Where to begin? We ran 15 games (seven different scenarios) at Gen Con this year (we'd love to run twice that next year and are putting together a GM benefits package -- PM me to volunteer). All but two were well attended. One we think lost people because the hotel set up a maze back to our gaming room due to a wedding reception, so they blocked off hallways with partitions, etc. The other was a Sunday game, and those are always tough to get people to show up.

We were all impressed with the level of enthusiasm of the players and how well they did with their characters. I had new-to-Desolation players in each game, plus a number of folks who had played before, including people who had played at every Gen Con since we first playtested it. All of my groups seemed to immediately get the game and embrace the low fantasy aspect.

We debuted four new scenarios this year, including a playtest of The Nearside Project, which we plan to release in 2011. We also ran three scenarios from last year: The Broken Menagerie (thanks for running it, Nestor!), Dead or Alive and Frontier Justice.

Here's what I know about the ones I ran or checked in on.

* All the King's Men have the players going to investigate a noble who says he rules over the village where the characters spent the Night of Fire and Long Winter. Turns out the noble has a few secrets, but he's done quite well for the people who pledge fealty to him. The characters have to decide whether joining up with the noble would constitute progress or a step back into darker times.

This was supposed to be a two-hour game, but it ran a little long because we had great roleplayers who took the time to get to the bottom of the mysteries before confronting/joining with the noble. Most of the groups who played looked over the noble's considerable "quirks" and joined up with him. I'll not spoil the surprise in case we use this scenario again, but the group I ran through the scenario decided they could do a better job of administering the "new Empire" than the nobleman.

* Treachery in Cynosure is a four-hour game that lets players experience a city adventure in the After. The players are accused of committing treason, and have the opportunity to turn each other in for a reward.

In one group, the person playing Denner did indeed turn the other characters in. Things didn't work out exactly as he planned, however, and he tried to rejoin the party. Krek shot first and asked questions later, but Tarl used his True Faith Talent to jump between the arrow and Denner. After some fast talking (and great Con checks fueled by Style Points), Denner made it back into the party with just a few scrapes and bruises. He later redeemed himself by saving some children. Nicely epic story of redemption.

Both times I ran this scenario, they went really well. The players got into their characters and played off one another. In the other group, poor Menelaris couldn't cast a successful spell (and he tried many times) until the climax of the final battle when he came through with much applause from his fellow players.

* Hollow Earth Desolation or "Hexolation" is a combination of Desolation and Hollow Earth. We've been talking about doing it for a long time. The six-hour game had eight players. Matt only ran it once, and didn't want to turn anyone away. It may have been too many players, but it sounded like everyone had a good time. I heard there were orc Nazis.

* Dead or Alive was a four-hour game filled with Necromancers and undead that Matt ran. The players had a good time trying to figure out who were really the good guys and bad guys.

* Also back by popular demand was Matt's Frontier Justice. Matt was running this one in the same room during one of my games, so I overheard a number of disturbing things as the players really got into the characters of the orcs, goblins and kobolds they were playing. At one point, a Blood Rune casting orc rolled seven successes and became 20-ft. tall while a spider Shaman Primalist summoned waves of spiders to terrify the villagers and another character began burning buildings.

* King's Gate is the playtest of The Nearside Project that Stephen ran. He had full tables for every session and got a lot of good feedback on what worked and what didn't.

* I didn't even have the chance to ask Nestor how the Broken Menagerie went, as per the usual Gen Con madness of trying to be in multiple places at once.

All in all, we had a great time.

Hullo, folks,

Since the thread in question was a discussion of running the GenCon stuff this year, I used my moderator abilities to move this thread from the Games & Demos folder to the Tales of Survival folder since this is where the thread actually belongs.

Hullo, Jamie,



That is a terrific number of games run, mate, and I'm really pleased to hear this!



Already done, mate. And I've got two scenarios for Desolation on the drawing boards for next year's convention circuit. I'll be running at CanGames of course, but am already planning to attend GenCon 2011.



