Tell me about Gencon!

[Mortadelo]

Can you explain which the Ten settings are? Is Shadowforce Archer included en the Ten?

[DavalTy]

GenCon was a blast. It was demo's galore for me this weekend and boy did I take advantage!

Fartherest star was solid,

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we got to push around a debutaunte and engage in mortal combat with space zombies! =) The highlight of the game was when our space liner fractured in two, we made running jumps from one section of the doomed ship to another. Action dice time. My description was in fact: "Seeing that my team mate is drifting, I will grab one of the enemy tenticles, leap into open space and kick her in the back to propel her to safety."

Good times!

I also played in "Dinner with Harvey", the WOF demo. I CANNOT WAIT for this setting! There were some pretty crafty moves taken by everyone and though the last portion was handled with narrative due to time, I have no doubt that we escaped with style! The factions you all know and love are alive and well, albeit more serious and intense.

"The Alabi" was the 10kB demo and was the most fun I've had at a con game in years.

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After being setup as fall guys for a public official's murder, we broke into the grieving widow's home, stole some "startup capital" and then gambled it at the blackjack tables to pay off the Russian Mob. Not to mention ending an ambush from two rival gangs with one well placed charge in the surprise round. They didn't even get to fire a shot.

Absolutely a blast! 100% cash money.

I also played in the FantasyCraft demo that was disguised as an LSpy game. Being a little burned out on fantasy myself, I did feel like a victim of a bait'n'switch but it ran smoothly and I wish it well as part of the Craftyverse. There are some very awesome mechanical ideas going around with focuses and class abilities.

The LARP was a good deal of fun aside from a moment or two of unpleasentness. Good times were had by most and some very inventive players did very inventive things. A great time with a lot of energy and I look forward to the next one.

The seminar was chalk full of informational goodness, most of which has been covered in this thread and dinner was decidedly too deep for the three beers that I consumed. It was awesome to put names to faces and I am once again in admiration of a design team that takes time to kick it with the fans; particularly long-winded blokes such as myself.

To close this bellowing proclamation of goodness: Not only did I pick up Paradigm's 2.0 native "Combat Missions" book but we were allowed to see the gallery copies of the books at the seminar.

Naysayers and doubtful souls beware: They are not vaporware, they do exist. I have quested to the depths of Indianapolis and I bring you news with my own eyes:

I have seen them! They will soon be upon us. Stand ready and stay Crafty!

Ty

[Crafty_Pat]

I tossed some spoilers in there for folks who might still play those demos. Hope you don't mind.

[Scarecrow]

How is COmbat Missions looking?  Im so keen to purchase that for my group.  Does anyone know when it will be out in Australia as hardback, and when it will be available as a pdf?

[DavalTy]

No problem on the spoil text. My enthusiasm may have gotten the better of me.

Combat missions is solid for games on the run. The missions can be easily picked up and run and I give it full points for including all the stats and refences and even maps needed to run a mission as-is with little prep time. It left no question as to how to uncover particular pieces of info.

It is not a campaign but all of the missions are linked to a large corporation indirectly. This could make for a very good season focal point.

What was lacking for me is some flavor, the briefings were a little short and didn't provide a great understanding or reason for agents to be involved. It seemed tough to find true depth for the agents. Again, a GM wanting a campaign could easily paint in some of this detail.

Superb GM tool, just the thing for when you don't have time to prep your weekly home game or leave your Con Game notes at home. =)

15 missions in all with some additional info on the central corporation. I got it for $20 at the show and am very pleased with the purchase. Not sure if it's been released wide yet though.

I asked the PDF question of the gentlemen at the booth. Paradigm's deal is the same as Crafty's: 30 day window from dead tree release to PDF. Said there would be one next month.

Ty

[Alphastream]

My buddies and I had an absolute blast playing Shadow and Tiger Team. We liked the difficulty of Tiger Team, as some mods have been a bit easy. We would not have made it, were it not for two level 1 intruders along for the ride (at our level 7 table)!

