Thoughts on DexCon 2017
DexCon was lovely this year. Even though the indie game schedule was more limited than the ones at Dreamation and Metatopia, I think the quality of the play I experienced was significantly higher. Here are some thoughts on Dex Con 2017…
David LaFreniere flew in from Lubbock for the con and it was awesome to get to spend some time with him. We played in a bunch of games together and had lots of good conversations about both the Gauntlet and the hobby in general.
I also got to spend a fair amount of time with Shane Liebling, which was great. If you ever get a chance to hang out with Shane at a con, I highly recommend it. The conversation is always brisk and enjoyable.
The first game I played was a pick-up session of The Insider, a hidden role card game. I got to play with Shane, David, River Williamson, and Seraphina Ferraro. Lots of laughs, lots of fun.
The second game I played was Dungeon Crawl Classics. It was ok. There wasn’t much r-o-l-e roleplaying in it, so by the time I got to my next game, I was practically salivating to do up a really memorable character.
And did I ever in Black Sunday: 1935! That one is a LARP about a group of circus folk stuck in a basement with some religious townies during a bad storm. The character I played was Adrian, aka Kar-Suet the Serpent King, the star of the traveling show. Kar-Suet was easily one of my favorite characters I have ever played. I basically portrayed him as a Norma Desmond-type; overwrought, flamboyant, dramatic. It was great fun. Also: that game is damn good. I am more convinced of LARPs than ever. I must play more LARPs.
The next game I played was Seco Creek Vigilance Committee. It’s a game by Keith Stetson that is hitting Kickstarter soon. It’s a sort of Western noir, wherein the players must help decide the fate of three outlaws they have just rounded-up: do we put them on the train to Bright City, where they will likely beat the charges, or do we administer “Western justice?” You use a fun poker chip system to manage your character’s relationship with the various factions in Seco Creek, and the characters have Lady Blackbird-style Keys that inform how you play them. I really enjoyed it and will have my eye on the KS when it launches.
On Saturday morning I played Witch: the Road to Lindisfarne with Seraphina, David, and a couple of folks whose names escape me. This was probably my favorite session of the whole con. It was INTENSE roleplaying. In the whole four hour block, we only cracked a single joke. Everyone was laser-focused on playing their character to the max and maintaining the dark, serious mood. I loved it. David’s Witch was deliciously creepy; it was a film-worthy performance. Hats off to Seraphina for facilitating a really brilliant session. And yes: we burned the witch.
Keeping with the theme of burning people, the last game I played was a Saturday evening session of Montsegur 1244. I have owned that game for a long time but never had a chance to play it before. I’m glad I did! What I found utterly fascinating about the game is how different it must play out depending on which characters are chosen as the leads. You have a group of twelve characters, but only a handful of them are the focus. Three of our six focus characters were a pair of small children and their caretaker, so our story was naturally kind of small in scale. It was almost a family drama, and I liked it a lot. My own character was very grounded in (and defined by) her femininity and that was really enjoyable to play. I was particularly happy with the intense, emotional scenes between my character and those portrayed by Catherine Ramen, who also facilitated the session.
Dex Con 2017 was terrific! I got to meet and hang out with a bunch of fabulous people and play a bunch of great games. I hope to do it again next year!
I was eagerly waiting for your DexCon report since the end of the weekend. Thanks so much for the write up feeding my curiosity. 😙
I was eagerly waiting for your DexCon report since the end of the weekend. Thanks so much for the write up feeding my curiosity. 😙
I am so glad that you had a good time! That was for sure my favorite session of the weekend as well. I love a deep dive and a hard time. Thank you so much for trusting all of us enough to go there. And for trusting me enough.
It was great getting to meet you! I sense some good games in our future. 🙂
I am so glad that you had a good time! That was for sure my favorite session of the weekend as well. I love a deep dive and a hard time. Thank you so much for trusting all of us enough to go there. And for trusting me enough.
It was great getting to meet you! I sense some good games in our future. 🙂
DexCon was outstanding. I had never been to a con before, and I was blown away with all the roleplaying that was happening. My expectations were exceeded and I will try to attend another in the future! Thanks to Jason Cordova for hosting me.
