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GenCon FOMO Thoughts

I'm dealing with a lot of complicated feelings about GenCon this year. I took some time to write them out to try and sort out where my head is at.

There is the obvious thing of seeing photos of friends, knowing they're in the same place, and wishing I was there.

That said, I don't miss Gen Con itself. I had a panic attack last time I went, and frankly, all the unmasked photos I'm seeing from the event itself have killed any desire I might have had to go.

There is also the definite sense, as a professional in the TTRPG space, that not attending a big event like Gen Con means you're missing out on backroom deals, and networking parties, and the big events that are likely to introduce you to people who can open doors for you. Those events, as much as I'd like them to, don't really HAPPEN online.

But at the same time, part of re-evaluating Party of One's future as a show, and where I want to go as an artist, is realizing I don't think my career advancement comes through "TTRPG spaces." I don't know what those spaces ARE, but the next place for us to grow is outside of tabletop.

There is ALSO this… overwhelming discomfort with seeing those events, and hearing about the parties and influencer events, and wondering "Would I even be invited? Would I fit in if I went?"

I remember the last few parties and events I went to, just feeling like an outsider looking in. I don't know if that's just me, or if there's something there.

It's a lot, and it's weird and complicated, and I'm dealing with it.

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I have created this affront to God

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What's the problem you just gotta search for a word or phrase you're 70% sure is in one of the documents you're looking for it's totally in there no prob

You wanna see something traumatic?

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Yeah I’m a ttrpg designer, but if you talk to me about D&D I will look back at you with a gaze best described as haunted and empty like the rotting corpse of a rust belt main street.

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Aliens come to earth to discover that our air contains contains a small amount of Argon. On their planet, they have to manufacture it. In fact you can pay a handsome fee to hang out in an Argon Sauna to achieve a feeling of warmth and ease. Soon, these aliens flock to Earth and just... hang out.

They find open fields, remote mountain ranges, even set up Derricks around the ocean. No interest in diplomacy, trade, or any discussion between worlds. In fact, the aliens coming are mostly long-haul couriers, working class doing contract labor a few systems over, and tourists. Not an authority who can speak for their planet is among them.

So more curious humans start to chat them up, they're warm and at ease after all. Over time the aliens trust the human visitors more and they learn enough language between them to have a decent conversation. Finally it comes up: why are you just here vibing?

The aliens explain there's just enough Argon to get them high but not kill them (in moderation) and it's not hurting us for them to inhale then eventually exhale the Argon through their skin. So they come by on vacations or when they're stressed and use our air to relax. A few of them even mention they pop out for a sit after work before heading home to their families.

The humans are amazed at first, but one finally speaks up "oh, we have a similar thing. It takes some doing to produce through fermentation but we've discovered that a little bit of alcohol does that too."

The aliens sit on that for a minute then, after checking what "alcohol" is in their database their tendrils light up excitedly.

"Your 'beer' has roughly the same alcohol by volume as our rivers".

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Don't ask me to do anything, I am in my estivation era

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It's gonna find a way here anyway

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This blog literally always delivers the best stuff

Got another one for you!!

Games that simulate a dirty dozen, rogue 1, saving private Ryan style climax where all or most of a team of soldiers or operatives die one by one to achieve a Very Big Goal

THEME: Band of Brothers

Hello friend. Here are some recommendations - I wanted to approach this ask from a slightly different angle, but there are still a couple games about soldiers in particular.

Canon Fodder, by Nico.

So, you gooey flyworms, you got away with it, you think that's it, training's over and it made you some heavy killing machines! Well, allow me to tell you that you are putting your bayonet very deep in your eye! 

I bet that less than a tenth of your party will survive your first encounter with the enemy, and less than that will survive until their first transfer. If you have even an ounce of self-preservation, if you apply everything, I mean everything you’ve learned, you may survive, I mean maybe, before being transferred to specialist units. Now take your gear and make me proud by going to die for the fatherland.

Using the Breathless game system, this game gives your characters resources that will deplete throughout play. The game doesn’t come with a built-in mission, but rather gives you the tools to complete a mission like the one in Saving Private Ryan. 

This game feels like it’s still partially in the works, as the game doesn’t hold everything listed in the table of contents, and some parts of it have not yet been translated. I’d say this is a good jumping off-point for using the Breathless system in a wartime environment, but you’ll have to do some of your own work to fill in the gaps.

Over the Top, by Stitched Together Games.

On the Western Front of the Great War, you and your fellow soldiers squat in the muddy trenches, ducking to avoid artillery shells and hoping that the trench fever gets the other side before it gets you. Soon the order will come, and you’ll all go up, over the top, and into the waiting guns. 

This GMless roleplaying game allows you to tell the stories of a squad of soldiers as they are forced to throw themselves against increasingly impossi

This game has a definitive endpoint - at the end of five weeks in-game, your crew will go on their last assault. Every week, the players will roll on a d5 table to figure out what happens next in the game - and not all of the games’ events involve combat. You might receive a letter from a loved one, lose a comrade to the terrain, or repair the trenches. 

If you want to explore the difficulties of war through stories of difficulty and communal hardship, you should check out Over The Top.

Alice is Missing, by Hunters Entertainment.

Alice is Missing is a silent role-playing game about the disappearance of Alice Briarwood, a high school junior in the small town of Silent Falls.

The game is played live and without verbal communication. Players inhabit their character for the entirety of the 90-minute play session, and instead of speaking, send text messages back and forth to the other characters in a group chat, as well as individually, as though they aren’t in the same place together.

