Games
GenCon 2006 Page
This page was last updated on 01/09/07
The GenCon Gaming Convention 2006 - Indianapolis, Indiana
This year's GenCon (the country's largest gaming convention) in Indianapolis might have been the best GenCon I have ever attended. At most conventions, I try to divide my time evenly between card games, board games, and role-playing games. This year, however, I focused mostly on the role-playing and it paid off with some of the best games I've ever attended.
This year seemed particularly crowded. The photo above was the crowed outside of the main dealer's hall just before it opened on Thursday. Regardless, I was able to hook up with a number of friends and I got to spend most evenings hanging out with them.
There were three excellent games that highlight the convention for me. The first was a session of Paranoia. For those not in the know, Paranoia is an old role-playing game set in a "Big Brother" future where everything is controlled by "The Computer." It is a unique game because the players are actively trying to prove the others are traitors in order to advance themselves. At the same time, they have to complete some sort of mission. A new version of the game was released last year. In this game, we have to safely escort a robot across a sector. My character secretly wants to steal some computer chips from inside the robot, but otherwise wants it to remain safe. Our team leader obviously wants to destroy the robot because she keeps position herself so that the robot is in the line of her fire. In the Paranoia tradition, our entire party died before we actually started the mission! The game master really has his act together and keeps the game moving at a fast clip. Several of the players were very experienced at the game and were a blast.
The next highlight was the impressive Polaris, a new role-playing game by one of the authors from The Forge. It is set in an ancient Arctic kingdom that has never seen the Sun. Just recently, the Dawn appeared for the first time, and the King became obsessed with it. So obsessed that he created a tower designed to capture the light. His experiment went terribly wrong, blew up a city, and summoned forth a plague of demons, known as "The Mistaken," who are bent on destroying the kingdom. By the end of the session, we were so caught up in the story that we had to keep reminding ourselves to go back to the game rules and system. Otherwise, we just kept shouting out horrible things that could happen to our knights. This is one of the most unique experiences I've ever had at a convention and I am amazed at how well the game worked and how much fun it was.
Finally there were a pair of Call of Cthulhu games. Unholy Mother of Xig were these games good! So many things went right with this game that I think I have to number them. One, while most role-playing games at GenCon are played in loud rooms with 4 or 5 other games going on at the same time, this game had its very own room. Second, the two game masters (which is unusual in and of itself) took advantage of the room to dim the light and set up props and play music as we entered the room. The place was thick with suspenseful atmosphere from the start.
Three, the game masters' use of multimedia was astonishing. They had a laptop and projector with photos of all the major characters and locations which they snatched from the Internet. At one point, they even had a video of a preacher over which they dubbed new audio with lines that pertained to the game. They had more prepared for this game than any other game I'd ever played. Fourth, both game masters were great actors. They had several different voices and accents and they had some great scripted lines. Fifth, the story in the game was both intriguing and satisfying. Like any great short story, I really wanted to see what happens at the end even though I'm enjoying the journey. I just can't say enough good things about these game masters.
The players were no slouches either. All of them had interesting characters and really took advantage of the fact that we could get up and move around the room freely. At one point we set up chairs in the center of the room because we were all driving to the church in the van. Suddenly, a game master tossed a rubber snake into the van and we all panicked, mimed a car crash, then crawled over each other to escape. It was silly and funny as Hell. So can probably imagine my surprise when I was voted the best role-player of the game. I won a cool black letter for an invitation-only game the next morning which was bigger, badder, and louder. The group running this game is from Indiana and, although I only got the first name of the game masters, I will absolutely keep an eye out for them next year.
Lest you think that I would lose the true meaning of GenCon amidst all this gaming, here's a photo of a beautiful woman hanging out at the MYNDzei Games booth.