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Mon Nov 12 07:12:51 EST 2018
Slept without waking from eleven-thirty to six-thirty.
High of forty-two and mostly cloudy today.
PTO day.
I anticipated being exhausted after U-Con, but I feel pretty well.
Goals:
- Relax, maybe play some Nintendo and/or work on D&D stuff
Done, I guess.
Reflections/conclusions about U-Con?
The convention itself was fun — much more than expected — and I want to go back next year.
_Gnomes of Lenvec_ and _The White Stag_ stand out as the two most fun sessions of the weekend, followed by _The Incompetent Watchmaker_ and _Sanctum of the Snail_.
_Stag_ benefited from the novelty of the Catthulhu premise and a group that embraced that premise.
The adventure itself was strong, but not nearly as strong as _Gnomes_.
_Gnomes_ is a masterfully written adventure with enough possibilities that I would play it again, even though I know "the secret" now.
_Sanctum_ had great flavor, but (at least the way this GM ran it) relied too much on character skill (roll against number on character sheet) rather than player skill.
_Watchmaker_ was fun, and I suspect it would shine even more over a multi-session campaign.
Practical game lessons/tips learned at U-Con?
- I was leaning in this direction recently anyhow, but comparing play experiences at U-Con firmly convinced me that the classic "referee verbally describes areas while players struggle to blindly map" mode is inferior. The referee should roughly sketch one room at a time for the players, and let the players transfer and connect those rooms on their personal maps (or not). It's faster, more realistic, and less tedious for the players who don't map. It also lets the referee create oddly-shaped rooms without slowing down play.
- One qualification of the above is to always note cardinal direction. Using "right" and "left" is bullshit.
- Sketching on letter-size paper works just as well as big dry-erase maps to convey rooms — maybe better, because you can just grab a new piece of paper rather than mess with dry-erasing.
- Confirmed: I have no patience for multi-step arithmetic in game mechanics.
- Confirmed: I have no patience for combats lasting longer than ten minutes.
- Sessions with diverse players, in terms of age and gender, tend to be more fun. This mildly surprised me, as I expected no difference.
- Always offer pre-generated characters at con games. It's a waste of time to make players roll-up characters, even for simple systems.
- I've never been a fan of long exposition, but more than two or three sentences of backstory _really_ doesn't work in a con game.
- Small stand-up placards with player name, character name, and character race/class work well for con games.
- Players like descriptive pictures/postcards of things in the game, which can be clipped to the outside of the ref screen.
- Widget tokens/hand-outs. One GM gave out cards, each describing a magic item. It slightly helped players both to remember what the widget did and to remember they had the widget. This contrasted sharply with another game where players had to constantly look up their character abilities in the rule book.
- The GM should be careful to solicit input for each player. Otherwise, the less outgoing players get drowned-out by the more boisterous. This is always true, but more necessary at con games among strangers. Give each player a turn in the spotlight.
…
Shortly after writing how surprised I was to not be exhausted, I laid down for nap and woke up four hours later.
Evlyn Moreau's quitting the RPG scene again.
Hopefully she returns at some point.
I dig her joyful illustrations.
Wrote a blog post about my U-Con trip.
https://devilghost.com/blog/20181112162923.html
Vacuumed, unpacked, and tied a bit.
Ten-minute walk after dark — to the market to restock on fruit and vegetables.
Warmer than expected.
Caught a few drops of rain.
Watched an episode of The Great British Baking Show.
Servings: grains 4/6, fruit 3/4, vegetables 4/4, dairy 0/2, meat 0/3, nuts 0.5/0.5
Breakfast:
Lunch: orange, banana, tomato, carrots, almonds, coffee
Dinner: apple, ice cream, buckwheat pasta with tomatoes, black olives, olive oil, butter, and garlic
139/84
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