't play ball by throwing races.

Notable Monents: The takedown was an immensely entertaining culmination of scams, schemes, and serendipity. The bomb the villain had intended to use to kill his driver and collect insurance money was relocated to his own private garage, where he kept his extensive collection of antique cars. Meanwhile another one, a fake designed to look like the real thing was placed on the car, swapped out for the original. We rigged it to blow just a smoke trail. Something enough to get the driver to stop without being hurt, and for an investigation to ensue, which of course would lead right to the bad guy - who is now short 1 extensive antique car collection.

Grade: A

Inspectres
System: d6 based, narrative driven. I've come to love this game more than lamp. It puts the story completely in the hands of the players, and they tell it through play. Each time a player rolls a 5 or 6 on their skill checks (from 1d6 to 4d6 based on their skill) they will earn "Franchise Dice". These represent both the potential income gained from finishing this job successfully, and also serve as a pacing indicator for the story.

Scenario - I don't recall the particulars here, other than my character was the lawyer of the group who made extensive use of the various legal contracts needed for servicing a customer with a supernatural pest problem.

Notable Monents - Lots and lots of generally zany mayhem.

Grade: A

Shadows of Esteren
System - Very simple, d10 resolution. There is FAR more substance to the ambiance and feel of this game than there is in terms of game mechanics. I found the mechanics of the game to be somewhat irrelevant, and they took a huge backseat to the story of survival we were telling. Hopeless survival...pretty sure we all died, but had a great time doing it.
Scenario -  Survive a world that is surrounded by the unknown. And the unknown is DANGEROUS. We had to come to the realization though that we were living in a dream, and dying because we were sleeping out in the elements. Freezing to death. We did realize this and eventually woke up by jumping off what seemed a cliff that would lead to certain death. Upon hitting the ground and "dying" we awoke in the mountains.

Notable Monents - In the end we all died in a cave, from a vicious pack of wolves. It was fun though grimly hanging on to the bitter end. We both enjoyed the game

Grade: B+

Inspectres
We  played inSpectres again. No surprise its a great, fun game. You should play it too.

GenCon 2016 Report Card - The Shit-tacular Shit Show from Shitsville

Gencon 2016 - The Shit-tacular

For various personal reasons that I won't go into, this was by far the worst Gencon of all time. Take every bad session I've had, add a radioactive turd on top and it still doesn't even come close.  But let me try and salvage some memories from it that don't make me want to eat broken glass.

Bob's GM Seminars
I was in a general funk throughout these, so I can't really fairly assess myself. I would say it was probably a poor performance overall, but who knows. I'll give myself a passing grade but nothing to be proud of.
Grade: C

The Laundry
This is an RPG based on one of my favorite fiction series, informally known as The Laundry. The books follow the tales of Bob Howard - IT Guy and new field agent for the department of Her Majesty's government that handles things that man was not meant to know. Great old ones, vampires, aliens, sinister soul easting spirits living in the body of an unassuming old Englishman. You know, that kind of thing.

System: Its basically Call of Cthulhu 6th. If you like it you already know. Percentages and lots of room for dead ends. Not the best IMHO.

Scenario: Setup was a typical horror-ish  mystery, but things went off the rails quickly when the group came up with a plan that more or less circumvented the entire story plan. I want to give a shout out to the GM, whose name I dont remember, who rolled with this like a pro. 

Notable Moments: Rather than just say "ok we can't do that because it messes up the planned adventure" she instead said - "OK. I did not expect that it really would shortcut our session. Can you guys give me 10-15 minutes so I can adapt, and we can keep playing for the full session?" This is the mark of a great GM.

Grade: B+ (I still have some heartburn with the Call of Cthulhu 6th ed. system this is built on)
Special Evaluation for the GM: A+


Empty Epsilon
An alternative to Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator, its kind of the same thing, but open source. Torpedoes are much more realistic and don't exactly home in like perfect guided missiles. I'd say overall its a more challenging game, mechanically, than Artemis. I enjoyed it, but I think the steeper learning curve than Artemis could be a turn off to many people.

