DunDraCon 40
Friday
My wife and I left a little later than normal for the con, the price of her new work hours and our new location. In the end our drive down went quickly and we arrived with time to spare for the Session 1 games. That also gave us more time to acquaint ourselves with the new hotel. Normally we stay same hotel as the convention itself but it had sold out extremely fast this year.The upside of this is that we got to explore a different area in San Ramon. The main discovery was Clementine’s, a New Orleans style restaurant. I can’t speak to their authenticity but the food and service was good, plus they have a nice breakfast. Another “upside” is that I got to work off some of the convention calories walking the mile back and forth to the hotel. Thankfully the route over the highway wasn’t as scary as I feared.
On the other hand my wife didn’t get into any of her games for Session 1. For myself I ran an excellent Urban Shadows game in DunDraCon’s open gaming room. My wife joined in along with a great first time tabletop roleplayer and trio of teenagers. Our cast included Sandy the demonic real estate agent, Maximilian the extremely dramatic (and ancient) vampire, Drakish the cat sacrificing wizard, Alpha the amnesic mortal, and Bartholomew the vengeful ghost and former mob hitman. There was a scary moment during character creation where it looked like the teens might end up unconnected to the others but I managed to tie them into a few key characters: Pavel (cousin to the wizard and blood supplier to the vampire), Victoria (the realtor’s friend and the ghost’s fiance), Saminga (a.k.a. Samantha “Sam for a better Seattle” Ingrid, would be mayor, Alpha’s boss and Sandy’s dark patron) and Jack (who had a crush on the realtor and was helping Alpha with a place to stay).
In the end the game ended up being about the arrival and destruction of a ghost eating vampire lord. The ghost found and confronted his killer only to be delivered into the monster’s hands. While the demon and wizard stopped the specter from being devoured, he ended up trapped in limbo with a creepy girl ghost. The mortal regained some of his memories after having a demon removed from his head (placed there by the wizard). Thanks to many failed rolls the wizard had his magical focus permanently possessed by a ghost while the vampire was left to wail about how his sire had been dragged into hell.
Saturday
After a quick “breakfast” at the local Peet’s Coffee & Tea, it was time for my first full day of the convention.I started with a Hillfolk game where my fellow players and I created and played the influential people within the 2nd shift of Vault 314, set in the Fallout universe. Together we and the gamemaster collaborated on a vault secretly run by a robot and engaged in a centuries long expansion project. Playing to my “strength” (i.e. my destroyed voice), I went with an old crotchety engineer, the 2nd shift maintenance supervisor, named David. Other characters included my rival the procedure loving 2nd shift plumbing supervisor Bruce, Ted the peace-loving bruiser and cook, Al the stressed out 2nd shift quartermaster, and Guy the keyed up IT person. Each of us created dramatic poles, goals that we wanted to accomplish at the expense of others, and other complications. The result was a web of relationships filled with story possibilities.
Our game focused on the failure of the protein farm and the fallout that came from our actions to fix that problem. David horded resources and tried to build out his “empire” while the others either struggled to do their jobs or find their own way to survive. Fights erupted, resources lost, and arguments had all adjudicated by the passing of drama tokens. At any time you could tell who was going to have an upbeat by whose pile of tokens was highest.
All in all the game was a lot of fun and I would play it again. Hillfolk wasn’t as revolutionary as I hoped (perhaps because the players were just too accommodating). As a collaborative world creating system, it was interesting but not the best mechanic I’ve played. Still it was one of the high points of my weekend. The one downside was that I had now truly lost my voice.
A quick note on the food. I tried the hotel’s curry and rice dish this year which was far better than I expected and way ahead of their usual burgers and pizza-like substance. The curry was spicy without being overpowering and only slightly overpriced.
My wife for her part played a 7th Sea game set in a variant space setting. The gamemaster in charge has been running the system and setting for years and years and always does a great job. This time was no exception.
That afternoon I caught the end of the Pelgrane Press panel, getting an early reveal that Bubblegumshoe will be coming out this summer. That was immediately followed by an entertaining and informative seminar on city building, following the growth of a tiny village into a great city and on to its collapse and rebirth.
Then I headed to the Dealer’s Hall and picked up Burning Wheel, a game I’ve been intrigued by for years. There were plenty of other good games and accessories there but I managed to control my impulses and escape only slightly poorer.
After catching up with my wife and grabbing some medication for my throat, I left her to enjoy a game of Dark Heresy. As she later told me, she enjoyed herself but her character died fighting a crazy tech priest (one of the other PCs) who had defied the will of the Emperor. Their mission to stop the corruption of a world failed horribly due to incompetence and infighting by all of the other PCs. They suffered a total party meltdown with every man out for himself as the corruption spread. Part of this was the players’ fault and part of it seems like the game master. He apparently was great at portraying NPCs but poor at plotting and managing party dynamics.
