DexCon 2006

DEXCON OVEREVIEW (ae181)

Straghitjackets Optional, aka Stephen, Beth, Josh, and I, boxed our DexCon larp, Hot Tub Full O' Magic, on the Wednesday before the convention. Stephen arrived one bus ahead of Beth, Josh, and me. The trip to the con went smoothly -- until we got off the bus and discovered a minute later that Josh's phone had remained behind.

I called the phone as Josh dashed for what we thought was the bus. It wasn't -- the bus had taken off at lightning speed. We talked to the guy in the office at the bus depot, and he called around. A few minutes later, we were told that the company was pretty sure that it knew where the driver was, but he was in heavy traffic, unable to look for or answer the phone. We left several contact numbers and got a number to call.

Then, we went to the hotel and checked in. Julian Lighton, who was rooming with Josh and me, met us at the desk, and we all dropped off our stuff in the room. Josh headed for the board game room. Julian headed for a run of Dictionary of Mu I headed for the Indie booth and bought Shab al-Hiri Roach for a friend, having purchased my own copy at Origins, Against the Reich, a supplement for octaNe, and Ganakagok, described as "eskimoe punk".

I also met Rob Donoghue, who had written a series of articles about how Baltimore was chosen as the sample city setting for the Dresden rpg. NYC was considered, but Rob said it was just too big. He also praised libraries, librarians, and encyclopedias.

We talked about the wonder that is NYC and how difficult it would be to present it properly in an rpg text. I mentioned Chaosium, but Rob noted that it's easier to present historical New York than present day New York. I asked him what the theme of NYC is. He said that it was cosmopolitanism, which delighted me, since I had come to that conclusion myself.

I visited Registration, then wandered into the indie gaming area (which also had CoC and other traditional rpgs), looking to see if there'd be a pick up game of Ganakagok. I didn't find one. I did see a copy of Don't Rest Your Head, an rpg that has the feel of things like Neverwhere and Dark City. I asked where I could get a copy. It turned out I was talking to the author, and he sold me a copy.

I let Vinny draft me into a larp. It was one of the iron gm larps, so, in retrospect, I'm not sure he should have, as I wasn't avail¬able for the other games.

The iron gm larps were written in 24 hours by teams with no access to the outside world. No Internet. No cell phone. Serious security making sure there were no concealed cell phones) -- as, I think, there was a cash prize at stake.

There were three theme ingredients, fascism, children's songs, and drugs. All iron gm games for this convention had to use all three elements. The setting for the game I played in was Old MacDonald's farm after the pigs led the revolution. The wolf was on trial for huffing, puffing, and seditious poetry.

At larp-only conventions, gms usually send out questionnaires and do casting in advance. For general gaming conventions and for this type of contest, that isn't feasible. At best, you can have a very small questionnaire that players can fill out at the beginning. You then have about 5 minutes to cast everyone.

The gms had four questions, asked out loud, for the players.

1. Do you object to being completely hosed, i.e., doomed to lose?
2. Do you mind mature situations?
3. Do you mind singing or actively want to sing?
4. Do you mind committing illegal acts? Yes, in character, only.

I played a tailless blind mouse, a good character for my low energy state. Stephen was impressed by my performance, a fact which delights me. He played the farm's cow, a renowned general, quite well.

The person playing the wolf was also very good, managing the nigh impossible task of not being found guilty. Beth played Judge Judy Lamb who, wanting to find the wolf guilty, but also wanting a fair trial, compromised by resorting to the Scottish verdict: Not Proven.

The game had an audience, one member of whom played a walk on role, when the wolf called on Big Bird as a witness.

After the game, I stopped by the staff den. Tip: If you are allergic to cats, cuddling up with a friendly cat is not bright, especially when the hotel air is horrid. A hot shower and steam didn't help, nor did the ice Josh brought at my request. Finally, I repeated the steam treatment, then did what I did at the house of a friend who couldn't turn down his air conditioner: I put a wet towel over my head and slept that way.

Saturday morning was our larp, Hot Tub Full of Magic, held in the hotel's hot tub. We had three of our 6 sign ups show, plus two others. All four members of Straightjackets Optional took a role, but the game ran. It ran reasonably well, though it is light¬er than I'd realized. The hot tub brought temporary relief to my sinuses.

After the game, Josh and I changed, then went to the bus depot. No news on the cell phone. The woman in the office gave us a different number to call. We called when we got back to the hotel. Like the first number, this led to an automated line. Josh called T-Mobile and had his service temporarily suspended.

Vinny asked how things were, and we asked if he were over¬booking larps. He assured us that the overbooking was delib¬erate. I am still not sure it's a good thing. So many larps get canceled at DexCon due to lack of players. I gather that our friend Andrew's group prepped several larps, all of which folded.

