Celebrating Geekosity
Feb. 6th, 2006 02:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
orikesBack when I was first getting into roleplaying games, conventions were an iffy thing for me. I am a pretty shy person, and it was even worse back then. Doing something on my own was incredibly intimidating and I was more caught up in being shy than just getting involved and having fun. It got a little easier as time went on, but I still wouldn’t go to a con alone.
That changed a few years ago when I finally said ‘screw it’ and went by myself to a local con and had an incredibly good time. It renewed my love affair with gaming and proved to me I could have fun even without a familiar face around.
Now mind you, I’m still pretty shy. So it’s not really easy getting into casual conversations and such with strangers. I get very concerned with coming off as a dork. Which is very funny if you think about it, considering how most of the people that are attending these things definitely fall into the nerd, dork and geek category. One of the unspoken features of a con is to celebrate that nerdness and geekosity with others of likeminded beliefs.
This past weekend was my first time attending the Geneseo convention, Running GAGG. Uny-Con, which was the independent con I had attended twice before was originally started by some of the GAGG folks, but ended up having financial problems and was cancelled this past year. Running GAGG had a similar feel to UNY-Con, but was combined with that college feel. It was a small (almost tiny) con, but it was much fun.
Friday was a little loose. I hadn’t really signed up for much on that day since I wasn’t sure exactly when we would be arriving. I got to sit in on a demo of Three Dragon Ante that Doug had signed up for. I just went over to watch and the guys running it had me jump in since they had an extra seat. It was amusing and I’ll probably pick it up. It’s meant to be a poker style game actually played in the game world. Being someone who enjoys low stakes poker, I could actually see playing this one for money.
After that, I had the best game of the con which once again proves that it doesn’t matter what system you’re using as long as you’ve got a good gm and good players. It started as a ‘group therapy’ session where the characters were thought up on the fly. The only requirements we were given was that they had to be between 13-18 and had been sent into an institution by the court system or their parents. The first part was completely freeform, with each player developing their character on the fly through interaction with others. As the game went on, strange things started happening, and each character developed a weird… ability. In the end, they all got together and broke out of the place. The twist at the end was that it was actually a slightly different Marvel Universe and the characters were all Mutants just developing their powers, even though they had no clue what was going on. And in the end, they were rescued by the X-men.
Oh, and for any of you who have heard me go on about it before, that one was run by the GM who I think kicks ass. I’m not sure if his style is for everyone, but I sure as hell would kill to be one of his regular players.
The rest of the games varied, but were all fun. A couple of D&D games, a GURPS supers game, and a new game just ‘published’ by the author, who was also the GM. That one was a very fun game, but I’d attribute it more to the players than the game itself. The setting was an odd mix of fantasy and sci-fi, and it has some odd inconsistencies. But, the players were fun and the GM wasn’t bad, so it was worth a play.
As a side note, I got a look at their book. They’d had it printed through Lulu, and the printing job wasn’t half bad. I don’t know what the durability of it would be, but the printed book looked fine. I definitely wouldn’t object to getting some TPK stuff printed through Lulu. (Their book definitely showed the lack of a graphic designer. The TPK stuff looks much better. I felt so superior ;)
At this point, I’m pondering other cons, but I'll probably ramble about that in another entry. It's almost lunchtime here.
That changed a few years ago when I finally said ‘screw it’ and went by myself to a local con and had an incredibly good time. It renewed my love affair with gaming and proved to me I could have fun even without a familiar face around.
Now mind you, I’m still pretty shy. So it’s not really easy getting into casual conversations and such with strangers. I get very concerned with coming off as a dork. Which is very funny if you think about it, considering how most of the people that are attending these things definitely fall into the nerd, dork and geek category. One of the unspoken features of a con is to celebrate that nerdness and geekosity with others of likeminded beliefs.
This past weekend was my first time attending the Geneseo convention, Running GAGG. Uny-Con, which was the independent con I had attended twice before was originally started by some of the GAGG folks, but ended up having financial problems and was cancelled this past year. Running GAGG had a similar feel to UNY-Con, but was combined with that college feel. It was a small (almost tiny) con, but it was much fun.
Friday was a little loose. I hadn’t really signed up for much on that day since I wasn’t sure exactly when we would be arriving. I got to sit in on a demo of Three Dragon Ante that Doug had signed up for. I just went over to watch and the guys running it had me jump in since they had an extra seat. It was amusing and I’ll probably pick it up. It’s meant to be a poker style game actually played in the game world. Being someone who enjoys low stakes poker, I could actually see playing this one for money.
After that, I had the best game of the con which once again proves that it doesn’t matter what system you’re using as long as you’ve got a good gm and good players. It started as a ‘group therapy’ session where the characters were thought up on the fly. The only requirements we were given was that they had to be between 13-18 and had been sent into an institution by the court system or their parents. The first part was completely freeform, with each player developing their character on the fly through interaction with others. As the game went on, strange things started happening, and each character developed a weird… ability. In the end, they all got together and broke out of the place. The twist at the end was that it was actually a slightly different Marvel Universe and the characters were all Mutants just developing their powers, even though they had no clue what was going on. And in the end, they were rescued by the X-men.
Oh, and for any of you who have heard me go on about it before, that one was run by the GM who I think kicks ass. I’m not sure if his style is for everyone, but I sure as hell would kill to be one of his regular players.
The rest of the games varied, but were all fun. A couple of D&D games, a GURPS supers game, and a new game just ‘published’ by the author, who was also the GM. That one was a very fun game, but I’d attribute it more to the players than the game itself. The setting was an odd mix of fantasy and sci-fi, and it has some odd inconsistencies. But, the players were fun and the GM wasn’t bad, so it was worth a play.
As a side note, I got a look at their book. They’d had it printed through Lulu, and the printing job wasn’t half bad. I don’t know what the durability of it would be, but the printed book looked fine. I definitely wouldn’t object to getting some TPK stuff printed through Lulu. (Their book definitely showed the lack of a graphic designer. The TPK stuff looks much better. I felt so superior ;)
At this point, I’m pondering other cons, but I'll probably ramble about that in another entry. It's almost lunchtime here.