I had a nice time at Bookwyrm, though there was a bit more of a “working” feel than the cons of my imagination. The first slot I was backup for walk-ins; I prepped City of Danger, but wasn’t needed. Instead, I got to play in a game of The Queen’s Cavaliers run by the author. It came off very smoothly in the GM’s hands; I was impressed by the level of differentiation between skills, well handled via card references and a quick reference page. There’s enough system that it’d take a while to master, but I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Saturday afternoon, I finally got to play Lady Blackbird with Patrick, Will, and a couple visiting from Southern California. I liked it! I can see why Patrick would like to try the system with a little more time; a con slot was quite rushed, especially with rules explanations.
Sunday morning, I was signed up to play in Jeff’s Dr. Disco vs. The Agents of F.U.N.K.. Unfortunately, we had a bunch of last minute walk-ins, and our “on standby” GM hadn’t played 5e or finished reading the adventure. So I ran instead; a couple (and James) played at the start, but Keith and his son soon joined us.
The first mini adventure’s fight was quite difficult–though, in part, because they approached the tower in small groups, which denied them the chance to power through their foes quickly. They saved the kidnapped boy, but were dropped in the process. Fortunately, the adventure mentioned a pair of guards nearby, who weren’t up to a fight, but could at least treat the wounded.
The second mini adventure was a better story, but the kid was acting out; I think he was frustrated by the first adventure’s finale. (So was I.) So there was a lot of his character spiking the scenario and taunting his dad’s character. A less fun finish to the morning.
The afternoon slot I ran Psi*Run. I had a split of 3 experienced and 3 new players; we did fine. Afterwards, a few players mentioned that their creativity was low since it was the con’s last slot. Still, it was a fun session, and the characters mostly got to ends that their players liked.
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All in all, it was a good weekend of gaming. (Though I do look forward to playing an Agent of Funk one on these days!) We were pretty wiped by the end, but enjoyed hopping out to join the organizers afterwards. Before next year we need to decide how to get in gaming; this year, the booth did fine on Saturday (because Jennifer was at it most of the day), but Sunday’s sales were bad because we were both GMing the morning slot, and both played for at least part of the afternoon slot, leaving the table bare. Maybe scheduling an employee to run it for a slot, or just having the table present one day, not both… we need to figure out something for next year.