Man, oh man! I'm almost glad for the fact that things are starting to calm down a little now, with both Origins and the 4th of July weekend behind me. While both were a blast, they aren't exactly "relaxing" endeavors by any stretch!
I had intended on pumping out this entry last week, but didn't get the chance, as I was unpacking all of our swag (to be detailed in tomorrow's entry!) and re-packing for my first trip back to Pennsylvania since Thanksgiving. Plus, I had something else on my mind...more on that in a bit, though!
On our final day at Origins, Karl, the PlatinumChick and I ended up skipping Attack of the Mutant in favor of a little extra sleep, but did manage to wake up in time for a trip through Red Dragon Inn with the amicable Geoff, from Slugfest Games. Little did we know, though, that Geoff is, in fact, their head-gaming-guru. Spiffy, indeed!
I'd heard good things about RDI before, but none of us had any experience with it. Lucky for us, the rules were quick for us to pick up--even with us playing preview classes with the soon-to-be-released second expansion pack! I took up with the Troll Alchemist, while Karl and the PlatinumChick took on the Pixie and the Gnome Artificer, respectively. By the end of the game, Karl was able to snatch away victory from another of the players--another Dayton native, no less!--then rolled a Natural 20 on his swag check, walking away from the table with a brand-new board game!
Even nicer about this, I got to talk to Geoff a little about submissions and the like. While he wasn't that interested in Dungeon Slam!, the idea behind SunnyVale Acres seemed to really intregue him. With any luck, I might just have a buyer for SV Acres, once I get some playtesting in!
From there, we set out for one last go-round in the Dealer Hall, with the PlatinumChick making her yearly mini purchases. Man, if nothing else, we walked away with a ton of minis! That'll all be in the swag rundown pics, coming tomorrow.
After saying our goodbyes to El Willy and his crew, we headed off for a brief lunch at BD's...only to see Willy the 2 and Donnie once more! We palled around for a while over Mongolian Barbeque, then split up, heading back towards Dayton.
On the trip home, though, I got to thinking, as I usually do after our yearly geek-pilgrimage...
• Running Games at Origins is FUN—No, really! I had a blast running players through Survival of the Fittest, and despite my horrid dice luck in WEGS Plume Mountain, the game was a laugh riot. I’m actually contemplating running 6 games, rather than 4, next year.
• Minis are Heavy!—Ugh. This was the one downside about running games that were miniatures-heavy. Between my maps, minis, dungeon tiles, and more…that was a load. I’m really not sure how EEE managed to survive, carting his massive Ninja Nuttiness castle back and forth.
• Anything with Cthulhu in the name sells—This one blew my mind. EEE’s CthulhuTech games all sold out. The PlatinumChick’s CoC games…all sell-outs. As I mentioned to some of my WEGS players, I’m thinking about writing a new scenario: “WEGS + Cthulhu = WEGSthulhu!”. I’m pretty sure that I’ll sell that one out next year!
• There are a TON of games I want to run—This is a big one. I came away from Origins with lots of ideas, ranging from a Wild West-era Cthulhian cattle-drive, to a horrific trip through Castle Glamis (of MacBeth fame), to an Icons version of “The Near Orbit Mass Driver Blues”. As always, once I get them written up, I’ll be test running them at the various conventions around Dayton.
• This year’s WittCon should be a blast—I had a ton of players in my games from the Columbus/Cincinnati/Dayton area, all of whom seemed to show some real interest in a local convention. Plus, I was able to get some information from a Cincinnati-area game store, which sells Ral Partha miniatures, especially the “bulk” minis, sold by the ounce. With a solid core of gamers and a lot of great prospects for support on the horizon, this year’s WittCon may be the biggest one yet!
Great to hear that you had an awesome time at Origins. Sorry that I wasn't able to go this year.
ReplyDeleteYour idea for a "Wild West-era Cthulian cattle-drive" reminded me of "Adios A-Migo!", which is a crossover between Deadlands (the Wild West with fun twists like zombies, steampunk, and spirit magic) and the H.P. Lovecraft mythos. The cool thing about this book is half of it is the scenario and the other half is a novella where fictional characters run through the scenario, so you can see how they did it differently.
You can get the book in PDF form for $5 (http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=1186&it=1&filters=0_0_10100). It's written for the original "Deadlands" system (out of print), but it can be easily modified to the current "Deadlands Reloaded!" for Savage Worlds. Or just mined for ideas if you prefer.
And I'm thrilled to hear that there was a lot of interest in WittCon. Here's to hoping we top last year and hopefully top WittCon 2!
That one sounds great, man. I'll definitely have to look into it.
ReplyDeletePlus, as you can see in my Swag post, I finally picked up the core-rules for Savage Worlds. I figure, I've been playing it enough that I should probably learn the rules, finally!
There were quite a few people from within a 1 hour travel radius of Springfield. I wouldn't be surprised to see us set an attendance record this year! Here's hoping!