Grade: B

Eclipse Phase

As I said in the introduction to this report card, the year was a general shitburger for me personally, and memories are not particularly consistent. If I remember correctly, we played some kind of espionage heist type thing in a tall domed facility on the surface of Mars maybe? I do remember having a good time though. Had consistently good experiences with the sessions and GMs that have run Eclipse Phase at Gencon

Assumed Grade: A

Trail of Cthulhu
One I'd been wanting to play with another GM for years. I'd run it myself for a bit, and find it to be a very cool way of doing mystery games. Add in Lovecraftian mysteries and I'm in. No dead ends like CoC. Characters always feel useful and don't flat out fail to learn things because of bad dice and incompetent skill levels. It's more than just being "better" though. Its how the game works. The general idea is that if you're a doctor, and you investigate a body, you WILL find a medical clue if it's there. Because you should. You're a damned doctor, and this is a medical mystery. If you want to spend even more effort on it and use your precious investigation points, you might get a 'bonus' or bigger info from the clue.

This scenario had us all as guests at a bar, in which I think, we were all transforming into fish men. I could be misremembering this a bunch. But the part of the game that stood out was the completely unbearable player at the table who just HAD to make sure that every one of us knew that at nearly every turn, her character was getting drunk. Beyond obnoxious, and really wrecked the game for us. We left shortly thereafter. Our "fuck this game" - o - meter got pegged.

Sorry folks, but when your got a precious few 80 hours or so at the con, please don't waste them on a game you aren't enjoying. I probably could have handled it more tactfully and the better idea would have been to address the player and GM about it, but like I said. It was so bad I went from 0 to fuck it quite quickly.

Grade: B+ (GM and execution), F (general experience)

Through the Breach
Don't remember the scenario here, but I do remember the system. It was card based, and what I liked about it was that you would have a hand full of cards, and those would be your dice rolls. You got to pick what cards you would play, so in essence you could see a bit into the future, and plan accordingly because YOU decided when you were going to have shit luck. And you'd know when it's coming too. I liked that quite a bit. 

It's based in the Wyrd Miniatures' Malifaux world, and was fairly focused on the tactical aspect of it, but plenty of room to role play if you want it. I don't think the system provides a whole lot of mechanical incentive for it, but either way I enjoyed myself a good bit.

Grade: A-

RealmWorks 101

Not a game but rather a seminar on the features of RealmWorks by Lone Wolf Studios. It was (and technically still is, though its rather dead) a very rich campaign manager, with nearly endless ways to organize data, maps, plot points, help to track whats been revealed and what's still a secret, relationships between characters, npc, locations, storylines, etc. Its like a wiki but not. Like Obsidian but not. 

I believe that some clunkiness on its part lead to its downfall, but its still out there, and I use it from time to time. Its a tough decision whether to use it, or Obsidian. Realmworks is a heavy client though, and only runs on windows. I'm a Mac guy. (Judge me/Sue me/Fight me!)

Theres things about RW that I like more than Obsidian, and vice versa.

Grade: A 

DemonHunters
Its DEMONHUNTERS!!!! This was the first time I'd ever played what would become one of my favorite convention games of all time. I run it at every convention I go to in which I GM. The game system for Demonhunters is an incredibly well done and elegant blend of Cortex and Fate. Two of my most favorite game systems for getting out of the way while enhancing and encouraging narrative play. Its hard to say exactly why this particular blend works so well, it just does. If Fate Core and the Cortex Hacker's Guide had a baby inside of the Emergency Room of a Dark Comedy Hospital, Demonhunters is what you would have. Just trust me, its that good.

As far as the scenario goes, I only recall that we were fighting the ghosts of a pirate ship, captained by the infamous "Arr MeHearties". That was the ghosts name. Brilliant. I love the tongue in cheek dark humor of this game.  You should go immediately find and play this game. Its an absolute treasure.

Summary

As I mentioned, this year was a steaming dumpster fire. I want to sincerely thank my friend who went with me to this year's con for his friendship and support. I haven't got a fucking clue how I'd have made it back home without him. You know who you are.

Gen Con 2015 Report Card - Family Edition!

This was my first year ever bringing the kids to GenCon. I have to say it was a very enjoyable experience. It was me and my two oldest daughters, on our own for some Daddy-Daughter bonding and game time.

