Comception 2012 - my report

[wraithben]

So that's Conception done for this year.

Overall a rgeat con - a few things have been picked up on in other threads so I won't go over them again in this one. We were off site did make a difference as we were too far away to walk, so had to drive mroe than I would have preferred - but that's the way it goes sometimes.

Game:

Weds: Nothing caught my eye, and being off site with either people I'd not seen in a long time orpeople I'd not met before we stayed at our lodges. At a much later point in the evening everyone decided they would like to play something, so with there being 8 of us, I quickly threw together some 3:16 - on about 30 seconds preperation. Seemed to go quite well, but without any prep the encounters were very samey - can;t help feeling they would have been better if 1) I'd had more warning and 2) I hadn't been half cut - but there we go.

Thurs am - In a Wicked Age, ran by Shane. Enjoyed this fantasy story telling game, did like the setup of 'oracles' to give it some drive, and although they sounded a bit odd the story came together nicely. Not sure about the resolution mechanic, but have no idea what would work better- definitely one I'd try again, and may be purchasing the PDF soon.

Free slot - boardgaming back at the lodge.

Thurs evening - Fiasco with Ash - this was my first ever game of Fiasco, and enjopyed it immensely. We played the Elizabethan spies playset and it ll got a bit odd. Off the back of this we bought Fiasco and the companion - based on waht I've heard Ash really should be on commision with Jason Morningstar.

Fri am - Duty and Honour with Ray H. I've owned this game for many years, and other than on the forums here I've never played it, so it was nice to get a proper game (as it were). Again enjoyed this one immensely - its my favourite historical setting, and nicely story driven so win/win for me.

Fri pm - Wushu with Robin. Robin may have though I was following him at this stage as he'd been a player in my other three games - pure coincidence I promise. Good fast kung-fu fun. I do like the way that what you describe does happen, but doesn't always weakne the enemy. It meant you got to explain what you were doing, this happened, and then you rolled to see how effective it actually was. I enjoyed my short, wizened monk, bouncing off walls and generally kicking demons in the face.

Fri evening - a couple of memebers of our group weren't arrive till after the Friday evening slot, so one of the others ran a game of Cthulu Rising (I think) back in the lodge - again a good fun game. I died.

Sat am - there seemed to be a very low number of games going up for Sat morning - or at least with any spaces on them. I'd checked the boards just an hour into the previous morning slot and at that point there were definitely less than 10 forms up - at least half of which appeared to have gone up pre-filled. Based on the situation not bieng much better by the Fri evening slot I decided to facilitate a round of Penny for my Thoughts. Three people signed up and it seemed to go well - it was quite low key in some ways - none of us turned out to be serial killers, but more victims of our own bad choices - however for me it had quite a stright,real feel which I liked - so thanks to those of you who played.

Sat pm - Dead of Night with Brenda. This was inspired by the lost boys and good fun.I did like the way that two of us tried to keep an eye on my characters younger brother, but the moment we were distracted he was off like a shot - normally getting into trouble. This was a good fun group of players and seemed to move along nicely - although we never did find the big bad. Too many rolls of 13 on the dice meant that Brenda had so many survival points she had to split them between two creatures.

Sat Eve - Buffy with Bob. The most trad, crunchy game I played all con, and once I got back into that mindset I did enjoy it a lot. I realised driving home the next afternoon, that playing my loud, brash, dumb American hero I seemed to nbe Channeling Brendan Fraser from the Mummy, not helped by the fact that my smaller American friend was called Benjy. This cerrtainly wasn't a concious decision, but seemed to work well. Oh and I got to blow up the big bad with a bazooka so I was happy.

Sun am - as H was playing in Goober's reveresed game of Kagematsu, Rich very kindly offered to run Montsegur 2144. This is very much the type of storytelling game that I am into, and I did enjoy it. It was however Sunday morning so I was flagging somewhat. Definitely one I'd like to play again in a later slot.

Regrets: Being off site meant that unless waiting for a lift due to an early finish we had very little time to socialise in the bar. Either the person giving me a lift was already ready, or I was the one driving so could pop in but not settle in. Also meant I didn't hang around after muster to try and get more games - if I wasn't playing I found I wanted to take the opportunity to cook something - the hour between slots doesn't give you enough time to do this if you're 10-15 minutes down the road.

In some ways this has left me tempted to try and book but then leave it for a bit next year - as there did appear to be rooms available quite near the time that would have got us on site. But then there is nothing to say the same will happen next yeat.

All in all I had a great time, and it was good to put faces to some forum names.

Highs: The games

[Zuki]

Well thanks very much for stalking me cos all three game I was in with you were excellent fun and worked well - glad you liked Wushu, its a mind bending system sometimes but really great for action oriented stuff.

I think I might offer Fringe next time - the version in which you play a delusional maniac...

Also In a wicked age was great! I really want to try that again, props to the GM for making it run so smoothly

The fiasco was also fun - actually I dont think i had a bad game all con - and I fully intend to bring the buggery houses of london into more scene time next time I do that playset.

[Scott Dorward]

The Buggery Houses of London really needs to be a band name next time I play Umlaut.