Metatopia Overview

[drcpunk]

Brief Metatopia overview, with apologies to everyone whose name I left out:

So, Wednesday, I grabbed for a flying insect, caught it, got bitten or stung, freaked out for about ten minutes, during which time I cleaned my hand, and then went to a walk in clinic. I'd rate my finger pain at a 3, which, if my guess about how I underestimate it is correct, would make it a 5, but other than the pain and swelling in the immediate area, I was all right. The doctor gave me a tetanus shot to lower the risk of infection and stressed the need to keep the area clean. She gave me a one time dose of steroids to help with the swelling and a prescription for antibiotics, just in case. My instructions were to soak the hand in epsom salt, use bacitracin, and come back if the swelling spread or things got otherwise worse.

Thursday, the pain was less, so I did my morning errands and caught the 4:15 Coach 77 bus to Metatopia. The driver was a) annoyed at idiocy on the road and b) fighting with a cough, but he got us all to our stops safely. I checked in, ate my leftovers, and got my badge.

I found out that Joshua Kronengold would be running quite late, as James Holder hadn't printed the game out. What game? Ah yes, they've been working on Beautiful Senshi Hearts, a Monsterhearts hack. We'd done a playtest back in August, and things hadn't crashed and burned.

So, I gave one empanada to Alden Strock and one to Morgan Ellis, as I was still quite full from my leftovers -- and still had enough leftovers for Josh when he arrived, especially when supplemented by the rest of the room food I'd packed.

There was a lot of good conversation. And, there was an event I sort of stumbled into, a support network for folks identifying as women, the idea being that we'd all keep an eye out for one person, and another person would keep an eye out for us, for the duration of the convention, with no post-convention obligations. If I can find a relevant url explaining this better, I'll link to it. So, I was supporting Kat Kuhl and was supported by Corinne Taylor. In practice, this meant I sent Kat a text message once a day checking in, as Metatopia is big enough that I'm on parallel tracks with a whole lot of people. I know they're there, but I rarely actually see them. It seemed to be the correct approach.

During this time, Linda came up to me and said, "You're my hero." This had to do with the Envoy program.

I had signed up to be certified in various games, which, as I understand it, involved a training session. Darren Watts contacted me and said that he was willing to certify me then and there. My knee jerk reaction, which only about two other people will get without my explaining, was "You will _not_! We still audition at Altclair!"

The actual email I sent had the gist of the first half without the obscure reference of the second, although I did add that he could certify me in the games I've actually run enough that I'm confident I know what I'm doing (Call of Cthulhu and Kerberos Club Fate, as I recall). During Metatopia, Darren explained that what he'd meant was that he'd take my word on what I did and didn't already know, and that he was just fine with training me in anything I didn't know, which gives me much relief. Believe me, you do not want me running DramaSystem at a convention just yet, and I'm not yet strong enough on Gumshoe in general or Night's Black Agents and Trail of Cthulhu in particular to run it at conventions. I've run Trail a lot, but for a home group that includes a player way more familiar with the rules than I am, and I lean on her when I run it. I'm just starting with Night's Black Agents, and it's got more moving parts than Trail.

I have played NBA (and other games) with John Adamus enough to have figured out one minor, but really useful thing he does. Whenever a player comes up with an over the top or off the wall idea, he says, "Awesome!" This simultaneously gives the player a thumbs up and buys him a few seconds to think of what to do next. (At least, I'm guessing that the second is a factor.)

Later, Will Hindmarch said that I was the single most useful source of feedback during the playtest for Eternal Lies. So, yeah, I was having a pretty good evening.

Also, Thursday and Friday, my arm, where I'd gotten the tetanus shot, was hurting worse than my finger, where I'd gotten bitten or stung. This was a good sign.

Friday morning, Josh found that he only had one pill left of one of his medicines. That was all he needed at that time, and by the afternoon, we'd located the drugstore we needed, confirmed it would be open relatively late, and set up an emergency refill.

I was in a focus group for Kat Miller's Touch of Scandal, set at the civilized hour of 11 am. I recommended Ellen Kushner's Privilege of the Sword, and I should also recommend Sorcery and Cecilia, Tooth and Claw, and Mary Robinette Kowal's series, or at least the first book in it. Josh and James did their first playtest.

The three of us did lunch with Bruce Neiger at Mehndi's, where the buffet was delicious as always. After that, I went to the panel Sanity Points in Horror, with Elsa S. Henry, Will Hindmarch, Kelly Osborne, and Craig Page, and then to Bill White's playtest of Nitrate City. This was a lot of fun, and we all walked away with a copy of the current rules, which he didn't expect us to read then and there, as it was a two hour slot, and he did want to get some actual playtesting in.

