Kapcon commeth. Am I ready?

Returing to the blog here after a long, relaxing summer makes me feel a little like a deadbeat dad who hasen't spent much time recently with their kid. There is no doubt I have been a little neglectful over summer and the end of 2011, though some of the reasons were outside of my control.

So the best way to get back into the habit of something is to start, so before I write up some retrospective/prospective posts about my gaming, I thought I would mention that it is Kapcon this coming weekend, the big Wellington roleplaying event that I have written about in the past.

While I'm looking forward to Kapcon, I have to admit this year I have really struggled to get excited about it or get motivated to run something. I'm not sure if the gloss of past years has worn off slightly, or if it is just an extended hangover from last year's busy year of work, but my buzz certainly hasn't come as easy as in the past.

In the end I've settled on running 'The Wishing Well', which is a heavily modified Advanced Fighting Fantasy (AFF) 2nd edition adventure. I picked up AFF 2nd ed. in December and have really enjoyed the simple ruleset and flexibility of the system, which sits in contrast to my recent experience of running D&D 4E.

There is also the very obvious nostalgia kick which is part of the game. Many roleplayers like myself first picked up their dice to play fantastic adventures in the world of Allansia. The game retains that old school feel and innocence, along with that slightly odd British sensibility that American fantasy games lack.

The adventure itself is simple but solid, and should provide some good fun in the Sunday morning hangover session. However, in deference to full transparency, it hasn't coalesced into a single organic whole yet, which is a fancy way of saying I haven't finished writing it. However since I am using pre-generated characters and modifying an existing story (albeit modifying it increasingly so the more I think about it), it shouldn't prove a problem.

I have become quietly excited about AFF 2nd ed. and while it is far from a perfect system, I think it has the potential as a 'go to game' for some light fantasy fun. I think it even has enough depth for a short campaign, though my kapcon experience will be enlightening about how much I enjoy running it.

Reading up on AFF 2nd ed. also lead me to Matthew Finch's 'A Quick Primer for Old School Gaming', which was an enjoyable short read on the mindset behing 'old school' gaming. While it's not about to make me run off and start playing original D&D and grow a beard, I did enjoy its thoughts on 'ruling not rules' for example. I would recommend it as a short read.

Stay tuned for more of my 2012 gaming plans and a review of my Kapcon 2012 experience.