Your best moments!

For me:

My sixteen-year-old Polish child soldier screwing up his courage and asking his sweetheart to marry him, forgetting that

a) She didn't love him and
b) He'd just pissed himself at a German checkpoint.

Also:

Brother James, his fingers lost to frostbite on the handcart trek to the land of the Faithful, wrestling a demonic revolver into the forge and incinerating what remained of his hands in the process.

All of the Shakespearean comedy, called Love's Reflection, or Deception's Daughter, team-playing Duke Silvio, our wonderfully near-sighted widower, with Mike Miller.

and

My 14-year-old innocent's pyrrhic victory against an alien invasion, by piloting a giant robot that looked like a teddy bear.

For me? One of my fireteam stabbing a VC with his bayonet. The stakes: if he won the challenge it would be a VC with a gun. If the guy trying to stop him won the challenge then the guy got stabbed but it is a villager with a broom that the soldier just murdered. He ended up hoisting the guy with the gun up over his head bathing in a shower of the VC's blood. I am almost ashamed to say that the scene sold Carry for me.

Oh, then there was the time I, burned and beaten, face in the snow, whispered into the ice fortelling Fred's character's watery death :)

Er, I have no idea what games you guys are talking about above (in some of the cases). Could you drop some game names so that I know which is which? Danke!

-Andy

Oh! I forgot one:

The moment when She Laughs at Suitors realized Grandfather Serpent had completely overmatched them, and that she and Brings the Rain were going to need to rely on the men to save them. (The How We Came to Live Here playtest)

Ganakagok, Snow From Korea (first post) and carry. a game about war. (second post).

Crafting an obscure, ambiguous anime-style ending at the end of a Mortal Coil game.

Watching the tatami mats soak up the blood at the end of Snow From Korea.

Putting faces to handles is always great. Hi Don, Dave, Jenn, John, and anybody I missed!

Action Castle was hilarious.

I'm really looking forward to The Imp of the Perverse and Sweet Agatha.

Being lost in East Brunswick (a little) was fun, and dinner was excellent and basically it was a great con. I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Adam: If I don't have a game text that I can sit down and play with other people by 12 months, there'll be trouble.

yrs--
--Ben

In Mortal Coil: Shawn de Arment's Coyote gets captured by the NSA while served Viagra-spiked coffee to the SWAT team that's trying to arrest a group of "secret historians" who have been re-organized by the Change Agent into a force to oppose the leader of the NSA's efforts to freeze History to preserve the eternal ascendancy of the United States.

The entire game of Ganakagok I ran, where a curious child became the father of a new people after witnessing the ascent of the avatars of the Sun and Moon and a brave javelineer defeated the cannibal-ghoul that had risen from the watery grave of the harsh truth-teller (whose doom was caused by the refusal of the bearer of the Last Star to save him). And then a prophet who had survived being burnt for the murder of the old chief led the people to the ways of the Sun and the end of their old life, and a crazy grandmother became the last Ancestor, weeping for her loss. "And her tears were the rain, and the people knew that she wept, but had forgotten why." Beautiful. All I did was watch.

I wasn't in that Snow from Korea game, Dave. Was there another Joshua there I didn't meet?

We played some really excellent games. I'll put more in later, but my two highlights were that game of Carry that put me on the verge of tears for, I dunno, the last two hours of play, and the game of Shock: played with Dan, Dave, Ben, and me on Saturday night. It was recorded, so the AP will be thorough. Which is good because it's the single best game of Shock: I've ever played.

Verge is poised to be a radical new direction in fiction creation. It's now a board game that generates fiction. It's really, really fun.

I'll edit in details when I've got a little time. Thanks, everyone, for some really excellent games.

Posted By: springShe-Who-Brings-the-Rain was in a conflict with her brother. He wanted her to support him in his bid to marry She-Who-Laughs-at-Suitors. I came "this" close to picking up some "Outside" points by blurting out "But you can't marry her because I love her!"

Joanna, that would have ruled. I really, really like How We Came to Live Here and enjoyed playing with you. If we'd had more time, those four characters would have had excellent, tangled futures.

Posted By: Ben LehmanAdam: If I don't have a game text that I can sit down and play with other people by 12 months, there'll be trouble.

Hell, I'll have a playtest-ready text in a few weeks.

Posted By: Joshua A.C. Newman

I wasn't in that Snow from Korea game, Dave. Was there another Joshua there I didn't meet?

Oh. I was pretty tired this weekend. It was Nathan. Doh.

The carry game was awesome. Playing the fresh recruit who started as a snotty shit trying to live up to his father's legacy and ended as an honorable warrior whose burden of having people depend on him causes him to join public service and become a Congressman.

