BASHCon XXXI: That's No Moon

BASHCon always kind of sneaks up on me. This year, I was especially busy with Throne of Gorgudai and behind the schedule I had set for myself, so I really didn't want to stop. I even cancelled one of the two events I had in mind so I could put it off longer. Also, to be honest, "The Nightmare Tree" never did come together the way I wanted it to. Its core ideas just wouldn't mesh. Even so, I barely got my pre-gens for Crystal Rifts done in time and kind of skimped on preparation.

Tom took off Thursday morning to pick up Randy and go to the "Pre-BASHCon Bash" he was hosting. I had to wait til Friday to avoid taking time off work. Unfortunately, Jerry had to bail at the last minute and Paul didn't show up until late, so the pre-BASH gaming didn't happen.

Friday night around 7PM, after defeating my phone GPS's attempt to abandon me in one of Toledo's less savory neighborhoods, I got to UT, picked up my badge, and went to find the crew. They were hanging around one of the game tables chatting. After we talked for minute, one of them remembered to tell me that Tom was waiting at Phoenicia to have dinner.

After dinner, Tom and I both jumped in on Beckett's Crawlspace game, Gimme Shelter. I don't think this one was part of the Jupiter Moon theme. We took the roles of mentally ill homeless people who have to face real horrors from beyond with no help from the world around them. I also got Paul to sign our copy of A Brief History of Gnolls.

I had driven directly to the convention, so Tom & I had two cars to get back to the motel. They took off a bit ahead of me, so I was surprised to find them not there when I arrived. Mystery solved: they had detoured to pick up a late night Del Taco snack. I rearranged my bags for the next day's gaming and dropped off to sleep.

I found it surprisingly easy to get up for pancakes the next morning, after which it was off to the con to check out the dealers and wander around. Nothing much grabbed me this year. I thought about buying some more dice, but none of them really spoke to me. We had a snack (again, Phoenicia) and moved on to my afternoon game.

I had a full table for The Crystal Rifts of Tartarus. Well, sort of. One guy showed up thirty minutes late. After I re-explained the rules and the background just for him, he played for an hour or so, then told me he had to leave because he had another game scheduled. Anyway, this was my test-drive of the Cypher System, and I thought it went really well. GM'ing combat usually gets a bit tiresome for me but, when one of the players rolled a GM intrusion against an almost-destroyed starshadow, I didn't even mind that splitting it into two completely healed ones made the fight last longer. I also had fun playing with elements of Qalidar without worrying about accurately representing any published details. And Pluto. Pluto is cool. Literally.

When I made the characters, I had left the equipment for them to pick and I had each of them roll for a random cypher at the beginning. I had been a little iffy on whether or not keeping up a regular supply of cyphers was worth the trouble, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. The initial cypher was a gadget. At the midway point, I also gave each of them a subtle cypher as an "inspiration" sort of thing.

GM intrusions were fun, although I probably should have used a couple more. Stat pools were fun. Simple stats for creatures and NPCs were awesome. Players doing all the rolling was fun. The only drawback is that the book is really heavy. I guess I could try GMing from a tablet, but I don't much like that idea. Still, I think I'm sold on Cypher as a primary vessel for random convention games. Besides being a fun set of rules, it's generic. A generic system doesn't feed me a bunch of assumptions about how the world is put together, so I'm not tempted away from my own inspirations.

After dinner (we're big fans of Phoenicia) and a high-five with the Quitters' Club (Jerry and me, for cancelling events), Tom played to a packed house for his Crawlspace adventure, and I joined Beckett, Jerry, Randy, and Liam for Beckett's Dungeon Crawl Classics scenario, Scream Bloody Gore. This was apparently inspired by an album, with various encounter areas patterned after the different songs. We spent all our time dealing with a village infested with zombifying curse-maggots. We weren't so hot at making friends, though, and had to resort to a charm spell just to avoid being burned alive by an angry mob.

Of course, late night Del Taco came next.

In the morning, I got the surprising news that Tom and Randy were going to go ahead and take off, because of their longer drive. It was weird, after being all bunched up together talking and laughing, to be suddenly and unexpectedly alone. Not that I mind being alone. I crave it, even, but the abrupt shift was disorienting.

While I was still getting ready, I also heard from Jerry, who said he wouldn't be at the con today, either. I packed up, checked out of the motel, and drove to what felt like a creepily empty campus. I was there more than an hour ahead of Beckett's start time, so I took one more turn around the exhibit hall, got some coffee, and found a cozy place to chill. I had my tiny laptop with me, so I started writing. I think I got around 300 words in. Not a lot, but not bad for found time.