I will just mention my top 3 here. My number 3 was the LARP Black Sunday 1935. My experience was exceedingly different from Jason’s because of the rolls we ended up in. I played the pastor of the church that the townspeople and carnies were trapped in. It was stressful! Any problem that occurred from a pick-pocket to the carnies recruiting the town youth was brought to my attention and I was expected to deal with it then and there. It was likely the most intense realistic roleplaying I’ve ever been a part of.
Tied for number 1 are Ten Candles and Witch. Witch was outstanding. Everyone took their roles so seriously, and as Jason said, we had almost no levity. Playing the witch was a pleasure. Jason helped from the first scene to launch Witch into a serious roleplaying.
Ten Candles is a game I had been looking forward to since I heard about it in Kickstarter. It lived up! We played in the dark. As each candle went out the room was closer to total darkness. I was playing with total strangers and that took nothing away from the experience.
All in all, this was some of the best roleplaying I’ve been a part of in my life. I can’t believe I had 3 games of this caliber within such a short time frame.
DexCon was outstanding. I had never been to a con before, and I was blown away with all the roleplaying that was happening. My expectations were exceeded and I will try to attend another in the future! Thanks to Jason Cordova for hosting me.
I will just mention my top 3 here. My number 3 was the LARP Black Sunday 1935. My experience was exceedingly different from Jason’s because of the rolls we ended up in. I played the pastor of the church that the townspeople and carnies were trapped in. It was stressful! Any problem that occurred from a pick-pocket to the carnies recruiting the town youth was brought to my attention and I was expected to deal with it then and there. It was likely the most intense realistic roleplaying I’ve ever been a part of.
Tied for number 1 are Ten Candles and Witch. Witch was outstanding. Everyone took their roles so seriously, and as Jason said, we had almost no levity. Playing the witch was a pleasure. Jason helped from the first scene to launch Witch into a serious roleplaying.
Ten Candles is a game I had been looking forward to since I heard about it in Kickstarter. It lived up! We played in the dark. As each candle went out the room was closer to total darkness. I was playing with total strangers and that took nothing away from the experience.
All in all, this was some of the best roleplaying I’ve been a part of in my life. I can’t believe I had 3 games of this caliber within such a short time frame.
David LaFreniere You were such a excellent witch. You really brought it all to the table and made things really intense.
David LaFreniere You were such a excellent witch. You really brought it all to the table and made things really intense.
I just want to quickly add that although I did not get as much gaming in as I would have liked, I did get a chance to play in a game of Microscope with Shane Liebling, and I will echo the recommendation of hanging out with Shane at a con!
I just want to quickly add that although I did not get as much gaming in as I would have liked, I did get a chance to play in a game of Microscope with Shane Liebling, and I will echo the recommendation of hanging out with Shane at a con!
I really, really enjoyed having you in Montsegur! You were a fantastic Arsende and brought a lot of neat gender politics into the game! And I’m serious about an open invitation to any Night Witches game I’m involved with 😀
I really, really enjoyed having you in Montsegur! You were a fantastic Arsende and brought a lot of neat gender politics into the game! And I’m serious about an open invitation to any Night Witches game I’m involved with 😀
Catherine Ramen I adore Night Witches. It was my favorite game of 2015.
Catherine Ramen I adore Night Witches. It was my favorite game of 2015.
David LaFreniere After de-briefing our game of Black Sunday, I thought it was interesting how different the experience was depending on whether you were a townie or a carnie. Our carnies were really close with each other, like a family (even the one who was a murderer). The townies seemed to be steeped in a lot more conflict with each other. The tone of the scenes I was in shifted pretty dramatically depending on which group was predominant in that scene. The ones that were mostly townies were fucking stressful, and so I can see how that would have affected you, since you were basically the leader of that group.