Shooting the Moon: Love's Reflection/Deception's Daughter was a terrific comedic romp that never crossed the line into slapstick and yet had us all rolling with laughter.

and Shock: Cannie Row was so great that it more than made up for me having to miss the awesome Snow from Korea playtest.

Wow that's 3 out of 4 games. I don't want to give the Capes game I played in the short shrift. It was a great game, but it had tough competition.

Posted By: ShaneJacksonI hack off his head and carry it outside

Shane, fanmail, dude. I was in awe when I heard about this.

Oh, I forgot a highlight.

I found special six-sided dice in the dealer's room. They had different smiley faces on them: big smiley (elated), regular smiley (happy), flat-lipped smiley (apathetic), frowny face (sad), big frowny face with sad eyes (despairing), peeved smiley (angry).

I bought five, realizing that I could now roll to overcome my grief. Dave Cleaver has insisted that I design a game for these dice.

Adam: Hah, there are at least 5 people I know (including me!) who have a set of those dice, and I believe that all of us at one point thought of making a game based on them.

I've actually been using them in pretty much every game I've run since 2005 (when I got them): For random encounters with NPCs, I don't 'absolutely' go with whatever comes up on the dice, but I do use them as sort of an Everway-style Tarot reading of their mood.

"Frowny Face. Hmmm, why is that. Maybe it's because this NPC is connected to the other NPC that is in trouble. Yeah. But I'll play this NPC up as seemingly happy, just cause that's the kind of person that this shopkeeper would be."

-Andy

I LOVE how far that comment has traveled.

I think that's an interesting comment on the success of some of these games: we wanted more. We wanted the parts we hadn't seen. Most of these games are designed for longer play and have to be truncated somehow to fit in a con slot. I know for Ben's Bliss Stage playtest, which was the final part of what would have been a multi-session game, all of us wanted to know how the characters had gotten to this point - what had happened *before* the games started at the con.

(Friends and I did design a game for the smiley dice, years ago at Origins. It's called Happy Fun Die. Rules: roll the die, then act like you are feeling the emotion you roll. Pass the die to your left and keep acting that way. The game ends when all players are happy, or when security is called.)

Posted By: Matthew GandyI think that's an interesting comment on the success of some of these games: we wanted more. We wanted the parts we hadn't seen. Most of these games are designed for longer play and have to be truncated somehow to fit in a con slot. I know for Ben's Bliss Stage playtest, which was the final part of what would have been a multi-session game, all of us wanted to know how the characters had gotten to this point - what had happened *before* the games started at the con.

Oh yeah. If we want to take my frame at the beginning of the game seriously, this is a tape that I'd totally watch over and over with my friends, then suddenly figure out that you could order anime *on the internet* and scrimp together $100 for the boxed set.

I'm sad that, in this case, I can't buy the boxed set at all.

yrs--
--Ben

My whole first convention experience was a highlight. Well worth flying out from the west coast. What an awesome bunch of creative, intelligent yet unassuming people there are in this community. I'd like to especially thank Shane for striking up a conversation after our Shock game, inviting me to tag along, and introducing me to several people. Everyone was really friendly. Jason and Judd made special efforts to make sure I felt welcome and was having a good time. My own character's highlights were few as the sheer amount of awesome sort of put me into a reactive mode for the convention. When I manage to recover a little I plan on posting AP vignettes elsewhere. For now though -

Misspent Youth: It was really neat to see the playtest process. There were no sacred cows. Rob has done a lot of work on this game, had a couple playtests prior to this, and was looking to potentially change a LOT of things based on the play experience and great feedback he was getting from this third playtest.

Shock: The collaborative world creation was really fun. The End of Scarcity as a Shock, with Integrity being currency and marriage restrictions based on Integrity differences made great catalysts for engaging conflicts. Having Jeff as my Nanite Computer Overmind Antagonist was just cool.

Polaris: Holy crap, what a non-stop stream of awesome ideas, agonizing choices, pathos, and tragedy there was coming from all my fellow players. To return the dark star fragment to the Remnant that he hoped would save the People, my character Indus had to harden his heart against his love, Maia. "The Call of Home" compass thing that was to guide him back to the Remnant was instead shining towards her heart. And then when he returned home, having sworn an oath to do whatever Corvus would have him do, he was forced to destroy the fragment, which released thousands of demons and sorrow upon the People. Just getting to play Polaris with Ben was a highlight. Polaris is probably the design I am most impressed with among all the small press rpgs I've read and played.

Spirit of the Century: Again, amazing players. Last time I mention that because that was a constant in all my games - no exception. An insane number of highlights in an abbreviated session. For my character, throwing a wrench into the engine of Baron von Blood's flying craft to good effect was fun. As was attempting to distract Zombie Kong by dressing as Fay Wray with a white gown and blond wig, but having it be ineffective because my character (Jane "Flygirl" Justice) was a tomboy. I love FATE. It's an Fun Machine - just insert players.

