Gen Con 2010 Saturday Overview

I was beginning to feel the lack of sleep catch up with me and I was playing 12 hours more of scheduled games so Saturday was brought to you by the letter 5 Hour Energy.

The first game I played in Saturday was Cave of Wanders: Wanton Destruction a Donjon game.  Donjon is a Clinton R. Nixon game, one that I have long been interested in.  Donjon is all about player control exclusively so it is something that I have never seen in the con events listings, until this year.  We ended up making our characters up on the spot, which took about 30 to 45 minutes, which wasn't too bad as we had great fun making what had to be the craziest group of adventurers.  A beholder holding a double docotorate, a thief who would play dead at the first sight of anything, an elf with an amazing fear of getting hit in the face and a smelly ogre named Violet.

We had a good time goofing off and ended the adventure in time for me to make a mad dash across Indy for my next event, so that was a plus.  I can cross "Play Donjon" off of my bucket list now, but I will never play it again, lesson learned.

The game I was dashing from Donjon to play was The Babalon Working a Call of Cthulhu Gumshoe game.  I like Cthulhu games, a lot.  You usually go mad and / or die so there is a real sense of danger that you don't always have in most con games.  This was also an opportunity for me to learn the Gumshoe system.

The pre-generated characters were all science fiction writers and associated.  I was greatly pleased to be able to play Phillip K Dick, the craziest man who ever lived!  The GM had obviously run this adventure many times and he did a great job with chits representing who all was where making investigation easier.  The other players were great.  Especially the Robert Heinlein player, he had an amazing amount of actual historical knowledge of the character.

After unsuccessfully trying to reach the local police and the highway patrol, I got to have my break the con moment . . . "My name is Phillip K Dick, and I will be taking you hostage!"  table rolled with laughter.

Overall I was surprised how simple this system was.  This might have been how the GM was playing it as I had nothing else to compare it too but it still seemed to be barely any mechanics at all.  I would give it another play through to see if it was a little more crunchy.  If not, I couldn't see myself playing it instead of traditional Cthulhu events.

Every train must, eventually, have its wreck.  This was mine for the con.  I should have know I was in for something special when the same caffeinated and COCAINE  fortified girl from my Raiders of Meadbrook Mine was sitting and waiting for me at the table for my Terror on Emerald Fields Game.  Why didn't I run?  Because I'm a glutton for punishment, and punishment we all got in spades, four hours worth.

The GM was somehow affiliated with the company that produced Legendary Realms so he was knowledgeable about the setting and the mechanics.  We started out by creating our characters which consisted of everybody getting a book and flipping through it at our own pace.  In a convention setting this is unacceptable.  Pregenerated characters are a must, at least they should be there to use as an example if not actually played.  So, we soldiered on and created our characters.  We then spent the next four hours being "entertained" by the same girl from the Meadbrook mine game.

When the event was mercifully over I gave the GM feedback that pregen characters would've made this process run smoother and some small layout modifications to the character sheets and the rule book.  By this time the girl in question had left after her father made her apologize to the other people for "using the f-word."  Since we were all 30-40 year old guys we assured her we all understood.

I then tried to make the GM feel a little better by saying that I had felt the same pain as I had played another game with this girl too.  That was when he dropped the bombshell to end all bombshells . . . THAT WAS THE THIRD GAME HE HAD PLAYED WITH HER!  I shook my head and ran for it screaming.

What I learned was that I will not be playing anymore Legendary Realms games, and if I see this girl again at a game I will get a couple of pitchers of beer, the table will need them, badly.