Gen Con UK report, part 2

Let's make Scott even more jealous.

Friday - I used up all my positive dice karma playing Ogre, in which I rolled so many sixes in the early part of the battle that the other poor guy didn't stand a chance! First time I've ever played Ogre, which is Steve Jackson Games' wargame of futuristic tank combat

RPG of the day was a game of GURPS Transhuman Space game run by Phil Masters, in which I got the nerdish techie with no social skills called "Derek" (And that's not the first time a convention GM has given me a character like that!)

Then there was the friday night Pyramidian dinner at Belgo Centraal in Covent Garden, arranged by Harvey Mills and attended by Phil Masters, Ken Hite, John B, Jan Hendriks, Constantine Thomas, Ian McDonald and myself. At least two people came armed with cameras, I'm worried that one or both might have scanners, so pictures of me might end up on the net. Great to meet Ken Hite, though lines like "Pre-industrial genocide is a lost art" preserve his scary reputation. (Have you read the introduction to Suppressed Transmission?)

I won't say why I associate Belgo Centraal with the Jerry Springer Show, it's a long story.

Saturday - Morning saw me play in the first ever game of Star Munchkin to be played in the UK. Much the same rules as Munchkin, and just as funny. This one is a parody of SF cliches rather than of Dungeons and Dragons, with monsters like Captain Quirk (who comes in peace), Bottle Bottle (who follows you around and whines), and Great Cthulhu himself. John Kovalic's artwork is up to his usual standards. And I killed Bottle Bottle!

Finally I played in a demo game of Nobilis. Nobilis is an interesting RPGs, with PCs of god-like power, each representing a concept which can vary from "The Hunt", "Spirals" (two examples from the game) to "Aircraft" or "Mauve". Each PC represents the embodiment of that concept, and can do just about anything possible to something to which that concept applies. Probably not really to my taste in games, but very good for players that are good at improvising on the spot. Still, it's fun for a change of pace.

To sum up? It's larger than last year, with four floors rather than three. There were two irritating things; one was that the demo hall closed at 6pm because the demo areas were intermingled with the traders; this caused one game to have to hurriedly relocate. The second irritant was the somewhat overpriced catering. Overall, a good con, plenty of games, a good turnout of SJG's Men In Black. Bumped into quite a few old friends from previous cons, such as Pyramidians Trotsky and Jo Ramsey, and Dreamlyrics members AJ and L'Ange.

Now I'll have to read all the RPG stuff I've bought; Decipher's new Lord of the Rings RPG, The Kaiin Players Guide for the Dying Earth RPG, and finally Barbarian Adventures and Orlanth is Dead for Hero Wars.