Dundracon 34 wrapped up yesterday. I don’t know why, but conventions always make me feel like I’ve just gone toe-to-toe with a gorilla. This one, this year, especially so.

This convention was marked by two very different gaming experiences as a GM. But I’ll come to those in a minute. First, let’s talk about everything else.

I was thoroughly uninterested in the dealer’s room as a whole. I don’t know why, I just couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was the people selling spray-painted Nerf guns as steampunk-kitsch. Maybe it was the t-shirt booth where I almost buy a shirt every year, but end up not buying a shirt because either the boothie is a prick or their designs are clearly bootleg. Maybe I was just penny-pinching. I have no idea. But where I usually spend an hour or so in the dealer’s room, this year I was in there maybe 10 minutes total, over 4 days. But, the dealer’s room didn’t lack for dealers, and their shelves were filled with wares, so I suspect this was My Own Damn Fault. It was, however, awesome to see Shambles on the Endgame shelves.

I set out this weekend to do several things that did not happen. I didn’t manage to meet up with many people who I knew would be there. I didn’t run the pick-up games I’d intended (probably a good idea). I didn’t broaden my gaming horizons. I didn’t put up Shambles posters. Some of this was just poor time management on my own part, and some of it just Didn’t Happen. The rest I blame on wine that comes in juice boxes.

I did play in an original Marvel Superheroes game. That was weird and fun, as Marvel was what I cut my teeth on all those years ago. I also got to play in a drop-in game run by a friend, a tradition of sorts at the local conventions. Monday, I was trying (and failing) to sleep off the night before.

Which brings me to the two games I ran. I ran a game Saturday night, at 6, and a game Sunday night at 10.

Saturday’s game was a Shambles game, about eating partying teenagers in the woods.
Sunday’s game was a custom horror game about a disoriented military unit, dealing with mature themes.
Saturday’s game started at 6:00pm, and was slated for 6 hours.
Sunday’s game started at 10:00pm, and was slated for 6 hours.
Saturday’s game, 6 people signed up to play. I had 14 people show up at game time.
Sunday’s game, 6 people signed up to play. Only 3 turned up at game time. We scrounged from semi-known quantities to find the other 3.
Saturday’s game started on time and ran 7 1/2 hours, until about 1:30am.
Sunday’s game started half an hour late, and optimistically ran 5 hours until about 3:30 or so.
I had run Saturday’s game twice before.
I had run Sunday’s game twice before.
Saturday’s game required character sheets, a cocktail-napkin’s worth of notes and some blank paper.
Sunday’s game required several pages of notes, 24 personalized note cards per player, a map, 8+ NPC character sheets, and about two dozen props, some of them hand-assembled.
Everyone left Saturday’s game in high spirits, having had a great time.
Everyone left Sunday’s game in high spirits, having had a great time.
Saturday’s game was wildly successful.
Sunday’s game felt like an unmitigated disaster.

I’ve been reflecting on these two games and how they went ever since the con. I’ll probably have a post about it later this week.

All in all, it was a Good Weekend, even if few things went according to plan.