Yeah, so Go Play Northwest is still going on. But it's late Saturday night and I wanted to post about all the awesomeness going on.

First of all, mucho thanks for all the local folks like Tony and Brandon and others for putting this on. Your hard work is *seriously* appreciated!! My first time in Seattle and what a cool city! Nice university location right downtown.

Friday evening I showed up and checked in, and a bunch of us repaired to the Elysian Brewing Company for beers and dinner and more beers. When we returned to campus, people were already congregating in the lobby downstairs to play some card and board games to whet the appetite. By the time I was going to bed, Paul Tevis was running Cash 'n Guns and everyone was pointing foam pistols at each other, HK Action-style. That was a nice wakeup call to the Episcopalian deacons who were staying in the dorms with us!

The next morning after a huge breakfast we all congregated in our assigned gaming rooms to setup games for the day. There were three official slots (9am, 1pm, 4pm) for three-hour games with breaks in-between. And some stayed after for some gaming into the night.

In the 9am slot Clinton Nixon ran Greg Stolze's game Reign, which was a hoot! The chargen for this game was worth the price of admission alone. Imagine BW's lifepath system with randomizers. You roll 10-siders to figure out which important events happened during your character's life up to this point. So for example, my character had been a petty thief, canny sage, foot soldier, misery merchant, raised wild and a star-crossed lover. And all of those events had a mechanical benefit in the game, either increasing a stat, a skill or adding some sort of advantage to the character. But the great part is that me as a player got to take these events and put them in any order I liked to create my character's story, which was *very* empowering! And once all of the characters were created, we banded together into a "Company" to achieve our goals in the game. One of the other interesting things about Reign is it's use of Company rules, which simulate large battles between groups, houses, armies, etc. Basically the scenes that your characters are involved in during a session can add bonuses to a final roll that is made at the end of the session. So while our Black Hyena bandits were trying to overthrow the Tyrant King, our individual actions were helping the overall goal.

Clinton said this was his first time running the system, but he worked it like a pro and it was a great start to the day.

In the 1pm session I was in Wilhelm's 8-person BW scenario "The Gift". Now I had played BW a few times including Luke's demo of "The Sword", but the sheer amount of deadly conflict built into this con scenario was awesome, and Wilhelm kept things moving along. I played the Dwarven keeper of the treasure room, and the climax of the session was a no-limit Duel of Wits that ended in a tie despite the damned Elves rolling 15 successes for their final Point!! I have always said that Burning Wheel is a dish best served by someone who knows what the hell they are doing, and Wilhelm kept the game moving along nicely.

Dinner break was a bit early, so supercool local guy and Agon chief John Harper and I walked downtown so I could try the coffee at the much vaunted Espresso Vivace , which the coed running the front desk at the dorm taught me how to pronounce properly after I butchered the name. And damn if it wasn't in the Top Three of Best Lattes I Have Ever Had. A quick bowl of Pho for dinner and we were back on campus for the evening session.

I was finally getting a chance to play Primetime Adventures which I had read so much about. I had always heard that getting buy-in on the show concept was key. And a late GM and disagreements over the setting didn't get things going on the right foot. But we finally agreed on a TV show about average people who find out that they are actually fairy tale characters. So we had people like Merlin, Little Red Riding Hood and Peter Pan.

I'm still honestly trying to grasp the scene framing rules and probably wasn't helping the game to run smoothly, but I definitely had fun trying out the system and would like to see it in longer form play.

Whew! So I am crashing now in prep for Sunday's games. I'm playing in a playtest of Matt Wilson's Galactic. And who knows what else the day holds.


Any other fun stories from the weekend? You guys are awesome!!

We're having an *AWESOME* time down at Go Play. It is so cool to see people coming from all over the place, getting into games, and meeting new people. This community is full of the best people.

I had so much fun this weekend, I'm at a loss how to translate that into an AP thread. I played in Tony Dowler's TSOY game, Wilhelm Fitzpatrick (rafial)'s Burning Wheel game, and my husband Edmund (Shosuro Kando)'s Zorcerer of Zo game; and I ran two games of Wilderness of Mirrors that, with the same premise, turned out entirely different. There was so much cool stuff going on, I couldn't get into all the games I was lusting after, but there are only so many hours in the day!