Josh and I touched base briefly with Kat and Michael Miller, then wandered to the dealers' room. I did a bit of shopping, then went to the CoC White Mice session "Christmas in Kingsport". It wasn't quite what I expected, but it was everything I'd hoped for.

There were two gms, one of whom played a couple of the prominent female NPCs. Someone teased one of the gms about running a traditional railroading game, and he agreed that this was exactly what he planned to do. I'd call it scripted, but not railroaded. Regardless, I want a copy of the scenario. Hope¬fully, it will be published. My two favorite lines:

Santa needs a reindeer.

[This caused the author of the scenario to say, "Oh boy has this scenario gone off the tracks." He was wrong.]

Shhh! I'm on the phone!

Both lines were delivered by the same guy, who was really good, and who was playing a young girl. Everyone was on for that session. And, I could run it as an Everway scenario, I bet.

I hooked up with Josh for the dinner break. We rationed ourselves as requested in the staff den.

The staff den. In return for running our larp -- heck, given the very real possibility of it folding due to lack of players, in return for being prepared to run a larp -- Straighjackets Optional gets complimentary memberships and access to the staff den, which serves food, as opposed to merely sugar and starch. The complimentary memberships are very nice, but it is the access to the staff den that makes the convention viable.

We also dropped by the indie party for some really good chili and spicy rice. After that, we headed back to the room. I want¬ed to lay down for just a minute. Naturally, we zonked out for about half an hour. This probably helped with my twi evening games.

The first was Judd Karlman's 1st Quest. It wasn't until I started trying to get people's names there that I noticed the badge typo game. Not one of DexCon's brightest ideas.

Normally, I keep my notes and character sheet, but I gave most of what I had to Judd. I could probably still do a write up. It was a blast, and I have a better understanding of the mechanics of the game and the parent game, The Shadows of Yesterday, on which it is based. I still don't Get this Bringing Down the Pain. Oh, I used it, and didn't need to Get It for that. I just rolled the number of dice I was told to roll and recognized that my PC was getting thoroughly defeated.

Addendum: Josh looked over the rules for The Shadows of Yesterday and pointed out a few false assumptions under which I'd labored.

I like both the system and the way it is abstracted into an ubersystem to create the kind of YA fantasy I really like. I'd love to try running a playtest. If I can figure out the Pain bit, this looks like it's crunchy enough for my players to have fun gaming the system -- and this is one of those games wise enough to make that a feature, not a bug -- but simple enough for my tastes, and good at providing mechanical incentives for the feel that people playing the game are likely to want.

I had thought that Bringing Down the Pain was the most important part of the system. It isn't. The most important part is what TSOY calls "Keys" and 1st Quest calls "Banners". These are player selected, and often player created, methods of gaining experience by having one's PC do what one wants the PC to do.

Want to chew scenery by having a crush on someone? Great! Your PC earns experience from that, and the other PCs earn experience for helping or hindering her quest for the subject of her crush.

Want to play a vengeful warrior? Cool! Your PC earns experience from pursuing vengeance, and the other PCs earn experience for helping or hindering her.

Want to play a leader or a nurturer type? Your PC earns experience from that, and the other PCs earn experience for helping or hindering, being led or resisting being led, being nurtured or resisting it.

You aren't limited to just one Key or Banner.

Tired of a Key or Banner? It's just not working for you? You can get rid of it. Give up your crush. Forgive your sworn enemy. Stop leading or nurturing.

You can do all that without getting rid of a Banner. You only get rid of a Banner when you choose. You even get experience points for ditching a Banner. The only catch is that you may never again take that Banner.

This meant that when I felt that I was being a bit dimwitted, I could make that a feature. About the third hour in, I created a Banner called, iirc, "Keep It Simple", which meant that my PC got experience for not understanding things and other people got experience for explaining stuff to her or confusing her. Pretty cool.

We all agreed that we could keep going after the end time, but some of us had midnight games, so we created a dramatically appropriate final sequence of each PC facing an appropriate obstacle. Then, I went over to Oscar Rios' table for a game of classic CoC. I think Oscar had written that scenario. I know that he wrote "Christmas in Kingsport", as well as the Hastur monograph Ripples from Carcossa. At Oscar's suggestion, we moved to a table just outside the indie rpg room. Much quieter.

Five minutes later, I was glad I hadn't decided to drop the game and that 1st Quest had raised my energy enough to keep me conscious and active. This game was far more traditional than "Christmas in Kingsport", but just as good. It was an odd combination of knowing pretty clearly where the session was going, enjoying the ride, and enjoying the flavor. We had a lot of fun playing up the beginnings of jazz era NYC.

There was an interesting tension between wanting to protect the mcguffin and knowing that the mcguffin had to vanish for the adventure to happen. There was also an odd tension between realism and fiction. China Mieville had something to say about that, and his take on it was paraphrased and discussed on Making Light at <http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007749.html#007749>. I read that after the convention.

