JP on Gaming: Midsouthcon 2019 - After Action Report

Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Midsouthcon 2019 - After Action Report

This AAR was written and got lost to a freak Notepad++ accident. So you are getting this a month late...

Our trip to Memphis began on Friday evening as ActionMan and I packed the car and began the three-or-so hours down 840 and and I-40...

As we got to mile marker 60, some 120 miles from home, the car begins acting up. When I hit 80 mph, the engine loses all power. Crud. I had to decide what to do. I decided to make my way there and worry about it on Sunday.

As we got there, we signed up for a Shadowrun game. Now this was something I planned to play with ActionMan when he would be a little older. However, this would be the time... He picked a Street Samurai pre-gen and I got a combat mage named "Sparkles" who was an Ese, a bad stereotype of a latino gangbanger. We had fun committing the usual array of crimes related to a 'Run. Now without a Face, a Decker, or a Rigger, this game is MUCH MUCH MUCH more difficult. However, we made this by keeping it low-tech.

After the game, we checked into our hotel. That's where I realized I forgot the power chord to my dead computer...

So sleep it was!

Saturday Morning was my first slot of running something. I had originally submitted a Rhym adventure, but it was not ready, so I audibled it and opted to run "The Mummy of Prince Tsubeteb" twice instead of "just once".

During that time, ActionMan took part in an Adventure League adventure and an Epic, of which he said he had a good time, but did not tell me much about the games themselves. Good boy.

That adventure includes a lot of elements unique to Akhamet in a plot that is easy for people to understand and get the ramifications and consequences of their choices. Two fun games.

I had a Pro-Row during the evening, so we had a fun dinner together at the Panda Express, a place ActionMan really enjoys. I met some interesting people, sold a few books, and had ActionMan completely pooped that he fell asleep on the floor - which he later said was "uncomfortable".

We got to the hotel around 9:45. I was not really tired so I had a mini-marathon of channel-surfing until sleep overcame me.

Sunday morning, we played an AL adventure together, where he created a new character, a dwark cleric named Brockheath Orkbuster and I played my ork character: Gurbaz the Unvanquished. We had a blast playing with cats... I got a big fat orange cat named Cupcake who was bossy and brutal... It is always fun to play with ActionMan who really picks up playing a new class like a fish does water.

My final event was a 2PM panel on "History as a platform for gaming". I will admit when I first saw my schedule, I felt discouraged about it. Sunday afternoon... it will be a ghost town.

However, I could not be more wrong. To my joyful and pleasant surprise, I had a very good attendance. The result of the talk wherein I shared some of my successes and (many) failures using history as a vessel to gaming. Akhamet being a good example of the successes. I gave a big shout-out to those who suffered through my previous experiment (Eric-A, Steve-H, Sebastien-M, Marc-Andre-L, Isabelle-R to name a few...)

So with a big smile on our faces, ActionMan and I left the Marriott back for our home.

I nursed the engine back home without problem... but I could not go over 80... a good thing since I could not speed. However, I could not engage the cruise control... I got home safely with a tired foot.

The Good

- The crowd at MSC is great, with people really wanting to play a variety of things. Every year is a big plus

- The Con suite is awesome, so close to everything that you can play a turn, make a food run, and be back before it is your turn again.

- The Hotel provides steamed hot dogs for attendance Saturday for lunch.

The Improvable

- I was surprised by the low number of Adventure League games. I expected more AL than there were. I expected to play some Tier 2 games, but there were none throughout the weekend. Minor annoyance really.

- The guest/gm schedules were posted VERY late. I was not the only one and in the end, the onsite event went off without a hitch.

- MSC took place on the same weekend a Weekend in Rokugan, which was again in St. Louis. I had a tough choice to make between those two events. I chose to go with ActionMan. I chose well.