Strategicon Orccon

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cczernia
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Strategicon Orccon

Post by cczernia »

Just wondering who all is planning on going to Orccon and what you guys plan on running. There already looks like there are some great games including Devlin's Kerberos Club Fate.

Right now I plan on running:
Remember Tomorrow (open-ended Cyberpunk game from the creator of 3:16)
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Post by devlin1 »

I'm expecting to ditch Hommlet in the Saturday night slot for another session of FATE Kerberos. I doubt I can finish that Hommlet hack, write up some sort of adventure, and do everything I need to do for FATE Kerberos between now and then.

I'm leaving the Friday night Leftovers game on there, though. The Battle of Wal-Mart!

When are you running Remember Tomorrow, Chris? I'd like to get in on that.
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Post by cczernia »

devlin1 wrote:I'm expecting to ditch Hommlet in the Saturday night slot for another session of FATE Kerberos. I doubt I can finish that Hommlet hack, write up some sort of adventure, and do everything I need to do for FATE Kerberos between now and then.

I'm leaving the Friday night Leftovers game on there, though. The Battle of Wal-Mart!

When are you running Remember Tomorrow, Chris? I'd like to get in on that.
Oh man, I was hoping to get in on the Hommlet game as I still don't feel comfortable with Cortex+.

I plan on running Remember Tomorrow on Sunday morning. I don't think I'm conscious enough to really run a typical game but I can explain the rules and go with the flow in a shared GM game.
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Post by devlin1 »

cczernia wrote:Oh man, I was hoping to get in on the Hommlet game as I still don't feel comfortable with Cortex+.
If I don't run it next month, I'll pitch it for the Hyph.
I plan on running Remember Tomorrow on Sunday morning. I don't think I'm conscious enough to really run a typical game but I can explain the rules and go with the flow in a shared GM game.
Shared GM? I'm out.
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Post by SpaceMonkey »

I'm thinking of doing a Hollow Earth Expedition and maybe that Thousand Suns game i prepped but didnt' run before or maybe Og or maybe All Flesh Must Be Eaten (that's always popular). Or i'll ditch it all and do whatever.
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Post by mordraine »

I don't really feel like running anything this time, but on the other hand, I don't really feel like paying to get in either. Le sigh.

If I can get my ass in gear, I'll be running that Lady Blackbird '60s Spy hack I'm working on.

Incidentally, what's the state of submissions? Is it too late to submit games and have them be in a reasonable time slot?
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Post by cczernia »

You have until the 28th. I'm not sure how many slots are open but you best get your game in ASAP. You can always revise it later.

Important dates

Final Hotel registration by February 4
Register your game by January 28
Game sign-up opens January 29
Preregister for Con by February 14
Con starts February 18
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Post by Cthulhu »

I'll be going, but not running anything.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

pending approval, i'll be running:
orccon event submission wrote:Title: 'Just 'Cause You're Not Paranoid, Don't Mean They're Not After You'
Game System: '44—A Game of Automatic Fear'
Description: 'You have been awake subsisting on a steady diet of black coffee, cigarettes and conspiracy theories. Someone close to you, someone you trust, is not the same person they were yesterday. And now shadowy men in black suits and unblinking eyes seem to be everywhere. But you are no elite agent with special training. Paranoia is your only ally. So gird yourself. Try to survive. They are coming—for YOU.'
Start Time: 'Saturday, Midnight'

Title: 'Me big bug bang!'
Game System: 'OG—Unearthed Edition'
Description: 'You are a caveman. A thick-browed moron. You prefer to hit things to make a point. On rare occasion you articulate your words, all six of them, with aplomb. So: a few nights ago the moon disappears and the sky lights up with a shower of bright dots. Tribe members start disappearing. Strange tracks lead to a big cavern. Now it is up to the tribe''s smartest & strongest (and you) to find your people.'
Start Time: 'Sunday, 9 AM'
no pre-reg allowed—i've learned my lesson.
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Post by devlin1 »

Ooh, 44. Neat.

Saturday midnight. You go with your bad self.

More importantly, though -- hey, Albert's going to Strategicon again!
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

thanks. yeah, turns out the children's play i'm doing will be done before that weekend. so, yay!

and i just got email confirmation that my games are approved from the coordinator.
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Post by mcellis »

It's cool that you're coming back and I'd really like to play some Og, but why no pre reg for your games?
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

short answer: flakers.

i've had some bad luck in the past with games that were open for pre-reg. people would pre-reg and then not show up, which was irritating because folks who would've signed up at the con don't after seeing a full sign-up sheet. it's happened enough times for me (and others here on the boards) to have learned my lesson.

look forward to seeing you!
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Post by mcellis »

Interesting I've never had that problem. I was looking forward to signing up for your Og game and then didn't see them on the pre reg page and was a little worried. But my Sunday morning is still free and now that I know it isn't a mix up I hope to see you there for some low vocabulary prehistoric fun.