Intro to D&D
Meh, thats about all I can say about this session. The 5th edition is a solid traditional hack and slash RPG. More technically focused and regimented, and that has its place and is its own kind of fun. And I know some of you (if there actually are any readers out there) are saying to yourselves, "but you can ROLE play anything. It doesn't have to be all ROLL play!", I know that already. Now stop being obtuse and admit you know exactly what I am talking about. The story for the adventure was not compelling in any way, and the GM did little to give it the help it needed. GM was a rookie, and really shouldn't have been doing a convention, especially teaching new players. I don't fault him, but rather Baldman Games, who coordinate these events, and shoulder responsibility for their quality. My overall experience with D&D at Gencon is pretty consistent. Not Good. As in the quality is not good. At least its consistent.
Grade: D

Kobolds Ate My Baby
This turned out to be a completely impromptu thing. We popped by with generics on our way in, knowing it was sold out, but luckily there were 3 open seats. Awesome luck. Silly fun eating babies and getting killed. Poor unfortunate Kobolds. ALL HAIL KING TORG!

Grade: A

Artemis
We like this game and have played together at home Decent setup at the con, but nothing special.
Grade: B+

Extra Extra
Didn't play - no real instruction, just dropped a board game in our laps and expected us to teach ourselves. Disappointing.
Grade: F

Damage Report
Here was a fun, fast paced game of surviving and fixing a spaceship. A realtime board game. Each player has an hourglass to measure when they can act again. Lots of moving around, juggling resources, and prioritizing the repairs. Of course never knowing when or where the ship is going to get hit again is a problem. Also, try not to open an airlock with a shipmate in the room! A fun game, enough fun that we bought it
Grad: A-

Grow
Game was fun, rules explained by the designer, engaging, cute. I had backed their kickstarter, but its been years without a finished game :( - Update on this one, I finally got in touch with someone on Etsy who is selling the game. I told him about my kickstarter pledge, he asked me for my pledge number, and said he'd send me the game. This is notable because this person is NOT the people who did the kickstarter. They somehow and for some reason decided to sell all our shit to another person? I'm pissed at the creators, but grateful for the person running this Etsy for being accommodating.
Grade: A for gameplay and an interesting concept. F----- for execution and business follow through

The Whispering Road
This is an interesting story game, written by my friend, Brent Newhall. Its hard to explain so I'll let his website do the talking. I'm not an anime guy, so a lot of the background or style was lost on me, but the game was fun. It provided room to create for my girls in ways that a more rigid structured game like D&D does not. http://brentnewhall.com/games/doku.php?id=games:whispering_road
Grade: A

Gen Con with Kids
Its definitely a completely different experience. Right off the bat, I'm looking at more limited hours. You cant keep a 10yo up until midnight and up at 6am for 4 days in a row. They are a puddle of tears by the end of the first day. It's just too much. So it was 8am start, and 9pm to bed each night. But all in all it was a great experience because I got to share it with my daughters. Just the three of us, memories that are special and ours.
Grade:   A+

Cosplaying
Outside of halloween, this was my very first time since becoming an adult that I wore a costume for something. We wanted to do some kind of theme and settled on Firefly. I went as Wash, my oldest as Kaylee, and my middle daughter as River. We did it the same day that I had gotten a ticket for an autograph/picture with Summer Glau. Ellie (Kaylee) got a lot of attention, many people complimenting her and some asking to pose for pictures. I think she enjoyed that. Sadly most people did not recognize Hannah as River, who doesn't have such a distinctive costume. Which made her sad, and you could tell by the look on her face.

So we get to the line for the meet with Summer, and I'm managing kid emotions. They are both being good sports about it and getting along nicely. Not an easy thing for a 10 and 12yo to do all the time. We get to the front and immediately upon seeing my Hannah, Summer exclaims "oh my god, you're dressed like River!", and gave her a hug. Summer looked up making eye contact with me and I put my hands in the prayer position, and mouthed the words "thank you" to her. She was a lovely young lady, who cheered up my daughter at absolutely the perfect moment. I'll probably remember that one forever.

