It’s August once again and the TRF braintrust’s credit score has just dropped precipitously. This can mean only one thing: Aser and Megan are back from GenCon! Once again, we’ve returned with a suitcase full of new games to try and new scenarios to run. We’ve also made a bunch of new friends to bother on the internet and new plans to maybe get around to in the next few months. And lest we forget, we also hit a new milestone as far as the podcast goes, we’ve released our 200th episode!
So what were Aser and Megan doing with all of those days off and travel miles? We’re glad you asked. Mostly, we networked with folks around the RPG industry…and ran games….so…many….games. There are two new Delta Green scenarios from Aser that saw the light of day at GenCon, and a scenario from Megan for Numenera. We’ll be rolling these out to a TRF playthrough at some point, so you’ll get to hear Shimmering Stars and Out of the Howling North for DG and Green Tide for Numenera in the next few months. The tables we ran seemed to get a real kick out of all three. And some of those tables were somewhere really cool, the field at Lucas Oil Stadium. This was because Megan and Aser each ran a game for ConTessa, a group dedicated to increasing the visibility of marginalized people in gaming by hosting games run by women, people of color, people identifying as LGBT, or other groups that have been underrepresented in the tabletop gaming space. Needless to say, running a game in such a different environment was quite an experience. We also ran games for MAMS Gaming, the group run by our good friends and TRF cast Members Matt and Mike. The biggest of these was the now traditional four table Cypher system game where we may have made a few jokes about Amazon.
One of the neatest parts about GenCon is how it can give you the opportunity to talk to the creators of your favorite games. We got to talk to Dennis Detweiler a bit about Delta Green, share gaming war stories with Adam Scott Glancy and remind Ken Hite that he had a seminar to go to that afternoon. All in all, it’s a wonderful reminder of how small and friendly our little community really is. We took the opportunity to pick up a few things for the TRF community as well, but that’s a story for another post. We also squeezed in an interview with David Reid from MetaArcade, who you may remember we spoke to last year, who had a whole new Cthulhu-based app to show off for us, which we will post about soon.
Something else you get to do at GenCon is connect with people you know almost exclusively from interactions online. We got to say hi to the Taylor, Rich, and Richard from Descent into Midnight among many, many other projects, the guys behind the Cypher Unlimited Discord (who also took the picture of us with Jesus above!), Meghan from Modifier, James from OneShot, and the Ennie-nominated Jesus of Fandible. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a ton of people, but I’m also pretty sure I can’t remember my iPhone passcode right now, so I’m hoping people will cut me a break.
All in all, it was an incredible convention and we already can’t wait to go back again. We have some things to announce in the near future, so we hope you’ll be around for that real soon. In the meantime, we’ll close with a list of the loot we brought back.
Pelgrane Press
Night’s Black Agents: The Dracula Dossier
Night’s Black Agents: The Edom Files
The Esoterrorists Worldbreaker
The Book of Ants
Ashen Stars: Accretion Disc
Timewatch
Timewatch: Behind Enemy Times
Timewatch: The Valkyrie Gambit
Magpie Games:
Bluebeard’s Bride
Indy Press Revolution
Fall of Magic
Harlem Unbound
Scum and Villainy
Fate Horror Toolkit
Fate Adversary Toolkit
Campaign Coins
Fate points
Metal Dice Games
Folding dice rollers
Level-Up Dice
Multi-color anodized aluminum dice
Koplow Games
Tens dice
Chaosium:
Petersen’s Abominations
HP Lovecraft Historical Society
Miskatonic University Varsity Pins (Wireless Club, Marksmanship, History, and Glee Club)
Elder Dice
Elder Sign Pins
Arc Dream:
Mother Hydra’s Mythos Rhymes
Unspeakable Oath 25
Old Ones Rising
Atlas Games:
Cursed Court
Chessex
This might be shocking, but more dice