I passed Beckett in the hall on the way to get my second giant cup of coffee. Players gathered, and the Jupiter Mining Company Disaster got started. This was a funnel adventure. We each played four characters, most of which were expected to die. The one you end up with, therefore, already has a backstory. It's a mechanic from Dungeon Crawl Classics, but we were actually using Savage Worlds rules. Our characters were all functionaries in a giant corporation who happen to be around when something blows up. I had plenty of real life experience with the characters I was playing, so that part was a lot of fun. I sometimes found it a bit draining to play four characters at once, though. I was a good corporate drone to the end, but everybody else joined the anarchists.

Beckett and I managed to get one more Phoenicia meal in and chat a bit about game systems while the organizers cleared away all the convention stuff. Then we cleared ourselves away for them and it was time to go home.

Tom's version is here. Don't believe his lies.

Update: Beckett and Jerry have blogged about it too. 

Dipping a Toe Into the Origins Pool

Tom and some of the other Peryton Gamers are going to Gen Con, but they're just going to run a few board games and a giant LARP. Not wanting to get involved with either of these, I've decided to just skip the whole deal. I've got a trip to Hawaii planned that's going to eat up my vacation time, so it's probably for the best. I am planning to try out Origins this year, though. The aforementioned vacation shortage means it'll only be a weekend trip, but that's still enough time to try running a few games.

Doctor Who: Claws in the Clouds
Friday 8:00 PM -- Doctor Who RPG
Above 31st Century Venus, humans living in an aerostat colony have recovered a long-buried zero-steel vessel from the surface. One silurian passenger has miraculously survived in suspended animation and been restored to life. Since then, there have been weird equipment failures and thefts throughout the station. To make matters worse, several groups of citizens have begun exhibiting strange cult-like behavior patterns. A Ninth Doctor adventure.

Dreams of Sarnath

Saturday 2:00 PM -- Cypher System

Despite the weirdness, it's really not that complicated. Enter the alien world that lies beneath all human dreams, swing some swords, sling some spells, and recover an object called a prevestige, which can somehow cross back into the real world. Then all you have to do is wake up and hand it over to Professor North. What could go wrong?

Or Maybe Not

That last post may have been a little premature.

Our whole group is seriously considering dropping Gen Con and saying goodbye to the "housing lottery" for good. We're talking about going to Origins. I dunno. Nothing's decided yet.

Personally, I have a lot of good memories from Gen Con, but, if this is the way it's going, maybe it's time to let it go.

Gen Con on the Horizon

Edit: That horizon turned out to be a mirage. See next post. And maybe a few after that. Actually, just to be safe, you should probably read the whole blog.

I've got my Gen Con events worked out.

Doctor Who: The Claws of Time
Thursday 2pm -- Doctor Who RPG
Above 31st century Venus, humans living in an aerostat colony have recovered a long-buried zerosteel vessel from the surface. One silurian passenger has miraculously survived in suspended animation and been restored to life. Since then, there have been weird equipment failures and thefts throughout the station. To make matters worse, several groups of citizens have begun exhibiting strange cult-like behavior patterns. A Second Doctor adventure.

Dreams of Sarnath
Thursday 7pm -- Cypher System
Despite the weirdness, it's really not that complicated. Enter the alien world that lies beneath all human dreams, swing some swords, sling some spells, and recover an object called a prevestige, which can somehow cross back into the real world. Then all you have to do is wake up and hand it over to Professor North. What could go wrong?

Dark Light
Friday 2pm -- Icons Assembled
Blackout has left a trail of destruction across Beta City with her weird darkness-based powers. Despite the seemingly erratic nature of the attacks, however, a pattern is emerging.

The Sinking City
Friday 7pm -- Cypher System
All over the little college town of Blackridge, people are being tormented by nightmares of drowning. Not all of them are waking up.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Roleplaying Game for Tables
Friday 11pm -- Bean RPG
Take the roles of animated fast food products or one of their neighbors in this off-the-rails RPG based on the late night cartoon.

BASHCon Submissions

Here's what I submitted to run at BASHCon 2016:

The Crystal Rifts of Tartarus
Cypher System -- Saturday 3pm
In a frozen ruin on the surface of Pluto, an unscrupulous syndicate has found the key to an alien technology that could be used to access other universes. In their efforts to exploit this potential energy well, the Synarchy may have tapped into a power they can't control. Another tale from the Jupiter Moon Chronicles.