Summer, if for some insane coincidence of the universe you're reading this, thank you again, from the bottom of my heart
Grade: A+++

Gen Con 2014 - Bringing the Whole Party

Gen Con has come and gone. Once again, I find myself sitting down to collect my thoughts on what when down over the course of "The Best 4 Days in Gaming", and more importantly (to me) how it went down. If I have learned nothing else over the past 8 years going to Gen Con, it is that you have approximately 96 hours from when you land in Indianapolis until you leave. Subtracting an hour on the front side to get to your hotel, and another 3 to head back to the airport we are already down 4 hours. That's an entire RPG slot right there! If you are a complete game addict like me, you just don't have any time to waste on silly things like getting to the airport, or serious things like a bad game session.
So let's see just how my Gen Con went, shall we?
(As always, in the interest of fairness, I will not name drop GMs whose games I did not enjoy. It is entirely possible that others did have a good time, so take my opinions with a grain of salt. Perhaps an entire shaker of salt sometimes. My criticisms here are in the spirit of improving our games - I hope that if a GM reads a bad review from me that they do learn something from it, and that it helps them. I hope that people in my games feel that they can do the same. I am far from perfect, so if I'm screwing up, please call me on it.)

Wednesday Night
Outbreak Undead
Rather than go to the swanky steak dinner some of my friends were eating, I decided to head over to the Union Station rooms to see if any games were afoot. I found an Outbreak Undead game getting ready to kick off, themed after Resident Evil. So I jumped in. It seemed light and campy, and in general it was. Though for me, it stuck too much to the "you don't have that key, so you can't go into that door" model of video game design, which resulted in the group hunting for keys everywhere rather than engaging with a story. It was cute at first, but got old pretty quick. This is one of those things that is probably just a style issue for me. Might work for some people, but didn't for me.  The GM was very critical of himself, repeatedly apologizing for his map drawing skills being terrible. Once is fine, twice may be funny, but droning on and on about it. If you're reading this Mr. GM - Give yourself a break. You aren't bad at drawing maps. I found them perfectly serviceable for the game. The only other bit of complaint I have is that the game felt very impossible to do simple tasks. From my readings of the game system though, it seems that this is by design. Not really my cup of tea to fail at most things 75% of the time, whether they are difficult or not. Overall Grade: B-

Hacker
My buddies and I sat down for a drink at the JW bar and played a game of Hacker, my favorite "card" game. Its out of print now, but it is a ton of fun in a little box, especially when you are playing it with other computer nerds. Yes its dated. It has that right amount of early 90's je nais se quoi of computer nerdery that it is a wonderful game.
Overall Grade: A

Thursday
D&D: Shadows over Moonsea
Buckle up and grab a helmet because I feel the need to once again let loose with both barrels about the game experience quality with WoTC at large events. Let me state that I have yet to ever play in a good game of D&D run at a con by an 'official' D&D group. I haven't even had fun in a bad way either. This year's festival of misery came courtesy of a disruptive young teenager at the table, and a GM who either was unfamiliar with the module, or for whatever reason decided that we didn't need to understand anything that was going on. At first, not understanding how things could be so confusing, I chalked it up to bad luck and maybe my own lack of understanding. After discussing with some friends who did the adventure with a different GM, I have to take a completely different approach to my critique.

Major plot elements were not explained to us, even though we interacted with the "right" NPCs. The fact that we needed to go into the woods should have been explained to us by our interactions with at least 2 different NPCs (Thats how the other group I spoke to found out about it) - neither of which told us anything of the sort. Net result, in the big battle at the end, not a single person at the table had any idea what was going on. Pure frustration. Add to that a 13 year old who really needs to be the center of attention at a table full of adults and you've got a recipe for disaster. And to his dad, who dropped off a stinky steaming meatball sub at the table in the middle - thanks a lot guy!

