GenCon AAR
Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 12:01 am
I ran three games at GenCon this year. Thursday's game was a BtS game called Family Roots that I had run at two Open Houses. I had 8 players that comprised a mix of experienced gamers and newbies, but the majority were familiar with the Palladium system. While the game didn't last the full 4 hours, the evil was vanquished, the family reunited and a good time was had by all. This game also generated the best line of the weekend when the physical psychic commented 'my grandfather taught me to touch the bad things" just before using Dessication Touch on the supernatural evil.
The game Friday was called a Midwinter's Malevolence and again I had a full table of 8 players, mostly different than the players from my first game. I had run this at the most recent Open House so I was fairly comfortable with running it. Once again there was much laughter and vanquishing of evil. A couple of players did make suggestions for improvement that I'll be incorporating into future runnings. One of my own observations is that I need to have better floor plans and maps. I utilized what I had, but there was still a bit of confusion regarding locations.
Saturday's game was a Rifts game where the players were all combat-fatigued Coalition soldiers called Rest and Relaxation at Last. I scheduled this game for 10 am on purpose to help get the players in the mood by being sleep deprived themselves. The mission involved investigating loss of contact with an observation post; it turned into a massive kill fest, which in hindsight I should have expected since CS + D-bees= kill 'em all. regardless, there was much laughing and fun, so I'd call it a success. I had limited this game to 6 players, but an additional player asked to join in. This is why I always try to have extra pre-gens available.
Overall, I'd call GenCon a great experience. In talking to the players in my game as well as others during the convention, there is a real desire for Palladium games there. More than one person told me they go through the game catalog looking for Pally games. I'd have played in some games myself if there had been more there. Next year I think it'd be wonderful if we were able to have more of a megaversal ambassador presence in the official catalog. I admit I went into GenCon a bit intimidated since this was my first time running there, but it was really easy and I gained enough player-hours to qualify for a badge reimbursement.
The game Friday was called a Midwinter's Malevolence and again I had a full table of 8 players, mostly different than the players from my first game. I had run this at the most recent Open House so I was fairly comfortable with running it. Once again there was much laughter and vanquishing of evil. A couple of players did make suggestions for improvement that I'll be incorporating into future runnings. One of my own observations is that I need to have better floor plans and maps. I utilized what I had, but there was still a bit of confusion regarding locations.
Saturday's game was a Rifts game where the players were all combat-fatigued Coalition soldiers called Rest and Relaxation at Last. I scheduled this game for 10 am on purpose to help get the players in the mood by being sleep deprived themselves. The mission involved investigating loss of contact with an observation post; it turned into a massive kill fest, which in hindsight I should have expected since CS + D-bees= kill 'em all. regardless, there was much laughing and fun, so I'd call it a success. I had limited this game to 6 players, but an additional player asked to join in. This is why I always try to have extra pre-gens available.
Overall, I'd call GenCon a great experience. In talking to the players in my game as well as others during the convention, there is a real desire for Palladium games there. More than one person told me they go through the game catalog looking for Pally games. I'd have played in some games myself if there had been more there. Next year I think it'd be wonderful if we were able to have more of a megaversal ambassador presence in the official catalog. I admit I went into GenCon a bit intimidated since this was my first time running there, but it was really easy and I gained enough player-hours to qualify for a badge reimbursement.