Thanks for posting this up, since it gives those of us who couldn't make GenCon this year an idea of how things ran. Hopefully others will post in this thread about their experiences with Desolation and Nearside as well. Thanks again, Jamie!

Yeah, it was unfortunate that circumstances had us constantly missing each other, so I didn't get a chance to meet up with you guys other than in passing.

Running "Broken Menagerie" was fun. I spent a good amount of time describing the setting, because I wanted to put across the uniqueness of the setting to the players. The five players chose Lem, Denner, Menelaris, Tarl and Krek for characters. Trying to think back for the special moments:

• The player running Lem had some great moments, charging the bear to make the killing strike, pondering whether to confront the Menagerie for performing without an Imperial license, and generally playing the fantasy version of a G-Man.
• Krek did a good job of being the scout, sniffing out tracks and spoor. His matter-of-fact attitude towards fallen foes ("Can we eat it?") was the source of some amusement. (The players found the concept of Nutritional Value as a stat very funny.)
• Menelaris pulled off some successful spells, almost knocking himself out each time. The fun part was everyone assuming the animal's reaction to his magic abilities being just an effect of him being an elf ("Even the animals don't like elves!").
• Tarl was the investigator, ferreting out info from everyone and helping the group look beyond Philean's pleasant facade. The character, played by a young lady, also helped get the group on the villagers' good side by asking about a church and volunteering to help with worship.
• Denner didn't get to strut his stuff very much unfortunately, although he did get to show his prowess as a fighter. He also did get to be sneaky here and there, managing to filch some of the Menagerie's property at one point.

The group got as far as hunting down the manwolf. Lem was all "kill first, ask questions later" but Tarl managed to back him off long enough for them to hear Joddard's story. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we could play out the final confrontation, but I was able to illustrate how in Desolation, you can't expect to get a happy ending.

All in all, the players were pleased at the run and seemed excited about the game, so I'm guessing it was a good showing.

Oh, and I'm certainly interested in doing some more GM'ing for you guys. These days it's about as much Desolation as I get to do. Whine, whine.

OK... here is my quick rundown of my GMing from Gen Con 2010

All the Kings Men - I ran this twice (Thur & Fri - 2 hours)
The Thursday game went 3.25 hours instead of 2. The players got into their characters and spent as much time interacting with NPCs and each other as they did worrying about the actual plotline. The player for Denner arrived about 45 minutes into the game, but we managed to work him in (he was discovered in shallow grave). Most of the group agreed to join the new Palantra despite Lord Ulric's peculiar background and habits. The Friday game only went 2 hours, but I had to cut out some stuff to make it fit. The group (again) was excellent, but ended up shooting poor Lord Ulric in the head.

Frontier Justice - I ran this twice (Fri & Sat - 2 hours)
I ran this twice last year but continue to be surpised be how quickly players are able to get into the mindset of an Oruskan. I think I will write up a follow-up scenario for next year. You can never (apparently) kill too many humans.

Dead or Alive - I only ran this once (Sat - 4 hours)
This scenario went over great. It had a lot of shades of grey, a lot of character interaction and hectic undead combat. I wouldn't mind runnining it again at future conventions.

Hexolation - I only ran this once (Thur - 6 hours)
I bit off more than I could chew on this one. I took 8 players (shoulda been 6) from Paris to the Hollow Earth to Desolation. The Paris part ran a little long due to some really great players. I had to skip some encounters in the Hollow Earth, but eventually made it Ascondea to show off the world of Desolation. Characters were transformed into fantasy version of themselves (Dilettante Doctor = Necromancer, Washed Up Actor = Rover Beguiler, etc.) they were chasing down Nazis trying to open a portal directly from Desolation to earth so they unleash hordes of orcs and use magic. Nazi soldiers = orcs, SS Agent = Goblins, German Scientists = Gnomes. I think it went over pretty well despite the large numbers.