I only had time to play in two sessions-- coincidentally the same Shock and Beast Hunters games that Matt described above. Both were great sessions, and I would play both games again. I consider a game that you think about well after it is over a success and I am still thinking about all the stuff we talked about creating the world in Shock. I'm bummed that I had to head out early-- next year (there will be a next year, right?!) I hope to stay longer and even make two days of it.

--Dan

GPNW was like mainlining pure, uncut awesome. Being in six RPGs plus other games all in 48 hours was just...damn.

A massive thanks to everyone who put it together, everyone who indulged me, well, being me, and just everyone for showing up. Seriously, I have individual reasons to thank people, but, well, I'd be thanking everyone there that I met. I'm glad to put names and real world personalities to faces, and hope that people got the same awesome out of me.

I will directly thank John Kim, Joe McDonald, Jackson Tegu, Brian Weigmen, and Mike Sugarbaker for playtesting Know Thyself and giving me awesome feedback.

Dudes. SEA FRICKIN' DRACULA! (Incidenally, I apologize for being a major catalyst in people leaving the room we played in.) That was the most badass dancing contest I've ever been in.

Posted By: jjspackleRyan, Jonh, that Beast Hunters game was brutal fun!

Thank you as well. We so brought our A-Games, and that was awesome.

[Go Play NW side effects may include a loss of voice and an bizarre looks from folks who frankly aren't having as much fun as you. Some patients have reported awesome coming out of their ears. Ask your GM if PaulCon NW is right for you.]

Wooo!

Here's my enthusing, originally posed to Seattle Gamer's Assemble

----

Saturday was a blast, and I was only able to stay for two sessions. The turn out has been great, and everone is full of energy. The "on the fly" session scheduling has so far been working well, with people just writing down want they are planning to run on a big whiteboard, and then people signing up. In the morning I played Greg Stolze's new ORE game _Reign_, as run by Mr. Clinton Nixon, and had a blast. That game is worth it for the character generation system alone. Then I ran a whopping big game of Burning Wheel (using "The Gift" con scenario), and it was cool, and afterwards people were coming up to me saying "whatever you were playing at that table, you were having a blast!"

I'm looking forward to Sunday, if I can stay awake!

----

My second day at Go Play NW rocked my world. It started out pleasently enough with a new installment of Ed's "Playful Watch" series of Zorcerer of Zo adventures. I scored a new toy, Chuy from Hondurous, a toy blue tree frog who secretes poison, sticks to things, and desperately wants to be a real frog some day. (Okay, he got his wish, the Zorcerer is kind).

Then the day took a turn for the seriously awesome, as I hooked up with Mr. Jake Richmond and his very amazing game of Panty Explosion. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but it's a totally serious game that draws on the Japanese "psychic schoolgirl" genre, and we used it to create the most awesome and genuinely chilling J-Horror movie that you will never see, because it only exists in my, and two other guys heads!

Finally for a Con closer, I ran a rollicking game of Tunnels and Trolls. When I wrote my game up on the scheduling board, there was total gang rush as people ran to sign up, and I wound up with six players. Only two of them had played any T&T before, but they took to it like ducks to water. They pushed the saving roll system as hard as they could, with marvelous results. One incident that stands out was the Dwarf Warrior (name of Pigface), whose talent was "Batterning Ram", lumbering through lines of goblins scattering them like ninepins, and then turning around and charging back through the lines, finally shoulder checking one on to the point of the Elf Warrior (Moonrazor)'s sword.

We also had an Elf wizard (Metro Natural), an Elf rogue (Legolamb), and a pair of brother & sister Leprechauns (Rabbitpunk* and ??(shoot, I can't remember, somthing like "Glamsmack")) with a bad case of sibling rivalry, and a penchant for satyriasis. (Safety tip... never leave an oversexed Leprechaun alone in a torture chamber for too long).

So huge thanks to the organizers for making this even happen, and at the moment they are definitely planning to make it happen again next year. And to those following along at home, this was a triumph of quality over quantity (although the quantity was not bad either. I estimate there were 30-35 events run over the course of two day).

Wooo!

holy shit.
first con ever, what an experience.

i'm undead tired right now, and so all i'll do now is say thanks to everyone i played with, and everyone i didn't get to play with and wanted to.

and joe, you are the fucking hero of my days. all you vancouverites; shit.

tear... sniff. (HA HA HA!!!)

It was definitely the most fun gaming con day I've had (I only went up there Saturday morning and drove back early Sunday morning).