Josh and I then walked about half a mile to the drugstore, got his medicine, and walked back, accompanied by Benjamin Galynker, who'd been pointed at Josh for advice on a game he was designing. Josh thinks that this may have been the most useful feedback he gave over the weekend. Benjamin is designing something that's basically Fantasy DJ.

We got to the Persian restaurant across the street from the hotel, where Bruce and others had already ordered. This was good, as we pretty much all had 8pm games. Josh and I ordered a shireen palow to split, and it was delicious.

The 8 pm game was a playtest of Shadow of the Century, run by Morgan Ellis, who was looking for some very specific information: Could we create PCs who were not Centurions, but also not mostly normal people, and feel that they were sufficiently awesome? I think we did, and that the changes to the playtest we participated in were good ones, but we didn't have quite enough time to play, so he still needed proof of concept. I don't know if he got that later in the convention.

After that, I talked with Sarah Judd and Jason Walters. At 11 pm, I made the panel Lovecraft WTF Part 2, with Julia Ellingboe, Kenneth Hite, Sarah Richardson, Kat Jones, and Evan Torner. It was useful and interesting. Then, I met up with Josh, and we chatted with folks, including Corinne.

Saturday, my 9 am game was Ghost Story, by Megan Knouff. It isn't my cup of tea, not because it is bad, but because it is very good and the kind of scary I'm not that comfortable with. I did have a good time at the playtest, though.

After that, Cam Banks ran a playtest of 3rd edition Unknown Armies, which involved making a relationship map, the sort of thing I love. He wanted us to find the bumps, and we found at least some of them. As far as I can tell, the goal is something that preserves the heart of Unknown Armies, uses more up to date mechanics, and clarifies the intent of the game.

Next was the panel GMing Outside Your Comfort Zone, with Cheyenne Wall-Grimes, Elsa Henry, Sarah Richardson, and someone whose name I didn't jot down fast enough. This was interesting, if not quite in the direction I'd been expecting. After that, Josh and I played in Teen Band, by Tobias Straus. The game uses *World mechanics and Scooby Doo / I Love a Mystery plotting. The panel Fictional Cartography, with Kenneth Hite and Mark Richardson, came next, and then a quick dinner break, where Josh and I talked with Chris Bell and ate at Muscle Grill.

After that, I playtested Caias Ward's Horned God, which went quickly as there were only two playtesters, counting me. If I'd realized Josh was potentially available, I would have contacted him. Even so, the game was fun and felt suitably epic.

I had two panels after that. Effective Settings and Scenarios, with John Adamus and Meguey Baker, was great. How to Write a Cthulhu Scenario was canceled, and Graham Walmsley and I totally fumbled our perception rolls. He asked me if I'd mind terribly if he cancelled the seminar, as he was exhausted, and I assured him that I was fine with that. The people nearest us seemed to be with him and cool with that, and probably were. The rest seemed to be folks slowly heading out after the Effective Settings and Scenarios. What neither of us realized was that at least three other people were actually there for Graham's seminar, and had no idea that he was a) present and b) asking if he could cancel. I'm reasonably sure they'd have agreed that canceling was understandable, but I wish one of us had picked up on this before Graham had left the room.

Sunday, I actually made breakfast in the hotel restaurant. First place I ever had over medium eggs that were actually over medium rather than sorta-over easy or sorta-over well, and I think still the best.

Then, I went to Brendan Conway's Masks playtest, which was probably the best I had this convention. Everyone was high energy and enthusiastic, and whether it was because we are all good at this or because the game is solid or some combination -- and the only reason I care is because this was a playtest -- everything built and built. At one point, Robert Bohl and I got simultaneously "that is perfect" chills. The only thorn was that we only had two hours, and that's because we wanted to play more.

After that, Josh, Gaylord Tang, and I were all in Nicholas Malinowski's Nementia focus group. The consensus was that the world building was solid, but we weren't sure about the system. Turns out the author was told he was presenting at Metatopia about two and a half weeks before the convention. Given that, I'm impressed.

I'm sorry I cut out before the panel on Stip Mining History for Fun and Profit, but the exhaustion was hitting and Josh, Gaylord, and I figured lunch and then catching the bus back to NYC would be a good idea. So, we checked our bags, went to the Morristown Diner, ate, and got on the bus. From there, we headed for our respective homes, Josh and I finding out the hard way that the #7 train wasn't running between Queens and Manhattan, and getting desert at the local Turkish place.

It was a good convention overall, and I'm starting to absorb the "do you hug" meme. I like this both because it encourages folks to ask before pouncing and because it encourages folks to ask before assuming the answer is no.