Flaming Monkey

Every time I’m going to run games at a convention, I tell myself that this time I will start working on it earlier, so I’m not left trying to do everything at the last minute.

I’ve yet to pull this off.

Now I’m coming up on TBR, where I’ll be running a game of The Roach and a swashbuckling pirate adventure game of my own devising. Fortunately, there’s not a whole lot of prep for the former game other than familiarizing myself with the rules well enough that I can explain them to others, but the latter game needs world building, a plot, and pregenerated characters, none of which are finished yet.

The good news is that it’s still a couple of weeks until the con, which means I may be panicking early enough to be able to get it all done with time to spare.

Next time though, things are going to be different….

I sent out the player lists and game assignments for The Black Road 2006 this evening, about two weeks ahead of schedule. It certainly is nice when things go relatively smoothly, and now there shouldn’t be much for me to do until just before the con itself.

Except, of course, for preparing for the games I’m going to be running.

The last game for The Black Road 2006 has been submitted (by me), the game schedule has been decided on, and the game selection form has been finished. Now I just need to get the game book put together and posted….

In addition to running a session of The Shab-al-Hiri Roach at The Black Road, I’m also going to need to run a second game. Right now, I’m thinking that game is going to be a swashbuckling adventure involving pirates and zeppelins, but I have yet to settle on which system to use to run it. Since it’s going to be at TBR, I’d prefer a system that’s either diceless or indie.

Any suggestions?

The most important thing to me is that it encourages a swashbucking style of play, and I’ve had one recommendation of Evil Hat’s upcoming Spirit of the Century. It’s a good suggestion, but since that’s not actually out yet, I’m looking for other ideas.

Reading about the fun had the Forge Midwest gather makes me want to hold one somewhere in the northeast. I’m hardly a Forge stalwart though, and I don’t want to dilute the appeal of the whole thing by contributing to there being too many such events. On the other hand, it would be nice to have one up this way, and somewhere with strict anti-smoking laws….

Even though I didn’t make it to Ambercon US this year, it looks like many of the people who did go had a pretty good time. Here are links to some of the ACUS 2006 con summaries that I’ve seen so far:

James: ACUS 2006- 4 Days of fun, gaming and sleep deprivation
Sean: ACUS
Ginger: ACUS 2006: Murder, mayhem, kidnappings, divorces, and lots of explosions
Arref: AmberconUS 2006 :: 4 Days in Castle Amber
Glen: Ambercon with more details
Paul: Acus 2006, Pictures and More

ETA: Kris: Ambercon 2006 report/quotes (player version)

This evening was the beginning of Ambercon US, and therefore it’s also the official start of the first ACUS I’ve missed since I started going in 2001.

It definitely seems weird not to be there, the same way it felt odd not to be starting the first leg of the long drive to Detroit yesterday, but I find myself wondering if I’m ever going to be going back. There are some very cool people that I’m going to miss seeing, and a couple of games that I wish I was there for, but I’m not sure it will be enough to motivate me to spend time and money on next year’s con rather than maybe going to my first Gencon. I guess this is why con organizers worry when regular attendees “take a year off.”

I’d meant to post about this when Matt first announced the final details, but hopefully this is a case of better late than never, since I haven’t seen it said anywhere that it’s too late to sign up.

The Forge Midwest Gathering is being held from Friday April 7 through Sunday April 9 at the Schaumburg Radisson in Schaumburg, IL (outside of Chicago). There’s more information in the official announcement, and in this Forge thread.

I’m not going to be making it out for this one, but I definitely would like to attend some future Forge gathering, either in the Midwest or, even better, here in the Northeast.

I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be taking this year off from attending ACUS, for various reasons. I’ll miss some of the people and some of the games (especially Sol’s Blaze of Glory), but I don’t think I’m going to miss the long trip out to Detroit.

Registration and game submission for The Black Road 2006 are now open.