Two awesome rounds of Beast Hunters -- thanks to Lukas, Lesley, Joe, Colin, Dan, Ryan, Matt and John.

My first ever game of 1001 Nights facilitated by James Brown straight out of the book, which brought fourth some good and sometimes hilarious stories.

And finally -- three hours of JUNGLE SPEED! Hell yeah. Playing with Clinton, Kirk, James and the others (with a guest appearance by Unbeatable Joe) was an awesome way to lose my Jungle Speed virginity.

GP NW was a 50 gallon tub of awesome! Extra kudos to everyone who organized it and everyone who stepped up to GM/facilitate a game. I got to play Beast Hunters, Perfect, 1,001 Nights, A Penny for My Thoughts, The Princes' Kingdom, Too Much Metal for 25 Hands, and a good smattering of board games, and every single one of them rocked! I'm looking forward to the possibility of more of these in the future (hint, hint).

- Lukas

Wow, just wow. Not sure where to start, but here's some highlights.

The pre-convention dinner gathering was an excellent idea. It's nice to get to know people even the tiniest bit before you game with them, and I found myself a lot more at ease when I gamed the next day when someone I had met at the dinner was at the same table.

Got a great start to Saturday playing Beast Hunters with Christian, Joe McDonald, and a couple of other people whose names I've forgotten, but were no less awesome. I think I finally "get" the game now that I've played it with an experienced Challenger. Some awesome moments...

• Our leader-type Hunter cutting her way through a bunch of male soldiers to get at the "real" enemy, their female leader.


• Our Spirit Warrior holding off the ninja-assassins who were trying to kill our ailing chief until her prayers to the spirits healed her.


• The small but fierce hunter wrestling with a war-dog and tearing out its freaking throat with his TEETH!


• All the fun I had playing the 7-foot tall skull-crushing maniac with the bones of his enemies woven into his beard.


• Christian for tying it all together.

Next was Inuma with Clinton, Jackson Tegu, and (again) some people who were equally awesome but whose names I've forgotten. We had a kind of "Rock and Roll High School" vibe going, only with supercomputers and centaurs. High points for me were:

• Our Antagonist - The eerily calm and composed androgynous psychic, All-Is-Light.


• Clinton showing us how a real story gamer creates conflict...by having his deer-centaur storm into the Principals office and throw him out the freaking window!


• The unspoken love between my lovelorn vestal-virgin technician and the massive supercomputer ZEUS!


• The awkward Siren, Miss Evans, finally becoming comfortable with her siren powers and using them to lead a student revolt.
  

Last game was Wilderness of Mirrors, the spy caper game by John Wick. We had crazy scientists, a nuke hidden in a bank vault, and a beautiful Russian spy who was having affairs with not one but two of the PCs. Special kudos go out to Anemone for seeing the game through after a rough spot in the middle. I salute you!

I had hoped to play on Sunday as well, especially the Galactic Playtest where I would have been playing with Alan and JJSpackle who I had talked to so much at the Friday dinner. Sadly, logistics reared its ugly head and I had to head back to Portland first thing. Next time I think I'll reserve a hotel for Sunday night as well and play through the whole day.

Thanks again to everyone who made this possible, and apologies to all the awesome people who I talked to or played with but did not mention in this post.

Cheers!
Colin

I am ripe with envy.

I guess I should shower.

When will John post and tell me about the Danger Patrol playtest? Damn him.

Posted By: ColinCI had hoped to play on Sunday as well, especially the Galactic Playtest where I would have been playing with Alan and JJSpackle who I had talked to so much at the Friday dinner.

Damn, that would have been sweet. I regretted we didn't play any games together, Colin.
Definitely something to rectify next time around!
That Inuma sounds wild.

Please tell me more about Pony Hospital immediately.

I guess I should shower.

I fell in love with GPNW at 9:10 on Saturday morning, when I walked into Room 200 for the first time, saw a bunch of gamers heads-down over games and a bunch of others getting themselves organized, and realized that my god, all these people bathe.

Anyway. Saturday started with Blood and Bronze, which has fantastic bits -- a hand-hammered bronze bowl and pennies (Canadian pennies!) painted crimson on one side. I don't think I'm the right player for this game, it's too visual, requiring parsing and assembly of a compex visual situation before you can act.