David LaFreniere After de-briefing our game of Black Sunday, I thought it was interesting how different the experience was depending on whether you were a townie or a carnie. Our carnies were really close with each other, like a family (even the one who was a murderer). The townies seemed to be steeped in a lot more conflict with each other. The tone of the scenes I was in shifted pretty dramatically depending on which group was predominant in that scene. The ones that were mostly townies were fucking stressful, and so I can see how that would have affected you, since you were basically the leader of that group.
A very reluctant leader of people who just wanted to be affirmed in whatever they chose to do… The towns folk had more reason to disagree. The town was coming to pieces in the depression and the dust. The carnies seemed to want to survive and drive towards getting along
A very reluctant leader of people who just wanted to be affirmed in whatever they chose to do… The towns folk had more reason to disagree. The town was coming to pieces in the depression and the dust. The carnies seemed to want to survive and drive towards getting along
Even in my first game of Black Sunday, where my carnie owed lots of money to moonshiners, the troupe stuck by me. It was a hell of a thing.
Second game, I played the sister of the pastor. We were the heart of the town, and it was falling apart around us.
I want to play it again so badly
Even in my first game of Black Sunday, where my carnie owed lots of money to moonshiners, the troupe stuck by me. It was a hell of a thing.
Second game, I played the sister of the pastor. We were the heart of the town, and it was falling apart around us.
I want to play it again so badly
River Williamson I would be very down with running that.
River Williamson I would be very down with running that.
Rob Abrazado Had a great time as well! And thanks for the kind words. I look forward to hanging with you at the next con!
So I am going to be the critical one now vis-a-vis Black Sunday, 1935… I felt very “at sea” while playing. Chargen was super unstructured beyond the single tarot card as inspiration and randomly making connections with a couple townies and carnies. Then it was: and now RP for 3.5h: Go!
Everything that followed was entirely generated by the people participating. I didn’t feel I had the structure I needed so I ended up playing a very “internal” around-the-edges game. I was very reactive and during the debrief it was obvious how few people I was really doing any real work with.
Later in the con I saw Seraphina Ferraro and Brennan Taylor working on characters for the Bulldogs! LARP – and those all had premade connections and some background stuff (IIRC). I wish that had been the case for Black Sunday. Maybe I am just not as experienced/confident?
Rob Abrazado Had a great time as well! And thanks for the kind words. I look forward to hanging with you at the next con!
So I am going to be the critical one now vis-a-vis Black Sunday, 1935… I felt very “at sea” while playing. Chargen was super unstructured beyond the single tarot card as inspiration and randomly making connections with a couple townies and carnies. Then it was: and now RP for 3.5h: Go!
Everything that followed was entirely generated by the people participating. I didn’t feel I had the structure I needed so I ended up playing a very “internal” around-the-edges game. I was very reactive and during the debrief it was obvious how few people I was really doing any real work with.
Later in the con I saw Seraphina Ferraro and Brennan Taylor working on characters for the Bulldogs! LARP – and those all had premade connections and some background stuff (IIRC). I wish that had been the case for Black Sunday. Maybe I am just not as experienced/confident?
Shane Liebling that’s the only LARP I’ve played. I agree I would have like more structure. It was cool how everything played out though; through lots of commitment to the game, the 20 of us had a serious drama going
Shane Liebling that’s the only LARP I’ve played. I agree I would have like more structure. It was cool how everything played out though; through lots of commitment to the game, the 20 of us had a serious drama going
Shane Liebling I know how that feels. The only LARP I ever played didn’t make those connections for me, which is why Brennan Taylor and I went that route with Bulldogs! The connections allow players who don’t necessarily know where to go to have some guidelines to follow, while other players can choose to ignore them if they want.
It should be said that we got some other feedback on how to provide those guidelines while still leaving the LARP free form, so there are other ways to do it.
Shane Liebling I know how that feels. The only LARP I ever played didn’t make those connections for me, which is why Brennan Taylor and I went that route with Bulldogs! The connections allow players who don’t necessarily know where to go to have some guidelines to follow, while other players can choose to ignore them if they want.
It should be said that we got some other feedback on how to provide those guidelines while still leaving the LARP free form, so there are other ways to do it.