Orccon 2015 roundup
Feb 17, 2015 15:30:07 GMT -8
Post by plusx2a on Feb 17, 2015 15:30:07 GMT -8
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to those of you who attended Orccon 2015. I also want to thank the members of the podcast for their understanding about the sudden change in venue due to a plumbing incident in the room usually occupied by the podcast. This was a particularly busy con as we hit the 2k mark for attendance. This is a number that the convention has failed to reach since this early 90’s.
I particularly enjoyed this con and played in some fantastic games. This time around I made it a point to participate in games as many games as I could with people and GMs that I had not played with in the past. I feel it is important for everyone to have my regular attendees be able to recognize me easily so that I can be more available for feedback and ideas.
The “sex dungeon” downstairs worked out fairly well for the podcast. Unfortunately, the only real problem with that space was the lack of internet access. The hotel was unable to rectify that problem, but there were some up sides to the room. The fact that the front door was so removed from the actual space was nice since coming in and out to sit down or get water was relatively noiseless and did not interrupt the podcast. I also felt that the podcast could be as loud and rowdy as possible without disturbing anyone.
Highlights for me were Tomes Star Frontiers/Lego/Savage Worlds game, Ian ChristianSher’s Dogs in the Vinyard game, JiB’s fantastic Ravenloft/FATE game was a blast and finally the Blood and Honor/World of Dew samurai game run by our special guests John Wick and Ben Woerner.
If you haven’t played in one of Tomer’s convention games, you are missing out. Aside from the novelty of the Lego character sheet and play board he runs a fantastic game. It was a very tense game of mystery and horror in space. He even went so far as to construct a subplot for each PC and had information cards for events that happened throughout the game with those subplots. Keeping track of events going on im my subplot was easy, confidential and consistent that way. The love and attention Tomes puts into his games is evident in every facet, from plot to mood music down to the inventive nature of his play pieces.
Dogs in the Vinyard had been a game I wanted to try for a while now. What impressed me most was the unique setting and how well the game created a faith based world without seeming contrived, preachy or sanctimonious. The game takes place in a Utah that never was and is based around Dogs (I learned that it is a common Christian acronym standing for Depending on God) who are a mix of U.S. Marshalls and Holy Inquisitors. They ride around like circuit judges of the old west and visit the towns of the faithful to purge evil and sin from them. There is always evil and sin by the way and actual demons and minions of the devil are to blame. The religion is a form of Mormonism in everything but name and iconography, but very loose so you can feel free to work with it for story. I played brother Ephraim who healed an old lame alcoholic man by pointing a gun to his head and saying “RISE AND WALK!” then pulling back the hammer. The game system worked on a dice “match” method where you would roll a pool of dice and ask your opponent to match the total of two of the dice back and forth until a winner is declared. You can push things by taking consequences to add more than two dice together but you end up going through your dice quicker that way. Interesting and fun to play with Stu for once.
If you don’t think FATE is awesome you have never played in one of JiB’s games. In JiB’s game we all played Gypsies in a travelling show in the D&D Ravenloft setting. As per usual the game was obviously well prepared with what I would consider a souvenir character sheet pack and very effective music and sound effects. I would actually be curious to ask where you got those JiB they really added to the ambience of the game. Was that Platemail Games stuff from Wes Otis? The real treat though is that one of the players bowed out to let a friend of his who was absolute novice to FATE. The new player struggled with some of the concepts of the game mechanic but JiB did a fantastic job of patiently and clearly explaining things, giving examples and suggestions. The new guy really nailed the epilogue and it sounded like he really learned a lot about narrative storytelling. Thanks Mook for playing the best Strong Man ever opposite my Gypsie fortune teller.
Finally, I played in John Wick’s and Ben Woerner’s games based around Ryoko Owari The City of Lies in the L5R world. If you haven’t taken a look at Blood and Honor and the complimentary game World of Dew, I would highly recommend it. I will warn you, there are some “hippie game” elements in this game but they work extremely well mechanically. The game involves a die pool and you get to roll the dice to beat a ten. The thing is that the way you increase your level of success is by removing dice from that pool. Dice are also removed to increase difficulty. Each level of success or “raise” mean that you get to say one detail of the scene is “true” for every die you set aside. Dice pools come from a stat line called Virtues and a bunch of Aspects that can be made to apply, similar to FATE. This culminated in a LARP which I also played in that was full of hijinks and drama using the Houses of the Blooded system. I felt a little stymied since I did not know how far to push the games mechanic, but I enjoyed myself anyway.