After lunch, I played multi-player Beast Hunters with Ryan M. on my right and Matthew S-B on my left and Dan kinda across from me. Ryan ran up a giant dude's arm and clobbered him from above. Matt narrated a hill spirit into being and then stabbed it, causing an earthquake. It was like 300 meets Conan, but less gentle, and will be a fabulous pick-up-and-play game for times when regular games fall through.

Session 3 was Kirk Mitchell's Kin. I am in love with this game; it's the most natural issue-driven ensemble-cast story-game I've played, and it scaled tidily to our seven players. Actual play is forthcoming, and I can't wait for the ashcan. We were Olympians living in the suburbs of 50's America. Jake and Kingston rocked the house as our squabbling [m/p]atriarchs. At the end, Kingston changed all Jake's lovers into animals, and the menagerie stamped the house, splitting it in two.

Sesson 4, early early Sunday, was Dogs in the Boardroom. My victory conditions for the con were to play the classics of the genre with people I'd never played before. This game totally fulfilled those conditions. I've never played Dogs before, and my non-gamer wife has always been intrigued by it and came along to play.

I'm not sure if Dogs is the game for the complete beginner, though. There are lots of moving pieces to it, and it took us most of the play session before we started rocking the traits / roll / raise / block / escalate / narrate / fallout cycle. I think that a nice Dogs play mat, maybe sewn in the fashion of a Dog coat, with blackjack-like outlines for your raise dice, your pool, your unrolled dice, your blocking dice, and maybe some illustrative arrows between them, would be helpful for the noob.

We played the Boardroom scenario straight and seriously, and it kinda cut us too close to the bone. In real life, V and I have worked with many of the dysfunctional morons who populated the boutique furniture factory we were fixing. I do think I want to play Dogs again, but I want them to be in the Vineyard. Thanks to Wilson Z., who was a good, patient teacher, and to Will H. whose hardheaded pinkslipper was a great counterpart to Victoria's sweetly manipulative earth mother.

Sesson 5 was another classic, The Shadow of Yesterday. My victory token continued its inexorable march upwards, because this was the first time I'd ever gotten to play a game with my long-time writer bud Blake (Hexabolic here on S-G). It was good he was along, too -- in the brutal final moments of the game, as we were exploring the cursed ruin of the Lich King, Ryan's veiled immortality cultista stabbed my witch doctor with a poisoned blade. Blake's sea captain carried my guy's foaming, convulsing body away, ensuring that he did not die in the ruin and become a zombie himself. Thanks, Blake!

Sesson 6 was Wilhelm's T&T, and this is all I will say about that:



Many many thanks to the GPNW crew.

Pony Hospital, the medical drama for pre-teen girls - plucky young doctors, careworn matronly doctors, conniving egotistical doctors, crusty old doctors runnin' thangs, and a thoroughbred named Galahad.

At the climax, the two big tubs marked "PONY MEDICINE" and "HORSE MEDICINE" come on screen, and Dr. Terrier calls for the horse medicine - for a pony. So crazy it just might work - but at what cost?

That was a great time, and many thanks to all players for tolerating my occasional wooly-headedness as producer. (Er, uh yeah it was a PTA game)

Posted By: johnzoRyan ran up a giant dude's arm and clobbered him from above. Matt narrated a hill spirit into being and then stabbed it, causing an earthquake.

Other way around. :) Matt ran up a giant dude's arm, I was milking spirits left and right. But there was so much awesome at that table that I don't think anyone couldn't keep track of it all. :)

OK, here's my Go Play NW report:

Session 1 I got to run TSOY for five TSOY newbies. This game started with a bang, hit the targets, and rocked to a satisfying climax. The players riffed on each other like pros. Everyone was cheering on one player to transcend in the final scene. It was one of the most satisfying GM-ing experiences I've ever had.

Session 2 I facilitated Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries (Eric Boyd's game, to be released at Gen Con). The game has some fiddly bits, and it was a challenge to get it running for six people, so there was a bit of fumbling on my part. Once we got it going, it ran fine. Our expedition fought assassins at sea, mummies in Cairo, and dinosaurs in the Great Rift Valley. The highlight was when Paul Tevis' daring explorer leapt on the back of a pterodactyl and fought an aerial battle with the infamous Dr. Livingston.

