Canooga is a SF con in Chattanooga, TN. This is my first time going. I did not really plan on running games as I run at RPOl.net, and that takes up most of my GM-ing energy.
I used to go to cons and run Multiverser and Champions and so forth, but things change.
We have frequent fog where I live, but entering Chattanooga, I got to see cloudbanks floating a hundred feet off the ground in great white swathes. Someone ought to consider setting a Gothic novel in Chattanooga.
My other impression of the city from previous visits to go to the quite excellent aquarium is that its like the scene in 'Back to the Future' where Marty sees his future home town, and how sparkling and neat it all is. This is the Riverfront area near the Aquarium, and it is quite nice.
We stayed at the con hotel, the Chattanooga Choo-choo. I said on the way there that it would be great because we could just ride an elevator when we got tired of the con, and go back to our rooms.
CCC is a 35 acre complex. We were in what is called Hotel 3. Gaming was in the Centennial Ballroom. The Garden (the buffet eatery which was quite nice, and had great waitresses) was on one end of the public access area. The Dealer's Room was on the far end from it.
Happily, in the 30's degree weather, they had lots of busses to take you from hotel to ballroom.
Yes, it really was that enormous. Color me totally shocked.
The facilities were splendid in a great lady kind of fashion. Nobody seriously lacked for space. Gaming was held in the ballroom with probably a hundred tables, and still lots of empty space. The ceilings were fifty feet up or so.
The gaming was thin, but adequate on Friday. On Saturday, about a fourth of the space got taken over by Warhammerites, but still, no space issues.
We played Infernal Engine by Looney Labs with the demo guys being grad research students who were trying to write up a study to show teachers in schools that games are valuable and effective learning aids. I still need to call one of the guys back to do an interview on gaming and what its taught me. The other guy was a practical demonstration of 2@1 Charisma. He and Mr. C got on well together, and he seemed much impressed with Mr. C's reading skills. I am too. I am reasonably bright, but I don't remember being that bright at his age. And he's starting to do second-level analysis of situations to determine patterns which I know I didn't do that early.
Infernal Engine is a very clever Rube Goldbergian sorta, steampunk sorta game. It could do with more different effects. But you have to like a game with Vortex Generators and Cthonic Distorters, and such a great love of 'teh silly' with them not taking themselves seriously.
B+
We also played Pirate King by Flaster Press. I won, and received t-shirts for the whole family, and a dice cup with stuff. Their game was very pretty. Its 'monopoly with guns'. I'd give it a "B".
We tried to play "Jammo", but lack of sleep made it so we couldn't understand the rules.
We played "Railroad Tycoon" which is a quite cool game. Its got an unneccessarily, but still cool despite that, Really Huge Board. I'd give it an A.
We played with D who had been cool the whole weekened (we'd played other games with him). The next game was "Ticket to Ride: Switzerland". TTR is a very good system, but I think the "Europe" and "America" versions are better.
It was a good tight game, and I'd give it an A.
Unfortunately, D found out that someone had stolen over a hundred dollars worth of Magic the Addicti...Gathering cards. This casts a pall over things, and it breaks the bonds of trust that exist between gamers.
Later we tried a charade style sorta game. It was okay, but not great, and we ducked out early.
Upon getting back to the hotel, we did more of the 'weeklong birthday party' for Cuteasuaurus, my youngest (not to be confused with Mr. C my firstborn). We found at some point that although batteries for the electronic games had been brought, no mini screwdriver had been brought.
A bit more later...
Including the slim possibility of Multiverser being mentioned on Tv....
Tad - Who are you on RPOL!? I just started playing there myself.
Where have you been Tad? I dug out all the posts on Music Wars, but I don't know what else to do with them. Let me know.
Playtester in the SF/Fantasy section under the name "Worldwalker". I've ran there for a little over two years.
A1, I'll look at it and give you a short and simple bit of advice, but not today. Unlike MJ, I really don't function well in 'lack of sleep mode' and I just got up from crashing. So check back tommorrow. I'll try to break it down into small,manageable bites, and once you get one done, you can ask, and I send another idea your way, m'kay?
Also, from re-reading my post, I thought I should make it clear that D was not suspecting us. It disturbed us that he suffered this betrayal, and after that he was not so much into the game because he was understandably holding back his vast irritation at a sneak thief.
Eric, my thought on the Beta world are high biases all around. Do you know how music seems like it has power? That's what I had in mind. The power of music, channeled into reality. That's what I had in mind.
John,
Then list five magic spells/prayers for each faction. You don't have to design them yet. Just names and a basic description...
AKA
Jazz: Call Down the Wild Hunt: This spell summons the wild hunt to track and kill a spy.
Feel free to use others work (including mine in Alpha) to flesh out your list. When you're finished, tell me.
Eric
It's actually Connooga...oh well.
The dealer's room had two Christian fan groups. One Dragonslayer Ministries which looked more typical of what you would expect from an evangelical group. The other 'Fans for Christ' or 'Freaks for Christ' or....I can't remember the name.
But they were more simpatico to me.
The lady in an SCA costume agreed that she knew what it felt like to be the only person in church who's opened a Vampire book. I've often thought we needed something more like this. People who could form a bridge between Fandom and Local Churches.
There were hardly any books at the Dealer's Room, except for some Anime related stuff which surprised me. I know its not a literary con, but I expect at least one novel seller.
We got 'Family Fluxx', 'Haunted House' (a tile moving maze game), Camelot (by the people who did the old classic Wiz-War) and that for ten bucks.
