This last weekend saw my second trip to Dexcon, held in Morristown, NJ every summer. It’s run by the same group that puts out Dreammation (and coming this fall: Metatopia) and seemed to me this year to be an extremely live-action heavy con. In fact that’s most of what I played this weekend.

I didn’t mean to, after all, I swore off larping ages ago when it started taking up far too much of my life. Several people had recently recommended jeepform[1] games to me, when offering direction for my game Hyperreality; but I hadn’t gotten a chance to play any. And then there they were, two different jeepform games being offered.

The first game was called Previous Occupants. The general plot is a story of two couples separated by some number of years (but played simultaneously) that turns into a ghost story as relationship issues are dealt with and played out by having a pair of two players and characters share the same physical body. This ain’t your high-level Vampire dominate power. The combination of the privacy of the space we set aside to play, the intensity of the serious dramatic issues, and all the player’s high level of buy-in left me shaking by the end. Like I said… intense.

I also played a Game of Thrones larp, a game of Fiasco, ran some demos of Ghost Pirates and Happy Birthday Robot, and “Project: Ninja Panda Taco” by Jenn of the Jennisodes. (definitely play this one if you get a chance).

Finally towards the end of the con, I was hanging out at the IPR table with Darren Watts and the Indie Roundtable discussion ended up coming to us; it was great to hear about people’s ideas and plans and to be able to offer feedback on their ideas. It really helped clarify for me the role that I want Dice + Food + Lodging to play in the community, and I’ll post and talk more about this later — but the summary is that it should be a stepping stone for creative ambitions within the gaming community.

All in all, it felt like a very successful con for me – I had a great time and will definitely be back next summer with a little more planning in place.

[1] A quick aside: jeepform games are a scandinavian tradition of what they refer to as “tabletop” games; which differ drastically from our definition. They are played as small-scale live-action games with only a little bit of the loosest preparation. And they frequently aim to induce “bleed,” that is the crossover of character emotions to the player and vice versa. These games are very intense, extremely personal, and to my mind extremely rewarding. Visit http://www.jeepen.org for more information.

Show Notes – 1/2011

Business
- Happy new year, and resolutions
- Limited open playtests of Feed the Birds – email me!

Games
- Starting the self-publishing process
- Starting costs
- Sharpie Prototypes
- Recommended Reading
- http://spotlightongames.com/list/design.html
- http://www.silcom.com/~tomjolly/design.htm
- http://www.thegamesjournal.com/articles/PublishingPants.shtml
- http://members.optusnet.com.au/bnbg6billion/going_it_alone.htm
- http://www.costik.com/whycost.html

Travel
- In Virginia now, headed to Portland towards the end of next week

Creativity
- Check out Jenn’s contest! (Oops, posted this way too late)

Download MP3

So long 2010! It was a great year, full of exciting projects and events. I traveled the world, started a podcast, created games, and met amazing people. Now it’s a new year, full of new exciting things, and it is time for resolutions to be made. Last year’s resolution is now my Item #1 – and I’m expanding on that this year as follows…

• Contribute awesomeness to the world.
• Reduce the amount of crap in my life.
• Put out two DFL shows each month.
• Play More. Run More. Share More.
• Rock some secret projects! (see resolution #1)

See you on the flip side!