Session 3 we played Jason Lutes board game in development, Thrilling Tales of Adventure, a globetrotting pulp adventure where each player takes the role of a pulp hero, but also drives the agenda of a nefarious villain. This game is an AWESOME big ticket board game in the tradition of War of the Ring or Twilight Imperium. It's not done yet, but I'd sit down and play it for four hours again in a heartbeat.

After sessions we had a John Harper Danger Patrol playtest where I got to be a great scientist entombed in the body of an atomic war machine, desperately seeking a cure for his situation. I had a great time riffing off the mystic character, as we each scoffed at the other's methods, while working together against the crimson commandoes.

Sunday I ran Principia (formerly Mathematic), my own game in development. We were really tired, and I had to jump around a bit with the TSOY mechanics before I got it right. We did, however, end with an epic evil werewolf vs. good werewolf battle framed by a steam pistol and saber fight against Count Zolvi's bizarre Circus of Death.

Edit: I am totally burned out, and I can't remember anyone's name correctly.

Yeah, and my apologies to Matt if an "Auk! Auk!" shows up. I dropped in to touch base with Johnzo and couldn't help but share a snippet of the shoreline experience with Sea Dracula.

Edited: Tony, I was the minotaur mutant flyboy in the cockpit screaming "Graaah!"

I want to add that playing alongside Johnzo was a great way to end the con for me. And watching his earnest Qek witch-doctor fall prey to the wily machinations of the obsessed Ammeni cultista was poignant. 'Zo did a great job of portraying the bug-eyed look of bewilderment when his ally suddenly drove her envenomed dagger into his gut. Priceless. A great tragic ending for his character.

Incidentally, Jason Lutes of Thrilling Tales of Adventure is also Jason Lutes of Berlin: City of Stones and Jar of Fools, two of the best graphic novels of the 90's. I ran around telling everyone this as soon as I found out, but apparently not all story-gaming nerds were also alternative-comics nerds in 1999.

OK. I missed the first and last sessions of that -- but it made for less burnout. My games were:

Sat Afternoon: "Spirit of Serenity" (Spirit of the Century in the Firefly/Serenity background) that I game-mastered.

I was re-running the scenario that I ran for my home group. It went very well, I think, though it was a bit of a tight fit to wrap up in 3 hours. Still a little rough on the system.

Sat Evening: Playtest of "Know Thyself", organized by author Ryan Macklin.

This was GMless amnesiac fun, where you decide what you do, but the players around you decide what you are like and where you are. Joe McDonald played next to me, and particular kudos to him.

Sat Night: Playtest of "Cheap", game-mastered by author Joe McDonald.

This was pretty surreal scene-jumping stuff. But in the end, we broke the game and took Joe's pants. Sadly, however, the fairy wand was not invoked.

Sun Morning: "Zorcerer of Zo", game-mastered by Edmund Metheny.

Zany fun in the wonderland of Zo, where we played misfit toys and character generation started by opening the wrapping of the toy present we selected. I played Sir Sellsalot, a knight with aspirations to being a master salesman. Extra kudos to Jackson Tegu, who managed to convincingly play a plastic tea set as his character.

Sun Afternoon: "The Prince's Kingdom", game-mastered by author Clinton Nixon.

More kidsy fun as we went to a distant isle and dealt with problems there, using some pregenerated characters. Clinton took on 7 players after many other sessions of gaming for a 3 hour slot, which was... ambitious. :-)

No, Jake, thank you. That was one of the highlights of the con for me.

- Kirk

Posted By: Ryan Macklin

Posted By: jjspackleI don't want to steal credit for Ryan's spirutal domination!

Nor I for your utter invincibility, for you wereShe Who Was Defeat Incarnate.

[aside] Dude, the harlot dice loved me on defense, that was crazy. But woe when we succumbed to their Siren's Call on the attack!
A hard learned lesson that accepting the Challenger's offer in Beast Hunter is huge.[/aside]

Posted By: jake richmondThat guy was totally me. I have a nasty rug burn now.

Your breakdancing was freakin' awesome.

I have a small bruise on my chest from that game. Dude, the first person to post AP about how he was physically scarred from Sea Dracula should get some sort of prize.

Posted By: John HarperI think I speak for all of the organizers when I say:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

And the same to all the organizers -- that was a great con! Everything ran smoothly, the location was great, I thought the whole scheduling thing really worked out well with the meal breaks, etc.

