Mr Bailey's Indiecon

[MartinBailey]

After spending the last two months either on a plane or on my death bed - Indiecon kind of jumped out at me from behind some heavy cover. I didn't even see it coming - but I was pleased it did.

Thursday night was the usual drinks and icebreaker. I didn't partake myself, preferring to chill out and say hello to people.

Friday morning took us into the world of Pendragon using Duty and Honour rules. Evil Gaz runs a mean game and although I have seen from his con report that he didn't think it went that well - I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's always nice to be in a position to stitch up Goober and there was ample opportunity as he played the hapless Lord Edern on a fools errand to fight the Saxons.

Slot 2 was 6d6 with mince pies and murder. I had read good reports and so was expecting good things, but I'm afraid it wasn't my thing. To me - the cards feel a bit gimmicky and no better than a well laid out character sheet. Where cards were used to indicate where characters were - I couldn't help thinking that a map with some counters or mini's might be a more elegant solution. It also didn't help that it was an investigation scenario (not my favourite kind). The other guys seemed to enjoy it, but it was not for me.

Friday evening was Kagematsu with Ooshie. I defy anyone to describe this game and make it sound good, but essentially, we played women from a terrorised village trying to seduce Ooshie's Male wandering Ronin in medieval Japan. I had such a great time playing this game that I think it is probably the best session I have ever played. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay it is that I was peeved when the game came to an end - I wanted to carry on playing. Awesome players, awesome GM, awesome game. Everyone should try this game at least once in their roleplaying career(?).

Saturday afternoon was Neverwhere using Hot War by Dave Elrick. I was really looking forward to this - one of my favourite books, one of my favourite settings, one of my favourite GMs. All the right ingredients were there including some good players but for some reason - magic just didn't happen for me. No sparks flew. Still a very solid game, but I couldn't hep feeling a bit disappointed.

Saturday evening - played Dead of Night by Brenda. I like the simplicity of the system and Brenda runs a good game so this was good, clean fun. She only managed to kill one of us whilst desperately trying to maintain the dying vestiges of her voice which was fading fast.

Sunday morning was Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies with Dave Elrick. This was a follow up to the monkey rum surprise game from last year and I was happy to play the cook once more. Everyone agreed that we were fed up with monkeys so new ingredients were required. I decided that camels and dangleberries were the order of the day and much hilarity ensued in trying to find the plot in amongst the "camel panic" as Dave so eloquently put it.

After the raffle (in which I won nowt ), it was a game of Blood with the family Mussel. I like Blood - not enough to buy it (sorry Grim), but I do like it. This was a well crafted scenario by Andy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The last session of the con was Deathwatch by Chris (don't know your surname sorry). In a perverse contrast to Kagematsu, this was an obscenely OTT macho romp with dirty great big mechs armed to the teeth wading through the enemies of the emperor. This is not what you call deep roleplaying - and I feel a bit guilty about this - I absolutely loved it. It seemed like a perverse contrast to Kagematsu, but I enjoy both ends of the spectrum.

Thanks to everyone who ran a game and the organisers. Seemed like a good number this year although there did seem to be a lot of games running at less players than capacity.

A couple of whinges - did the food really have to stop at 5PM on Sunday with no notice? I was starving and a twix bar and a pack of BBQ hula hoops were just not up to the job. Secondly - as the last game slot ran until midnight - I assumed that the hall would be open until then. It was a pain to get kicked out part way through a game.

[Elrick]

Sunday morning was Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies with Dave Elrick. This was a follow up to the monkey rum surprise game from last year and I was happy to play the cook once more. Everyone agreed that we were fed up with monkeys so new ingredients were required. I decided that camels and dangleberries were the order of the day and much hilarity ensued in trying to find the plot in amongst the "camel panic" as Dave so eloquently put it.

Quote of the con: "Monkey the guns..." (the monkeys got out and supplemented the crew, so when the bad pirates turned up they helped with the gun crews)

[thenovalord]

ze insanity of the game was matched only by the charm of ze people

Jacques Barochi!!

Which is the Sticky End?

[Ooooshie]

Friday evening was Kagematsu with Ooshie. I defy anyone to describe this game and make it sound good, but essentially, we played women from a terrorised village trying to seduce Ooshie's Male wandering Ronin in medieval Japan. I had such a great time playing this game that I think it is probably the best session I have ever played. Perhaps the best compliment I can pay it is that I was peeved when the game came to an end - I wanted to carry on playing. Awesome players, awesome GM, awesome game. Everyone should try this game at least once in their roleplaying career(?).

Thank you Martin for your kind words. 'Kagematsu' is a hard game to sell but I love playing it and you were all amazing women!!! I haven't had such a good time with this game, infact probably any game, you all really rocked thank you for being such an awesome woman

hugs
xx

[Basacag]

Martin's always been a big girl, playing a Japanese woman was not that big a leap no matter what he says

[6d6fireball]

Slot 2 was 6d6 with mince pies and murder. I had read good reports and so was expecting good things, but I'm afraid it wasn't my thing. To me - the cards feel a bit gimmicky and no better than a well laid out character sheet. Where cards were used to indicate where characters were - I couldn't help thinking that a map with some counters or mini's might be a more elegant solution. It also didn't help that it was an investigation scenario (not my favourite kind). The other guys seemed to enjoy it, but it was not for me.

Thanks for feedback. We appreciate everyone who takes the time to play our game even if it turns out not to their thing. Depending what your 'thing' is, you may prefer the more mechanical full version of 6d6 system used in our Quantum Flux and Outbreak! adventures.

Using cards to indicate locations etc was an experiment and like you, I wasn't satisfied with the results. Normally I just describe the situation and leave things to the players imagination / memory. For future sessions of Mince Pies & Murder, I will be going back to that approach.

[Silhouette]

Saturday evening - played Dead of Night by Brenda. I like the simplicity of the system and Brenda runs a good game so this was good, clean fun. She only managed to kill one of us whilst desperately trying to maintain the dying vestiges of her voice which was fading fast.

I'm pretty sure that if my voice hadn't been dying and I could've filled the entire slot (or overrun, which is what everybody else seemed to be doing on Saturday night) things would have gotten more deadly for the players. Then again, it's probably a good thing that it didn't, because there was still plot left when the characters got to the coast, I just completely forgot about it

I'm glad it was still a decent game though