GM’s Log, 40317.11; I find myself at the end of yet another
GamerNation Con. This was the 4th such con in existence, my 3rd. All and all, travel to the convention was
uneventful which is how I prefer it.
Andrew accompanied the away team on this expedition. Dono
and Eric would join the party at Ten 50 BBQ down in Texas. We rented an intermediate-sized
SUV, since there would be four of us getting back to the airport on Monday. We
were almost given a Jeep Cherokee when I noticed a Nissan Rouge waiting in
line.
We elected to “go rogue”.
Ten 50 BBQ was a great place to start the adventure. I’m not
much of a BBQ guy, I like grilling but ribs and most other traditional barbeque
is lost to me (much like beer), but Ten 50 BBQ had many things for me to enjoy;
especially the Angry Orchard on tap. Greetings, handshakes, and hugs were had
with the Gamer Nation in attendance. We ate, we talked, and then broke to the
hotel.
GNC 2017 was hours away.
Thursday
I elected to run The Justice League of the Republic module
first; an 8 hour epic with the Justice League reimagined as Jedi knights. The
module went well, the PCs were appreciative and enjoyed the story. A rousing
success for a first run (live Beta, if you will). I found that the first scene
lasted way too long (almost 3 hours), so some changes would need to be made.
The big reveal of Darkseid as the final villain fell flat, but that was due to
some errors I made in storytelling. Even so, two members of the Norwegian
Delegation were able to get seats at my table, and told me later that the
module set a high bar for them for the rest of the convention. I finished off
by playing in Wes Goodwin’s module as a Heavy (IHC-187) in a story involving an
Imperial Commando Team and a bio-weapon.
Good times. Total Hours GM’d; 8
Friday
I was able to get in on a Savage Rifts game run by Darren
West. Because I just happened to bring my old Glitter Boy mini from 1994, I got
to play a Glitter Boy in the module. They play so much better in Savage Rifts
than Palladium Rifts; much more balanced. I took a short break, and got in a game of
Artemis; the Starship Bridge Simulator. I state once again; I need to get some
friends with laptops and get this game.
At 4pm I ran the JLR a second time, ending a little after midnight. This run went much smoother. Total Hours GM’d: 16
Saturday
IF you can only make it to one day of GamernationCon,
Saturday is the day to come. I started off with a follow up to last year’s
Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland module, titled “Fratricidal Tendencies”. Last year’s
module was a showcase of the Fallout hack of Edge of the Empire I wrote. This
module was a lot truer to the theme of Fallout, where there are rarely good
choices, only a series of gradually worse choices. The players enjoyed the
module, especially Burt who got to play Percy the Super-Mutant again.
I had to end Fallout quickly, because as soon as it ended I
was on tap with GM Chris and GM Dave for the premiere of “The Black Nova Gambit”
using the FFG Star Wars RPG system. The Gambit is a delve; 3 GMs, 18 PCs, 3
teams, 3 scenarios each 1 hour long real-time. The premise is a group of Jedi,
Commandos, and Pilots simultaneously assaulting Darth Revan’s super battleship
before it can attack the Republic. Finish the objective within an hour, success
or failure will affect later scenarios in not only your group, but other groups
as well. Running the Gambit was IN-SANE fun. After scenario one, where the Jedi
squad finished their objective in 28 minutes, one of my players asked with some
concern “are these going to get harder as they go on?” Two hours later, those same Jedi are shouting
“ROLL THE DICE!” as they are within 3 minutes of failing the objective of the
whole damn delve. After 4 hours of frantic action and daring saves, the
Republic scored a total success against the Sith, only suffering the loss of
one valiant jedi who got sucked out an airlock after grappling with one of the
villains.
At 8pm, GamerNation After Dark beings; which is the
alcoholic gaming portion of the Con. I purposefully set aside time during After
Dark to get a game in with players I wanted; GM Chris, GM Dave, GM Hooly,
Andrew, Keith Kappel, and GNC2017 Guest of Honor Kat Ostrander from FFG. I was
looking forward to this after getting my party together a couple days before; I’ve
never GM’d GM Chris or Dave in all the years we’ve been friends (or maybe Dave
once?), and Kat was very excited to get the chance to play after hearing about
the game from Sam Stewart’s experience at last year’s con. Hooly is too fun to
game with, I’ve been trying to get Keith at my table for a couple years, and
Andrew would pick up on all the in-jokes of running a game set in the post-apocalyptic
Hoosac Valley. GM Dave valiantly gave up his seat at my table for another con
attendee Andy (Ross?) who had two games he pre-reg’d for blow up on him as the
GM cancelled their events. Dave wanted Andy to have a good experience, and
gaming with the celebrities and “celebrities” of the con in my module seemed to
hit the spot. The game couldn’t have gone better; good people, good game, good
RP, and good drinks (the apple moonshine Sarah sent me down with was throat
singeing candy, lovely lovely burn-y candy).
After an hour or so of sobering up, and talking with some
good friends like Chris Bradshaw, we headed back to the hotel at 2am. Total GM’d
hours; 28.
Sunday
After about 4 hours of sleep and a meal, I was back at the con
for my final run of “Fratricidal Tendencies”. I had to be done by 2pm for the
closing auction to the Con, and we finished with about 15 minutes to spare. It
was a glorious run, and a great way to end my GNC2017 gaming experience. Total
Hours GM’d; 32; 2 over the 30 necessary for “Iron GM’, which was my third so I
earned the “Titanium GM” badge (90 hours of GMing at multiple GNCs).
The auction was great; every hour of gaming earns you “xp”
to bid on items at the end of con auction. Andrew and I pooled our resources,
and received a few more donations from others who didn’t need their XP. I got a
mini painted by Darren West, and Andrew got a few cool games. As I posted in
another post, Sarah’s quilt was highly sought after by a few bidders, the
person who won confided in me that her quilt was the one item THEY WERE GOING
TO GO HOME WITH. Fortunately, they had the 520 xp needed to win it.
Final Thoughts
The 8 hour JLR module was a success, but I’ll be very
unlikely to run it in the future. 8
hours in one sitting is too much, both from a stamina perspective and a “give
more players a chance to play” perspective. I run 8 games (basically) at GNC,
that’s 48 slots that 12 folks got to double up on, locking out another 12
attendees from gaming in a game with me. That’s not fair, and something I
should have considered. Seven so, it was fun, and folks enjoyed being
super-heroes in Star Wars. (“I’m Hawk-Batman…”)
Fratricidal Tendencies was a nigh-total success; folks
really enjoyed the story, the plot twist, and the final encounter. I say “nigh”
total because I would have been happier if I had finished painting one of the
important minis in the way I described him. Ah well.
The Black Nova Gambit was BRILLIANT, and big kudos to GM
Chris for adapting his Saga Module to FFG. It can REALLY only be run at a
Convention, you need that space and player pool to draw from. There were ideas
from GM Dave to head up to Minneapolis and run it at FFG’s Gaming Center.
Now
there’s a thought…
I’ve really fallen in love with this con; it’s a trip I look
forward to every year for the past few years
now. I miss my wife, horribly, but
my family in Texas do a real good job at distracting me. 😉
Final shout outs to my cohosts Chris and Dave, Krista who
runs a mean Con, Hudson, Hooly, Keith, and Brev, Darren and his gaming crew,
Larry and Will on Artemis, Jegergryte and the Norwegian crew, and all the pcs
at my table as players under me or fellow players. Bonus shout-outs to Kat
Ostrander (you have my card 😉), and Andrew, Dono, and Eric as my glorious away
team companions.
Until next year at GNC 5 and The Order of Gamers; May the Dice be with you!