Highlights for me, gamewise, were The Mountain Witch and the ever-in-development Danger Patrol. (I was the mystic explorer Cornelius Black, mentioned above, with the 'Let's see your science explain this, Professor!' aspect.) Blood & Bronze was also great, though somewhat cut short by our total failure to grasp the game's strategic complexity -- poor Troy was eliminated almost instantaneously, crushed beneath the heel of Daedalus' flying machines.

Other games played included:

Reign: Hyenas with giant clitorises! Kill the tyrant! Kill the hyena cult! Kill the general! Random character generation is fun, but 3 hours was a little constrictive. Still, we did manage to fit it all in. The interaction between PC action and 'company rolls' was intriguing, and the presence of quaint things like 'armour' and 'hit location' was ambivalently oldschool.
PTA: Everyday contemporary people begin to realise that they are in fact characters from popular fairy tale and myth. I feel bad about all the initial blocking I did in this game -- my energy level had plummeted due to delicious Italian food, and I was struggling to get my mind into the game. I think it came around eventually, though.
Tunnels & Trolls: Even though my character did almost nothing, this was a pretty fun game to watch. (And that's not some clever passive-aggressive snark in disguise.) Especially everyone's reactions to the delicious oldschool flavour (I think Joe had several laughing fits during character generation).

My GPNW experience was out of this world. I can hardly believe it was only three days long.

The Friday gathering at the Elysian was a fantastic start. It set the tone for the whole event for me. Shouts out to Clinton, Wilhelm, Wilson Zorn and Chris Bennett for some excellent dinner conversation.

Friday night in the dorm lobby was dominated by Jungle Speed. Joe McDonald showed me that I am a mere mortal after all. Just snatching a few all-grabs (out of many many failures) felt like a small victory. Long will the song of Joe be sung in the halls of the tribe. Also props to Kirk for drawing first blood.

On Saturday I mainly helped the late-comers find a game, then sat with Blake and watched Clinton's session of Reign. It looked like a great game. I can't wait for my copy to show up. I also got to see Blake's incredible homemade character sheets and relationship maps for his Exalted/Wushu/Hack home game. Very cool stuff.

After the lunch break, I played in Wilhelm's Burning Wheel game, "The Gift." I had heard of Luke running this one at cons, and I was very excited to play. It did not disappoint. We had great elf vs. dwarf taunting and insults, secret whispered meetings, etiquette battles, and a huge fierce duel of wits to cap it all off. Extra special thanks to Sophie and Carla for playing the fearless leaders on each side.

For the session three slot, I ran a playtest of Danger Patrol with Clinton and Matt Gagan. This was my first time running the Fate/SotC-based version of the game, but it still went very well. I think all three of us were a little surprised by how much fun it was right out of the gate. Matt and Clinton created a mentalist villain (Enchantra!) that was the foil of Matt's character and the lost-love of Clinton's. The climax involved Clinton's Mutant Detective convincing Enchantra to give up her evil ways and help them stop the magna zeppelin from crashing into the Rocket City power core.

When that session wrapped, I was so jazzed from the playtest that I immediately ran it again for Tony Dowler, Blake Hutchins, Daniel Wood, Phil LaRose, and Doug Bartlett. This game had the same setup (crashing zeppelin) but the players created a very different set of bad guys through their initial scene framing. This time we had elite Crimson Republic commandos with walking spider bombs and an ancient mystical artifact that had attracted multidimensional monsters from beyond time and space. All the PCs were awesome, but the highlight had to be Blake's Mutant Flyboy: horns, hooves, and all. "Graaaahhhrr!"

Late-night Saturday I had a great talk with James, Carl, Paul, Jackson, and Brandon about running Dogs, Agon, functional ambiguity in game texts, and other stuff. It was one of those great bonding times where you just bask in the mutually shared interests of new friends.

On Sunday I played Blood & Bronze with James, Alan, Brandon, and Daniel. Even though it is the second best competitive Greek game, it is still a pastime fit for kings. The rules are super simple but the strategy is deep, deep, deep. I think I may actually be able to win after I play it three more times.

The final session was Wilhelm's hardcore, turned-to-eleven Tunnels & Trolls game. I got to play an Elf Warrior called Moonrazor who wielded a flaming vorpal Great Shamsheer and had the special talent, "Le Parkour." The first encounter of this game was more fun than every other dungeon adventure rpg I've ever played put together. Clinton's dwarven juggernaut "Pigface" (3'4", 540 pounds) and Joe's S/M Leprechaun Rogue were the icing on the cake of exploding awesome power.