I'm picking verisimilitude as one of my words. :mrgreen:
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Post by devlin1 »

mcellis wrote:Interesting I've never had that problem.
Hey man, don't rub it in. These guys hate that.
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Post by mcellis »

Wasn't trying to rub it in. In fact I remember a few years back when I first got to LA and started running games at Strategicons I had a couple of games where no one showed up or signed up, and a few where I didn't have enough players to run. I've also been skunked when I've run stuff at other regional cons where no one knew me or my games.

I was more surprised by Albert's problems with no shows or flakers especially since no more than half the spots can be pre-reged, I wouldn't think that lack of space for on site sign ups would be that big of a problem. Most of the times I've tried to get into Albert's games they've either been full or close to it. In fact I missed his last Og game because it was filled up.
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Post by devlin1 »

There've been some weird problems with no-shows at Strategicon. The most egregious was probably Chris's Mouse Guard game on a Sunday morning. No pre-reg -- you had to sign up for it that morning, starting at eight. He had four (three?) players signed up, and none of them showed. So in the space of, like, 40 minutes, each of them went from "Awesome! I'll play in this Mouse Guard game" to "Looks like I'll have to miss that Mouse Guard game!" for reasons only partially known*.


*IIRC, at least a couple dropped out to play the BSG boardgame in the hotel lobby.
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Post by cczernia »

Yep, my games go in extremes. I tend to either have a full group of 6 or no one shows up. This happened at the last con where no one showed up for my Wild Talents game but I had a full group for Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies.

As for pre-reg I thought that was a problem too but after the Mouse Guard incident I knew people will flake whether they sign up an hour or a week before the game.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

mcellis wrote:I'm picking verisimilitude as one of my words. :mrgreen:
sweeeeet!
mcellis wrote:I was more surprised by Albert's problems with no shows or flakers especially since no more than half the spots can be pre-reged, I wouldn't think that lack of space for on site sign ups would be that big of a problem. Most of the times I've tried to get into Albert's games they've either been full or close to it. In fact I missed his last Og game because it was filled up.
yeah, it's weird. people sign up and then others assume that it's full or close to full or what not, and can't/don't sign up. it's not a consistent problem by any stretch. i'd just rather not take any chances.
cczernia wrote:As for pre-reg I thought that was a problem too but after the Mouse Guard incident I knew people will flake whether they sign up an hour or a week before the game.
hm. well, i'll try out my experiment and see what happens.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

devlin1 wrote:*IIRC, at least a couple dropped out to play the BSG boardgame in the hotel lobby.
i remember that. just plain rude.
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Post by devlin1 »

Incidentally, just in case it need be said -- I've once again secured a room for us for OrcCon, so... there. See you Saturday.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

as bobby bottleservice would say, vay-ree cooool!
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Post by devlin1 »

jimmy corrigan wrote:as bobby bottleservice would say, vay-ree cooool!
Bah-bah-bah, send. God willing.
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Post by devlin1 »

Good times as always, fellas -- the only thing I really wish this year's OrcCon had is more sleep for me. Other than that, I had a bunch of fun.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

wurd. that was reinvigorating and restored my faith in cons. thanks for the good times, all!
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Post by cczernia »

A great time, a lot of fun as usual and possibly the best attended and organized event thus far.
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Post by Anarchangel »

devlin1 wrote:Good times as always, fellas -- the only thing I really wish this year's OrcCon had is more sleep for me. Other than that, I had a bunch of fun.
Sleep is for the weak.

Great to game with you guys again, as always!
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Post by devlin1 »

Anarchangel wrote:Sleep is for the week.
Fixed that for you.

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Post by devlin1 »

cczernia wrote:A great time, a lot of fun as usual and possibly the best attended and organized event thus far.
Yeah, I'm curious to see the numbers.

I think part of the improved organization may have been the location -- it seems like it's a lot easier to coordinate everything with the RPG reg table/sign-ups and RPG rooms are right next to each other. I'll bet it makes things like putting room schedules on the doors or keeping on top of collecting/distributing sign-up sheets seem like no big deal. Contrast that with the Radisson, where you sign up in one place and have to trek all the way outside the hotel (essentially) to actually find your room and play. I imagine that added effort could annoy Mike Fryer et al. enough for them to not go that extra mile (not literally).

