However after a swift and copious application of coffee to my system, I was ready to go.
Round Five - Edge of Empire I: Escape from Mos Shuuta (Star Wars: Edge of Empire)
I saw Conan was offering the relatively new Star Wars system Edge of Empire from Fantasy Flight game, and I was keen to give it a try. The original West End Games system was one of my early RPG loves, so I have always had a soft spot for Star Wars role-playing.
Not only did Conan have one of the longest titles in the con, he also ran a great game which hit all the right Star Wars notes as promised. I played 41-Vex a slightly psychopathic medical droid who had gone for far too long without a memory wipe. I got the impression Vex wasn't quite meant to be as scenery-chewing as I went for, but I just went for it and had a great time playing a deranged C3PO with needles for hands.
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| Do not trust this droid with your life! |
The game took us through a number of scenes where the different characters had sufficient spotlight time to shine. I thought the system worked well, and liked the 'stunting' mechanic for bonus dice, though I wonder if the die resolution system could have been made a tad less mechanical and bit more narrative.
All in all I had a good fun in this session and will give some serious thought to picking up Edge or Empire or another in the series for my Monday night group.
Round Six - Quintessence (EPOCH - Games on Demand)
I had offered to run Home Front again in round six but didn't get the numbers to run (despite having four or five sign-ups at one point). I was a little bit disappointing and heading off to lunch, but in my absence Dale and organisers had manged to wrangle my way into Game of Demand (thanks all).
I knew both Dale and Sophie were keen to play, so I decided to pitch both Home Front and my earlier scenario Quintessence (from the Frontier of Fear collection). I had only pretty minimally prepped Quintessence, but felt I could wing most of it if need be.
Thankfully I got five players and the group opted for Quintessence, as only Dale had played that scenario before. Quintessence is my love-letter to horror sci-fi, in which the characters play corporation marines sent to investigated a long-vanished scientific ship. The scenario plays on some pretty common tropes, but does some mechanically interesting things with EPOCH system, so I was looking forward to running it again.
My players quickly got themselves together and formed the sorriest group of recruits to sully the ranks of the Ascend Marine Corp. Actually they all made quite interesting and well-rounded characters and the voting throughout the scenario was very tight.
The interplay between Dale's creepy marine (Private Neal) and Sophie's reluctant medic (Captain Maddison) was great, as was the detailed characterisation of Private Johnson (whose player I sadly can't remember - she was very good), the general badassary of Thom's Sergeant Carpenter and the weaselly deductions of Sam's Specialist Stephens.
The game was good fun, though my only regret was that with the delayed start I lost about thirty minutes game time, which meant I had to cut the game a little short and compress the final scenes. I certainly felt we could have easily gone for another hour, such was the strength of the characters and their interactions.
Round Seven - Couch
After my poor sleep, I opted to skip round seven and to head home after the prize-giving. I fully intended to return to town for the post-con drinks, but by the time I sat on the couch, it was all over. A shame, as I heard they went really well.
Final Thoughts
Overall I had a great time at Kapcon, especially considering my lack of enthusiasm heading in. I didn't have a single dud game and got to hangout with a bunch of interesting people. However this wasn't the first time I have had a game fail to get the numbers in round six, so I'll need to re-evaluate offering in that round in the future.
I also wonder if the separate streams in the con (LARPing, tabletop, Games on Demand) is having a slightly negative effect on the scheduled tabletop offerings. To be honest, in the future I would be tempted to spend most of my time in the GOD room in future, as that's where lots of interesting stuff is happening, but I feel I would be adding to a potential problem. Perhaps in many ways Kapcon is becoming a victim of its own success?
Regardless of that, I am now looking forward to next's year Kapcon, and the gaming year ahead, with renewed energy.
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