This past Saturday, I attended GaterCon at Standley Lake High School in Westminster, CO. I woke up early, fought off the urge to return to sleep. Even if the kids had already ruined any such attempt... I had already packed my car the night before to limit what I would have to carry on-site. I had my dangling poster, my maps, my minis, my little trolly and my enormous map...
As I got there, I met with Jacque (CO-VC), Bill, Russ-B and Michael-D who got there same time as I did. The RPGs were set in the school library. It brought me back to my own high school's library: it was in the basement, dank, scary and generally unwelcoming (my HS was built in the 19th century and expanded in the 50s).
As things began to settle, it became clear that either my or Russ's PFS table wasn't going to happen. When suddenly a group of people arrived and Russ's game went off. Having played the adventure (and having no interest in replaying PFS scenarios), I asked Michael Dulock if he could squeeze me in. Luck would have it, he could!
So I played my first game of Hollow Earth with the Ubiquity System. I enjoyed myself a lot. The characters were quite flavorful for iconic/ default characters. I played the truth-obsessed Irish freelance reporter, Ursula McManaman. A fun character. Michael is a great and very dynamic GM, which really increased my enjoyment of the game.
The table had a number of memorable players and people with whom I hadn't played with in a while - such as Jonathan, Ron, and Marc-G. (Shout out to you guys!)
Not really holding my breath, the next slot had no one show up for my game again. *sigh* A group of us GMs looked at each other and decided to play a Buffy-like Savage Worlds run by Liam.
Before I go any further, Liam is 14 and I believe he attends SLHS (but I'm not sure). I know a lot of older guys are worried about "the next generation", well I am not. He did a FANTASTIC job throwing curve balls to us old guys and keeping us guessing with a plot I would've loved to come up with myself. The plot started very Buffy-esque "you go to this town in Oregon where a bunch of bloodless bodies were found... Oh look vampires!" Type thing to a zoned-out ghost-demons-and-witches-fest. And the whole thing made sense!
And there I was worried about sparkly vampires.
How wrong was I!
I strongly recommend playing with this super-imaginative kid. Give the new guys a chance and you can be greatly rewarded. I certainly was!
I played Ebenezer McLure, a 66 year old grumpy, bossy and mean man. Is it me or are those secret ingredient NOT to gibe me? I did things like: drive 5mph UNDER the speed limit, be rude to all the young 'uns, tell stories of "in my days" or "back during the war". Too much fun for my own good. I was surrounded by a group of dangerously unstable hunters with a propensity for shooting first.
For final slot, I again had no one to play, so I packed up and went home. I was somewhat disappointed about not getting to GM any NeoExodus, but the two games I got to play were of very good quality and extremely fun. So good things came out from a "bad" situation.
I got home early on Saturday and got to watch Doctor Who and Orphan Black without the kids running around. Another plus!
I am definitely planning on attending next year - whether as a player or a GM. Hopefully it won't fall on the same weekend as Free Comic Book Day.
JP
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