Hauntingly beautiful, deeply personal, and highly innovative, Alice is Missing puts a strong focus on the emotional engagement between players, immersing them in a tense, dramatic mystery that unfolds organically through the text messages they send to one another.

Hear me out on this one. 

In Alice is Missing, you’re playing teenagers, who have very little power in the world around them, and you are trying to complete a Very Big Goal - that of trying to figure out what happened to your friend, and, if possible, save her. You will sacrifice many things to find her, including your secrets, your reputation, and in some cases, what you thought about her other friends. Your character might die in this game.

It is very unlikely that Alice actually comes out alive in this game, but in the end, you will find her. And when you find her, your characters won’t be the same people who started this adventure - the game cements this into play by having everyone record voice mails that will only be heard by the entire group at the end of the game. 

Games I've Recommended in the Past

Boot Black, by Dagger Press.

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Sorry, your boyfriend is part of The Brazen now. Yeah, our bad, we took him to the Bronzehollow Valley 119 years after the battle of the Blood River Bend and he was drawn to the still-intact call of a spear that was wielded by his ancestor who died there. Yeah so anyway he took up the spear of his forefathers and his eyes became as bronze and he carries with him the pain of the final moments of his great great grandfather. I'm so sorry.

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Me trying to figure this alignment chart out

cottagecore trinkets

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Uh oh. The urge has come

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Okay what if I wrote a World of Darkness hack but you're a dragon. What if this was the first page?

How to Play This Game

You are a dragon. You are as rare a being as you are powerful. As you age, you become stronger, greedier, and more villainous. To you, mortals are pets at best, pests at worst. Other immortal beings may oppose or befriend you, but they are stepping stones for your ambition. Other dragons may be allies or even close friends, but they too can become threats as the centuries melt together, tensions form, and goals clash. Your grudges last as long as you draw breath, your desires grow more frenzied and specific with each victory, and your willingness to follow wanes as your thirst for more takes over.

What drives you?

Survival - Dragons are feared for their ability to plot over generations and exert terrible wrath. If you are found out, you will be chased to the edge of the world and slaughtered. And while you might be strong enough to take on a single warrior, perhaps even a company of strong soldiers, there are people who specialize in hunting your kind. If they catch your scent, it’s not a matter of if but when they will kill you and use your scales for armor, your bones for speartips, your ichor for alchemy, and your blood for rituals.

Greed - Dragons are not monolithic. No two are exactly alike, even if the various types of dragon share some commonalities. But every dragon has one thing in common: The desire to hoard. You will pick a hoard, one of the sources of your immense power, and build it over time. You will bask in its glory, you will covet pieces that would make it more beautiful, you will use it as a resource to get more or even power your terrible magic.

Power - Not content to lay on a pile of gold, you will invade the society of mortals as one of them. You will scheme, plot, and manipulate these beings to see your will be done, protect your hoard from the over-curious, and gain access to influential mortals who can get you what you want. You may partake in court politics, fool the mortals into warring with each other, or undermine the efforts of other dragons over a centuries-old petty insult.

Resentment - Your kind are the closest to the Gods themselves. You were crafted by their hands and cast aside. You once ruled this world, but now you are forced to skulk in lairs or in disguise among the very creatures that replaced you. But you are smarter, stronger, and more patient than them. You will satisfy your ambitions on their backs and not just punish mortals that you hate, but their entire line for generations.

What opposes you?

Mortals - It is a shame, in the end, that you are forced to play by their rules to achieve your aims. And unfortunately despite your might you will meet mortals who would stand in your way. Perhaps you can crush them in your jaws, or perhaps that would expose you to greater danger. One cannot simply stride into a throne room and melt the king to slag and take his gold. It requires guile and manipulation to extract a kingdom’s worth of treasure.

Dragon Hunters - Though it has been hundreds, if not thousands, of years since the mortals rose to power by way of dragon hunters, their threat still looms and they have passed their skills on. Driven by ambition to steal the hoards and sell the parts from dragons, these specialized warriors use a mixture of magic, martial skill, and specialized weaponry to track, corner, and slay dragons. They rely on their fellow mortals to find their marks, and once they have the scent, they never give up. Between the bounty, the hoard, and the parts, a single dragon kill can set their families up in comfort and elegance for generations.

Immortals - You are not alone in your timelessness. There are others who last as long and have their own agendas. A vampire addicted to dragon’s blood would happily contain you and drain you for eternity. A werewolf would curse you with lycanthropy and turn you into an enraged weapon of war until you were finally brought down in a blaze of futile glory. The Fae would drive you from their lands, keeping you from treasure and safe haven. There are countless others and while they may not always be fast enemies, they are never to be fully trusted.

Dragons - A dragon can always spot another dragon. And while there are no formal agreements among dragonkind, it would be unwise to reveal a fellow dragon to the mortals or undermine their efforts without good reason. Through shaky alliances and partnerships, dragons weave a complex web of internal power struggles while begrudgingly watching each other’s backs. But even among siblings, a single grudge can fester over the long life of a dragon, a mutually exclusive ambition can turn into a bitter rivalry, and any dragon would choose themself over another if it came down to it.

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i think a lot about how possum creek gave out money to people who wanted to make wanderhome fan stuff one time, or about how basically every indie tabletop publisher eagerly encourages hacks and fan content all the time

like imagine being wotc, already with one of the worst creative licenses for fan designers, and then to bungle things THIS badly

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Blorbo from my google drive folder marked "WIP"