My general impression is that this GM was more than likely not given the adventure materials until very late. I hope that is the case, otherwise I can't really determine anything other than lack of preparation and familiarity with the adventure.
Overall Grade: F
(This went poorly enough that we cancelled our follow on game of Official D&D later that night. Please note this had nothing to do with the game system. We are not hating on any edition of D&D, this was purely a table/GM experience issue)

Game Mastering 101 (GM)
This was the first of 3 seminars that I ran this year, and it was very well attended. I feel like I was on my game, and the audience had a lot of participation and seemed very engaged and eager. I had a great time, and many people indicated to me at the end that they enjoyed and appreciated it. <Borat> Great Success!
Overall Grade: A

GM Seminar (GM)
My second seminal was also well attended, and brought together a lot of people to talk about GMing in general. There was a ton of interaction back and forth, and I think a lot of great advice was both given and received to and from the audience. I was a little scattered in my approach, so while I think it was an overall success, I would rate my own performance a little lower.
Overall Grade: A-

Crunch!
Having been turned off by the morning's D&D event, we sat down next to another group of friends in an open play are at the JW, and I broke out another of my favorite card games. This one is called Crunch! It is a game in which the players are the CEOs of megabanks that are too big to fail. Their goal is to enrich themselves and increase their personal fortune at the expense of anything else. Cheating is not only allowed, but encouraged. The penalty for getting caught is the loss of a "trust" card. These cards represent Federal Government bailouts, so you don't want to run out of those. If your bank goes bankrupt, so what. The only thing that matters is your own personal fortune!
Overall Grade: A

Friday
Games on Demand - PSI*RUN (GM)
I ran a session of Psi*Run at Games on Demand.  I certainly had a good time, and it seems like the players did. Note to self, in a 2 hour session, 4 questions for the characters are too many (Read PSI*RUN and you'll understand what I mean)The players were running from a mixed group of chasers who all wore red scarves. The highlight for me was them smashing through a pair of ambulances and a riot team of EMTs (who were all bad guys) as the telekinetic running flung the ambulances several blocks away, crushing the EMTBadGuys into them. Maybe you had to be there, but trust me, it was pretty awesome.
Overall Grade: A

Improvisation for GMs (GM)
This was the third seminar that I ran, and if I am being honest, it was probably the worst seminar I have ever run. My apologies go to the attendees. If you were there, and you didn't enjoy it, I am sorry. I also pledge to you that I will do better next time. While I have done close to a dozen seminars at Gen Con, this was the first time I have focused on Improv as the sole topic. As such, I don't think that it flowed very well, or the way I had intended it to. On the plus side, while doing an improv exercise with some of the people in it, the laughter was so great that the seminar next door poked their heads in to see what the hell was going on. If you attended, and have any feedback for me, I would really appreciate it.
Overall Grade: C-

Games on Demand - Fiasco
A friend and I got into a game of Fiasco at GoD, and it was exactly what it says on the box. Fiasco at GoD. If you've never done it, you really should. It is a winning experience. (For Charlie Sheen values of winning) Awful characters doing awful things to one another and living or dying in awful ways.
Overall Grade: A

Trail Of Cthulhu
This is another game that I have been dying to play for many years. This session did not work out for me. I was there, and the game happened, but I just wasn't able to endure the session. While the scenario was compelling, the GMs manner was of such low energy that everything felt like it was 10 times longer. By the 2nd hour I had to excuse myself and go find something else. Harsh? Yes, but with only 80 hours there, I just can't abide sitting through something I am not enjoying out of a sense of politeness or manners. I think its better to just cut your losses and go than to stay and suffer. Nothing mean or rude intended by it, just cold logic. With that said, it still seems to me that the system itself is very good. I'm going to have to give it another try.
Grade: D

D&D with Friends
We recovered that evening and from about 10 to 2am we played some 5th edition - all friends, including the DM. We used an old school 1st edition module converted up (not much work at all) and had a great time. There was a very big WTF moment as an uninvited guest arrived, plopped down at the table and hung around in a very uncomfortable way, touching other peoples things, etc. It got pretty weird for a while, but such is the danger of the Open Gaming Area and random encounter tables.
Overall Grade: A+

Saturday
Games on Demand - Leverage (GM)
This time the group I was given wanted to play Leverage. I had worked out a skeleton of a plot on the plane ride out, loosely based on the plot of HBO's Silicon Valley. One of the players in the group was familiar with the show, and game a big smile when I gave them the name of their client and mark. Everyone at the table was more or less a fan of the show, which makes this game such a joy to run. If you know Leverage - you know how to play Leverage the RPG. The rules are the easy part after that. The game was a blast, and featured the mark getting run off stage at TechCrunch Disrupt by FBI officials and charged with assault and battery of a police officer.
Overall Grade: A

