Hey, I'm back from Go Play Southeast and it was great. My pictures didn't turn out very good, and in them everybody looks like an axe murderer, but they are here if you want to take a look. I hope others will share their photos with links in this thread.

Here's what got played:

PTA (in the car on the way up!) Link to AP
PTA again Link to AP
Dogs in the Vineyard
Legends of Alyria
Shab-al-Hiri Roach
The Shadow of Yesterday
Capes
Contenders
Heroes Banner
Beast Hunters (thanks for the reminder, Josh)

And Mechaton and Rumis. And maybe some stuff I forgot. It was great to meet new people, make new friends, play new games (and old games), and chill in the Tennessee mountains.

Thanks for sharing the pictures, Jason!

Pics for Perusal

Tell that to your brother. :)

Sorry it has taken me a while to weigh in here. I've been catching up on work since I took Friday off for Go Play Southeast. I thought the event was a success. There were a few bumps in the road but I sort of expected that since it was the first time. The next Go Play Southeast will be better if only because I'll have the experience of having already organized one. Here were my goals for the weekend:

1.) A relaxing weekend. I didn't want there to be a big worry about food and cleaning and chores. The biggest worries I wanted were who was running what game and how could we possibly fit all those games into 1 weekend. I think we came pretty close to nailing this one. The facilities certainly helped here. Also, the fact that we only had 12 people kept any chores from getting out of hand. Saturday lunch might have been something we would have had to work around but my wife volunteered to cook us all lunch, so that was taken care of. Over all, not much stress on my part. I hope everyone else had the same experience.

2.) Meet new people. Some of the others will have to say how this one went. I had only met Andy and the 3 guys from the area before. Everyone else was new to me. I had an awesome time making new friends.

3.) Play some new games. Half the games I played were completely new to me. I got to play Legends of Alyria and PTA for the first ime. It seemed that in my groups there was always someone who was playing the game for the first time. This is uber-cool. Seeing how systems other than what I'm used to function stretches my perception of how things can be done. I like it.

Anyway, these were my main goals and I think I hit them all. Thanks to everyone who showed up and ran games. You all rock. Next time I will get to play a game with Jason Morningstar if I have to handcuff him to a table.

~Andrew

GPSE was great! I enjoyed meeting everyone, and loved playing with all the Roaches and the Heros. I really liked the Rod and Gun Club that you introduced in our Roach game, Jason (The Most Dangerous Game meets Tammany Hall in the persons of the senior faculty [full professors] of Pemberton.) And Joshua's awesome blood soaked decapitated lover's head scene in Hero's Banner was awesome. Thanks again for introducing me to Hero's Banner, Remi.

My favorite moment all weekend was Lindsey, her character promoted to full professor and introduced to the Rod and Gun Club. The Dean handed her a shotgun and opened an armoire that contained a tied up reporter. She was supposed to kill him, but didn't want to - so she won the conflict and ... chained him up in her basement so that no one would know he was still alive. Didn't want to ruin her reputation...priceless.

And honestly, the running games thing was no big deal. Two were GM-less anyway! It's more a matter of me wanting to encourage others and not hog that fun.

I had about 17.5 pounds of pure fun (it would have been 21.5 pounds of fun if someone would have taken Jason's "Eat 4 pounds of pure granulated sugar for $1" bet). I was realizing that, including the gaming in the car getting there and getting back (the "What happens in the car STAYS in the car - freeform D&D LARP"), I did 6 times as much gaming at GPSE than I did at Camp Nerdly even.

I really had a good time. I loved the slow, relaxed atmosphere, the fact that we didn't have to do tons of food/cleaning organization, etc. I also loved the hot tub, it reminded me of onsen/hot springs trips in Japan, and I somehow found myself each night going to bed at 2AM or 4AM after a soak, then bolting up at 6:45-7:00, ready to take another soak. I'd suggest that in future years a hot tub will not be a "Must Have", but it is definitely a draw point and very, very nice.

I took a day off afterwards to bask in the refreshing glow, and that really helped me adjust from the idyllic non-reality of the cabin, talking, gaming, and hanging out, and get back into "work/stress/go Go GO!" mode.

Also, yeah I agree with Jason: Everything was excellent (doubly so for Hazel's lunch. Hot damn that was good food), and I normally think like 5 steps ahead when it comes to time management/group outings, and somehow I never even considered the idea; "16 people trying to go to a sit-down dinner at 7:00 on a Saturday in the biggest tourist town in the state in the middle of the summer is probably a bad idea". It quickly worked out, though, so that was awesome.

-Andy

Finally, I posted to the GPSE list, but I have someone's small leather beige dice bag, which is filled mostly with opaque red/black dice of all types (with some other colors as well).

Andy,

I think that's my dice bag. I'll check if I have my tan leather bag when I get home. Thanks for snagging it.

Calhoun's on a Saturday night during the summer was probably a bad idea... nah... it was a bad idea. I should have realized that from the get go. We probably should have stuck with something a little less grand from the start. Still, no blood, no foul.

~Andrew

Next Year. It will probably be around the same time, give or take a month (I wouldn't mind June/July either)

-Andy

Hey, Andy... Are you going to put up an AP for the Legends of Alyria game we played? Not pressuring you, just wondering.

~Andrew

Okie dokie... Will do!