Gencon Online: After Action Report

Well as you all know, Gencon Indy did not happen this year. I had originally planned on running a smaller local event here (FOEcon) but I had to call that off. There was Gencon Online... I thought about it but in the end elected not to participate by running events. Maybe I should have, but I managed to get a lot good things done instead...

Normally I would tell you a tale of a trip and of the perils and experiences of the road. Of the Speedway coffee I'd get in Bowling Green or Lebanon (both KY). But no. There was to road trip with Will or Ryan as had been originally planned...

This year on the Wednesday, I got a teeth pulled (the whole crown popped off while I was GMing live a week before). Surgery it was! I survived but slept through the day enjoying the Maury show.

Thursday, I planned on taking off and find some game to play. However, work needed me so I coded and reviewed all day and finished work around 5pm. A short dinner later, at 6pm I was at my Heroes of Rokugan table. Well truth be told, that table was not part of Gencon. Let's say it was an impromptu planned game! Yeah go with that. Enjoyable, and another opportunity to play Haruhime, a character that I am really digging.

Friday, I had a ticket to play the newest Arcanis adventure by Cody Bergman. I must say that of the Arcanis authors, Cody writes the adventures I find the most fun to play. They are not key to the "main plot" but from a gaming aspect (what I call in French, scenaristique - the science of scenarios) they usually deliver. This one did. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I will say that his adventure went back to the Blessed Lands book and pulls material directly out of there, crafting a story with NPCs from there. I dug that.

Another point of interest was that I got to play with my in-game husband, Sestius Ovidius val'Mehan aka Comma played by Tom-C. He and I have been playing Arcanis together for years. We rarely play together but when we do, it's always awesome, like, super!

I could not find anything I wanted to play for the next while so I watched TV most of the day.

On Friday evenings, I run a D&D game for my kids and the neighbors so I ran that as they ransacked through my sahuagin temple looking for loot and plunder. I mean, it was pretty much a fight the whole time as they took down the sahuagin priestess and her entourage. It got dicy for them but they pulled out.

Saturday evening, after talking to Florent and Florence during their stay here at the Dublin House, I got a ticket in a Starfinder game. While I'm still not a HUGE fan, it is "okay". I will say the GM I had (Cory) mastered the system and was really on-point with both the rules and the scenario, which made things roll much smoother. The game was enjoyable though a few places the plot dragged on a little. I think everyone had fun and there was an interesting mix of colorful characters and cardboard PCs to keep my interest.

2$ well-spent.

Throughout the weekend, I kept looking at the Heroes of Rokugan tables as my ticket was on Sunday morning and my table not filled... Always a worrisome sight for Sunday morning.

When I rolled out of bed WAY too early (giving me time to play with some ideas on Olympia), I hoped the game would happen. Turns out, we had four players, to old hands and two new players (one was completely new and the other had only played a different edition). This adventure turned out to be a play-within-a-play situation and was a marked departure from the usually serious and dour scenarios that make Rokugan so enticing.

The adventure over, I looked at a few other offerings but did not find anything that drew my eye.

The trip home took my rear end from the chair to the couch and a well-deserved nap! Prepare

I have been thinking of participating at the next Gencon Online if/when it happens and put together a FOE program. Offer one or two adventures... Ah well live and learn.