I grabbed dinner and headed back to the hotel. I recommend the Muscle Maker Grill for those seeking a cheap, quick, and relatively low calorie meal. All in all it was okay but their soda machine was broken and lacking syrup (ick). It helped salve my conscience when I bought some frozen yogurt afterwards.
Sunday
After being careful to limit the stress on my throat since the night before, my voice made a partial recovery. I didn’t sleep “well” but I managed catch up on sleep a little.My wife and I enjoyed breakfast at Clementine’s which was your traditional restaurant fare: reasonable prices and generous portions. Then we exchanged Valentine’s day presents and headed to the convention. We hit the Dealer’s Hall one last time, to get a present for my mother-in-law and some squishy dice for my son before splitting to play our respective games.
I dived into an Amber Throne War. Set in the Courts of Chaos after the assassination of the King, we played the potential successors and their supporters as we jockeyed to get what we wanted, whether it be the throne or some other aim. I had a load of fun playing the head of the Church of the Serpent and getting involved with each of the main factions that developed. My 1st place Psyche stat and political sway made me a useful addition to any faction hoping to become King. I quickly got all sides to agree to purge Amberite influence or at least their cults from our lands, leaving me only the challenge of bringing the matter to a close quickly.
We had several surprises. The delegate from Amber betrayed my initial candidate Gunter, killing him during what was supposed to be the assassination of the Aloysius, first in line for the throne. Gunter was revealed to be a ghost formed by the Logros itself. Later Bellion, brother to Aloysius, nearly killed his bastard brother Candor over a slight to his pride, during a state dinner!
In the end after much hand wringing and a minor war, we finished the game by marrying the two most powerful claimants to the throne. Candor nearly died two more times but we only had the single murder. I guess we went with the comedy ending.
My wife in the meantime played a game of HERO set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Joining the Defenders, she played Jessica Jones to the group’s critical acclaim. The game master apparently was very well versed in the system, guiding them through 4 fights in what I consider a very slow and complicated game to run. He had lots of prepared pictures and music, some nice multilevel battles and excellent advance planning to manage to bring the game to a good close at the appointed time. The plot was a struggle to stop an evil wizard from bringing extraplanar demons into Hell’s Kitchen before her 13 hour ritual concluded. The finale occurred with Jessica Jones pile driving the villainess into the floor at which point Iron Fist unloaded his iron fist into her.
After that it was time for a Valentine’s Day dinner of some tasty sushi, followed by the extremely hilarious movie, Deadpool.
Monday
And then it was Monday, last day of the con and time to finish our games. My wife got into a game of Adventurer Conqueror King, a retroclone of AD&D 1st edition. She had a good time but it was very much a hexcrawl type of game which is not her cup of tea.As for me, this was the day I’d been preparing for since Friday, the day I would run Urban Shadows again. My voice had returned and the open gaming area was quiet. Too quiet in fact and it wasn’t until 10 AM that I finally had the two players I needed. We were soon joined by a third and we began the game.
Our setting was the fictional metropolis of Night City, the creation of a high-tech entrepreneur which had been taken over by the Mob. This time my cast included the wizard Shaz, Nightbane the gun running spawn of the Vampire King, and Toggle the Fae who manages the debts owed the Summer King by ghosts and other beings. The ghosts were hunting for him in fact, tipped off by his mortal “brother’s” loose lips. This sneaky fae was also holding an experimental anti vampire/werewolf drone for a “friend”.
I had fewer PC-NPC-PC triangles this time but many quadrilaterals. What this game really had was many brewing troubles to push the game further. In addition to the killer drone and rebellious ghosts there was a bomb that would banish extra-planar creatures from the city (like Fae!), an amulet that kept one bound to the local plane, and a doorway to Arcadia. Exceptionally two of the players managed two normal advances, having interacted with each of the four factions within the city.
The Summer King charged Toggle with retrieving the device that could open a door to Arcadia, something the wizard isn’t keen on seeing happen. Despite this the pair trick a clockwork angel into revealing where the artifact is: being auctioned by the wizards of the Magic Mafia!
Everyone converges on the Hellfire Club where the device (which both can open a door to Arcadia and banish fae there) is to be auctioned tonight! Nightbane trades her smuggling skills for a cut of the mob’s action. At the request of Toggle she convinces Scarlet to bar the wizards from bidding and then seduces her. Toggle then makes a deal with the demon present to stay out of the bidding in exchange for the earthbound amulet. his patron does the same for the fae.
Then Toggle lets the drone loose in the place. As the vampires and werewolves run for cover, toggle wearing the veiling amulet bids for the device. The ghosts now unable to see him are confused. Just as the fae is about to win for the low price of 3 favors, Shaz blasts him, hoping to keep the device out of the Summer King’s hands. Instead he misses, damaging the device. Toggle rushes on stage, grabs the device and escape to Arcadia. It triggers there, sending all of the Fae’s human slaves home.
Again this game was a blast and I will run this as scheduled convention game in the future (for one getting everyone to start character creation at the same time would be much easier).
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