Auscon 2012

If you've looked at the Auscon site recently you'll see that it's been postponed from May to October. There was a discussion about it on the facebook page so you can see the story there.

As sorry as I am to see the delay, I'm happy that Mark's wife is on the road to recovery and that he's keen to ensure that the convention happens with the preparation necessary for such an event. The two from last year were great and I think there's a good chance for it to continue to improve.

Watch the facebook page for more information as it comes along.

Auscon off the starboard bow!

WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After months and months of planning, Allan Carey and Mark Edwards are on the brink of making Auscon II real. In just two short days time it all starts. I'll be there early on Saturday morning, getting all the good things ready for RPGs and RPG seminars. Come along! Play some games. Play some demos. Most of all, have fun playing games!

See you there.

Auscon Link Roundup

Looking for links for Auscon? Well, here they are!

• The main Auscon site
• The scheduler site
• The facebook page
• The twitter feed

A couple of people have asked me for these, and now you have them too. Enjoy!

And get your games booked now. Some of them are already fully booked.

Auscon Loometh

Wow. It's only four weeks until Auscon II starts. I'm still in a spin about it all. The RPG schedule is up (hooray!) and there are seminars and contests as well.

And although it's not been officially announced, I'm sneaking into the wild that there will be an RPG demo booth running in the RPG area. There'll be demos of various games and the opportunity to spend 20 minutes learning how to play RPGs in general.

Only four weeks. Eek!

Legend of Auscon

I'm running this. You should enter it, either as a player or as a GM.

Where did all the blog posts go?

I haven't blogged much this month. Partial credit goes to work and partial credit goes to Auscon. I've been organising the RPG events for the weekend and that's supplanted my blogging time.

The good news is that the event schedule is up and ready along with all the other events. Yes, Auscon has things other than RPGs. Go check it out.

Auscon GMs request

This is the quiet announcement. The loud announcement is at the Auscon blog.

I'm helping coordinate the RPG section of Auscon II and I'm looking for GMs to run games.

Send an email to games@auscongames.com.au if you're interested.

My Auscon Experience

The day after RPG Sunday is worth a little time and reflection on my experience of it.

I had the best start to the day because the shirt I'd ordered for the day arrived just in time. Wow. It grabbed attention, and was only a matter of minutes before someone said, "That's an awesome shirt. Where can I get one?"

To get your own, go see Daniel Solis' Cafepress site. Kudos to Daniel for making a version with correct Commonwealth spelling.

I was only at Auscon for the Sunday, but it was a very full day. Starting the RPGs at 9am on a Sunday was something of a challenge. Who's awake and keen to play story games at 9am on Sunday?!? Apparently, about fifteen people. And even though that meant I didn't get to run FU, it did mean that I could be part of a play test for Behind The Screens. Peter's got a great little game idea going there, and I'm keen to see it develop and evolve into a polished game. Seriously, people, watch for that game.

Between that and the 2pm session, I had a chance to wander the floor and see the vendors, the miniatures tables, and get a chai. The venue was exactly the right size for the con, and laid out so very well. Gaming tables in the middle completely dominated the space, but didn't overpower the trade stalls that lined the walls. Most of the product was miniatures-based, but that's not surprising, since Auscon was originally going to only cater for minis games. Ace Comics came through with the goods for RPGs (even including some Dresden Files), and I think that was in proportion to the attendees. And kudos for the staff too. There seemed to be the right number of them for the activities, spread around in the right amount.

After lunch I had the great chance to run Agon. Yes! Finally! I've offered this game at cons before and never had takers. Maybe my elevator pitch was poor, or perhaps I should also stop offering it on the same game menu as Spirit of the Century. Regardless, I had five heroes complete a quest for Hera. As far as my GM effort went, they all seemed pleased with it. I managed to test every ability, except for Music. Maybe next time for that one. I'm sure I also fudged a couple of rules, but everything seemed to flow OK and the story didn't get bogged down or lopsided because of it. Best of all, I have the feeling that even playing the game is something of an Agon, an effort. I say that, not because it's hard going, but because the characters are always getting beaten down by something in order to succeed at something else. The frustration of the characters showed on the players' faces, and that seemed like a good thing.

And in the last session, I ran the best game of Poison'd I've ever run. I was going to say that I'd redeemed Poison'd, but that just seems antithetical. The story flowed smoothly. The characters lunged for their ambitions and were frustrated by the Cruel Fortunes. There were a few things I did in this game that I'll gladly repeat next time, to help make the story work. Special thanks go to the players, for embracing the depravity of being pirates.

My only regret was not remembering that I wanted to try Sagefight. Looking back, we would have had to go outside for it. There certainly wasn't enough space inside for those kinds of shenanigans.

Overall, my experience of one-third of Auscon was positive. Allan and Mark did a marvellous job. Watch out for their next project, whatever it is. I do know, though, that the first weekend in October is going to be another gaming convention. Mark your diaries now.

My games at Auscon

I'm offering three games at Auscon this weekend. This is what I have in mind.

9am - FU
FU looks like a genuine pickup game, so that's what I'm going to do with it. I have no preconceived notions of a setting at all, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the players come up with. I've played in these kinds of games before and will steal a technique from Steve D to set it up. Everyone has two scraps of paper and writes a single idea on each one. We draw two (or three?) at random and start from there.

2pm - Agon
I've owned this game for ages and have hardly played it at all, despite my ongoing wish to do so. This needs the most preparation, so I'm most nervous about it. It's been a while since I really prepared something with this much detail.

7pm - Poison'd
The game of depraved sailors, desperately trying to avoid the governor's gallows and their shipmates' shivs. I've run this badly before, and then I got better at it. And now I cackle at the very thought of it.

Auscon Story Game Announcement

The Auscon blog has a larger announcement about the RPG section of the weekend. Go check it out sometime.

Auscon Story Games

I met with the organisers of Auscon last weekend and agreed to help coordinate the story games component of Auscon. They've got some great ideas about running conventions and building community amongst gamers of various kinds and I'm looking forward to the Auscon weekend itself.

Story games will be run on Sunday May 1 and only on that day. It's a deliberate taster event for a larger convention in September or October this year. Watch out for details of the latter one as we draw nearer.

For Auscon, though, I'm putting out the call for people to run games. Any system. Any setting. I want to see D&D alongside Fiasco, if possible. There will be ten tables available at the 9am, 2pm and 7pm sessions. That's 30 GM-slots I want to fill.

If you volunteer to run a game, there'll even be a sweetener for you - a weekend pass to Auscon. That's free entry to the whole weekend for anyone who signs up to run a game in at least one of the 30 GM-slots available. Send me an email at ((andrew)) (dot) ((mg)) (dot) ((smith)) at ((gmail)) (dot) ((com)) and let me know what you'd like to run and at which session. Slots will be filled based on who grabs them first.