Dexcon Report

"I am not one of you. I come from an ancient time.
I am known as The Kicker of Elves. I am also known as The Angel Crusher!"

Explosivo by Tenacious D


In Nomine:

I hadn't played In Nomine, Steve Jackson's game of devils and angels since it opened at Gen Con ten years ago. That wasn't a good experience; this wasn't either.

The GM did not introduce himself, never told us his name despite both Rob and I shaking his hand and telling him ours. This wasn't Sunday morning but Thursday afternoon.

Characters weren't pre-made and there was only one book. Chargen consisted of choosing skills and powers for our angels and devils, as we were to have a mixed group. This process took more than an hour. We had a table full of guys, all older.

I'm not sure where to start with this session...here we go:

* We were to take a letter from an angel to somewhere mysterious. In the game's write-up it hinted that we were delivering something to a devil. We were magicked...gaessed, whatver to not check to see what was in the envelope. The GM and a player disagreed over the pronunciation of gaes...or is it geas...fuckit.

Much of my fun in this game was watching them pronounce it their preferred way louder and louder as the session went on. No, all of my fun was from this.

* We had one conflict that had to do with policemen possessed by angels trying to stop us. There was a half-hearted fight and then we ran away.

* One of the players was playing a demon who served a demon lord of gluttony. This demon lord apparently loves hot sauce. Every sentence this gamer said had the word hot sauce in it. Examples include:

"Is there hot sauce there?"
"I love hot sauce."
"Would you like some hot sauce?"
And of course:
"I hit the angel/cop with my bottle of hot sauce."

This went on for over an hour until Rob and I just ignored every word this kid said.

*We had to make driving rolls. No reason. Make driving rolls. If you didn't have thd riving skill, you can NOT drive. If you are ever being chased by a Demon or Angel, get on the freeway and RIDE.

* We delivered the letter with no further conflict. A demon took the letter. Rob's angel was unhappy with this. The Demon, a named NPC from the books named Belial froze Rob's P.C. without a roll. The GM informed Rob, through Belial, that he could make him into a pile of ash with a snap of his fingers.

*Cherry on the cake #1: Belial opens the letter, goes to a chess board and moves a piece. Yes. Yes, we delivered a chess move. The other players thought this was the height of brilliance. They howled in delight. God bless them, every one.

The game ended early because the god of gaming is a merciful deity.

*Cherry on the cake#2: Dexcon has first, second and third place on their sheets that the GM is to write up. The GM is to say who was the best role-player.

Who won? The GM said, "I don't even have to think about this one."

Two words:

Hot sauce.


Ganakagok:

You are an Inuit tribe who has lived in the comforting cold, darkness your entire lives.

The game starts as the Sun is coming. What do you do?

This is a shit-hot game that is going to rock people's socks. I thought it was tons of fun and when I read the pitch, I wasn't thrilled but when I HEARD the pitch, the game sucked me in.

I loved the way we mapped out our PC's relationships within the tribe and the spirit world. Fantastic.

I adored the tarot-like cards and what they added to the game. Loved the way the number of dice upped the stakes in the conflict. Maybe a way to add dice somehow?

Great stuff. When its finished, I'll buy a copy, no doubt.

N.P.A. Pretender:

You are a monster passing as human in the 80's. Duran Duran and Billy Idol are on the radio and Reagan is president.

Rob played a demon possessing a girl who played a heavy metal record backwards and I was a Franken-monster thang.

I had just played Otherkind the previous week, so I was set to play Pretender. I dig these, how do you say: Fortune in the Middle games. I hadn't played any games out of N.P.A., despite owning it. I now realize I have to look at it much closer.

I've just about written up a game using the Pretender/Otherkind chart for a comic book/super-hero game.

N.P.A. Discernment:

Whenever Michael get's into a position where he can be (My Life with) Master-like around me, it makes me nervous. I knew I was going to be picked as the effing subject too.

Its a great game, like 21 questions mixed with a social science experiment gone horribly wrong.

I dig. Rilly, I do.

If Michael Miller ever becomes a super-villain mastermind who tries to take over the world, I would very much like to be a part of the team that tries to stop him. Because I feel I owe him.

Dictionary of Mu:

I have two additions to running Mu that I'm proud of.

One, when I hand out characters, I only read the Kickers and NOTHING else.

Two, I tell the players that if they want their PC's to meet, they will have to help, contribute and talk to the players next to them. I make a point of going to the bathroom in the middle of the game and if I've done my job right, when I come back, the players are talking to one another, figuring out some scenes they'd like to propose.

Ben could've run this game. At times I felt he was and I mean this in a good way.

Some kickers in the Dictionary have to be tweaked a bit, tighter for Gen Con.

It was a good session. It was Andrew Morris, Ben...oh shit who was the third guy...I gamed with him three times...shit and a Dexcon veteran who had been there ten years running. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

I am always shocked at how evil and rough those P.C.'s are. Rob laughed, "You wrote that world! How can you be shocked?"

"Dude, those players are fuct."

This happens after every run.

I have done my job.

Cybergen:

This session, run by the game's writer who bought the rights tothe Cyberpunk RPG was called Napkin GIrl; I heard it was a con scenario that get's run quite a bit. Its about the kids of the original Cyberpunk generation, all of whom sold out. Now there's a new generation with funky powers and anger up to here. Okay.

I was out of the game, sitting there, writing notes and doing NOTHING for over an hour. But that isn't what bugs me about this game. I'm not even going to get into scene framing discussions because that ain't the point.

Allow me to say this: I liked the GM. I liked him in that I think he'd be a good guy to share a beer with and shoot the shit alongside. He was a cool guy.

I think this scenario is a fucking vile mess.

In it we are asked to rescue a girl with no arms and no legs who was unconscious throughout most of the adventure. I would say 15% of the GM's words were used describing here as attractive, her cotton panties, etc.

When a PC held her, he had to make a Cool attribute check, which almost everyone failed. No, I think EVERYONE failed it. When you failed it the GM pantomimed the P.C. being uncomfortable and embarassed. I think the text of this adventure, not the GM, but the adventure he conceived was begging the players to rape this girl. No one did but the text was flat-out DARING us to.

I would be really interested for the GM to chime in and say how other sessions of that game went.

Prime Time Adventures:

This game rocks and the show we made was awesome. I want all T.V. to be this good. I want all games to be this good.

Neat stuff, a great three hours of gaming.

The way players award one another was fantsatic and it was flying around the table with great abandon. I loved the brainstorming session. Love everything about it.

We made good T.V.

If I get to game with my family, this will be the game I'll take out.

Pulp Era:

This was a combat demo and the system did nothing for me. I'm not sure what else to say.

There were pulp-inspired stunts but my stunts didn't fit my character's description. So, when I waded into combat two-fisted Doc Savage style, I often didn't have the +20 to add to my d20. I dunno, it just didn't grab me.


X-Posted on The Forge