At the time, it became a running joke.

Oscar: You can accept monsters in the sewer but not this?

Later:

Lisa: Must. Resist. Urge to look up 830 East 34th on pda to see if it exists.

Oscar: Monsters in the sewer.

About halfway through, he told us that we had all the informa¬tion we were going to get. It was an investigation game, right?

This probably makes the game sound rigid and straitjacketed. It wasn't. Mythos presence was low, and you could get a work¬able scenario without it, though I think it works better with.

So, we had a blast, and were at the mercy of the dice. Oscar ran CoC combat differently than I do or than the afternoon gms did. We allow dodge rolls on all attacks without penalizing other actions like, say, an attack in the same round. In other words, dodging is automatic. Oscar allowed one action, period. If you attacked, you didn't get a dodge that round and vice versa.

The climax was a tense gun battle, with the remaining parties rolling miss after miss, until, with his last remaining bullet, the good guy blew away the opposition.

In both CoC scenarios, I liked the design of the character sheet. Nearly all stats and skills were on the side with the What Your Character Knows bit. I do wish defaults were listed on that side as well, as that was literally the only thing I remember anyone looking up on the other side.

I got some sleep, again with the wet towel treatment. My final game was Sorcerer, held at the civilized hour of 2 pm. Appar¬ently, there had been 8 signups for this 4 player game, I guess with 4 alternates. Of these 8, two showed up, myself and Dave Demast. We were joined by a third person, which made the game a lot more viable. After the first twenty minutes, I suggested we move outside, and this worked well.

The characters were pregens, as is usual for a convention, but not necessarily a given for Sorcerer. Depending on how you look at it, I played the lightweight, the detective, or Fifth Business aka the catalyst.

To my mild surprise, this game actually awarded prize points. The gm didn't want to make a fiat ruling, and we all agreed that voting would be painful. Voting for oneself is something I doubt any of us would have done, so it came down to hair¬splitting between 2 fine roleplayers. I made my usual suggestion: dice off. Someone else asked if we should dice off regular style or Sorcerer style. We compromised, sort of. I rolled a d10. The guy who played the kid rolled a d20. Dave rolled a d30. It was all done as 1-10, and I got the high roll. Mind, the prize booth had closed at least 15 minutes earlier.

I don't know whom I would have voted for. The guy who played the kid, Lowell, I think, did a bang up job as the picked- on kid who could now do some serious payback. He played the kid beautifully, with the right combination of stubbornness, growing horror, and a lack of foresight. Most folks would be sorely tempted to play the kid as being as smart as they were, but he avoided that temptation, deliberately letting the kid's lies begin to unravel as they got more tangled and the pressure mounted.

Dave, on the other hand, played an old tormented priest who was horrified by what he and his demon had done, and trying to steel himself to do something about this. I had the pleasure of playing with, as opposed to gming for, Dave, and got to pry his character's secrets from him, which is another way of saying give Dave the opportunity to reveal his character's tortured state of mind.

And, when kid and priest met, the gm and I watched in aston¬ishment as the conversation veered to a discussion of Martians and War of the Worlds that had us alternately laughing and on the edge of our seats.

It was a messier conversation than would be found in a good book or movie, with the occasional false note or slow spot. It was messier than much of 1st Quest, where some scenes were framed without trying to come up with exact dialogue. Both types of scene have their place, but I admit to a preference for using actual dialogue and what I consider heavier roleplay. It is messy, but the payoff is often worth it.

Comparing to my 11 session Sorcerer game, this was obviously tighter, and it had a firm definition of Humanity. I do note that only the kid had to make Humanity loss rolls, and the priest got a Humanity gain roll for a banishment.

I asked the gm for a copy of the scenario. He sent it to me with the caveat that the scenario was pretty much just the character sheets. Perfectly true.

After the game, Josh, Dave, and I headed for the bus depot. The woman working there confirmed that Josh had the right number from the other woman. She gave him a new extension. He dialed it on my phone. Trouble was, mobile phones were a bit wonky in the somewhat underground area, and then the bus came. I bundled as aboard it, a bit panicked.

Once aboard, Josh called the new extension. Yes, they had his phone, at the New Brunswick terminal, in the other direction. They'd tried to call us, with no luck. Yes, we could pick it up. They talked to the driver, and we stayed on the bus until it arrived at Port Authority. Then, we said goodbye to Dave and stayed on the bus until it turned around and went to New Brunswick. We retrieved Josh's phone and confirmed that they had tried to call Josh's phone, likely after it was out of power, not mine, to reach us.

We waited in the air-conditioned office which had a bathroom and an outlet where Josh charged his phone as I read Gaiman's introductions to Lewis' Screwtape Letters and Dunsany's King of Elfland's Daughter. After about half an hour, we got on a bus to Port Authority and got home from there, tired but with all our phones.