Firefly
A great game and we had a great GM, who happened to be one of the contributing authors of the game. What a combination. A space age train heist of a kind was perpetrated by our scheming, conniving heroes and justice restored to a backwater planet. A fun game fine tuned to fit its subject matter. If you enjoy Firefly and you enjoy RPGs, I'm going to promise you that you will like this game.
Overall Grade: A

Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator
Any game that results in the captain, upon suggestion from his engineer to max out all weapons attack, commanding the crew to "Keep Firing, Assholes!" a la Dark Helmet has got to be a guaranteed winner. Not sure what to say that would be different than my review of Artemis from last year, except for the same advice. Different / same? Who cares. Go out and BUY THIS GAME. Actually don't go anywhere. Stay at your computer and buy online and then download!
Overall Grade: A++

Games on Demand - Dungeon World
I convinced the group to come over to GoD for some night time fun, and they went along with it. We sat down for a game of Dungeon World. I Love Dungeon World. It has fundamentally changed the way I think about and run RPGs. Its that big of a deal. (For that matter so is the game on which it is based, Apocalypse World. Do yourself a favor and read both) - With that in mind, this session wasn't great. It was good, but could have been better. I think the GM needs to give the book a re-read, because so much of what makes DW so special is in the process of how it is run, and in my opinion, the GM wasn't using it to its potential. Too many easy throwaway moves by the GM, defaulting to damage, trying to go in a logical circle around the table all of the time - things that are the norm in something like D&D, but are very much out of place in a game of DW.
Overall Grade: B+

Exhibit Hall Shopping
I took it easy this year, being well aware that I already have entirely too much stuff that I'm never going to get a chance to play. Instead I tried to focus in on some things that I know my kids will love to play with me, and that we can all play together. This is going to be the year that I really get them going on RPGs as well. I got my oldest a fancy leather journal that has the Tardis cover, like the one River Song uses in Doctor Who. Given that she's a HUGE Doctor Who fan, she was beyond excited when I gave it to her. I also picked up a print from a female artist, Lorraine Schleter - my oldest is an aspiring artist, and I like to find things to inspire her, especially from other women. For my middle daughter, I got an expansion to one of her favorite games, Space Cadets: Dice Duel - It is the Die Fighter expansion, adding in 2 small fighters for the players to dogfight with each other. I also got her, and my youngest a pair of Sonic Screwdrivers. They were jealous of the one their older sister got last year, so I tried to even out the Doctor Who toys. I also picked up a copy of Cthulhu Gloom for her, and a copy of the Doctor Who card game for my oldest. Hobbit Tales rounded out the game acquisitions as a family item, and I grabbed a copy of the old SpellJammer campaign setting in the auction for myself

I think in the future, I am going to be hesitant to go out of my way to schedule games with other friends who are attending. The Venn diagram of everyone's interest doesn't always make a huge overlap, and with such limited time, you can end up waiting around for someone to do an event or try and decide what everyone wants to eat, etc. It certainly didn't ruin anything for me, but I think I'm better off roaming on my own, and if the paths cross and stars align, we'll hook up and grab a bite or drink or game. Next year, I'm bringing my older two daughters, and we've got some plans to kick some serious ass together. They've been waiting for years to come, and I think now is the time. Well next year is the time, I mean!

The Prettiest RPGs You've Never Read

There are so many RPGs out there that one can never really be sure where to begin, when deciding to branch out beyond the game or games that initially brought you into the hobby. In my experience that usually means some flavor of Dungeons & Dragons, or White Wolf's Vampire series. It definitely seems like most people enter the role playing hobby through one of these two gateways. It was the D&D Basic series for me, first the Moldvay books, then the Mentzer colored box series. I remember fondly looking at my teenage bookshelf to see all five boxed sets sitting there in their glory. I only wish now that I still had them, for both nostalgia and collectors value. A quality non dented box is really tough to find these days. --And now I think I'm starting to sound like a comic book or action figure collector, so I'll go ahead and stop right there.