Dictionary of Mu: Epic. It would be like being forced to choose between children, but if I had to pick, this was my favorite game of the con. Everyone was saying "Yes" to each other in startling and amazing ways. I am enthused about Sorceror where I never was before. I'm going to go back and read the core book and supplements a third time to see if I can now "get it," and then try to get it to the table this year. Shane's horrific portrayal of the Khan of all Khan's was enthralling. He may have been actually channeling him. For my character, when trying to summon a defender for Battlehymn, I failed and instead found a beauteous presence named "Lightbringer." Hmmm... When he told me his need was to corrupt the powerful, I had to turn him away rather than attempt to bind him. Even knowing that the Khan's army was approaching and our city's defenses would likely not be sufficient without Lightbringer's help, there would be no deal with the devil and the fragile peace we had wrought in Battlehymn was now in jeopardy. Judd is an amazing GM and plays demons in a very spooky, seductive way. I could see how much fun it would be for the GM playing the demons for the sorcerors, making demands, whining, tempting. Awesome.

DitV: Man, I think most of us were wrecked by Sunday night. I was having a hard time concentrating. John's initiation scene with the "I hope I don't shoot my father a 2nd time tonight" was a clear highlight. Messed. Up. It was great meeting Vincent and having him run New Chapel Town for us. He is so self-effacing, low-key and gentle, even as he gleefuly pushes two d10s adding to "20", in a "Does Brother Isaiah (my character) die?" conflict. Hilarious. :-)

Other highlights:

Meeting and chatting with the Evil Hat guys about FATE, DRYH, Richard Dawkins, A Game of Thrones d20, and other topics. Really nice guys. I'm a total FATE junkie, so that was very cool.

The panel game design panel on Sunday. Man, I want to own/play all those games now! The giants game, the wrestling game, the hitman game, Misspent Youth, the Lost Things/Labyrinth/Homeless game concept. As with the playtesting session, fun to watch the process. Great brainstorming and respectful, helpful suggestions flying around.

I don't know if I'm going to turn into a convention guy based on my experience at Dreamation, but I am definitely going to somehow squeeze it into my budget for next year so I can come back. Hoping I can find ways to make it less expensive in '08 though. Not a cheap weekend, but well worth it.

Matthew (One-of-Many)

Great playing with you. I picked up Under the Bed and read it on the plane back. I'm enthused about both it and Shock and am going to try *really* hard to get both of them to the table in '07.

With IGE exploding as it did, "one fewer player might have been better," seemed like a theme in a few games. If I'm able to make it next year, I might run a couple games of my own where my only real preparation would be to get the rules explanation down to an art: Shock, Polaris, Shab-al-Hiri, etc. Take some load off the "play with the designer" groups and still get to play a great game... That said, I don't think letting Luke in to make with the crazy mad ideas and give people cancer was necessarily a bad thing. ;)

But they're going to need a bigger room for IGE next year. Lotta games being played in the lobby and elsewhere from the overflow...

Heh. I think Shane should get that ball rolling. Maybe some cross-market appeal there for haters of Luke or of indie games generally. If there can be a Flaming Taft shirt, there sure as hell could be a LUKE CRANE GAVE ME CANCER shirt... :)

Wow, Shane, I am honored.

I haven't gone to Dreamation, but the highlight that I've witnessed is that about a dozen people joined this forum in the past three days, most of them citing hearing about Story-Games at Dreamation or through Dreamation-related blog posts and the like.

Posted By: AndyI haven't gone to Dreamation, but the highlight that I've witnessed is that about a dozen people joined this forum in the past three days, most of them citing hearing about Story-Games at Dreamation or through Dreamation-related blog posts and the like.

The chat option is also hopping post-Dreamation. I hope it lasts through the next Gabbly-quake.

and Joshua, it was great to meet you as well.

Microbursts of cool:

Lots of Misspent Youth trainwrecks and ideas for fixing.

Vietnamese and Ethiopian dinners with cool people.

Impregnating then force-growing my fetus in Burning Empires.

Killing my other body in dreamtime in order to get out of the psych ward in Mortal Coil.

The game design panel.

More bloviating on my blog entry

Yes, I was honored to learn that you adopted my character (a kid with a German father and a Polish mother, who got polio, and whose father then left them, who hated all Germans).

Someone else decided that Lena (a German girl I created earlier, whose trait was "selfless") was the one who was pregnant in the chapter. I decided my character had impregnated her. Someone else decided that yes, that's fine, but also: she's "selfless" and has "helped" a lot of boys.

Did I mention I like collaborative RPGs?