The Nightmare Tree (Cancelled)
Cypher System -- Saturday 8pm
The evil tree in the swamps of southern Arkansas haunted their dreams for years. When they cut it down, they thought the nightmare was over, but the horrors only increased. Psychically travel into the heart of a nightmare and beyond. Visit an astral reflection of Ganymede and find the true roots of the Nightmare Tree. Another tale from the Jupiter Moon chronicles.

Of course, none of that will matter if the whole convention is a train wreck this year. Their new registration site isn't filling me with confidence. Still, there could be worse things than the lot of us just hanging around chugging Starbucks and running games for each other.

Worlds Within Worlds

2015 mostly feels like a success.

Don't make too much of the picture. That scene came to mind because this season always raises Michael's shade. It's partly the family togetherness thing and partly because his birthday was New Year's Eve. So here's a flicker of a mood that you can stare right into. Of course, there's no evil robot for me to take revenge upon, but I've found something else.

Anyway, now that we're done with that, let's see how I did on the goals I set last time.

• Losing Lanterns -- YES!
• New Novel Underway -- YES! (more on that later)
• Qalidar Supplement 1 -- Meh.

Okay, so two out of three. I don't even talk about Qalidar as something I'm working on anymore, although it wouldn't take much to finish it. As I've said before, all that's left is grunt work. It's just that, whenever I commit to sitting down and working, I want to work on the novel. The novel feels like The Future. It feels like progress. It would be nice to have that game done, though, especially after I've come so far, so it stays on the list. Eventually, it'll magically finish itself, right?

And when I don't commit to sitting down and working? Two games have really been brightening my nights lately: Icons and Dungeons & Dragons (5th edition, for those who keep count). The Icons campaign that we started in 2014 is still going, and even inspired Tom to do a few spinoff scenarios. I've rambled on before about how much fun I'm having in that game, but I felt like any summary of the highlights of 2015 would be incomplete without saying again how much I love getting together with those guys to spin our offbeat superhero tales. The D&D campaign is run by my one of my oldest, dearest friends. It's only only a few sessions in, but I'm loving both the story and the game itself. And my desert nomad paladin. She rocks.

This time last year, I hadn't decided which of three projects I was going to focus on next. A few months later, I settled on one. By June, I had changed my mind. That second plan stuck, and I got the Bad Idea outlined well enough that I was able to start getting into the prose this September. I probably should have started sooner, but the first sentence is always so hard to write. I'm still moving along and still very excited about this book. I could be putting more time into it, though.

I've even got a working title, The Throne of Gorgudai, and a web page, although the web page is not quite finished because I can't get over being offended by the expectations people have regarding summaries and character descriptions. I want to just say, "read the damn book if you want to know about the characters!" but that's probably not great for buzz or engagement or whatever the hell I'm supposed to call it.

Blackridge hasn't been abandoned. It's just something I doodle with now and then instead of a specific book I'm working on. It could very well be the next main project. One of my scenarios at last year's Gen Con was set there, and I'm thinking of doing that again. Which reminds me that I'm behind on submitting my events for BASHCon and I also need to work out my schedule for the big one pretty soon. Yeah, Gen Con's still a long ways off, but, believe it or not, the frenzy begins in January. I love Gen Con, but I hate it, too.

For next year, my only serious goal is to keep working on Gorgudai. Finishing it would be great, and should be achievable, but I'll be happy if I can honestly say that I kept it moving and stepped up the pace a bit.

So... I guess I'd better get back to work.

Lots of Games

It's funny how fast I went from mostly gaming at conventions to juggling a calendar full of home games. There's my regular superhero game (Icons), of course. I've talked plenty about this one already, but let me just say again, I'm absolutely loving this campaign. Tom's recently started his own spinoff sessions, so now and then I get to play in The Scrap Pile as well as GM. Thanks to the magic of teleconferencing, I even got to sneak off to a game while I was visiting Mom for Thanksgiving.

There's also Beckett's Red & Pleasant Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign. It's been a while since we played that one, but I don't think it's dead. That's the only completely in-person one, which makes it a little bit more challenging to schedule. The others are all online Hangout games.

And then Curtis started his 5th Edition D&D campaign, and Jerry's running at least one more session of his Old West horror scenario. There's nothing I can link to for those, but they're both pretty cool so far.

Games good.