Back to the real topic - other games. In the course of my own inter-game explorations, I've come across many systems. One of the properties I have seen vary the most, but consistently improve over the years is the production value, also known scientifically as the "prettiness" of the book. A hard cover with pages that didn't fall out would have been considered great production value 15 years ago. My how things have changed since then. Nowadays, if you aren't pimping it out with full color, non standard sized glossy heavy paper stock, it seems like maybe you just aren't trying hard enough. Or perhaps it is the books that are doing that that are trying too hard? Tough to say. I have seen many beautiful, nay absolutely gorgeous books hit the shelves in the past few years. Several of these have even hit my own shelf. But unfortunately many of them have seemed to meet with no commercial success, and others have not even found critical success, outside of the acknowledgement of their design and production efforts.

It is with this in mind that I present to you some of the prettiest RPGs you've never heard of - all of which are sitting on my shelf right now.

Alpha Omega

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/57713/Alpha-Omega-Core-Rulebook
A dice pool based primary game mechanic and a free form magic system taking place in a kitchen sink, post apocalyptic earth, in the years just preceding an alien v alien war in which Earth is the central battleground. For me the magic system, and the capability of the game engine to simulate Matrix-Like sequences, in which some actors are immensely faster than others, makes it worth taking a look. The system isn't for everyone, and is definitely on the crunchy side, but I don't find it to be bad crunch.
The monster manual for the game could easily function as a coffee table book of fantasy and sci-fi art, and is worth its purchase price for the inspiration it can lend, if nothing else.
Example Art:

This piece really highlights the tone of the game, showing the remains of Eiffel Tower set in front of the new Arcology, with wild growth all around outside of the fortress of civiliation that is the Arcology.

The Game book: 

The Encountered (The monster book)

Eoris Essence

http://eorisessence.blogspot.com/
I first discovered this one at GenCon about 5 years back, and preordered on the spot. They had an interested world idea, in which relative morality would be explored. The meta plot set the forces of god (in this world, a young girl) against well, itself. The idea was that god wants to die. But if she does, will the world cease to exist? "What is more important, god or her creation?" the text wonders. Another home grown system runs this game, focusing on the mental physical and emotional status of the PCs, trying to mechanically enable stress and demeanor along with the players' own role playing.

As with others in this post, the books are simply gorgeous. Set into 2 volumes, one for the game rules the other as a world book, they are both full color, glossy pages, and like Alpha Omega, laid out in hardcover landscape fashion, setting them apart from other books, but also making them handy at the table, since they fit a little better. The books ship in a slip case to contain both volumes as well.

The Books:

Example Art:

Nearly every third page contains a piece of art similar in quality as this!

Hell, even the character sheets are pretty:

Shadows of Esteren

https://shadowsofesteren.blogspot.com/
This game may be one you have heard of if you are a Kickstarter junkie like myself. They have launched 2 KS's, and been wildly successful with each, far exceeding their goals. The initial game book is available to all now and in distribution, I believe. I bought a copy directly from the studio at GenCon this past year. A system focused on mystery and terror, and unease is what the creators have tried to create. The game is set within a world of gothic, medieval style horror, enemies and monsters that are equal parts folklore and reality, the games are set are mystery, intrigue, and exploring the areas of the world that men were not meant to see.
The Book:

Example Art: 

Mouse Guard

http://www.mouseguard.net/books/role-playing-game/

Mouse Guard is based on the David Petersen comic, using rules based on the cult favorite system The Burning Wheel. Its ideas surrounding a character's beliefs and what they fight for is about as perfect a match you could find for the game of valiant guard mice, who range their lands, standing against nature and enemies alike to protect their realm and those within. A square shaped volume with thick, earth toned colorful pages, it is among my favorites. 

As if the book were not already pretty enough, it is also available as a boxed set with dice, the obligatory GM screen, cards, and tokens to round out the package.

What these games all have in common beyond their beauty is that they are all built on their own unique and independent game systems. The originality of the auhors' vision for their games presentation seems to also come out in their expression of the game rules. I won't pontificate on whether or not the rules are good, bad, or otherwise, but I will note that these games have all had limited success thus far. There are far too many factors to consider as to whether or not rule design takes away from its success, but for the same reason, we cannot say whether or not the games' beauty contributes much to it either.

What do you think?