#RPGaDay -- Gen Con edition!

Okay, so I was at Gen Con, and it was awesome and super busy and sort of a blur, and at night I came back to my room and fell over, so I didn't post a single thing. I didn't even knit, which if you know me at all is like "whaaaaaaat?" So yes. That said, here's my catch-up post.

2nd: Best game session since August 2015
Oh, good heavens. That's crazy. Um... I've got to say the final session of this season's Rising Waters game, which you can find here. I'm proud to say that despite difficulties and playtesting and all manner of things, my players found things getting wrapped up in ways they didn't expect, with loose ends getting tied up and new cliffhangers being generated. My perennial fence-sitter character finally chose a direction and now we've got new and reinforced alliances to move forward with, and now the focus gets to shift for the next season. My players were really pleased, and they're excited for me to come back to it, whenever that might be. I also learned that we really do love Dresden Files Accelerated, and whenever it comes out, that's what we're going to use when I pick it up again.

3rd: Character moment you're most proud of
Hmm. I'd have to say that I was most proud of Tori, my hunter character in Matt's Hunter/Mage game. A lot of my characters are just there, but Tori stood up and told me who she was and what she wanted in life in no uncertain terms. She's a proud gay black woman who doesn't generally trust the police or authority. She's a found-item artist. She can weld and draw and paint and sculpt. She has gorgeous hair. She doesn't take shit from anyone, but she can deal it out when the time calls for it. I really deeply love this character -- and it was super surprising to me to find out she was gay. She just was, and who am I to question it? She found herself awkwardly flirting with this woman she ran into, and that was... really cute. And awkward, and cute. Tori is awesome.

4th: Most impressive thing another character did
My friend Matt Karafa's character Hod accepted Faerie's invitation and went True Fae in order to let us escape as we freed some friends, and maintained who he was long enough to let us get out... with a warning not to come back. That was some hard ass RP, and we all got sniffly. Also, my friend Steve's character Felix merged with a scary faerie figure named Skin and Bones, to become Skinny Felix, who comes when you summon him in a mirror by name three times. Changeling the Lost, man. All the feels.

5th: What story does your group tell about your character?
Um... I think the best one is from the Atomic Robo game, where Effy, my combat biologist, refused to let anyone kill the giant carnivorous dinosaur who dropped through a time rift onto our island. She named it Boris. It had to stay.

6th: Most amazing thing a game group did for their community
Ooh, hard. Game groups are often charitable groups on the side. I'm going to go for one I'm involved in and say the GenCon quiet room, because I think it fills a real need at the con for people who would otherwise find themselves quietly distressed and having to leave the con because they didn't have just that 15 minutes of refuge without a 20 minute walk back to the hotel.

7th: What aspect of RPGs has had the biggest effect on you?
Um, the part that gets people together regularly to play games face-to-face. I am horribly introverted and bad at scheduling stuff. Gaming gives me a structure and lets me build relationships and share stories. It is really useful for me, and I appreciate its place in my life.

8th: Hardcover, softcover, digital? What's your preference?
There's not a huge difference between hardcover and softcover to me. I prefer both to digital, because I'd rather be able to flip pages, and most PDFs aren't sufficiently searchable for me to find that a reasonable replacement.

9th: Beyond the game, what's involved in an ideal session?
Time to have a meal and catch up on how everyone's been since we last played. A comfortable setting. Coffee. Possibly dessert.