This was the ninth year of this Bay Area gaming convention, organized by Sean Nittner. It was the fourth year in Walnut Creek, and the convention seems to be thriving. This is a role-playing convention - all scheduled events are tabletop RPGs, larps, and panels - though there were card games and board games being played in the open gaming. Of note this year were P
Date/Time: Fri Oct 11, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Format: RPG
GM: John Kim
System: A Thousand and One Nights
Safety Tools: X-card, Lines/Veils, Open Door policy
Players: 4
Game Length: 4 hours
Characters: Created at the table
Description:
Mysterious strangers. Beautiful women. Enchanted swords. Talking camels. You play members of the Sultan's Court, whiling away the sultry nights by telling pointed stories to advance your own ambitions. Navigate the social maze and you could win your heart's desire; offend the wrong person and you suffer the Sultan's wrath.
We could play with a predesigned set of characters, or create a situation from whole cloth.
Game tags: Fantasy, GM-less, Improv
This was a run of the classic GMless game. We used semi-pregenerated characters, mixed from two sets that I had created.
I've been experimenting for some time about the best way to run this.
Date/Time: Fri Oct 11, 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
GM: Hex Knouff
System: Strange Gravity
Safety Tools: Cut/Brake, Open Door policy
Characters: Provided
Description:
Explore strange new worlds and go where no one has gone before! Strange Gravity by Jay Treat is a LARP wherein each player takes on a narrative role according to their role on a starship on a mission of exploration. You will call the shots on some part of gameplay to help build a story with the other players. Explore new planets, meet alien diplomats, and more!
Game tags: Adventure, Aliens, Collaborative, Exploration, Freeform, GM-less, Improv, Investigation, Light, Pulp, Rotating authority, Sci-Fi, Serious, Suspenseful
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Date/Time: Fri Oct 11, 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM
GM: John Kim
System: Bluebeard's Bride (PbtA)
Safety Tools: X-card, Lines/Veils, Open Door policy
Characters: Provided
Description:
Bluebeard's Bride is a horror tabletop RPG in which you play aspects of the Bride's psyche investigating your husband's haunted manor. As players, you will explore Bluebeard's home as the Bride, creating your own beautifully tragic version of the dark fairy tale. Investigate rooms, discover the truth of what happened, experience the nightmarish phantasmagoria of this broken place, and decide whether or not you are a faithful or disloyal bride.
Game tags: Collaborative, Dark, Drama, Exploration, Gore, Graphic Violence, Horror, Serious, Sex and Sexuality
This was the third time I had run Bluebeard's Bride, and I ran into more trouble in this run. Compared to my previous two runs, I felt particularly that there was less of a bond between the players, and a split over how things would turn out. I also felt like I did not do as good a job with tailoring the horror to hit the players. The players and their archetypes were:
We created the Bride as a city girl, whose family owned a dress shop but had fallen on hard times. The ....
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Date/Time: Sat Oct 12, 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
GM: Danielle Goudeau and T. Goudeau
System: Custom
Safety Tools: Cut/Brake, Open Door policy
Characters: Provided
Description:
Caesar's Legion has fallen in the wake of the Battle of Hoover Dam, but bands of desperadoes still plague the Mojave. Towns find themselves forced to choose between freedom and the risk of annihilation, or the restrictive protection of the expanding New California Republic.
The people of Bighorn Gulch are threatened by vicious deserters looking for the most precious resource in the Wasteland: clean water. With only days to prepare, the ranchers, farmers, and traders of Bighorn must decide whether to stand and fight, risking their lives, or to flee into the hills losing all that they have built.
This larp intersperses focused roleplay scenes with out-of-character collaboration to tell the story of the last days of a town in a tough post-apocalyptic world. NO previous knowledge of the Fallout setting is needed to play.
Game tags: Adventure, Apocalyptic, Collaborative, Drama, Emotional, Freeform, Play to find out, Sci-Fi, Serious
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Date/Time: Sat Oct 12, 8:00 PM - 12:00 AM
Format: RPG Teens
GM: John Kim
System: Monster of the Week
Safety Tools: X-card, Open Door policy
Spaces: 3 of 5
Characters: Provided
Description:
You play spies blacklisted after a job goes awry, as well as the people who care about them.
You can play this game with 3-5 people, and while playing it as a single game session is fun, it's designed for long term play, so this is a longer session — I've run this a bunch, believe me, it's worth it!
It's heavily inspired by the American television show Burn Notice and movies like the Bourne trilogy.
Game tags: Adventure, Collaborative, Drama, Emotional, Intrigue, Investigation, Modern, Potentially triggering*, Provocative, Romance, Serious, Sex and Sexuality, Spy
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Date/Time: Sun Oct 13, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Format: Larp
GM: John Kim and Milo Kim
System: Custom
Safety Tools: Cut/Brake, Open Door policy
Description:
Just weeks after the Emperor's death, victorious rebels lead a New Republic delegation deep into contested territory on a vital mission. However, their ship is captured by insurgents who have been operating behind Imperial lines, suspicious of the rumored victory at Endor and commanded by revolutionary leader R2-89. This is a character-based larp thick with intrigue and competing ideologies.
Game tags: Adventure, Drama, Emotional, Improv, Intrigue, Play to find out, Player antagonism, Sci-Fi
This was a fun and successful run of the Star Wars game that Milo and I designed. In this one, Jot cooperated well, and they ended up taking over the Star Destroyer, but it was destroyed in the battle to save people on Genosha.
One of the highlights for me was the intense discussions between Danielle as Parker and Jarys as Azalus.
Date/Time: Sun Oct 13, 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Format: Larp
GM: Hayley Gordon
System: Good Society Larp
Safety Tools: Cut/Brake, Open Door policy, Out of play area
Description:
We will be playing the Good Society LARP scenario Sunday Church.
The year is 1810. The place, the country town of Habershire, but three days ride from London. The sun blossoms as the last of spring ends, and those who seasoned in London return. As old friends and rivals gather again in the same place, a new tension pervades our town. The balance of this town is changing, and duty, position, and family will change with it. Now is the time to act upon your dreams, obligations and desires before you find the town has shifted without you.
Game tags: Collaborative, Drama, Emotional, Play to find out, Romance, Serious
This was a Jane-Austen-inspired game. I played Gerald Fitzhugh, a likeable young man who had been cut off by his parents -- and aspired to marry his sweetheart Victoria, but only after regaining his fortune. I found the play experience fun, but I ended up being quite manipulative in being nice primarily to regain my fortune. So I was encouraging and affable, but all with an end goal in mind. In the end, I did regain my fortune and got to marry my sweetheart - which was a character success, but it felt rather hollow given my expectations for Austen (who would have disliked my character).
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