Dreamation 2006

Josh and I arrived at about 9 pm on Friday, too late for me to get into an 8-12 rpg, but Josh got into a 10 pm boardgame. I spent some money at the indie booth outside the rpg room, and turned in 8 of the points we'd collected over the years for Roma Imperious.

I hung out spinning while various rpgs played out, then chatted with folks. Michael Miller was surprised to learn that I'd been running Sorcerer for 5 players. The general consensus is that 3 is good, and 4 is pushing it. I'm not utterly convinced, but I am glad I didn't know that 5 is considered too many when I started.

Saturday, Josh made something at 9 am. The Polaris game I wanted to get in had filled, but I got into a Burning Wheel demo at 11 am. The system does what the author intended and does it well. What it does is worth doing. Nevertheless, it is crunchier than I want, and requires the kind of strategizing that I'm not very good at and don't enjoy doing.

At 2 pm, I managed to get into Judd Karlman's Dictionary of Mu game, a Sorcerer game, while Josh played Strangerside: Courting Strangers, Kat's Everway larp. We were both happy with our choices.

At 6, we went to the Indie Games party, organized by Michael Miller, who was surprised at how quickly folks showed up.

Michael: Doesn't anyone believe in being fashionably late?

At 8 pm, Josh played Ticket to Ride Europe and I played in Blood Opera, an atypical scenario for Conspiracy of Shadows. I then listened to the last couple of scenes of a very intense Primetime Adventures game. After that, Shawn gave me a bottle of his homebrewed mead. I offered him the two balls of wool I'd spun at the convention, with the caveat that I wasn't sure how well they'd hold up to knitting, though I had plyed them for extra strength. He gave them to his girlfriend. She said she'd give them to her mother and let me know how they worked out. All in all, an odd but pleasing example of the barter system in action.

Sunday, I woke up for the 9 am Polaris game, but it didn't happen. I went back to the hotel room and napped until it was time to check out. We made arrangements to travel with Dave Damast. He'd played in a different run of Dictionary of Mu, and we compared notes. Josh played another round of Ticket to Ride Europe, and we used most of our remaining points to get Savage Worlds.