I found the plot for Tiger Team to be one of the better ones thus far, and of course Brandon ran it awesomely. The way he makes sure all PCs get a swing at things was greatly appreciated by all.

We played the World on Fire LARP, where diplomats and Pitfall heads negotiated. The LARP was a lot of fun, but did not top last year's (a bit more complexity and things like NPCs, special events, etc. made last year's a bit better). I'm curious how the jail escape LARP went.

The Crafty dice were cool. I'm looking forward to the books. Darn shame we couldn't see them there.

I did find Chessex was making custom dice. 2 hours later I had gold on black D6s with the 6 changed to "Black Power", totally makes sense for my Blaxploitation triggerman PC.

Good times! I can't wait for the next con!

Teos

[DavalTy]

Yeah, I got in on Tundra and Threading the Needle for LSpy. I heard the other table had a tough time with Needle and we did too, we had to throttle back our approach halfway through the game to avoid some badness.

I've heard some complaints but I personally liked the fact that you couldn't handle things the Frank Castle way. Too often folks think guns and glory will prevail and it was a lesson learned to be taken down a peg.

The 10kB larp was great. We had to come up with creative ways to communicate (being prisoners and all) and it was a great chance for people to immerse themselves in a new style of character. I won't spoil it but let's just say that even though it was a prison, the balance of power was certainly not what you'd expect.

Ty

[Scarecrow]

No problem on the spoil text. My enthusiasm may have gotten the better of me.

Combat missions is solid for games on the run. The missions can be easily picked up and run and I give it full points for including all the stats and refences and even maps needed to run a mission as-is with little prep time. It left no question as to how to uncover particular pieces of info.

It is not a campaign but all of the missions are linked to a large corporation indirectly. This could make for a very good season focal point.

What was lacking for me is some flavor, the briefings were a little short and didn't provide a great understanding or reason for agents to be involved. It seemed tough to find true depth for the agents. Again, a GM wanting a campaign could easily paint in some of this detail.

Superb GM tool, just the thing for when you don't have time to prep your weekly home game or leave your Con Game notes at home. =)

15 missions in all with some additional info on the central corporation. I got it for $20 at the show and am very pleased with the purchase. Not sure if it's been released wide yet though.

I asked the PDF question of the gentlemen at the booth. Paradigm's deal is the same as Crafty's: 30 day window from dead tree release to PDF. Said there would be one next month.

Ty

Cool, thanks for the response.  Its a bit of a pity, i was more hoping for a Military type source book, and not just missions, however missions are still good.

[DavalTy]

If it helps, most of the missions in the book feel almost exactly like some of the ops from David Mamet's "The Unit" series. Definately designed for military special forces teams, sometimes undercover, sometimes not.

Ty

[Scarecrow]

If it helps, most of the missions in the book feel almost exactly like some of the ops from David Mamet's "The Unit" series. Definately designed for military special forces teams, sometimes undercover, sometimes not.

Ty

thats exactly the campaign style i was goin for.

i was gonna actually try and write up the series into missions at some stage, so this may help alot!

[Wolverine]

Alex couldn't quite follow Wolvie's accent.

That was me actually.

And that has given me my new forum signature

While I'm at it, where were you at the seminar, Psion? Had I known I would have come up and introduced myself.

[waterdhavian]

Seminar Video will be up in a day or two.  I got a friend of mine who is a little bit more video savvy to help me edit and cut the video.  We will have it up on Youtube and I will provide links as soon as we get it up. 

[Psion]

While I'm at it, where were you at the seminar, Psion? Had I known I would have come up and introduced myself.

Yeah, I was the guy on the left front asking all the questions. Including the one Pat wanted to skip past.

[Crafty_Pat]

Yeah, I was the guy on the left front asking all the questions. Including the one Pat wanted to skip past.

That the one about the pulp setting?

[Psion]

Yeah, I was the guy on the left front asking all the questions. Including the one Pat wanted to skip past.

That the one about the pulp setting?

The one about the 1.0 books, though I did ask about Pulp, too.