Three cons in four weeks (two in the last two), and I’m exhausted.

Last week, I attended PAX East along with the Indie Press Revolution booth. I hadn’t expected to go – but a myriad of factors conspired to get me there. I had such a great time! I ran demos both Saturday and Sunday – two sessions of the Dresden Files RPG, using the free adventure “Neutral Grounds Casefile,” one of Hyperreality, and one of Fiasco. I talked a little bit about this in Episode 25, but I wanted to expound a little bit more on my experiences here.

Finally being involved in a Dresden Files game, I got to see the up-close implementation of the FATE system from the GM side, and this is especially true when teaching the system. Aspects are kept straightforward – one High Concept, and one Trouble. Further aspects are handled on a scene or setting basis. This keeps the GMs notes on how to get the characters into trouble nice and streamlined. Magic still feels a little complicated, but not inordinately so, and they separate the mechanics from the special effects which handily makes the rules very portable from character to character. This is something that HERO system also does; it’s a trait I’ve become very fond of.

Fiasco continues to amaze me with the flexibility and dynamic stories that it engenders. Teaching the game (and it occurs to me that teaching games is a good topic for an entire episode), is an interesting prospect, because the game has a much different goal for characters and while I think anyone can manage the imagination and role-play required, it has to be taught effectively to run properly. The difference between the first game of Fiasco that I facilitated and the second was night and day. Once I understood the flow of the game better and which rules to teach at different points of the game, as well as the goals of those rules, the game became much better because I was able to give the players a lot more understanding of the game and its goals.

On to Fear the Con, St. Louis, MO.

This con continues to be one of my favorites. The forum community is extremely tightly knit, and the people continuously step-up their games and contribution to make this con great. I ran four games out of six available slots, which I had a great time doing, but doing it immediately following PAX was a bit of a mistake. I’m wrecked both from the sheer amount of talking, but also being on for that much time. I love doing this, but boy does it take a lot of energy.

I got to try Gamma World for the first time, where I played a sentient apple tree who I named Malice Domestica x Newton (plant biologists will recognize the pun on the scientific name for apples). I really enjoyed the wackiness of the game, but less the tactical aspects of the 4E system. I’d play it again in an instant, but it’s not my ideal match.

After that I ran the first of two slots of the HERO system “Princess Party” game I wrote specifically as an in-joke for last years FtC goers. The context is that the hall hosted a disney themed birthday party, and there was a lovely window poster of Cinderella announcing the Princess Party – and of course we decided that should be next year’s theme. And so. The game went really well, explored the dysfunctionality of Ariel / Eric’s relationship, and we all had a great time.

And then there was the Time Cube game. This game was run by an AI trained on the time cube website, and interpreted by the GM. Weird freaking game, and an interesting resolution system that Bob called “d-skittle.” I think that this game may end up being repurposed into a Fiasco play set.

Saturday, I started with my Cowboys and Luchadores game, “High Moon.” Great fun! We used the Token Effort system. I love this system especially when players create their characters at the table, because it stimulates player buy-in and also lets them guide the story in significant ways. The only thing I find lacking is the occasional grit of a slightly more capable tactical system. Combat is generally very cinematic and heavily relies on players to come up with actions and consequences which can be a bit daunting at times.

For the second slot, I ran the princess party game again. This one ended up very different, but very enjoyable all the same. This group of princesses were far less dysfunctional and far more dainty – playing up the chi-chi aspects of their characters far more than the prior group. Still, a very good time!

Finally, the Hyperreality game. Where the ScareBoat games took on the feel of modern reality TV settings, both of the Hyperreality games have been off-the-wall insane. Setting the stage for an R or MA rated game and explicitly telling the players to be over the top has worked out well so far. The main stumbling point I’ve experienced is that the quantity and style of player narrative is tough to communicate and teach effectively. What this means to me as a designer is that my rules aren’t quite defined enough to inform players how to play the game. I also got to try out the themes that I had integrated into Last Chance, USA that really helped players flesh out their characters for a more complete experience. I’m thrilled that the game is still improving and triggering new ideas for fleshing it out to be more and more complete. Don’t forget, you can still download the original ashcan edition if you’re interested in checking it out.

Finally, a quick thanks to Dan, Chad, Wayne, Chris, Pat, and John at Fear the Boot. Your commitment to the community that has grown up around your show is inspiring, and it is a constant wellspring of support to its members projects.

The summary of the Hero System Bestiary (6th Ed.) for the TLDR crowd: This book is the epitome of it’s form, and you should own it. The longer version goes something like this:

I love monsters. Not just in a gaming sense, but in a wholistic fascination and obsessive way. I keep books on monsters, make studies of the “other” and watch plenty of B-movies. So when I say that the Hero System Bestiary is a magnificent example of what might be done with the book form, you know where I’m coming from.

First, this book opens with basically all of the tips and tricks I’ve devised over time as a GM, to use the bestiary to it’s best effect. How all of the creatures can be generalized to fit any scenario you can envision, and then how to implement them into your game to utilize them all for the best effect. And this doesn’t even begin to get into the actual monsters!

This book breaks down nearly 500 pages of monsters by genre, type, and literary source. An impressive amount of research goes into this more-than-complete book that focuses on giving the GM the tools to populate his world appropriately. It includes precisely what you need to know about the animals/monsters without drowning you in excessive detail.

This book focuses on GM usability, and is probably the best I’ve ever seen. There are some minor misses in the bookmarks of the electronic edition; but if you go directly by the table of contents you’ll be fine. I’ve also mentioned this to the folks at Hero Games, and they are looking into it and will probably release an update.

Five Stars.
Purchase the Hero System Bestiary on DriveThruRPG.com