The Ladyfaire and I had looked at it and had the same thought. 20 was too much, but we could do ten. And then without our saying a word, the dealer offered to drop it a LOT. I asked how much...he said ten. Well, okay then. And he tossed in a nice bag as well.
We also got the boys a 'Darth Tater' Mr. Potato Head.
On TV: Late Saturday night, probably past one in the morning, I got interviewed. It was for a local tech show, and they wanted to focus on Connooga. Its a Chattanooga market.
Nice guys, armed with a camcorder and a microphone.
I talked a bit about a few things, and mentioned (with their approval) Multiverser.
Let me say: I was hot, tired, off-the-cuff, and I could have done a LOT better with a shower, some sleep, and a chance to think of some interesting and coherent things to say. And there's a decent chance that my Multiverser comments get genericized or dumped altogether.
But they were looking for material.
And so Multiverser may have made its TV debut.
Hallowcon: I met Dutch Stiphout near their table, head honcho of Hallowcon, and he remembered that my speech had been given in the Conn suite (or at the bar). That's my speech available on the Multiverser website, FWIW. Its pretty good.
Hallowcon is a good con. They decorate things up nicely. They have a nicely dense layout so that you don't have to walk ten minutes to an event which is an advantage over this site. But its an ordinary hotel which is not at all a bad thing. However, Chattanooga Choo-choo is despite the length of walks, just something astounding.
Recommendations for the Con Cmmtte.:
1. Later in the year: I'd have loved to let my kids play in the wading pool which was uber-cute while the Ladyfair used the hot tub and watched them. Also, hiking in 30's degree weather at night is not the greatest.
Just not too late that it gets hot. Early June would be best.
2. Get a Puffing Billy train tournameant!! You're at a non pareil destination with a miniature railroad museum, and a train dining car, and train sleeping cars that can be used by customers, and....
You need to take advantage of this instead of ignoring it.
Over here in Columbia, we have a park with a railline suited for human-ridable, but mini-trains. The Steamers, a local club, run events a couple times a year. Invite these guys too.
3. Keep up the good work. I hope to attend next year even if it is a three-hour drive.
Thanks much for the publicity mention; I hope it gets/got aired, but I don't guess there's much of anyway to know.
A couple of quick comments:
- If it is Fans for Christ, they have an online forum (I believe that was their beginning) which is linked from The Christian Gamers Guild Chaplain's Corner. I've never visited it, but I've had some correspondence with the guy who started it, and they've got a vision for building bridges particularly with the sci-fi community.
- Some of our readers won't recognize (or won't be able to place) the name Dutch Stiphout. He's one third of the group that runs Gaming Outpost, so we want to let him know we appreciate all of their efforts.
--M. J. Young
Hmm, that makes me wonder if I got the last name right.
Eric
Tad told me to come up with 5 spells for each Music Wars faction. Here goes, in no particular order. Anyone else with any ideas, feel free to contribute. Eric, not all of the factions have magic, at least not the way I see it. This is for the ones that I want to have magic.
Praise and Worship (magic)
Bonus Morale
Bless attack/weapons/skills
Thunderbolts/fire from Heaven
Walk on Water
Resurrect dead
Basically, any miracle performed in the Bible
Death Metal (Magic)
Cause insanity
Cause Agonizing, torturous pain (Possible fatality for experienced casters)
Resurrect dead, in zombie form (A reversal of P&W)
Demonic Possession (Willpower/Stamina checks to determine severity and length of possession)
Summon demonic warriors
Jazz (Magic)
Teleport to any location
Classical (psionic skills, not magical)
Enhanced relaxation between battles (Classical is relaxing music)
Enhance mental state (Awareness, get "Pumped up" Classical music always gets my adrenaline moving)
Extreme (Body, possibly due to bionic implants)
Superhuman agility
Body-based flight, perhaps rocket shoes, jet packs, etc.
60s rock (Magic)
Resurrect dead
Give life to formerly living (Bring plants back to life) These are two separate skills
Use nature as a weapon (trees that wrap you up in its vines, grass that becomes too sharp and hard to walk on, etc Nature based-earth magic)
Teleportation (60s rock does make you feel "Transported")
Plants growing out of nowhere, instant life
How's that for a start, Tad?
Pretty good. You do need more Jazz and Classical effects. Consider how Mozart is supposed to make you smarter...
Very nice, John, we're going to make a game designer out of you yet. And then you can be rich and famous like me and MJ....
Somewhere in NJ, a man is spewing coffee all over his monitor...
Eric
Well Tad, I'm not certain what other powers to put down for Jazz and Classical, which is why I was hoping to get some insights from others on the board.
Did you ever see the movie Aeon Flux? These two women are trying to penetrate a fortress, and one of the defenses of the fortress is blade grass. The grass is like little blades that cut up people's feet. That's something I was thinking about for 60s rock. Controlling nature and using it as a weapon. Turning the grass underneath your feet into knives, making it very difficult to stand and walk.
A couple things strike me about Jazz.
The ability to cause confusion while remaining in control--Jazz musicians are masters of the craft, able to know where the beat falls even when the audience doesn't.
The ability to communicate secret messages--Scat singing uses a lot of nonsense syllables, sometimes no words at all, and yet Jazz fans "get" what the singer is "saying".
The ability to create a new spell quickly, or to copy and improve upon someone else's spell--the improvisational abilities of Jazz musicians are legendary, and some have been known to hear someone else's solo, and then repeat it with variations on the spot.
Those might get people thinking.
--M. J. Young, the professional musician of the group.
Eric, what MJ said HAHAHA.