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 – 3/15/2011

Back on the road – Newark Delaware, Newport Rhode Island, Boston Massachusetts, and St. Louis Missouri

- Blog posted about Dreamation…writing more?
- Appearance on Jenn’s Dreamation Interviews
- Last chance for Feed the Birds prototypes
- Hyperreality is out!

PAX East
- Ran lots of the Dresden Files RPG, Hyperreality, and Fiasco (Dragon Slayers playset)
- Working on a new game called “Where my clothes!”
- Played “Fifth World,” by Jason Godesky
- Boy do I need to run Apocalypse World

- Fear the Con (IV) next weekend!
- Information available at http://www.feartheboot.com and http://www.fearthecon.com
- Time Cube

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