As for improved attendance, some of that may be down to that Happy Jack's podcast. I know I saw a lot of people with "Happy Jack's" or whatever on their badges, although I have no idea if those people would've come anyway with or without the podcasters being there.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

here's my summary post on mord's thread on big purple:

[quote="jimmy corrigan on rpg.net"]hello stranger! i, too, had a blast at orccon.

on saturday i played in a morning "smallship troopers" game, a starship troopers adventure using smallville mechanics, which was awesome. it was run by one of the authors of the smallville rpg, which was cool. i played the role of colonel carl jenkins (aka neil patrick harris in a nazi uniform). new setting and system for me. i really liked the smallville relationship mechanics, and the chance to play a fun game with friends.

then i had lunch with my friends at the hotel lobby, walked around the dealer's room and ended up sitting down for a game of "battlestations!" with the designer of the game. it was a cool ship to ship combat boardgame/rpg hybrid, and we all had a blast as members of a starship out to destroy an evil robot battlestation. i played a silicoid ace pilot with one arm. good clean old school fun.

after getting caught in a torrential downpour&#8211]thanks for driving, mord, and thanks for the hotelroom, devlin! and props to everyone i got to play in a game with.
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Post by mcellis »

Yeah it was great to see all of you as well and I was especially glad that I got to play in that Og game, it was good a time with prehistoric hijinx.

As for the games I ran they went well and I am now of the opinion that while the Dresden Files Evocation magic system can model Avatar style Element Bending quite well, it can't quite handle the level of over the top WuXia levels of Bending I wanted to model in my game. So that one still needs a little work.

My Changeling Rock Band DFRPG game went off better than I had any right to expect it to, I didn't do nearly enough prep and was operating on not nearly enough sleep. However I was playing with a stacked deck of awesome players and they really helped me rock out that game.

So again good to see you all; hopefully I can make it to the Hyph, but if not I'll hope to see you all at Gamex.
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Post by jimmy corrigan »

mcellis wrote:Yeah it was great to see all of you as well and I was especially glad that I got to play in that Og game, it was good a time with prehistoric hijinx.
serious. that was a hoot! you were a great player, as usual. and thanks for the constructive criticism post-game. i'm going to incorporate complications when i run it next. possibly at hyphen con.
mcellis wrote:So again good to see you all; hopefully I can make it to the Hyph, but if not I'll hope to see you all at Gamex.
sweet! looking forward.
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Post by devlin1 »

mcellis wrote: My Changeling Rock Band DFRPG game went off better than I had any right to expect it to, I didn't do nearly enough prep and was operating on not nearly enough sleep. However I was playing with a stacked deck of awesome players and they really helped me rock out that game.
This was me Friday night with Leftovers. The contrast between expectation and result was... huge.
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Post by Anarchangel »

devlin1 wrote:Fixed that for you.

Free elves, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!
Solid, Brother!
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Post by Anarchangel »

mcellis wrote:So again good to see you all; hopefully I can make it to the Hyph, but if not I'll hope to see you all at Gamex.
Do you usually do Hyphen-con as a one-day surgical strike, or stay for a night and partake of the other dice feat, aka, games of the board?
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Post by mcellis »

I have only done the Hyph once so I don't know if there is a usual yet, but that time I did do it as a one day thing. However I think if I am able to do it again this time I'd at least try to spend the night somewhere in San Diego as I was a very tired panda and a danger to myself and everyone on the road driving back at 2am.

So if I am staying overnight it would be silly not to stick around for some boardgaming and hanging. But I would try to leave SD at a reasonable hour. Why do you ask?

Morgan.
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Post by Anarchangel »

If it's on at the right time, I might go down. Perhaps we could get a group together, do some gaming on the train or something.
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Post by devlin1 »

Anarchangel wrote:If it's on at the right time, I might go down.
Setting aside for now the unfortunate double entendre here, you can help determine when Hyphen-Con will be by voting in this thread, if you haven't already.
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Post by Anarchangel »

devlin1 wrote:Setting aside for now the unfortunate double entendre here, you can help determine when Hyphen-Con will be by voting in this thread, if you haven't already.
I take exception to the accusation that said double entendre was unfortunate!
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Post by mcellis »

While gaming on a train does have some appeal, I think I would probably be driving down if I went myself. But that said even if I don't make it there are a few other LA area people who make the trip down to the Hyph perhaps a carpool could be arranged.
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