I also felt like I made a dozen new friends. Chris Bennett, Blake Hutchins, James Brown, Carla, Jeremy -- I wish you guys were locals so we could hang out all the time. You guys are awesome.

The Vancouverites!! I love you guys. Joe, Daniel, Kirk -- not only are you great gamers but you're a ton of fun. You brought so much laughter and energy, you kept me going when my tank was almost empty. Also, Joe paid the proper fealty to me when we went out to dinner, so I will stay my doom hand of destruction for another year.

Super, crazy, mad props to Jackson Tegu, quite possibly the coolest guy in the world. I'm so glad you made the trek from the Middle of Nowhere to join our merry band.

Also big thanks to everyone who bought a t-shirt! We are a shoestring budget operation and every little bit helps a lot.

Now I must collapse. I feel as if I have just run ten marathons.

Christian! Yes. I really missed being able to sit and chat with you. And lots of other folks, too. Hopefully I can rectify some of that at GenCon. :-)

Posted By: Ice Cream EmperorReign: Hyenas with giant clitorises!

Holy crap, Daniel. I had totally forgotten about that! I so wish I had a picture of Clinton holding up a fist with only the pinky sticking out while quietly explaining this trait and furtively looking around to make sure no girls were listening ...

Posted By: John HarperI also felt like I made a dozen new friends. Chris Bennett, Blake Hutchins, James Brown, Carla, Jeremy -- I wish you guys were locals so we could hang out all the time. You guys are awesome.

Yeah, the feeling is pretty much mutual. The gaming was great, don't get me wrong. But the *real* highlight was meeting so many cool people. I will be wearing the t-shirt proudly.

Posted By: John Harper
Super, crazy, mad props to Jackson Tegu, quite possibly the coolest guy in the world. I'm so glad you made the trek from the Middle of Nowhere to join our merry band.

So where the hell did this guy come from, anyway? It's like there's this secret workshop in a remote area of Vancouver Island that is making people like Jackson out of 100# ingots of Awesome. I think Kirk came from that same place, too.

Chris B.

Johnzo: Yes! We have a GPNW Cafe Press store. Order away.

Thanks to all of the organizers, players and GM's at this weekends GPNW. Not having much experience with the world of story games, I thought I'd come down from Vancouver and see what it was all about. I was awesome to see so many folks enthusiastically enjoying themselves and not getting uptight about newbs in.

Posted By: MummyKittyI don't know how I will go back to GURPS....

As someone who use to be a big ol' GURPS nerd, I don't know how I would either. And at this point, I totally don't want to.

Hell yeah! Dan, Jason, and all you other "new" folks... thanks for giving us a try.

Posted By: Caesar_XHoly crap, Daniel. I had totally forgotten about that! I so wish I had a picture of Clinton holding up a fist with only the pinky sticking out while quietly explaining this trait and furtively looking around to make sure no girls were listening ...

*Snicker* We do read Stephen J. Gould, you know. This anatomical feature is not news. :-p

Posted By: joepubInstead of Dr. Windsor (his character) taking the responsibility...

Jake did this in Kin too. In Kin, you play black playing cards on people to say mean things to them. The high point was when he whipped a ninja-mittful of spades and clubs at everyone at the table and shouted "This! Is! Everyone's! Fault! But! Mine!"

Posted By: John HarperJohnzo: Yes! We have a GPNW Cafe Press store. Order away.

Where there any 3X shirts there? I looked and only saw 2X, but that was around mid-day or so on Saturday.

Nope, I didn't bring any 3x shirts. But the Cafe Press store has them.

No problemo. In fact, next year I'm going to take t-shirt pre-orders.

I posted my report here

Also, I punched James in the face playing Jungle Speed.

Kirk fails to mention that he punched me in the face with the totem, which is what makes it Ok.

Kirk also has the dubious honor of being, not the only person I've seen dragged across the table in a totem fight, but being the only person I've seen dragged across the table in a totem fight without disturbing any cards.

Later, he failed to repeat this trick.

James

Posted By: jake richmond

In another game, Jake Richmond made me take off my pants and give them to him. I did.

I feel like this paints me in a bad light.

You don't really, do you Jake? I think this is one of those highlight stories. That, and when John narrated me into a scene and you all proceeded to beat the emotional shit out of me using my own blunt weapon of a game.