What I love about Kapcon is that is a chance to catch up with other gamers from across Wellington and indeed New Zealand. The awesome games on offer are just the icing on the cake.
Below are some quick summaries of what I got up to:
Round one: Games on Demand - Fiasco
This year I opted for Games of Demand (GoD) in round one, as I was keen on a number of the games being offered by the talented pool of GMs. After my hopes of playing Microscope were dashed (for the first time) by a fan push for Monsterhearts, I joined Fiasco being facilitated Jenni Dowsett. I had been hanging out to play Fiasco for a long time, but despite even having a copy of the rules, I had never managed to play a game or 'get' the game conceptually, so this was a golden opportunity.
The six of us sat down and Jenni ran us through a few options for playsets. After tossing some ideas around, we settled on a Harry Potter themed playset. I was a little wary at first, as I have only seen a few of the movies and am by no means a Potterfile, but I needn't have worried as it turned out. I had a great time playing Fiasco and Jenni really facilitated the game well.
Running through the process of establishing connections between characters was painless and we quickly got the hang of building up our cast. I ended up playing Larry Potter, one of Harry Potter's and Hermione's identical triplets (along with Albus and Barry). Larry was the bookish and slightly awkward triplet, who was convinced Hogwart's houses were a bad idea. This resulted in his membership of a secret society (which of course everyone knew about) called the Hatless Few that was dedicated to ending the tyranny of the sorting hat.
Needless to say much laughter and drama ensued. All of the players brought plenty of inspiration and characterisation to the game, and I really liked the way the game supported a lot of improv style collaboration. Against my best expectations (and efforts) old Larry actually ended up as the most successful of the Potter twins, which goes to show that the bookish, misguided geek sometimes end up on top.
Round two: Sundown (Call of Cthulhu)
Despite regularly playing with Dale, I missed out on both his playtest of Sundown and his run through at Fright Night, so I was pleased to be able to give it a shot at Kapcon. Sundown is an old west themed scenario for Call of Cthulhu, and tells the story of a posse who go out to find justice, only to find they are the ones being hunted.
I played Hal Dascher, a dapper confidence man and thief who joined the posse to further ingratiate himself with the the good folks of Tombstone. Although scheduled to play with a full complement of eight characters, we only had seven players turn up. This meant my character's 'wife' was left behind, which was find as it allowed be to play Hal a bit faster and looser.
I won't ruin things by saying what happened in the story, but will instead urge you to go and download it, as Dale has kindly made it available for free download. Suffice to say, it was a really strong game, and one of the high points of the con for me.
The scenario did a great job of portraying an authentic western setting and providing a compelling and engaging plot. We also had a very strong cast of players who really brought their characters to life, all of which helped make it a thoroughly enjoyable session.
Round three: The Bloodstones of Dungeon World (Dungeon World)
After pizza it was time for some Dungeon World, an Apocalypse World hack that takes Vincent Baker's system and applies the tropes of D&D to it. I had been intrigued to try this for a while, and used this session for my GM pick, so I had some high expectations.
Our brave party, including my Paladin Regulus, were on a quest to stop the evil wizard Grundward from using the Blooodstone to summon and evil demon to destroy the world. Unfortunately this involved storming into the Bloodstone fortress and overcoming all manner of opponents, including lizardmen, goblins, ghosts as well as giant fireflies. There were some pretty cool scenes in the game, like our Fighter's stealth mission behind enemy lines with back up from Regulus, and our two thieves trying to escape from some angry fireflies.
In the end we came across Grundward himself (or perhaps it was the other way around) with the demon he had summoned. After a pretty epic battle, we managed to dispatch Grunward, but fell to the demon's whips, despite getting him down to only one hit point.
Although Russell ran a solid, enjoyable game, he seemed pretty tired, and I don't quite feel I got the full Dungeon World experience. The game certainly had a nice, retro feel to it, and a liked the way the different 'moves' have been created to give each class its own unique role. I plan to give it another go soon, as the buzz about it is pretty good, and I would like to see more of how the game plays. I'll probably pick up a copy to play with my regular Monday night group and see what they make of it.
By the time round three finished, I was feeling pretty wiped. I ended up hanging out with some of my regular Cthuhlu crew in GoD room, as most of us weren't involved with the LARP. After thinking about joining in the round 3.5 fun, we decided to call it a night and get some dinner and have a few drinks. A full belly of Japanese food and some beer and sake later, we headed home to get some sleep before day two.