All in all a FANTASTIC con for me and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. I hope to see you all again in May although I know that one is hard for some Happy Jackers to attend.
I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to those of you who attended Orccon 2015. I also want to thank the members of the podcast for their understanding about the sudden change in venue due to a plumbing incident in the room usually occupied by the podcast. This was a particularly busy con as we hit the 2k mark for attendance. This is a number that the convention has failed to reach since this early 90’s.
I particularly enjoyed this con and played in some fantastic games. This time around I made it a point to participate in games as many games as I could with people and GMs that I had not played with in the past. I feel it is important for everyone to have my regular attendees be able to recognize me easily so that I can be more available for feedback and ideas.
The “sex dungeon” downstairs worked out fairly well for the podcast. Unfortunately, the only real problem with that space was the lack of internet access. The hotel was unable to rectify that problem, but there were some up sides to the room. The fact that the front door was so removed from the actual space was nice since coming in and out to sit down or get water was relatively noiseless and did not interrupt the podcast. I also felt that the podcast could be as loud and rowdy as possible without disturbing anyone.
Highlights for me were Tomes Star Frontiers/Lego/Savage Worlds game, Ian ChristianSher’s Dogs in the Vinyard game, JiB’s fantastic Ravenloft/FATE game was a blast and finally the Blood and Honor/World of Dew samurai game run by our special guests John Wick and Ben Woerner.
If you haven’t played in one of Tomer’s convention games, you are missing out. Aside from the novelty of the Lego character sheet and play board he runs a fantastic game. It was a very tense game of mystery and horror in space. He even went so far as to construct a subplot for each PC and had information cards for events that happened throughout the game with those subplots. Keeping track of events going on im my subplot was easy, confidential and consistent that way. The love and attention Tomes puts into his games is evident in every facet, from plot to mood music down to the inventive nature of his play pieces.
Dogs in the Vinyard had been a game I wanted to try for a while now. What impressed me most was the unique setting and how well the game created a faith based world without seeming contrived, preachy or sanctimonious. The game takes place in a Utah that never was and is based around Dogs (I learned that it is a common Christian acronym standing for Depending on God) who are a mix of U.S. Marshalls and Holy Inquisitors. They ride around like circuit judges of the old west and visit the towns of the faithful to purge evil and sin from them. There is always evil and sin by the way and actual demons and minions of the devil are to blame. The religion is a form of Mormonism in everything but name and iconography, but very loose so you can feel free to work with it for story. I played brother Ephraim who healed an old lame alcoholic man by pointing a gun to his head and saying “RISE AND WALK!” then pulling back the hammer. The game system worked on a dice “match” method where you would roll a pool of dice and ask your opponent to match the total of two of the dice back and forth until a winner is declared. You can push things by taking consequences to add more than two dice together but you end up going through your dice quicker that way. Interesting and fun to play with Stu for once.
If you don’t think FATE is awesome you have never played in one of JiB’s games. In JiB’s game we all played Gypsies in a travelling show in the D&D Ravenloft setting. As per usual the game was obviously well prepared with what I would consider a souvenir character sheet pack and very effective music and sound effects. I would actually be curious to ask where you got those JiB they really added to the ambience of the game. Was that Platemail Games stuff from Wes Otis? The real treat though is that one of the players bowed out to let a friend of his who was absolute novice to FATE. The new player struggled with some of the concepts of the game mechanic but JiB did a fantastic job of patiently and clearly explaining things, giving examples and suggestions. The new guy really nailed the epilogue and it sounded like he really learned a lot about narrative storytelling. Thanks Mook for playing the best Strong Man ever opposite my Gypsie fortune teller.
Finally, I played in John Wick’s and Ben Woerner’s games based around Ryoko Owari The City of Lies in the L5R world. If you haven’t taken a look at Blood and Honor and the complimentary game World of Dew, I would highly recommend it. I will warn you, there are some “hippie game” elements in this game but they work extremely well mechanically. The game involves a die pool and you get to roll the dice to beat a ten. The thing is that the way you increase your level of success is by removing dice from that pool. Dice are also removed to increase difficulty. Each level of success or “raise” mean that you get to say one detail of the scene is “true” for every die you set aside. Dice pools come from a stat line called Virtues and a bunch of Aspects that can be made to apply, similar to FATE. This culminated in a LARP which I also played in that was full of hijinks and drama using the Houses of the Blooded system. I felt a little stymied since I did not know how far to push the games mechanic, but I enjoyed myself anyway.
All in all a FANTASTIC con for me and I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. I hope to see you all again in May although I know that one is hard for some Happy Jackers to attend.