It’s Friday now, so the details are getting fuzzy. That most likely means my recount will be less detailed. Woot for brevity.
Early Morning-ish Sunday 2/15
Apparently I snored last night and forgot to tell people to smack me with a pillow if I snore. The solution is simple, I roll on my side, I don’t snore. Going to sleep that late two nights in row though meant total collapse and thus the snoring.
Justin, Josh and I got up, showered, got dressed and shot the shit. While urinating Justin introduced me to cute, humorous and very true tune: “No matter how much you shake and dance, the last two drops always go in the pants.”
My better half took the my toiletries kit home with her on accident so I had to get the necessities from the hotel. Some are in the room, but a toothbrush I had to order. This blew me away: They now come packaged with the toothpaste on it. It was hard, crusty and had to be broken up before I could really brush my teeth. I felt like I was brushing with one of those hard candies that crumbles in your mouth. Weird.
We got up, out of the hotel and ready for breakfast as the crack of noon. Luckily the Bagel Street Café was still serving Eggwich Bagel things, which were quite yummy. This is a solid staple of my DDC trips. The food is reasonably priced, tasty, fast, and reasonably healthy. It beats out the con cuisine in virtually every category except availability. That and Baja Fresh, they have great fish tacos!
2:00 PM Sunday 2/15
Zombie Cinema! Justin had purchased as small RPG called Zombie Cinema, where the players get together, pitch a zombie movie and then play it out. The game is simple and elegant in design. It’s got two components that I really like all bundled into a single tool. Unfortunately I don’t know what the tool is so I’ll just call it the “board” that the zombie horde and protagonists move around on. First the board sets the pacing of the game, we know how bad things will be based on the position of the zombie horde and the relative position of the protagonists. Second the board forces to you to frame the kind of scenes we’d see in zombie movies, the conflict (at least until someone dies or escapes) must be between the protagonists, and not involve the zombies in any material way. The game costs $20 and I should have picked up a copy at the Dealers room, it’s really a hoot.
Our premise. You know how a few years ago Con Quest created “Cruise Con”? And you notice that it doesn’t exist anymore? One might think that it was just a failed financial venture but we really knew that because of low attendance, the con rented out the cabin rooms to a government agency transporting irradiated KFC chicken, which caused zombification in all those who ate it. The entire cruise ship, like the Titanic, was doom. And we told that story. And it rocked. Hard. Harder than a lamellar leather breastplate!
After the game we helped Justin pack up and get ready for his 6PM event. Ribbons!
708 Ribbons (A Good Omens Production)
Sunday 6 PM in Room 378 for 6 hours
GM: Justin Evans
System: FATE
Players: 6
Provided: All characters provided by GM
Rules Knowledge: Beginners Welcome
Game Content: Mature Themes
You’re good at your job. You can tell there are patterns to the way the blood sprayed. Where there’s a pattern there’s usually a meaning. You’ve seen the victim, you’re not sure you want to know what this means. But, if you don’t dig deeper and figure it out there will almost certainly be more patterns to study. Mature Themes. A Good Omens Production.
This is where I really wish that I had written this review earlier. Of course if I did I’d probably include spoilers in this post and that would suck because Justin is running the game again. So here are the highlights that I don’t think will spoil anything:
- Sanity decks, Justin mated the Cthuhlu sanity loss with Fate aspects and a vile child was born. Delicious aspects describing your character falling deeper and deeper.
- An intro scene. To get this party started, Justin gave us all mini character sheets to play the rolls of characters who we would not be playing in the main game. We basically played out an opening montage. This gave us a chance to get use to the system without putting our own characters on the line.
- Backstory + Aspects = Awesome. Won’t say more (otherwise it would be a spoiler) but it work out really well. Good character drama out of this.
- Justin too the “Gumshoe” investigation mechanic and turned it into a stunt for each character, guaranteeing that they would succeed in the areas they needed to. Very sharp!
- A quagmire of a story with a simple thread to follow in the middle. Justin overwhelmed us with detail but kept the scenes focused, ensuring that we (as players) didn’t become so overwhelmed that we forgot what we needed to do.
- Psychological horror. Justin is good a that. It’s kind of creepy.
- Prop-gasm. I’m pretty sure Justin had over 30 props for the game. Some of them were as simple as a pen, others were elaborately crafted and full of detail. They not only added to the ambiance of the game but also helped us stay on track. We could hold something as a reminder of what we needed to do.
So yeah… that is just what I remember five days later without revealing any of the secrets, just think how much fun it would be to actually play the game…. And if you’re going to KublaCon you can. Look for it in the roster.
1:00 AM Monday 2/16
After the game we collected all of the props and headed back up to the room, joined by Josh who had finished his game as well. After some shit talking we decided to get drunk and then record a podcast… our 21st podcast in fact. I think I’ll title it “We’re legal now”. It was a long show and possibly only funny to the three of us… and possibly only so when drunk. Not sure yet, I haven’t edited it.
4:00 AM Monday 2/16
Zzzzz…..
10:00 AM Monday 2/16
Justin and Josh took off and I was waiting around for my ride. Luckily I ran into Rich and Cil and we hung out for a few hours talking about the con, and decompressing. Good times.
2:00 PM Monday 2/16
Erik picked me up, we drove home and got to share our con experiences. Good times all round.
fin.
